Star Wars Armada - Wave I News

Expand Your Fleet

“The fleet will be here any moment.” 
    –Leia Organa
Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of the first wave of Star Wars ™: Armada expansion packs!

• Victory -class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack
  
  
• CR90 Corellian Corvette Expansion Pack
  
  
• Nebulon-B Frigate Expansion Pack
  
  
• Assault Frigate Mark II Expansion Pack
  
  
• Gladiator -class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack
  
  
• Rebel Fighter Squadrons Expansion Pack
  
  
• Imperial Fighter Squadrons Expansion Pack
  
  

As you launch into Armada and its tactical fleet battles, these expansion packs allow you to customize and expand your fleet. Five of them introduce carefully detailed and pre-painted capital ships, each of which comes with its command dials, ship cards, an array of upgrade cards, and all the tokens and other components you need to deploy it into battle. Meanwhile, the fighter squadron expansion packs each come with eight sculpted squadrons, representing four different types of fighters. You’ll also find eight squadron cards, including one unique card for each type of squadron.
Use these expansions to grow your fleet or to tailor it around your favorite strategy. Either way, these ships, squadrons, and upgrades allow you to explore a vast range of tactics and strategies that reach beyond those available in the Core Set.
Victory -class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack
The largest and most powerful of the starships from the Armada Core Set, theVictory -class Star Destroyer formed the core of the Imperial Navy at the outset of the Galactic Civil War. These ships measure roughly nine-hundred meters in length, sport crews numbering over five-thousand, and feature a dagger-shaped design that allows them to concentrate nearly all their weapons on their forward firing arcs.
The Victory -class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack bolsters your fleet with one sculpted and pre-painted miniature Star Destroyer identical to the Star Destroyer miniature from the Core Set. It also comes with all requisite tokens and command dials, as well as more than a dozen ship and upgrade cards. The expansion’s two ship cards allow you to outfit your Star Destroyer as either a Victory I or Victory II , and its fourteen upgrades open a wide range of strategic possibilities as they allow you to upgrade your armament, your crew, and even your Star Destroyers themselves.
CR90 Corellian Corvette Expansion Pack
The first starship to appear in the classic Star Wars trilogy, the CR90 Corellian corvette is a small capital ship of roughly 150 meters that featured prominently in the Rebellion, largely due to its versatility. Often referred to as “blockade runners,” CR90 corvettes can be outfitted to slip through Imperial blockades, haul cargo, serve as trooper carriers, or engage Imperial ships in battle.
You can add one of these versatile starships to your Rebel fleet with the CR90 Corellian Corvette Expansion Pack. The expansion comes with one pre-painted miniature CR90 corvette, one command dial, all requisite tokens, and ship cards for both the CR90a and CR90b configurations. Additionally, eight upgrades allow you to equip your corvette for battle, including the commander card, Mon Mothma, and the Tantive IV title card.
Nebulon-B Frigate Expansion Pack
The Nebulon-B frigate was designed for the Imperial Navy by Kuat Drive Yards as a warship that could protect convoys from Rebel starfighters, but it was, ironically, a much more impactful ship within the Rebel fleet. At three-hundred meters long, a single Nebulon-B could boast twelve turbolasters and twelve laser cannons.
The showpiece of the Nebulon-B Expansion Pack is its detailed and pre-painted Nebulon-B frigate miniature, and the expansion then enhances this ship by supplying all the command dials and tokens you need to fly it, along with ship cards that allow you to build it into your fleet as a fighter escort or as a powerful support ship. Additionally, the expansion’s eight upgrade cards, which include two unique title cards, allow you to further customize your frigate’s role within your fleet.
Assault Frigate Mark II Expansion Pack
The largest and most heavily armed of the Rebellion’s first Armada starships, the Assault Frigate Mark II is a light warship seven-hundred meters long that sports a crew just under five-thousand and features a considerable armament of fifteen turbolaser batteries, fifteen laser cannons, and twenty quad laser cannons. Designed in secret by Rebel engineers, the Assault Frigate Mark II frequently surprises Imperial admirals with its speed.
The Assault Frigate Mark II Expansion Pack introduces one fully pre-painted Assault Frigate Mark II starship miniature, along with all the command dials and tokens that you need to bring it to battle. Two ship cards allow you to configure your Assault Frigate Mark II to better fit your fleet, and fourteen upgrade cards allow you to further refine its role within your fleet as you select your crew, upgrade your armament, and assign your commander.
Gladiator -class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack
Originally designed as an escort for larger Star Destroyers, the smallerGladiator -class Star Destroyer measures roughly five-hundred meters and proved most effective as a long-range patrol ship deployed to the fringes of the galaxy. There, its brutal armament of turbolasers, concussion missiles, laser cannons, and TIE squadrons allowed it to quickly subjugate any local opposition to the Galactic Empire.
The Gladiator -class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack introduces one detailed and pre-painted miniature that the expansion’s two ship cards allow you to add to your fleet as either a Gladiator I or Gladiator II . You’ll also find all the command dials and tokens that you need to bring your Star Destroyer to battle, along with ten upgrade cards that can enhance its attacks, allow it to move between attacks, and improve its accuracy.
Rebel Fighter Squadrons Expansion Pack
Even in the largest of battles, a single pilot can sometimes prove the difference between victory and defeat. Some of the most pivotal battles of the Galactic Civil War have been decided by the Rebellion’s courageous starfighter pilots.
Squadrons play an important role in the tactical fleet battles of Star Wars : Armada. Though they’re dwarfed by the capital ships they accompany, squadrons are not to be ignored; swarms of them can take down even the largest of ships. By adding eight squadrons of A-wings, B-wings, X-wings, and Y-wings to your fleet, including unique squadrons led by such aces as Wedge Antilles and Tycho Celchu, the Rebel Fighter Squadrons Expansion Pack helps to tip the scales in your favor.
Imperial Fighter Squadrons Expansion Pack
In battle, the Empire deployed swarms of TIEs to neutralize enemy squadrons and safeguard its larger Star Destroyers and their superior firepower. These easily recognizable starfighters were designed for speed and maneuverability, rather than durability, and the aces who flew them through many battles quickly earned intimidating reputations for their combat skill and fanatical loyalty.
The Imperial Fighter Squadrons Expansion Pack introduces an array of eight starfighter squadrons, evenly split between four different types of fighters. By adding these TIE advanced, TIE interceptor, TIE bomber, and TIE fighter squadrons to your fleet, you’ll be able to swarm your foes, protect your capital ships, and send the Rebellion’s hopes down in flames.
A Fleet to Fit Your Tactics
Build your fleet, refine your tactics, and expand your Armada battles beyond the Core Set and its myriad possibilities with this first wave of expansion packs. All seven are scheduled to release in early 2015, at the same time as the Armada Core Set. Until then, keep your eyes open for more Armadapreviews, including previews of its fleet-building rules and the different tactical options presented by the Core Set and Wave One upgrades!

