So we know of 2 non-faction locked upgrades that are coming in the clone wars, at least only 2 that I am aware of we are going to look at at Reactive Gunnery impact on the current factions in the game we will look at Munitions Resupply at a later time, but let's dive right no it so here is reactive gunnery.
So we can exhaust this card to spend one of our readied or green defense tokens to resolve the salvo effect seems pretty nice and well it is, it takes up our defensive retrofit but for 4 points you basically get a guaranteed salvo attack so while it competes with other defensive upgrades, it's still really solid and the cheapest defensive retrofit we have in the game right now.
So let's look at how the empire might use this card. One of the first ships I thought of with this is the Arquitens. I almost never see a defensive retrofit on these guys and this seams at the very least an interesting choice. You got two dice in your rear battery a red and black or red and blue depending and it might be worth the extra 5 points to get the blue, as personally I find longer range for salvo dice fairly valuable.
Arquitens Light Cruiser (54)
• Expert Shield Tech (5)
• Reactive Gunnery (4)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
= 70 Points
Arquitens Command Cruiser (59)
• Expert Shield Tech (5)
• Reactive Gunnery (4)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
= 75 Points
It can get a bit expensive but you can make yourself a tough little ship that I think will contribute far above its weight class.
The only other ships that have a natural Defensive retrofit on the empires side are the Kuat ISD and ISD-II, I think that if the kuat wants a salvo it is a lot easier to justify the Local Fire Control Teams than it is on the ISD-II.
Imperial II (120)
• Captain Brunson (5)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Reactive Gunnery (4)
• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
= 148 Points
This guy here will give you consistent damage all around and even if brace does get locked up it has Brunson to help in a pinch. Will this go anywhere not sure but it does intrigue me. The idea of officer Palpatine and salvo also really interesting to me.Lastly the Empire has Tua and well she lets us put Reactive Gunnery on anything, but if we are going to spend 2 extra points for this upgrade we better make it worth it, and that points us to the Interdictor of all places.
Interdictor Suppression Refit (90)
• Minister Tua (2)
• Disposable Capacitors (3)
• Grav Shift Reroute (2)
• Targeting Scrambler (5)
• Ion Cannon Batteries (5)
• Interdictor (3)
• Reactive Gunnery(4)
= 114 Points
The Interdictor has 3 dice in its rear battery armament 2 blue one red and it has an interesting synergy with D-Caps as D-caps works until the end of the round so if you get attacked from long range pop D-caps you get your blue dice in that attack then latter in the round you get to use your blue dice when you attack as well so that is really nice. Put officer Vader nearby to choke out Tua and boom you got yourself a ship that will do a deceptive amount of damage over the course of a round, I am really excited to try this out.
On the rebel side we have a few options first up assault frigate.
Now the assault frigate can take Local Fire Control, but if you want your weapon teams slot for something else this is a good option that also does not make you ditch one of your tokens. Admittedly the assault Frigate A is a better salvo ship than the B, but the B is not a terrible especially with the weapon slot open.
Assault Frigate Mk2 B (72)
• Boarding Troopers (3)
• Reactive Gunnery(4)
• Spinal Armament (9)
• Paragon (5)
= 93 Points
While this ship wont get 3 salvo dice the addition of boarding troopers with a squadron value of 3 really makes this a ship that is going to strip defense tokens fast, you could still do something a lot like it with the A just with 2 squadron value you get a little less from Boarding troopers.You could also do hriv or Cham or maybe you want Flight Controllers or even Gunnery Team it gives you options with both versions of the Assault Frigate so that is nice.
I hesitate to put this on here, but the CR90 has a defensive retrofit that never gets used and it made me think what if. Now the CR-90 only has one die out the rear so its not going to do anything amazing for you, but Reactive Gunnery is 4 points if you can get two shots off with it I think it might be worth it.
CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Reactive Gunnery (4)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
• Jaina's Light (2)
= 57 Points
With something like the above you will likely always get something from salvo, instead of spending a evade for defense and a evade for TRCs we use one evade as a salvo. I know I have add a CR-90 go down regardless of if I spend a token or not so it might be nice to get something out of it and for 4 points if you get to chuck a few extra dice over the course of the game seems pretty nice to me. I am not 100% sold on the idea, but it does interest me enough to want to try it out.
Another ship that I am probably even a little more hesitant to put on here is the MC-30, now the scout does have a red die to go with its black die in the rear battery to give it range, but meh. I think reactive gunnery might have a place on a second player admo lando, my train of thought is with admo and lando you can at least absorb one big shot a game I tend to be aggressive with that to set up a strong attack for myself, but if I am going to take damage might as well throw a little back.
MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)
• Lando Calrissian (4)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Reactive Gunnery (4)
• External Racks (3)
• Admonition (8)
= 86 Points
is it worth it not sure with the buff to Advanced Projectors for two points more that might be the better option making MC-30s even more of a pain to kill. Still I do like the idea of more damage and its a little cheaper as well.
Lastly probably the ship that wanted this card more than any other in the galactic Civil War the MC80 Home One, particularly the assault.
I think it still has a place on a Command Cruiser especially in a squadron list just to act as extra poke damage that will just be super annoying to deal with on top of your squadron attacks.
MC80 Command Cruiser (106)
• Reactive Gunnery(4)
• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
= 126 Points
Now the Assault with two defensive retrofits is the ship that wanted this card more than any others.
MC80 Assault Cruiser (114)
• Reactive Gunnery(4)
• Advanced Projectors (6)
• High-Capacity Ion Turbines (8)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
• Defiance (5)
= 144 Points
Really it's an amazing 3 die salvo ship no way around it and is the clear winner in the Galactic Civil War when it comes to using Reactive Gunnery.
How will you use Reactive Gunnery in the Galactic Civil War? What are your Impressions of the card? Hoping to get more info from FFG about all the changes soon, until next time stay safe and have a great week!
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