Thursday 16 January 2020

Flight of the Seasoned Navigator

Here's a red hot take: post-Planning phase dial changes are really strong. Leaving aside the disruptive and generally frustrating effect they have on the game in general, there are few things more conducive to winning than looking at what your opponent has done, looking at your own dial, and saying "actually, no thanks."

Despite relatively wide availability, the generic crew upgrade Seasoned Navigator doesn't see significant play. Throughout all of 2019, it was only recorded as making three significant cuts, once at a Hyperspace Trial and twice at two System Opens. In all three instances, it was used on a large ship with access to Force (Darth Maul in one list, Han Solo with Rey crew in the other two).

History has not smiled upon Seasoned Navigator, but that doesn't mean we can't explore some builds with it and see if there might be something there.

"That navigator over there is playing Galaga.
Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."

The ideal Seasoned Navigator user

When considering good Seasoned Navigatees, you'll be wanting to check off as many of these wishlist items as possible:
  • Crew slot - Reasonably self-explanatory.
  • High initiative - Being able to change your dial becomes far more valuable if you've actually gleaned more information than you had during the Planning phase when you set it in the first place. There's a reason Seasoned Navigator is both dirt cheap on Initiative 1 pilots and almost entirely ignored on said pilots. The higher the initiative, the more powerful a dial change ability becomes.
  • Dial peeks - The exception to above, effects like Informant, Sense, or other dial revealing abilities allows even lower initiative dial changes to be useful. That said, most of these other abilities cost points and are limited in other ways (specific targets, range, Force point cost, etc.) and you need to account for that in determining whether you've come up with an effective combo or an overpriced gimmick.
  • Dials with full rows of non-red basic maneuvers - Ideally, you want to be able to use Seasoned Navigator in as many situations as possible. The more full rows of maneuvers you have (e.g. all straights, banks, and hard turns of a given speed), the more options you have. Since Seasoned Navigator only allows you to change to a non-red, this also means that if your dial has red hard turns, you'll be able to switch from that maneuver but not to the other red maneuver of the same speed.
  • Dials with non-basic maneuvers of speed 3 or lower - Following from the above, it's sometimes especially handy if you can switch a S-Loop, T-Roll, or K-Turn into something non-rotational. Switching a K-Turn of speed 4 or 5 into the corresponding straight maneuver is also useful, but being able to convert a non-basic into a variety of other options can be highly effective.
  • Dials with full rows of blue maneuvers - On dials where all basic maneuvers of a given speed are blue, it means that you can always Seasoned Navigator onto another maneuver and still perform a white maneuver (and therefore not lose your action).
  • Multiple firing arcs - More firing arcs means you have more possible maneuvers that afford you optimal positioning without denying you shots.
  • Ships with stress-mitigating or stress-synergizing effects - Since in many situations, using Seasoned Navigator means you're taking stress, any ships that incentivize you to take a stress or enable you to easily get rid of stress can provide more opportunities to effectively use the upgrade.
  • The Force - Especially for ships that can't do anything special with stress, ships with access to the Force can at least perform red maneuvers without losing all dice mods.

Examples for all seasons

Given the above criteria, these are a few ships that I think synergize particularly well with Seasoned Navigator, along with a few ideas for additional upgrades.

Ibtisam (Rebel, ARC-170) - 51 points

Ibtisam is Jek Porkins-esque in that he can mitigate stress but has an ability tied to variance and is therefore inconsistent. Fifty percent of the time, you're going to be in pretty great shape, and the other fifty percent of the time, you're a stressed and presumably token-less ARC-170. Incidentally, these are the exact sort of ARC-170's opponents like to throw a whole bunch of red dice at. Further, at i3, you're not getting much value out of the dial change, although you might occasionally be able to dodge a few arcs from low initiative swarms or jousters. Finally, the red hard 3 turns make that a bad speed to Seasoned Navigate. Overall, this is near the low end of Seasoned Navigator uses I'd really consider.

"Odd Ball" (Republic, ARC-170) - 58 points

Just as questionable as Ibtisam, if not more so. You'll be able to more reliably get the ability to go off, though, and at initiative 5, you'll have a much better picture of the boardstate in most situations. Still, you're going to be left with a relatively defenseless ARC-170, and your friends are going to make fun of you for flying Odd Ball. These are both probably decent examples of ships that just don't tick enough of the above boxes to be decent (see also: L3-37, Ezra, Oicunn, or any flavour of Han Solo).

