AMG gave us some cool spoilers this week, and we also got an unboxing video as well! I am now more excited then ever for this clone wars wave to drop cant wait to mess around with all the new toys that are coming out so lets take a look at what we got coming to this game we love!
First up the pelta has two titles and a new fleet support upgrade available in it pack so lets take a look at what we got!
TB-73 gives you an extra evade for 5 points. If you have gotten in a few games in with 1.5 you know how good evades can be particularly on small ship of which the pelta is. So for 50ish points total you get a brace a redirect and 2 evades, that is a though ship for the price. I think this title could also be very helpful if you are taking reactive gunnery, and with two reds out the rear that seams like a good idea. This way its just one more token to let you use reactive, this is a very solid title and really if you have the points its very much worth taking.
Next up FB-88 so this guy is simple and clean you have skilled first officer every turn on a command 2 ship, so what does this do? What you can do is pick two commands you might want to have and then when the time comes to activate do you want the top command or bottom command and you get the command you want/need right when you need it. I think this has two great applications first Comms net, its not flashy, but you can dial in two commands you may need to pass to a ship then once its time to pass the token you make sure it gets the right one, again not flashy, but it works. If you are using this guy as a pocket carrier its amazing squadron con-fire, I need the squadon now put squadron as next command now you have confire squadron you still need to push squadrons no problem FB-88 has your back set squadron as the top command then confire for the bottom, dang the squadrons you where going to activate have died no problem dump that dial and get your con fire, so versatile. This can also be interesting in a support ship like with expert shied techs or in a Yalarin list maybe you don't need to pass shields or heal a squadron this round dump the engineering for something else, you always get what you need. This title is better with particular builds I just mentioned, but still solid pick.
Last up for the petla is the Mercy mission, so you are giving up a fleet command to take this card, and that's not great, but it can give you 40 points at the end of the game. In most cases what is going to happen is that you will put this on a 37 Consular when you move it before deploying fleets and have it fly into away from the action. This is very good in a squadron heavy list, because you will never get tabled, and to get the points in your squads they will need to kill them, and you spent 37 points and got 40 points out of it and that 40 can pretty easily drop a 8-3 to a 7-4 or that 7-4 to a 6-5, list that use this well will have a hard time losing big, and in a tournament setting that's good. The downside is the fleet support slot.
Next up is our cards coming in the Venator so lets look at those.
Triumphant, is kind of like Centicore on a durable that trades a bit for range for the ability to activate 3 as opposed to 2 fighters, and cost 2 points more, but that 2 points is worth it just because of the chaise this comes with. Its also non-flotilla so when/if the republic gets a flotilla you cant hide it in the corner and command squadrons. Its a solid card and opens up different strategies.
Resolute 6 points you can put 4 tokens with at lest 2 types of tokens on this card and when you reveal a matching command you get a matching token. I think in most cases this is going to be 3 squadron tokens and 1 engineering tokens, and you are really just using it to get that token to trigger Yularen for 3 rounds, but its possible someone could really break this out and do something unique with it.
Tranquility for 3 points is really amazing it makes it so you can always redirect and in fact I think what this title is meant to let you do is take local fire control teams and dump your redirect while still getting a redirect like effect. It also seam like it would pair well with Luminara Unduli and Adi Gallia, for just crazy shield utility even when you dump your redirect for a salvo. Even if you are not doing something like that it simply makes regaling shields more efficient, because no matter where you put them you can technically always have 2 shields where you need them, all for just 3 points is solid.
We also got a look at a new clone wars locked fleet command hot landing its pretty. much republic only at this point, as it gives squadrons with adept grit, and when a squadron with adept dies you can give a ship at distance 1-2 of it a raid token. Its fine gives you a little boost with no need to spend tokens to trigger it. If you are taking a republic screen its probably worth dropping in something with adept to tie up fighters close to a carrier then die and raid the carrier. Its at the very least interesting and I do like these different types of fleet commands hope the Civil war will eventually get a few like these.
Finally we have the SPHA-T the super laser for the Venator. It give the Venator ignition close and it's sides or front can be the special arc. You will toss 5 blue 1 black as the armament. I think this is a fun card, I am not sold on it being a good card. If I where to use this card it would be to make my side arc shot 6 dice, however you can do that with external racks albeit you need to be at close range. So what you are really getting from this is a bit of extra range, and I don't think I am really sold on that. I think I would rather take Boarding Troopers and External racks, to put a lot of presser on defense tokens. I always try to make everything work even when at first I don't like it exploring the game it part of it for me, but I have a hard time seeing this as anything more then a fun card, and there is nothing wrong with that.
Providence is up next and we got some nice titles.
