Wave 10 Separatist Preview Hot Takes

Separatist Hot Takes 

Ok, we got our first preview article for the upcoming Wave 10 for both the Separatists and the Republic. This article will focus on the droid friendly ships coming our way this April.  We have the Providence Dreadnaught and the Recusant Destroyer, both are large ships.  As a disclaimer, some of this is wild speculation but I'll do my best to delineate what is wild guesses, educated inference, and known facts.  So now, we'll jump right into the starting ship...

Revealed Cards

Surprise! I thought we should start with the revealed cards before we go into the more speculative section about each individual ship.  We're going to begin with putting on our small tinfoil conspiracy cap.  So, if you copy the images to your computer (perhaps to reupload them in a blog) you will notice an interesting tidbit with the file names for all revealed cards.  General Grievous is titled as 'SWM42_grievous' and the Providence Dreadnaught arc layout is also SWM42.  I would surmise that Grievous is coming with his flagship then. In fact, all the Seperatist cards revealed have file names that start with SWM_42. For Grievous and the Invisible Hand (title for said ship) this makes perfect sense, so I assume the naming convention is accurate for the other officer, Shu Mai, as well, but that is only a guess.

I would expect each ship to have two admirals and I think Trench is one of them.  We saw his artwork on the GenCon splash so I think it's only a matter of when and these seem to be his type of ships.  This would help add some variety to the new factions but we just don't know for sure.  

Hello there *cough cough*

We've had Grievous before in squadron form where he really is the most competitive version of the Belbulab fighter, and an absolute menace to generics.  Now we will have him as an Admiral as well.  His ability looks very thematic as it's all about sacrificing ships or squadrons to keep him (or in this case others too) alive.  My initial thoughts on lists he would like seem that it should include a small screen of fighters that can die and in doing so refresh your ace's scatter, or if they bullied your carrier then you can refresh/regain your carrier/ships tokens.  Another way would be to use ruthless strategists to flak some fighters and kill your own Swarm fighters with the ruthless ability.  This would give tokens back and then you can discard reserve hanger decks to get those ships back to do it all over again.  Finally, if your opponent kills your squadrons in the squadorn phase you can regain a defense token that will turn back to green the moment the round ends.  That could be mighty powerful.

He could additionally work with other ships dying to regen your tokens but with the cheapest ship being a Hardcell that is still a decent chunk of points that need to die just so you can get your brace back on a Muni or Providence.  I think his ability is good, fun and useful and as he is priced at ONLY 20 points he is your cheapest Seperatist admiral that we know currently. 

Invisible Hand is also coming with the Providence Dreadnaught expansion and it looks mean! In every way it is a better rapid launch bays.  You can set aside up to 5 squadrons, with Swarm that is key, and then deploy them within distance 3 and they get an extra AI bonus dice! Couple of things to unpack first, it only works with Swarm fighters which right now means Vultures or Tri-Fighters, which is good because Hyena's were probably playtested once and then NOPED real hard.  

Also, you still get to deploy the fighters so they can give you a deployment advantage BUT they just have to deploy into the Invisible Hand.  So they can help you delay other ship deployments but in order for this to work the Invisible Hand must be deployed or in the Play area, which makes sense.  And means that your largest points pinata is already locked in.

Finally, when you spit out the fighters around you with a squadron command, there are no rules as to where they must go. On obstacles, behind the escort swarm next to Y-Wings, anywhere up to and within distance 3 is legal, I stand corrected. Currently as written within distance 3 is ONLY within the distance 3 band. You cannot overlap distance 2 or distance 4, so vastly limits the space that is deployable.  That being said until anFAQ comes out we won’t know for sure but my original interpretation appears to be the intent.  If true distance 1-3 from a large base that is a decent chunk of real estate.  And while you don't get to move with those squadrons you get an extra AI dice.  So Vultures and Tri-fighters are now AI 2, so kinda a little Nu-Yavaris effect.  This seems a good way to keep your squishy droid fighters from getting alpha'd to death and then giving them a huge alpha of their own.  I could see a couple of sacrifical droids to absord the inital Sloane fighter barrage and then you can unleash Invisble Hand to punch them back real hard.  At 9 points on what is sure to be a pricey platform this is probably worth the points. 

The final Seperatist card revealed is a unique officer.  Shu Mai costs only 4 points and an officer chair but she lets your reroll up to 3 dice! That's a great deal, except she can only do it on non-consecutive rounds and you only get to use her twice all game.  And you have to decide those rounds after deploying fleets.  So she is kinda limited but she might be great to guarantee some heavy damage on rounds 3 & 5, or 2 & 4.  Probably depends if she is on the lead ship or the trailing cleanup crew.  Muni's have LTT to fix their dice but she could be useful to spike them higher.  She also might be good on the upcoming Recusant or Providence depending on their upgrade bar options.  Without LTT, leading shots or access to IF she may be one of the few ways for Seperatist to fix their dice.

Providence Dreadnaught/Carrier

What we know about the Providence isn't very much.  It's essentially this picture and that the other version is the Providence Carrier based on this quote from the article: "A beautifully detailed, pre-painted miniature makes an imposing presence on the field while two ship cards allow you to field it as either a Providence-class Dreadnought or Carrier."

Everything else below is wild conjecture so skip ahead if you don't want to read it.  

All Variants

The Providence Dreadnaught is most likely the shooter/battlecruiser variant.  It has the arc layout of an MC80 but with a total rainbow of colors. However, it's front/side batteries combined put out the same amount of dice from an MC75.  Also, while you can't quite make out the shield/hull/flak values these are my best guesses based on mediocre Photoshop enhancements.  

