MC80 should still get the first shot if it stays broadside on, as long as it isnt foolish enough to move into range on it's turn. Some of that will come down to player skill of course.

Is there anybody seeing a case for the Assault version? I can't think of a reason to take it. Engine Techs seem mandatory. I hate mandatory.

I think I just want to play with the toy ship and yell out "It's a trap!" in my house.

8 more points for better dice and double defensive retrofit?

I can totally see a case for taking it, yep!

Is there anybody seeing a case for the Assault version? I can't think of a reason to take it. Engine Techs seem mandatory. I hate mandatory.

Command version is for hanging back and supporting the rest of your fleet and using squadrons. Assault is for a more aggressive approach.

It has 4 defense tokens though 2 of them are duplicate and there is no brace.

Maybe not. In the "Here they come" preview it shows 4 tokens in the pack, but not the ship card itself. It may have 3 on the ship, the 4th token being for a Captain Needa style upgrade card for the Rebels.

8 more points for better dice and double defensive retrofit?

I can totally see a case for taking it, yep!

This! Akbar-slashing through imperial gunlines might require all the staying power one could fit into the MC80, so the double defensive retrofit has some edge..

I haven't read the whole 6 pages yet, but ****, this expansion is juicy

2 words. Cluster. Bombs. That card is so broken it's awesome

Admiral Ackbar, pure badassery. He's going to require proper ships to work well.

The titles are awesome. I'm just curious about Independence which we haven't seen yet, but much surprise for the squadrons.

Actually, not many cards were spoiled. Neither SW7 Ion Cannons nor the squadron upgrades. I'm curious (probably we'll see them in the Rogues and Villains article).

I dunno... for a 1 shot deal and at a cost of 5 points, it doesn't seem that broken to me.

EDIT : BTW, can someone calculate the odds of the MonCal having the exact same roll against the Glad that it has with the Victory ?

3720 to 1

Is there anybody seeing a case for the Assault version? I can't think of a reason to take it. Engine Techs seem mandatory. I hate mandatory.

Command version is for hanging back and supporting the rest of your fleet and using squadrons. Assault is for a more aggressive approach.

In fact, some might say that the Command Cruiser is better for commanding, while the Assault Cruiser is better for assaulting.

Oddly.

Is it just me or is the Home One+Leading shot combo described in the article not even possible? Home one reads "While another friendly ship is attacking" (as opposed to Rhymer's "Friendly squadrons")...

I think the article is fine....

from the article: The fact that the Home One title can convert your other ship's blank result to this accuracy result only makes it better, especially if you pair it with Leading Shots , so that you can reroll as many dice as you wish before choosing which to convert to an accuracy result.

It's saying that it's the other ship that is using the leading shots and home one's ability.

I think they're a little at cross purposes. I would rather have the red dice on the carrier and the extra defense upgrade on the ship with more blue dice.

While I suggested a vette swarm earlier with him, if we have a reasonable MC30 build with even one red die on the side arc, we have our Akbar monster. The MC30s move fast, meaning with 1st player they can do the dreaded slash and get out before return fire in the same way some people run GSDs. But while the GSDs tend to look to mash up the forward travel and get their front and side arc in, the MC30/Akbar attack will insert this small base ship into the formation, fire away with a lot of dice, and boogie out. Corvettes will be used in the list for ship activation control and because they can do the slash themselves if the opportunity exists. Plus they shoot like a whale with Akbar.

So why do you need at least 1 red die on the side arc for the mc30 to be an ackbar monster? The mc30 is an up close ship and will be utilized at black/blue range for pretty much all of it's attacks, so ackbar will add the 2 red dice.

Counter shrimp won't have demolisher and excel at long range with 2 evades

Since they lack demo or a strong front or brace, I dubbed them counter (gsd) shrimp frigates because it's far more likely the black dice will only kick in if the enemy tries to jump you

If you're escorting a strafer, you're going to want those 4 reds in order to be relevant

I get the impression that naked or bare bones MC80s wont see a lot of play, for it to be really effective you need to sink quite a few upgrades into it.

...and I'll play them naked for a bit to see just how 'effective' they are. Points saved on upgrades = more bodies on the board (squadrons and ships in this case/game).

I highly doubt they'll be any good naked (rather have afmk2s) but there doesn't seem much point to overloading them either

Probably best to try to examine the strengths of these ships and how best to exploit them

The defining trait of these large ships is Lots of points/power concentrated into one base and one activation

They pack big armaments with big squadron values and are big targets. How do we exploit this?

1. Do we need to add to their squadron capability?

IMO no. Unless independence is hilarious, there's no upgrade i would see as essential for squadrons. They dobplenty of work by themselves and antisquadron support is far more efficiently handled by NEB's (antisquadron fire) or afs (haven, flight controllers)

Just give me some squadrons to fling to maximize the punch of my single activation and I'll be golden.

