Ah TRC90s. How I love blowing you up first lol.

So having run them a few times now, I will chime in with some impressions:

1. As long as you keep a Nav token in your back pocket and/or are running Jerjerrod, the maneuver profile is not as limiting as it would first appear given that the ship mostly wants to be side-facing anyways.
2. There's a lot of competition for the Turbolaser slot. I will say that you want some method of dice manipulation, so the dominant choices will be TRC (especially with Needa) and DTLT.
3. The defense token setup means that the ship can almost always redirect. For one, it benefits from having an engineering token handy (so you can push shields from the far side to the side being shot at), and for two, it's very hard to one-shot. The lack of brace is terrifying against close range brawlers, however.
4. They play well with almost any Imperial commander, other than Tagge (see the already having enough defense tokens point) and Konstantine (sigh), so I expect they can fit into a lot of fleets.

Overall, I think it's a great ship for the points and will be a mainstay of many Imperial fleets. It rounds out the Imperial roster and isn't yet another close range brawler that clutters up the board (a role previously only properly filled by the ISD2, as the VSD2 is just not efficient in any way).

Got to live the dream last night with an Advanced Gunnery Enhanced Armament Intel Officer Arquitens under Vader. Red hot death for its points, just red hot death.

With not-Vader I agree that TRCs (with Needa/Tagge) or Dual Turbos (with everyone else) are likely superior. I cannot imagine running this thing without a turbolaser upgrade that helps fix your red dice fickleness problem.

DTT just pairs really well with it.

To be fair, a single salvo of red dice doesn't do a whole lot at long range. Multiple volleys of them, on the other hand, do start to push damage through and exhaust/discard defence tokens. TRC90s are proof-positive of that; one of them is a pest, two or three is a danger.

TRC90s are good because you can easily double arc and deal 4 damage a turn. And cost 51 points to do that. The Arq can't compete with damage output like that.

TRCArq and Vader are a good combo but very expensive to do so. I think the titles are what really make the ship.

Funny you should mention that. One of my prospective fleets for CC:

Faction: Galactic Empire

Points: 393/400

Commander: Darth Vader

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery

Defense Objective: Fleet Ambush

Navigation Objective: Solar Corona

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)

- Darth Vader ( 36 points)

- Relentless ( 3 points)

= 159 total ship cost

Interdictor-class Combat Refit (93 points)

- Targeting Scrambler ( 5 points)

= 98 total ship cost

Arquitens-class Command Cruiser (59 points)

- Spinal Armament ( 9 points)

= 68 total ship cost

Arquitens-class Command Cruiser (59 points)

- Spinal Armament ( 9 points)

= 68 total ship cost

I don't think you can compare the CL with the TRC90.. considering how you can get Motti and it already as +1 HP. You get a 6 HP cruiser with TRCs for 63 points which is still pretty decent.

The Arkitten with Spinal is decent, but it has issues with its narrow front arc. It's difficult to double-arc your enemies. Needa+TRC work super well however. Also DTT+ET. You can keep circling around your enemy and throw 3 reds at him.

The Arkitten with Spinal is decent, but it has issues with its narrow front arc. It's difficult to double-arc your enemies. Needa+TRC work super well however. Also DTT+ET. You can keep circling around your enemy and throw 3 reds at him.

Yeah I was impressed with the effect you get from Engine Techs on the Command Cruiser. It's a much nimbler ship, but you're definitely paying the points for it. Still, the improved maneuverability is impressive.

So having run them a few times now, I will chime in with some impressions:

1. As long as you keep a Nav token in your back pocket and/or are running Jerjerrod, the maneuver profile is not as limiting as it would first appear given that the ship mostly wants to be side-facing anyways.
2. There's a lot of competition for the Turbolaser slot. I will say that you want some method of dice manipulation, so the dominant choices will be TRC (especially with Needa) and DTLT.
3. The defense token setup means that the ship can almost always redirect. For one, it benefits from having an engineering token handy (so you can push shields from the far side to the side being shot at), and for two, it's very hard to one-shot. The lack of brace is terrifying against close range brawlers, however.
4. They play well with almost any Imperial commander, other than Tagge (see the already having enough defense tokens point) and Konstantine (sigh), so I expect they can fit into a lot of fleets.

Overall, I think it's a great ship for the points and will be a mainstay of many Imperial fleets. It rounds out the Imperial roster and isn't yet another close range brawler that clutters up the board (a role previously only properly filled by the ISD2, as the VSD2 is just not efficient in any way).

i want to try them with vader but jerrjerod might be the must play here. he also turns the ISD on like woah, i did some crazy manuvers to dodge the salvation frontal the entire game

There's a lot of competition for the Turbolaser slot. I will say that you want some method of dice manipulation, so the dominant choices will be TRC (especially with Needa) and DTLT.

Would Vader/Slaved Turrets be a viable option as well? Then, instead of running Needa you can have an Intel Officer

Blast doors seems like a decent upgrade as well.

Ahh...man.

So much WANT! Extremely jealous that you're all talking about Wave 5 stuff!

I've been resisting this whole time and I've only JUST dropped dough for Wave III & IV stuff!!!

I was like: "I'll wait for these waves to go on special/discount before getting them!"

WHY??? You ask? Well...Armada is quite expensive actually - and I have to buy for both the Rebels and Empire sides.