Call me blind, but I just noticed that Gladiators are the only ship for the Empire that can take a support team. I'm not disappointed by this, but what are your thoughts on why the GSD is the only Empire ship that can take support teams?

They really wanted Demolisher to have Engine Techs...

And didnt want raiders feeding shields to a Motti ISD?

The Empire isn't really a supportive group of people, always choking each other out and mocking each other's dedication to ancient religions. Couldn't really field a team when they passed the sign up sheet around the office.

Stormtrooper dodgeball though, has been going on forever.

Just the same as they didn't want MC80s to have Gunnery Teams...

...

And didnt want raiders feeding shields to a Motti ISD?

But what about an ISD feeding shields to a raider?

Or a Vic with engine techs?

And so on and so forth...

It does seem somewhat curious that Imperials are so starved for support team slots given that Rebels aren't as deprived when it comes to weapon team slots (although to be fair, Imperials have weapon team slots on ALL their ships). If VSDs had a support team slot, I'd be slapping Engine Techs on there like crazy. If I was running Tarkin it would be Nav Teams (or if I had Wulff on there, I suppose). You could help out VSDs a lot with a support team slot.

The main problem with that would be the inevitable "but if I can put them on these old clunky VSDs, why not on the shiny new ISDs?" The answer to which is basically: for the same reason MC80s don't get weapon team slots, it would kind of break the game.

It does seem somewhat curious that Imperials are so starved for support team slots given that Rebels aren't as deprived when it comes to weapon team slots (although to be fair, Imperials have weapon team slots on ALL their ships). If VSDs had a support team slot, I'd be slapping Engine Techs on there like crazy. If I was running Tarkin it would be Nav Teams (or if I had Wulff on there, I suppose). You could help out VSDs a lot with a support team slot.

The main problem with that would be the inevitable "but if I can put them on these old clunky VSDs, why not on the shiny new ISDs?" The answer to which is basically: for the same reason MC80s don't get weapon team slots, it would kind of break the game.

Hmmmm the Rebels only have 2 ships (3 types from 4 possible) have access to Offensive Retrofits. . . . fun fact.

It does seem somewhat curious that Imperials are so starved for support team slots given that Rebels aren't as deprived when it comes to weapon team slots (although to be fair, Imperials have weapon team slots on ALL their ships). If VSDs had a support team slot, I'd be slapping Engine Techs on there like crazy. If I was running Tarkin it would be Nav Teams (or if I had Wulff on there, I suppose). You could help out VSDs a lot with a support team slot.

The main problem with that would be the inevitable "but if I can put them on these old clunky VSDs, why not on the shiny new ISDs?" The answer to which is basically: for the same reason MC80s don't get weapon team slots, it would kind of break the game.

Hmmmm the Rebels only have 2 ships (3 types from 4 possible) have access to Offensive Retrofits. . . . fun fact.

And Imperials only have Defensive Retrofits on 1 ship out of 8 possible ship types. I think rebels win that one.

But that's entirely the point...

The Imperial Ships are all about Attack, and Individual Ship Attacks... Ergo, they are offensive based and have little Support.

Rebel Ships are all about Support and assistance, so they have the upgrades to help group tactics...

This is specifically reversed in the Squadron Engagements.

Basic Imperial Squadrons are all about Group Engagement and Synergy. They Force-Multiply out the Wazoo...

The Basic Rebels Squadrons are more individualistic, and don't synergise nearly as well...

That way, you have a 50/50 Dynamic irrespective of which force you play

It does seem somewhat curious that Imperials are so starved for support team slots given that Rebels aren't as deprived when it comes to weapon team slots (although to be fair, Imperials have weapon team slots on ALL their ships). If VSDs had a support team slot, I'd be slapping Engine Techs on there like crazy. If I was running Tarkin it would be Nav Teams (or if I had Wulff on there, I suppose). You could help out VSDs a lot with a support team slot.

The main problem with that would be the inevitable "but if I can put them on these old clunky VSDs, why not on the shiny new ISDs?" The answer to which is basically: for the same reason MC80s don't get weapon team slots, it would kind of break the game.

Hmmmm the Rebels only have 2 ships (3 types from 4 possible) have access to Offensive Retrofits. . . . fun fact.

That is true, but Imperials only have 1 variant of 1 ship with access to a defensive retrofit (the ISD-II). Conversely, the Empire has 3 ships with access to offensive retrofits (all VSDs, ISDs, and Raiders). It just seems kind of odd how that works out.