Do we need to add to the ship's native offense?

Imo yes. Defense tokens will neuter single, high powered attacks. You're throwing out tons of points even naked, so you have to make it count.

Question is how and how much?

Personally, I don't need Akbar to see the value in a potential six dice broadside , but I do see the need for the likes of x17s, h9s Or htts.

Getting x17s/htts + leading shots or defiance for 2-3 more points than an upgrade to the assault variant seems Like a done deal.

3.) Do we need to improve the defenses?

Seems like a complete meta and fleet call.

All I can say now is if you see this thing's shields and double redirect and elect not to use projectors...


Final projected (heh) tally over the base command variant: +16-18 points conservatively

Total: 122-124 (around naked AF + neb, or a 2 upgrade AF + cr-90a)


Toss one another 20, 25, or 38 if it's to be your flagship

Garm on a Command ship w/Projectors + Defiance + x17s runs for 148

3 Escort nebs run for 171, toss yavaris on one for funsies (176)

that hits you with 326 points, room for either 4 As and 2 Bs or going whole hog crutching on the Neb anti-squadron and just going nutso with 5 Bs

I'll make my assessments after the complete wave has been released and time on the table. That way, when I share my opinion, its backed by experience.

I'm surprised that the forward arc of teh Home One is as weak as it is... but still the ship is amazing. It just demands that you fly it a certain way. And Ackbar is nuts!!!

I was too lazy to read this whole thread; so I am sorry if this has already been noted, but has anyone else noted the weapons team in the top left corner of the upgrade cards? Pretty interesting for a ship that has no weapons team slot, No?

I was too lazy to read this whole thread; so I am sorry if this has already been noted, but has anyone else noted the weapons team in the top left corner of the upgrade cards? Pretty interesting for a ship that has no weapons team slot, No?

*DING* LIGHT BULB!!! What if the Mc80 has a Upgrade that ADDS A WEAPONS TEAM SLOT!!!

I was too lazy to read this whole thread; so I am sorry if this has already been noted, but has anyone else noted the weapons team in the top left corner of the upgrade cards? Pretty interesting for a ship that has no weapons team slot, No?

IDK, maybe the art is from when an early iteration of the ship had weapons team?

I was too lazy to read this whole thread; so I am sorry if this has already been noted, but has anyone else noted the weapons team in the top left corner of the upgrade cards? Pretty interesting for a ship that has no weapons team slot, No?

Wait, where?

I was too lazy to read this whole thread; so I am sorry if this has already been noted, but has anyone else noted the weapons team in the top left corner of the upgrade cards? Pretty interesting for a ship that has no weapons team slot, No?

Didn't notice that, wasn't looking at the face down card. It could be a duplicate of a card from another pack, or it could be an awesome brand new card that will go on both Reble and Imperial ships, giving us imperial players a reason to fork out another $39.98

I'd pick one up anyway for my GF to use, but little things like that net FFG more money. It's all about money.

I was too lazy to read this whole thread; so I am sorry if this has already been noted, but has anyone else noted the weapons team in the top left corner of the upgrade cards? Pretty interesting for a ship that has no weapons team slot, No?

hmm yes...

*DING* LIGHT BULB!!! What if the Mc80 has a Upgrade that ADDS A WEAPONS TEAM SLOT!!!

Yes yes the more I think about this it makes sense! Just like captain needa left a need for an additional defense tokens in the isd pack one of the 3 or 4 cards we know literally nothing about must add a weapons team!!

That's a terrifying thought, the mc80 might get gunnery team after all:)

I was too lazy to read this whole thread; so I am sorry if this has already been noted, but has anyone else noted the weapons team in the top left corner of the upgrade cards? Pretty interesting for a ship that has no weapons team slot, No?

IDK, maybe the art is from when an early iteration of the ship had weapons team?

Well judging from their messed up menuver speed (Red box above the speed 3 still there) and them initally realasing the article with the Command variet having Squadron 5, it would not be that much of a shock to find out that the card is either not actually a weapons team OR one of the ships will end up with a weapons team slot.

It seems they were testing those ships up until the deadline to post the article. Some reasons for that conclusion:

A.) The first spoiler was released 9/2/15 @ around 9:00 AM PST while yesterdays was released at 12:45PM PST and they still didn't have time to clean up the article. Which says to me they were still trying to work out some bugs the night before and ended up releasing the wrong card images. Must have been that way up until recently or I would assume they would have caught the error.

B.) Another reason we might not have seen very many of the upgrade cards could be due to the fact they are still testing the builds and might be considering changing how the cards work, and/or their costs.