Armada Wave 6 Early Thoughts

Armada Wave 6 has now been out for nearly three weeks, and I've been able to get in several games with the new stuff.  Its been a mixed bag as far as early results, with nothing really being surprisingly good or bad.

Commanders

The two commanders for this wave were heavily discussed and bantered about.  Commander Sloane seemed to be the pre-release MVP, but I've found list building with her to be tough.  The fighters she seems to pair best with are regular TIEs and Interceptors.  Against ships though those three hull just melt to AA fire.  I'm thinking her builds are actually going to be a bit more subtle, using Interceptors and Defenders to overwhelm other squads and then use the defenders to either always do damage or strip away a token.  For the Rebels, Leia has find a nice niche working with swarm fleets.  I'm intrigued on trying to use her on a Liberty class cruiser as a battle carrier, but haven't gotten a chance yet.  My friend has run a pretty mean 7 activation fleet with her using mostly Concentrate Fire to bring up the firepower of 3 TRC90s with 4 Torpedo Hammerheads.

Boarding Teams

The boarding engineers have proven to be a bigger bane to me so far than the boarding troopers, but that's largely a function of not having faced BT Avenger yet.  Although, boarding engineers with Dodonna I think presents an exceptionally nasty combination since you can stack up nasty crits and flip them once more.  I've been trying other imperial ships besides the ISD to put them onto, but the other candidates have their drawbacks.  Raiders are then missing out on Ordnance Experts, and only have squad 1.  The VSD lacks the closing speed necessary to get int close range, but it has some possible play on a VSD1 to enforce area denial.  I've found Cham Syndulla to be a bit tough to get to hammer, because he really wants to be getting at three command ships.  It can work well against a ship like Demolisher or Admonition that might really want a navigate to get away from an attack run.  Its just got to come down to timing and Cham hasn't been worth the points so far.

MVP Upgrades

There is a lot of competition for best upgrade in this wave.  External Racks make Raiders just so deadly now, although sometimes still a bit tough to get into range.  Aforementioned VSD 1s and Hammerhead Torpedo variants also both love them as a cheap killing shot.  Disposable Capacitors are possibly single handily bringing back the VSD2, being able to toss 6 toss and long range with gunnery team and leading shots makes it  true artillery piece.  Quad Battery Turrets is also a huge bon to MC80s of both varieties, as well as the much maligned VSD 1.

Ships

The actual ships themselves have both been very nice.  The Hammerheads give another front facing skirmisher to their arsenal, to help Nebs, Peltas and Liberties with a flak ship, or support long range fire.  The Torpedo Variant has been the one that I've seen played the most, although I think a Pelta with a pair of Disposable Capacitor Scout Variants with Spinal Armamaent can put out some serious damage potential. 

The Quasar gives the Imperials a true ability to dominate the squadron game, and both variants will see a good amount of play.  My playtesting so far has been with the 1 variant, with Flight Controllers, Expanded Hanagr By and Boosted Comms.  It is a ship that must be kept out of firing range though, because its weak shielding will have it going down in possibly just a few shots from a TRC90 (knowledge from experience). 


So far I've liked what Wave 6 has brought, and I'm excited for the balance its brought to the game.