Put away your torches and pitchforks, I'm not 100% against it.

But I'm a little...leery I guess. Keeping in mind that I have ONLY my own experiences in Armada to draw upon, I'm pretty intimidated by the Large based Wave 2 ships, ESPECIALLY the Imperial Class Star Destroyer. Speed three (so I've heard) for a ship of that size is extremely intimidating, although I imagine it will maneuver poorly when attempting to move at speed. Add the Evade token that may be involved...and I'm concerned about how tough these large ships could be.

I really, really enjoy the manuever aspect of Armada, and I don't want to have to worry about someone parking a giant brick of a starship in the middle of the board. The thrill of trying to shake a determined GSD from my tail or sliding juuuust outside of that AF2's side arc are where the thrill comes for me.

Now, obviously, they've done a great job so far so I should just give them the benefit of the doubt. But, like I said, I'm concerned. What do you guys think?

I think given the cost of buy in it would be upsetting if FFG broke SW:A this early on (or at all for that matter) so I understand and appreciate the concern.

I think at the moment we are still adding pieces into the game, the Imperials get their fast runabout (to mirror the role of the Corvette) and both get some big ships. I think it will be fun and interesting, we'll get to play with more toys that have more variety than right now.

Well, the ISD was meant to be so huge that one of them simply turning up in a system would intimidate the locals into behaving... so I guess it's working as designed on you!

On a serious note, I am not overly concerned about the ISD, yes it will be a brick, but what a points sink a tooled out ISD will be! Add in that at medium or long range it's firepower is no more frightening than a Vic-II, massive arcs for smaller ships to gang up on it in minimising return fire and that it's brand spanking new defence of Contain only works against the standard critical effect and I can see this thing being a contender, but not an "I-Win" piece.

Well in fluff they always said that the Vic was a lot slower than the Inperial Star destroyer, so i Guess speed 3 should be about correct. But it isof course very scary if it should end up being too maneuvrable. I mean if other ships, especially rebel ones can't avoid this front arc, what are they supposed to do then?

On the other side theMonCal looks very scary with Ackbar too

Yes, I'm more worried about the MC80.

How many REDs?!

I also don't want to see too many "Must Includes" c.f. Demolisher, the HWK hero pilot looks like it could become like this.

I'm more concerned about the opposite actually

given the size and stats, the ISD may be a bulky guy but given the defense token mechanics and the size of its base it could well be prone to being summarily overwhelmed

also remember, Speed 3 doesn't equal "well have the Afmkii's navigation chart." He could go speed 3 and still turn like a brick (or not at all)

Given the VSD's drop in popularity, I can't imagine many feel ships difficult to kill now that the coreset days are over. It's all going to come down to positioning and bringing your assets to bear on these big targets, which should only enhance the Armada manuevering experience.

All I can say is: I want Engine Techs on my ISD!

The ISD might actually tempt me enough to dive into this game. Driving this thing around with Vader at the helm is just a beautiful thought.

The ISD might actually tempt me enough to dive into this game. Driving this thing around with Vader at the helm is just a beautiful thought.

Only I hear he is somewhat unforgiving if you get his Star Destroyer damaged. And you will beyond all help if you have to abandon ship with him.

The ISD might actually tempt me enough to dive into this game. Driving this thing around with Vader at the helm is just a beautiful thought.

Only I hear he is somewhat unforgiving if you get his Star Destroyer damaged. And you will beyond all help if you have to abandon ship with him.

Vader and the hapless ship's officer responsible, stuck in an escape pod together. There's a great idea for a Buddy movie comedy in there somewhere.

Big ships go the same distance as small ships at each speed, since the reference point is the front of the base. This isn't like X-Wing where large ships have an advantage in covering ground.

The important thing is what yaw values are on the chart. I doubt it will have the same yaw as the MKII.

I think wave 2 will change the meta as much a wave 1.

But the biggest drawback of a big ship is that it is a big ship. Much easier to target....

I know I need some firepower for my rebs. A certain fish guy could help in that regard.

All that love for manuvering makes it sound like you should give X Wing a try.

The ISD might actually tempt me enough to dive into this game. Driving this thing around with Vader at the helm is just a beautiful thought.

Only I hear he is somewhat unforgiving if you get his Star Destroyer damaged. And you will beyond all help if you have to abandon ship with him.

Vader and the hapless ship's officer responsible, stuck in an escape pod together. There's a great idea for a Buddy movie comedy in there somewhere.

If only because:

I teach an old guy how to fence, he is a doctor. A few months ago he gives me a book on fencing by Bob Anderson. Now, Bob Anderson taught James Bond, Inigo Montoya and Dread Prirate Roberts all how to fence. He also wore the Darth Vader suit in Episodes 5 and 6. So I joking explain to him that he gave me the book that Darth Vader wrote on fencing.

He then turns to me and says that while they were in Sydney filimg the third movie the fellow in the Darth Vader suit got sick and needed a doctor. So he was Darth Vaders doctor.

So who knows a Darth Vader buddy movie, could happen, its a Mad, Mad, Mad World.

My only misgiving about wave 2 thus far is the lack of new posts. I need more info!

All that love for manuvering makes it sound like you should give X Wing a try.

Tried X-Wing and really enjoyed it in the early days before IG-88 and netlists dominated my local playgroup. Now instead of an intense dogfight between 8-12 fighters, it's mostly larger sized ships (like two of IG-88's ship) vs 3 B-Wings or a mirror match. Neat game and all, but I don't care for the "meta".

