So going over the ships for wave 6 I have a few thoughts.

The Quasar will likely be around the price of the MC30 (likely the Torpedoe variant). The reason for this is even though it is a Medium ship with 6 hull it is shown with 2 Defense tokens and it is 2 Shields on all zones. I think 60 points will be the spot for the Red dice version.

Speed... I think 2 but it could be 3 and I think it will be double Offensive Retrofit. We could also see the Support Retrofit which if my rusty mind remembers is where FCT's are gotten.

Speed 3 is possible... It is wide and has the room for the thrusters and with its

Hammerheads...

These little buggers are getting my hopes up! Ramming TRC/APT boats the Rieekan giggles for every time he looks at them... With the real possibility that the Task Force upgrade cards could create the first Simultaneous activation ability I don't see these things costing more than 40 points and likely Speed 3 maybe 4 (some big thrusters there). Speed 4 for them would be entertaining, they could be: -, l, -, ll. Which would be amazing! and thematic with that sharp hook in to snare a ship.

Personally I want the Hammerheads so I can add them to D+O some how but both found these ships have me jumping for joy... Now if only the Empire had decently fun squadrons instead of that mashup of the Injustice League (I really want a challenging and fun squadron like a B-Wing for the Empire....)

EDIT:

Something is missing... For some reason the unit tokens for the Quasar is 19 but the the Hammerhead is 21... I sense something missing and I think it is another ship. I suppose the other toke with the Hammerhead is 20 which is likely but why hide it...

All I know is that my MSU Empire lists would like to try out a carrier that can fight unlike the Gozanti. Quasar could be interesting.

21 minutes ago, Shadow345 said:

All I know is that my MSU Empire lists would like to try out a carrier that can fight unlike the Gozanti. Quasar could be interesting.

The advantage of the Gozantis is that they're cheap and you get more activations. If it is actually 60 points like @Lyraeus speculates you're giving up one activation plus 10ish points to be able to push the same number of squads. It can shoot though and shouldn't get popped in a single shot. I'm pretty excited about the Hammerheads myself, especially if they're cheap, fast, and maneuverable.. fun!

41 minutes ago, durandal343 said:

The advantage of the Gozantis is that they're cheap and you get more activations. If it is actually 60 points like @Lyraeus speculates you're giving up one activation plus 10ish points to be able to push the same number of squads.

Conversely, the QF gives you a 6-squadron Flight Controller alpha strike, the value of which--particularly for imps--cannot be overstated. For (expected) roughly half the price it was previously available at.

21 minutes ago, Ardaedhel said:

Conversely, the QF gives you a 6-squadron Flight Controller alpha strike, the value of which--particularly for imps--cannot be overstated. For (expected) roughly half the price it was previously available at.

Completely agreed. Imperial squadrons tend to be glass cannons so activating a lot of them at once is quite valuable. It's nearly always better to activate more squadrons in one go regardless, but for Imperials it's super-extra better.

I'm also expecting the Quasar to come in at the low 50s for the base model. It's got bad shields, bad defense tokens, bad engineering, and probably bad speed. That's great news.

31 minutes ago, Ardaedhel said:

Conversely, the QF gives you a 6-squadron Flight Controller alpha strike, the value of which--particularly for imps--cannot be overstated. For (expected) roughly half the price it was previously available at.

That is a scary thing that I had not considered... and with the range on those imp squadrons.. yikes! Definitely a good cheap (hopefully) carrier that will give the empire some new options.

23 minutes ago, durandal343 said:

That is a scary thing that I had not considered... and with the range on those imp squadrons.. yikes! Definitely a good cheap (hopefully) carrier that will give the empire some new options.

This is what I'm excited for. To get the strong Alpha Strike with the Imps right now, you need to be either doing it with your VSD or ISD, which often means potentially sacrificing your good shots to get the strike off. A Flight Controllers on either of those also takes up a pretty good Gunnery Team upgrade for them. I'm very happy with being able to have a cheap heavy squadron pusher that isn't a flotilla or detracting from my gunships. I am very excited for the Quasar

PLUS. I think it will really shine with Konstantine/make Konstantine shine. I've been trying to get him to work lately, but its been rough going...

3 hours ago, Lyraeus said:

Something is missing... For some reason the unit tokens for the Quasar is 19 but the the Hammerhead is 21... I sense something missing and I think it is another ship. I suppose the other toke with the Hammerhead is 20 which is likely but why hide it...

