One of the best incoming upgrades for Armada is the Ordnance piece, Wide Area Barrage. For a mere two points, you can deal several points of unblockable damage to a ship or squadron nearby your target. This is another peice in Wave 7s anti squad buffing, that I think is important for how the game is going to behave going forward. This is a direct assault on Carrier builds like Gallant Haven and Yavaris that love to keep squadrons nearby them. It can also work to help kill those pesky support flotillas, since all the damage must be taken to one hull zone.
So what's our maximum damage that can be done? Natively, its anything with 4 black dice in an arc. The top maxes out at two, with 3 being possible if you are able to Concentrate Fire in another black die. The only ship that can do this on its own is the Gladiator 1. This is certainly not a bad choice, since Demolisher typically rides aboard a Glad 1 and this could be a way to earn more points back from a ship that faces a lot of hate any time it approaches a ship. In the Max out at two damage natively, the Victory 1,Glad 2, Kuat ISD, MC75 Ordnance Cruiser and both versions of the MC30 can hit 2 damage with their 3 black dice with an arc, and nicely all have access to Ordnance Experts to help make sure to trigger it ( and ensure max damage). The step down from the 4 black dice to 3 means a roughly 17% damage reduction on average for doing at least 2 damage, but we're talking 99% to 82%. Its still likely to happen. I think any one of these ships can take WAB as an option now, and it likely has the added effect of forcing your opponent to spread his fleet a bit more thinly. THis makes the torpedo boats much more dangerous since they will not be facing multiple rows of fire when they make an attack run.
The Victory 1 and Kuat I do not think will pair super well here. Both at close range are extreme brawlers, wanting to do huge spike damage. The Splash damage just is not enough to really make it worthwhile, especially for the Vic 1 that is likely only getting 1 shot at that range with its big front arc.
We can also toss these on board Raider 1s, Torpedo Hammerheads, Assault Peltas, and MC75 Armored Cruiser. The only ship that I could see reguarly taking this is the MC75, and even then the better option might be Ordnance Pods or External racks. The Raider and Hammerhead are both just not taky enough to deliver potential multiple rounds of fire, and even with a double arc they are at best adding 2 damage on. The Assault Pelta is another poor choice for these, since it has no way of re-rolling misses with its lack of weapons team, and its at best adding 1 damage.
Below here is a table for the average damage that each ship will do. Remember, a decimal that's below .5 means it will trend towards the floor, while greater than will tend to hit the next integer up.
| Ship | Average Splash from Best Arc |
| Raider 1 | 0.9 |
| Kuat ISD | 1.6 |
| Glad 1 | 1.9 |
| Glad 2 | 1.6 |
| Vic 1 | 1.6 |
| MC-30 | 1.6 |
| MC-75 | 1.6 |
| Torp. HH | 0.7 |
| Assault Pelta | 0.4 |
THis shows that on a one shot attack, you will typically be asking for 1 or 2 damage with a lot of rolls, but the Gladiator 1 dominates the field in consistency with OE re-rolls.
Having hit the basics, there are some edge cases that could see some play. Sato Fleets could really like this upgrade for a combination of long range critical effects, and a chance to do a max of 5 splash damage. Using either MC-30 could allow a Sato player to throw 5 black dice on one attack, dealing 3 splash, and then follow up with the front arc with a CF command to basically guarantee another 2. That kills Jan Ors, Luke, Biggs, and most other mainstay aces in one fell swoop, as well as piling up the damage on the target ship. Gladiator 2s I think could also see a slight resurgence, since you can do max damage regularly, and the added Blue die for flacking makes them extremely well suited for killing squads and carriers in a pair of activations. The MC-75 is also likely one of the best bets for this, since it can pair WAB with one of the either dice adding ordnance upgrades. External Racks is probably the best pairing, for cost and the fact that if you put expanded launchers on it noone is going to allow you to get the front arc on it. The mC75 also gives the chance for 5 splash damage in an activation.
