Just now, TheEasternKing said:

I played against it in wave 2 tournaments, and plenty of times since then.

If the Rebel has all his squads that close Escorts are your only legal targets, then they are all perfect for a Flechette barrage, if your opponent doesn't want to risk one AA shot shutting his entire ball down, then they aren't all sat inside Escort bubbles, either way is a win.

See, that's where you're tipping your hand again.

The current list archetype could not be played in Wave 2. It is dependent on several wave 3/4 upgrade cards to function. Your suggestion of 6 TIE fighters and a Raider1 would be gone in a single turn, almost certainly before the Raider got to fire. And I'm not being hyperbolic, I mean the actual combat output of these lists is explicitly designed to intercept, stop, and destroy incoming threats.

5 minutes ago, TheEasternKing said:

I played against it in wave 2 tournaments, and plenty of times since then.

If the Rebel has all his squads that close Escorts are your only legal targets, then they are all perfect for a Flechette barrage, if your opponent doesn't want to risk one AA shot shutting his entire ball down, then they aren't all sat inside Escort bubbles, either way is a win.

All your wave 2 experience is worthless with 3 more waves and the campaign (but you know this). Thats like saying the VSD is better than any other imperial ship. Because i was playing it already in wave 1, and it was working at the time.....

If you have played against it several times, and think it is this easy, it would mean your opponents were not experienced with it or not good enough. A Flechette Raider is really no big danger for any serrious squadron list. Not even two raiders are. Imo the Flechette Raiders are just a waste of points, that only work against minimal squadrons or unexperienced players.

Against everything else (serious squadrons, good players, no squadrons) they are just a big waste of points for nothing (MY OPINION!).

2 minutes ago, thecactusman17 said:

See, that's where you're tipping your hand again.

The current list archetype could not be played in Wave 2. It is dependent on several wave 3/4 upgrade cards to function. Your suggestion of 6 TIE fighters and a Raider1 would be gone in a single turn, almost certainly before the Raider got to fire. And I'm not being hyperbolic, I mean the actual combat output of these lists is explicitly designed to intercept, stop, and destroy incoming threats.

Sorry what? Rieekan Aces was perfectly capable of being formed and played in Wave 2, MC80, Yavaris and a CR90, spend 134pts on squads and you have a wave 2 Rieekan list.

And who said Tie fighters? I said Ties, which covers everything with Tie as its starter designation, from basics to Aces, why you'd assume I'd run generic ties instead of Aces I dunno.

I'm glad you think I have no understanding of the list, or how it is played, or how to combat it, carry on with your assumptions.

5 minutes ago, Tokra said:

All your wave 2 experience is worthless with 3 more waves and the campaign (but you know this). Thats like saying the VSD is better than any other imperial ship. Because i was playing it already in wave 1, and it was working at the time.....

If you have played against it several times, and think it is this easy, it would mean your opponents were not experienced with it or not good enough. A Flechette Raider is really no big danger for any serrious squadron list. Not even two raiders are. Imo the Flechette Raiders are just a waste of points, that only work against minimal squadrons or unexperienced players.

Against everything else (serious squadrons, good players, no squadrons) they are just a big waste of points for nothing (MY OPINION!).

wow, people love to jump on part of a sentence around here.

I said I first, you know first started having to deal with Rieekan Aces in wave 2, and continued to play against it ever since, as in I still play the game, and I have seen it grow and change as the additional waves have added content.

But you can also carry on with your assumptions by all means.

And Raiders with Flechettes are only good against unexperienced players? good to know, I mean thats right up there with 80% of Armada players play Imperial.

4 minutes ago, thecactusman17 said:

See, that's where you're tipping your hand again.

The current list archetype could not be played in Wave 2. It is dependent on several wave 3/4 upgrade cards to function. Your suggestion of 6 TIE fighters and a Raider1 would be gone in a single turn, almost certainly before the Raider got to fire. And I'm not being hyperbolic, I mean the actual combat output of these lists is explicitly designed to intercept, stop, and destroy incoming threats.

This is true. All you need is ~6-8 squadrons to kill a raider. Without any real danger.
The raider is this fragile, it will not last against any serious damage. You need a lot of protection for him, and in the end it is not worth it. because the raider will still go down.
And nothing from the wave 6 will fix this so far. It will become even worse. The squadrons get pushed, the raider not. So who guess will win out of this? .

Guys

Please, this thread is about the Quasar, I cant handle another thread about Rieekan.

Gladly. I've dealt with that topic enough already before it was brought up here.

I am very concerned about the two defense tokens. This ship seems very fragile even with Tua and ECMs. Especially since it seems to want to get in really close, especially with that Stronghold title.

