Wave 6 Upgrades - Turbolasers

I still can't believe I took this long to get to the Wave 6 upgrades.  We'll be through them after today though.

Wave 6 Upgrades - Ordnance

Well, if this isn't overdue, I don't know what is.  The Wave 6 came out in July of 2017, so... 7 months late to write about this and the W6 Turbolasers?

Whatever, we'll just deal with it.

Answering 6 Month Old Questions: FAQ Update 12/18/17

We had a new FAQ!  Let's go over the updates in detail:

What Is Biggs Playing Now? Moffy J, Bossky Bossk and the Kittens

Here's a casual list I've been tolling around with.  Not quite an original idea, I stole the general feel of the idea for the build from the 1st round opponent I played in the Ohio Regional, then modified it heavily.  Here it is, an Imperial broadside list with bomber support:

Wave 6 Upgrades - Offensive Retrofit

Only one offensive upgrade this expansion that isn't also a Boarding Team.

But wow if it isn't a doozy.

Wave 6 Upgrades - Boarding Teams (Weapon Team + Offensive Retrofit)

These are the first two slot upgrade for Armada, and because of what every upgrade that has these two slots have been so far, we're going to call them Boarding Teams.

Wave 6 Upgrades - Officers

Two new unique offers were released with Wave 6, which give you quite a few interesting options going forward.  Let's take a look at them now:

Wave 6 Upgrades - Admiral Sloane - Commander

Today is the release date for Wave 6, so let's discuss the commander that everyone is actually talking about!  It's time for General Organa again!

Just kidding, it's really Admiral Sloane.

Commander's Guide - Hammerhead Class Corvette

Onward to the other half of Wave 6, the Hammerhead Corvette.  Unlike the Quasar, the Hammerhead has seen some very important screen time in recent years, not only as the backbone for the reconstituted Rebels fleet, but also as the ship that blew up two Imperial Star Destroyers with one well placed ram (and some Y-Wing Ion Bomb help).  Without further ado...

Wave 6 Upgrades - General Leia Organa: Commander

Two new commanders join in Wave 6, one for each side.  Let's take a look at one of them today and see what they each add to the mix.

Commander's Guide - Quasar Fire Class Carrier

Since Wave 1 we have had expensive battleships that could double as a carrier, and Wave 3 gave us the flotilla, a support ship that had the primary role of a pocket carrier, but never have we had an actual dedicated carrier ship.  Wave 6 fixes this for the Empire, but adding the Quasar Fire Class Cruiser-Carrier.

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.

Theorizing a Rebel Pocket Carrier

I don't know about you, but I've been long frustrated by the lack of Flight Controller options for the Rebels. There's the AFII...and that's about it. The only other ship remotely capable of it is the Liberty with title onboard. I've tried it, but it is not the optimal use of the Liberty, which would much rather be using Navigate​ commands. In my never ending quest to use anything but the AFII, I've started looking toward the coming Hammerhead Corvette. Yes, you read that right. Don't you make that face at me.

It's always hard speculating on ships that haven't been fully spoiled. However, with the Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette we have quite a few known quantities. First, we know it has, at a minimum, a Weapons Team slot, an Offensive Retrofit slot, an Ordnance slot, and the usual Officer and Title slots. I'll ignore the Title slot for now because the only known title isn't of us for commanding squadrons. The first choice is, obviously, Flight Controllers in the Weapons Team slot. With a likely squadron value of 1, however, we need ways to command more squadrons. That makes the next choice easy: Expanded Hangars in the Offensive Retrofit slot. Squadron 2 still isn't the best use of points. You really want to be commanding at least 3 squadrons to make the Flight Controllers worthwhile. What you need for the final piece of the puzzle is tokens.

There are a few ways you could go. First up is the new Leia commander card. This is a simple solution that ensures that the Hammerhead will always be able to command 3 squadrons so long as the Aldeeranian princess has something to say about it. If her steep 38 point cost is too much for you, or you want a different commander, don't fret. There are a couple other options. A Comms Net flotilla will work just fine. It doesn't​ really save you points compared to Leia, but it does net you an extra activation. Finally, my preferred route is to take a Veteran Captain. The downside here is you only gain one extra use and then you're stuck at squadron 2. Still, two turns of adding a blue to 3 squadrons is significant. That's typically how quickly the squadron fight is decided.

Based on what we know about the Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette, I can't see it costing more than 37 points. Assuming that holds true and you go my preferred route (FC, EH, and Vet Cap), this will all likely cost you around 51 points or so. That's a pretty good price. An AFIIB with just Flight Controllers is 78 points and is only commanding one more squadron. A Liberty attempting to do 4 squadrons would cost well into the 100s. That means a carrier Hammerhead could potentially be very efficient. I would add External Racks to mine, making them a nice dual threat willing to work in at close range.

I can hear the arguments now: "Imperials could already do this with the Raider and they haven't." True, but Imperials already have two other effective platforms for Flight Controllers in the VSD and the ISD. Frankly, I'll never understand the hate for the VSD. It is the best Flight Controller platform in the game at the moment. Yes, that means it's often relegated to a carrier role, but at it's damned good at it. Baring a surprising point value, the Quasar will soon usurp that title with ease. The point is, Imperials don't need to even consider the Raider as a Flight Controller platform because they already have plenty of options. They aren't desperate like I am.

A lot is going to depend on the Nav chart. Like all carriers, the Hammerhead carrier would likely be too busy spamming the squadron command to Navigate. As a light ship with minimal shields and only 5 hull, the Hammerhead is perhaps more susceptible to this problem. I'll eventually go into the full list at a later date, but for now it is suffice to say I intend to pair it with my Lifeboat 2.0 concept Biggs talked about. I have to give full props to Shmitty for being the first to point it out, but Entrapment Formation's ability to adjust carrier speed cannot be undervalued

Boring Conversation Anyway Youtubecast - Episode 2 - Wave 6 Preview

It's what the title says.  You get to see me and other people have bad and good opinions respectively.