This is going to be a 3-parter: Empire/Rebels first, then GAR and CIS get a post each. After that, I’ll try my hand at list-building with the new cards.
Despite the name, this is actually the second Legacy Wave. 🙂
Wave 0 gave us a new commander each for CIS and GAR, plus Rogue and Assault squadrons for both Clone Wars factions. If you missed it:
Wave 0 review: https://armadaihaveyounow.blogspot.com/2025/08/legacy-wave-0-review-rogues-raid-and.html
Wave 0 errata thoughts: https://armadaihaveyounow.blogspot.com/2026/01/legacy-wave-0-errata-two-tweaks-hmp-ace.html
With that out of the way, let’s look at Wave 1.
The Legacy team describes it like this:
Legacy Wave 1 has launched!
After over a year of development, 3 months in open beta, and help from dozens of members of the community, Armada Legacy Wave 1 is officially live!
- 2 new commanders
- 4 new ship cards
- 12 new titles
- Commissioned art and 3D models
- Printed cards, STLs, and ships now available from our partnered vendors
This wave is a big boost to our beloved Republic and CIS factions, and we're just getting started. Expect to see something quite Dreadful in the near future.
“Something quite Dreadful” presumably means the Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser in Wave 2. The obvious question is whether it becomes a multi-faction ship. GAR + Empire feels plausible, and if we’re really dreaming, maybe that opens the door for an Assault Frigate Mk I for Rebels down the line (it is derived from the Dreadnaught, after all). Either way: I really hope the next wave swings toward Empire/Rebels. The OG factions could use some love.
Fun fact before we move on: Wave 1 also includes four new squadron cards, which the announcement doesn’t mention.
What’s in Wave 1?
4 new squadrons: 2 Empire (TIE Defender, TIE Phantom) + 2 Rebels (E-wing, Z-95 Headhunter).
These are “generiques”: unique squadrons without defense tokens, in the Saber/Gold sort of mold.New ships: 1 GAR ship (Arquitens, with 2 variants) + 1 CIS ship (Pinnace-class, entirely new).
GAR having three Arquitens variants once you include ARC-01 is… honestly fine, as long as they’re distinct and compatible. We’ll get to that later.
The CIS Pinnace is a small corvette: low hull, high speed, and some CR90/Raider/Consular DNA. Finally, CIS gets a speed-4 ship.14 upgrades total:
2 commanders (1 GAR, 1 CIS)
12 titles
Half of the titles are for the new ships (3 for the Arquitens, 3 for the Pinnace). The other half is arguably the most exciting part: titles for existing ships across factions, especially hulls that either have none (CIS Gozanti, GAR Victory) or really want more (MC80 Home One).
Alright. Card-by-card, faction-by-faction.
Empire & Rebels
Squadrons
Bandit Squadron (Z-95 Headhunter)
A Z-95 with all-black armament. That’s pretty great.
It loses Swarm (bummer), gains Heavy (not great, but also not always a real drawback), and clocks in at 9 points. In theory, it slots neatly between other squads, ideally alongside Escort so it doesn’t just get deleted.
My issue is role clarity. Rebels already struggle to fit everything they want into a fighter wing. So what’s Bandit’s job, exactly? Maybe I’m being harsh—the Z-95 is such an odd duck that it’s hard to design a unique Z-95 that doesn’t feel awkward.
I think it’s a pass for me… but what do you think, dear reader? Do you see a clear role for Bandit Squadron?
Dark Squadron (TIE Defender)
A more anti-squad Defender.
It loses Bomber, but gains a black anti-ship die, so average damage stays similar—just with fewer crit-related shenanigans, and no Sloane synergy versus ships.
Grit is, as anyone who’s ever flown Maarek knows, incredibly valuable on a Defender. And Swarm on a Defender is… kind of disgusting. I am absolutely running this with Flight Controllers and Howlrunner at least once, purely for meme value.
If that sounds too strong: it’s 17 points on a squadron with no defense tokens. So it’s probably fine.