Leia Organa (Rebel, Modified YT-1300) - 86 points

One of the most expensive builds listed here, out of the box, but one with some good potential. Swapping a sloop for a non-sloop is a Good Trick, and Leia's ability works nicely here, letting you Seasonably Navigate and then grab a focus token. At i5, the Organavigator has good board knowledge to abuse her dial swap with, but you can invest further here by taking Sense to avoid being easily bamboozled by the likes of Fenn Rau or Soontir Fel. "Chopper" or Hera Syndulla crew are viable (but possibly not great) upgrade options. You can also add Cassian to the mix for a dial peek, but at that point, why are you really running Seasoned Navigator to begin with?

Rey (Resistance, Scavenged YT-1300) - 77 points

I think this is probably inferior in general to Leia, and I definitely don't think it's the superior Rey build out there right now. That said, she's i5, she has a Force point, and she has some interesting options at speed 3, especially switching off of the sloops into a basic maneuver. The Rey's Millenium Falcon title is almost mandatory in this build, possibly being good enough to push this somewhat near Viability Town. With the title, you'll probably start accumulating stress, thus necessitating Korr Sella, and now we're getting into some build bloat. Basically, this is a Seasoned Navigator build that probably wants one or two more crew/gunner slots to really sing, but it might be worth a look regardless.

Dash Rendar (Rebel, YT-2400) - 98 points, or 112 with Outrider

Have more points in your list than you know what to do with? Here comes your man! Without Outrider, this is just an indulgent mess that doesn't really do anything, but once you embrace the Dash Rendar Sunk Cost Fallacy and throw more good points after bad, there's an actual build to be considered here. Seasoned Dashigator at i5 has good board knowledge and if he navigates on or through an obstacle, he can change his dial without stress. This is therefore an incredibly difficult ship to pin down. You have various upgrade options here, although he really would love to have multiple talent slots, as there are strong arguments for Expert Handling, Trick Shot, and Lone Wolf. You can also throw a Force user gunner in there because if you're flying 112 point Dash, thriftiness is a concept you clearly do not understand or care to accept in your greedy heart. I have no idea what the rest of this list looks like, but it's possibly just one other ship; whether that second ship is a complementary piece (the Fenn to this Boba-like construct you've made) or a support piece (like Jan Ors or something with Sense/Informant) is something I leave to your discretion.

Darth Maul (Separatist, Sith Infiltrator) - 72 points

I'm not sure I'm sold on it, but it's i5 with lots of Force and a pretty viable Seasoned Navigator dial. Dialing the 2-Sloop with the option to change is likely going to be the standard approach once you're deep into an engagement. It's unfortunate that you can't also Navigate off of the K-Turn. Also, clearing stress is annoying with this ship in many situations. You can consider getting really gimmicky and adding Scimitar to the mix, giving you the freedom to decloak and dial in a variety of unexpected ways. Sense is also an option here, as are Proximity Mines. There might be something worth exploring here, and as mentioned earlier, it's basically the only build that's actually seen any real success to date.

(EDIT: Here's a link to the first Swiss round of one of those successes which would eventually make it to Top 16 of the Denver System Open: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o7ISFL4N5Y)

4-LOM (Scum, G-1A Starfighter) - 54 points

This one might have potential. 4-LOM gets tokens from red maneuvers, wants to have stress tokens to give away, and has a full white/blue maneuver row at speed 2 along with a 2 K-Turn. Initiative 3 is a problem, but the build might be effective enough to warrant a dial peek from somewhere else in the list (such as a Sense Asajj). Against lower initiative ships, you have a decent opportunity to get in a position where you can just dial the 2K every turn and change it as you see fit to stay stuck on whatever poor ship you have decided should be permanently stressed. Advanced Sensors and Contraband Cybernetics are both worth considering for a 4-LOMigator build.

Asajj Ventress (Scum, Lancer-class Pursuit Craft) - 78 points

Speaking of Sense Asajj, this is probably the Seasoned Navigator build I'm most intrigued by. All of those blue 3 speed maneuvers mean you can safely dial a 3 speed maneuever and change it without any real consequence. I4 is not ideal, but Sense is a natural choice here, bringing the total build up to 83 points and giving you a ship that has an incredible amount of freedom in dictating board position. One point for the Shadow Caster is probably too cheap to pass up, given how much more able you'll be to line up eligible shots. Rigged Cargo Chute is another upgrade to consider, synergizing somewhat with Asajj's own ability (should you choose to use it).

"Actually, let's do a 3 Hard to the left instead."

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