That said, i think some of the cards it brings really boost up other Imperial staples. Including the Interdictor and the VSD. But I'm hard pressed to consider bringing more than one.

1 minute ago, TheEasternKing said:

wow, people love to jump on part of a sentence around here.

I said I first, you know first started having to deal with Rieekan Aces in wave 2, and continued to play against it ever since, as in I still play the game, and I have seen it grow and change as the additional waves have added content.

But you can also carry on with your assumptions by all means.

Sorry, but you seem to have missunderstand me in one part. The "(but you know this)" was not meant as negativ part. It was meant as: you know that there were new cards, and that these changed a bit. After all you said that you were testing it as well since than.

But the CC campaign, and the new unique squadrons were a way to big influence for Rieekan. This alone made all old lists not compareable anymore. Biggs with the Zombiescort is just a pure pain. And the Transports (wave 3) as well. They changed way to much on the list.

Currently i see nothing that will boost Rieekan. Imperial squadrons get a good boost, but not rebels. But we are still missing some cards
So far i am not sure about the quassar. It look to weak for the cost. You can easy get two gozanti (with upgrades) for the cost of one Quassar. And they will even last longer, because you can split them.
The titels are great, but i am afraid they are not great enough to make it playable. The Quassar has to be to close to the fight. And it will not be good for him. The gozanti can stay out of the fight (thanks to relay).

52 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

Guys

Please, this thread is about the Quasar, I cant handle another thread about Rieekan.

Sure thing, I was just trying to say it's not all doom and gloom, and certainly needs extensive playing before things get written off.

I like the new stuff shown here, the Quasar is definitely a new tool in the Imperial arsenal, and it is not a big heavily shielded ship, kind of like when the Raider was added, it's going to need a new approach to get the best use out of it, and I'm sure a lot of people will write it off because of that.

I'm also very excited with the new possibilities added with the new Capacitor card, going to add a new dimension to game play, hopefully a positive one.

@Tokra I respect you as a Gozanti loving imperial, but I'm really stoked about the possibilities with the Quasar.

Spitting 6 squadrons out for 59 points (Quasar + Expanded Hangars and a Token) in an Alpha sounds like something I'm going to have a lot of fun with.

It is the perfect sidekick for all your Gozanti dreams

New nose punch strategy is probably amongst the most exciting... If you put Jendon, Mareek and Rhymer there... some good damage will go down

12 minutes ago, Visovics said:

New nose punch strategy is probably amongst the most exciting... If you put Jendon, Mareek and Rhymer there... some good damage will go down

In the worst case you could remove a brace or a scatter from something with Sloane.

I think it opens some long reach with rhymer. free move 2, move 4, shoot 2.

Was only talking to a mate recently and my guess was an imperial style GH. I think an obstructed is better, be interesting to see maths on that.

8 hours ago, Snipafist said:

I mean it's the same situation as Gallant Haven for Stronghold, really. Do your best to get the enemy squadrons to leave the safety of their bunker if they want to be effective. Don't send your squadrons running straight at the fortified bunker unless you're really sure that's a good idea. If you're running bombers, then use bombers on ships outside the Stronghold safety bubble and use your ships against the Stronghold itself.

I'm out of likes, so: 'like'

7 hours ago, Card Knight said:

I think we're all glazing over what the real problem with the article was:
How did that Quasar with the Grand Inquisitor NOT die to a double arcing MC80???

'like'

6 hours ago, Norsehound said:

Sloane lets me re-roll my dud critical hit results for a better result, and turns accuracies into exhausting selected defense tokens.

And, according to what I read of the RRG... "Spending" can include hitting a red token to discard it. So if I open fire on Shara with Saber squadron and hit her twice with (Jendon and) accuracies, I've destroyed her scatter.

You'd still need intel to get away from enemy squadrons, that hasn't changed. But Sloane allows fighters to start harming aces particularly by targeting and spending those defense tokens, possibly removing them and stopping them from locking you down that way. And stronhold means any fighter shooting into that bubble has to subtract a die- meaning things like Y-Wings throw only one die against a TIE, and X-Wings need a perfect roll (or flight controllers) to kill a generic TIE Fighter.

This is kind of like Cienna or Jamming fields for all friendly ships... but only for those TIEs. They aren't affected by the Stronghold jamming barrier when they decide to shoot at enemy squadrons. Counter is unaffected as well, though an A-Wings' counter when responding to a fighter attack is.

Really the only downside to this situation is how vulnerable the Quasar is. It could be after we've played it for a while that it's found Stronghold isn't good enough when big capital ships come in and throw a big battery down on the QF.

'like'

2 hours ago, TheEasternKing said:

I played against it in wave 2 tournaments, and plenty of times since then.

