I did see the article and imagine someone in the FFG offices went 'oh f**k we haven't actually released any info in ages. Get someone who doesn't work for us to write a quick article!'

Loving Chimera and intensify firepower tho.

1 minute ago, ISD Avenger said:

I did see the article and imagine someone in the FFG offices went 'oh f**k we haven't actually released any info in ages. Get someone who doesn't work for us to write a quick article!'

Loving Chimera and intensify firepower tho.

I am just happy to have something.

1 hour ago, Ardaedhel said:

I... I mean, I guess it depends what you mean by "retrofitted."

If you mean they're going to literally pick apart existing ISD2 models to replace the bridges, turbolasers, and engine flukes, then we can just reject that idea outright as silly and nonsensical, right? And even if they thought that was a sufficiently worthwhile selling point to go to all that effort for it (or to re-tool their molds for a new version of an existing ship), I'm pretty sure they could have been bothered to put that in the CGI mockup, or call it out explicitly.

But I've been wrong before.

<sigh> "I" did not say retrofitted. They said "repainted and retrofitted" in the article. It all depends on what THEY mean. Here is the quote for clarity: "Arriving as part of the Chimaera Expansion Pack , which features a repainted and retrofitted Imperial -class Star Destroyer as well as two Mandalorian Gauntlet squadrons, the Grand Admiral is undoubtedly the star of the wave." (Bold added)

The model is a repaint, we know that; they are obviously talking about the model. But they also say its "retrofitted." What, I am asking, does that mean?

14 minutes ago, Thalomen said:

<sigh> "I" did not say retrofitted. They said "repainted and retrofitted" in the article. It all depends on what THEY mean. Here is the quote for clarity: "Arriving as part of the Chimaera Expansion Pack , which features a repainted and retrofitted Imperial -class Star Destroyer as well as two Mandalorian Gauntlet squadrons, the Grand Admiral is undoubtedly the star of the wave." (Bold added)

The model is a repaint, we know that; they are obviously talking about the model. But they also say its "retrofitted." What, I am asking, does that mean?

New ship tokens.

that is how you would change - or retrofit - attack hardware and weapons

3 hours ago, Drasnighta said:

You get the Thrawn dial in addition.

you are still revealing from your stack at the same time.

if however, thrbtheawn fial matches the Stack dial, there is little you can do with them both together. (At best they will count as dial+token as you turn the stack dial into a token and then decide wether you want to use it with the Thrawn dial or not)

I can see Thrawn working well with a few Defence/Ofence Liasons or SFOs so your ships can get a more full benefit from their commands if they happen to match their top command dial with the Thrawn dial.

1 hour ago, Truthiness said:

You're paying a 4 point tax to get a fleet command on a 110+ point ship. You still need a token to use that swapped out fleet command, making that flexibility a little hard to maintain. I love it thematically, but trust me when I saw it's not all that great. More often, it's best to just take the Cymoon and design your fleet around a chosen fleet command. The Pelta took me a bit, but I've come to appreciate it. It's best viewed as a Rebel Quasar-equivalent.

What you all should really be geeking out about is Intensify Firepower. That is a straight up amazing card for any red-die based fleet. Squadronless Cymoon plus Arquitens here I come.

Your squadronless Cymoon fleet arouses my b wings and Luke Skywalker.

Unrelatedly, I still love the Pelta.

5 hours ago, xanderf said:

Wow, 'Chimaera' is... good !

ALL ISDs can become fleet command ships, now?

All ISDs can become all of the fleet command ships now.

9 minutes ago, geek19 said:

Your squadronless Cymoon fleet arouses my b wings and Luke Skywalker.

Unrelatedly, I still love the Pelta.

Bring it. RBDs and contain baby!

9 minutes ago, Truthiness said:

Bring it. RBDs and contain baby!

Can't RBD if you're not alive to use it...

(Being relatively new to Armada) the Pelta is one of the few ships I haven't bought yet. Might reconsider my decision, now that IF exists. Would love to couple it with some TRC90s.

