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SW Armada’s New Imperial Interdictor Preview

By Barclay Montgomery | June 29th, 2016 | Categories: Star Wars Armada, Star Wars Tactics

swm16_plastic_right

 

The preview of the Interdictor has gone live, and with it comes a whole barrel full of new toys that the Empire can muster against the Rebellion. Must see!

Moving obstacles, reducing enemy ship movement speed, and scrambling targets are all in a day’s work for the Interdictor. Read on to find out more!

swm14-interdictor-combat-refit swm16-interdictor-suppression-refit

The Interdictor is a modestly priced, Medium-size ship that features a new upgrade slot: Experimental Retrofit. The Suppression Refit Interdictor has 2 Experimental Retrofit slots, and the Combat Refit allows 1. The ship itself has 1 more hull than a Victory class Star Destroyer, and has 1 Brace, 1 Redirect, and 2 Contain defense tokens. This tough ship will see the battle through, and muss up the plans of the Rebel fleet.

Let’s review the 4 new upgrade cards that come with the Interdictor expansion.

g7-x-grav-well-projector

The G7-X Grav Well Projector plays a major role in how your opponent deploys his fleet. Before deploying fleets, you can place 1 grav well token anywhere in the play area. If a ship deploys within distance 1-3 its speed must be 0.

This is huge as the already small deployment area feels even tighter, and your enemies ships will be forced to spend the early turns of the game using maneuver commands to bring his ships up to speed. Meanwhile, you have full reign of the battlefield and full maneuverability.

swm16-grav-shift-reroute

The Grav Shift Reroute completely changes how the game will start. This upgrade card allows you to move obstacles at your whim! Before you deploy fleets, place 1 grav shift token anywhere in the play area. You may move each obstacle that is withing range 1-3 of the grav well token, but only to within range 2 of it. Throw asteroids and debris in the path of the enemy ships, or bring your objectives closer to your ships. Either way, this little upgrade will change up the game.

swm16_g-8_experimental_projector

The G-8 Experimental Projector is a tractor beam on steroids! Before a ship even moves, if it is within range 1-5 of your Interdictor you may reduce its speed by 1. If another ship in your fleet has the Phylon Q7 Tractor Beam equipped, your can effectively halt an enemy ship in its tracks, setting it up for some major hurt! Remember, a ship at speed 0 cannot use its defense tokens. Use this upgrade in combination with an Imperial class Star Destroyer to make sure that the enemy remains in the potent front arc of the ISD.

swm16-targeting-scrambler

The Targeting Scrambler upgrade will surely make your opponent angry. Whenever a friendly ship within range 1-3 of the Targeting Scrambler and is defending at close range ,you may force the attacker to reroll up to 4 dice. Close range offers the most devastation, as this is the only range that ordinance is effective. After your opponent fires, make him reroll those crits and hope for blanks instead! This will help mitigate some of the potency of Assault Concussion Missiles and the like, but won’t halt all damage. Anything is better than sitting there and taking the damage though. Every little bit helps!

Lastly, the Interdictor features 2 Imperial officers that have plans to thwart the Rebels.

swm16-admiral-konstantine swm16-admiral-titus

These guys are all about changing the speed of enemy ships. As if Tractor Beams and Experimental Projector wasn’t bad enough, the Imperial officers also want to halt the Rebel advance. Captain Titus is an Officer upgrade that allows you to change an enemy’s speed by 1. You can either speed up an enemy ship to reach your battery armaments sooner, or slow them down to be left behind by their fleet support. All for 2 points! Admiral Konstantine is a Commander upgrade that allows your ships to gang up on an enemy and keep them where you want them.

That’s all for now for the Interdictor expansion. What crazy combinations can you cook up with all of these maneuver and objective modifying effects that will flood the game? Stay on the alert for the Interdictor!

Sir, new enemy ships appearing on our scopes!

About the Author: Barclay Montgomery

I’m a weird guy wargamer and hobby enthusiast. I’m like the Thing, I can take many forms. I could be a bounty hunter looking for Rebel prey, a commander of an Imperial fleet, or the Hive Mind of the Great Devourer of Worlds.