In Part 1, we covered the Empire and Rebel additions: four new “generiques” squadrons and a handful of titles, with the overall takeaway being “Empire gets a Win, Rebels also get a Win, but it's more situational.”
Now it’s time for what Wave 1 is actually about: the Clone Wars factions—starting with the Republic. This wave gives GAR a new commander, two new Arquitens variants (yes, another pair of Arquitens variants), three titles for the ship, and finally a title for the GAR Victory.
Let’s get into it.
COMMANDER
Admiral Coburn
GAR has always had issues with turning… on account of them nav charts, you know?
The Pelta and Consular are fine, and the Venator is fine too—unless you want to go speed 3 (which you absolutely want to), and then it starts getting awkward. The Acclamator? Oh man. That thing is a flying brick. The Victory also deserves a mention here, now that I think about it. And now we have the Arquitens in-faction, with three variants total, once you include ARC-01, that also have turning issues.
The Coburn comes and says, “No, actually, we can turn.”
Yes, planning and practice can make a big difference. But if you want to pretend yaw isn’t a real GAR problem (hint: one reason Bail is popular is so you can Nav and do something else on a key turn), then Coburn isn’t for you. For me, he’s a godsend.
How he works: if you meet the requirement (distance 1–2 of an obstacle or an enemy ship), all the dashes “–” on your nav chart become “I”.
That means a Venator or Acclamator at speed 3 suddenly has I at every joint. That’s a 200% improvement over the base chassis. Add a yaw dial and even a Clam can stay on target or re-engage—while saving that dial for something more important on turns where you’d otherwise be “forced to Nav.”
The Victory and Acclamator become genuinely bendy at speed 2. The Arquitens becomes very flexible. Even the Consular can benefit at speed 4… but that’s niche.
With good obstacle placement, deployment, and a maneuver plan, Coburn’s trigger should be consistent. You do have to work for it, and you may become a bit more predictable in how you approach obstacles—but you’re being compensated with much greater mobility. I’ll take that trade.
Cost: 25 seems fair for a very strong maneuver commander (Jerjerrod is 23, Ozzel is 20, Madine is 30). The real cost is opportunity: taking Coburn means not taking Anakin, Bail, or Luminara. That said, he adds tremendous value and options, especially now that GAR has a new ship that meshes so well with him.
Also: credit where it’s due. Designing new commanders is hard. This is a clean balance of utility, limitations, and cost—and it’s exactly the kind of card that proves playtesting works by making each iteration better until you reach your goal.
SHIPS
Arquitens-class (Republic)
Same chassis as the Empire Arquitens. Same speed and yaw, same arcs, hull, etc.
But the battery dice and upgrade bars are very different—and unlike ARC (which has decided against making new cardboard), Legacy can actually move dice around.
Like the ARC Republic Arquitens, the Legacy versions swap the second Redirect for a second Evade, because double Evade is less busted than double Redirect with Luminara + EST (if Lumi didn't exist, double Redirect could be cool for Obi-wan).
But Legacy goes further: they swap the Contain for a Salvo.
That’s a big upgrade over both the Empire versions and ARC’s Republic version. Sure, the rear arc isn’t that scary, but it’s not nothing either—and one of these variants can take TRCs, which plays very nicely with Salvo (it can even go TRC+DBY for max Salvo hilarity).
Both variants also have excellent blue/black flak. The ARC Arq wishes it had this. So do the Empire variants.
The logic here seems to be: “GAR already has great flak on smalls, so the new ship must also have great flak or it won’t be competitive.” I’m… skeptical. Maybe I’m wrong and flak really has to be this good to matter. But this does smell like “we solved a problem by overtuning,” and I’m not ready to give final judgment until I’ve got more table time.
Also: the nav chart is still wonky as hell, which is the main reason I’ve never loved Arquitens. You don’t want to spend Nav dials on them… but you kind of have to, otherwise you become very predictable.
Except Wave 1 does something incredibly cunning: it adds a GAR commander that makes the Arquitens shine, and works with multiple other GAR bricks. That’s part of why I’m side-eyeing the flak: the ship is getting its main weakness addressed, and then it also gets Salvo and great flak. At some point, you risk ending up with a small ship that has no real flaws.
Still: the designs are undeniably exciting.
Assault Cruiser
This one looks similar to the Empire Light Cruiser at first glance—a mix of red and black dice—but the details shift it into a different role.
Front arc is black-only, while the side arc is 2 red + 1 black. That’s not a skirmisher. That’s a brawler.
Officer + Weapons Team + Offensive Retrofit + Ordnance is an excellent bar. Ordnance Experts + External Racks is the obvious package, but you’ve got options: Clone Gunners + Zak + ExRacks is very much a thing too. Or put Boarding Troopers on it (see Stellar Rise below).
48 points feels reasonable. Not cheap, not overpriced.
It has real weaknesses: it’s a bit squishy when it commits, and speed-3 brawlers can struggle to be in the right place at the right time. So this is a good ship, fairly priced, that rewards skill and has meaningful counterplay. Again, that Salvo AND flak combo has me mildly worried, but we'll see.
Escort Cruiser
This is closer to the Empire Command Cruiser: red/blue batteries, Squadron 2, plus a Support Team slot.
And then it goes off the rails:
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Way better flak (again)
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Double Turbolaser
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Dice layout shifted toward consistency rather than max broadside: 2 red front/sides, plus 1 blue out the side.
