I call your Mithel and raise you Kallus Impetuous Raider-II w/Ruthless :-)

It's going to get evil for bomber lists.....

Squids get love, especially bombers...But we also get all sports of new ways to kill them. Great game!

Squids get love, especially bombers...But we also get all sports of new ways to kill them. Great game!

I love that they keep upping the ante on the squadron/anti-squadron metagame each wave. Yeah, there are lots of ways to protect yourself from squadrons... but you'd **** well better invest in at least one, cause if you don't you're going to die fast.

Just a thought on a little task force I may add to my imp lists:

Gozanti class cruiser, vector, chiraneau, expanded hanger, jamming field.

raider, instigator, OE

Mauler

Soontir

2 tie advanced.

This 57 point fighter investment and 25 point investment in support cards should rip the guts out of any bomber list. With 67 points of ships for two activations, not bad.

Instigator goes in with one advanced to lock down the bombers, gozanti activates the rest of the fighters, then follows in to suppress the oppositions fight response.

The oposition bombers/fighters are locked in place and forced to fire on the tie advanced with reduced dice, getting damage from fel.

Next round vector can activate all the fighters to move them out of its jamming field and attack with full dice, move mauler. Instigator shoots everything and the poor opposition still has to attack the tie advanced and take more fel damage.......

It's going to make fireballs weep....

Yeah that could work, except savy fireball drivers have support ships close at hand, the ship they activate after your instigator might be an ISD in red range or a demolisher that will possibly 1-shot instigator. The biggest use might be in the simple threat of this combo going off controlling and limiting fireball deployment. Also the odd newbie fireball driver who eagerly pushes his ball out to the first ship to stick its nose in range will learn a very sore lesson!

Just a thought on a little task force I may add to my imp lists:

Gozanti class cruiser, vector, chiraneau, expanded hanger, jamming field.

raider, instigator, OE

Mauler

Soontir

2 tie advanced.

This 57 point fighter investment and 25 point investment in support cards should rip the guts out of any bomber list. With 67 points of ships for two activations, not bad.

Instigator goes in with one advanced to lock down the bombers, gozanti activates the rest of the fighters, then follows in to suppress the oppositions fight response.

The oposition bombers/fighters are locked in place and forced to fire on the tie advanced with reduced dice, getting damage from fel.

Next round vector can activate all the fighters to move them out of its jamming field and attack with full dice, move mauler. Instigator shoots everything and the poor opposition still has to attack the tie advanced and take more fel damage.......

It's going to make fireballs weep....

Yeah that could work, except savy fireball drivers have support ships close at hand, the ship they activate after your instigator might be an ISD in red range or a demolisher that will possibly 1-shot instigator. The biggest use might be in the simple threat of this combo going off controlling and limiting fireball deployment. Also the odd newbie fireball driver who eagerly pushes his ball out to the first ship to stick its nose in range will learn a very sore lesson!

Yes I agree, for this to work you will need to activate your two support ships after the main threats have activated such as ISD, glad or create a second greater threat that they have to focus on. I see this group fitting with a high activation list of 6-7 activations. So it's usability will depend on the number of activations we start to see in your average bomber list, if it goes above 4 ship activations, it would be harder to use and easier to counter.

To be honest I see wave three bringing in such a fundament change to fleet composition that I've no idea what will work well at present. I can see some nice combinations, but not how they would fit into the whole.

Also I think your right Hastatior it has a control element in that it will ensuring the fireball is played in a more limited and controlled fashion. We all know bomber lists do the most damage if they can do their own thing in an uncontrolled way.

Kinda killing me waiting for the GR-75. I gots to know the points!

Just a side thought, vector makes interceptors less atractive, it makes ties go five and does nothing for interceptors..... So one less reason to take intceptors.

Kinda killing me waiting for the GR-75. I gots to know the points!

The good news is I have a very hard time imagining the GR75 is equivalent or more expensive than a Gozanti simply due to less dice (particularly the unarmed one). It's going to be up to the Imperials to make their Gozantis contribute a bit to combat and the Rebels to make their little fleet support nodes buff their buddies to get the most bang for the buck out of both of them. That's my guess, anyways.

