If you liked the Raider in X-Wing, you’ll love this little ship in Star War’s Armada.
The newest preview for Star Wars Armada is here, and it’s a good one.
Via FFG
A Dedicated Anti-Fighter Warship
Conceived by Lira Wessex, the designer of the Imperial-class Star Destroyer, as a small and aggressive assault vessel that could reinforce the TIE fighter squadrons deployed by its larger Star Destroyer cousins, the Raider-class corvette is a durable, 150m vessel that features multiple hardpoints and excels at suppressing Rebel fighter attacks.
As a dedicated anti-fighter warship, the Raider-class corvette offers Imperial fleet admirals a chance to hedge their bets. Whether you use it to support a bomber wing, to reduce your investment in your fighter screen, or to replace your fighter screen altogether, the Raider is extremely fast, accurate, and well-suited to fighter suppression in ways that the Empire’s other capital ships are not.
For starters, both versions of the Raider-class corvette – the Raider I-class Corvette and the Raider II-class Corvette – come with anti-squadron armaments of two dice, a lethality matched only by the anti-squadron armament of the Gladiator II-class Star Destroyer . Still, the Raider’s two anti-squadron dice come at a discount of at least fourteen fleet points from the Gladiator’s sixty-two points. Of the two Raider designs, the Raider II-class Corvette is the more expensive at forty-eight fleet points, while theRaider I-class Corvette weighs in at a mere forty-four fleet points.
Equally important to the Raider’s role as an anti-fighter warship are a pair of upgrade cards that the Gladiator can’t access – the two Raider titles, the Impetuous and the Instigator .
Between them, these titles allow you to transform your Raider into either a powerful anti-fighter escort for your bomber wing or a resilient counter to your opponent’s starfighters.
Finally, because the Raider is relatively inexpensive, it’s not inconceivable that you’d run both the Impetuous and the Instigator in the same fleet, using them to pincer your opponent’s squadrons, locking them into position by engaging them with the Instigator, and blasting through them with multiple shots from the Impetuous.
Paired together, the Instigator and Impetuous can lock down enemy starfighters and eliminate them, all while directing a bomber wing against enemy ships.
The Raider and Ship-to-Ship Combat
While the Raider was designed specifically to suppress enemy fighters, it is still a capital ship and, therefore, benefits from all the mechanics associated with capital ships in Armada. It activates every round. It reveals commands. It is able to attack as many as two times before moving, and it has defense tokens, as well as upgrade slots.
These facts give the Raider some advantages over squadrons in certain Imperial fleets. For example, if you swap out three or four fighter squadrons from your fighter screen for the Instigator, then run against a Rebel fleet that doesn’t use any squadrons at all, your Instigator will be able to switch from anti-fighter mode to anti-ship mode much more effectively than your TIE Fighter Squadrons or TIE Interceptor Squadrons would.
Swift and Merciless
With its speed, maneuverability, anti-fighter capabilities, and versatility in ship-to-ship combat, theRaider-class corvette is well-suited to a wide variety of quick assault tactics. It has enough attack and defense to stand up to a wide range of threats, and it can easily race across the battlefield, launch a quick assault, and then sprint away. This makes the Raider ideal for use in a number of select Imperial strategies, many of which you’re certain to see players explore during The Massing at Sullust.
Less than TWO weeks left until the Massing at Sullust! What ship will you try to win?
About the Author: Rob Baer
