Wave 3 theme speculation - Buffing those Concentrate Fires

By Funk Fu master, in Star Wars: Armada

Ok, this topic is not about asking/wishing/negging for specific ships for wave 3, but more about what will be the over arching themes of wave 3.

Wave 1 was about fleshing out the initial core with a taste of everything

Wave 2 introduced large ships and rogues, and countering squadrons

So far, we have seen upgrades that buff and counter every command exept Concentrate Fire and red crits. I see this as the logical gap to be filled by wave 3. Red crits are not feeling the love compared to the other colours that special weapon and ordnance upgrades provide (TRCs being the obvious exeption). CF is almost ignored as nothing currently buffs it, exept maybe Paragon

The 2 rebel ships most asked for seem to be the liberty MC80b and the Mk1 Assault Frigate. Both seen as gunships well suited to have complementary upgrades to long range gunnery and CF.

Imperials seem to be asking for interdictors. Whilst it might be a stretch of the fluff, one interpretation of the gravwells was to disrupt targeting solutions.

Another theme that seems to be prevailent is small support ships or large support squadron-style ships, such as the GR75, Gozanti, lamda and decimator. I peronally would like to see these all as a subclass of rogue squadrons on an elongated base with support buffs and tweeks to be able to engage beyond distance 1 (dice range instead)

Well, thats what I think anyway

I think having tiny "ships" like the Rebel Transport and Gozanti would add a layer of support ships that might work well with squadrons.

Then, large squadrons such as Lambdas and Decimators that for instance give a rogue equivalent to a group of squadrons.

The 'tiny' ships like the Gozanti fit really well on a standard squadron base. This is my Bossk - I have since put him on top of 2/3 of a Rouge and villains extender pole, and he looks much better at an appropriate height.

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I have since ordered 3 GR-75s to act as mission objectives for the rebels, and will likely order 3x Action Transports to fill the same role for imperials next month. They will all be put on standard X-wing or TIE advanced bases to make a 5 health squadron.

I think having tiny "ships" like the Rebel Transport and Gozanti would add a layer of support ships that might work well with squadrons.

Then, large squadrons such as Lambdas and Decimators that for instance give a rogue equivalent to a group of squadrons.

Well after Wave 2 and the arrival of the Imperial Raider I think it is a safe bet to look at what X-wing has that Armada has yet to get and go from there. As far as huge ships go there is the Transport and Gozanti which will both be small ships and more likely a cheap utility ship such as one that has a high squadron value or gives out tokens to other ships. As far as fighters go well there is still plenty of EU ships like E-wings and TIE phantoms that have yet to make it and as far as I know FFG cannot dump the EU while waiting of JJ to make more ships.

Now the question is what about the larger ships or even Episode 7? Well sad to say and not much of a big spoiler but there really was only 2 capital ships in TFA. The Star Destroyer which we already know about and a frigate that catches the Millennium Falcon before it gets boarded by space pirates which could count as a resistance ship. Other than that well other places to look such as some of the previous Star Wars video games where the Assault Frigate Mark 2 came out.

Come on guys, stay on target, this is about the overarching theme and upgrades/rules additions

I think we will see a wave with dedicated carrier ships, and each ship will come with 2 heavy squadron stands. That is how we will get E-wings, TIE defenders and the like.

Isnt Ackbar a great upgrade to red dice chuckers?

I doubt we'll see a significant amount of red die critical effects. Especially with Ackbar and TRC, but even without those cards, note how crit effects get more powerful the shorter range you go.

Blue crit effects are more expensive than black crit effects, and of more questionable usefulness (NK-7 is very expensive, and allows the defender to choose what token he's most ok with dropping, OP is quite expensive, and requires setting up an activation order because it doesn't work on its own attack.)

Compare that to 5 PT APT, which add an extra damage, and guarantee one faceup card - which has the potential to significantly alter the very attack you're making (by reducing extra shields or whatnot.) ACMs are a bit more expensive, but limit redirect's usefulness, and deals 2 extra damage.

So I think that a series of red crit effects might either be too expensive, or too mediocre to see frequent use.

I have to admit that the Red dice do not need any further buffs. Ackbar enhanced rebel ships and ISD II's are quite lethal enough. In fact, enhancing Red dice and combo'ing with Ackbar will push the Rebel advantage at range into OP territory.

Command Fire is already quite potent on certain ships. I take the Corvette CR90A as the finest example.

At long range, command fire DOUBLES the amount of dice chucked out of the side arc!

This compares to;

Navigate, which is only necessary to change speed as the yaw values are already very good.

Squadron, which only activates a single squadron, which is sometimes useful but not potent by any measure.

Engineering, which allows the recovery of a single shield. This has its uses but is almost certainly too late if the CR90 is taking any form of damage to repair.

For carrier ships the Squadron command is of utmost importance, as it should be. On larger ships, engineering and navigate tend to be far more valuable command dials. I'm not sure we need a boost to the Command Fire Dial, just more variation in capital ship options.

I have to admit that the Red dice do not need any further buffs. Ackbar enhanced rebel ships and ISD II's are quite lethal enough. In fact, enhancing Red dice and combo'ing with Ackbar will push the Rebel advantage at range into OP territory.

The imperials need a smaller more maneuverable red dice ship in my opinion.

I could definitely see singer sorry of carrier ships that come with some new squadron.

To me TRLCs are the concussion missiles for red dice. Other than that, H9 turbos, slaved turrets, Ackbar and Vader are all expensive red dice specialist boosters.

So the Nav and Eng oriented upgrades are support team slots I think.

So a concentrate fire based upgrade would go in attack team, or maybe offensive retrofit. I don't think it would be a turbolaser upgrade because you would want t be able to stack it...

I'm afraid I don't have the imagination to come up with a good CF oriented upgrade though. I'd never have thought of the TRLC mechanic for example.

Maybe something like "Capacitor reroute busbars - (concentrate fire command) - when attacking, spend a shield from the attacking hull zone to change one dice to a hit icon"?

a Rouge and villains

Blush-aanbrengen-Visagiste-Joyce-van-Dam

rouge

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rogue.

What about something that uses a CF command to buff anti squadron

CF- DUAL PURPOSE TURBOLASERS (turbolasers-Modification)

For every 2 red dice in a batteries armament you may add 1 red dice to your anti-squadron attack from that hull zone (rounding down)

Or something that allows you to split your attack

CF- Advanced targeting system (offensive refit)

When attacking ships, you may target 2 ships in one hull zone for each attack. Each dice in that hull zones dice pool can only be rolled once (rerolls are allowed). Declare the second target prior to attacking.

The only thing I don't like about the CF command is that it is an absolute buff, so scales poorly with bigger ships. A lowly corvette gains a much bigger boost relatively speaking from CF than an Imperial Star Destroyer. An upgrade card that buffs the CF for bigger ships would be a worthwhile upgrade.