Fantasy Flight Games just gave us a preview of the upcoming Chimaera ISD for Star Wars Armada, and it might be a game changer!
The Imperial Star Destroyer has become a staple of a lot of Imperial fleets in Star Wars Armada, and the new Chimaera is just going to make your opponent fear the ISD even more. Let’s take a look at the latest preview from Fantasy Flight Games and see what they had to say about it.
Across the Galactic Civil War, the Rebel Alliance has faced few threats that can match the tactical genius of Grand Admiral Thrawn. A general with a strategic mind like no other, Thrawn has come closer than nearly any other opponent to bringing the young rebellion to its knees. With grand-scale fleet combat as Thrawn’s greatest area of expertise, it’s fitting that he now makes his debut in Star Wars™: Armada!
Today, we turn our attention to Thrawn’s devastating flagship, as presented in the Chimaera Expansion Pack!
Refitted for Maximum Firepower
Within this Expansion Pack, you’ll discover a new Imperial-class Star Destroyer, emblazoned with Grand Admiral Thrawn’s chimaera sigil. This difference is merely on the surface level, but you’ll soon discover that Thrawn’s changes to the way you build and fly your fleet go far beneath the surface. The changes start with two new types of ship cards that you can use to refit your Imperial Star Destroyers—the Kuat Refit and the Cymoon 1 Refit. Both new ship cards offer new variants of upgrade bars and attack dice that you’ll be able to use to batter the Rebellion into submission in entirely new ways.
So long as you’re fielding multiple star destroyers, you could certainly benefit from equipping them each with the Seventh Fleet Star Destroyer title upgrade. Standard Imperial tactics and ship design dictate attacking head-on as often as possible—harnessing the triangular shape of the star destroyer to concentrate maximum laser fire on the enemy. Still, that frontal assault means you’ll likely be taking fire to your front hull. With the Seventh Fleet Star Destroyer upgrades, your ships can cover each other, reducing the damage that friendly ships take to their front hull.
You may also choose to designate one of your Imperial-class Star Destoyers as the Chimaera itself, opening the door to using your Fleet Command upgrade cards with a remarkable versatility. Not only does Chimaera give your ship a Fleet Command upgrade icon, it lets you discard an equipped Fleet Command upgrade in order to replace it with any other Fleet Command upgrade—cycling your Fleet Command upgrades mid-battle to find the one that works best for the current situation.
In addition to a repainted, refitted Imperial Star Destoyer and a true wealth of upgrades, this expansion also includes two new squadrons—the Mandalorian Gauntlet Fighters. In addition to being hard-hitting in combat, the Mandalorian Gauntlet Fighters are Rogue squadrons—meaning they can both move and attack during the Squadron phase. What’s more, they’re adept at intercepting your opponent’s commands and helping to dispel his control over his fleet.
Mandalorian Gauntlet Fighters benefit from the Assault ability—allowing them to sacrifice a hit when attacking a ship in order to give that ship a raid token. Each raid token bears a symbol matching a type of command—and while a ship has that raid token, it cannot execute that type of command!
The new Chimaera ISD looks like it’s going to be a hard hitting ship that’s coming with some great upgrade cards as well. Get in there close with the Kuat Refit and unleash black dice on your opponent, or keep your distance with the Cymoon 1 Refit and chip away at your opponent, only getting in close when you need to.
You’ll also be getting access to a new Rogue squadron, the Mandalorian Gauntlet Fighter. This squadron features the Assault ability which you can use to prevent your opponent from executing a command of your choice. This is going to be a great way to make sure your opponent does just what you need them to.
All in all the new Chimaera ISD looks amazing and we can’t wait to get our hands on it! The new expansion is now available for pre-order, so make sure to head on over to Fantasy Flight Games and order yours today!
What do you think about the Chimaera? Are you going to be putting Thrawn on it and winning one for the Empire? Let us know in the comments below.
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About the Author: Juan Lopez
