The Clone Wars release week is upon us and man am I excited we got a lot this week with some German rules spoilers and a charger article an some card spoilers from the upgrade card pack as well. I am not going to touch on the charger or the cards just yet we are going to focus on the Republic and the Separatist squadrons in this write up as I already talked about the charger and hardcell and for the most part what I said about them is true I will take a deeper look at them later once I have gotten them to the table, but I do want to talk briefly about one rule change we got and that is the change to evade as I feel the change impacts squadrons quite a bit, and not just because a few aces now have an evade token.
So as soon as I saw Axe I had a feeling that evade was getting some kind of change, and so they did. I am working from a German translation so please keep that in mind but this is what we got “ At long range you choose an attack die and cancel it. If the attack is at medium or short range choose one attack die that must be rerolled. If the attacker is a larger ship than you, you may affect one additional die by discarding this token.” Emphasis mine, please know that this is a very rough translation and may vary from actual translation. This translation has some really cool implications, particularly the last part, but we are going to focus on the part that I emphasized.
Anyone who has played Mon Mothma knows that one of the cool things about taking her is that you could use evades to make squadrons re-roll dice, now with this rework everyone gets that and Mon Mothma no doubt has gotten some kind of rework. Now that this is applicable across the board evade has now become one of the best defense tokens against squadrons for ships to use, and likewise a squadron with an evade token can force re-rolls, this is particularly interesting with Axe as if he takes 3 damage for example he can use the evade to reroll one of the dice now its two damage brace it to one damage whereas if he was just a double brace ace he would have had to take 2 damage so while I am still not in love with Axe he is a bit better than I originally gave him credit for, but still not a huge fan.
So now that we know a little bit of how the new evade will work lets dive into the squadrons I have already talked about both the Vulture Droid and Torrents, but we get a new ace in the packs so lets start there.
First up “kickback”
he is our new V-19 Ace and he is very much the same aside from tokens and his ability. He gets two brace tokens and the ability “After you Perform an attack you may move up to distance 1, even if you are engaged.” So this is kind of interesting with intel now granting grit movement is at a premium and begin able to move whether it to break engagement or re-position will be nice. I think he will most likely be used to keep squadrons tied down for example one of the other players squadrons you really want to keep tied down will be able to fly away attack with kickback re-position to engage and your fine. Also just continually healing on the station could be pretty crazy. He has a nice ability and is more survivable with two braces and only cost 4 more points than a generic so I think he is good and while space for aces is limited to 4 slots I could see him squeezing into the 4th slot in a list.
Next up our Vulture Droid ace DFS-311
So this ace is 10 points more than a generic Vulture droid, but you get a pretty good amount of stuff you get a brace and the very powerful scatter token you gain the intel keyword and an ability “while you are defending, if the attack is obstructed, you may force the attacker to re-roll 1 die of your choice” and you drop a blue die for a red die in your anti-squadron armament. So first off you should always add a black die to your anti-squadron and use your swarm ability to re-roll your single red die. Second to get value from his ability you want to keep this squadron around rocks to help obstruct attacks to benefit from its ability, while still using Intel to free up the squadrons you need to. I think this squadrons price point is mostly because of scatter and how powerful it can be but you also get some nice utility as well. I think DFS-311 is kinda in the same spot as kickback gives you some nice utility and depended on if you really want that over another ace.
As a bit of a side note I hope this is how they use intel moving forward like in addition to this ability you get this as right now the Jump master and HWK really need a rework to make me want to take them. I think giving the jumpmaster an extra anti-squadron die and snipe 2 or 3 would make it feel about right again, and swap out the blue battery dice in the HWK for a black and give it clock. Anyway I digress back to the Clone Wars.
Let's move on the the ARC-170 and I will admit I was wrong it is not the most expensive non-rouge generic in the game, because yes its slow.
Okay at first glance it reminds you of a B-wing and I think that is a fair comparison its slow just like the B-wing at speed 2 has slightly less anti-ship punch but gains counter and with two blue and a red anti-squadron could get 4 damage where the B-wing was maxed up at 3, they also have 7 hull so 2 more in addition so these guys are going to be beasts to take down even without defense tokens. As should be known with B-wings their speed two does not keep them from being very scary, Hyperspace rings makes it easy to put these guys where you need them along with any other squadron movement shenanigans that you need. You pay slightly more than a B-wing, but you get a tanker, better able to kill squadrons fighter at the cost of being marginally worse at killing ships. It will be a scary thing for vulture droids to take on as it can just get a ton of value from the counter one. This will likely see plenty of play, now onto the ARC-170 ace “Odd Ball”
Odd Ball is much the same however he does drop the red for a more consistent black in his anti-squadorn pool, and gains a brace and evade and the ability “While attacking if you moved during this activation, you may reroll up to 2 dice” If you can keep Odd Ball moving he will do very consistent damage for you. You will likely want to keep him on the outskirts of the squad battle engaged with one squadron and pair him up with a squadron that has Intel you let him move take shots and get re-rolls you have to play smart and build a little bit around him, but he will be an amazingly consistent squadron for you when played well. The brace and evade is a good combo for the odd damage ranks like 3, and 5 as if you can spend both with a little luck you can go from bracing a 3 to a 1 or a 5 to a 2 so I kinda like the pair together, and the extra durability gained from the tokens means you will get just that much more value out of counter 1.