It doesn’t have the same raw broadside as the ARC Light Cruiser or the Empire Arqs, but it has that sweet, sweet double turbolaser bar.
TRC is the obvious pick on a double-Evade ship. So yes, it’s basically a way better CR90 in the “reliable chip damage” role.
Second turbolaser? QBT is a solid default (especially if you’re on Engine Techs), but DBY is an option that stacks into Salvo pressure and is super cheap. There are other options as well; so many good, cheap turbos these days.
54 points feels very reasonable compared to the Assault Cruiser, very attractive compared to the ARC Republic Arquitens, and honestly kind of embarrassing for the 55-point Empire Command Cruiser.
This is also the variant where I think the flak might be a bridge too far: moderate cost, no glaring flaw, easy to run in multiples—unlike the ARC Light Cruiser, which tends to require “unique upgrade scaffolding” to feel coherent.
Republic Arquitens Light Cruiser (ARC-01 comparison)
This one isn’t part of Legacy Wave 1, but it exists in the same space, and thus matters.
The ARC version:
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Keeps Contain (bad, in the current ecosystem)
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No Salvo (bad)
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Weak flak (bad)
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Wonky upgrade bar (not bad, just niche)
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Better side battery (3 red, good)
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No Turbolaser slot (very bad)
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Cost 52 (2 less than Escort, 4 more than Assault)
It’s still playable, and the double Officer + double Weapons Team can do fun things with those side arcs. It works very well with Thunder Wasp. Indeed, Thunder Wasp + Zak might be the combo that saves it from oblivion.
But outside of niche builds, it’s simply worse than the Legacy variants—especially the Contain vs Salvo situation.
I also don’t love Salvo on smalls as a general trend. In an ideal world, ARC and Legacy would have collaborated, and we’d have something closer to the Legacy variants without Salvo. But we’re not in that world—so we deal with the world we’ve got.
TITLES (Arquitens)
Stellar Rise
This works extremely well on the Assault Cruiser if you want to run Boarding Troopers.
BT + External Racks + this title looks like an excellent (and relatively cheap) package.
You could use it on the Escort to push squads with Fighter Coordination Team, but you’re only gaining +1 effective squadron value and you can’t spend squadron dials. Nah.
Good design overall. Irrelevant on the ARC Light Cruiser, but that’s not a failure, more like entirely out of scope.
Surrogator
A more carrier-themed title: it boosts both anti-squad play (Toryn-style) and ship damage support (BCC-style), which is potentially very strong.
Escort Cruiser is the obvious home, though I guess you could do Expanded Hangar Bay Assault Cruiser for… reasons.
But the big limiter is the trigger: you need a nearby squadron with the printed Assault keyword.
That’s what kills it for me. Too complicated, too narrow, too many hoops. Nice try, though.
Thunder Wasp
Simple, clean, strong.
Adding a black die at long range, or adding a blue to smooth out red-only pools, is just good. Easy to use. Zak obviously wants to live on the same ship.
This works with any commander, but it’s extra nice with Coburn: if you can get the yaw boost online, you can focus on Concentrate Fire without feeling like you’re throwing away your entire maneuver plan.
It works well on all three Arquitens variants, and it might even be the card that saves the ARC Light Cruiser from obsolescence. What a happy coincidence.
TL;DR on Arquitens titles: I expect to see a lot of Thunder Wasp, some Stellar Rise, and not much Surrogator.
FINAL GAR TITLE
Arlionne (GAR Victory)
First: it’s genuinely nice to see a title for the GAR Victory. It was sorely lacking.
The effect is a potent critical trigger, and yes—it can be used on a Salvo attack (the just-spent token counts toward the extra damage). In the best case you can add up to 3 extra damage, which is a huge spike—especially on a Salvo.
In theory, you could do something like 2+2+3 = 7 damage out of a Salvo that started as two red dice. That’s hilarious.
But here’s the problem: you have basically no dice control. To get the payoff you need a crit, and two red dice do not reliably produce a crit—especially once evades get involved. It’s a high-ceiling card strapped to a low-consistency chassis.
It’s (kind of) easier to trigger on your own attack (if the enemy doesn't shoot at you, that's kind of a win too), but then you run into another limitation: it can’t be used with an Ignition attack—which is often why you’re running a GAR Vic in the first place. You can still Ignition out the side and then title on the front shot or a Salvo, sure, but it’s a real constraint.
So: potent, but full of caveats—and it’s priced accordingly on a ship that’s already expensive.
I’m not a huge Victory fan to begin with, and piling even more points onto one for a situational spike isn’t for me. Pass. But I can absolutely see other players loving the “sometimes I roll the crit and someone explodes” gameplay.
Closing thoughts
Overall: GAR got a lot here. Coburn is a genuinely exciting commander who fixes a real, faction-defining weakness in a way that rewards planning rather than handing you free value.
The Arquitens variants are genuinely exciting, but also… slightly alarming. Between Salvo, strong flak, and Coburn smoothing out the nav chart pain, the Escort Cruiser in particular looks like it might end up being “too easy to be good.” I hope I’m wrong and it turns out I'm just an old grumpy fart and everybody else is just having great fun.
Next time: CIS—Pinnace-class, titles, and the CIS commander. Then we’ll wrap up with some actual list-building ideas using the new toys.
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