5 forward shields

3 side shields

2 rear shields?? (really wild guess here, the others you can sort of make out but not this one)

9 hull value? (It's only a single digit no matter what so either 8 or 9 is my guess)

1 Blue flak dice (there could be more but it only looks like room for the symbol and a splash of blue)

Based on it's Mon Cal-ish design/origin I would bet it's going to be speed 2, but it's defense tokens are going to be something very tanky. Perhaps Brace, 2 Redirects, and a Salvo since that seems to be a trend of Clone Wars ships.  And would let it use it's strong forward shields to reinforce it's weaker sides. And salvo with that rainbow rear arc is at least useful. Engineering 4 and Command 3 seem like safe bets.  

Dreadnaught

As both Clone Wars factions don't have access to a fleet command currently I surmise there will either be a title that grants the fleet command slot to this ship OR the Dreadnaught version will have it built in, much like the Cymoon ISD. I like the title idea more though the Recusant Support Destroyer may hold this privilege.

If I was a guessing man on upgrade bars, based on the Munificent, I would say Officer, Defensive Retrofit, Weapons Team, Support Team?, and 2 of the following 3: Ion, Turbloser, Ordinance.  Not sure on the weapons team slot here as this would enable flight controllers so if it has it Invisible Hand could be REALLY good every time it spits out squadrons.  If it has a weapons team I'd lean more towards squadron 2 if it doesn't it'll be squadron 3.  Also, the Support Team might be too good with Aux Shield Teams to boost those side shields but then again Munificents have that option as well.  

Points will really be how this thing a balances out, but I would expect somewhere 110 points or so, maybe a bit higher  Quick/Bad photoshop below. ignore points and any other obvious "I hacked this together fast" issues.

Providence Carrier

Really the only difference here might be the squadron value and the upgrade bar.  I could see it losing a die as well.  My speculation: The carrier version will lose a black dice in the front and side arcs, gain another flak dice, and be squadron 5.  It will lose it's Weapons Team and Defensive Retrofit and instead gain an offensive retrofit.  Only 1 because otherwise with Squadron 5 this thing would be a true monster, though you could do Squadron 4 and then have 2 Offensive Retrofits.  Cost will be about the same, perhaps 106?

Recusant Destroyer

What odd arcs?

Again, we do not know much about this ship other than it's dice pool and this line for the Variants names: Two ship cards bring this miniature to life on your tabletop as either a Light Destroyer or a Support Destroyer, each featuring their own unique armament and upgrade bar.

So we have the Light Destroyer shown here and also a Support Destroyer.

Where to begin with this very odd ship.  Again, this oddness seems to be a characteristic of Separatists and I think it's really neat.  Another line:  Its speed and maneuverability threaten the weak points of an enemy battle line, but when gathered together, they can overwhelm more powerful Republic ships with their sheer numbers. I think can shed some light on how this ship might perform.

While this is a large base, I think that is based on size and not capability.  I think this is more of a medium/heavy hybrid, a lot like the MC80 Liberty in fact.  And I think it'll be costed appropriately as well.  While again we can't tell the shield or hull value exactly let's do some speculating.  The front and side shields look to be the exact same pixelated value (whatever that is)  and the hull is again only a single digit. This strikes me as a swarmy large ship that has a wide front arc with lots of dice.  I imagine it can double arc you even when it's parallel to your own ship. So let's guess some values based on that.

3 shields for front and sides

2 rear shields (wild guess)

6 or 7 Hull (it's a single digit and these explode a lot more in Episode 3 than the Invisible Hand does)

1 blue flak??

This guy is at least speed 3 if not speed 4, with a decent amount of nav clicks. And it probably has a strange defense token arrangement.  Perhaps, Brace, Salvo, Salvo.  Or replace 1 Salvo with a redirect or evade.  But I want this ship to be strange so I lik the double salvo idea.  Probably only Command 2 but also Engineering 3.  Squadron value is likely slightly different between the two.  I would expect each variant to not have very many upgrade options though.

Light Destroyer

Red and black dice for days out the front.  And it's side arc is better than a Munificent by a single black.  If this ship isn't the Swivel Mount Battery ship for the Separatists I don't know what is. I expect Officer, Weapons Team, Turbolaser, Support Team (only if it's speed 3), and Defensive Retrofit.  

Also, Squadron 2 as this beast is your shooter.  This could give you a mean gunnery team ship or a brawler of a ship depending on how you configure it.  I would cost this version somewhere in the low 90's, if not the high 80s.  It's probably a fast hunter/killer that dies if you look at it wrong and should be costed as such, even if it's a large ship.

Support Destroyer

As I think about it more this might be the Seperatist ship that has a Fleet Command slot baked in, whereas a Providence might just get a Title option (if any). I would expect the Support version to lose a die from the front and side arc, and perhaps swap a red for a blue.  So it'd lose firepower but add some other options.  I would expect Squadron 3 if not 4 and an upgrade bar to make it a carrier if you wanted to.  

Upgrade wise I'm guessing it'll have Officer, Fleet Command, Weapons Team, Offensive Retrofit, Turbolaser. This is your flight controller ship or your fleet command vessel but it'll be flimsy.  This version is probably costed right around the same point range as the light destroyer but maybe a point or two cheaper for the reduced dice count.  They just have vastly different roles though I expect them to be lots of fun!

  

photoshop monster Part 2

There we have it.  My inital impressions and some guessing on what the stats/roles of these ships might be based on practically nothing! Thanks for reading and hopefully I will get the Republic Hot Take out soon!