If the Rebel has all his squads that close Escorts are your only legal targets, then they are all perfect for a Flechette barrage, if your opponent doesn't want to risk one AA shot shutting his entire ball down, then they aren't all sat inside Escort bubbles, either way is a win.

'like'

1 hour ago, TheEasternKing said:

Sure thing, I was just trying to say it's not all doom and gloom, and certainly needs extensive playing before things get written off.

I like the new stuff shown here, the Quasar is definitely a new tool in the Imperial arsenal, and it is not a big heavily shielded ship, kind of like when the Raider was added, it's going to need a new approach to get the best use out of it, and I'm sure a lot of people will write it off because of that.

I'm also very excited with the new possibilities added with the new Capacitor card, going to add a new dimension to game play, hopefully a positive one.

'like'

1 hour ago, CaribbeanNinja said:

@Tokra I respect you as a Gozanti loving imperial, but I'm really stoked about the possibilities with the Quasar.

Spitting 6 squadrons out for 59 points (Quasar + Expanded Hangars and a Token) in an Alpha sounds like something I'm going to have a lot of fun with.

It is the perfect sidekick for all your Gozanti dreams

'like'

19 minutes ago, ovinomanc3r said:

In the worst case you could remove a brace or a scatter from something with Sloane.

'like'

When I get my likes back I'll give 'em for real, but in the meantime let this suffice.

1 hour ago, CaribbeanNinja said:

@Tokra I respect you as a Gozanti loving imperial, but I'm really stoked about the possibilities with the Quasar.

Spitting 6 squadrons out for 59 points (Quasar + Expanded Hangars and a Token) in an Alpha sounds like something I'm going to have a lot of fun with.

It is the perfect sidekick for all your Gozanti dreams

I'm also looking forwards to seeing if a hybrid MSU will now be possible, Quasar activating 6 squadrons, plus the usual MSU staples, previously 6 squad activations was 115pts minimum with the ISD I and Exp Hangers and nothing else on it, so coming in at roughly 50% cheaper is pretty dang amazing as far as I am concerned.

8 hours ago, Thraug said:

I don't see why anyone thinks these new items will put a dent into Rieekan Aces. Nothing hinders the worst part of it, absorbing infinite AS damage on a zombie escort. Nothing will change. Rieekan Reb Aces will still mow through Empire squads.

Sure, the red AS on the Quasar will help a tiny bit, but it will explode fast when it gets to long range if reb bombers.

To be honest I'm not thinking about how this set will help take down the Rieekan Aces, after all the Rieekan aces ability to take a hit from imp fighters and then destroy them is its key strength.

What I'm thinking is this will help me attack Rieekans key ship units, with both very long range dirt cheap fighters than can now significantly harm ships and some extra long range attacks.

jumping waves of ties across a long distance into rieekans ships will now give him pause for thought, forcing him to re deploy his fighters back into his ships. The proof of this will be developing a list that can take advantage of this to kill his key ships.

The whole QDF feels like being designed against the Rieekan Acehole lists. I can think about more than one way to use what comes in that expansion against it. And we didn't even see all the cards of the Hammerhead expansion yet.

I have a feeling that although this may not be the greatest expansion, it will definitely help the game balance and help Imperial lists ascend on a competitive level.

9 minutes ago, Norell said:

The whole QDF feels like being designed against the Rieekan Acehole lists. I can think about more than one way to use what comes in that expansion against it. And we didn't even see all the cards of the Hammerhead expansion yet.

I have a feeling that although this may not be the greatest expansion, it will definitely help the game balance and help Imperial lists ascend on a competitive level.

Of the 9 Hammerhead cards, we've seen three (External Racks / Leia / Boarding Engineers), two are rebel uniques (Hondo / Cham), and three are titles.

The only card yet to be revealed from the HH box that is useable by the Empire is QBTs.

QDF is probably the thing that makes crits count as dmg. It would fit the new red die AA.

1 hour ago, TheEasternKing said:

I'm also looking forwards to seeing if a hybrid MSU will now be possible, Quasar activating 6 squadrons, plus the usual MSU staples, previously 6 squad activations was 115pts minimum with the ISD I and Exp Hangers and nothing else on it, so coming in at roughly 50% cheaper is pretty dang amazing as far as I am concerned.

Fleet 2140 (386/400)
===================
Quasar I (54 + 15)
+ Flight Controllers (6)
+ Expanded Hangar Bay (5)
+ Boosted Comms (4)
Gladiator I-class Star Destroyer (56 + 27)
+ Ordnance Experts (4)
+ Engine Techs (8)
+ Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
+ Demolisher (10)
Raider I-class Corvette (44 + 9)
+ Ordnance Experts (4)
+ Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
Raider I-class Corvette (44 + 9)
+ Ordnance Experts (4)
+ Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 + 28)
+ Admiral Screed (26)
+ Comms Net (2)
Ciena Ree (17)
"Howlrunner" (16)
4 x Tie Interceptor Squadron (11)

Only one problem for me right now: how to remove the look-for-more-and-more-activations thinking set.