Moving on back to the Separatists we have the Hyena Class Bomber.
So we get speed 4 and 4 hull two blue anti-squadron and one red battery die, we have AI Battery 1 meaning when activated by a squadron command we can add another red die to our battery armament, we also have Bomber and Heavy and clock in at 11 points. So I was a bit surprised by the red die because as of right now Hyena are potentially the most dangerous Bombers in the game, now the chances of 4 damage are low about 2% if we are nice and round up but still its their. Now sure red dice can be swingy and they do not as consistency produce two damage but two reds with bomber very consistently deliver at least 1 damage two red dice with bomber do an average of 1.5 damage and you have a good shot of rolling at least 2 or more damage so this fighter is nothing to snuff at its a Glass Cannon basically and you will get a lot of value out of these guys for 44 points you can roll 8 red dice in one activation yes please. Now you get two aces with these guys so let's take a look first up Baktoid Prototypes.
Okay so at first glance they may seem a bit underwhelming, however for only 5 more points you get a brace and scatter and the ability “While attacking a ship if another friendly squadron with bomber is at distance 1 of the defender you may change 1 die to a face with an accuracy Icon.” this ability at first glance might seem a little underwhelming however you will have 2 red dice if you are using the Baktoid right and I think while squadrons with a single die will struggle to get damage to stick to ships with evade Baktoid will be just fine in most cases you will always roll at least 1 damage and if you rolled a blank on your other die you can lock up the evade to make the damage stick or maybe you are up against kenobi and want to lock up the green redirect or they have expert shield techs or something. I think accuracies are going to be a bit more nice to have in the squadron game with the ability for ships to evade damage sure they are still spending it so it will eventually be gone, but having the ability to get around that with a accuracy and the extra durability gained from the tokens makes this worth the 5 extra points. Now on to DBS-404
oh wait here it is
okay so this guy really reminds me of the idea I had to have a anti-squadron part of the wing and a bomber part of the wing and use hyper-wave signal boost to activate the bomber wing during the squadron phase. As you use fighter coordination team to position them and trap a ship into overlapping you. Throw this guy in there place him in a spot that he will get overlapped and then you will get to place him touching the ship base that overlapped him fulfilling part of 404 ability, “while attacking if you are touching the defender, you may suffer 1 damage to add 1 die to your attack pool of a color that is already in your attack pool” hello 3 red bomber dice from a squadron. Now you also gain brace and scatter to help you survive and you are 6 points more than your generic counterparts. You are going to want to try and get the ability off at least 2 times every game to get value out of 404 but I think you can do some fun stuff with this squadron. On to the republics BTL-Y wings.
Okay so I will be honest these are kind of boring, and I am a bit disappointed in the design. They are just like normal Y-wings but drop one blue anti-squadron for a black for a bit more consistency in damage with no price increase they become slightly less likely to roll an accuracy but with only two dice that really does not matter. I was hoping they would be different from normal Y-wings in a more meaningful way, but your getting a reliable hard to kill bomber for 10 points that has consistency in the anti-squadron game so I don't think you can complain they are a fine squadron, now the ace Anakin Skywalker that is what is interesting here.
Okay so we gain a lot with this guy we get 3 blue anti-squadron in place of a blue and a black we drop our black dice for a red and a blue we still have bomber and heavy but gain adept 2 meaning we can always reroll 2 dice while attacking we also gain 2 braces and we gain this ability “During your activation, you may spend 1 defense token to ignore engagement until the end of your activation.” all that for 9 points, so let me stress this you are your own bomber command center, but you get to not only reroll one dice you can reroll two oh your not going to attack a ship this round your attacking a squadron that is fine you're also your own torryn far but you get to reroll two dice not one. Oh and also intel was nerfed so if you spend a token to basically get normal intel, but it's actually a little bit better than that because you get to ignore engagement your engaged with soother fel and don't want to attack him no problem you get to ignore engagement really need to kill a pesky squadron behind an escort you are engaged with no problem you can ignore engagement. I hope I conveyed how powerful this ability is it's not just you can attack ships or move this round while engaged thats cool, that is Tyco this is Anakin. some keywords and abilities very specifically mention engagement and you just get to bypass all of that because engagement does not apply to you. All this for just 9 more points. Now sure you have to spend a defense token, but if you are being escorted that is no issue. And even then 6 hull for such an amazingly flexible ability man I guess he is only speed 3, but 19 points is very cheap for what you are getting and this squadron at least until we get more unique Anakin Skywalker cards in the game should and probably will be in pretty much every Republic fleet.