SWM20 is the SSD, so most likely it is token 20 as well. ?

Quasar will be nice with flight controllers expanded hanger bay and a Squadron token with howlrunner dengar and 4x interceptors crazy Alfa strike. I'm very curious as to it's titles.

20 minutes ago, Card Knight said:

PLUS. I think it will really shine with Konstantine/make Konstantine shine. I've been trying to get him to work lately, but its been rough going...

While I agree that a cheaper medium ship certainly helps with Konstantine, the fact that it's squadron-focused and otherwise fairly "meh" gives me pause. Konstantine's ability doesn't have any special synergy with squadrons and going squadron-heavy with him seems foolish given it's points that could've gone into more ships to trigger his ability. I can see maybe one in a Konstantine fleet but I'm not sure what it adds to suddenly make Konstantine good. Especially considering you've got other commanders (specifically Motti but also Sloane when she arrives) that seem to be able to get more mileage out of it doing what it presumably wants to do by commanding squadrons.

11 minutes ago, Snipafist said:

While I agree that a cheaper medium ship certainly helps with Konstantine, the fact that it's squadron-focused and otherwise fairly "meh" gives me pause. Konstantine's ability doesn't have any special synergy with squadrons and going squadron-heavy with him seems foolish given it's points that could've gone into more ships to trigger his ability. I can see maybe one in a Konstantine fleet but I'm not sure what it adds to suddenly make Konstantine good. Especially considering you've got other commanders (specifically Motti but also Sloane when she arrives) that seem to be able to get more mileage out of it doing what it presumably wants to do by commanding squadrons.

To be fair it means better control of your opponent's movements and thus letting them fly into your squadrons. Good to make it easier to not use rhyme and free up points

2 minutes ago, Lyraeus said:

To be fair it means better control of your opponent's movements and thus letting them fly into your squadrons. Good to make it easier to not use rhyme and free up points

The fact that Rhymer's ability is so consistent and he gives you the ability to potentially attack enemy ships on turn one means I have a very hard time imagining most Imperial bomber fleets not using him. Even if all he does is let your squadrons get in attacks one more round than they'd normally get, that's easily worth 7 points over a regular TIE Bomber (plus you get the brace tokens and slightly better anti-squadron too).

And I'd like to clarify that I'm not saying "Konstantine's ability is useless with bombers and the Quasar." What I mean to get across is "Konstantine's ability doesn't seem to be particularly strong with bombers and the Quasar to the extent that he'd be a better choice than other commanders that have more direct synergy with the Quasar's expected profile." The Quasar can certainly come along with Konstantine to push some fighters for you instead of your other big ships, but I'm not sure its presence adds enough to the Konstantine formula to really make it do something strong enough to merit reconsidering poor Konstantine. Time will tell, though. Maybe I'm wrong.

Something feels off about this Wave....like there is more to this Wave then just these two ships.....just a feeling....

56 minutes ago, Snipafist said:

The fact that Rhymer's ability is so consistent and he gives you the ability to potentially attack enemy ships on turn one means I have a very hard time imagining most Imperial bomber fleets not using him. Even if all he does is let your squadrons get in attacks one more round than they'd normally get, that's easily worth 7 points over a regular TIE Bomber (plus you get the brace tokens and slightly better anti-squadron too).

And I'd like to clarify that I'm not saying "Konstantine's ability is useless with bombers and the Quasar." What I mean to get across is "Konstantine's ability doesn't seem to be particularly strong with bombers and the Quasar to the extent that he'd be a better choice than other commanders that have more direct synergy with the Quasar's expected profile." The Quasar can certainly come along with Konstantine to push some fighters for you instead of your other big ships, but I'm not sure its presence adds enough to the Konstantine formula to really make it do something strong enough to merit reconsidering poor Konstantine. Time will tell, though. Maybe I'm wrong.

I follow that. And I'm not sure it will make him entirely competitive either, but I see a strong chance for the Quasar to help him out. Especially if the Quasar ends up being in the low 50's for points. It'd just be the cheapest option to start with for triggering his ability, and thus open up some other options in your fleet to focus on utilizing his ability. If your VSDs aren't entirely committed to pushing squads anymore and you don't NEED to make room for Gozanti's to push them, it would potentially allow ships like the VSD to trigger boarding troopers or something like that. I just see the potential for more options to help Konstantine work. I think any type of the boarding parties could potentially work very well with him.