The more I think on the Assault Carrier Gozanti the more I warm up to it. It has huge synergy with the Opening Salvo objective, as has been touched on already earlier. Opening Salvo + Concentrate Fire = 28 points just bought you 1 red and 3 black dice for that one attack (and a respectable 2 red afterwards), and flotillas don't seem likely to end the game in the "damaged but not dead" state, making the points-scoring alteration to Opening Salvo less of a problem for them. You get more consistent if less explosive results from Most Wanted, as Assault Carrier Gozantis can 3-red-dice nibble away at a Most Wanted target and a flotilla itself is a fair target for the objective, not giving up many extra points if (...when) it's destroyed.

In terms of other objectives, flotillas in general are going to be easy Contested Outpost babysitters and could ping Fire Lanes objectives if all other ships have floated out of range. With enough of them at speed 3 you can make a solid run for Dangerous Territory tokens, and would seem to be a good (if somewhat dangerous) fit for an Intel Sweep ship, likely dying shortly after picking up token #3, but still getting the job done.

That is an excellent point with Opening Salvo.

That's a great point on the objectives and a swarm of these. We've already got situations where certain builds are absolutely brutal on certain objectives, making those objectives an almost automatic no-go.

Now, what you do have in your swarm list is the possibility of going first and if your opponent has brought Opening Salvo, the extra red dice on all of those ships will still be absolutely brutal. Depending upon how he's built his fleet, the extra dice of any color might not help him kill your flotillas.

Just a side thought, vector makes interceptors less atractive, it makes ties go five and does nothing for interceptors..... So one less reason to take intceptors.

I've often used Dengar and Howlrunner to turn normal TIEs into the equivalent of Interceptors, with four blue dice and effective counter 2. Vector adds the speed to that.

I have to say though, I don't think Interceptors will be replaced. The Gozantis have decent squadron activation, but not necessarily enough to take over that role in the fleet entirely. Instead, I think we'll see Vector giving the Interceptors' escorts the speed to keep up with them. Many a time I've seen Howlrunner left behind whilst making the jump into attack, and Vector gives us the capability to avoid that.

I call your Mithel and raise you Kallus Impetuous Raider-II w/Ruthless :-)

It's going to get evil for bomber lists.....

Wait. If you take raiders AA. Wait. Ordnance experts double black is probably better damage than ruthless strategists.

Gozanti with ruthless strategists using a bomber for fodder. I can see that.

As an addendum to the above bit on opening Salvo, these also being Most Wanted back in a huge way.

"Congratulations. Here's your 46 points."

Just a side thought, vector makes interceptors less atractive, it makes ties go five and does nothing for interceptors..... So one less reason to take intceptors.

Vector is clearly intended to benefit TIE fighters. 3-4 activations (with token) for under 30 points is a huge benefit.

Gozantis simply due to squadron values are clearly a love letter to the standard TIE, finally giving you the necessary number of activations to really operate a full swarm.

Kinda killing me waiting for the GR-75. I gots to know the points!

The good news is I have a very hard time imagining the GR75 is equivalent or more expensive than a Gozanti simply due to less dice (particularly the unarmed one). It's going to be up to the Imperials to make their Gozantis contribute a bit to combat and the Rebels to make their little fleet support nodes buff their buddies to get the most bang for the buck out of both of them. That's my guess, anyways.

The more I think on the Assault Carrier Gozanti the more I warm up to it. It has huge synergy with the Opening Salvo objective, as has been touched on already earlier. Opening Salvo + Concentrate Fire = 28 points just bought you 1 red and 3 black dice for that one attack (and a respectable 2 red afterwards), and flotillas don't seem likely to end the game in the "damaged but not dead" state, making the points-scoring alteration to Opening Salvo less of a problem for them. You get more consistent if less explosive results from Most Wanted, as Assault Carrier Gozantis can 3-red-dice nibble away at a Most Wanted target and a flotilla itself is a fair target for the objective, not giving up many extra points if (...when) it's destroyed.

In terms of other objectives, flotillas in general are going to be easy Contested Outpost babysitters and could ping Fire Lanes objectives if all other ships have floated out of range. With enough of them at speed 3 you can make a solid run for Dangerous Territory tokens, and would seem to be a good (if somewhat dangerous) fit for an Intel Sweep ship, likely dying shortly after picking up token #3, but still getting the job done.

Oh gods. You're right about Most Wanted. I would totally do that.

Just a side thought, vector makes interceptors less atractive, it makes ties go five and does nothing for interceptors..... So one less reason to take intceptors.

