...until I realized they're almost useless against Aces. Almost.

I was thinking they're a great way to drive off Major Rhymer...but even in ideal circumstances you're only doing him two of his five damage. Now in fairness, that's two damage more on him than he had a moment ago, and married with your anti-squadron armament you might even kill him two turns faster. But is just seems like a real waste.

I'm thinking they're maybe meant to keep smaller fighters like TIE Fighters and Interceptors from taking opportunity shots when they have nothing else to do, since they risk destruction so long as they're not an Ace. Oh A-Wings too I guess, for you Imperial scum

It's better than you think. Cluster Bombs aren't an attack, so defense tokens and upgrades like Gallant Haven don't work against them.

Aha! I'm back on board again.

Edit: I do wish they worked against all squadrons that attacked you in that one turn though.

Well, its not an Attack, so you can't Brace/Scatter. Its just as useful against Aces as it is against Regulars... If anything, it could be argued that it is better against Aces, because it does eliminate the ability to Brace/Scatter.

Sooooooooooo.... why isn't Rhymer attacking another ship? One that doesn't have cluster bombs on it, for instance?

And before anyone says 'put it on all the capital ships', just think for a moment what that would do to your efficiency against all-capital ship fleets.

On the bright side, the problem with over-powered Squadrons that this card doesn't solve is a problem that we don't currently have.

My advice: Spend points elsewhere.

I have a 293 point fleet that I can't do anything else with. May as well be a 298 as much as anything.

i would consider this on the corvette

May I ask why you'd add to the cost of cheap ship with an upgrade that may not get any mileage. In that it will do nothing if your opponent doesn't bring Squadrons or target your Corvette (which is both hardest to keep Squadrons on and the least valuable target).

May I ask why you'd add to the cost of cheap ship with an upgrade that may not get any mileage. In that it will do nothing if your opponent doesn't bring Squadrons or target your Corvette (which is both hardest to keep Squadrons on and the least valuable target).

May I ask why you'd add to the cost of cheap ship with an upgrade that may not get any mileage. In that it will do nothing if your opponent doesn't bring Squadrons or target your Corvette (which is both hardest to keep Squadrons on and the least valuable target).

from an imperial point of view, squads are often the only way to catch and do damage to a cr90 so there is merit to putting it on a corvette

Is that really an issue? Gladiators with Engine Techs already match it (and clearly has the tonnage to take it) and the Raider is near certainly intended to keep pace.

May I ask why you'd add to the cost of cheap ship with an upgrade that may not get any mileage. In that it will do nothing if your opponent doesn't bring Squadrons or target your Corvette (which is both hardest to keep Squadrons on and the least valuable target).

from an imperial point of view, squads are often the only way to catch and do damage to a cr90 so there is merit to putting it on a corvette

Is that really an issue? Gladiators with Engine Techs already match it (and clearly has the tonnage to take it) and the Raider is near certainly intended to keep pace.

It isn't. If you play correctly you can herd the corvettes around the board quite easily.

I just dont see the point of this card. It's not cheap, and worse it takes up an invaluable Defensive Refit slot.

In exchange you get approximately 2 points of damage against 1 squadron, once. After it has already hit you. And thats IF the opponent even brought squadrons with them, and IF any squadrons they brought aren't purely-fighter screen, and even if they brought bombers it only helps IF they dont attack your other ships instead.

I mean....really. In what universe would i not pay 1-2 points more for ECM or Advanced projectors?

I was explaining this to my friend who thought it would be a waste because you sacrifice a defensive slot.

I told him, if I'm flying at him with my Rhymer ball (let's say Rhymber, Bomber, and Two advanced) I'm going to think twice about having Rhymer take the first shot at the ship, or hell, even shoot it at all, because they can just wait until Rhymer attacks to use cluster bombs on him and potentially kill him or nearly kill him in one go.

So you get a Rhymer Deterant / Kill switch that would serve as a "faux brace" against a 2 bomber assault. How? Instead of taking a possible critical 4 damage from Rhymer + Bomber, you're now looking at a max critical 2 damage from just the one bomber if I hold Rhymer back and just use him as a range booster. Granted my advanced could still each lob a black die at the ship, but unlike Rhymber they can't crit.

So it's a basically Rhymer Deterant / Kill switch / Rhymer/Bomber faux brace

Have to try it out, but seems well worth the cost to put the kabosh on one of my favorite starts or at least weaken it against the flag ship that might be using Cluster Bombs.