Lucid Voice lets you treat your rear hull zone as having a printed battery armament of 3 red dice. This is all about the salvo get as much damage out of salvo as you can, and I love salvo so lets salvo its great just for that, with this ship though you probably want more then just your single salvo token to make it pay dividends so keep that in mind. You also change one blue for a black out your side that's an upgrade in my book shorter range, but not by that much for more damage seams good to me. 8 points is a little pricey, but its still really nice.
Invincible is boring but good 5 points gives your carrier version two defensive retrofits, and gives the dreadnought access to a defensive retrofit, if you need defense retrofits this will do it for you.
We are also getting a clone wars locked defensive upgrade Thermal Shields and man is it good. In essence you spend your brace to cut you opponents dice pool in half. It is important to note that this card happens before the modify dice step so it wont effect dice added to the pool, however its also before dice are rolled so it lets you in effect brace before it can be targeted by an accuracy. ECM will likely be able to save you more damage against a larger attack especially if dice are getting added into the attack pool, but as is this is a great card, and its far more flexible then ECM as ECM might not be as useful on a 4 die pool attack but Thermal Shields is still pretty good. I mean I can't even count the number of times I have taken ECM and never used it, thermal Shields is always good.
Lastly for the provenance is Jedi Hostage, I might get crap for this, but I'm going to say this card is hot trash, like hotter then a dumpster fire trash. It takes up a fleet command so that kind of sucks, and when a ship attacks you they have to take a raid token OF THIER CHOICE so I don't plan on con firing this game so I guess I will take that. You might say well they will eventually have to take a token that will be impactful especially if they are double arcing and I will say yes, but did I mention the drawback? A enemy ship any ship so even a consular when it activates at close range can exhaust the card meaning you don't get to divvy out raid tokens anymore, and then on top of that while this card is exhausted you cant spend more then one defense token; oh and also by the way you can't ready this card ether just so you are aware. In addition to all of that only the provenience has a fleet command I mean you could put it on other ships with flag bridge, but I don't know why you would. This basically says put on your biggest ship you cant afford to lose and this card gives your opponent a way to make that ship easier to kill without a whole lot of loss to them, its terrible. Maybe, and this is a big maybe you have a large bid for first and you want to use this card to bait ships to come into close range to you can blast them with black dice, but really that's a pretty big stretch, the opportunity cost for this card is really high, the risk vs reward is absolutely astronomical, this card is honestly in the running for worst card in the game in my opinion, but I will have to give it a try before passing final judgment.
Recusant is next and we got some titles.
First up Nova Defiant, really this is a ship that probably should be in every Trench list. I think Trench is about command cycling not command spamming, but we will see. Ether way this guy gives you tokens and can have duplicates of the same token so that is nice particularly for Trench.
Gilded Aegis is good, but shield where you need it when you need it, it gets even better with General Grievous as your commander, to regain that redirect token. It seams interesting and I am willing to try it 5 points does seam a bit pricey for me, but again Grievous could make this even better.
Lastly for titles, we have the Patriot Fist. I was a bit up in the air, but I think I like it. My issue is the Recusant needs to and should be double arcing, and patriot fist if used only lets you make one attack. However I think this is great on the approach as you likely wont have the double arc on turn 2 but most likely long range. It gives you a little burst of firepower on that turn, and on latter turns when things are breaking away from engagement it seams like it could be useful then as well. In the end I think its a bad idea to try and make a “one punch” ship with this card, as the double arc is just so much more effective, but to be use in the wined up and wined down of a match seams like a good use of the card.
We also get b2 Rocket Troopers they are an exhaust to ether give a ship you are attacking at medium-close range a raid token or exhaust while attacking a squadron to add 1 die to your attack pool. The extra power for squadrons is okay it pairs well with LTT for a big hit on a single squadron. However its raid command is fun, but also quite good with the new Separatist commander.
TF-1726 was our last separatist commander and he has an interesting ability. Once per activation while attacking you can add one black die to your attack pool for every raid token the defending ship has for a max of 2. When paired with Rocket Troopers your second attack will get at least one extra black die. Its nice however I don't think Rocket Troopers by themselves makes TF-1726 work I think he is missing something to really bring him into line, but if the separatists get more ways to hand out raid he might be scary. Jedi hostage is an option just I would stay away from it makes your ship that has it far to vulnerable, to easy counter play.
To my pleasant surprise, their where also generic upgrades as well that both the Clone Wars factions and Galactic Civil War factions can use. Will will be covering these in next week AMM as I have to look at their impact on 4 whole factions. The fact that there are some generic upgrades in the clone wars sets might make a few people I know that just want to stay in the Civil war factions a bit upset, but I would suspect that Civil War factions will get another card pack with new standard size ship cards with traits and probably these generic upgrades, and maybe even some Civil War locked upgrades. That is just speculation, but I do know they where wanting to not make it obligatory to by into unwanted factions so I guess we will see. Until next time have a great week!