SW Armada: Looking at Wave VI Ships

This week FFG announced the sixth wave for Star Wars Armada. Today we take a look at what we know.

At long last Fantasy Flight has ended the long drought of Star Wars Armada related news. These week at GAMA they unveiled the first details of Armada Wave IV. The wave will introduce two new ships to the game, the the Imperial Light Carrier and the Hammerhead Corvettes. Both ships have been heavily featured on Star Wars: Rebels. In addition the Hammerhead played a role in Rouge One. Because of this it’s not surprising they are making the jump to Armada. What is a little more surprising is the the Light Carrier, the Quasar Fire, is joining as an Imperial ship. Despite the fact that the Quasars started as Imperial ships most of the background, both old and new, shows them being used by the Rebels. Because of that most people assumed they would be a Rebel ship, but giving them to the Imperials makes sense from a game design perspective.

They can have it, for now

This release may have only two ships in it, but the torrent of new options is sure to bring a tidal wave of change to the game. New ships, new upgrades, new admirals and a whole new upgrade type, the dual upgrade are all coming. So far we have rather limited information about the wave but today we will take a good look at what we do know about the new ships. Already the few details we’ve gotten are leading players to come up with a veritable blizzard of new ideas Anyway. enough weather metaphors for me, lets look at the ships.

Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of Skywalker. 

The Imperial Light Carrier

The Imperial Light Carrier, also known as the Quasar Fire Class, is a new imperial ship option. A medium based ship the Light Carrier, as it’s name suggests, is mainly a carrier ship for squadrons. In addition it has some fighting ability. Stats wise its just OK. It seems to have 6 hull, and a 2/2/1 shield spread. It’s got a 3/2/1 dice spread, with one version seeming to have all blues, and the other getting a mix of red and blue. It also only got a brace and redirect, giving it the fewest tokens in the game. It’s main feature is that it has squadron 4, making it a great ship for supporting your squadrons. Based on the upgrades, its going to get at least a weapon teams and offensive retrofit slots.

Comes with color coded light and dark side docking bays. 

The most interesting thing about the ship is that one version has the game’s first red anti-squadron dice. This makes the Quasar one of the deadliest anti squadron ships in the game. Despite that, the real question facing the Quasar is price. It’s going to be competing with low price point of a two flotillas of Ganzontis (also squadron four, but with two activations and two drops ). I would say 40-50 would make it really competitive, while anymore will make it too niche for me.

The Hammerhead Corvettes

The Hammerhead Corvette has me very excited. This is the first ship that comes as a two pack, most likely a tacit admittance on FFG’s part that no one buys just one of the small ships. However it is also supposed to have something to do with them working in teams, which could be a cool mechanic. Now the Hammerhead is yet another light, and dodgy Rebel ship. While at first it seems rather like the CR90, and no doubt will be competing with it, it is clearly it’s own ship. The Hammerhead focuses on ramming and close in missile tactics. It seems like it is really the Rebel version of the Raider.

Every. Single. Game. 

Stats wise the Hammerhead has 5 hull, and a 2/1/1 on shields. For firepower it gets a 3/1/0, with one version getting red and blue dice, and the other Red, blue and black dice. Again, based on upgrades we know this ship gets at least an offensive retrofit slot and a weapon teams slots, and that one version gets ordnance. Off the bat I can see a lot of cool options with the ship. Obviously it has some cool potential for ramming, especially when paired with Rieekan. Fittingly the torpedo version seems a great fit for a Sato list, giving the Rebels a cheap ship that can fire Assault Proton Torpedoes at long range. As with the Light Carrier, the biggest question remains price. For now we must wait and see.

Final Thoughts

Me right now. 

Both these new ships offer a host of new options to the game. From disposable ram ships, to red anti-squadron dice, they are going to shake things up. While neither ship is particularity formidable on it’s own, it’s clear the upgrades, and support they provide, will make them punch above their weight.  In addition it seems clear the FFG is going to prioritize bringing ships from Rebels into Armada. We still have a lot of questions about the ship’s abilities., but so far both seem solid. In addition each ship comes with some really amazing new cards, which we will discuss next time. For now try not to let this wave of new information upset your boat.

That’s all for this time BoLS fans. Let us know what you think of the new ships down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.