Alright, I'm leaving the analysis of the original variants to you, since you're pretty thorough to begin with. NOTE: I am not in the headspace required right now to do the probability calculations for average damage, so if someone can supply them I would greatly appreciate it. First up, the ISD-K, or the Kuat Refit.

Bottom line up front: this ship is a better sustained brawler than the Imperial -1, but that ship retains the twin yokes of fighting supercarrier and BT Avenger in many fleet comps (not all). Others have commented that both ships are essentially modified versions of the original I-1 and I-2, and that's generally true, especially for the Kuat Refit. The changes here are all fairly directed at one goal, and one goal one, relieving the original I-1 of brawling duties. With the replacement of a blue in each side arc, we now have more consistent damage out of those arcs, at a slight cost to possible damage (7 vs 8 maximum, but equal averages of 3.5 versus 3.5 flat). Tag in the ability to use Leading Shots and H-9 Turbos in the side arcs, and now it's much easier to kill flotillas in arcs other than the front arc, and improved damage averages, even after the lost die. Moving away from armament, the Kuat Refit comes with a native Defensive Retrofit, freeing up our officer slot from Minister Tua. It also picks up the long-coveted Ordnance slot, in exchange for two squadron points and one of the Offensive Retrofit. And a mere two extra points of fleet cost.

Long story short, this ship is the better sustained brawler without wasting any additional capability (squadron command). For one-shot use, the ability to add External Racks (or an extra ten points for reusable Expanded Launchers), you can actually improve over XI7 armed Star Destroyers, since at maximum damage output you can completely burn a redirect shield arc, and still have the entire normal forward arc to smash the target. If that's not your cup of tea, you can use options like ACM or APT to deal additional damage to targets in multiple arcs, or outfit yourself with Flechette Torpedoes (add Ordnance Experts and Agent Kallus to taste) to provide squadron stuns on a much less fragile platform than a Raider (albeit a hideously more expensive one). The weakness of this ship are limited ability to use Boarding Troopers without a double arc to really punish tokens, ineffectuallity at herding squadrons (Sloane probably still wants the fighting supercarrier the I-1), and lower output of direct, "penetrating" damage enabled by XI7 turbolasers. Without that upgrade, this ship is a blunt instrument, ableit an extremely effective and sustainable one.

Moving on, I present the Cymoon 1 Refit.

While probably still best thought of in the same vein as the Imperial -2 , this ship definitely takes a very different tack. BLUF: The Imperial -2 presents a better generalist battlewagon, but the Cymoon offers better extreme range engagement and better fleet support options than her cousin. First off, the changes. The Cymoon doesn't get a Defensive Retrofit, it doesn't get Ion Cannons, she loses a squadron point, and her threat in all arcs (save the stern) is diminished compared to the I-2. In exchange, we get two (2) turbolaser upgrades (look out Liberty ), better red firepower in the forward arc (five native, better than any other ship in the game), and the first Imperial Fleet Command slot. The card fan even appears to include the long-await "Intensify Forward Firepower" upgrade for the Concentrate Fire command (my money is either additional anti-squadron output or rerolls, not full dice, but we'll see).

What can we do with the Cymoon? Unfortunately, she doesn't have an Ordnance slot to equip Flechettes for her double black anti-squad, but that is an imposing self-defense battery, as anyone who has ever tried to bomb a Liberty Battlecruiser can attest. However, unlike the Kuat, I can easily see her finding a place in a squadron centric fleet. All Fighters Follow Me can essentially retire Corruptor (we all remembered that existed, didn't we?), and can let a Sloane fleet employ TIE Fighters and TIE Bombers like their Interceptor and Defender cousins. The Pelta allowed Rebel fighter commanders to contest Imperials for automatic squadron alpha strikes; Cymoon takes that back. Shields to Maximum can allow JJ to proc himself at will without much concern for repairing those wounded shields, or Entrapment Formation to give yourself the Grand Inquisitor fleet-wide. If you're willing to cough up the premium that is an ISD chassis, the Imperial Navy now has all the Alliance's tricks.

As a combatant, she is no slouch. Her side arcs equip the same battery as an Interdictor Suppression, so enemies should be wary of trying to flank the ship at medium ranges. At long range, her front arc can boast seven red and a blue die (Spinals, QBT, and CF), and like all variants of the Imperial class, she has Weapons Team to put six red and a blue on a second target. She can't use that blue to get rerolls, but Vader/DTT/CF tokens can solve that issue. She can also fit Needa/TRCs and still take another turbolaser. Overall the I-2 is a deadlier warship, but underestimating the Cymoon is a fatal mistake.

Anyone see any build ideas I missed?

http://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.com/2017/08/wave-7-announcement-hot-take.html

Wave 7 hot take! I was typing and didn't read @GiledPallaeon 's stuff above just yet, so I'ma do so now...

Will targeting beacons become a thing with a spinal 6-red gt isd?

1 hour ago, GiledPallaeon said:

Alright, I'm leaving the analysis of the original variants to you, since you're pretty thorough to begin with. NOTE: I am not in the headspace required right now to do the probability calculations for average damage, so if someone can supply them I would greatly appreciate it. First up, the ISD-K, or the Kuat Refit.

Bottom line up front: this ship is a better sustained brawler than the Imperial -1, but that ship retains the twin yokes of fighting supercarrier and BT Avenger in many fleet comps (not all). Others have commented that both ships are essentially modified versions of the original I-1 and I-2, and that's generally true, especially for the Kuat Refit. The changes here are all fairly directed at one goal, and one goal one, relieving the original I-1 of brawling duties. With the replacement of a blue in each side arc, we now have more consistent damage out of those arcs, at a slight cost to possible damage (7 vs 8 maximum, but equal averages of 3.5 versus 3.5 flat). Tag in the ability to use Leading Shots and H-9 Turbos in the side arcs, and now it's much easier to kill flotillas in arcs other than the front arc, and improved damage averages, even after the lost die. Moving away from armament, the Kuat Refit comes with a native Defensive Retrofit, freeing up our officer slot from Minister Tua. It also picks up the long-coveted Ordnance slot, in exchange for two squadron points and one of the Offensive Retrofit. And a mere two extra points of fleet cost.

