Republic Squadrons - V19

It's been a minute since we had to do a new squadron article, huh? Let's hop right in and start talking Torrents!

This is my Torrent, Farr

As we always do (and welcome to the new people joining us), we throw up the card for our first analysis.

You're gonna be seeing a lot of these

12 points for a foundational squadron is a new one for us; I'm personally used to X-wings at 13 and TIEs at 8/squints at 11.  There's a lot to like here, and this squadron can compare quite favorably to said X-wing, as they both have speed 3 and hull 5 (and cost very similarly). This is also the most expensive generic squadron with Swarm, but it CAN hit pretty hard for one. By coming innate with Swarm, it combines very well with Reserve Hangar Decks, and it has decent dice against ships and squadrons.  This is the only GAR squadron with Escort, and if you want to keep your bombers alive, you'll be using these in a good quantity. 

Damage coming? Hatchet coming!

Axe is our Biggs equivalent, protecting his friends.  Biggs has the ability to spread damage around more easily, while Axe allows you to reduce the damage entirely.  Note the lack of "to a minimum of 1."  So if your opponent rolls badly, you can theoretically cancel the damage entirely.  The evade he comes with is good for either forcing your opponent to reroll one of their damage dice into him or spending for his ability.  He's going to need a careful hand to keep him right where you want him where his ability is kicking in AND he's not about to be the immediate priority target for your opponent.  Otherwise his stats are identical to any other Torrent.  He's good and I expect him to be one of your 4 main aces in a squad heavy build to ensure your other squadrons are staying alive.  Fun note: his ability works on ANY friendly squadron, not just escorts.  Easy fun there is pairing him with a pair of Deltas.

He's kicking BACK to the station for some cold ones!

Kickback, the other ace, is just generally solid.  Getting a free distance 1 move as you hop back and forth on the station is nice (I've gone up against Whisper enough, it's a pain to deal with!).  He also can move to the station (heal one), attack, and then jump after firing in a weird cloak-equivalent manner, healing a second damage.  But he's mainly a counter.... to Counter, just preventing damage from sticking to him.  The double braces he comes with are strong as well, allowing you to live through some strong attacks.  As in all V19s, though, he's gonna need some help that the GAR can give it.  4 points for 2 braces just as he is is a solid ability, but pair him with Ahsoka and you've got a fun time ahead of you.

How to Use Them:

You're going to want to pair it with Flight Controllers/Ruthless Strategists and good flak/other attacks. As Eric showed us before, blue and red dice on average do 0.5 damage each to squadrons, resulting in 1.5 expected damage in anti-squadron damage.  Seems a bit underwhelming, right? That's why you're gonna need to use the Swarm as much as you can to try to get its benefit, and up its expected damage by having your ships pushing them.  Flight Controllers is the easiest and most likely best solution (especially with Swarm), but Ruthless Strategists if you're facing a bunch of scatter aces isn't a horrid plan either.

If you have a choice between a blue and a red for your swarm reroll, which do you choose? There's 2 accuracies on blues, but the red has a double.  If you're trying for a 2 damage spike/badly need it, roll the red.  Otherwise reroll the blue.  They're gonna want something to use as a "node" for them to swarm around, which means I suggest any of the other squadrons you brought with you as that point.  Deltas love having friends to guard them, and they can engage one side of a squadron bubble while the V19s come in on the other side and act as the swarming protector slash squadron to finish the job.

The pew pew noises make it shoot better.

Against ships, a black dice has always been pretty solid (see A-wings) and should average out to 0.75 damage per ship.  Obviously pairing it with the Nevoota Bee to ensure you hit the broad side of your opponent's ship isn't a bad idea, of course, if the ship has nothing else to throw.  It's a good foundational squadron and I expect to see many of them in GAR fleets going forwards.