Oh and I love the irony of Akbar's points. He was a slave to Tarkin

Oh and I love the irony of Akbar's points. He was a slave to Tarkin

but now, he is the master!

(only a master of red dice, Ak)

Space Whales! Form the Conga Line!
- Attributed to Admiral Ackbar

Ackbar is as great as he is pricey. I think he may be meta-changing. From now on, we will have Ackbar- and Non-Ackbar Rebel lists.

New defensive retrofit is. so. lame.

Especially when you compare it with the other two.
For one-use only it should be auto-kill, especially when you can use it AFTER the bomber run.

Now I understand why Assault Cruiser is cool - it offers the Rebels a completely new possibility of combining both defensive retrofits with its own general bulkiness. On the other hand, Command Cruiser is kinda meh. It needs a good, squadron-centred title like Yavaris or Gallant Haven to be viable as a carrier.

Wow. An assault frigate with Ackbar and Enhanced Armaments is throwing almost as many dice in their broadside as an ISD 2 from the front arc. That's not even getting into the capabilities of the MC80 itself.

I just can't decide if I want to load up an assault cruiser and go hunting, or a command cruiser and have an amazing carrier (especially if boosted... whatever does allow commanding squadrons at longer range, plus the rumored card that let your squadrons move 4 if they don't attack).

Akbar's Tarkin-tier for cost and does not have a crippling restriction

it's not ship limited (as in one ship per round) nor round limited and it's not even ranged limited

Akbar for president!

Defiance is fairly legit, joining Paragon on the list of difficult-to-play-but-holy-hell-it's-only-five-points!!!! title. It's arguably even easier to use due to the range and arc on the mon cal. Also, not once per round nor even one ship per round

I can see it now. . . Assault Cruiser Defiance with Akbar and HTT and Leading Shots shooting 6 red dice 2 blue dice and 1 black die. . . Before the CF dial is added for a second black. . . Mmmm delicious

Now I understand why Assault Cruiser is cool - it offers the Rebels a completely new possibility of combining both defensive retrofits with its own general bulkiness. On the other hand, Command Cruiser is kinda meh. It needs a good, squadron-centred title like Yavaris or Gallant Haven to be viable as a carrier.

Independence seems to have a squadron command icon on it...thats probably your carrier title. It looks like it might be the one that lets them move speed 4.

or just 4 Akmkiis trolling around with gunnery/intel + x17s and Akbar (378)

maybe pimp out with more upgrades or toss a Rogue or two, because why not

I'm probably going to end up running parallel lists in ISD w/ Vader + 2 VSD-1s and Mon Cal w/Akbar + 2 Afmkiis because that ****'ll look amazing on the table

Throwing more actually.

Assault Cruiser tosses 6 dice normally, 4 red 2 blue, Akbar adds 2 red so now 8 total dice, Enhanced Armaments makes a 7th red die, Defiance can add a red but black is better so we are up to 10 dice, and Concentrate Fire adds the 11th.

In other words, an Akbar led MC80 with Defiance rolls as many dice as a Devastator ISD with 1 defense token left

Mind you, you're at 167 points already there, so it bloody should be throwing out some dice.

There is a God...And it is not flying imperial colors.....:-)

Mind you, you're at 167 points already there, so it bloody should be throwing out some dice.

inb4 "why bother to play imperials"

which I already alluded to in the ISD preview, but hey it bears repeating

Akbar's ability is sheer lunacy (fatties throwing out VSD levels of dice, albeit all red), but then again so is Vader's. Can't really decide between the two, which makes it a good thing that I can work both factions

There is a God...And it is not flying imperial colors.....:-)

I now feel so much better now. Once I saw that this has a better speed 2 than a VSD made me relax a LOT

Mind you, you're at 167 points already there, so it bloody should be throwing out some dice.

167 and Akbar's ability will hit the other 233 points of ships

Oh yes, totally. A better way would be to say you're using 129 of your 362 points after paying the "Ackbar Fee", and so far you only have offensive tech. It's deadly, but expensive.

I'm warming up more to the mc80 but I still don't think I'd ever take more than one. Tool out one to be the anchor of the fleet.

inb4 "why bother to play imperials"

which I already alluded to in the ISD preview, but hey it bears repeating

Akbar's ability is sheer lunacy (fatties throwing out VSD levels of dice, albeit all red), but then again so is Vader's. Can't really decide between the two, which makes it a good thing that I can work both factions

Honestly i think both previews are very balanced so far. I cant wait to try both out, as i am another bi-factional type

****.

Does Ackbar's ability allow ships to attack at long range if they wouldn't be able to normally (ie, CR90-B)?

You are correct, my bad. I am not as familiar with the Rebel officers.

Does Ackbar's ability allow ships to attack at long range if they wouldn't be able to normally (ie, CR90-B)?

Nope.

so in the "Akbar throws 11 dice" scenario, would going down to ten and instead throwing squadrons also count as dice ?

I ask because these uber-ships seem made to exploit one of the biggest advantages of Squadrons: piggy backing on activations

The ships we have now are rock solid, but they can't really annihilate fools even with squadron support. An ISD-2 farting out 8 dice and then 4 squadrons, though? An Akbar Mon Cal also farting out a potential 8 dice and 5 squadrons!?!?!?!

that's a lot of weight to be throwing around in one activation

so in the "Akbar throws 11 dice" scenario, would going down to ten and instead throwing squadrons also count as dice ?

I ask because these uber-ships seem made to exploit one of the biggest advantages of Squadrons: piggy backing on activations

The ships we have now are rock solid, but they can't really annihilate fools even with squadron support. An ISD-2 farting out 8 dice and then 4 squadrons, though? An Akbar Mon Cal also farting out a potential 8 dice and 5 squadrons!?!?!?!

that's a lot of weight to be throwing around in one activation

Yeah, i actually think these will be the saving of squadrons. They can really act as "battle carriers" in exactly the way you suggest. If the enemy doesnt have a screen, the combo of 4/5 squadrons )or more) AND a full round of MC80/ISD fire is just devastating.

Up to 7 squadrons per every activation (Bay + Raymus). Nice attack and solid defence. THIS is the dedicated "carrier" I needed.

I don't get it the image in the article shows only 4 for squadron not 5

"You can even add yet another red attack die if you're attacking from the Defiance against a ship that has already activated."

... yes I could, but defiance says to add a dice of ANY color, so why the heck would I ever chose to add a red one?!