Long story short, this ship is the better sustained brawler without wasting any additional capability (squadron command). For one-shot use, the ability to add External Racks (or an extra ten points for reusable Expanded Launchers), you can actually improve over XI7 armed Star Destroyers, since at maximum damage output you can completely burn a redirect shield arc, and still have the entire normal forward arc to smash the target. If that's not your cup of tea, you can use options like ACM or APT to deal additional damage to targets in multiple arcs, or outfit yourself with Flechette Torpedoes (add Ordnance Experts and Agent Kallus to taste) to provide squadron stuns on a much less fragile platform than a Raider (albeit a hideously more expensive one). The weakness of this ship are limited ability to use Boarding Troopers without a double arc to really punish tokens, ineffectuallity at herding squadrons (Sloane probably still wants the fighting supercarrier the I-1), and lower output of direct, "penetrating" damage enabled by XI7 turbolasers. Without that upgrade, this ship is a blunt instrument, ableit an extremely effective and sustainable one.

Moving on, I present the Cymoon 1 Refit.

While probably still best thought of in the same vein as the Imperial -2 , this ship definitely takes a very different tack. BLUF: The Imperial -2 presents a better generalist battlewagon, but the Cymoon offers better extreme range engagement and better fleet support options than her cousin. First off, the changes. The Cymoon doesn't get a Defensive Retrofit, it doesn't get Ion Cannons, she loses a squadron point, and her threat in all arcs (save the stern) is diminished compared to the I-2. In exchange, we get two (2) turbolaser upgrades (look out Liberty ), better red firepower in the forward arc (five native, better than any other ship in the game), and the first Imperial Fleet Command slot. The card fan even appears to include the long-await "Intensify Forward Firepower" upgrade for the Concentrate Fire command (my money is either additional anti-squadron output or rerolls, not full dice, but we'll see).

What can we do with the Cymoon? Unfortunately, she doesn't have an Ordnance slot to equip Flechettes for her double black anti-squad, but that is an imposing self-defense battery, as anyone who has ever tried to bomb a Liberty Battlecruiser can attest. However, unlike the Kuat, I can easily see her finding a place in a squadron centric fleet. All Fighters Follow Me can essentially retire Corruptor (we all remembered that existed, didn't we?), and can let a Sloane fleet employ TIE Fighters and TIE Bombers like their Interceptor and Defender cousins. The Pelta allowed Rebel fighter commanders to contest Imperials for automatic squadron alpha strikes; Cymoon takes that back. Shields to Maximum can allow JJ to proc himself at will without much concern for repairing those wounded shields, or Entrapment Formation to give yourself the Grand Inquisitor fleet-wide. If you're willing to cough up the premium that is an ISD chassis, the Imperial Navy now has all the Alliance's tricks.

As a combatant, she is no slouch. Her side arcs equip the same battery as an Interdictor Suppression, so enemies should be wary of trying to flank the ship at medium ranges. At long range, her front arc can boast seven red and a blue die (Spinals, QBT, and CF), and like all variants of the Imperial class, she has Weapons Team to put six red and a blue on a second target. She can't use that blue to get rerolls, but Vader/DTT/CF tokens can solve that issue. She can also fit Needa/TRCs and still take another turbolaser. Overall the I-2 is a deadlier warship, but underestimating the Cymoon is a fatal mistake.

Anyone see any build ideas I missed?

Re: the Kuat, don't forget it lacks a turbolaser slot. Otherwise, I don't disagree that as a Fat Gladiator, it's much better at its role than an ISD-I. It altogether gives up on being a carrier to do so, though. Prior to wave 6, I would've said that's a great trade, but it seems we're finally coming around to the mixed super-carrier/battleship being a workable build. Thrawn in particular seems to facilitate this kind of usage if you desire (by stocking up on squadron dials and letting your ISDs/VSDs behave like battleships while he commands squadrons for you). Still, it's pretty sweet.

Re: the Cymoon, I don't disagree with the core argument of "it's a more support-oriented ISD-II, basically."

5 minutes ago, Green Knight said:

Will targeting beacons become a thing with a spinal 6-red gt isd?

That or Vader, I figure. Vader's a pretty legit choice with the Cymoon specced for long-ranged death. Spinal/Quad Turbolaser Cannon Cymoon is not cheap but with Vader it can rain unholy **** from downtown and regularly trigger the QTCs, which makes it great for swatting down flotillas at long range or putting serious hurt into even lighter ships when it locks down both evades.

16 minutes ago, Snipafist said:

Re: the Kuat, don't forget it lacks a turbolaser slot. Otherwise, I don't disagree that as a Fat Gladiator, it's much better at its role than an ISD-I. It altogether gives up on being a carrier to do so, though. Prior to wave 6, I would've said that's a great trade, but it seems we're finally coming around to the mixed super-carrier/battleship being a workable build. Thrawn in particular seems to facilitate this kind of usage if you desire (by stocking up on squadron dials and letting your ISDs/VSDs behave like battleships while he commands squadrons for you). Still, it's pretty sweet.

Re: the Cymoon, I don't disagree with the core argument of "it's a more support-oriented ISD-II, basically."

I do see I suggest H-9s, which are in fact unavailable. I think the Kuat will still see plenty of play, I regularly see ISDs whose job description does not include carrier at all.

I also note for the Cymoon her improved extreme standoff over the I-2 also syngerizes well with most squadron or light ship spam fleets that would also like to mimic the Rebels and fight at long range.

Just now, GiledPallaeon said:

I do see I suggest H-9s, which are in fact unavailable. I think the Kuat will still see plenty of play, I regularly see ISDs whose job description does not include carrier at all.

No worries, we're all super excited right now and so mistakes have been made. I made a few myself, which I've had to edit-fix ;).

Quote

I also note for the Cymoon her improved extreme standoff over the I-2 also syngerizes well with most squadron or light ship spam fleets that would also like to mimic the Rebels and fight at long range.

Yeah, especially with Entrapment Formation I can see the benefit running it with Arquitens or the like. I'm very curious about what Intensify Forward Firepower! does, as that could recommend other uses too.

