So we got some sad news this week Clone Wars ships have been delayed sadly. I guess it should be expected, at this point however it seams like AMG has their stuff together and this was just caused by all the complexities and unforeseen factors in international trade. However we did get one piece of good news the ship card for the Venator II!
Lets take a look!
First up its 10 points more, however it has 5 squadrons as opposed to 3. So you get two expanded hanger decks that cost 5 points each for a total of ten extra points. Makes sense I guess and seams reasonable. However that is not all you get you get 2 red and 2 blue out the side as opposed to 2 black 1 red 1 blue. The front is now 2 red 2 blue and 2 black, this is honestly a side grade at best, the difference of range between black dice and blue dice is not as much as you might first think its less then 2 and a half inches. Sometimes that matters, but the trade off is black dice have higher damage output, and in most cases I would rather just have that.
You also drop the fleet command for a defensive retrofit and that's a bit of a downgrade in my opinion.
I am sure the defensive retrofit will still be nice to have as a flagship to make it just a bit more durable. It also changes one of its blue anti-squadron die to a black, black dice are always nice as they are consistent. Lastly and probably most interestingly is the ship traits. The Venator I has Clone, Comms, Jedi and the Venator II has Clone, Bombard.
Without looking at the keywords If you are not using the squadron power of the Venator II you should take a Venator I, however if you are not taking a fleet command on the Venator I then you should be taking an acclamator.
I am hopeful that ship traits will start to matter in this next wave of ships with upgrades that reference them or something. The Venator I is the only ship with the Jedi trait so that could make it worth taking in different circumstances. However because the Acclamator-II has both Clone and Bombard I think the Venator-II is consigned to being the mega squadron pusher, and that is just fine its not a bad roll at all and I am very excited to give it a go with Yularen.
Sorry this is a shorter AMM the past two weeks have been crazy for me in my life, but I make it a point to make sure I get out AMM weekly. AMG droping this card that I could do this short evaluation of was really nice as it did not look like I would have time to finish what I was working on, next weeks AMM will be a bit longer, until next time have a great week!