Star Destroyers!

Star Destroyers!
Preview Two Imperial Starship Expansion Packs for STAR WARS (TM): Armada
“Star Destroyers, two of them, coming right at us.”     –Han Solo
Recently, we announced the upcoming release of the first wave of expansion packs for [url=https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=270&enmi=Star Wars: Armada]Star Wars™: Armada[/url], and in our last preview, we looked at how the game allows you to incorporate these ships, fighter squadrons, and upgrades into your own, custom fleet.
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Now that you know how you can use your three-hundred fleet points to buy capital ships, starfighters, upgrades, and your commander, we turn to the first two Imperial expansion packs to explore what they offer.
Of course, both of them feature powerful Star Destroyers, but you’ll also find a great deal more, including a host of unique upgrades, including two commanders that can serve as alternates for the Core Set’s Grand Moff Tarkin.

Victory-class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack

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The largest and most powerful of all the ships from the Core Set and first wave, the Victory-class Star Destroyer formed the core of the Imperial Navy at the outset of the Galactic Civil War, and it’s likely, soon, to form the core of many an Imperial fleet in Armada.
Available in both the Core Set and the Victory-class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack, the Victory-class Star Destroyer can be fielded as either of two subclasses. The more powerful Victory II costs eighty-five fleet points, and the Victory I, which is very nearly as imposing, costs seventy-three.
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These ships are the same in the expansion pack as they are in the Core Set, but the upgrades differ. And, as you can begin to guess from a look at their action bars, the different Victory-class Star Destroyers can each field an astonishing array of upgrades.
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Notably, though, the Victory II features the ion cannon upgrade type while the Victory I features the missile upgrade type. A small differences in icons that might slip your notice at first, this is the sort of distinction to which shrewd commanders will pay close attention as they assemble their fleets.
For example, the Victory I can equip the Assault Concussion Missiles upgrade. Then, whenever your attack includes a   result on a black attack die, you can deal one point of damage to each hull zone adjacent to the defending hull zone. You can only trigger one critical effect per attack, so if you trigger the effect from your Assault Concussion Missiles, you won’t deal a faceup damage card to the enemy ship; of course, the exchange is that you will deal an extra two points of damage.
On the other hand, the Victory II can equip either the Overload Pulse or the Ion Cannon Batteries found in the Victory-class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack. You can trigger the critical effect of either of these upgrades whenever you roll a   result on a blue attack die. If you’ve equipped an Overload Pulse, you can exhaust all of the defending ship’s defense tokens, leaving it, effectively, a sitting duck for the remainder of the round. Or if you’ve equipped the Ion Cannon Batteries, you can strip away a ship’s command tokens, leaving it with fewer and weaker command options.
As you can see, the upgrades that you select for your ships will drastically impact your strategy, and that means that each of the fourteen upgrades from the Victory-class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack offers its own range of strategic concerns. However, no upgrade cards offer more far-reaching strategic concerns than new commanders and title cards.
Even though the Core Set offers a wide enough range of ship cards, squadrons, and upgrades to permit a great deal of fleet-building flexibility, it includes only one commander card for each faction and just one title for each type of ship. The Imperials gain Grand Moff Tarkin as their sole commander, and any Imperial looking to field a uniqueVictory-class Star Destroyer must choose to field the Dominator.
These are both solid options, but the Imperial Navy gains greater flexibility with the Victory-class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack. Admiral Motti offers his services as commander, and you can field the Corrupter or Warlord instead of the Dominator (or alongside it).