All Fighters Follow Me! just doesn't seem like it will be very appealing with most Imperial squadrons that want squadron commands being speed 4+ already.

I have many opinions on Leia that I needed to write down! She is NOT a bad Commander, people, and I will fight you with her if you say she is!

https://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.com/2017/08/know-your-enemycommanders-corner-leia.html

Oh, the amount of comments I got out of that Store Champs where I took Leia and 6 Hammerheads and a CR90... (Along with 5 Zs and a VCX)...

My opponents were constantly complaining at the way all the Hammerheads seemed to jump and turn on dimes and squeeze into places with speed changes, but dish out surprising amounts of reliable firepower, as well as occasionally mess up squadron plans by throwing some Zs into the Mix and keeping them commanded and supported.

She does require a modicum of thought, as you have entailed, about what you want your ships to do - but if you find ships that want to do one thing at a time, and do it well, she is GLORIOUS.

A couple of comments here since I can't seem to log onto blogspot on my phone;

It's worth pointing out that Squadron 2 makes the Kuat refit less suitable for the Boarding Troopers-Avenger combo; You can still lock out two important tokens, but against the big stuff a redirect and/or a contain is going to slip through.

Also, I'm curious why you don't mention the pelta at all in your Leia article; Have you had a chance to experiment with leia supporting a pelta and a school of hammerheads*?

*Is school the correct term for a group of sharks?

That is true about the Boarding Troopers, I'll get that in there because it is one other area where you might prefer an ISD-I over a Kuat.

I'll let @geek19 talk about the Pelta. I think it's got some legs, but it generally means you need to give up 2 cheaper ships to fit the Pelta in there (a flotilla and Hammerhead or so), which has its upsides and downsides.

1 hour ago, Squark said:

A couple of comments here since I can't seem to log onto blogspot on my phone;

It's worth pointing out that Squadron 2 makes the Kuat refit less suitable for the Boarding Troopers-Avenger combo; You can still lock out two important tokens, but against the big stuff a redirect and/or a contain is going to slip through.

Also, I'm curious why you don't mention the pelta at all in your Leia article; Have you had a chance to experiment with leia supporting a pelta and a school of hammerheads*?

*Is school the correct term for a group of sharks?

Gam is the word apparently.

1 hour ago, Squark said:

A couple of comments here since I can't seem to log onto blogspot on my phone;

It's worth pointing out that Squadron 2 makes the Kuat refit less suitable for the Boarding Troopers-Avenger combo; You can still lock out two important tokens, but against the big stuff a redirect and/or a contain is going to slip through.

Also, I'm curious why you don't mention the pelta at all in your Leia article; Have you had a chance to experiment with leia supporting a pelta and a school of hammerheads*?

*Is school the correct term for a group of sharks?

I haven't. I SHOULD, but right now I have no experience with it. My main worry is the speed 2 makes for keeping it in one place, combined with the fact that you need a lot of tokens to power it up. With Hondo, Ahsoka, vet captain, etc, you can MAYBE do it, but I'm not super sure it's that good for a plan.

26 minutes ago, geek19 said:

I haven't. I SHOULD, but right now I have no experience with it. My main worry is the speed 2 makes for keeping it in one place, combined with the fact that you need a lot of tokens to power it up. With Hondo, Ahsoka, vet captain, etc, you can MAYBE do it, but I'm not super sure it's that good for a plan.

I was very close to running 5 Hammerheads + RaymusPeltaLeia instead of the 6+vette I did...

I honestly thing I would have preferred it... With STM! Only once did someone get through the wall of Hammerheads, and that was an Imperial ISD running a Blockade during a Blockade Run, and I let it through.

... And Leia's Corvette, even if it was a pelta, still wouldn't have been in Range.

On 8/25/2017 at 6:13 PM, Snipafist said:

That or Vader, I figure. Vader's a pretty legit choice with the Cymoon specced for long-ranged death. Spinal/Quad Turbolaser Cannon Cymoon is not cheap but with Vader it can rain unholy **** from downtown and regularly trigger the QTCs, which makes it great for swatting down flotillas at long range or putting serious hurt into even lighter ships when it locks down both evades.

Im so glad im not the only person who was thinking this.

5 minutes ago, Madaghmire said:

Im so glad im not the only person who was thinking this.

What are you planning to put in the Command slots, if anything? I really want two of them, one with Entrapment and the other with StM, but I only have one Yularen to go around, and a Comms Net Gozanti or a locked dial set is a bit pricey.

3 minutes ago, GiledPallaeon said:

What are you planning to put in the Command slots, if anything? I really want two of them, one with Entrapment and the other with StM, but I only have one Yularen to go around, and a Comms Net Gozanti or a locked dial set is a bit pricey.

Well, with Vet Captain and Hondo and taking a token round 1, and a comms net gozanti, you CAN get both to work. That's right, I'm suggesting bringing 2 ISDs. Comma, oof, your points.

9 minutes ago, GiledPallaeon said:

What are you planning to put in the Command slots, if anything? I really want two of them, one with Entrapment and the other with StM, but I only have one Yularen to go around, and a Comms Net Gozanti or a locked dial set is a bit pricey.

I just scratch built it, and you can fit vet captains, spinals and quads, and gunnery team on both with StM and EF along with a Hondo comms net gozanti, Thrawn, and 6 TIEs. I don't know if it's GOOD mind you, but it's DOABLE for sure.

Just now, geek19 said:

Well, with Vet Captain and Hondo and taking a token round 1, and a comms net gozanti, you CAN get both to work. That's right, I'm suggesting bringing 2 ISDs. Comma, oof, your points.

I am a great proponent of dual ISDs. (Triple tends to fall on its face.) I will have to continue my crafting.

2 hours ago, Madaghmire said:

Im so glad im not the only person who was thinking this.

Oh it's potentially amazing, so I'm looking forward to trying it. I suppose you could use H9s instead of Spinals for more reliability but your odds of generating a red accuracy on 6 dice are 55% on the first attempt. If you're willing to go nuts on rerolling everything by hunting for the red accuracy with the second reroll, that brings the total up to a 79.8% chance. I'm all right with that, but I could see the argument for H9s.

