So ugh...what has changed? Anyone care to explain in depth? I've been away doing stuff with the 501st Legion

I still see no Venator...

Quite a bit has changed. They've finally gotten some errata for the game now, so you might want to look at the online posts for it. Also wave 7 has really boosted large ships and we have more counters to the large squadron balls.

No Venator yet, but there's still hope for it. And wave 8 first reveal should be soon.

Welcome back, Gottmituns!

Wave 6 gave us powerful one use cards like External Racks (Add two black dice at close range for 3 points) and Disposable Capacitors (Use blue dice at long range for small/medium ships) along with the Hammerhead (A cheap swarm ship that has a new style of title called task force which requires another ship with the same title in close proximity for effects) and the Quasar (A cheap squadron platform for alpha strikes)

Wave 7 was the "Make Big ships Great again" wave with the Chimera allowing more ISD customization and MC75 Generalist Armored Cruiser or Brawler Ordnance Cruiser.

5 hours ago, The Jabbawookie said:

Those were the big things. Sloane justifies bringing 134 points of fighters with battleship support, causing major problems for non-GH Rebel aces. Imperial bomber builds are kinda dead right now, as they get shredded. The Quasar is useful for alpha striking and quality of activations. Disposable capacitors make the VSD-II the hardest hitting long-range ship in the game, and a great flotilla popper. Hammerheads are what the Raider should have been. Dual larges are on the rise. The Kuat Refit ISD’s ordnance slot is amazing. MC75s seem solid so far, and the Aspiration title is gold. There’s probably more, but that’s what jumps to mind.

Armada? Dead? No, we’re all fine here, thank you... How are you?

5 hours ago, draco193 said:

Two new variants of ISDs that are quite good and the mc75 have rebels an extremely dangerous brawler.

Pryce, Bail Organa and Strategic Advisor mess with activation order and would appear to be pushing quality activations over quantity.

Wave 6 brought Sloane to shift Imperial fighters from largely speed bump to Ace driven alpha strikes. Boarding teams brought back the Avenger title as a one activation kill everything ship. Hammerheads have been meh so far, but with External Racks they and Raiders are super deadly.

5 hours ago, GhostofNobodyInParticular said:

Wave 7 came with a bunch of stuff that boosted the performance of large ships. Bail and Pryce allow the medium/large ship they are equipped to to activate first or last (respectively) on a chosen turn. Strategic adviser can exhaust in lieu of an activation. These all help the fleets that include large bases, as they tend to be of less activations.

HIE is an ion slot card that removes one shield each from the defending hull zone and its two neighbors. WAB gives half the total number of black hut icons, rounded up, as damage to another ship or squad at close range of the defender. It can be used to one-shot TIE aces. Both of these cards trigger on crits, and can be the difference between victory and defeat. They influence how you fly your ships, where you position your squads, etc. HIE even brought new life to Raider-IIs as they are a cheap platform for them.

EWS is a defensive retro card which allows you to declare one hull zone obstructed each turn. It can of course change turn-to-turn and provides an amazing counter to bomber fleets and most squads in general, providing a real contender for the defense slot.

The MC75 is a beast of a brawler and Sato's new best friend. Sloane can be very effective in stripping tokens, prompting people to be wary of her and practically requiring an anti-squadron plan. She especially pares well with Avenger and boarding troopers.

The Cymoon ISD is a wonderful red dice ship for the Umps, and goes great with Vader. It also brings fleet commands to the Imps. A new title, Sovereign, allows the swapping of tokens for different types on up to three ships in range 1-4?5? and potentially brings Tarkin back (especially in conjunction with Cymoons).

This a brief summary of some, not even all, the changes: 3 little-used admirals (from what I hear) and an unused variant given new life. Large-ship heavy builds now viable, and anti-squad defense somewhat improved.

5 hours ago, moodswing5537 said:

Three folks jump in with highlights, and not one mention of new commanders Thrawn and Raddus for wave 7. This saddens me...

Also, as a community we got:

Two champion-made cards (Pryce and Thrawn) and their previews. A guest article by @Truthiness and FFG actually sent @Crabboka physical preview of Wave 7 that he unboxed, and shared with us. All good stuff.

Wave 6 brought the game to a very strong place, but wasn't perfect. Wave 7 improved that place a bit, with some help for large ships. FAQs stopped commanders from being on Flotillas, and TRC must now be exhausted in order to activate, stopping TRC90As from being too OP. Rieekean was also nerfed to be only once per turn, (you choose when he triggers).

Future things we still need (totally my opinion):

• Nerf to Relay (Allow it to merely extend the range of squadron activation, not make it infinite.)
• Certain key ships - Venator, Brahatok (dornean), Dreadnoughts....
• More medium ships - especially for rebels.
• More mechanics that make tokens better (they have added some, but I think 1 or 2 more would help bring back Tarkin and make Garm worthwhile).
• Super Star Destroyers.

Overall the game is great and even though we aren't getting a ton of expansions - I'm happy where the game is right now. I WOULD like more influx of product though, maybe a supplemental release inbetween waves, similar to how Corellian Conflict came out. Wouldn't mind Starbase miniatures that come with some new ship titles and card upgrades. That sort of thing.

19 minutes ago, Crabbok said:

Overall the game is great and even though we aren't getting a ton of expansions - I'm happy where the game is right now. I WOULD like more influx of product though, maybe a supplemental release inbetween waves, similar to how Corellian Conflict came out. Wouldn't mind Starbase miniatures that come with some new ship titles and card upgrades. That sort of thing.

I just got back into the game after playing last in Wave 2, and I have to say that I appreciate how easy it was to get back into because it doesn't have a release schedule like Xwing. I much prefer Armada's release schedule, but I could see where if Armada is your primary game that you play all the time you might like to see more.

Wow thanks guys. I as a new Armada player really found this useful.

20 minutes ago, AlexW said:

I just got back into the game after playing last in Wave 2, and I have to say that I appreciate how easy it was to get back into because it doesn't have a release schedule like Xwing. I much prefer Armada's release schedule, but I could see where if Armada is your primary game that you play all the time you might like to see more.

I was just talking to a friend about this myself after they announced Legion is expected to have new product every month. That can either be looked at as very cool or a potential disaster.

It is good for variety and game expansion, which for a new game is probably helpful. Remember how stale Armada got early on with no new product?

It is bad for the wallet but also constant expansions I think will quickly lead to power creep. Something Armada has generally avoided and something X-Wing suffers more from and has more frequent releases. It also increases the chance of a major gaffe that throws off game balance which in turn leads to an exploding FAQ.

So yeah I like the slower and steadier approach of Armada but 1 ship expansion a year isn't enough. I think 2 a year is just right with a 3rd non-ship expansion would be perfect.

49 minutes ago, Thrindal said:

I was just talking to a friend about this myself after they announced Legion is expected to have new product every month. That can either be looked at as very cool or a potential disaster.

It is good for variety and game expansion, which for a new game is probably helpful. Remember how stale Armada got early on with no new product?

It is bad for the wallet but also constant expansions I think will quickly lead to power creep. Something Armada has generally avoided and something X-Wing suffers more from and has more frequent releases. It also increases the chance of a major gaffe that throws off game balance which in turn leads to an exploding FAQ.

So yeah I like the slower and steadier approach of Armada but 1 ship expansion a year isn't enough. I think 2 a year is just right with a 3rd non-ship expansion would be perfect.

They’re at about 2 waves/year on average, so that’s not too bad. But I do think that it’s that waves are smaller and fewer upgrade combinations over all that help. Pick up a ship for Xwing and you have dozens of upgrades for some slots while Armada has around 10 with the exception of the officers.