Yesterday we got some news about wave 10. Not just one teaser article but two!
Please note that this is the 2nd version of this article. Just minutes after posting another player over at the Discord pointed out that Asmodee had some additional spoilers for us on their product pages. A lot of my predictions were spot on but who cares when we have more accurate info? 😅
I'm going to take a look at each faction in turn. First up is the GAR - the Grand Army (no Navy in there?) of the Republic.
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2021/1/25/republic-reinforcements/
https://store.us.asmodee.com/catalogue/sw-armada-venator-class-star-destroyer_3369/
https://store.us.asmodee.com/catalogue/sw-armada-pelta-class-frigate_3368/
Two new ships. The large-base Venator and the small-base Pelta. Both are good-looking models but let us be honest: we're here for the Venator. That's a ship that is going to sell really well. Expect it to be out of stock a lot 😛 It's worth mentioning that the Pelta is a new sculpt. Looks like the "wings" are closed.
We get to see the arcs and battery dice of the Venator. It's another Star Destroyer-ish ship. No surprise there. Arcs are set a little further back than the Victory protecting the tail a little bit better. The front arc looks like it's not quite as wide and the sides open up more.
The battery is similar to the Victory but with one extra dice out the sides and rear. A mix of reds, blues, and blacks for both versions. The I has more red out the front but less on the sides and overall more blacks. Compared to the Acclamator the Venator has fewer red dice but more dice overall. The I has blue-blue flak (probably to make Ord Experts not an auto-include) and the II has blue-black flak (also no Ord Experts since it has fewer black battery dice).
Hull is 9. Shields are 4/3/2 like I predicted 😉 I was divided between Redirect/Brace/Contain/Salvo and 2xRedir/Brace/Slavo, but seeing the Contain makes me sure it's the former (Obi-wan is really sad now).
Speed is hard to predict (we only see yaw for speed 1). The Clam is speed-3 and hard to turn. Venator COULD be speed 2 and bendy but I kind of doubt it. Let's hope for speed 3 or it's going to spend a lot of time on my shelf 😅
Command 3. Engineering 4. Squadron value is FIVE for the Venator II (just as I predicted/hoped). Looking at the price of the Venator I - just 90 - makes me think it might have LESS squadron value. I could be wrong but it also comes with an Offensive Retro AND a Fleet Command! So squadron 4? Or even 3? We'll see soon enough.
When it comes to upgrades my guesswork was again pretty accurate: Weapons Team, Ordnance, and Turbolaser. The staple of GAR ships. Plus Offensive Retro and a FLEET COMMAND. That's for the 90-point I version. expect to see it in a LOT of GAR fleets. My guess is the "II" drops the Fleet Command and swaps in a Defensive Retro. That'll make it a "super Clam-II" which would be fitting. I think it'll keep the Offensive Retro but it won't have 2 like the Clam-I. So it can Scout 5 ARCs OR take Boosted Cooms but not both.
My cost guesstimate was a little high actually. I was thinking low 90s for the weaker version and over a 100 for the II. But the I is just 90 so maybe the II will be in the high 90s? That seems to be the norm for CW ships. FFG has realized that you can't just price things arbitrarily based on dice color. You have to take the whole package and its role into account.
The Pelta model may be new but it looks like the arcs are exactly the same as the Rebel refit. We got a pretty wide front and arcs set far back (the rear LoS dot is well protected). The Transport Frigate is almost the same as the Rebel Assault variant in terms of dice, minus 1 black to the front. Flak is the same blue-black as the Assault. The Medical Frigate has 1 blue flak. I'm betting hard on it having the same battery as the Transport but with blues instead of blacks. Basically a Command Pelta with a weak front arc.
Hull is 5 and shields are 3/2/1. Same as the Rebel versions. Defense tokens are also the same old Evade/Brace/Redirect.
We don't see their speed but there is no indication it'll be different from the Rebel versions. I see Support Teams so definitely no speed 3!
Command 2. Engineering 4. Squadron value is shown as 2 for the Medical. Let's go with 1 for the Transport since they seem to follow the Assault/Command lines pretty closely
Upgrades are Officer, Support Team, Defensive, and Fleet Support for the Transport. Definitely Fleet Support on both versions. I'm guessing Defensive gets swapped for Offensive on the Medical. Designers like to mix things up like that.
Cost. Again my initial guess was too high. I went for the high 40s for the Transport, but it's just 45 (making me sure squadron value is just 1). The Medical could be as high as 50 given the blue dice. If it is that's a trap. The blue dice aren't that powerful and the +1 squadron and a Defensive/Offensive swap aren't worth that many points. Let's hope for the high 40s.
Over to the upgrades:
The article spoils 3 upgrade cards: Jedi Master (commander) Luminara Unduli, her padawan (officer) Barriss Offee, and Admiral (commander) Tarkin (he's one of the good guys now).
GAR Tarkin is thematically linked to Imp Tarkin - nice touch there!
Stack 6 command tokens on him at the start. You can spend 1 token at the start of the ship phase of either of two effects. Give every ship a token of that type. Basically the same as old Tarkin. Or "you" (the flagship) may gain a matching dial. Essentially Thrawn or Bail (or dare I say Piett?) for the flagship only.
He costs more than the new price of the old Tarkin and is limited to choosing his tokens before the game starts. That should be a problem most of the time. You have a good idea of what tokens you'll need. If the Venator has squad 5 the ability to give it a squad dial at the right moment could be really powerful.
Lumi competes with the squadron Lumi - and it's a fierce competition. The squadron version is very popular already and the commander version looks both cheap and solid.
If a ship or one of your 4 aces are defending and spend only 1 defense token (fewer than 2) it may do one of two things. Ready one of its own tokens that it didn't use during that attack. Or ready another ship's defense token. Given how powerful defense tokens are this can be a really good ability.
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Just noticed Ahsoka photo-bombing Barriss 😂 |
Barriss lets you redirect without the attacker having the opportunity to Acc your token. She can even choose a non-adjacent location. Very useful. She pairs really well with her Master, Luminara.
I spy Snips there so we're getting an Ahsoka officer card. No game text visible. I also see Plo Koon as a command (his text is blue). Looks like friendly squadrons attacking at distance 1-3 of a friendly ship gets to change or add an acc to their pool. I'm going with "add" as it would be utterly pointless except for arcs otherwise and for the ARCs still pointless. I wonder if this applies to attacks vs both ships AND squads or just one or the other. No idea what the final card is. From the battle of Coruscant.
We also get a sneak peek of two more cards: (Clone) Captain Silver and (Something) Mission. Silver does something exhaust something navigate. Probably an officer. Mission does...something. We don't even know what type of upgrade it is. Takin is already fully spoiled.
And that's it for the GAR. Can't wait to see the articles detailing each ship. I really hope we get those despite the move to AMG.
Next article: Seppie wave 10!
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