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These cards greatly expand the range of possible synergies you’ll be able to develop within your fleet, as do the expansion’s eleven other crew members, teams, hangar bays, and armaments. Accordingly, the Victory-class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack, like each Armada expansion, isn’t just all about its pre-painted miniature Star Destroyer; it’s about harnessing enough firepower to put the fear of the Empire into your opponents.

Gladiator-class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack

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The Gladiator-class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack also expands your fleet-building options with its miniature Star Destroyer, two ship cards, and ten upgrades.
Less powerful and less resilient than the Victory-class, the Gladiator-class Star Destroyer is also less expensive, costing either fifty-six fleet points for the Gladiator I or sixty-two fleet points for the Gladiator II.
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And while it’s not as powerful as the Victory-class, the Gladiator-class – in many ways – features a better balance of strengths. Instead of the Victory’s six forward-facing attack dice, the Gladiator features four, but it can also fire four dice from both its left and right hull zones, as opposed to the three dice that the Victory fires from its sides.
Simultaneously, the Gladiator trades away one of the Victory’s redirect tokens for an evade token, reducing its ability to rely upon its shields for protection, but increasing its ability to evade attacks at long range.
Perhaps more importantly, the Gladiator is a faster and nimbler ship, with a maximum speed of “3” – as opposed to the Victory’s maximum speed of “2” – and a command rating of “2.” The reduced command, of course, limits the number of tokens your Gladiator-class Star Destroyer can store, but it also means that you’ll be able to react more swiftly to your opponent’s tactics.
Its increased maximum speed is also important because the Gladiator features no medium-range blue attack dice. Instead, it features a hefty dose of potent, close-range black dice, so any admiral fielding a Gladiator-class Star Destroyer will want to find a way to race it into position to fire as quickly as possible.
One of those ways may be to take advantage of the upgrades and titles that appear in the expansion. Engine Techs nearly double the efficiency of your navigation commands, and though the Demolisher title doesn’t directly add to your ship’s speed, by allowing yourGladiator-class to fire after moving, it greatly increases your ability to get into position to fire at the target of your choice as early as possible.
Likewise, by increasing the range of your black attack dice from close to medium whenever you attack the rear hull zone of an enemy ship, the Insidious title also adds to your range and maneuverability. Moreover, if you happen to equip your Gladiator-class with Expanded Launchers, you could fire as many as four of those black dice at medium-range.
Finally, the Gladiator-class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack comes with a commander upgrade of its own, Admiral Screed, who presents an interesting alternative for Grand Moff Tarkin or Admiral Motti.
“Once per activation, when a friendly ship is attacking, it may spend 1 die to change a die to a face with a   icon.”
The fact that you can use Admiral Screed’s ability once per activation means that you can apply it to each capital ship in your fleet. However, activating it requires the sacrifice of one of your attack dice. In the case where you roll two blanks, the decision to sacrifice one of them to turn the other into a critical result is a relative no-brainer, but those situations should be relatively rare. The blue attack die has no blank faces, and the red and black attack dice have only two blank faces each.
Still, Admiral Screed’s ability can come in handy even if you don’t roll blanks. For example, the face of the black attack die that shows a   result also shows a   result. If you sacrifice one   result to convert another   result to a result of   plus  , you lose no damage but gain the opportunity to trigger a critical effect.
Moreover, guaranteed   results can greatly increase the potency of your upgrades can potentially offset the cost of losing other dice results, even standard hits. With Admiral Screed aboard your flagship, you can guarantee a black   result for your Assault Concussion Missiles or a blue   result for your Victory-class Star Destroyer’s Ion Cannon Batteries.
In certain situations, you might even elect to give up the raw number of damage cards that you force onto your opponent’s hull in order to turn the first two of them faceup with the XX-9 Turbolasers found in the Victory-class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack.