Nightmare Squadron (E-wing)
This one reminds me of Dark Squadron in a weird way: it stops being a Bomber and becomes a black-die “not a bomber” instead. For E-wings, that might actually be better in a world full of Evades and PDICs.
It picks up Relay 1, which is mostly relevant if you’re stacking Relay—so you’re probably looking at Nightmare + VCX as a baseline package. That’s 30 points. Thirty!
Still Snipe 3, still blue anti-squad, still no Swarm or other punchy keyword support.
I don’t see it. Sure, you can Toryn Farr and so on, but you can say that about half the Rebel roster. The base E-wing dropped a point, so Nightmare is “only” 15… but to me this is the weakest of the four. Even less appealing than Bandit.
Shadow Squadron (TIE Phantom)
This is the standout generique, in my opinion.
Screen fits the Phantom perfectly, and in a Sloane ball it might actually live long enough to matter. It also swaps a red battery die for a blue, which makes it much better with Sloane. Red+blue with a reroll fishing for crits gives you a very real chance of flipping a token—while Cloak + Screen makes it annoying to remove.
I like it. It might even be worth 15 points.
Clear job, clear synergy, clear home. Still niche (Sloane is doing a lot of heavy lifting), but this one “gets it.”
Titles
Battle Cruiser (Interdictor) — 2 points
Swap a Contain for a Salvo (excellent), and gain a Turbolaser slot (also excellent), for a very modest cost—on top of the big Combat Refit cost drop from ARC-01.
So does this finally make Combat Refit viable after years of languishing?
Yes… and no.
Yes, because you can build a cost-effective combat Interdictor now.
No, because it’s still speed 2, still kind of squishy once you commit, and you still only get one gravity upgrade instead of two (which is usually why you brought an Interdictor in the first place).
But: I do think this makes a “good enough” combat Interdictor that can contribute damage, run Projection Experts (yes, yes), and still bring at least some gravity nonsense. More options is good for the game.
Intrepid (Imperial Venator) — 4 points
Congratulations, your Venator now has five defense tokens. 🙂
You can either keep the second Contain and lean hard into the active effect (damage reduction for friendly squadrons), or you can treat it as a token-swapping playground via Local Fire Control, Needa, or both.
Both approaches feel viable:
Ven-II in a Sloane list? I’d be tempted to go all-in on squad damage reduction (only squads WITHOUT tokens, mind you, so don't get too worked up.
Screed brawler nonsense? Token swapping starts to look very interesting.
Nautilian (MC80 Home One) — 4 points
This is arguably what Home One should have had all along (or something close).
Fleet Command on your actual flagship is obviously nice. The other effect plays with Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet and the Hammerhead Task Force titles.
In practice, Exodus Fleet is hard to make meaningful at 400 points unless you commit hard—and if you commit hard you quickly run out of points for the things that make Rebel ships function. Still, I can absolutely see myself trying to make the Exodus angle work, failing, pivoting into a Hammerhead swarm around Nautilian… then realizing Ackbar won’t cooperate… and then quietly shelving the whole project.
Great design. The problem is that the Home One chassis itself still feels like it’s paying a tax for being iconic. This title would sing more at 600 points.
Rebel One (Rebel Providence) — 6 points
At first glance, the defensive effect makes you think: “Cool, now I can run Providence without Agate.”
Then you realize: you can run it with Agate and it gets so much better that it isn’t even a contest. Cry, cry.
The offensive piece feels more like an afterthought to me. It’s not bad—just not the reason I’d pay for this title.
The broader issue is that the Providence is already an odd, upgrade-hungry ship, and (in my opinion) about 5 points too expensive even before you start stapling upgrades on. Now I’m expected to spend another 6 points on a title... that's how good it is!
Quick verdict so far
Empire definitely got the better deal here. Rebels feel mid, situational, or tied to niche hulls that already struggle in standard 400-point play.
Next time: GAR — two Arquitens variants and their titles, plus a title for the GAR Victory-class. After that, CIS and the Pinnace. Then we’ll do some list-building with the new toys.
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