That's a hell of an opportunity risk though in an all-comers list. Sure, if you know you'll be facing Rhymer...maybe. Even then i'm not sold as i'd just get Rhymer to trash all the other ships, but i can almost see you'd want it if you always face him.

In return, your flagship becomes considerably more vulnerable to other capital ships.

As with any card, my caveat will be "personal tastes will vary and everyone is entitled to theirs". But to me....definitely relegated to garbage tier for now.

That being said:

Rogues and Villains may change this opinion, and possibly that's what this card is preempting. We'll have to see on that front.

That being said:

Rogues and Villains may change this opinion, and possibly that's what this card is preempting. We'll have to see on that front.

Agreed, to each their own. In our area squadrons are a little more prevalent than in some places.

I was going to also point out that with Wave II Rogues and Villains I think we'll see a universal acceptance of more squadron strategies. I've heard some have the ability called "Intel" which either prevents, or helps get squadrons out of engagement freeing them up to move normally. This would force people who normally only have weak fighter screens to reconsider their plan and put a few aces of their own onto the field which in turn would create an environment which produces more squadron tactics.

That being said, I'm a huge capital ship fan, that's why I play Armada and not X-Wing (nothing wrong with X-wing though,) but I understand that the game needs squadrons and hopefully Wave II will drive that point home a little more to other people.

I totally agree. I love squadrons...to me the imagery of fighters buzzing around the capitals is a huge part of the Star Wars feel. I hope they do get more universally taken!

I was explaining this to my friend who thought it would be a waste because you sacrifice a defensive slot.

I told him, if I'm flying at him with my Rhymer ball (let's say Rhymber, Bomber, and Two advanced) I'm going to think twice about having Rhymer take the first shot at the ship, or hell, even shoot it at all, because they can just wait until Rhymer attacks to use cluster bombs on him and potentially kill him or nearly kill him in one go.

So you get a Rhymer Deterant / Kill switch that would serve as a "faux brace" against a 2 bomber assault. How? Instead of taking a possible critical 4 damage from Rhymer + Bomber, you're now looking at a max critical 2 damage from just the one bomber if I hold Rhymer back and just use him as a range booster. Granted my advanced could still each lob a black die at the ship, but unlike Rhymber they can't crit.

So it's a basically Rhymer Deterant / Kill switch / Rhymer/Bomber faux brace

Have to try it out, but seems well worth the cost to put the kabosh on one of my favorite starts or at least weaken it against the flag ship that might be using Cluster Bombs.

The problem is that your enemy sees which vessel equipped clusterbombs. Either you equip all valuable targets with bombs, or you might just see rhymer targeting something slightly less valuable. CB might be a shot at some half-finished bomber to take him down for sure, but this will most likely not be an ace as no half-sane player would throw his wounded ace on a CB ship. And spending 5 points and a much valued upgrade slot to maybe take down a single wounded 8pts TIE bomber is questionable to me..

For the points, I think this would be a good card if it said exhaust, not discard. For the cost of your defence slot (before you even consider the points), this card seems a bt too restricted....

Either that, or make it last until the status/end phase.

If it was Exhaust instead of Discard, i think it'd be pretty solid. Definitely not OP, but potentially worth taking.

For the points, I think this would be a good card if it said exhaust, not discard. For the cost of your defence slot (before you even consider the points), this card seems a bt too restricted....

Either that, or make it last until the status/end phase.

Hm, exhaust would be too much of a deal for me. Thats average 3 damage on a squadron per turn, pretty messy if you consider it on an all ships list, to safeguard against bomber-heavy lists.

But I agree that wasting the def upgrade slot for a one-trick pony is the moodkiller, the slot is far to congested with other valuable alternatives that apply a full game, and potentially save my cap from vaporizing.

I think it's really good on a Corvette that skirts the battlefield and won't get caught by the VSDs/ISDs (probably because they have bigger things to shoot at ). I am in a very Imperial Squadrons-heavy meta where Rhymer is often present and the fact that it can seriously damage a Corvette (4 Damage per turn isn't bad, which you can't really mitigate). That's about a third of the Corvette's HP.

So, if the guy is deterred by throwing his fighters at the Corvette, he might throw them at juicier tragets, which will either happen to coordinate a fighter screen or have decent anti-fighter barrage.

The problem is that your enemy sees which vessel equipped clusterbombs. Either you equip all valuable targets with bombs, or you might just see rhymer targeting something slightly less valuable. CB might be a shot at some half-finished bomber to take him down for sure, but this will most likely not be an ace as no half-sane player would throw his wounded ace on a CB ship. And spending 5 points and a much valued upgrade slot to maybe take down a single wounded 8pts TIE bomber is questionable to me..

