SW Armada: Hot Takes on The Hammerhead Corvette
FFG has put out a final spoiler for the new Hammerhead Corvette expansion. Here are my initial thoughts.
With Wave VI about to hit at last we’ve finally got a good look at the new Hammerhead Corvette. This ship comes straight from Rogue One and Star Wars: Rebels and is sure to make a big impact on the game. Here are my five hot takes on this amazing new ship.
1. Competitive Pricing
At 36 and 41 points both variants of the Hammerhead are well priced. They are each slightly cheaper a version of the CR90, but can still back a bit of a wallop. While they can fill slightly different roles now anyone taking a CR90 needs to ask themselves if a Hammerhead can’t do it just as well and cheaper. While I don’t think they will displace flotillas for getting extra activations, I think that their low cost still makes them very playable.
2. Sweet sweet Antilles and Rieekan Love
Task Force Antilles is a really solid title card on its own. The ability to share around some damage between a number of ships is great. It will help keep your ships in the fight longer and eke out every advantage you can get. With Rieekan however it will reach a whole new level. The Task Force Antilles ability will let you trade off damage to an already destroyed ship, thus negating it entirely. Overall I think the Hammerhead is a great fit for Rieekan, give it the cheap External Racks, or one of the new boarding cards and run them up to the enemy in a swarm. Throw out a 5 or 6 dice attack, mess up their defense tokens and get in some rams. It’s going to be good times.
3. Sato Gets a Big Boost
Commander Sato has so far been a brutal Admiral without a good fleet. To make good use of him you really want ships with both red dice and the Ordnance upgrade slot. Having the Weapon Teams slot would also be nice. Before now the cheapest Rebel ship with red dice and Ordnance was the Pelta at 56 point. This slow ungainly ship also lacked Weapon Teams. The only Rebel ship to meet all the criteria is the MC30c Scout Frigate at 69 points. The Torpedo Corvette checks all the boxes at a mere 36 points, significantly cheaper. A Sato list can now really come to life with a swarm of Hammerheads launching Assault Proton Torpedoes at long range. Brutal.
2. Cham Syndulla
Man this guy can be brutal. Sure he is a one use card and sure he is a bit hard to use. But seriously, getting to change all an enemy’s ships commands to what you want? Crippling. Obviously this is best used on a Command 3 ship, an ISD, VSD, MC80 or something like that. When used properly this can effectively remove their ability to give commands for the remainder for the game. Against certain lists this can all but cripple the enemy fleet.
1. General Organa
Leia makes a very solid commander for Rebel small ships. While large ships, which often like to use combinations of commands, may not always be a good fit, small ships that are mostly giving just one commander will see a huge benefit. For instance a fleet with her effectively increases its squadron value by one across the board. Her ships can also change speed like no one’s business, and will benefit in pretty much any other area they chose to give commands for. A fleet of large ships with her, the fleet command “Shields to Maximum” and some redundant shield upgrades could be bringing back a true staggering amount of shields each turn. With the Princess in command you options are limitless.
That’s all for this time BOLS fans. Tune in next time for a more in-depth look at the Hammerhead, and as always let us know what you think of the new ship, down in the comments!