2 hours ago, GiledPallaeon said:

What are you planning to put in the Command slots, if anything? I really want two of them, one with Entrapment and the other with StM, but I only have one Yularen to go around, and a Comms Net Gozanti or a locked dial set is a bit pricey.

I'm not really as sure about the double ISD shenanigans as John, but if I was going to go for 2 with that kind of set up it would likely be only one Cymoon, probably with Shields to Max. The other would depend on commander.

18 minutes ago, Snipafist said:

I'm not really as sure about the double ISD shenanigans as John, but if I was going to go for 2 with that kind of set up it would likely be only one Cymoon, probably with Shields to Max. The other would depend on commander.

Oh, I make no claim that it's good. I'm only claiming it's doable. Anything where I get less Imp ships firing on me and more chances to fire on the same target is good for me!

I AM with you on the 1 cymoon and 1 other, be it a 1, 2, or K. Definitely depends on commander and what you want the second one to do and what your objectives are.

Quasar article is finally done ! Figured I'd try something new and post it here as well as the link for those who don't want to hop over to the blog. The blog will get edited over time, the below won't, so in general I'd recommend the blog entry.

All right, let's talk about quasars. You see, a quasar is a supermassive black hole and its giant accretion disk (basically a huge spiraling traffic jam of matter that's all headed in) that reaches incredible levels of heat and brightness due to the nearly unfathomable speed the matter is traveling as it plummets into the black hole. Thanks, Astronomy 101! No, seriously, Astronomy 101 was an awesome class and I don't regret taking it.

Except that's not actually what we're talking about, we're talking about the wave 6 Imperial ship, the Quasar Fire Cruiser-Carrier. That's a mouthful, so from here on out it's just the Quasar.

In terms of basic stats available to both chassis configurations, a few things become apparently pretty quickly:

• Defensively, the Quasar has a bit of a glass jaw:
  • 6 hull is decent, but with a 2/2/1 shield configuration, your shields aren't going to do you much good for very long. It's the same shield configuration as a CR90 , which isn't a ship known for taking a lot of punishment.
  • Furthermore, with only a single brace and redirect, the Quasar isn't going to stand up to serious attacks very well, especially against larger attacks that can lock down the brace or a multitude of small attacks that will overheat its defense tokens.
  • Finally, at only 2 Engineering, the Quasar's repair commands are as ineffectual as a flotilla or corvette's, so once it starts taking damage, it's not going to have much success at repairing its way out of trouble. Face-up crits in particular can be very problematic, as it can't remove them in a single repair command - it will need a repair dial + token to remove a damage card.
• At 54/61 points, the Quasar is the cheapest medium-based ship in the game and you get a pretty decent amount of "stuff" for the cost, even if its defenses aren't great.
• Squadron 4 on such a cheap ship is great for large squadron commands.
• A maximum speed of 3 and a decent (for its size) nav chart gives the Quasar a lot more maneuvering options than its other medium-sized cousins, like the VSD or Interdictor .
• With Command 2, it's a lot more reactive than the VSD, and for a ship designed to command squadrons consistently, that's definitely welcome. It also means you can store two command tokens; I expect in most cases you'll want a navigate token and then perhaps a squadron token to boost a big squadron command.
• You won't see it on the card, but the Quasar model's front arc is HUGE . This has some ramifications, which we'll be discussing later. See the picture below for proof:

The Quasar is a breath of fresh air for the Galactic Empire, finally providing the Empire with a ship capable of being a heavier-duty dedicated carrier. The Rebels have had more specialized non-flotilla carrier options since wave one with the Yavaris Nebulon-B and more recently gained a second option with the Command Pelta , both of which are great dedicated carriers. The Empire certainly had ships capable of acting as heavier-duty carriers in the VSD and ISD , but the fundamental issues there were that both ships also had a lot invested in being battleships and so issuing squadron commands consistently nearly always came at the expense of issuing commands that made them more effective as battleships (frequently navigate commands), meaning it was rare that you got maximum utility out of a VSD or ISD as both a dedicated carrier and a battleship. The Quasar is for the most part happy to just keep cranking out squadron commands most of the game and its Squadron value is as high as an ISD-I or ISD-II for roughly half the cost.

But what about Gozantis?

With that said, the Quasar is frequently compared to its same value in Gozantis . Given two naked Gozantis at 46 points can command 4 total squadrons and a naked Quasar-I at 54 points can do the same thing, the question becomes "why not use two Gozantis instead for two activations and save 8 points?"

There are several good reasons to prefer a Quasar compared to 2 Gozantis:

• A Quasar can equip upgrades Gozantis can't. Specifically, all of the very good Quasar titles as well as Flight Controllers due to its weapon team slot.
• The Quasar gets more mileage out of squadron-oriented upgrades. Boosted Comms on a Gozanti is 4 points towards longer-ranged squadron commands for 2 squadrons. Boosted Comms on a Quasar is the same 4 points that assists with commanding at least twice as many squadrons.
  • On a similar note, the Quasar-I can equip both Expanded Hangar Bays and Boosted Comms for maximum squadron pressure, activating 5 squadrons per command dial and at long range!
• Activating X squadrons in one squadron command is better than activating the same number of squadrons across two (or more) activations/commands. This is particularly the case with Imperial squadrons, which tend to sacrifice durability for offensive power and specialization.
  • Example #1: 4 TIE Fighter squadrons, especially with a buff from Flight Controllers, will be able to destroy at least twice the enemy squadrons compared to 2 TIE Fighters (due to how Swarm works, each TIE squadron after the first works better, so the Quasar is activating 3 Swarming TIEs and the Gozanti only 1). By knocking out more enemies earlier, those enemies aren't there to counter-attack you during the next enemy activation when he may have wished to activate them.
  • Example #2: 4 TIE Bomber squadrons are much more capable of exploiting a temporary opening than 2 are. Whether this is because the enemy ship in question has a momentary gap in its fighter coverage or it will be able to jet away from trouble during its upcoming activation, more bombers all at once are much more capable than bombers in small helpings. I personally find Raiders are much more threatened by 4 bombers coming in all at once than 4 bombers divided up into 2 packets each for this reason, even if it's the same 4 bombers either way.

