Posted by: Zardnaar
« on: January 15, 2020, 07:15:16 AM »
Well we have a new faction with the CSA and no more Yevetha.
The below list is a rough ranking based on unit roster, heroes and geography to a lesser extent on the art of war type maps.
From the bottom.
7. Pentastar Alignment.
These guys got hit with the Nerf bat hard. They lost their ability to spam lots of units and a marginal unit like the clone wars frigate with two skiprays got nerfed to 1 skipray.
And they get the TIE gt that seems a bit crap. They get a hodge podge of carriers and no decent frigates. A meh geographic position doesn't help. So so heros and Kane and Grant are nice they also lack a decent heavy capital and due to map changes the Praetor star destroyer they get has big pathfinding issues.
6. Empire if the Hand.
These guys didn't change much but the other factions got buffed. They lack the damage of the imperial factions and the tankiness of the mon cal ships. Very average heros and an odd assortment of random ships mean they can be frustrating. Oh and their income got nerfed and they lack an economic adviser.
5. CSA
The CSA is quite powerful in space due to Bulwarks, Marauder's, and good frigates but they have expensive capital ships. Lackluster fighters however and Uber expensive capital ships. They also lack decent ground units although their heavy transport types are decent. Fairly meh heros.
4. The Empire
How good the empire is varies by era. They don't suck as such but they often lack units and alternate between what heavy Star destroyers are available.
The still have some if the best admirals in the game but they no longer get 2 tier 3/ admirals that gang around the whole game from era 1-5. They also got nerfed with no more free eclipse class SSD in Era 3. You have to build that puppy now. Still in era 5 you can have 5 super Star Destroyers assuming you don't lose the sovereign and eclipse ones from era 3.
Some minor buffs here and there though. For example you pick up economic advisers era 4 and 5 now. Central location means everyone hates you.
3. Eridu Authority.
The EA got buffed out the wazoo. The main weakness they had was support frigates and they picked up 3 new ones. The get a new 2 point Corvette that's cheap, spammable and agile. Doesn't hit to hard but you can have 3 of them for a strike cruisers cost. Once shields are stripped a wolfpac can hurt. They also pick up the Victory II class frigate that is tanky for a 3 point unit. Doesn't hit t hard hard but had decent range. The MVP is the new Imperial 2 class that carries heavy TIE bombers.
Heavy TIE bombers hurt and it carried 2 of them. Other EA units also carry the heavy bomber. And you have Tectors and new support frigates. You're a lot better at carrier fleet. In era 4 iirc you also get Adz class destroyers that can wolfpac and you are a lot better at smashing shields than the PA who also get them.
Oh you also get the A6 Juggernaut on the ground. 2 point super unit.
You also get a large amount of admirals, none to exciting but you can't have everything.
2. Greater Maldrood.
Always good but got a slight nerf with the loss of it's clone wars era fighters. You still get your great frigates and heros however but not sure if secutors are worth using now. An overall big nerf to carrier fleets. The TIE sentinel load out is a poor replacement to the arc 170's.
1. Zsinj.
Zjinj gets to start with a super Star Destroyer and a decent economic base. Zsinj has a great location. Zsinj is one if the best admirals in the game and can recruit a pirate admiral along with his starting admirals.
Zsinj can also recruit another SSD admiral at Kuat. He also has great world's to turtle on and world's like Wayland, Lianna, Mandalore nearby.
Zsinj also gets the fantastic TIE raptor and his escort carriers carry two. Throw in howl runners being fairly common as well and he can easily dominate the skies. With on of the strongest economies in the game with two economic advisers, Zsinj himself functions as one and Dathomir us a discount world as well.
On the ground he gets hailfire droids and normal artillery, A5 juggernauts are decent now. Hailfire droids got discounted. He can also field 3 SSDs.
0. New Republic.
Not a lot changed for the NR. Some load outs changed, they still get Marauder's, and can spam X-Wings. They also gave very tanky units with Mon Cal's and Dauntless. They start with one of the best admirals in the game and often have a lot available depending on the era.
In the ground their heavy tanks are now tough but slow while they retain their great artllery. They can't really down cheap AA artillery any more though.
That's my thoughts atm. EA might be rated to low, Zsinj seems easy mode.