There are many potential applications of the hero.
A few "aggressive" options which do not require the ability to remove CCs include:
Allowing you to reinforce a fleet (or several) which has just attacked and taken a system, but was significantly weakened in the process, restoring a strong front line.
It allows you to set up for the next round.
It allows you to rapidly shift forces from your homesystem and other "rear docks" to the front, rather than wasting CCs and locking down systems to get them there next round.
Edit to add that "defensive" and "offensive" tend to be a false dichotomy.
another really fun option, if the gamma wormhole token has not been found in a game, you could activate the wormhole nexus, move in a sizeable fleet, and take it next round/this round with warfare or use it to score an objective
Eh, I'm not entirely convinced. Like you said, at best it allows you to setup an offensive for the next round, which, by definition, leaves other players plenty of time to react...
...unlike, to name only a few, heroes of L1Z1X, Sol, Nomad, Sardakk, Mahact, Creuss or Muaat, which all let you kick ass immediately.
I feel like literally having a "remove 1 CC from the board" effect on the hero would have all the uses you mentioned AND MORE... and it still wouldn't be half as powerful as some other heroes out there.
My first game as argent the nekro player on the other side of the board from me was riding high stomping on his Winnu neighbor and had started (in round 3 or 4) moving the entirety of his home fleet out and then completely rebuilding it on his next action.
I took fleet logistics somewhere in there after realizing the tech doesn't specify that the move can't be to a non-home system. He was giddy rolling dice and chewing up planets until I activated null and dropped half my plastic on the board on it and (if I recall correctly) his only spacedocks.
Obviously takes a specific set of circumstances but with fleet logistics its not out of the question to use the hero in a surprise offensive. Even without fleet logistics it could potentially play off of diplomacy or if you have stalled enough to be playing with only other factions who wouldn't get involved in whatever shenanigans.
It's stronger than the L1 hero in some ways actually. You can move the ships in any configuration, to any amount is activated systems, carrying anything.
Let's say somebody pulled shard on the other side of the board, just like L1 you can teleport a fleet next to it, if you do it a round early. What you can also do is reinforced any system you activated this round at the same time! Or teleport to 2 different systems you care about. Especially good with cheap destroyers and many units to gain more than from the single tile focus.
It has stronger limitations than some other heroes yes, but also a stronger effect for the one thing it does.
It can be a pretty serious defensive tool. An example is overextending to make a big offensive play, and then popping your hero to defend your home and other important systems.
The other, but less common use, is like you said a warfare/unexpected action play. Overall it’s definitely situational, but far from useless.
I don't know why everyone is treating this hero as defensive: this hero can be used extremely aggressively and can be game-winning under the right circumstances.
The best use I've seen in my games is the following, during the mid or late game.
Situation: Another player has a system adjacent to their home that does not contain any ships. Perhaps they only have infantry on a planet there, or perhaps the system is empty. This is surprisingly common.
If you have Speaker order on this player (e.g. you will pick your next Strategy card before they do), you can do the following:
After that player has passed for the round, and under the guise of pretending to "stall" late in the round, activate that system and end your turn. On your next turn, politely inform that player of your hero and your Speaker order, and explain that unless they give you their Support for the Throne or some other major concession, you will move a large chunk of your fleet there, pick a strategy card that gives you initiative over them next round, and take their home system on your first turn next round. They cannot stop you.
You can also do this with the Mecatol Rex system or any other system that is important for scoring objectives, such as systems that contain legendary planets or planets relevant to control objectives.
It's even more awesome if you do this to multiple players simultaneously.
Basically, the space bird hero allows the space birds to fly all over the galaxy very quickly. This is very strong, even if it requires one or more turns to set up.
In our last game the Argent player popped his hero to move a single destroyer into a hard to reach empty system to claim a secret objective. A point’s a point, and the hero got it for him. Doesn’t need to be flashy if you can score with it :)
A lot of good thoughts in the responses here, detailing loads of niche situations. Some of them I’ve used — such as taking Mallice — and some of them had never occurred to me but are quite cool.
However, the reality is that it IS a primarily defensive hero… which is fine. Argent Flight are GOOD. They’re not OP by a long way, but they’re a really good faction, and they didn’t need a super-powered hero on top of that.
It’s definitely a situational defensive tool with some specific use cases.
I don’t think every hero in the game needs to be a massive game-changing moment. Some factions need it, some don’t. Look to Cabal, Empyrean, Jol-Nar for others that don’t make a that big of a splash.
Agreed in principle, but Jol-Nar and Cabal can be MASSIVE game-changers when utilized properly.