Put your commander on an Assault Cruiser - now you have two defensive retro fits - advanced projectors + cluster bomb deterrent. Would keep Rhymer off your Flag Ship. Remember each of those blue dice has a 75% chance of dealing damage because the crits count. It's not an attack so he can't brace. That's a pretty good way to bring him down to 1 if he was at full HP, and kill him if he's suffered any damage during the match.

Think about it from An Imperial perspective. Keeping Rhymer alive to give out medium range bomber runs is worth more than him risking an actual attack unless all of the other bombers and TIE advanced area dead. You're protecting yourself against a possible critical 2 damage each round, not something you would want to use defensive tokens on, but not something you would want to ignore long term either.

It's good imo. Not insta-add like ACM, but its priced cheap enough that if the meta shifts to a squadron heavy, you can easily add this to your ships. Remember, its 4 blue and it counts the crits. Thats a 42% chance of dealing 3 damage, and a 31% chance of dealing 4 damage.

Thats a LOT of damage. It is a bit better than a single shot of 5 dice from squad to squad. Youre making it very dangerous for your opponent to attack your ship with their valuable and powerful ace bomber.

So far for the MC80, you have either AP or ECM. I cant see there being much value in having both. Which may factor in adding it too.

The problem is that your enemy sees which vessel equipped clusterbombs. Either you equip all valuable targets with bombs, or you might just see rhymer targeting something slightly less valuable. CB might be a shot at some half-finished bomber to take him down for sure, but this will most likely not be an ace as no half-sane player would throw his wounded ace on a CB ship. And spending 5 points and a much valued upgrade slot to maybe take down a single wounded 8pts TIE bomber is questionable to me..

Put your commander on an Assault Cruiser - now you have two defensive retro fits - advanced projectors + cluster bomb deterrent. Would keep Rhymer off your Flag Ship. Remember each of those blue dice has a 75% chance of dealing damage because the crits count. It's not an attack so he can't brace. That's a pretty good way to bring him down to 1 if he was at full HP, and kill him if he's suffered any damage during the match.

Think about it from An Imperial perspective. Keeping Rhymer alive to give out medium range bomber runs is worth more than him risking an actual attack unless all of the other bombers and TIE advanced area dead. You're protecting yourself against a possible critical 2 damage each round, not something you would want to use defensive tokens on, but not something you would want to ignore long term either.

On top of that, I can also see the Cluster Bombs not working on their own, but in conjunction with squadron based killing power and I feel it's better on a Command Cruiser rather than on an Assault Cruiser.

Deploy your 4 (5) squadrons on one side (the one where you want to attack the ships from) so the enemy bombers will go the other side. Counter one with Cluster Bombs, then with the blue/black barrage and send in the squadrons.

EDIT : Actually, for the anti-fighter barrage, can black dice work at medium range ? Or are they only close range ?

The problem is that your enemy sees which vessel equipped clusterbombs. Either you equip all valuable targets with bombs, or you might just see rhymer targeting something slightly less valuable. CB might be a shot at some half-finished bomber to take him down for sure, but this will most likely not be an ace as no half-sane player would throw his wounded ace on a CB ship. And spending 5 points and a much valued upgrade slot to maybe take down a single wounded 8pts TIE bomber is questionable to me..

Put your commander on an Assault Cruiser - now you have two defensive retro fits - advanced projectors + cluster bomb deterrent. Would keep Rhymer off your Flag Ship. Remember each of those blue dice has a 75% chance of dealing damage because the crits count. It's not an attack so he can't brace. That's a pretty good way to bring him down to 1 if he was at full HP, and kill him if he's suffered any damage during the match.

Think about it from An Imperial perspective. Keeping Rhymer alive to give out medium range bomber runs is worth more than him risking an actual attack unless all of the other bombers and TIE advanced area dead. You're protecting yourself against a possible critical 2 damage each round, not something you would want to use defensive tokens on, but not something you would want to ignore long term either.

I just dont think any sane mind would let rhymer attack this one specific ship with CBs. His battery armament is not superior to any generic TIE bomber and like howl, you bring him mostly for the buff to his buddies. And I calculated the 75% already in, but with 4 dices that still averages to 3 damage.

Still, I think we have to wait for wave 2 to arrive to get a fair judgement on CBs. There is still at least one def upgrade out there that might contest for the def upgrade slot as it might allow for free shield restore each round. On the other hand, theres a ton of rogues waiting and with their help the meta might as well change to fighter/bomber heavy again, making CB a viable choice on some builds.