Wave 5 Upgrades - Turbolasers

Okay last one for Wave 5!

Wave 5 Upgrades - Ordnance

Only two cards left from Wave 5 for us to go over.  Let's get the Ordnance Upgrade out of the way.

Wave 5 Upgrades - Fleet Command Upgrades

On to "the reason you took a Pelta".  It is the Fleet Command Upgrades; support upgrades that you put on a slightly over-costed ship that make the rest of your fleet better.  The upgrades that make Imperials irrationally angry over Wave 5.

Please note that with the most recent FAQ, if the ship that this upgrade on is destroyed, all ships still gain the benefit of the upgrade until the end of the round.

Without further ado...

Wave 5 Upgrades - Reinforced Blast Doors

Now this is an interesting upgrade.  Let's take a look at Reinforced Blast Doors.

Wave 5 Upgrades - Rapid Launch Bay

Oh god, this thing is a beast of an upgrade card.  It does strange things and required a FAQ from pretty much the moment it was announced, and even after the FAQ it isn't 100% clear exactly how it should work, though I will describe the basic consensus.  Anyways, here it is!

Wave 5 Commanders - Moff Jerjerrod & Commander Sato

It has come to my attention that I have been very much slacking on writing upgrade articles.  This has to change!  How can I write about Wave 6 when I haven't even finished up Wave 5?  And I haven't even touched on the Commanders for the wave.

Wave 5 Officer Upgrades

It's far past time that we took a look at the Wave 5 upgrade cards, and we're going to look at officers.  Let's jump right in with the only non-faction specific officer.

Commander's Guide - VT-49 Decimator

Now we are cooking with dynamite!  The VT-49 Decimator is big and angry.  Let's take a look and how big and how angry it is:

Commander's Guide - Lambda-Class Shuttle

Here we have two of the more interesting new mechanics of the new Wave 5 squadrons.  The Lambda-Class Shuttle shows off the new Relay keyword as well as the Strategic keyword.  Let's take a look at the shuttle, and what those new keywords can mean for your overall squadron strategy.

Commander's Guide - Pelta-Class Cruiser

Time to look at the final of the two Wave 5 ships, the Pelta-Class Cruiser from the Phoenix Home expansion.  It is an interesting ship that isn't "great" at fighting, but can be used as a platform for a new type of upgrade - Fleet Support.  Each one has you spend a specific token in the start of the ship phase to give yourself a very nice buff.

WWPD Stevens Armada Stream - 1/2/16

That's right, it's time for more WWPD Steven Armada videos!

First round is a Salvage Run with a Vader ISDII, 2 Arqs, and a Flechette Raider vs Rieekan Yavaris, Pelta w/ Entrapment Formation, TRC90, and a Bomber Command / Toryn Farr pair of Medium Transports.

Fighter compliment:

Bossk, Ciena Ree, Valen Rudor
vs
Luke, Biggs, Wedge, HWK, Norra, Gold Squadron, B-Wing x2

https://www.twitch.tv/wwpdsteven/v/111482138

Second game is Yavaris, Pelta Command, TRC90, Toryn Farr Transport, Comms Net Transport Flagship for Dodonna vs 3 Dual Turbo Arqs, Flichette Raider, Goz flagship w/ Jerjerrod, APT Demo.

Fighter compliment:  Dagger, B-Wing, Ten Numb, Norra, Gold Squadron, HWK, YT-1300 x2, VCX
vs
TIE Fighter x3, Lambda Shuttle

https://www.twitch.tv/wwpdsteven/v/111441100
https://www.twitch.tv/wwpdsteven/v/111458521

Commander's Guide - TIE Phantoms

God damn it.

I remember playing X-Wing in Wave 4 and being super excited that my favorite ship was coming out.  That's right, the TIE Defender, the best Expanded Universe fighter ever designed.  Expensive, sure, but better than anything the Rebellion or Empire ever fielded up to that point.  It came with some nasty tricks for its time (White K-Turn!) and a mean stat line.

Also at that time came out the OTHER Expanded Universe TIE project that was the best and most expensive that it could be.  It was from an inferior game, and did stupid cloaking things.  The TIE Phantom.  And as much as I wanted to make my beautiful TIE Defenders work, it was clear they were outclassed by the TIE Phantom's movement shenanigans.

These guys are going to be annoying aren't they?

Commander's Guide - Z-95 Headhunter

It takes a while to clear out actual ships, but squadrons are fast!  I can do a squadron Monday - Friday and probably fit the Pelta in there somewhere next week.  Sounds good?  We are going to talk about the new Wave 5 Rebel squadrons today, specifically the Z-95 Headhunter, the predecessor to the X-Wing and all-around cheap, crappy squadron.

The cheap Z-95 Headhunter

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.