X-wing is more fun with more ships sad that m.o.v pushes it towards 2-ship builds

it's funny that 2-ship builds in x-wing seem incredibly simplistic (especially primary turrets ) wheres in Armada, there's just so much going on that even flying two fatties around is an involving experience. Honestly thought I'd hate flying 2-ships in Armada because of my X-wing experience, but having to manage hull zones, battery armaments, inertia, command stacks, squadron interactions, objectives...it's a wild ride

not to mention squadrons do a hell of a lot to make engagements feel epic even if there's only four ships on the board at a given time

pretty sure that the game will continue to be incredibly involving even if 2 mon cals or 2 isds become incredibly popular (though the 2 ISDs would look fantastic either way)

The opposite for me. Apart from finally getting access to the backbone of the Imperial Navy, I feel like the Empire really need more ships for list diversity. With the increase in ship inventory and the increase of point standard we'll really have armada play on our hands. Now the Empire has a capital ship the rebels will fear, and a lighter ship to take advantage of an area only the CR-90 had dominion over before.

For the rebels, now there are more ships with some realistic staying power. The MC80 is going to be the centerpiece of many fleets and the MC30s can be there to answer the gladiators. Even if an Imperial player decides to park in the center of the map, Wave 2 is giving the rebellion plenty of tools to utterly destroy it.

Despite my love for the ISD, it's strangely the Raider I'm really looking forward to.

But mainly it'll be nice to get more choices as Empire.

I don't know about y'all but I'm actually having misgivings about Wave 3. All that unknown just waiting to ruin the game!

To be honest, after wave 2, I could stop buying Armada stuff and be happy I think. Both the OT movie ships will be there, plus ships that fill the major roles and balance.

Both sides will have a big center piece ship, the ISD and MC80. They'll have strong flankers/strike ships in the VSD and AF Mk2. They'll both have small escort ships in the CR-90 and raider. And finally they'll both have a ship that does it's own thing. The Neb B is a nice sniper/support ship and the GSD is great as a close range brawler.

That doesn't mean I won't pick up anything from wave 3, but I don't think I'll feel the same need for stuff from wave 3 and beyond as I do for wave 1 and 2.

I will be waiting and holding off on buying the cigar till I can get the MC80 Liberty.

Gotta have those wings! (Looks so good)

I have a small scale model of it somewhere in my basement, but it is only 3-4" long, too small for armada.

I was thinking hard on Wave 2 last night (couldn't sleep), and aside from getting more and more profound respect for how amazingly well-balanced Armada is, I came across some interesting ideas about the VSD and the ISD.

I was considering what would be scary to face with my list. I am planning on taking my VSD, Glad, 9 assorted fighters (2 of which are bombers) and simply add a kitted out Raider and 15-30 points of squadron expansions. I figured the Raider with a decent kit (I'm thinking OLP might be nice on this guy) will run about 60 points, maybe less if I go a little bare-bones on it.

This leaves me 10-20 points after the bump to 400...The question would be: direct upgrade to ISD, or kit out my VSD (I prefer this, as I know ISD will be popular as hell and I like to avoid ultra popular things If I can find fun alternatives).

Well, consider this:

VSD + Hangars + Flight Controllers = 84 points (Haha, didn't realize my Flagship was so cheap, my Dominator is 88)

Most recent spoiler on ISD-1 is 92 points, essentially 20 more than my VSD. So I could direct upgrade to that, and have a tougher, faster, beefier flagship. However! Check out this 20 point upgrade:

Gunnery Team + Expanded Launchers. If I have the points left over from a cheaper-than-expected raider or minimalist squadron addon I can add Dominator title giving me 2 blue dice, giving me identical pool shots+2 black if I trade those shields.

My VSD now hits HARDER than an ISD at short range, though less ability to bypass tokens, granted. Not only this, I was thinking about basic numbers, and I would wager than my single VSD could engage two ISDs head-on and I'd take that trade happily. I would hopefully be going second (as I like) and take fire from one ISD at long-medium range..again, ideally...which isn't that scary.

I would move to flank or OLP one/both ships with my other two ships until he moves his second ISD with similar effect of the first. Both having to move, there's a good chance they end up in close-range if I play right. Now, I have 3 red, 5 black, and maybe 2 blue. Plus a ConcFire is in order if I see this coming up.

I get to shoot them both.

That's an INSANE amount of return fire into his ships (potentially only those 2 if he has squads). With luck I can bypass all his tokens, or force a discard on most of them, and either wreck half his hull or shred his shield...on each big ship. The kicker is, if I survive the squadron phase, and his first attack in the next turn, I'll attack AGAIN with even more damage eeking through.

Now, obviously I'm setting everything up in my favor. But the point is, even these big, scary large ships are very manageable. Not to mention that I was focusing on the concept that, if well played, my single ~110 point ship can square off against > 200 points worth of enemy ships and hold his own.

Also, the fact that I ignored that I have 2 other ships and 100-120 points of squadrons as well I hope helps to illustrate what I mean. ISDs are simply going to add a ton of new options and ways to play, and FFG seems to have the balance of this game set to a fine, needle, point.

It seems like the ISD I will be below 100pts, and this might be controversial, but I dont feel that its "OMGWTFPWN" awesome. It's good, 11 hull and speed 3 being the meat of what makes it better than the VSD. The forward battery black dice are largely irrelevant, so its effective firepower is somewhat less than the VSD.

I'm really hoping the ISD-II will be quite a bit more expensive (125p or so?) and truly that dominating centrepiece I've always imagined the ISD to be.