Here it is folks!

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/9/18/fast-and-aggressive/

So, no red dice, despite all of our predictions to that effect. However, it's much cheaper than we predicted, so that's a fair trade-off, especially with how strong those Ion weapons are gonna be with all the new upgrades coming out.

First thing I noticed was that maneuverability. Speed 2 has 2-yaw clicks on each one. This thing is fantastic. A bit less maneuverable at high speeds, but even then, with a navigate command, it'll keep up with the CR90 easily.

Now for the title cards. The two in the preview make this thing super-nasty against fighters.

First up: The Impetuous. Basically, after doing your other attacks, you can make a free attack against ONE enemy squadron in one of your arcs, even if you've already fired out of that arc. Okay, I sorta wish for 4 points that this was a full attack against all enemy squadrons, but still, if you've already hit Luke once and he's popped his defensive tokens, hitting him with two more blacks will help possibly finish him off. Great for trying picking off unique characters.

Secondly: The Instigator. Why'd these two have to have similar names? I like this one even better than the other though for anti-fighter role. It basically makes enemy fighters within range 1 of you act as being engaged. That means they can only fire at you, and can't move (without certan upgrades and whatnot that help out). Combo this with Quad Laser Turrets upgrade (which gives your ship counter 1 against squadrons) and Ordnance experts (which lets you re-roll any black dice when attacking).

Then there's the new Admiral who comes with this. Okay, he's not very exciting. When using Navigate, you can increase your speed by 1 additional. That may not sound that great, but those Raider Swarm lists are going to be impossible to lock down with this. Thought he was going speed two? Boom, he just hit the NOS and is out of your arcs. Thought you had him outmaneuvered? Hit the brakes and zip around with your II / II yaw at speed two. Suddenly those raiders are right behind you. Geeze, scary thought.

So, we know how it works in anti-fighter (it trounces them), but what about anti-ship?

Well, we've already contemplated one way of using it. In a Screed build, giving a Raider the Overload Pulse upgrade allows him to kick enemy ships in the groin, then allow your SDs to hammer away with no pesky defensive tokens to worry about.

Alternatively, for a cheap 4 point upgrade, we now have the new SW-7 Ion Batteries (which lets you use any unused Aim results on your blue dice as hits). 100% hitting accuracy on blued ice, which your Raider-II has three of on its front arc. Guarantee 3 hits. Holy guacamole, those blue dice on the front just got pretty dangerous. How about running a couple of Raiders, and having one Overload Pulse, then the other one or two hit the ship with this upgrade? Six unavoidable damage, minimum. They can whomp a CR 90 or Nebulon B in one round of shooting. Dayum.

What I like best is the universal use these guys have. Here's what I'd like to do:

Raider-I: 57 pts

Base- 44 pts

Instigator- 4 pts

Ordnance Experts- 4 pts

SW-7 Ion Batteries- 5 pts

Raider-I: 52 pts

Base 44 pts

Overload Pulse: 8 pts

Raider-II: 53 pts

Base: 48 pts

SW-7 Ion Batteries- 5 pts

This "battlegroup" would run at 162 points. Now, considering these guys run double-duty against Squadrons and ships, you don't have to then pay for a TIE-fighter screen, so that helps discount at that cost if you think about it. They'll easily rip though any sort of massed enemy squadron attack, then move on to enemy ships with the previously mentioned strategy: Overload Pulse from one, SW-7 batteries from the other two. Could always toss on Odrnance Experts two the second and third if there are extra points, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary. Only reason I put it on the first is because that one's dedicated anti-fighter, and if you have a situation where you need to send the other two after a CR90 or Nebulon and keep the first in defensive position, it can hold its own against most fighter groups then.

At high speeds the thing acts like it has a rocket or after burner on the back of it.

Haha, yeah. Though if you use a navigate command when you go to speed 4, your yaw turns into - / I / I / II, which isn't really that bad of a turning radius at that speed. The best thing that speed 4 lets you do though is get across the field to objectives or to flank an opponent.

Raider I can not hold Ion Cannons.

Ah, didn't notice that. Thought it was the same upgrade list on both. In that case, upgrade the -I's to -II's and the battlegroup still works.

Ohhhhhh wait. Ohhhhhhhhh wait!

Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah! I like this.

I like this a LOT.

"And woe, when thee Imperials Big Bad ships finally activated, not a single navigate token could be found, nor mustered!"

Well, if the "Imperial's Big Bad", whatever it is, is going after a Raider instead of my Imperial, I think I'll be alright with that trade-off.

Well, if the "Imperial's Big Bad", whatever it is, is going after a Raider instead of my Imperial, I think I'll be alright with that trade-off.

I mean, you activate your, say, two raiders with Ion Cannon Batteries, then your 300 points of medium and larger ships with the tractor beams and black dice activate, slowing them down and preventing them from fleeing from your gratuitous amounts of black dice.

Ah, I get what you're saying. I thought you meant it was a tactic people will employ against the Raider, not one the Raider could use.

Interesting thought though. My only concern is over the wording of the two upgrade cards. Can you choose to use the tractor beams after shooting? The Tractor Beam says "When you activate", which would insinuate right after it's activated. But the wording is somewhat ambiguous. If someone's already looked it up, that'd be helpful to know.

Anyone else appreciate about how Ordinance Experts means Screed isn't autoinclude on black dice lists anymore? I mean he's still great, but a 4 pt insurance against rolling 3 blanks on my Demolisher is fantastic.

After a ship activates, place its revealed command dial faceup on its ship card to track that it has activated.
- Ship Activation, Pg 11 of RR.