The Imperial Fleet Is Yours to Command

The rules for fleet-building, along with the Star Destroyers and upgrades from the first wave of Armada expansions, ensure that you will be able to enjoy a range of Imperial fleets as diverse as the citizens of the galaxy they will help you conquer.
In our next preview, we’ll take a look at the Rebellion’s capital ships. Until then, it’s time to think about all the different Imperial fleets you can create. Once you’ve decided on your favorite builds, head to our forums to share them with the other members of the Armada community!
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Take Command of the Rebel Fleet

Take Command of the Rebel Fleet
Preview Three Rebel Starship Expansion Packs for STAR WARS (TM): Armada
“I just said you were a fair pilot. I didn’t know they were lookin’ for somebody to lead this crazy attack.”     –Han Solo
Our last preview of [url=https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=270&enmi=Star Wars: Armada]Star Wars™: Armada[/url] focused on the Victory-class Star Destroyer and the Gladiator-class Star Destroyer, the two Imperial starships coming out in the game’s first wave of expansions. Today, we continue our exploration of the game, its ships, and its expansions with a look at the three different capital ships with which the Rebellion will soon be able to confront these Star Destroyers.

CR90 Corellian Corvette Expansion Pack

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The miniature CR90 Corellian corvette found in the CR90 Corellian Corvette Expansion Pack is identical to that found in the game’s Core Set. Still, the expansion is well worth the consideration of anyone looking to field more than one corvette in battle.
First of all, most ambitious Rebel commanders are likely to want their fleets to count a good number of corvettes. Certainly, it’s possible to bring more than one to battle. The CR90 Corvette A weighs in at just forty-four of your three-hundred fleet points, and the CR90 Corvette B costs you a mere thirty-nine fleet points. For those points, though, both ships offer you three-dice attacks from your primary, forward-facing weapons; four hull; and a total of seven shields.
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However, the expansion’s benefits extend far beyond the additional miniature you’ll find within it. As with the Imperial starship expansions, each Rebel starship expansion pack introduces a number of upgrade cards, several of which are unique to the expansion.
For example, the CR90 Corellian Corvette Expansion Pack allows you to recruit Mon Mothma as your commander should you prefer her to the Core Set’s General Dodonna. It also comes with the valiant Raymus Antilles and two different titles, meaning that you can fly the iconic Tantive IV or daring Jaina’s Light alongside the Core Set’sDodonna’s Pride.
As the lightest and most agile ship within the Rebel fleet, the CR90 corvette offers a great deal of tactical flexibility not available to your other ships, and the expansion capitalizes upon this flexibility. Not only does the expansion’s Raymus Antilles allow your corvette to double up on the effects of any command it chooses, gaining a token even as it executes the command from the dial, but a number of other cards allow you to exploit the different upgrades available to the CR90 Corvette A and CR90 Corvette B.
Where the CR90 Corvette B features an ion cannons upgrade, the CR90 Corvette A instead features the turbolaser upgrade. Accordingly, you might add the Leading Shots upgrade card to a CR90 Corvette B equipped with the Dodonna’s Pride in order to deal faceup damage cards directly to the hulls of enemy ships, especially in a fleet with General Dodonna as commander. Or you might equip your CR90 Corvette A with the H9 Turbolasers upgrade, and if your opponent’s Victory-class Star Destroyer has spent one of its redirect tokens, you can convert one of your damage results to an accuracy result in order to force your opponent to soak the damage you deal on the hull zone you’ve targeted.
The way Armada allows you to upgrade and customize your ships ensures that you’ll have tremendous control over the way they fit into your overall strategy, and the CR90 Corellian Corvette Expansion Pack greatly increases the number of roles your corvettes can play within your Rebel fleet.

