Armada 2 Wave - collected previews

[0rph3u5]

Hi,

I just want to drop off the links to the collected the previews of Armada Wave 2:

ISD:
[url]https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/9/2/rule-through-fear/[/url]



This is the one everyone, I guess, has been waiting for. The first Imperial ship to appear in Star Wars (chronologically) and the one that is the most iconic. It was kinda sad that the VSD was released first but considering what we got with the ISD I can hardly blame FFG for that.

Fist, the similarities of the cards:
- Both varianst hold 11 Hull Points (1 more than the current max HP of 10 on Motti VSD).
- They come with 4/3/3/2 (Front/Port/Starboard/Rear) Shields.
- The Rear Batteries are the same with 1 red and 2 blue dice.
- 3 Command will make you plan three turns ahead (without one of the Titles).
- 4 Squadron will make it a good carrier (esspecially since you can upgrade it up to 5)
- 4 Engineering (not upgradeable to 5 though) will allow it to stay on the field very long IF you proactively manage your Repair Commands.
- It comes with one Brace, two Redirect and a Contain Defesive Tokens.
- It has the choice of the speed 0 - 3. But it's Yaw values are firmly capped at 1, which will require you to make use of the Navigate Command to do hard turns.
- Each variant has access to a Commander, a Offensive Retrofit, a Ion Cannon, a Turbolaser and a Weapons Team upgrade.

The Contain Token is new. It allows you to cancel (well, "prevent from resolving") a standard critical hit (which is being dealt a face-up damage card, and those can really hurt in Armada). Since most ships can only resolve one critical effect per attack that it a good defense to have in an one-on-one engagement.

Now let's run the differences between the two variants:
- As usually the differences start with the Batteries: ISD I has 3 red, 2 blue and 3 black in its front battery, the ISD II has a more unified loadout of 4 red and 4 blue. For those not in-the-know black dice deal more damage and only work a Close Range, but blue dice cannot miss (they have no black sides, so a blue battery will always inflict an effect on the Defender, unless it is a Squadron) and can be used at Medium-Close Range. This makes the ISD II main-battery much better a range
- The Port/Starboard Batteries make a similar but less fancy change between the Variants: 2 black and red for the ISD I, 2 blue and red each for the ISD II.
- The Anti-Squadron (AAA) Battery for the ISD I is 1 blue and 1 black, while ISD II has two blues.
- The ISD I comes with an additional Offensive Retrofit, while the ISD II comes with a Defensive Retrofit.
- You will pay a base cost of 110 for the ISD I and 120 for the ISD II (which will be 27,5 and 30 percent of your fleet points allowance resepctively.*)

* If you didn't know, FFG is upgrading the standard fleet points limit from 300 to 400 once Wave 2 comes to retailers.

In Summary in the ISD (both variants) is keeping with the Imperial play-style of big ships for which who will have to plan most of the game in advance - both with Command 3 and with the focus on the Front Battery has main source of your damage or scoring. But unlike the VSD the ISD has access to speed 3 which will allow you to get into engagement range faster, making an ISD a good ship to activate last.

There are still the rest of cards, but I will get to that later. Spoiler: the Tractor Beam seems like good control tool.

EDIT: and here we go:

So are the ISDs flagship material? - Yes, it was the Hull Points and the Engineering Value to keep it in the game for the long run.

Admirals:
- [url=https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/b9/60/b960d186-1669-496a-8034-2ebd733e9aa0/swm15-admiral-ozzel.png]Ozzel[/url]: Ozzel does very little for the ISDs themselves but he is cheap, actually the cheapest of the Imperial Admirals currently in the game. But in a list with some Raiders or Gladiators he might be a worthwhile investment,
- [url=https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/media/ffg_content/star-wars-armada/news/wave1/admiral-motti.png]Motti[/url]: Cheap and great effect for the ISDs as they are getting up to 14 Hull Points. The drawback of course is that a ship with more hull points will also hold more face-up cards as the game progresses - and as mentioned before face-up damage cards in Armada can really hurt your ships' performance. I would rank him the second best Admiral-choice for the ISDs.
- [url=https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/media/ffg_content/star-wars-armada/news/wave1/admiral-screed.png]Screed[/url]: Screed's effect is best with a ship with black dice, so supporting Gladiators or Raiders, even an ISD I, is where you will get the best out of him. His effect is esspeically good when used on the ISD I if you get your Front Battery lined up: you have a blue die to spend and can modify a black die to the coverted Hit and Crit-face. In a build that however uses the red&blue dice combinations like ISD II and VSD II you might be paying more than you need.
- [url=https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/45/c1/45c1ee8e-395a-4fd1-ac92-ae2b18505d80/darth-vader-commander.png]Darth Vader[/url] - The Dark Lord's boost to your fleet is similar to Screed's but intead of throwing away attack dice (which might hurt your damage total) for another result on another die, you sacrifice a use of a Defense Token (remeber you can spend Defense Tokens twice per turn) and get to re-roll all the dice you want in an attack. There is a nasty combo in there with the Devastator-title (more on that later) which uses Vader's ability to full effect. The drawnback of this is however that you cut down your own defense while doing it, which might leave you hanging later in the game. The fact that his ability is no specific to any build, and allows those rare "free" re-roll, I rank 3rd best Admiral for an ISD based fleet.
- [url=https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/media/ffg_content/star-wars-armada/news/preview5-fleet-building/grand-moff-tarkin.png]Tarkin[/url] - The most expensive choice of the Imperial Admirals but also the most verasatile. Tarkin gain most from the ISDs' durability as he can keep those tokens coming for a the whole game if he has to. As his buff is both immidate and fleet-wide, you will be able to correct for the otherwise 3 turn-wait for the command. Tarkin is IMO the best commander you can have in an ISD-anchored fleet.

