SW Armada: Drop Out of Hyperspace With Wave VII Rebels

The Rebel Fleet is now arriving in style with Wave VII.

Last week I was so excited talk about Thrawn and the rest of his Imperial cronies that I didn’t manage to get in even a few words about the new Rebel forces. This week I aim to fix that mistake. Wave VII is introducing the venerable Admiral Raddus and the MC75 from Rogue One. Lets take a look at what we’ve seen of the new Rebel fleet.

Admiral Raddus

Raddus has the most unique Admiral ability to date. Rather than giving a persistent bonus throughout the game he allows you to keep a ship in reserve and bring it in at an opportune time.  Granted this ship has to come in with in distance one of a friend and can’t active first. Still this ability is quite powerful . With the right fleet this could allow you to bring in a powerhouse, like a Liberty Class MC80 behind the enemy fleet, or drop a MC30 in at black dice range. This ability is not without risk, but played right can lead your opponent into  some deadly ambushes. It’s also a flavorful ability that really show cases the Rebel’s ability as raiders with an affinity for sudden strikes.

Profundity

Raddus, as one would expect, works well with his flagship, Profundity. Profundity acts kind of like a lesser Raddus, allowing you to set aside aside a small ship and bring it in. It also allows your to move a commander and officer card from Profundity to the small ship. This last seems more like some flavorful bonus then something I’d use every time, but the title itself opens up some real possibilities.  In some ways Profundity  might even be better than Raddus. While it only allows for a small ship, that ship isn’t restricted from acting first. This means that if you are first player you can bring in a power MC30 or Hammerhead and activate it first, potentially savaging an enemy ship with no real counter. Powerful stuff.

The Hyperspace Assault

Obviously the temptation if to use both ships to bring in two ships as needed. I think there are some really powerful opportunities here. Now keeping ships off table is not without risk, you lose activations in the early game for one. But the risk can very well be worth it if played right. In particular I could see chaining the two cards off each other. Either using Profundity  to bring in a small ship, then bring your MC80 in off of that, or using your flanker to bring in Profundity, then bringing in a small black dice ship from it. Either of these would vastly increase the range at which you could spring a surprise assault. You could even give one ship Rapid Launch Bays to drops some squadrons with a huge threat range.

MC75

We’ve only gotten a tiny look at the new MC75, but its seems like a very solid ship. Like most Mon Cal ships it appears with some solid shielding and a high hull. Its also got one of the most interesting dice arrangements I’ve seen. It’s sides are set up much like a Home One Class or Assault Frigate, with red and blue dice for long range bombardments. Unlike those classes however its front is not its weak point, with a powerful blue/black dice combo up there. This gives it the interesting characteristic of having different facing that are good at different ranges. In addition while the ship lacks a single super powerful facing, both sides and front are all good. It will clearly take some skill to use, but seems like it can be really rewarding.

Final Thoughts

Hard to use but rewarding in fact seems like the theme of this wave for Rebels. While Thrawn and the ISDs are easy to use, but still rewarding for a good player, Raddus is risky. Raddus and the Profundity can be really good if used right. A poor player however can also easily misuse them to hurt themselves and potentially lose a game (Which might be thematic seeing what happens to Raddus’ fleet after its hyperspace assault). Similarly the MC75 seems like it will need careful flying to really get full use out of its weapons. Still, powerful straightforward Imperials and tricky risk taking Rebels seems about right for Star Wars.

That’s all for this time folks! Let us know what you think about our peek at Wave VII Rebels 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.