Having said that, I can't help but feel the Chimaera slightly devalues the Cymoon refit. One of the selling points of the Cymoon was its fleet command upgrade, but now that could be on any ISD. It still has double Turbolaser upgrades, I guess...

26 minutes ago, Captain Warden said:

(Being relatively new to Armada) the Pelta is one of the few ships I haven't bought yet. Might reconsider my decision, now that IF exists. Would love to couple it with some TRC90s.

Having said that, I can't help but feel the Chimaera slightly devalues the Cymoon refit. One of the selling points of the Cymoon was its fleet command upgrade, but now that could be on any ISD. It still has double Turbolaser upgrades, I guess...

The Cymoon is now the “LMC80” of ISDs. Interpret that how you will.

5 hours ago, Ginkapo said:

So you have a comms net flotilla? A flotilla that gets no benefit from any of the fleet commands.

So why exactly do you have fleet commands rather than just using tokens.

Yup. They still suck imo.

WHAT!?

Gozanti Cruisers will love the heck out of fleet commands, even Comms Net cruisers. Unlike the GR75, stock Gozanti Cruisers have all the tools and upgrades to make every fleet command functional. They're already great carriers, they get mileage out of that bonus shield regen especially with motti, they love ways to zoom off without keeping a nav token, and they can double arc ConFire into a nearly guaranteed 3 damage with this new fleet command.

Given the new boosts to flotillas power, I wouldn't be surprised if the FAQ (wherever/whenever it is) make them like squadrons in regards to tabling. Kill all non squadron/flotillas counts as a board clear.

With comms nets they beam the ammunition into the Chimaera to fuel all the Gozanti Guns that are firing downrange

5 hours ago, AllWingsStandyingBy said:

Because, while the Pelta is cheaper in brute points, it's not cheaper in efficiency-per-point-spent. With an IFF Pelta, you're still spending minimally close to a fifth of your total points on a ship that cannot afford to go anywhere near the combat itself, lest it die when a large ship, torpedo-hunter-killer, or bomber-wing sneezes in its general direction. A risk not worth taking when you're 60+ pts and would only bring a paltry battery armament into the fight.

There's a reason that Peltas are never spotted near the top-tables of large events, and it's not just because they were lacking a good Fleet Command. STM and EF were already very powerful effects, but nowhere near worthwhile enough to overcome the Pelta's crippling inefficiencies. IFF does not change this. But Chimera will sure get a lot of mileage out of the powerful fleet commands, because it's not paying around a 20pt tax for access to them.

The Pelta doesn't have to be anywhere near combat. You deploy it last, far away from combat, where it replaces the GR-75s as your admiral sedan and free activation padding. Then every other turn, let the rest of your gunline rip on the largest target you want to destroy. The only downside is you need some fighter cover, because IF won't cover AA attacks. That's fine if the opponent doesn't bring any rogues, since you can rapidly reduce any carriers to space dust.

12 minutes ago, Norsehound said:

With comms nets they beam the ammunition into the Chimaera to fuel all the Gozanti Guns that are firing downrange

The Pelta doesn't have to be anywhere near combat. You deploy it last, far away from combat, where it replaces the GR-75s as your admiral sedan and free activation padding. Then every other turn, let the rest of your gunline rip on the largest target you want to destroy. The only downside is you need some fighter cover, because IF won't cover AA attacks. That's fine if the opponent doesn't bring any rogues, since you can rapidly reduce any carriers to space dust.

The Pelta really deserves to be more than an admiral chariot. It's main problem is its difficult to employ offense. Otherwise, its decently tanky, does some damage, but its outclassed in all these options. Utility ships in this game have a very difficult time apart from cheap activation padding. (See Interdictor too)

31 minutes ago, Blail Blerg said:

The Pelta really deserves to be more than an admiral chariot. It's main problem is its difficult to employ offense. Otherwise, its decently tanky, does some damage, but its outclassed in all these options. Utility ships in this game have a very difficult time apart from cheap activation padding. (See Interdictor too)

True, but if you bring the Pelta closer to the fight, that's a valuable piece you want to vaporize to remove the constant +1 damage from IF. It'll be the first thing I'd aim my Cymoon Devestator at once I get into range, so it makes sense to have it somewhere remote where the enemy has to run your gauntlet to attack it.