Titles:
[url=https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/96/0a/960abc7c-9fd2-4842-85a9-c5cf6747262e/avenger.png]Avenger[/url] - As I said before, the ISDs might be superb ship to activate last, hoping for the enemy to have already closed with you and the using your speed to get out any close-combat situation with the likes of the Gladiator or the MC30c. The Avenger-title takes this up another level by denying your enemy use of already spend Defensive Tokens. It is not the cheapest title, nor the stand-out (both categories go to the Relentless) but it's a good addition. Probably more to the ISD I than the ISD II, since with the additional blue dice mean that you can lock away a Defensive Token with the plentiful Accuracy-results.
[url=https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/dc/d1/dcd18bbf-0a15-441c-8c35-216403c63e96/devastator.png]Devstator[/url] - The most expensive title an ISD and like the Avenger-title non-specific. It has the best synergy with the Darth Vader-admiral card, together with Vader you can make this card's effect trigger over and over. Again, like Vader you are boosting your attack at the cost of defense. Drawback here is that effect is limited to the Front Battery.
[url=https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/7d/29/7d2910e1-ec88-42fb-ac80-cc634e0f845e/relentless.png]Relentless[/url] - The cheapest and the stand-out. Having only to plan two turns ahead with your command dials is a great buff for a ship that eats much of your fleet points.

Sample combos:
1. Motti's Relentless:
ISD II (flagship)
+ Admiral Motti
+ Phylon-Q7 Tractor Beams
(150)
Basically a cheap flagship without any bells and whistles. Capable of taking hits and engageing the enemy at Medium Range. The Tractor Beams belong to the stand-out cards of this expansion has it allows to inhibit the maneuvers of the faster enemy ships, like CR90s, the MC30c or the Gladiator, keeping them from circling around and getting the ISD in the weak spot.

2. Tarkin's (sorta) Flexible Tactics:
ISD II (flagship)
+ Grand Moff Tarkin
+ Support Officer
+ Phylon-Q7 Tractor Beams
(169)
You can throw in the Relentless-title for good measure but the Support Officer's allows you to throw out your command dials if things don't go as planned. Tarkin helps to keep you supplied with Tokens as you require them. Again, the Tractor Beam to incapacitate fast ships.

3. Screed's Crit Factory:
ISD I (flagship):
+ Admiral Screed
+ Overload Pulse
+ XX-9 Turbolasters
+ Gunnery Team
+ Phylon-Q7 Tractor Beams
(162)
This build focussed more on the ship's front arc, again trying to trap a ship with the Tractor Beam and then hammering it with Front Battery twice. Using Screed to gurantee that you get a Crit on either attack.

4. Carrier ISD I:
ISD I
+ Admiral Chiraneau
+ Expanded hanger Bay (x2)
+ Flight Controllers
(136)
Squadron Value 5 with additional blue dice for their battery armament should give a Corrupter-VSD a run for it's role as squadron command ship.
EDIT: Following the recent FAQ update this build is not longer legal as ships cannot equip the same upgrade multiple times

Card-mentions from the FFG previews:
- [url=https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/6c/0e/6c0ebf0e-7bca-47bb-9899-5b6a7bd86c77/heavy-turbolaser-turrets.png]Heavy Turbolaser Turrets[/url] - I don't know if this card will actually trump the cheaper XX-9s on Imperial Ships, esspecially since there is the Precision Strike-objective. But for the Rebels it might a good bet.
- [url=https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/87/a8/87a857ec-576f-4311-a3ef-ca9be662ba47/captain-needa.png]Captain Needa[/url] - It is cheap but only applicable in your first turn. For the ISD it might not be a good fit but a VSD might get a kick from this.

-Raider moved to next post-

-MC80 moved to it's own post-

-MC30 moved to it's own post-

The new "squadron" pack:
[url]https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/9/30/a-few-surprises/[/url]

-coming soon-

I hope to expand this into a tactics review later (I originally did and then got lost in ether when my tablet went into sleep mode. I already do these for my local wargaming community though I tend to follow FFG's trend to analyse only the new cards, now I want to got deeper with exploiring combos with existing cards.)