1 hour ago, TheEasternKing said:

I'm also looking forwards to seeing if a hybrid MSU will now be possible, Quasar activating 6 squadrons, plus the usual MSU staples, previously 6 squad activations was 115pts minimum with the ISD I and Exp Hangers and nothing else on it, so coming in at roughly 50% cheaper is pretty dang amazing as far as I am concerned.

I can see a list of 1 quasar, 1 dictor, 2 arquittens, 1 flotilla plus a bunch of squadrons happening.

8 hours ago, thecactusman17 said:

Because, as he noted, the defense tokens aren't the defensive brick that players can't chew through?

The core ability of Rieekan Aces is putting an immortal Escort squadron anywhere you could possibly want to place your squadrons, which means that you can't actually attack more than 1-2 squadrons at a time. If it were just an issue of defensive tokens, there are plenty of proven ways to bypass them especially by Imperials but also by Rebels.

The issue is that the brick of Rieekan Aces immediately retaliates against your entire force while you were forced to focus on 1-2 squads specifically set up to be sacrifices.

Exactly. And taking Tie fighters against Rieekan Aces is just asking to get your entire Squad force wiped out in one turn, every under Stronghold.

6 hours ago, Norell said:

Ok, everyone is so excited about the Quasar, but let's look at its less desirable attributes to avoid overhyping.

- Its armament is equal of a CR90's, which is decent but not that great. Especially if you look at the firing arcs, that front arc is so massive it will be difficult to doublearc anything.

- Its shielding is also the same.

- Its Engineering value is 2 meaning that it can discard damage cards only with a dial+token.

- It has only 2 defense tokens. That is as much as you get for a fighters, except that instead of a double brace or a scatter you get a redirect.

I think if there is such thing that a glass cannon, then the Quasar is the glass cannoneer of the Empire. Sure it's awesome while it's alive and can activate its squadrons as planned. But with only one or two salvos those shields will melt away and those 6 hulls aren't that much... Doublearching may be a death to this ship. On the other hand it is VERY unlikely that you could one-shot it, you need CF and preferably some other cards as well.

If the Quasar becomes popular tge small slayer maneuverable ships like mc30 and demi will become even more important because they can reliably one shot this thing and get out. I dont see flying these things close to the battle until the end game, and then only to use boarding parties.

3 hours ago, CaribbeanNinja said:

@Tokra I respect you as a Gozanti loving imperial, but I'm really stoked about the possibilities with the Quasar.

Spitting 6 squadrons out for 59 points (Quasar + Expanded Hangars and a Token) in an Alpha sounds like something I'm going to have a lot of fun with.

It is the perfect sidekick for all your Gozanti dreams

I am excited for the quasar as well. he look great as carrier. You had to use an ISD for the job so far. Now you can get something for half the price. But sadly the rest of the ships is as well half of an ISD. I would have loved a pure carrier. Something more like the flotilla. less attack dice, less hull, less cost.

But in this case it would have been way more a big gozanti, and not some more unique ship.

I can be wrong about the quasar (i was as well with relay and strategic, i thought strategic will be stronger than relay). And so i can be as well wrong with the quasar (i really hope i am). But i need to test it out for it. To see how good it is.

The problem with using it as carrier for 6 squadrons is: you need to be to close to the fight. You cannot use relay for this anymore. Unless you want to use 3 shuttles. The flotillas made this easier, because they can split the activations over the same shuttle.

But if you plan to stay close to the combat, this carrier quasar can be really evil with the 6 squadrons.

5 minutes ago, Tokra said:

I am excited for the quasar as well. he look great as carrier. You had to use an ISD for the job so far. Now you can get something for half the price. But sadly the rest of the ships is as well half of an ISD. I would have loved a pure carrier. Something more like the flotilla. less attack dice, less hull, less cost.

But in this case it would have been way more a big gozanti, and not some more unique ship.

I can be wrong about the quasar (i was as well with relay and strategic, i thought strategic will be stronger than relay). And so i can be as well wrong with the quasar (i really hope i am). But i need to test it out for it. To see how good it is.

The problem with using it as carrier for 6 squadrons is: you need to be to close to the fight. You cannot use relay for this anymore. Unless you want to use 3 shuttles. The flotillas made this easier, because they can split the activations over the same shuttle.

But if you plan to stay close to the combat, this carrier quasar can be really evil with the 6 squadrons.

it will be easy to focus down though. IMO, it'll need to stay in the back and activate stuff instead of getting too close to enemy ships.