When you combine all these factors together. you can see the full strength of a Quasar - activating numerous squadrons all at once, potentially with a buff from its upgrades, is often a stronger quality activation than doing the same thing less effectively across a quantity of activations with Gozantis. Not every fleet wants to make the level of investment a Quasar requests (both for the Quasar itself but also for enough squadrons to really benefit from hanging around the Quasar), but those that do will definitely benefit compared to using just Gozantis.

Given the Quasar enjoys some support just like other medium and large ships do (particularly if you're using a heavy fighter coverage group and want some help from Bomber Command Center ), there's nothing wrong with using a Quasar and a Gozanti or two.

Basic usage recommendations

The Quasar's use is pretty straightforward when it comes to the basics, really - you brought along the Quasar because it's a carrier. It doesn't do other things very well and you'll want to be issuing squadron commands as frequently as you can safely get away with. The Quasar itself is a bit glass-jawed, however, and so you should really do your best to keep it out of trouble so it can keep doing its super-carrier thing. There are a few basic tips for doing so that I'd recommend:

1) Always Boosted Comms

This could also be an entry under "Upgrades" below, but with very limited exception, Boosted Comms effectively should come stapled to your Quasar regardless of if it's a -I or -II. Your Quasar doesn't want to have to decide between being able to function as a carrier and getting to live. By extending your squadron command range, you can stay further away from certain death while still being in range to regularly use your full Squadron value to command squadrons.

2) Avoid trouble

In general, I recommend flying your default Quasar like a fat Gozanti: it wants to generally move around/away from the enemies coming to murder it while staying near more muscular ship friends that pose a more immediate threat. I would recommend considering your attack dice (especially for the Quasar-I) as a secondary element of the ship and if there's a choice between risking your Quasar to get some attack dice in or playing it safe against a moderate or serious threat, play it safe unless you desperately need the attack dice.

3) Recognize what is a threat

To continue the "fat Gozanti" recommendations, threats to your Quasar are similar to threats to Gozantis, although the Quasar is thankfully more durable overall. Attacks from lots of small sources (like several smaller ship attacks or mobbed by bombers) will rapidly overheat your redirect token and melt your shields. Large attacks that have decent chances of producing an accuracy icon will also cause big problems when your brace gets locked down and you've got 6+ damage inbound. Larger attacks without accuracy aren't nearly so threatening due to your brace and 6 hull.

Unfortunately, longer-ranged harassment will add up on your Quasar more than it will on an evade+scatter Gozanti, so don't take it lightly. You can handle it for a while but sooner or later your shields are going to run out if you can't remove the skirmisher(s) sniping you.

4) Speed control

I'd default the Quasar to speed 2 in most circumstances when you deploy it , as it lets you keep up with most of your other ships, but from there you have some other options that merit keeping a navigate token on hand whenever possible. Slowing down to speed 1 is desirable when your squadrons are in the middle of a scrum, your Quasar has a safe nesting ground to stay in, and you want to keep nearby to help with flak and squadron commands until everything sorts itself out. Speed 3 can be good for jetting away from trouble when enemies are closing in and sometimes can be used to jump over jammers if someone tries to jam up your front arc:

...but it's best done with a navigate dial for the extra yaw if you can spare it. Don't rely on hopping jammers; if an opponent has enough control over their final position, they can make it impossible to escape with your medium base.

5) Mind your giant nose

Other than all that, let's talk about the huge front arc before we go on to the rest of the article. In short, it means your nose is going to be getting shot a lot, especially if you're headed towards enemy ships but also in many cases when you have your side pointed towards the source of the attack simply because your front hull zone is so big. The good news there is that your redirect token can help shunt damage from your 2 shield front hull zone to your 2 shield side hull zones. The bad news is if your front hull zone is unshielded, it can be hard to hide it from enemies trying to focus attacks into it.

The only other thing to note presently about your large front hull zone is it can be helpful for double-arcing enemies approaching from your side if you're moving perpendicular to them. With at least blue dice in all your arcs and a wide front hull zone, there's not a lot of space, especially at closer ranges, to hide an entire ship base in your side arc.

Titles

I'm happy to report that every Quasar title is affordable and worth using. I'd be willing to state that I can't imagine running a Quasar without a title, so it's largely a case of "which one best suits my plan for my Quasar?"

As always, here come the rules notes first!

• The triggering incident is revealing a command dial that is not a squadron command dial, so upgrades that allow you to discard command dials prior to revealing (such as the Skilled First Officer , patron saint of Command 2 ships everywhere) or to change them prior to revealing can allow you to deliberately discard a squadron dial to then reveal a non-squadron dial so you can use Pursuant .
• Remember that revealing a command dial comes with the associated choice of whether to keep it or turn it into a token, so do that before triggering Pursuant .
• Because the triggering event is when you reveal a command, the squadron command used by Pursuant must be used prior to any repair command. Normally, repair commands and squadron commands have their timing window after you reveal a command dial so they can be used in either order, but Pursuant jumps ahead just a little bit.
• Pursuant doesn't produce a squadron dial, it resolves a squadron command as if you spent a squadron dial. This has a few ramifications that may not be immediately obvious:
  • You can't add a squadron token to boost the squadron command, as that's a different method of resolving a squadron command (dial + token) and the Pursuant card is very specific about how you resolve the squadron command ("as if" you spent a dial, not actually spending a dial).
    • Similarly, you can only resolve each incidence of a command once per activation, so you couldn't spend the token afterwards to resolve a token-only squadron command because that command has already been resolved this activation.
  • Pursuant doesn't produce a dial you can discard for an effect like Boarding Troopers, either.

Okay, that was a lot of rules notes right there. Hopefully that made sense, I've been answering lots of questions about command resolutions lately (as FFG seems to be producing more effects that create confusion in that regard, such as Thrawn, Commander Leia, and Pursuant ), so I wouldn't be surprised to see a command resolution/dials/tokens article at some point in the future as a rules companion piece to the attack sequence article .