Nebulon-B Frigate Expansion Pack

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The second Rebel ship found in the Core Set is the Nebulon-B frigate, and the Nebulon-B Frigate Expansion Pack enhances its utility and versatility within your fleet by adding a pre-painted Nebulon-B miniature along with eight upgrade cards.
The Nebulon-B is a ship that is truly designed to play one of two different roles within your fleet, and the Nebulon-B Frigate Expansion Pack further highlights the distinctions between the roles, allowing you to use it as a powerful support ship or as a potent fighter escort. Of course, once you have both the Core Set and the Nebulon-B Frigate Expansion Pack, you can field two Nebulon-B frigates in battle, potentially utilizing both the Nebulon-B Escort Frigate and the Nebulon-B Support Refit in the same fleet.
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Both these types of Nebulon-B frigate feature the same attack dice, shields, hull, and upgrade slots. There are two key differences that merit the six extra fleet points. First of all, the Nebulon-B Escort Frigate gains an extra blue die to its anti-squadron armament, making it far more effective at eliminating enemy squadrons, either to protect itself or free up your fighters to attack enemy ships. Additionally, it gains an extra squadron value, meaning it can activate an extra squadron whenever it reveals the squadron command. This is particularly meaningful if you equip your Nebulon-B frigate with the expansion’s Yavaris title, which allows your squadrons to attack twice when you activate them with the squadron command, so long as they don’t move. Add Luke Skywalker to the mix, and the differences between the two types of Nebulon-B designs becomes profoundly noticeable.
Of course, there’s plenty to say in favor of the Nebulon-B Support Refit. For starters, it comes with all the same attack dice, but at a discount of six fleet points. This is a great option for fleet admirals who plan to use their Nebulon-B frigates to attack directly. For starters, the Salvation title adds extra damage with each  result it scores from its front hull zone. Then, the addition of an Intel Officer or XI7 Turbolasers (or both) can minimize your opponent’s ability to defend against your attacks, ensuring that they hit for maximum, targeted impact.
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The Support Refit is also, arguably, the better ship to outfit with the Core Set’s Redemption title, which is the title you’d likely select if you wanted your Nebulon-B to play a more defensive role than offensive one. It grants an extra point of engineering to friendly ships within Range 1–5 whenever they resolve the repair command, either from the dial or from a token. Either way, that extra point may make the difference between merely moving a shield and recovering one, or between recovering a shield and discarding some harmful faceup damage card. Additionally, that extra point of engineering piles up quickly; the more you resolve the repair command, the more value you get from the Redemption.

Assault Frigate Mark II Expansion Pack

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The third of the Rebel starship expansion packs in the first wave of Armada releases is the Assault Frigate Mark II Expansion Pack.
Featuring one pre-painted Assault Frigate Mark II miniature and fourteen upgrades, this is the big Rebel expansion for admirals who want to battle the Empire’s Star Destroyers on more even terms. While neither the CR90 corvette or Nebulon-B frigate wield firepower that measures up to a Star Destroyer’s, and both demand that you fly them carefully about the battlefield in order to limit their exposure to your opponent’s main weapons, the Assault Frigate Mark II can fire attacks of four dice from either its left or right hull zone.
Those are attack values that match the Gladiator-class Star Destroyer’s best attacks for total dice, but at a greater distance, and while they don’t quite measure up to the Victory-class Star Destroyer’s forward attack, they give the advantage to any Rebel commander who can maneuver an Assault Frigate Mark II alongside a Victory-class Star Destroyer, whose left and right hull zones attack for only three dice each.
As to be expected, as with each of the other ships, there are multiple ways to outfit your Assault Frigate Mark II, and you will find notable differences between the eighty-one fleet point Assault Frigate Mark II A and the seventy-two fleet point Assault Frigate Mark II B.
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For the extra fleet points it costs you, the Assault Frigate Mark II A gains an extra blue attack die from its forward and rear hull zones. It also features a more impressive anti-squadron armament of two blue dice, instead of just one. On the other hand, the Assault Frigate Mark II B features a squadron value of “3” instead of “2.” It may not be as well-equipped at dealing with enemy fighters directly, but it can better coordinate any fighter wing sent to escort it.
However, both versions of the Assault Frigate Mark II feature a command value of “3,” meaning that it’s noticeably less responsive than the Rebellion’s other ships. As is true of all the starships in Armada, the more powerful ships demand that you plan further ahead.
Still, the ship’s larger command value also means that it can hold more command tokens for later use, and that pairs well with the ability of the expansion’s commander, Garm Bel Iblis, who in both the game’s first and penultimate rounds allows you to add a number of command tokens to each of your ships equal to their command ratings.
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Garm Bel Iblis is accompanied within the expansion’s upgrades by another unique Rebel, Adar Tallon, who serves equally well aboard the Assault Frigate Mark II B and the Yavaris. For ten fleet points, Adar Tallon basically allows you to get double the value out of your best squadron pilot every round, and if you choose to go all-in on the investment in your squadrons, you may also wish to consider equipping your Assault Frigate Mark II B with the Gallant Haventitle, which reduces by one the total damage dealt to any of your squadrons at distance “1.”
Like the Nebulon-B frigate, the Assault Frigate Mark II also seems to be meant for one of two roles, and if you opt not to outfit it as a fighter escort, then you can add the Paragon title to add one black die to any attack your ship makes as a second attack against the same target. With the Paragon title, your Assault Frigate Mark II A can concentrate its fire upon a single foe for as many as eight attack dice, or nine if you also outfit it with the Enhanced Armament upgrade.
Even Star Destroyers have a hard time concentrating nine dice at the same foe, and if you start launching those sorts of explosive attacks against your enemies, it’s worth taking a look at adding the Sensor Team upgrade to your ship. At the cost of two dice, the Sensor Team allows you to gain an accuracy result when you need it to prevent your opponent from halving the damage his ship would otherwise take.

