Let's talk about Clone Wars spoilers

So a lot of information just got dumped on us between the new Clone Wars articles and the FFG in-flight report and the twitch stream. Normally I love poring over and dissecting every little thing we get from announcements like this but since becoming a playtester I always worry I'll accidentally let something slip I really shouldn't so I remain fairly tight-lipped. I realize that's not so much fun for our readers but that's how it be. John's in the same boat. (Also don't hit us up for secret whatever privately, we aren't going to tell you, sorry).

Me whenever someone thinks I'll spill the beans.

Regardless, here are some useful links to get you caught up:

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2020/7/31/conquer-the-galaxy-1/

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2020/7/31/protect-the-republic/

http://www.steelstrategy.com/2020/07/friday-livestream-leaked-cards.html

www.steelstrategy.com/2020/07/clone-wars-pictures.html

It's like looking into the future. The prequel... future. I guess.

Pretty neat!

The twitch stream verified a few things:

• The upgrade card pack...
  
• Will feature duplicates of many upgrades so you probably won't need to buy multiples.
• The cards are all updated to the new iconography.
• Several cards within have points changes and/or changed text (errata).
• One of those cards is commander Leia, dropped to 28 points, thank God.
• Yes, John is going on a bender right now.
• XI7 Turbolasers are getting changed to a maximum of 1 shield per hull zone while redirecting, which means Advanced Projectors and Foresight are something of a soft counter to them (allowing you to use Advanced Projectors to redirect for 1 point to each other hull zone for a total of 3 damage absorbed into other hull zones rather than 1, as it currently works).
  
• Only upgrade cards, no other card types inside.
• All upgrade cards are now standard LCG (squadron) card size.
• You can use your old tiny cards if you like. Just make sure you've got the right points cost and you're using errataed text (if that's a thing for that card).
• The dials pack...
• Has a number of pass tokens, which are going to be used with a new mechanic that helps address activation disparity (Michael didn't say anything beyond that).
• All I can say is I love playing MSU and I'm cool with how this new mechanic works.
• The extra dials are to help newer players because future ship releases won't come with dials.
• Core sets will come with extras and that's it. Honestly I like this change, it helps reduce plastic waste and packaging size and I have so many dials I'm throwing mine away nowadays so that's great.
• Clone Wars release dates:
• Current starters and squad packs as well as the dials and upgrade card packs are slated for December 2020 release.
• The starter boxes come with everything you need to play just like the current core set, so range ruler, maneuver tool, dice, basic obstacles, basic objectives, etc. The only new stuff is the ships and squads themselves as well as their upgrades and the like.
  
• There will be more Clone Wars content coming in Q1 2021 to help bulk the factions out pronto.
• Individual ships from the starters will probably get their own releases eventually. No firm commitment there on when. So if you want multiple Munificent or Acclamator Cruisers, you're going to need another starter or to buy it pieced out on eBay.
• Side note: nobody spells the Acclamator correctly so I've taken to simply calling it "the Clone Clam" as the most frequent misspelling is "Acclimator." When it's a clam, you remember which part to spell correctly 😄.
  
• Rules changes:
• Michael alluded to rules changes for the game in general coming out with the Clone Wars content, making this something of a 1.5 release.
• The rules reference guide will get updates like X-Wing and Legion, making it a living rulebook.
  
• They're looking into making points changes for ships, squads, and upgrades like Legion and X-Wing do it. So likely twice a year with a PDF file.
• This system has so far worked well for those games and I'm excited to import it into Armada. They tend to mostly focus on making bad things better rather than points-nerfing good stuff, although they will do that if they feel it's warranted.

Otherwise, all I can say about the Clone Wars stuff is it's cool. I like it. We can cover a few spoiled cards here:

So this showcases a lot of the new iconography: the blue bar on the left shows you it starts the game with 5 con fire tokens on it. The red arrow on the center right shows it exhausts to use and doesn't refresh normally, it has a refresh cost. The cost is in the red bar below: 1 of any con fire, repair, or nav token.

Munitions Resupply is a fleet support upgrade that lets you toss out con fire tokens like candy. The main issue is there are "only" 5 of them to throw out all game and you need to eat a token to refresh the card to use it again. It's basically a very focused front-loaded Comms Net that only works for one token type, but if you need a lot of con fire tokens it's quite handy. Given we know the CIS Hardcells are getting a fleet support slot and they're more combat-focused and they are not flotillas, this can help free them up to use that fleet support slot without as much self-hassle as a Comms Net flotilla for the original factions, at the cost of flexibility.

Reactive Gunnery is neat and I like it. The important thing to know about it is...

• It only works when you spend a readied (green) defense token.
• That counts as spending that type of defense token so you couldn't spend an Arquitens' redirect to fake salvo and then spend the other redirect as an actual redirect.
• Reactive Gunnery exhausts to use but refreshes normally (the little circular arrows on the card show you that using the new iconography).

I'd expect to see this on some Galactic Civil War ships, like some Arquitens, Assault Frigate MkIIAs, and Home One Assault MC80s for starters. Maybe even some ISD-IIs.

Bail is "what if discount Thrawn that is both more and less flexible?" He's best with the heavier ships and keeps those Clone Clam Acclamator navigating better than slightly speedier VSDs. Also useful similar to Thrawn in allowing your heavier ships to both command squads and navigate simultaneously so they can do what they want to do as mixed-role carriers and battleships without having to compromise.

Implacable is an amazing title and you're going to be seeing a fair amount of this on your Clone Clam Acclamators. Damage reduction effects have always been strong in Armada and this is no exception.

Tide of Progress is also great and probably my favorite Munificent title. Even if you only get one use out of it per game (you exhaust and then never bother feeding it a repair token to refresh) it was worth 2 points. Suck it, Structural Damage, you never happened!

It's Admiral Piett except an officer but also a robot who is evil. And he eats tokens to refresh.

All in all very cool. I'm looking forward to discussing this in more depth as we get more official FFG material to dissect!