Activation to me refers to when you reveal the dial, as per that you have to place the dial on the ship card, and it is noted to have been "activated" in the past tense. So no, sadly you can't zap them, discard the token, then Tractor Beam.

Ah, I get what you're saying. I thought you meant it was a tactic people will employ against the Raider, not one the Raider could use.

Interesting thought though. My only concern is over the wording of the two upgrade cards. Can you choose to use the tractor beams after shooting? The Tractor Beam says "When you activate", which would insinuate right after it's activated. But the wording is somewhat ambiguous. If someone's already looked it up, that'd be helpful to know.

You have the raider do it's token stripping thing, so your VSD1 with Enhanced Launchers can use it's tractor beams to slow the rebel guppie down enough to catch and kill it.

Anyone else appreciate about how Ordinance Experts means Screed isn't autoinclude on black dice lists anymore? I mean he's still great, but a 4 pt insurance against rolling 3 blanks on my Demolisher is fantastic.

Vader maybe?

I still like Screed because he works so well with the Overload Pulse upgrade as well, so he works on multiple fronts, not just the Gladiators.

That being said, I definitely agree that it's nice not to HAVE to have him to make your Gladiators as mean as ticked-off bulldogs. The upgrade to re-roll blacks is fantastic, especially for 4 points. I'm thinking ISD + SW-7, Ordnance Specialists, and ACMs is a very, very nasty offensive build, especially if you get another ship to disable the enemy defense tokens with an Overload Pulse first.

I would like to point out Ozzel's phenomenal thematic appropriateness. Now we, too, will be able to jump closer to our target than Lord Vader ever intended...

this **** is redic

cheap, no additional cost, not even ship nor round nor # of dice restricted

treasure it

edit: so is this

ladies and gents, the new faces of GSD spam

I sorta wish Ozzel was "Speed or Yaw" by an additional 1. That would be fantastic for maneuverability.

Ordnance Experts is fantastic though. Especially since it's an officer upgrade, not an Ordnance upgrade, so you can take it with ACMs. It may even be a bit unbalanced, idk. It might have been better if they made it an Ordnance upgrade, so it couldn't combo with ACMs. And that's coming from an Imperial player.

I sorta wish Ozzel was "Speed or Yaw" by an additional 1. That would be fantastic for maneuverability.

Ordnance Experts is fantastic though. Especially since it's an officer upgrade, not an Ordnance upgrade, so you can take it with ACMs. It may even be a bit unbalanced, idk. It might have been better if they made it an Ordnance upgrade, so it couldn't combo with ACMs. And that's coming from an Imperial player.

weapon's team*

so no sensor team, but yes intel officer

and yes to that sassy bloke with the free obstructions

actually worried about what he might turn the demolisher into...

thank the force it's only against ships. It would be ruinously broken against squadrons

this **** is redic

cheap, no additional cost, not even ship nor round nor # of dice restricted

treasure it

edit: so is this

ladies and gents, the new faces of GSD spam

Um... yes. Vader + Ordinance Experts + CF token = real chance at 10 damage on five black dice. Regularly.

Forget boxing. At that clip, all you need is run Raiders/Glads in a line at speed 4 and chain-gun your target. Buzz into close range, deal 6-10 damage (from a single broadside--more from double-arcs), then buzz out of there at speed 3-4 and hit the next thing as another Glad/Raider comes in behind you.

Those poor rebels, still trying to box in our ships and ram them to dust. Soooooooo BBY. Nowadays, every Imperial ship runs at breakneck speed, sports an arsenal of smart missiles that vaporize shields, and avails itself of Lord Vader's sorcerous ways. It'd be quite depressing if it wasn't so hilariously fun. Now where did Boba Fett go...?

Weapons team, yeah. That. ^^;

I still like Screed because he works so well with the Overload Pulse upgrade as well, so he works on multiple fronts, not just the Gladiators.

That being said, I definitely agree that it's nice not to HAVE to have him to make your Gladiators as mean as ticked-off bulldogs. The upgrade to re-roll blacks is fantastic, especially for 4 points. I'm thinking ISD + SW-7, Ordnance Specialists, and ACMs is a very, very nasty offensive build, especially if you get another ship to disable the enemy defense tokens with an Overload Pulse first.

ISD can't have ACMs

Dang, I just checked. Yeah, the ISD doesn't have the Ordnance upgrade. That's strange, considering it has black dice. Well, even without ACMs, it'd still be pretty gross.

Dang, I just checked. Yeah, the ISD doesn't have the Ordnance upgrade. That's strange, considering it has black dice. Well, even without ACMs, it'd still be pretty gross.

Imagine the front arc with expanded launchers with devastator.

Dang, I just checked. Yeah, the ISD doesn't have the Ordnance upgrade. That's strange, considering it has black dice. Well, even without ACMs, it'd still be pretty gross.

Imagine the front arc with expanded launchers with devastator.

... well, good job FFG for seeing that potential terrible combo before I did.

I think the Raider is going to make the CR90 much more important

I think the Raider is going to make the CR90 much more important

I actually had the opposite initial reaction--that this will make the CR-90 obsolete. If a CR-90 gets caught on the rear by this thing, it will go down hard (even at close range with Mon Mothma). Rerollable black dice, ACMs, speed 4, brace and evades, Screed synergy...

Upon further reflection, "obsolete" is probably too strong. But it does seem to me that the Raider is a hard counter to small, fast, and relatively fragile ships like the CR-90 and Neb-B, but I don't feel like either of those ships pose an equivalent threat to the raider. But perhaps I'm underselling their attack capabilities? Or maybe the Raider will make the CR-90 important for reasons unrelated to ship-to-ship combat?