Next up droid Tri-Fighters.
Okay so speed 5 with 3 hull a red and 2 blue for anti-squadron and a black in your battery armament AI anti-squadron 1 counter 2 and swarm. This is a tie interceptor and A-wing love child and I think it might be my new favorite squadron in the game. So you will be averaging about 2 damage before factoring in swarm you have a damage ceiling of 5 I mean dang sure it needs the double hit on the red but that is some threatening stuff. Then top it off with a black battery dice let me kill your squadrons then start to kill you then you have swarm so I can just bring you back if you die with RHD and boom we are back in business it's so good so good I had a feeling that I was going to like the Tri-fighter as its role seemed to fit my play-style, but this has surpassed all my expectations, I will likely get 3 packs of the separatist squadrons now almost exclusively for these guys because I am in love. Lets look at the aces really quick as I continually gush about how much I love this fighter, first up DIS-T81.
Okay so I am going to try and keep my cool we swap out a blue for a black die in our anti-squadron so that is great more consistency and we get our brace and our scatter so that is nice as well, in addition we gain snipe 3 that is effectively snipe 4 because AI and the ability that “your attacks cannot be obstructed” Okay so hide this guy in a rock and pick off squadrons at distance 2 without having to worry about obstruction and even if someone comes to attack me I have defense tokens but the attack is also obstructed so even more durability and I only pay 6 points for this. This squadron is saber squadron with defense tokens as the ability to not have attacks obstructed and a better anti-ship die for only 5 more points that is insane love this one a lot. Next up Phalc-Arphocc Prototypes, yeah don't even try to say it every time I try it sounds like i'm either sweating or referencing something that looks like a particular part of the male anatomy so I am just going to call it PA.
with this one we drop a blue for a black in our anti-squadron and gain our scatter and brace and we gain this ability “after an enemy squadron ends its activation at distance 1 that squadron suffers 1 Damage” Okay so we throw this guy in there and he becomes the we must kill this guy at all costs squadron. He acts a lot like soother fel, but even if they attack you and you don't die they still take one damage plus the counter damage to deal back. PA will likely go down fast, but PA will get a lot of damage out before PA goes down, if you just need something that is going to damage stuff this is your squadron. PA is also the closest thing the Separatists have to escort so that is something else to take into account when considering if you want to shell out the 8 points, I mean PA is no Anakin Skywalker so 8 points is steep but that damage potential, speaking of the Jedi let's look at the Delta-7.
So this is the republics fastest squadron at speed 4 has 4 hull and 3 blue and a black for anti-squadron and a single blue battery die however we get Adept so we are always able to re-roll one die so kinda like swarm, but we don't need another squadron to be engaged to trigger it and it also works on our battery die so that blue die always has a re-roll making it fairly consistent in damaging ships. We also have counter and adept will give us a re-roll for that too and we have dodge 1 and that is effectively an evade defense token that is always on when defending against a squadron. It clocks in at 17 points it's like a mix between a tie defender and an a-wing its a very solid squadron and you will get some mileage out of it, a screen of just 4 for these is 68 points but with dodge and adept if you want a low investment in squadrons but ones that will get work done look no further, however we got 4 named Jedi to get through so lets do it.
Luminara Unduli she is the same statistically as the normal delta-7, but gains the brace and evade, but loses dodge and gains this ability “while an enemy squadron at distance 1 is attacking a non-unique, friendly squadron the attack is treated as obstructed.” She is going to do a really great job at protecting non-uniques and seams to work particularly well with V-19s she does come in at 23 points but if used well will boost the survivability of your squadron wing, next up everyone favorite masked man Plo Koon.
So again Plo Koon is much the same as the normal delta 7 but loses dodge for a brace and scatter but is not only adept one but adept 2 so he will do very well in the anti-squadron game, and no you can't re-roll your battery dice twice with adept just one re-roll per re-roll effect. You also gain the ability “Non-unique, friendly squadrons without counter at distance 1 gain counter 1” this nice as now your opponent has to pick between attacking Plo Koon and taking very likely 2 damage from counter because adept 2 or taking one back from the squadrons around Plo Koon, again this seems like it will work very will with your V-19 escorts, Next up Ahsoka Tano.
