Star Wars Armada: Republic Cruisers and Upgrades – Oh My!

Let’s take a look at the rest of the upcoming Republic Fleet.

A couple of weeks ago we got our first look at the core of the new (Old) Republic fleet coming to Star Wars Armada. So far the fleet looks pretty cool and a more recent article has shown off the rest of what we can expect from the initial box. Let’s take a look at the new ships and upgrades.

The Consular-Class

The Republic fleet is bolstered by the light Consular-Class ships which come in two flavors, the Charger c70 and the Armed Cruiser. These are both pretty reminiscent of the other light picket ships the CR90 and the Raider, with a movement scheme that is pretty close to that of the Raider. The Charger c70 is very similar to a CR90A (my favorite ship in the game) with similar upgrades and guns, and only a 1 point cost difference. For that it does upgrade a side blue die to a red die, making it a very good long range skirmisher. Able to take Engine Techs and a turbolaser upgrade, this ship seems like it could do some really fun things.

At 37 points the Armed Cruiser is the cheapest non-flotilla ship in the game (that we know of), which makes it handy for getting extra activations. It has the Senate and Comms rules which I don’t think we know what those do yet (the c70 has the Clones rule which we have seen some Clones only cards). Weapons wise it has a few short ranged dice, but with access to black dice and an ordnance upgrade slot could be fitted out as a cheap but deadly close range ship. With a decent anti-squadron battery it reminds me a lot of the Raider I and at its price point could be good for anti-squadron work. Both ships are fast and have a lot of potential.

Upgrades 

Swift Return is a 3 point title card for a Consular-class and it seems really good. While it depends on being near-ish to obstacles it greatly increases your maneuver options. Armada is a game that is really all about maneuver and so anything that boosts that is gold in my eyes. 

Radiant VII is another really interesting upgrade card. It lets you give up the option of a weapon upgrade in order to take a fleet support upgrade. Normally these are limited to flotillas so this pretty neat and opens up for really different builds. On a fast ship this seems pretty dang good.

Making Radiant VII even more useful is a pair of new fleet support cards, Munitions Resupply, and Parts Resupply which basically turn your ship into a battery to give tokens to other friendly ships. Super cool.

In the same vane we have Clone Navigation Officer, who also helps you pass around some tokens to friendly ships. Combining all these can really let you throw tokens around. This all seems to play very much into the Republic style of having a lot of close formation ships supporting each other.

Let us know what you think about these 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.