Friday, August 26, 2016

Wave 4 Support Teams

Continuing with our quest to finish up the upgrades from Wave 4, it is time to talk about Support Teams that make an appearance.


The ships that can take a support team.


Quickly, before we continue, here is a list of the ships capable of taking a Support Team:

- CR90 Corvette
- Nebulon B Frigate
- Gladiator Class Star Destroyer
- MC80 Home One Class
- MC80 Liberty Class
- Interdictor Cruiser

More options then for the Rebels than the Imperials, certainly.  What new toys do we get?


Fighter Coordination Team - 3 points - After you execute a maneuver, you may select a number of unengaged squadrons up to your squadron value at close-medium range.  These squadrons may move up to distance 1.

Who does this work with?  For Imperials, the Interdictor has the ability to get to 3 Squadron Value with Expanded Hangers.  For Rebels, this is not ideal for a CR90 or MC80 Liberty - both have too low of a squadron value and no way to increase it.  The Nebulon B is also as low as the MC80, but at a better cost to squadron ratio.  The big winner here for "just" Figher Coordination Team, is then the MC80 Command variant, which as 4 Squadron Value and a maximum of 5.  That is a lot of B-Wings it can fling forward.

Speaking of B-Wings, what is the best squadron to fling around with this?  Slow ones.  B-Wings are the most obvious, being a mere Speed 2 - this increases their total speed to more than 3 (remember distance 1 is longer than any other increment on the measuring stick).  But any Speed 3 Rebel ship would benefit from this.  For Imperials, Aggressors or Firesprays might be helped along by this boost - as it doesn't require a squadron command to utilize.

But the bread and butter for this card is combos, because why do something neat when you can do something spectacular?  For 6 points, you can get Fighter Coordination Team paired with Flight Commander, and move your ship, then move your squadrons, then Activate your squadrons!  Set up that Yavaris double tap you are just out of range for, or just push those B-Wings close enough to make the attack run.  The other combination is a combination with the Independence.  Push your fighters ahead of you, then at the end of your maneuver, push them even further.  That's 5 B-Wings moving more than Distance 5 on Turn 1 for 19 points of upgrades.  Don't forget Flight Commander to help get you in range fore commands next turn.


Medical Team - 1 point - Before you are dealt a faceup damage card with the CREW trait, you may discard this card to discard that damage card.

A single point filler card that saves you a damage and discards 1/3 potential criticals?  Seems pretty good on just about anything.  What is a single point to a CR90 or Nebulon B that knows it is going to eat some hull damage?  Why wouldn't a Liberty Class want to take it as well?  Unless you REALLY need the bid, if you have a point to spare, it belongs on a ship.

Well, almost any ship.  If you need a different Support Team, like an Engine Tech'd Demolisher, you would much rather have that.  And the double Contain tokens on the Interdictor seem to demand a very careful consideration before including this team.


Overall, I think the Rebel ships benefit a lot more from the Support Team upgrades in this wave.  Next time though, we will finally be talking about the Wave 3 special upgrades - Fleet Support Upgrades!  I can hardly wait!

3 comments:

  1. Note that the Gladiator cannot take Expanded Hangar Bays as it has no Offensive Retrofit slot.

    I'm not really sold on Imperials using Fighter Control Teams in general at least so far as the options available now. Gladiators really want Engine Techs in that slot, and the Interdictor's not a great Squadron platform (with a base Squadrons of 2, the same as a Gozanti) and you're fighting with Engine Techs, Projection Experts, and Engineering Team for that support slot and Tractor Beams for the Offensive Retrofit slot. It just takes a lot of doing to make it "okay" and the Imperial squadrons (other than the YV-666) don't seem to love the extra attention as much as the Rebel squadrons do (particularly the speed 2 squadrons).

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    1. GSD2s are technicly better carriers than Nebulons so it's not that bad. A little unorthodox but it works

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  2. I don't know what you are talking about. I wouldn't make that mistake.

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