Star Wars Armada: The Pryce Is Right

Governor Pryce is a risky but potentially game-winning addition to Star Wars Armada.

Continuing their slow dribble of teasers and new info on the next Armada wave, Fantasy Flight Games have revealed the new Governor Pryce. This card, designed by Jonathan Reinig, the 2015 World Champion, is a tough one. Expensive and tricky to use, Pryce can still be rewarding. Let’s dig into how you might use this card.

The Basics

Pryce is an expensive officer upgrade card that has the effect of letting one of your ships, for one turn, go last.

Now at first this may not seem good at all. Don’t I want to go first, you may ask. After all getting the jump on the enemy is big part of Armada. Besides, if I want my ship to go last, I will just activate it last. But Pryce isn’t that simple, she lets your ship go absolutely last, not just last of your ships, but last of ALL ships. This means if the enemy has a great many more activations than you, you big powerful ship can still go last for a turn. This can allow your big ship, like an ISD2, to wait till the enemy has moved into range and then pound them, rather than being forced to active and waste a turn being out of range.

The Power Of Going Last

No not that last, and no I’m not bitter I’m going to be the last of my friends to see this… not bitter at all. 

Going last can be a very powerful tactic in SW Armada. While it certainly can be important to go first at times, going last allows you to react to the enemy moves. Moreover, since ships shoot and then move in Armada, going last can often mean the enemy is out of range of you on their turn but then moves into your range on yours. Indeed going last can be a major key to setting up a crippling strike for the next turn.

The Old One-Two

Even better than going last is going both last AND first. This can allow you to set up a truly devastating attack run. By going last and then first you can effectively take two turns in a row. You can either use this to shoot an enemy twice, before they can fire back, or to move into a potions to hit the enemy, and then move out of their arc before they can fight back. Doing this is normally pretty rare for big ship fleets to be able to pull off. Fleets with only 2-3 activation will almost never get to move both last and first, and fleets based around large ISD type ship have  a hard time being a lot bigger than 2-3 ships. However with Pryce even a 1 ship fleet could go first and last, for one turn at least. This is the real power here, the ability to set up a truly punishing single turn.

It Takes A Master

As devastating as Pryce can be, shes not easy to use. You do have to pick the turn she will work on at the start of the game, meaning you’ve really got to set things up right for her to be effective. Moreover you’ll be telegraphing your plan to your enemy, if they are able to take advantage of the game you might just find Pryce going last on the one turn she really needs to go first! It’s really a card that could come back to bite you. It’s a card that will take a lot of training to use.

Up Close And Personal

Too close! Too Close!

When talking about the card Jonathan Reinig meantions he’d really like to use it with an ISD 2 build. While this certainly looks good, I’d be more interested to use Pryce with one of the short ranged ISDs.

Maybe take a Kuat Refit with Gunnery Team, Expanded Launchers and Leading shots. Going last you can use the speed 3 to position the ship at close range in the middle of the enemy fleet, then activate first and get off a couple of 10 dice close range attacks.

Or you could use it on an ISD I with Gunnery Teams, Expanded Hanger Bay, Rapid Launch Bays, Leading shots and something like Spinal Armament. Again go last so you are able to position your self at point blank range and then unleash you heavy forward volleys while dropping 5 squadrons into the enemy formation. These are some really powerful hits that can cripple fleets.

Final Thoghts

While Pryce has a lot of potential I don’t think she will be all that popular. She’s a hard card to use and many players will try and fail to pull her off, then give up. Still sometimes hard but rewarding cards are good additions to games. Her ability adds another trick to the Imperial tool box. It’s great and thematically she pairs great with Thrawn. I really look forward to see them on the tabletop.

Tell us what you think about Pryce, down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.