The revealed new Turbolaser upgrade may be one less reason to bring squadrons at all, especially for the Rebel Alliance.

Linked Turbolaser Turrets - You may reroll 1 red die in your attack pool. While attacking the first squadron during your activation, you may add 2 dice of any color to your attack pool. If you do, you cannot declare additional squadron targets for this attack. (Turbolaser, 7 pts.)

Let's take an SSD:

SSD Assault Prototype (250)
• Agent Kallus (3)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• H9 Turbolasers (8)
• Linked Turbolaser Turrets (7)
• Ravager (4)
= 279 Points

1 red at long range plus 1 die of any color because of Kallus (against uniques) plus 2 dice of any color because of Linked Turbolaser Turrets, plus another 2 dice of a color already in the attack pool because of a concentrate fire command and Ravager's additional token effect.

1 rerollable red and 5 rerollable blacks at long range.

Or let's add Director Krennic to the mix:

SSD Assault Prototype (250)
• Agent Kallus (3)
• Director Krennic (8)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Linked Turbolaser Turrets (7)
• Quad Turbolaser Cannons (10)
• Ravager (4)
= 289 Points

That's 5 red dice at long range, all of them rerollable, one of them rerollable twice. Roll one accuracy and both defense tokens of the defender are locked. Bye bye Rebel Aces as soon as they enter long range of the SSD.

In the stream, they said that one of the campaign Commander ability paths strengthens squadron. I hope, there will be an upgrade card or two that can be used in regular play in "Rebellion in the Rim" that strenghen squadrons too, especially Rebel ones.

The main issue with it being, sure, you're going to punt one squadron really hard... But its one squadron .

The ship can potentially have flak out of 3 arcs... But you'd be giving it up for one shot .

Its got to be worth it.

But that's what Gunnery Teams are for. You can attack other squads of the incoming squadron ball (in one of the SSD's fire archs) right away. You didn't declare the other squadrons as targets in the first attack.

Then you've spent two out of three attacks on not shooting ships. That's the trade off. Imagine a Dodonna fleet with full squads, an MC30, Yavaris, a Hammerhead and flotillas.

You're right that this upgrade does make expensive aces like Morna and Hera potentially more vulnerable to squadless fleets, which I think is a good thing for the game and adds variety.

47 minutes ago, JadinED said:

1 rerollable red and 5 rerollable blacks at long range.

47 minutes ago, JadinED said:

That's 5 red dice at long range,

Or no dice.

Ships work too.

Sarcasm and snippyness aside, it's a combo that will absolutely punish people who aren't expecting to see it, and the card even works as an okay upgrade if there's no squadrons around.

That being said, you're spending 289 points specifically to mulch a 12-27 point fighter stand (which being able to reach out and swat Col Jendon / Maarek Steel out the sky in a single lucky shot is pretty okay to me) which is foiled simply by parking the squadrons behind your ships / asteroids.

The Quasar II is going you love this too. Rebels miss out a bit I'm not having any red dice flak.

If the SSD takes its own squad ball a couple of super flak shots will be enough to tip the squad battle its way. It will have plenty of time to shoot and kill ships later. Definitely a better upgrade for Imperials.

It says: while attacking the first squadron target during YOUR ACTIVATION. And goes on to CANNOT make any further squad attacks.

So how do you get multiple squadron shots with gt?

You don't.

18 minutes ago, Green Knight said:

It says: while attacking the first squadron target during YOUR ACTIVATION. And goes on to CANNOT make any further squad attacks.

So how do you get multiple squadron shots with gt?

You don't.

Well, the SSD has three attacks. First, you make a squadron attack, say, against a squadron ball with Jan Ors and/or Biggs. You declare one of them as your first target, add all those dice and potentially take that one out.
During the rest of this first attack, you cannot attack any more squadrons. But with your second and third attack, you can.
So in your second Attack Step you use Gunnery Teams to target all the other squadrons in the same fire arch. You didn't declare them as targets in the first Attack Step, so you can, now. You cannot add the concentrate fire dice and the Linked Turbolaser Turrets (LTT) dice anymore, but Kallus is still possible, as is the first of LTT effects, rerolling a red die.

And with the third attack of the SSD, you may have a double arch on one or two of the enemy squadron ball, who knows...

1 hour ago, Zamalekite said:

The Quasar II is going you love this too. Rebels miss out a bit I'm not  having any red dice flak.

 If the SSD takes its own squad ball a couple of sup  er flak shots will be enough to tip the squad battle its way. It will have plenty of time to shoot and kill ships later. Definitely a better upgrade for Imperials. 

Poor Quasar doesn't get the Turbolaser slot.