Anyways, Pursuant ! I consider Pursuant the default Quasar title if you're not sold on Squall or Stronghold for your fleet. It's an extremely affordable title and allows your Quasar to once per game focus on something other than squadron commanding while still cheating out a full-dial squadron command. Combining it with a Skilled First Officer for a mere 3 points allows you to queue up a life-saving repair or (more likely) navigate command when a problem is clearly headed your way and you need to do something about it. Upon activation, discard the Skilled First Officer to ditch your top squadron dial, reveal your other command instead, then discard Pursuant to still command squadrons anyways!

It's also a very cheap and easy counter to a Slicer Tools flotilla messing with your squadron command dial. Given Slicer Tools are gunning for carriers specifically in most cases, that's nothing to sneeze at. In that case, a Pursuant + Skilled First Officer combination gives you effectively 2 turns of Slicer Tools prevention for a very reasonable cost.

Squall rules time!

• Squall triggers on activation, so remember to resolve its effect prior to proceeding with revealing your command dial.
• Remember that engagement requires both distance 1 of an enemy squadron as well as not being obstructed to them. A squadron hiding in an obstacle could qualify for Squall' s movement even though it is at distance 1 of an enemy.
  • Similarly, remember that engagement still happens even with Heavy squadrons, it's just that Heavy removes the normal penalties of engaging that squadron (as in Heavy doesn't stop you from attacking ships or moving away).
  • The engagement restriction applies to both who's eligible to move and is a restriction on where you can end your move, so don't neglect to use your movement to hop into obstacles to block engagement even at distance 1!
• You can't increase Squall' s effect radius by equipping Boosted Comms. The Squall card itself stipulated how long of a range it extends out to, which happens to be the same range as your usual squadron command range.
• Moving your squadrons distance 2 and ending their movement unengaged is rather tricky. This is likely a good argument for temporarily ignoring the one-tool rule so you can put a distance 1 range ruler against enemy squadrons you want to move close to while you use a distance 2 range ruler to move your Squall squadrons to ensure you didn't accidentally mess up. Alternatively, use a base stand-in (like a washer of the right size) to indicate your intended destination and then measure to be sure you're not accidentally engaging something there. If you aren't, drop your squadron on top of the washer (or token or whatever).

Squall gives you a nice little movement bump similar to that provided by Fighter Coordination Team , only it triggers earlier, the movement distance is further, and you can't move into engagement. Its most obvious use is for extending threat ranges on squadrons you intend to command after you reveal a squadron command dial, but it can also be a sneaky way to position a buff aura ace like Howlrunner or Dengar to where you want them without necessarily needing to command them immediately. You can also use it to speed up Rogues like the YV-666 , Decimator , Firespray , or Aggressor that you rarely intend to actually command so that the Rogues can keep up with your conventional squadrons. For maximum sneaky shenanigans combine it with TIE Phantoms - the Phantoms jump out of engagement with Cloak at the end of the preceding Squadron Phase only to get shuffled around by Squall before being commanded to go back and do their jobs. Extra points if both the Cloak and Squall movements land the Phantoms on the station, healing them each time.

The main worry with Squall is it can be tempting to launch your squadrons too far with both the Squall and regular squadron movement from its squadron command, landing them outside of Squall 's command range next turn. Similarly, Squall can run the risk of "running out of ammo" by throwing too many squads out of its effect range too early. Boosted Comms are even more of a necessity here than usual given Squall's propensity for Hail Mary squadron passes. Be careful of using Squall to throw fragile TIEs into flak kill zones just because you can . Unless you can absolutely wipe out your targets, throwing TIEs carelessly into flak traps is a great way to lose TIEs for minimal gains.

With all that said, I see Squall as a more bomber-friendly title than the alternatives, although it has many possible uses. It doesn't need to specifically command bombers, but anti-ship squadrons appreciate the launch pad for hitting unprotected hull zones on their intended target and can use Squall to reposition inbetween hitting one ship and another if they need to, making them less prone to having unnecessary "wasted turns" where they need to hoof it from one target to another. Ideally in the late game, your opponent's fighter squadrons have been destroyed and the repositioning from Squall can allow your squadrons to keep nipping at an enemy ship by moving 1-2 (as the enemy ship certainly doesn't engage them, so they no longer have movement/title eligibility restriction) without necessarily needing to use a squadron command.

Stronghold rules bullet points!

• Remember that "at" distance 1-2 means "with any portion of its base within 1-2," so the Stronghold bubble extends quite a ways.
• Only the attack itself is treated as obstructed, not the attacker, so keywords like Swarm and Escort still work just fine.
• Obstruction is either "on" or "off" and therefore an attack can't be double- or triple-obstructed.
• Remember that Counter attacks work just like regular attacks, so if your friendly squadron attacks a Counter squadron (like an A-Wing ) while within Stronghold 's bubble, the Counter attack will be obstructed.
  • This "feels" weird given that in terms of the squadron command, the TIE is attacking and the Counter squadron is defending, but the Counter attack is a new attack with the Counter squadron as the attacker and the TIE as the defender.

Stronghold is very straightforward: it provides a place for your Swarm squadrons to hide (TIE Fighters, TIE Interceptors , and Jumpmasters as of this writing). -1 die from obstruction is in most cases -0.5 average damage (from blue or red dice) or -0.75 damage (from a black die), depending on what your opponent gives up. Given that your generic TIE Fighter and Interceptor squadrons live in fear of the lucky one-shot fighter attack dealing them 3+ damage in one go, Stronghold goes a long way towards making such attacks impossible or at the very least less likely. Against TIE aces, less blue dice means less odds of rolling an accuracy which means better chance of scattering away the attack entirely, or at the very least the less average damage increases the odds that the attack will deal 2 or less, which can be braced if necessary down to 1.

I recommend using Stronghold somewhat like the Rebel Assault Frigate title Gallant Haven - you can use it as a bunker for your fighters to hide in. If your opponent wants to get the jump on your fighters, he's got an uphill battle ahead of him fighting at a disadvantage. If not, then you can fling your fighters out of their bunker when necessary. Following your squadrons into a serious fight is a death sentence and to be avoided, despite how tempting it may be to keep applying the Stronghold buff. Of course if the furball develops in a fairly safe part of the board, follow your fighters in to your heart's content.

