Recently, the cards for the Imperial Raider in X-Wing have been spoiled. Since this ship will almost definitely make its way into Armada in Wave 2 or 3, I thought that I'd try to mock up an Armada version for fun. This is all ridiculous speculation, so take it with a grain of salt.

X-Wing's Imperial Raider in comparison with the CR90 Corvette:
1. One more shield each in both the fore and aft halves.
2. Slightly less range on the primary weapon (2-4 as opposed to 3-5).
3. Slightly larger blindspot for the primary weapon on the sides.
4. One higher energy output (for using secondary weapons, etc.).
5. Ability to fire its primary weapon twice for the cost of 2 energy.
6. Slightly higher points cost.

How I would simulate this in Armada:
1. You could add a shield or two, but this might be overkill, since Armada is a less granular system than X-Wing. I have compensated by having only two defensive tokens total with no redirect--you have more shields, but they are less flexible. The other way that I could have handled this would be to keep the shields the same but add a defensive (brace?) token.
2. and 3. I would reduce one forward red die and one side red die to a blue to represent the shorter range and the blind spot of the primary weapon.
4. The higher energy output means that the Raider can shoot its secondary weapons more frequently in X-Wing. I would represent this ability by increasing the anti-fighter dice on the Raider. This is also consistent with the lore, which presents the Raider as a strong anti-fighter craft.
5. I added an additional blue die to the forward arc to account for the ability to fire multiple primary weapon attacks in a turn.
6. Slightly higher points cost.

So here's the CR90A that we know (is this the most recent version?):

CR90A
Hull: 4
Anti-Fighter: 1 Blue
Command: 1
Squadron: 1
Engineering: 2
Tokens: Evade, Evade, Redirect
Speed: 1: II 2: I/II 3: -/I/II 4: -/I/I/II
Shields: 2 Front / 2 Sides / 1 Rear
Attack: Red-Red-Blue Front/ Red-Blue Sides / Red Rear
Upgrades: Officer / Tech / System / Turbolaser
Cost: 44

And here's the hypothetical Imperial Raider II-Class:

Raider II-Class
Hull: 4
Anti-Fighter: 2 Blue
Command: 1
Squadron: 1
Engineering: 2
Tokens: Evade, Brace
Speed: 1:II 2: I/II 3: -/I/II 4: -/I/I/II
Shields: 3 Front / 2 Sides / 2 Rear
Attack: Red-Blue-Blue-Blue Front / Blue-Blue Sides / Red Rear
Upgrades: Officer / Tech / Ion / Anti-Fighter
Cost: 46

What do you think?

I think it has too much frontal firepower...1 red and 3 blues is a lot for a small ship. it's actually more average damage (after factoring accuracy in) than an Assault Frigates best facing, or a Nebulo-B (though at slighty shorter range admittedly).

It also has a massive amount of shields. Compare it to other ships, and it's pretty much statted as a heavy frigate or light Star Destroyer.

I would say that it since the fluff says it has no turbolasers, it should have much lighter battery dice (as thats what these represent primarily, along with other anti-ship weapons like heavy ion cannons and missile tubes), and it should be more directly focused on fighters somehow. it certainly shouldnt be able to engage capital ships at an advantage as it currently can.

Interesting idea, but I think your cost is way under what you've done and I think the raider will come with no red dice. I say way under because 4 dice on any facing will drive the cost up substantially.

I'm thinking same stat line as corvette but swap the red dice for blue and one extra die for anti fighter. Ship cost could then remain very close to corvette (not sure of exactly where since I havent spent a lot of time trying to figure how they are setting point costs). Beyond that I would hope the upgrade slots are different on the Raider with an emphasis towards the antifighter role (perhaps something to alter blue dice rolls when shooting at fighters?) and away from the speed role of the corvette. Not saying the raider isnt fast, but I dont want it to clone the role of the corvette. Instead it would be like a a super gunship for removing fighters while providing a decent amount of blue dice to support the vsd or gsd it is escorting. One other thing I think it should have over the corvette is a squadron 2 command vs the corvette's 1. To balance it out Id even be ok with raider going to command 2 which would require some degree of preplanning but would also let you stack 2 command tokens which could be handy.

Key thing is raider needs to feel like a raider, cost somewhat similar to a corvette, but not be a clone. Same speed, different dice but definitely not more in the cap ship shooting, different upgrade potential, and clearly pointed at a different role. As long as the cost stay under 50 and they accomplish the changes I think it will be golden.

A pretty good description of what could make it different from a CR-90, but here are a few things to consider:

Each ship has two versions, with the cheaper CR-90 having no red dice on its front and side arcs. Three blues and a red seem like too much for the raider's point range unless the sides only have one dice.

Having two anti-squadron dice on the cheaper version of the raider would make it very powerful compared to its point cost (twice the dice of a VSD for half the cost, ie. 4x as effective. Same number of dice as a GSD-2 that costs 50% more). Perhaps one variant of the raider has 1 anti-squadron dice, better firepower, and an ion upgrade while the other has 2 anti-squadron dice (what's the acronym for this?) and a anti-squadron upgrade. However, the only such upgrade we've seen is extended hangars, plus whatever one is included with the assault frigate, so I'm not sure exactily if such an upgrade would be applicible.

I'd give the Raider better anti-squadron fire than the CR90, some black dice instead of blue and blue instead of red (but the same number of each), increase forward shield by 1, decrease maneuverability a bit (fewer clicks at each speed or max speed 3).

One thing I would be interested in seeing on anti-fighter ships is red squadron dice (opening up range 3 attacks)

Recently, the cards for the Imperial Raider in X-Wing have been spoiled. Since this ship will almost definitely make its way into Armada in Wave 2 or 3, I thought that I'd try to mock up an Armada version for fun. This is all ridiculous speculation, so take it with a grain of salt....

Nothing of substance to add. But loving the ridiculous speculation so much, a mere like was insufficient.

More ridiculous speculations, please!

Thank you everyone for the feedback. I know the first draft was out-of-whack, but it was a conversation starter. I think that one of the most important things to consider is that FFG will not make the Raider into a clone of the CR90B. They will each carve out their own niche within the design space of the game. Here are a few ways in which I suspect that they will differ, based on their incarnations in X-Wing.

• The Raider will have a tiny bit more durability, but it will probably have the same hull rating as the CR90. Therefore, this durability needs to come in the form of shields or defensive tokens.
• The Raider will be more effective at shorter range (at least in its front arc) than the CR90, but less effective at longer range.
• The Raider will be the superior anti-fighter craft.
• The two ships may differ ever so slightly in how they maneuver, but I cannot speculate on this until they release the dial for the Raider in X-Wing.

So, here's my second draft:

Raider II-Class
Hull: 4
Anti-Fighter: 2 Blue
Command: 1
Squadron: 1
Engineering: 2
Tokens: Evade, Redirect, Brace
Speed: 1:II 2: I/II 3: I/I/I 4: I/I/I/I
Shields: 2 Front / 2 Sides / 2 Rear
Attack: Red-Blue-Blue Front / Blue-Blue Sides / Red Rear
Upgrades: Officer / Tech / Ion / Anti-Fighter
Cost: 46