The Fleet Will Be Ready Soon

The Rebel fleet is gathering outside of Sullust and will soon be ready for action. How will you meet the Imperials? Will you swarm them with your corvettes? Will you use the Yavaris, Gallant Haven, and Adar Tallon to get the most out of your ace fighter pilots? Or will you bring out the big guns of your Assault Frigate Mark II A?
In our next preview, we’ll take a look at the fighters and pilots in the Rebel and Imperial Fighter Squadron Expansion Packs. Until then, head to our community forums to share your favorite Rebel fleet designs with the other members of the Armada community![/size]

Lead the Fighter Attack

Lead the Fighter Attack
Preview the Rebel and Imperial Fighter Squadron Expansion Packs
“Admiral, we’re in position. All fighters accounted for.”
    –Lando Calrissian
In our last two previews of Star Wars™: Armada, we looked at the game’s first capital ships, for both the Imperial Navy and the Rebel Alliance. We looked at how each ship’s different configurations offer it a range of tactical flexibility, as do the many titles and upgrades available in the Core Set and the first wave of expansions.
However, your capital ships are only part of the equation. Your starfighter squadrons can also make a major impact, but you have to use them properly. A good fleet admiral won’t deploy a screen of TIE fighters to perform a job better assigned to TIE bombers, nor use TIE bombers to intercept enemy fighters when TIE interceptors would better perform that task.
In today’s preview, then, we’ll take a look at the eight different fighter squadrons available in the Core Set and first wave of expansions, and we’ll explore some of the ways you may be able to make good use of their different abilities.

Imperial Fighter Squadrons

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Imperial commanders are taught to take advantage of their superior numbers and firepower to overwhelm their foes, and this strategy relies in large measure upon the Empire’s seemingly limitless supply of TIE fighters.
In Armada, your standard TIE Fighter Squadron costs just eight of your 300 fleet points. For that investment, you gain a battery armament of one blue attack die and, more importantly, an anti-squadron armament of three blue attack dice. As one might expect, this makes it an extremely efficient anti-fighter unit, especially when you take into consideration its Swarm ability, which allows it to reroll one of its attack dice whenever it attacks a squadron engaged with another squadron.
Typically, that “another squadron” would be another TIE Fighter Squadron, but if you have a few fleet points to spare, it could just as well be "Howlrunner" or "Mauler" Mithel . These TIE fighter aces both cost roughly twice as much as a standard squadron, but in fleets that want to make short work of enemy fighters, they’re still a bargain. Both add considerable damage potential, and they also gain tremendous resilience from defense tokens that allow them to halve the damage from one attack and completely ignore the damage from another.
You can also add resilience to your fighter squadrons by upgrading to the TIE Advanced Squadron . The TIE Advanced Squadron features five hull and can shield your other fighter squadrons with its Escort ability. Squadrons withEscort prevent squadrons they are engaged with from performing attacks against squadrons without Escort.
Of course, the TIE Advanced is also the starfighter flown by the legendary Sith Lord Darth Vader . Drawing upon the dark side of the Force, Darth Vader adds an extra black die to all of his attacks against enemy fighter squadrons, and whenever he scores a   result, he adds one extra damage to his damage total.
Meanwhile, if you’re looking to race your fighters across the battlefield as quickly as possible, you may wish to consider investing in one or more TIE Interceptor Squadrons . With a speed of “5,” this starfighter squadron is as fast as they come, and for just eleven fleet points, its pilots can Swarm their foes, roll four blue attack dice, and gainCounter 2.
The Counter X keyword allows a squadron to attack any squadron that performs a non-counter attack against it, using an anti-squadron armament of X blue dice. Accordingly, your foe might wish to pick apart your other squadrons first, butSoontir Fel ’s unique ability punishes anyone who pursues this strategy. Then, because Soontir Fel and your other TIE Interceptor Squadrons all have theSwarm keyword, they can have their Counter attacks further boosted by “Howlrunner.”
While most Imperial fighter squadrons excel at engaging other fighter squadrons, TIE Bomber Squadrons do not. They have the Heavy ability, which means they do not prevent engaged squadrons from attacking ships or moving. Instead, TIE Bomber Squadrons gain the Bomber ability.
Normally, when fighter squadrons attack a capital ship, they ignore all results other than  . However, ships with the Bomber ability add their   results to the damage total and can even resolve critical effects. This means that, at just nine fleet points, the TIE Bomber Squadron can be an impactful addition to any fleet, as its battery armament consists of one black die which, with a little luck, can deal two damage in a single attack.