I'd also say it's somewhat to the Imperials' disfavor given that offensive retrofits as of wave 2 pretty much come down to "this is useful if you want to be a carrier or care about tractor beams"* whereas defensive retrofits are more overall useful because their only requirement is "this is useful if someone is trying to kill you" in a game where that is a given. I'm sure as the upgrade pool grows over time they'll make more use of possible offensive retrofits. I'm holding out hope for some kind of an engine upgrade that makes the VSD a bit more user-friendly so it's less dependent on frequent Navigate commands to be used as a gunship.

*Offensive retrofits are obviously also home to the Point Defense Reroute and Quad Laser Turrets upgrades for anti-squadron options but they're both just horrible and I wouldn't recommend giving them serious consideration.

*Offensive retrofits are obviously also home to ... Quad Laser Turrets upgrades for anti-squadron options but they're... just horrible and I wouldn't recommend giving them serious consideration.

*sweats nervously*

*Offensive retrofits are obviously also home to ... Quad Laser Turrets upgrades for anti-squadron options but they're... just horrible and I wouldn't recommend giving them serious consideration.

*sweats nervously*

Yeah, the quad laser are in a bit of an odd spot given that they compete with Expanded Hangars for the same price, and I'd arguably have an extra TIE to manage on an Imperial ship of medium or large sizes. On a Raider... meh, maybe for the fluffiness, but the Raider is so ill prepared to tank against squadrons with the lack of a redirect...

On the topic of Support Teams : fun fact, aside from Projection Experts, no support team card actively supports other ships but all boost the effectiveness/versatility of non damage orders.

Engine Techs/Projection Experts are favoured because of the cool effects they produce and that trigger on anyway you resolve the order. Nav Team and Engineering Team seem to me like they're good for buffing a token into the effectiveness of a dial (and so work almost only with commanders/upgrade cards that help token management).

It does not help that 2 upgrades dominate both weapon and support teams

Support teams - Engine Techs

Weapons Teams - Gunnery Team

FFG is now hamstrung that if they come up with a great new upgrade for a ship, or a new ship and want to assign it to one of those 2 upgrade slots, they have to factor in that that slot can and will be used by GT and ET. Thus why, for example, the MC80 command, which would love to and be suited to have flight controllers, cannot, because it means giving the option for Gunnery Teams

It does not help that 2 upgrades dominate both weapon and support teams

Support teams - Engine Techs

Weapons Teams - Gunnery Team

FFG is now hamstrung that if they come up with a great new upgrade for a ship, or a new ship and want to assign it to one of those 2 upgrade slots, they have to factor in that that slot can and will be used by GT and ET. Thus why, for example, the MC80 command, which would love to and be suited to have flight controllers, cannot, because it means giving the option for Gunnery Teams

Not that it really detracts from your point at all, but i would hardly say that GT dominates the weapons team slot: I see a lot of both Ordnance Experts and Flight Controllers in there. That may just be a function of our meta (we see a lot of squadron build and a lot of face-puncher builds), but I think OE, not GT, is the most prevalent in my experience.

Not that it really detracts from your point at all, but i would hardly say that GT dominates the weapons team slot: I see a lot of both Ordnance Experts and Flight Controllers in there. That may just be a function of our meta (we see a lot of squadron build and a lot of face-puncher builds), but I think OE, not GT, is the most prevalent in my experience.

I'd agree with that as well. Generally your larger ships with more long-ranged dice (ISD-IIs, Assault Frigates, VSD-IIs, etc.) are the "no duh" Gunnery Team ships, but black dice ships often have absolutely no use for Gunnery Teams, as their circumstances are very different - they won't be getting in many possible attacks and often not on their choice of two or more possible targets from the same arc. They need their attacks when they do happen to hit HARD and Ordnance Experts helps with that.

Flight Controllers is the "Don't forget about me, guys" tag-along weapon team you remember when you're building a carrier and it didn't really want Gunnery Team that much (VSD-Is, some builds of Assault Frigates, sometimes ISD-Is, etc.).

I do agree that the support team slot is dominated by Engine Techs, though. The other options are seen rarely (Engineering Crew being the one that comes to mind, but you get the occasional Bigfoot Projection Experts sighting in janky Rebel fleets).