I could maybe see this on a Yavaris, but not much else for rebels. Yavaris likes red re-rolls and has a potent AA. It could help it snipe the enemy's intel. Combined with new Auxiliary Shield Teams and Neb B's are stronger then ever.

I'm hoping a variant of the rebel Correllian Gunship comes with a red AA dice though.

21 minutes ago, Divad said:

Poor Quasar doesn't get the Turbolaser slot.

Oh yes, thank goodness for that

5 hours ago, Divad said:

I could maybe see this on a Yavaris, but not much else for rebels. Yavaris likes red re-rolls and has a potent AA. It could help it snipe the enemy's intel. Combined with new Auxiliary Shield Teams and Neb B's are stronger then ever.

Assault Frigates seem great with this IMO

19 hours ago, JadinED said:

Well, the SSD has three attacks. First, you make a squadron attack, say, against a squadron ball with Jan Ors and/or Biggs. You declare one of them as your first target, add all those dice and potentially take that one out.
During the rest of this first attack, you cannot attack any more squadrons. But with your second and third attack, you can.
So in your second Attack Step you use Gunnery Teams to target all the other squadrons in the same fire arch. You didn't declare them as targets in the first Attack Step, so you can, now. You cannot add the concentrate fire dice and the Linked Turbolaser Turrets (LTT) dice anymore, but Kallus is still possible, as is the first of LTT effects, rerolling a red die.

And with the third attack of the SSD, you may have a double arch on one or two of the enemy squadron ball, who knows...

It says the first squadron during your activation, not attack. I.e no attacking with GT twice.

20 hours ago, Green Knight said:

It says: while attacking the first squadron target during YOUR ACTIVATION. And goes on to CANNOT make any further squad attacks.

So how do you get multiple squadron shots with gt?

You don't.

Read all the card.

40 minutes ago, Rieon said:

It says the first squadron during your activation, not attack. I.e no attacking with GT twice.

Read the bloody card

44 minutes ago, TallGiraffe said:

Read the bloody card

Haha while you are right, instead of just dropping the evidence like one drops the mic, it may be better to point out the defining keywords to help people quickly zoom in on the issue. That is one of the things I learnt while in the IT defects line.

For this case guys, note the "THIS ATTACK" at the bottom of the card. If I read this right, this means after shooting that 1 enemy squad with +2 dice, your first attack is ended. You could then use your second attack to flak other squads not including that first squad, and if GT then same arc as well.

Currently the discussion about that is in another separate thread heh

4 hours ago, TallGiraffe said:

Read all the card.

Wow that was really helpful.

Fortunately someone on Discord actually explained it, so all good.

Could you combine LTT with Ordinance Pods to add those two bonus dice to the single black die?

4 minutes ago, Dobbs Mottley said:

Could you combine LTT with Ordinance Pods to add those two bonus dice to the single black die?

My initial reading of the card says yes. Except that you wouldn’t be able to flak before then, because it’s says first squadron attack during your activation.

So you could get two attacks on ships, then Ord pod with LTT onto a single squadron.

I don't have enough practical playing experience to know if that would be a sensible combo, but my thinking is that LTT works well with a bonus anti-squadron attack, as you might not want to spend one of your regular attacks shooting against a single squadron. Is that capability worth the five extra points over DTT though?

On certain ships it wont be an issue.

We have been complaining about Aces being so strong for a long time. It's mere existence may help reduce the prevalence of said fleet types, which will mean more diversity of viable fleets. Which means fewer aces which means no one takes ace killing tech, which leads to the rise of aces. If they can build a game with a rotating meta then they can easily go down to one or two released a year. The game itself can remain fluid and dynamic regenerating itself keeping it exciting and fun for a longer time while avoiding card bloat. 😀 Maybe I have to much hope for this 😄 ......I really didn't intend to turn my thought into a hype rant but there it is 😆 .....GO ARMADA! 😎

11 minutes ago, zingerwhip said:

If they can build a game with a rotating meta ..

Armada already has a rotating meta. 1 1/2 years without any new cards. And the meta shifted two or even three times since the last wave.

1 hour ago, Tokra said:

Armada already has a rotating meta. 1 1/2 years without any new cards. And the meta shifted two or even three times since the last wave.

Yes but very similar final tables at big events. We don't need a huge shake up just a couple gentle nudges.....careful.....

17 hours ago, Dobbs Mottley said:

I don't have enough practical playing experience to know if that would be a sensible combo, but my thinking is that LTT works well with a bonus anti-squadron attack, as you might not want to spend one of your regular attacks shooting against a single squadron. Is that capability worth the five extra points over DTT though?

Imo LTT already seems worth it over DTT if you can frequently get off 2 ship shots, since DTT can only use once per turn. It even overlaps Spinals' territory abit for ships with natural high red dice counts and GT-capable