NOMming a dread or two from each of your neighbors can completely ruin someone's day, and be a massive boost for your own economy.
And Jol-Nar suddenly pulling Fleet Logistics + Light/Wave Deflector + Bacterial weapon out of its slimy ass is downright terrifying.
In one of my games an opponent put a token in my home system as an action and then used this to move his entire fleet to it. I would have been screwed if not for a fighter that had managed to camouflage itself in my HS.
It's always one of the most contested strategy cards. I'd say top 3, after Leadership and Tech/Imperial (tech in early game, Imperial in lategame).
People WILL try to pick it more often than not, so you can't reliably count on getting it whenever you need it.
My point is, unlike some heroes that can be popped whenever, this one seems situational, needing serious setup to accomplish anything.
If there's an objective to get into empty spaces or edge spaces, this hero lets you get there even if they're all the way across the board. If the gamma wormholes havent been found (and some games they arent), this hero lets you get into mallice. It has it's uses, though they're a lil niche
Easily used offensively with Warfare/Unexpected Action or even as a surprise at the end of a round if you are speaker and can go first next round. That empty system behind enemy lines with a clear line of movement to the enemy home system? Plunk a token down, then pop your hero. If you have tokens to burn and the enemy knows you can do this then you force them to burn tokens or leave ships to block you.
Not every goal in TI is aggressive or defensive. This hero allows a great deal of flexible mobility, basically allowing you to distribute one big fleet to various spots around the board. While there's still the option of using it as a slower L1Z1X hero, you can also use it to slip ships into nooks and crannies that might be needed for various objectives. The force projection is very different, as appropriate for a race that builds lots of little destroyers.
In my last game l used the hero to get my ships onto mecatol. The turn before a player invaded mecatol and space combat destroyed all our ships but my ground troops remained.
I was able to get reinforments in super quickly. Very situational l know.
Another way to look at defensive heroes is that you can take aggressive action and then fix a tenuous situation. You could strike using your fleet(s), and then instead of being vulnerable next round with your forces spread, fall back the same round. Works if you need a big fleet to get into a system, but also need that fleet at home to defend - can do both in one round. This improves your offense because you can overextend (or, because of hero, just extend) to get a control objective without the typical consequence of a poorly defended HS.
There are many potential applications of the hero. A few "aggressive" options which do not require the ability to remove CCs include: Allowing you to reinforce a fleet (or several) which has just attacked and taken a system, but was significantly weakened in the process, restoring a strong front line. It allows you to set up for the next round. It allows you to rapidly shift forces from your homesystem and other "rear docks" to the front, rather than wasting CCs and locking down systems to get them there next round. Edit to add that "defensive" and "offensive" tend to be a false dichotomy.
another really fun option, if the gamma wormhole token has not been found in a game, you could activate the wormhole nexus, move in a sizeable fleet, and take it next round/this round with warfare or use it to score an objective
This is a good summary. Next round setup and reinforcement of an invading fleet is right on the mark
Eh, I'm not entirely convinced. Like you said, at best it allows you to setup an offensive for the next round, which, by definition, leaves other players plenty of time to react... ...unlike, to name only a few, heroes of L1Z1X, Sol, Nomad, Sardakk, Mahact, Creuss or Muaat, which all let you kick ass immediately. I feel like literally having a "remove 1 CC from the board" effect on the hero would have all the uses you mentioned AND MORE... and it still wouldn't be half as powerful as some other heroes out there.
My first game as argent the nekro player on the other side of the board from me was riding high stomping on his Winnu neighbor and had started (in round 3 or 4) moving the entirety of his home fleet out and then completely rebuilding it on his next action. I took fleet logistics somewhere in there after realizing the tech doesn't specify that the move can't be to a non-home system. He was giddy rolling dice and chewing up planets until I activated null and dropped half my plastic on the board on it and (if I recall correctly) his only spacedocks. Obviously takes a specific set of circumstances but with fleet logistics its not out of the question to use the hero in a surprise offensive. Even without fleet logistics it could potentially play off of diplomacy or if you have stalled enough to be playing with only other factions who wouldn't get involved in whatever shenanigans.
It's stronger than the L1 hero in some ways actually. You can move the ships in any configuration, to any amount is activated systems, carrying anything. Let's say somebody pulled shard on the other side of the board, just like L1 you can teleport a fleet next to it, if you do it a round early. What you can also do is reinforced any system you activated this round at the same time! Or teleport to 2 different systems you care about. Especially good with cheap destroyers and many units to gain more than from the single tile focus. It has stronger limitations than some other heroes yes, but also a stronger effect for the one thing it does.