If the Pelta's entire purpose in your list is to provide IF, might as well stick your commander on it and keep both of them safe.

1 hour ago, Blail Blerg said:

The Pelta really deserves to be more than an admiral chariot.

This conflicts with what I saw on 'Rebels'.

4 hours ago, Thalomen said:

<sigh> "I" did not say retrofitted. They said "repainted and retrofitted" in the article. It all depends on what THEY mean. Here is the quote for clarity: "Arriving as part of the Chimaera Expansion Pack , which features a repainted and retrofitted Imperial -class Star Destroyer as well as two Mandalorian Gauntlet squadrons, the Grand Admiral is undoubtedly the star of the wave." (Bold added)

The model is a repaint, we know that; they are obviously talking about the model. But they also say its "retrofitted." What, I am asking, does that mean?

I mean, the leaked Chimaera title card shows an ISD 1 bridge tower construction.
I'm not writing off the possibility of an ISD-1 "refit" appearance for this Expansion just yet haha *wishful thinking*

4 minutes ago, Themodalnodes said:

I mean, the leaked Chimaera title card shows an ISD 1 bridge tower construction.
I'm not writing off the possibility of an ISD-1 "refit" appearance for this Expansion just yet haha *wishful thinking*

I was going to say that Devastator and Relentless are ISD-1s... and they are... but the title card art incorrectly portrays them as ISD-2s. Huh. You may be onto something.

28 minutes ago, The Jabbawookie said:

I was going to say that Devastator and Relentless are ISD-1s... and they are... but the title card art incorrectly portrays them as ISD-2s. Huh. You may be onto something.

Chimaera was re-canonized as an ISD-1 as well.

Only Avenger was an ISD-2 on those, and it was essentially the FIRST proper ISD-2 if I remember correctly.

27 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

Chimaera was re-canonized as an ISD-1 as well.

Only Avenger was an ISD-2 on those, and it was essentially the FIRST proper ISD-2 if I remember correctly.

Evidently the model constructed for Empire Strikes Back is named the "Avenger" model. Avenger's also the only named ISD on the big screen.

Up until Rogue One (or Rebels, whichever came first) any and every ISD depicted in the Expanded Universe was an ISD-II, because it's the more detailed one (since it's bigger). It's only after that movie actually paid attention to the three-scene ISD-I that it's starting to have more visibility.

Gosh I asked FFG and JJ to write an article about designing Thrawn, but I didn't think they woukd actually LISTEN... I'm so confused now... I start to like FFG...

Everyone is talking about how the new ISD fleet command requires a dedicated comms net flotilla, did we all forgot about wulf yularen? I mean the guy is perfect for fleet command ships way better than raymus.

13 minutes ago, xero989 said:

Everyone is talking about how the new ISD fleet command requires a dedicated comms net flotilla, did we all forgot about wulf yularen? I mean the guy is perfect for fleet command ships way better than raymus.

I think you would preferably need both Wulff and a Comms Net Gozanti (you can replace the Gozanti with Tarkin if you like).

The ISD can take a token on the first turn, but it can't just keep turning its own dials into tokens from there on out if it's going to get decent mileage from its own commands. Gozantis can pass those tokens on and then the ISD can keep them to use in the future.

With a Cymoon (which just has the one fleet command instead of the carousel of commands Chimaera offers) I think Wulff by himself is quite sufficient because you only really need the one token to keep the upgrade going. The Chimaera is going to want access to at least 2 and preferably 3 (my money's on "everything but squadron tokens").

5 minutes ago, Snipafist said:

The ISD can take a token on the first turn, but it can't just keep turning its own dials into tokens from there on out if it's going to get decent mileage from its own commands. Gozantis can pass those tokens on and then the ISD can keep them to use in the future.

Am I missing something? With Chimaera and Yularen, first turn bank a concentrate fire and then continue to use Yularen in place of that token for the duration of the game. You spend the command token at the beginning of the turn, exhaust Yularen, and now you have a copy of that token back. Yularen's timing is also such that MS-1s won't be able to stop him, either.