Last purchase made for Armada (until some more Gladiators turn up).
The Assault Frigate Mk2.
I must admit to having a bit of a crush on this one. It is the one that most often caught my eye when perusing the interwebs an even though it’s Star Wars pedigree is thin and acceptance mixed, it to me is the ideal “Angry Space Cow” to be the centre piece of my rag-tag Rebel fleet.
I really do not want, or even like the bigger Rebel ships*, nor the feel they give my game ideas, but the Frigate, being a small medium ship, actually shorter then the small base MC-30, still fits into my small vs big fleet. The smallest line ship in my Imperial fleet is the Gladiator, which is close to the same size, so big small overlaps with a bulbous but relatively small medium.
Role wise, it also fills a tactical gap. The “Ackbar” style fleet of long range broad-siders is a thing, but basically missing in my fleet. The AF2 adds just enough of that option to be viable, without influencing the feel of the Rebel fleet too much. It also supports squadrons, which as I have said before is why I am here.
The AF2 has unique stats, boasting the same shields an an ISD, but the hull of a smaller ship. It has good Engineering and decent overall performance and lots of upgrade options. The Pelta is more of a cheap command/carrier ship or even cheaper brawler, so they both have a role to play as needed, but I now have options.
As far as command pecking order, the Rebels now have several solid options. They can go for a solid fleet commander (Pelta), stand off brick (AF2) or elusive outrider (CR-90), or to honest any of the build not prone to getting too close to the big stuff and popping (Hammerheads/MC-30).
I just need another Gladiator or maybe the Interdictor to balance the fleets.
*Home One is a favourite, but the model is too small and the ship too big. The MC-75 was close, fitting the look best, but again not the size limit and the MC-80L does nothing for me. The Starhawk is cool, but completely out of the parameters set, seemingly only made for tournament balance. I have found Armada, much more so than X Wing, has allowed me to cut lose a lot of ships that just do not interest me.
*
On a side note, a trend I have seen while researching Armada is the familiar Title upgrade dominance of the meta.
Titles in Armada seem more in line with the overall ship/crew dynamic rather than the sometimes arbitrary bonuses to a ship only in X Wing, but I think for the first period of Armada, Titles will be avoided. They seem to make or break a ship’s build (more like EPT’s in XW), which is not what we are looking for yet (especially before the 1.5 card upgrade pack arrives) and the game’s depth is plenty for now.
On Bases.
Looking around for ideas, with a mind to removing the very obvious bases from view as much as possible, I have taken an idea from X Wing. I will be painting most of the bases black (some not, for use with orbital or terrestrial games), but leave the stems clear.
Black stems can stand out a lot, as do clear bases. With X Wing I now paint the base and the first stem black, but leave the second or third stems clear, enhancing the “floating” effect, while taking away the less than completely clear, reflective base edge. I forgot to black pen the front edge of the card, but you get the idea.