Ahsoka Tano gains grit and has a brace and scatter the rest is the same but we gain a pretty cool ability. “After you move, you may choose another friendly squadron at distance 1. That Squadron performs an attack against an enemy squadron at distance 1 with an anti-squadron armament of 2 blue dice. (even if it is already activated).” So this is like Colonel Jendon but a little weaker, but Ahsoka can still make her attack. So with grit you want to keep her on the outskirts of the squadron battle to keep her mobile with grit and to use her ability. You will get the most value out of her ability by letting people with adept 2 use it to attack to reroll both dice, like Anakin, Plo Koon, or our next and last Delta-7 ace Kit Fisto.
So Kit Fisto again the same stats at delta-7 loses dodge and gains two braces so no scatter he also gains intel so that is interesting and gains this ability. “When you spend a defense token, you may discard it. If you do, reduce the total damage by 3 instead of resolving that tokens effect.” so in most cases you are not going to take more than 3 damage so most of the time your braces are effectively scatters. So Kits Fisto is basically a very durable source of intel that can really put out the damage however I am not sure that that is worth 26 points maybe it is but I am not sold on it I do want to play around with intel after the nerf to really see how nice it can be giving you some flexibility to move around, but I am not sure I am willing to spend 26 points for it when I could just take another jedi ace that is cheaper and does something that might be more useful like Ahsoka. Okay on to our last squadron the Belbullab.
Okay so this guy is speed 4 with 5 hull 2 blue and 2 black with a blue non-bomber battery die. It also has Relay 1 so that can be nice to get a squadron that is out of activation range and gains screen and that is effectively gives fighters that don't have screen escort because each squadrons that the attacker that is engaged with other than you give you dodge 1 up to a max of 3 so your other fighters make this guy harder to kill. The Belbullab is kinda meh its got okay anti-squadron but the Tri-fighter will be better and has better anti-ship and is cheaper and the addition of relay 1 does not help maybe if it was relay 2 it would be worth taking, but I am pretty disappointed in this squadron, I would pay 18 points for this if it had relay 2 but with just 1 I am disappointed. I will give it a shot, and maybe I am being to critical of the squadron, but I am not expecting to much from these guys. I am however not disappointed in its ace General Grievous.
So Grievous upgrades his battery dice to a black and then gets relay 2 thank goodness and keeps screen and gains two braces so Grievous is going to be super durable and he gains a really cool ability “While attacking a ship or squadron with no readied defense tokens, each of your crit icons adds 1 damage to the damage total.” So Grievous is going to absolutely decimate generic squadrons a potential 6 damage and your blue dice go from 50/50 shot of damage to 75% shot that's crazy. You could also send in Grievous last after a few other squads have hit an ace and made it spend its defense tokens and follow up with a heavy hit from Grievous. You also get that better anti ship die and if you send Grievous in at the right time you can get potential two damage. Grievous is 7 points more and is worth it in every way I'll say it again belbullabl should have been 18 points with relay 2, but I really don't think I can argue a case for a generic over Grievous.
I am very excited for clone wars to come out on Friday and I can't wait to start painting. I'm going to leave you with a few squadron builds I have some interest in trying.
5x Hyena- Class Droid Bomber (55)
5x Vulture- Class Droid Fighter (40)
General Grievous (22)
DBS-404 (17)
Total Points= 134
Yes this one will be using hyperwave signal boost shenanigans.
4x V-19 Torrents (48)
2x BTL Y-wing (20)
Anakin Skywalker (19)
Plo Koon (24)
Luminara Unduli (23)
Total Points= 134
I really like the idea of a torrent ball with Plo Koon and Luminara, add in a few bombers for some more ship damage and bam you got yourself an all round good squadron ball. I am not much for odd number of squadrons but something about his compliment just feels right.
DFS-311 (18)
DIS-T81 (17)
PHLAC-ARPHOCC PROTOTYPES (19)
3x Droid Tri-Fighter (33)
2x Hyena Class Droid Bomber (22)
Total Points= 109
Have DFS-311 and DIS-T18 sit in the rocks together and help out the other guys with some nice abilities and some bombers to round out damage.
Kit Fisto (26)
Odd Ball (23)
2x ARC-170 (30)
Anakin Skywalker (19)
Ahsoka Tano (23)
Total Points= 121
using Ahsoka to make Anakin or kit fisto attack a bit more seams nice and have Kit Fisto help keep Odd Ball mobile.
4x Droid Tri-Fighter squadron (44)
4x Hyena-Class Droid Bomber (44)
Total Points= 88
For only 88 points this is a nice all rounder squadron ball.
Ahsoka Tano (23)
Anakin Skywalker (19)
4x Delta-7 Aethersprite (68)
Total Points = 110
an entire squadron force of Jedi seams fun.
By the next AMM Clone Wars will be out so have a happy Clone Wars Release day, and until next time have a great week!
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