Vs fighter swarm you stick your capital ships togeather so they can cover eachother. Any squadron aproaching can potentially get shot by 6 to 9 dices. Also you can screen your fleet with few cheap fighter squadrons and when enemy is stuck in dogfight waste them with ship aa.

Not always a valid tactic as it can reduce your maneuver options and tends to put all your ships in range of the enemy at once. The best option is dedicated anti-fighter screening ships ahead of the big ships. The Nebulon-B is the only one that fits this role so far with a 3-dice AA defence. Unfortunately, there don't appear to be any for the Empire as yet.

The unusual thing I've noticed is that although each ship's armament seems to be down each side of the vessel, their overall firepower is concentrated forward. There isn't likely to be any "broadside" firing. With all the firepower to the front, it's going to be a charge straight in that's going to give the most punch, and anything outflanking a SD is going to have a lot less firepower coming at it, than from a frontal assault.

This is going to be a game of maneuver and big and slow ships might become laser magnets. It's going to be key to be able to flank a target and still have it in your forward arc.

Vs fighter swarm you stick your capital ships togeather so they can cover eachother. Any squadron aproaching can potentially get shot by 6 to 9 dices. Also you can screen your fleet with few cheap fighter squadrons and when enemy is stuck in dogfight waste them with ship aa.

Not always a valid tactic as it can reduce your maneuver options and tends to put all your ships in range of the enemy at once. The best option is dedicated anti-fighter screening ships ahead of the big ships. The Nebulon-B is the only one that fits this role so far with a 3-dice AA defence. Unfortunately, there don't appear to be any for the Empire as yet.

The unusual thing I've noticed is that although each ship's armament seems to be down each side of the vessel, their overall firepower is concentrated forward. There isn't likely to be any "broadside" firing. With all the firepower to the front, it's going to be a charge straight in that's going to give the most punch, and anything outflanking a SD is going to have a lot less firepower coming at it, than from a frontal assault.

This is going to be a game of maneuver and big and slow ships might become laser magnets. It's going to be key to be able to flank a target and still have it in your forward arc.

It looks like the Rebel assault frigate will end up being a broadside ship. The empire might get one like it next wave.

The trick is lining up your broadsides AND the forward/rear arc(preferably the Forward), easier said than done but that is the difference between the good and the average

Looking at the VSD, it's got 3 long range red dice and 3 medium range blue dice to the front arc and only 2 reds and 1 blue on the sides. Clearly lining up your broadsides with Star Destroyers is not going to give you the most firepower. These things are configured for speartip-style attacking.

but you can fire with 2 arc's at once. so not head to head, but angled so both front and a side can target the same vessel

That will take some tricky maneuvering and a bit of luck to be able to line a target up where two arcs have a shot.

That will take some tricky maneuvering and a bit of luck to be able to line a target up where two arcs have a shot.

And/or an ability that lets you either split up your firing (fire once before you move and once after) or move then shoot both times

Something else to talk about:
Miniature Market has a preview pic up, which includes some cards. Can anybody read these? I can't find a higher res picture.

Do you have a link? Miniature market doesn't seem to have a dedicated news section at first glance.

Sorry, here it is:
http://cdn.miniaturemarket.com/media/aw_islider/53fe4d143fa5d.jpg

I hadn't seen that picture with the cards before.

Sorry, here it is:

http://cdn.miniaturemarket.com/media/aw_islider/53fe4d143fa5d.jpg

I hadn't seen that picture with the cards before.

Ah, those. Those are a couple of objective cards. There's a bigger version on the Armada description page.

That will take some tricky maneuvering and a bit of luck to be able to line a target up where two arcs have a shot.

And/or an ability that lets you either split up your firing (fire once before you move and once after) or move then shoot both times

Firing after a move is going to potentially bring the target into a closer range band. And I'd hate to get caught by a VSD at long range, only to have it close range and fire again with twice as much firepower. That could potentially give it a 9-die attack in one turn. I think firing twice in one turn could be very overpowering.

That will take some tricky maneuvering and a bit of luck to be able to line a target up where two arcs have a shot.

And/or an ability that lets you either split up your firing (fire once before you move and once after) or move then shoot both times

Firing after a move is going to potentially bring the target into a closer range band. And I'd hate to get caught by a VSD at long range, only to have it close range and fire again with twice as much firepower. That could potentially give it a 9-die attack in one turn. I think firing twice in one turn could be very overpowering.

Every ship can already fire 2x though they need to be from two different arcs,

I was merely suggesting there may be a way to alter the order the shots are taken, rather than only getting a front shot and then having to use antisquadron fire and/or lose the natural second arc's shot due to nothing in sight, being able to shoot with the front arc and then use your move to turn and unleash a broadside

I'm pretty sure its 2 different arcs OR anti fighter attack. Not both.

As I said in my original post - give us a rulebook!

You don't need a lot of fighters, you just need enough to tarpit the other guy fighters for enough time that your capitals either destroy their support, or focus fire them at pleasure. This mostly depends if capital ships give more firepower per cost than fighters of course. If that isn't the case, fighters will just prevail for obvious reasons.

Hmm, a VSD rolls 3 reds and 3 blues in its front arc. That's roughly 3 TIE's and 3 X-wings in firepower alone, coming to about 69 points for the fighters.

Special rules notwithstanding, fighters can't crit and accuracy rolls are useless for them. But they are far more maneuverable, if also a lot more vulnerable.

Yeah, tricky to say without hands-on experience.

As I said in my original post - give us a rulebook!

Given previous FFG material, I suspect that an early peek at contents of the rulebook will be a month or so before the unveiling of the game.... Am I wrong on this?

I'm pretty sure its 2 different arcs OR anti fighter attack. Not both.

From what I understand you get 2 different arcs and then each arc decides antifighter or to shoot at a capital ship, its just very hard to line up range/arcs to multiple enemies.

I envision the antifighter attack to be just one arc throwing up its "wall of fire" rather than the entire ship. You may be right and I may be wrong of course I am just saying what I remember hearing

From what I understand you get 2 different arcs and then each arc decides antifighter or to shoot at a capital ship, its just very hard to line up range/arcs to multiple enemies.

I envision the antifighter attack to be just one arc throwing up its "wall of fire" rather than the entire ship. You may be right and I may be wrong of course I am just saying what I remember hearing

This is correct.

You choose two arcs to fire from. They can be against the same target, or different targets. If you chose to attack fighters, you roll your anti-squadron blue dice and make a single roll against every squadron in that arc (within range 2). Just to be clear, you get a separate roll against every squadron in range. You don't roll red or black dice against squadrons.

It's definitely going to make for a game of maneuvering to get the best firing solutions.