Rebel Fighter Squadrons

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The Rebellion’s fighter squadrons feature the same keywords and abilities as the Empire’s, but they feature them in different combinations and with different, speeds, hull values, anti-squadron armaments, and battery armaments. Altogether, they feel like drastically different starfighters.
For example, the X-wing Squadron features the Escort keyword and a hull value of “5,” just like the TIE Advanced Squadron. However, it’s speed is one lower, at “3,” and it gains the Bomber ability, along with a potent battery armament of one red die. Altogether, it’s a more rounded fighter squadron than either the anti-fighter TIE Advanced Squadron or the TIE Bomber Squadron, but at thirteen fleet points, it’s also a larger investment than either of those Imperial squadrons.
Of course, the X-wing is also the starfighter of choice for many of the Rebellion’s greatest aces, and Luke Skywalkerand Wedge Antilles are about as great as they come. With his battery armament of one black die and his ability to ignore enemy shields, Luke Skywalker excels at attacking enemy ships, potentially crippling them with devastating critical effects. On the other hand, Wedge Antilles is an unparalleled dogfighter, who can fire as many as six blue dice at an enemy squadron that has already been activated.
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Here, we begin to see some of the heroics that one might expect from the Rebellion’s veterans. While you could simply have Wedge Antilles wait to activate until after his chosen target, you could choose, instead, to have him fly his squadron in formation with "Dutch" Vander , who can toggle the activation slider of any squadron he damages.
Both “Dutch” Vander and the standard Y-wing Squadron feature the Bomber and Heavy keywords like the Empire’s TIE Bomber Squadron. However, for one extra fleet point, the Y-wing Squadron features an anti-squadron armament of two blue dice, instead of one black die. It also differentiates itself from the TIE Bomber Squadron through the addition of one hull point and the loss of one point of speed. More importantly, though, the two starfighter squadrons don’t really share equivalent roles.
While the TIE Bomber Squadron is the Empire’s most effective and dedicated anti-ship squadron, the Rebellion’s most effective anti-ship squadron is the B-wing Squadron . Though it’s the slowest starfighter squadron in the game’s first wave, the B-wing Squadron is the one most likely to concern enemy ship captains. It features both theBomber ability and a battery armament of two dice, one blue and one black. Once you get it into position, the B-wing Squadron’s attack dice race to the top of the charts for damage potential versus fleet points.
B-wing ace Keyan Farlander further enhances the B-wing’s lethality with his battery armament of two black dice and his unique ability, “While attacking a ship, if the defending hull zone has no shields, you may reroll any number of dice in your attack pool.”
Finally, while most of the Rebellion’s fighter squadrons are slower than the Empire’s, the A-wing Squadron offers Rebel players a means of racing quickly into engagements. With its speed of “5,” your A-wing Squadron can move swiftly into position to aid your other squadrons, or it can engage your foes early, holding them back from the other squadrons with which you intend to attack enemy ships. Either way, as soon as it’s locked into a high-speed dogfight, the A-wing Squadron’s Counter 2 ability gives it a decided edge.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

In Armada, you not only command your fleet, you assemble it. Thus, your path to victory begins with the careful selection of those ships and starfighter squadrons that you intend to take to battle. Will you use squadrons with theBomber ability to batter enemy ships? Will you utilize interceptors to engage enemy fighters before they can approach your ships? Will you rely upon the talents of a few starfighter aces? The tactical flexibility that squadrons offer is limited only by the fact that you can’t spend more than one-third of your fleet points on fighter squadrons.
There’s no denying the raw power of the Star Wars galaxy’s capital ships, nor that they’re the heart of Armada and its battles. Still, there’s always room for personal heroics, and there’s always the chance that a single starfighter pilot can turn the tide of battle.[/size]