The crux of this being that Stronghold is very much a title for a fighter carrier operating somewhat reactively, unlike Squall which seems to recommend itself a bit more for bomber use, operating aggressively.

Quasar-I

I've already talked a fair deal about the Quasar-I above, so there's not much else to cover. The only specific item I can think of to mention is the Quasar-I has two offensive retrofit slots, which presents a lot of options for how you can configure its upgrade suite.

Upgrades

Second offensive retrofit slot

Given Boosted Comms is my strong recommendation for the first offensive retrofit slot for either Quasar chassis, you have a few interesting options for the second slot should you choose to use it.

Expanded Hangar Bays : Because Squadrons 5 with Boosted Comms is kind of nuts. You don't need to fill the second offensive retrofit slot, but if you do, the Expanded Hangar Bays will be your candidate in most cases.

Disposable Capacitors : If you'd like to get an extra turn's worth of use from your blue dice, Disposable Capacitors is worth considering. Given I prioritize survival with my Quasars, I'm a little leery of any plan that counts on them behaving like a combat ship, and if that is something you're interested in I would recommend you invest those 3 points towards upgrading to a Quasar-II.

Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams : The Quasar is the cheapest medium ship in the game, so it can affect a pretty wide variety of ships with a Tractor Beam. This is mostly the kind of thing to consider with Konstantine and is definitely a bit janky, but it's not altogether pointless.

Other options: I don't really recommend anything else. Boarding upgrades and Rapid Launch Bays both suffer from requiring the Quasar to get closer to trouble than it would like to use them well. The other offensive retrofits aren't that great overall and with a big carrier your anti-squadron points are better spent towards fighter squadrons for the carrier to boss around than iffy upgrades like Point Defense Reroute.

Weapon Team

So far as the Quasar-I is concerned, this is the Flight Controllers slot and that's it - you don't need to use Flight Controllers on your Quasar but it is recommended if you're using at least 4 fighter squadrons, which you generally should be. The Quasar-II gets some interesting options in this area, but we're not there just yet.

Officer

You have a huge variety of options available for your officer slot for both the Quasar-I and Quasar-II and so this section will effectively cover both bases, with one extra addition in the Quasar-II-only section later.

Skilled First Officer would be my default choice, especially with Pursuant , for the reasons given above. Even without Pursuant , he's great on Command 2 ships and only 1 point.

Flight Commander is worth considering with Squall if you're concerned about needing to catch up to the long-bomb squadrons you've thrown out in earlier turns. If you don't take my advice and don't use Boosted Comms, you can also use Flight Commander as an alternative method of keeping up with your squadrons.

Admiral Chiraneau really comes into his own on a Quasar, especially one that's decked out in force multiplier upgrades like Expanded Hangar Bay and Flight Controllers. Being able to get in a small move regardless of engagement while also applying the Flight Controllers buff to 5-6 squadrons in one go can be very strong, especially with Mauler Mithel and hard-hitting aces like Maarek Stele .

Minister Tua , as always, is a welcome addition to any ship that wants a defensive retrofit. It's spending points to spend more points, so be careful of going too heavy on the points bloat with your upgrade-hungry Quasar. Still, Reinforced Blast Doors or Electronic Countermeasures could be quite good at keeping your Quasar in the fight for an extra turn or two, particularly against the types of main threats I identified in the beginning of this article. Given the Quasar-II is more of a combat ship than the Quasar-I, Tua is a bit more appealing there but could be useful on either.

Wulff Yularen is popular on Quasar builds that want to keep a navigate and squadron token on hand and choose which one to use without spending each turn. He's not cheap (but then again, neither are any of the Imperial-specific commanders I've mentioned), but a 6-squadron activation with Expanded Hangars and Flight Controllers is a thing of terrible beauty, and being able to control your speed on and off with an infinite nav token without any hand-holding from other support effects can be quite effective as well for keeping your Quasar where it wants to be without having to give up squadron commands.

Builds

Given all the upgrade options above, Quasars are pretty plug-and-play. I'll give one example for each title, but there are lots of ways to build them.

Pursuant all-comers cheapo carrier

Skilled First Officer, Pursuant , Flight Controllers, Boosted Comms

For 67 total points, this one comes in pretty cheap, is very flexible in its command choices, and works with just about any fleet running a moderate amount of squadrons or more. Add Expanded Hangars if you'd like +1 Squadrons for +5 points.

Squall bomber launcher

Squall , Skilled First Officer, Boosted Comms, Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams

For 68 points, you're able to give a bump to 3 squadrons a turn and then launch 4 of them in one go, presumably with some Rhymer support to laser-focus on some poor ship's weakest hull zone. With the Tractor Beams you can single out ships trying to get away to hopefully keep them stuck in bomber strike range for next turn. Don't neglect to bring along a Bomber Command Center Gozanti to improve your dice consistency if you're using TIE Bombers or Firesprays.

You can upgrade the Skilled First Officer to something more impressive or swap out the Tractor Beams for an Expanded Hangar Bay if you're bringing lots of bombers. Similarly, you can add Flight Controllers if you want your Quasar to be a bit more multi-purpose instead of primarily for bomber activations.

Stronghold counter puncher

Stronghold, Skilled First Officer, Flight Controllers, Boosted Comms, Expanded Hangar Boy

Hoo boy this one is the most expensive of all at a whopping 75 points, but it is fighter superiority on a stick. It's a potent but expensive build, but I fear that outside of Sloane fleets or metas that face heavy squadron builds regularly, it's may be too many points invested into an overwhelming fighter presence that doesn't have a lot to do once it's finished doing its job.

For extra fun times, you can upgrade the Skilled First Officer to Admiral Chiraneau and use Mauler Mithel to just annihilate enemy squadrons that get too close. The main issue there is an even higher price tag. Similarly, Wulff Yularen would allow for consistent 6-squadron activations but also comes at +6 points.