Vector is clearly intended to benefit TIE fighters. 3-4 activations (with token) for under 30 points is a huge benefit.

Gozantis simply due to squadron values are clearly a love letter to the standard TIE, finally giving you the necessary number of activations to really operate a full swarm.

You know. I want to know why I got 6 ties in the first core set, 6 more in the 2nd core set (that was a dumb buy), and then like 4 more in the imp pack. I havent even opened the 2nd core set squadrons.

Given how the GR-75's were allegedly used at Endor, I hope one of their fleet support cards is something along the lines of this:

Fire-Ships: When overlapping another ship, instead of resolving the overlap normally do two black dice of damage to the overlapped ship per hull point left on the overlapping ship then destroy the overlapping ship.

Lets use these flotillas as flying bombs!!!

Given how much the points costs of ships seem to be influenced by the main batteries (5 point break to go to from a blue to a red main front gun), I reckon the GR75 Combat, which will have less guns than the Gozanti basic, will be something around 20. Maybe less.

Wheras the GR75 basic, which apparently has NO battery at all..... how low can a ship be, given it can still provide an activation and a squadron command? 16?

Just a side thought, vector makes interceptors less atractive, it makes ties go five and does nothing for interceptors..... So one less reason to take intceptors.

Vector is clearly intended to benefit TIE fighters. 3-4 activations (with token) for under 30 points is a huge benefit.

Gozantis simply due to squadron values are clearly a love letter to the standard TIE, finally giving you the necessary number of activations to really operate a full swarm.

You know. I want to know why I got 6 ties in the first core set, 6 more in the 2nd core set (that was a dumb buy), and then like 4 more in the imp pack. I havent even opened the 2nd core set squadrons.

This is me!!!

I still got those extra TIEs and Xwings in a zip-lock bag...

I call your Mithel and raise you Kallus Impetuous Raider-II w/Ruthless :-)

It's going to get evil for bomber lists.....

Wait. If you take raiders AA. Wait. Ordnance experts double black is probably better damage than ruthless strategists.

Gozanti with ruthless strategists using a bomber for fodder. I can see that.

Ruthless Strategists use up a slot the Gozanti does not have. Otherwise this would in fact be a legit combination.

Given how much the points costs of ships seem to be influenced by the main batteries (5 point break to go to from a blue to a red main front gun), I reckon the GR75 Combat, which will have less guns than the Gozanti basic, will be something around 20. Maybe less.

Wheras the GR75 basic, which apparently has NO battery at all..... how low can a ship be, given it can still provide an activation and a squadron command? 16?

I don't think it can go as low as that. That's only 3 more than a basic X-wing, for something that counts as a ship activation, has shields and defence tokens, and can issue commands. I would say the GR75 Combat might be 22 or 23, the GR75 Basic 19 or 20. I might be wrong, but my feeling is that there has to be a minimum threshold for a ship.

It'll be interesting to see whether the GR75 proves as significant a boost to Rebel fleets as the Gozanti looks to be for the Imperials, or whether it will be a boost in different ways. The Gozanti is still combat-oriented, boasting three batteries, offensive retrofits, and titles intended to enhance squadrons and weaken enemy ships. I wonder whether the support capabilities of the GR75 will be greater, perhaps with titles that benefit friendly ships.

Just speculating - we'll have to hope they release details sooner rather than later!

You're probly right - there as to be a floor on the minimum cost of a "ship" before you even think of its squadron capacity or damage output.

Considering the GR75 looks like it will contribute nothing meaningful in a gun battery, I suspect its support abilities may be even more powerful (title cards? more squadron value?)

I guess it will also have offensive retrofit, since defensive retros don't really help it "support" anything and neither really do support teams, apart from projection experts, which might be cool except it can't really spare any!

I rather doubt it will have different upgrades than the Gozanti. It's not likely to have any weapons slots and I doubt they'll give it access to ECM.

I rather doubt it will have different upgrades than the Gozanti. It's not likely to have any weapons slots and I doubt they'll give it access to ECM.

ECM-able Scatter, the ultimate roadblock.

I rather doubt it will have different upgrades than the Gozanti. It's not likely to have any weapons slots and I doubt they'll give it access to ECM.

ECM-able Scatter, the ultimate roadblock.

Lets say 18 points for a base GR75, 25 with ECM.

Would you buy two, to do nothing other than sit at medium range in front of demo and make a pain of themselves while dropping Ywings on it?