The Fleet Has Arrived

The Fleet Has Arrived
The First Wave of Expansions for Star Wars™: Armada Is Now Available
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"Hurry. The Alliance should be assembled by now."
     –Leia Organa
Assemble your fleet and prepare for the jump to hyperspace! The first wave of expansion packs for Star Wars™:Armada is now available!
Comprised of seven different expansion packs, Armada Wave I greatly enriches your fleet-building options. Five different capital ship expansion packs each come with one pre-painted miniature starship with which you can bolster your fleet, along with two different ship cards that allow you to choose how you want it to function in battle.
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• Victory-class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack
  
  
• CR90 Corellian Corvette Expansion Pack
  
  
• Nebulon-B Frigate Expansion Pack
  
  
• Assault Frigate Mark II Expansion Pack
  
  
• Gladiator-class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack
  
  
• Rebel Fighter Squadrons Expansion Pack
  
  
• Imperial Fighter Squadrons Expansion Pack
  
  

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You'll also find new commanders to place aboard your flagships and a number of other upgrades, including new weapons, crew, and teams.
Meanwhile, the Rebel and Imperial Fighter Squadron Expansion Packs add to the number of X-wing and TIE squadrons that you can field, even as they introduce three new starfighter squadron types each, as well as unique squadrons led by some of the galaxy's greatest pilots.
Altogether, Armada Wave I marks a significant escalation in the ongoing Galactic Civil War. More ships head to battle, and they're armed with more weapons, more commanders, officers, and more crew that await your orders.
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Deadlier Than Ever

"Soon the Rebellion will be crushed."
     –Emperor Palpatine
Whether you're competing in tournaments or just looking for an advantage in your battles against your buddy, the first wave of Armada expansions gives you tremendous freedom to refine your Core Set strategies or scrap them in favor of something new.
First of all, two new ships introduce new options for both Rebel and Imperial fleets.
The Imperial Navy's Gladiator-class Star Destroyer is smaller than its Victory-class cousin, but it's also faster, costs fewer fleet points, and fires nearly as hard. Its arrival allows the Empire to field a smaller, faster, and nimbler fleet that utilizes a larger number of starships, or you can balance your Imperial fleet with a couple Gladiator-class Star Destroyers and a Victory-class Star Destroyer to partner raw firepower with the ability to aggressively pursue a wider array of the game's possible objectives.
Meanwhile, the Rebel Alliance gains the Assault Frigate Mark II, which can survive much longer in a straight-up shoot-out with an Imperial Star Destroyer than either the Corellian corvette or Nebulon-B frigate. That means the Rebels may be able to fly ships into battle earlier than before, rather than spending their opening rounds trying to maneuver into flanking positions outside the arc of the Victory-class Star Destroyer's overpowering forward battery armament.
Additionally, Wave I and its expansions introduce a wealth of new upgrade cards that allow you to revise and refine your strategies, or you can simply abandon your old strategies in favor of new strategies that suddenly become possible. Imperial players can use Director Isard and an Intel Officer to translate advance knowledge of their opponent's commands into battlefield control. Or they can combine Admiral Screed and his unique talents with the effects of an Overload Pulse to exhaust enemy defense tokens at will.
On the other hand, the Rebel Alliance benefits from the leadership of Mon Mothma and Garm Bel Iblis , both of whom encourage tactics that vary considerably from those utilized by the Core Set's commander, General Dodonna . Perhaps you'll pass command tokens from ship to ship with the Tantive IV title, or perhaps you'll focus everything you've got in a series of punishing volleys from the Paragon . Perhaps you'll invest more of your fleet points into starfighter squadrons, drawing upon the power of the B-wing and unique talents of Tycho Celchu to launch strikes that your opponent will never expect.
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However, you use its ships and upgrades, Wave I marks a massive increase in the number of ships, upgrades, and possible fleets available for Armada. Accordingly, the release of Wave I also brings an increase in the number of fleet points available to players in a standard tournament game. All standard Armada tournaments now allow fleets of up to 300 points.

Lead Your Fleet to Victory

Armada Wave I is now available, and your space battles will never be the same. The enemy fleet is approaching. Your fighter pilots are racing to their ships. Combat is imminent, and all the personnel in your fleet are counting on you to lead them to victory.
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Head to your local retailer today, pick up your Wave I expansion packs, and take the helm of some of the Star Warsuniverse's most powerful and iconic warships![/size]