Quasar-II

Okay so the Quasar-II is similar to the base Quasar-I we've covered for most of this article with some crucial differences:

• +7 points over our lean and mean Quasar-I chassis.
• 2 blue dice in the front and 1 on each side have been upgraded to red dice.
• The blue flak die has been upgraded to a red flak die(!).
• Remove one offensive retrofit slot for a second weapon team slot.

The end effect is the Quasar-II gives up a bit of its carrier capability, as it can't equip both Boosted Comms and Expanded Hangar Bays, and it's just more expensive and so even if you were only going to use Boosted Comms anyways, you're paying more points for the same squadron-commanding capability. In return for giving up some of its carrier focus, the Quasar-II gains some combat support capability: with its red flak die, red anti-ship dice, and double weapon team slots, it has the potential to directly affect the game more effectively than the Quasar-II. For that reason, it's often best used a little more aggressively than the Quasar-I.

A note about the red flak die before we get to the upgrades: yes, that does mean you can attack squadrons at up to long range. The main downside is that all by itself the red die only damages squadrons 3/8 of the time. The remaining 5 sides are 2 blanks, 2 crits, and 1 accuracy that does nothing all by itself. So even though both a blue and red flak die do the same average 0.5 damage, the red flak die is less reliable, whereas the blue flak die is shorter-ranged but 4/8 of the time does damage.

Upgrades

Most of the same upgrade options that work for the Quasar-I work for the Quasar-II. In particular, I still highly recommend Boosted Comms , particularly for the Quasar-II. Being able to command your squadrons at long range while being able to flak their enemies at long range is pretty satisfying. The upgrades I mention below are effectively in addition to considerations for the Quasar-I...

Weapon team

You can (and maybe even should!) still use Flight Controllers on a Quasar-II, but with two weapon team slots and your longer-ranged attacks, a few new options become a lot more appealing than they would have been on the Quasar-I.

Ruthless Strategists is one such candidate. With long-ranged flak, your Ruthless Strategists have a very long range to trigger and they don't care about whether or not the red flak die comes up damage, they just care that it's happening at all. The Ruthless Strategists combine very well with the humble TIE Bomber because the bombers have 5 hull for only 9 points and are happy to trade it away to damage their engagers.

Gunnery Team is worth considering here as well. Because the Quasar-II has a huge front arc, it's quite common to have an enemy ship and enemy squadrons in it, and so the Gunnery Team for most cases reads as "you don't need to decide between harassing a ship or flakking squadrons with your giant front arc, you may do both ." You can certainly use it against two ships as well, but I recommend avoiding navigating to do that deliberately unless they're effectively harmless - otherwise you may be biting off more than your carrier can chew.

Officer

Pretty much the same recommendations as the Quasar-I with the notable addition of Agent Kallus. Because the Quasar-II's flak range extends so far, anything that can add additional oomph to your flak is quite welcome. This is somewhat meta-dependent, though: if your meta doesn't see a lot of unique squadrons, then Kallus won't be very effective. Otherwise, adding a die (usually a black die, occasionally a blue die against a scatter ace if your red die rolled damage already) to your unreliable red die is a godsend.

Builds

Minor variations on the Quasar-I builds will do fine as a whole, although you'll need to consider what kind of changes to make and if it's worth adding a second weapon team. A Quasar-II build that looks to leverage the flak potential of the unique chassis would look something like:

Long bomb flak factory

Pursuant , Agent Kallus, Gunnery Team, Ruthless Strategists, Boosted Comms

This is an expensive Quasar at 82 points and you could make an argument for cutting 7 points by dropping the Gunnery Team if all you care about is flak and you're willing to give up harassment shots on enemy ships. This Quasar's front arc puts out a huge long-ranged cone of flak that features both Agent Kallus adding a die against unique squadrons and Ruthless Strategists trading your squadrons' hull points for enemy squadron hull points, which is why I strongly encourage running this with a healthy number of TIE Bombers.

Commanders that synergize with the Quasar

Admiral Motti

The Quasar is a medium ship, so Motti gives it 2 extra hull, which makes it in most cases the second-most-efficient points to extra hull ratio in the Imperial fleet for Motti (with the cheapo Gozanti taking the gold). 8 hull is also an awful lot to chew through, which in most cases will require an extra attack to destroy, which can be enough of a margin to make a getaway. Motti carrier builds have always been one of the stronger builds for Motti and the Quasar is happy to work its way into that archetype.

Admiral Konstantine

The Quasar is the Empire's cheapest medium ship and Konstantine loves him some medium and large ships to trigger his ability. The main problem is getting enough other medium or large ships (at least 2 more is my recommendation) and finding a means of turning Konstantine's ability into a situation that can win you the game. Whether the Quasar operates fighters to peel enemy squadrons off your other big beefy ships or is used as a part of a bomber approach to beat up on selectively slowed-down ships is up to your build.

Admiral Sloane

Conventional Imperial fighter squadrons (TIE Fighters, TIE Interceptors, etc.) love Admiral Sloane and therefore Admiral Sloane loves anything that further buffs those squadrons so she can quickly achieve dominance in the squadron mini-game and can turn that dominance towards winning the full game. The Quasar is therefore a natural fit with Sloane, which is not surprising given that she comes packaged with it!

Anybody else that wants a serious squadron presence

Generic, I know, but any Imperial commander that's looking to build a fleet that makes a decent investment in the outcome of the squadron mini-game can benefit from the inclusion of a Quasar even if the synergy isn't as strong as it would be with a different commander.

Great write up!

That was a great article.

In my still limited experience (5 games) the Quasar has some very big problems. It absolutely melts to long-range fire. A single TRC90 eats it for lunch. And a single mc30h9 kills it so dead. For example.

Which leads me to want to use the 1 version with fc and squall, relaying through lambdas at safe distance, while enabling max token shenanigans.

I'm sure there are other uses, but currently I'm very much a 'meh'.

I've only really run the Pursuant all-comers carrier, but eventually I'm sure I'll start playing around with some of these other builds. I will note that I did not work out that note about how Pursuant can't be used with a token, I had never heard that before. My apologies to the one or two people I might have used that on (usually by the time I use Pursuant it's Round 4+ and most of the time there isn't an additional squadron to tap.)