I've also got a CC fleet with Konstantine and two Interdictors that is just begging for the Quasar over the two Gozantis that I currently have.

Nothing like being stuck in a cloud of bombers and too slow to get away to make you appreciate Konstantine...

But Imperials have Rhymer, so they don't really need to slow you down to keep their bombers hitting. So maybe not.

But mass activation of Tiefighters with Sloaney may be a thing. You have flight controllers, the swarm reroll and heaps of dice, plus her crit reroll and her accuracy effect against aces. 6 squad activation with howlrunner - most of your ties should be spending an enemy token before it can be used. Will have to see how it fares against the aceballs we are seeing!

There is an interesting un-synergy with floaters and shuttles as others have pointed out. The quasar activates too many fighters to really be worth using shuttles with it. So you are going to be wanting those shields and tokens.. And some sort of close in escort!

Something to think on. If the Quasar is cheap (55-60 points) you could see it used with the Interdictor since it helps bridge the expensive ship and average your points out. This means a repair/control ship with a Squadron support ship and maybe an ISD or VSD's as a combat vessel. You could see actual Imperial Battlegroups now.

6 minutes ago, Lyraeus said:

Something to think on. If the Quasar is cheap (55-60 points) you could see it used with the Interdictor since it helps bridge the expensive ship and average your points out. This means a repair/control ship with a Squadron support ship and maybe an ISD or VSD's as a combat vessel. You could see actual Imperial Battlegroups now.

True, but a Quasar and an Interdictor together will likely be 170ish points towards ships that aren't that great at killing other ships, so I'm a bit skeptical.

The offensive retrofit Disposable (Noun) is teased to be a one-shot attack buff for small and medium ships and I would imagine it's an offensive retrofit. If that is true, then that upgrade could help the Interdictor become less pillow fisted, at least for one attack.

Just now, Snipafist said:

True, but a Quasar and an Interdictor together will likely be 170ish points towards ships that aren't that great at killing other ships, so I'm a bit skeptical.

The offensive retrofit Disposable (Noun) is teased to be a one-shot attack buff for small and medium ships and I would imagine it's an offensive retrofit. If that is true, then that upgrade could help the Interdictor become less pillow fisted, at least for one attack.

While true, your fleet will be more survivable and at the same time you will be able to throw mass of squadrons at things

Quasar can't be more than 60 or it'll never be taken over a VSD. Unless we aren't seeing something super special with the Quasar (titles?), the VSD is just better when pts aren't considered. I'm hoping Quasar is low 50s.

Im honestly disappointed in their dropping the contain token from the Quasar. Two defense tokens is rough, and certainly makes it less attractive as a carrier for my Vader-lists.

55 minutes ago, Thraug said:

Quasar can't be more than 60 or it'll never be taken over a VSD. Unless we aren't seeing something super special with the Quasar (titles?), the VSD is just better when pts aren't considered. I'm hoping Quasar is low 50s.

As a imp player hoping mid 40's, but likely mid 50's, as you stated if too expensive it aint going to see much play imo

Hi Lyraeus! Haven't seen you post in a long time! (though to be fair I haven't been on here much the past few months, since these forums are blocked from work - and if I want to post here I have to go out and use my phone).

Wave 6 is going to be amazing! Rebels are going to be straight OP with all their small ships. I have never actually used Reikean. Going to have to try him out soon. Hammerheads almost seem TOO good, even though we know so little about them as of yet.

Digging that Quasar though - especially with Rapid Launch Bay!

I'm mostly Rebel player but the Quasar looks to be the big prize of wave 6. Cars Knight pointed out the FC/EHB for powerful Alpha Strikes. Sloane is also the more exciting commander.

Nonetheless, Rebel trash mobs gained some teeth with external racks and more tiny ships with teeth

7 hours ago, Crabbok said:

Hi Lyraeus! Haven't seen you post in a long time! (though to be fair I haven't been on here much the past few months, since these forums are blocked from work - and if I want to post here I have to go out and use my phone).

Wave 6 is going to be amazing! Rebels are going to be straight OP with all their small ships. I have never actually used Reikean. Going to have to try him out soon. Hammerheads almost seem TOO good, even though we know so little about them as of yet.

Digging that Quasar though - especially with Rapid Launch Bay!

Yea. I am on and off. The new wave has brought me back.