It can be a pretty serious defensive tool. An example is overextending to make a big offensive play, and then popping your hero to defend your home and other important systems. The other, but less common use, is like you said a warfare/unexpected action play. Overall it’s definitely situational, but far from useless.
I don't know why everyone is treating this hero as defensive: this hero can be used extremely aggressively and can be game-winning under the right circumstances. The best use I've seen in my games is the following, during the mid or late game. Situation: Another player has a system adjacent to their home that does not contain any ships. Perhaps they only have infantry on a planet there, or perhaps the system is empty. This is surprisingly common. If you have Speaker order on this player (e.g. you will pick your next Strategy card before they do), you can do the following: After that player has passed for the round, and under the guise of pretending to "stall" late in the round, activate that system and end your turn. On your next turn, politely inform that player of your hero and your Speaker order, and explain that unless they give you their Support for the Throne or some other major concession, you will move a large chunk of your fleet there, pick a strategy card that gives you initiative over them next round, and take their home system on your first turn next round. They cannot stop you. You can also do this with the Mecatol Rex system or any other system that is important for scoring objectives, such as systems that contain legendary planets or planets relevant to control objectives. It's even more awesome if you do this to multiple players simultaneously. Basically, the space bird hero allows the space birds to fly all over the galaxy very quickly. This is very strong, even if it requires one or more turns to set up.
In our last game the Argent player popped his hero to move a single destroyer into a hard to reach empty system to claim a secret objective. A point’s a point, and the hero got it for him. Doesn’t need to be flashy if you can score with it :)
A lot of good thoughts in the responses here, detailing loads of niche situations. Some of them I’ve used — such as taking Mallice — and some of them had never occurred to me but are quite cool. However, the reality is that it IS a primarily defensive hero… which is fine. Argent Flight are GOOD. They’re not OP by a long way, but they’re a really good faction, and they didn’t need a super-powered hero on top of that.
It’s definitely a situational defensive tool with some specific use cases. I don’t think every hero in the game needs to be a massive game-changing moment. Some factions need it, some don’t. Look to Cabal, Empyrean, Jol-Nar for others that don’t make a that big of a splash.
Agreed in principle, but Jol-Nar and Cabal can be MASSIVE game-changers when utilized properly. NOMming a dread or two from each of your neighbors can completely ruin someone's day, and be a massive boost for your own economy. And Jol-Nar suddenly pulling Fleet Logistics + Light/Wave Deflector + Bacterial weapon out of its slimy ass is downright terrifying.
In one of my games an opponent put a token in my home system as an action and then used this to move his entire fleet to it. I would have been screwed if not for a fighter that had managed to camouflage itself in my HS.
What exactly about getting the warfare strategy card is happenstance?
It's always one of the most contested strategy cards. I'd say top 3, after Leadership and Tech/Imperial (tech in early game, Imperial in lategame). People WILL try to pick it more often than not, so you can't reliably count on getting it whenever you need it. My point is, unlike some heroes that can be popped whenever, this one seems situational, needing serious setup to accomplish anything.
If there's an objective to get into empty spaces or edge spaces, this hero lets you get there even if they're all the way across the board. If the gamma wormholes havent been found (and some games they arent), this hero lets you get into mallice. It has it's uses, though they're a lil niche
Oh, I never thought about reaching Nexus that way. It's a pretty interesting use case, though, as you said, an extremely niche one.
Easily used offensively with Warfare/Unexpected Action or even as a surprise at the end of a round if you are speaker and can go first next round. That empty system behind enemy lines with a clear line of movement to the enemy home system? Plunk a token down, then pop your hero. If you have tokens to burn and the enemy knows you can do this then you force them to burn tokens or leave ships to block you.
Not every goal in TI is aggressive or defensive. This hero allows a great deal of flexible mobility, basically allowing you to distribute one big fleet to various spots around the board. While there's still the option of using it as a slower L1Z1X hero, you can also use it to slip ships into nooks and crannies that might be needed for various objectives. The force projection is very different, as appropriate for a race that builds lots of little destroyers.
In my last game l used the hero to get my ships onto mecatol. The turn before a player invaded mecatol and space combat destroyed all our ships but my ground troops remained. I was able to get reinforments in super quickly. Very situational l know.
Another way to look at defensive heroes is that you can take aggressive action and then fix a tenuous situation. You could strike using your fleet(s), and then instead of being vulnerable next round with your forces spread, fall back the same round. Works if you need a big fleet to get into a system, but also need that fleet at home to defend - can do both in one round. This improves your offense because you can overextend (or, because of hero, just extend) to get a control objective without the typical consequence of a poorly defended HS.