⬆️ The Upgrade Meta and the Case for the Upgraded Mobile SAM

Madonna and I had a blast at our first-ever wargaming conference, Connections 2025! It was one of the first times we've ever interacted with multiple wargamers and organizations that had heard of IADS: The Game before meeting them in person; it was awesome (thanks, Mr. Wilkie, Mr. Chambers, and Mr. Brady for being such amazing hosts -- congratulations on running such a successful event!).

While we were there, we ran into some players who'd been playing and developing their own ideas on how best to win in IADS: The Game. One of the ideas that we'd discussed was the use of the glorious Upgrade Card!

Referencing the unit card image -- the Upgrade Card attaches to any unit during the deploy phase. "Treat as an extension of the attached card", was added to indicate that players are to flip both the Upgrade and the Unit Card whenever either of them are meant to be flipped. The Upgrade card increases the Attrition Points by +1, the Defense by +2, the Range by +1, and the number of Dice Rolled by +1.

Now the meta that Matthew (one of the amazing wargamers we'd met) described the meta at their home station deeply valuing the Intelligence Card (YES! Intel FTW!) and upgrading a Long Range SAM.

The single- (or double-, if you can make it) upgraded Long Range SAM was a thing that I tried to do regularly for quite some time. The range, the dice, and the depth of magazine lured me in with its promises of wrecked Aircraft!

What ended up happening, though, is I would draw so much aggro (particularly in multi-axis matches), that I would get maybe 2-4 Attrition Points before my juicy 4-5 Attrition Point monstrosity was destroyed by the other players. Net loss! 😭

What I started gravitating to instead was the unassuming Mobile SAM. Aggressively placed and single-, or double-upgraded Mobile SAM really kicks the party off, shooting at what I hoped were Aircraft and not wasting a single Action to Detect! With a Range of 2 or 3, it would also draw intense (and negative) attention, but losing it wasn't nearly as painful as there's a good chance I'll have made back more than the 3 Attrition Points I'd have lost on it.

It was interesting to watch the ideas move on from there to upgrading Bombers to further out-stick the upgraded Mobile SAMs... but I wonder if a lot of these developments came from the fact that at demos and with friends, I'm often playing team and multi-axis matches?

Would love to hear your alls' assessments -- I do think there's an element of a local meta wherever you might be. Trying to get inside your opponent's planning assumptions and scheming to undermine them is so rewarding (when it pays off).

-- Ric

📌 P.S. -- New Aero Chart and Target Custody house rules added to the Annex A!