Thursday, December 29, 2016

Commander's Guide - Arquitens-Class Light Cruiser

The Arquitens Class Light Cruiser brings to the table something the Imperials really haven't had before - a long range / Turbolaser based light cost ship.  Not a brawler by any means, the Arquitens-Class looks to fill a vital role in Imperial fleets whose big Red dice contributions have come from Victory or Imperial-Class Destroyers.





Overall


The Arquitens-Class Light Cruiser comes standard as another Imperial Small base ship, with 5 hull and 2 shields on each of the hull zones.  About as expensive as a Gladiator, it serves a completely different role than the "Up in your face" GSD1.  The big feature of the ship is both in the access to Turbolaser upgrades and the strong 3 dice side arcs, making it a long range flanker like the Assault Frigate of olden days.

For a flanker though, it has a very anemic ability to turn, having only a double yaw at the farthest yaw of each of it's speed 1 through speed 3, and no other natural turns besides.  Still, with speed 3 it can move around the battle field fairly well and if well positioned can keep enemies at a distance.

For defense, the ship comes standard with an Evade, two Redirects, and a Contain.  A defensive retrofit upgrade slot means that some extra protection can be added to the fairly middle-of-the-road 5 hull.

For other upgrades, officer and turbolaser are standard.  As is the 2 Command and 3 Engineering values.

Arquitens-Class Light Cruiser


The less expensive of the two options is pure ship-to-ship combat, with the understanding that you might get a bit close.  For 54 points, you get a Black/Red Front, 3 Red Side, and Black/Red Rear.  Anti-squadron is a single Black die.  Squadron value is a mere 1.

Expect to see this as the standard I-Class Imperial type that we know well - it is cheaper and does the primary job just fine.  You'll be seeing a lot of Light Cruiser variants


Arquitens-Class Command Cruiser


It's the typical Imperial II-Class with a twist!  This Arquitens comes with a Blue / Red Front and Rear to distinguish it from the Light Cruiser, and a Squadron Value of 2.  A Blue anti-squadron lets it fire out longer.  But more importantly than either, it gains access to the Support Team upgrade slot.

On one hand, it begs for an Engine Techs, which gives it a 2 Yaw speed 1 maneuver, but there are other Support Team based upgrades that could help its case to see widespread play.  Nav Team might even be a good option here, giving it a close yaw at high speeds with a token.  It gives the Imperials another cheap option to push squadrons with Fighter Coordination Team.

It might be a more expensive version of a ship, but it gives the Imperials options that they might not otherwise have had.


Upgrades:


Commanders:  On one hand, putting a commander on a long range Turbolaser boat isn't the worst idea, Arquitens works well with the various Imperial Commanders.  Command 2 means Tarkin tokens are always useful, even if not in this immediate turn.  Motti bumps them up to Hull 6, which isn't awful (though it isn't amazing).  Screed enjoys their large broadside dice pool to shore up the fickleness of Red dice.  Vader is a big winner here, able to reroll the Red broadside and with lots of redundant tokens, it should be worth doing.  Who would have though the Dark Lord of the Sith would be comfortable with such old tech?  Ozzel even can slow the ship down for a tight speed 1 turn, before rocketing to speed 3.

Tagge and Konstantine though, don't really benefit from this type of ship.  Tagge does to an extent, if you want to make it a TRC boat - giving you access to the evade back again, but otherwise doesn't benefit the ship.  Konstantine could use this as a smaller ship to spend more on big guns, but he needs big guns.  The new Commander, Moff Jerjerrod, is custom made for this ship, giving it a Yaw value of 2 at the first click at speeds 2 and 3, for the price of a single point of damage - easily repairable with engineering commands and shields.  This makes the Arquitens very maneuverable, and the VSD into a monster.

Titles:  Hand of Justice is 4 points of buffs to one of your bigger, damage eating ships - by activating midway through a fight, you can refresh a Brace (or another TRC Arquiten's Evade) to help something else survive an attack that it shouldn't.  Centicore can go for 3 points on any Arquitens-Class cruiser (even the Light Cruisers) and let it be a point-man for the rest of your squadron pushes.  Maybe a corresponding Gozanti just chilling way out of the battle, contributing with commands that would otherwise be pointless.

Officers:  I don't feel like Minister Tua is for the Light Cruiser, I feel like she is a fix for the ISD1 / VSD.  Sure, you could equip 2 defensive retrofits.  On a 54 point base ship.  There are too many officers these days to go through each and every one, so let's hit the highlights:

For a low turn radius ship, Chart Officer is a cheap way to park it on rocks without a care in the world.  Intel Officer is good on anything.that hits hard, and can lock down on Brace / Evade / Scatter shenanigans.  Damage Control Officer is a neat new trick and the ship does have a Contain.

Defensive Retrofits:  This might be worth a look at for Redundant Shields or Advanced Projectors - as a long range Red dice platform with decent shields and double Redirects.  Reinforced Blast Doors is an interesting proposition as well.  I'd stay away from ECM (no Brace).

Turbolasers:  This is where the ship gets most of its punch.  Add Dual Turbolaser Turrets or Turbolaser Reroute Circuit and get the most of your fickle Red dice, or go nuts and Expanded Armaments it to a 4 Red Dice broadsider (Note:  Bring Vader along for the ride).  Get the front arc involved with double-arc shots with Spinal Armaments.  Hunt flotilla with H-9s.  Lots of good turbolaser options to worth with to make sure your ship hurts.


Ship Roles:


Flanker - This ship begs to come up the side, raking broadside fire against the opposition.  It doesn't have the speed of - say - a Corvette, but it wants to circle around the toiletbowl.

Broadsider - The only true broadside ship in the Imperial fleet, much like the Nebulon B was the only front facing damage dealer until the Liberty came along.

Light Carrier - The Command Cruiser (or Centicore) can be used to escort a pair of squadrons into the fight.  Definitely a more difficult to destroy target than a flotilla, and still able to contribute to ship-to-ship fire.

Objective Ship - Surprisingly durable with the Defensive Retrofit, 5 hull, and 2 shields around.  Moderately fast at speed 3.  Only limited if you don't have a good way of getting low yaw at that speed.

Combat Support - Command Cruiser can take Projection Experts, Redundant Shields, and stay at long range.  Maybe not a great (or inexpensive) option, but an option is there.

6 comments:

  1. The Arquitens is a great little ship. More durable than the Raider thanks to the double redirects, and wants to stay at range which mitigates the lack of brace.

    Having had a few practice games, I think it works well to follow behind ISD/VSD to provide flank protection. And to finish off wounded enemy ships that have passed the main fleet. Works well with ways to make damage more reliable (TRCs, Dual Turbolaser Turrets, Vader) and nothing else needed.

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  2. For turbolasers, Slaved Turrets/Vader is an effective combo as well.

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  3. Oh hell yeah. Another "odd" ship. I'm going to have some fun with this

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  4. Honestly I don't think Tua will work that well on an ISD1. In most cases you're better of taking a deuce or Chiraneau instead. Though a VSD wouldn't say no to advanced projectors or ECM

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    1. I disagree - I think Tua / ECM is a perfectly good combination for the ISD1, especially if you're looking at saving the 10 points over a 2 anyway, but still want a robust flagship.

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  5. This ship could be a very good one, the matter is that it doesnnt have firepower. You're forced to use TRC (Needa helps) or Dual Turbolasers and/or Vader in commander.
    I do like this ship, but it's too weak to unbalance the battle

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