SW Armada: Will We See Rogue One’s Ships?
Will the new ships of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story be added to Armada?
Rogue One introduced a host of new ships into Star Wars Cannon. If you are anything like me you were instantly excited for what this could mean for Armada. I think there is absolutely no doubt they will added to Star Wars: Armada. So today we will take a look at when, and how, they could be introduced into the game. In Particular I am talking about the MC75 Star Cruiser, the Hammerhead Corvette, and the Dornean gunship.
Now you might notice that all three of these ships are Rebel ships. The biggest issues with the Rogue One ships is that no new Imperial Capital ships were introduced. Now there were a couple of new shuttle and Imperial fighters, but sadly no new capital ships. This means that any waves containing Rogue One ships, will either be heavily Rebel favored or will mix Rogue One Rebels with other Imperials. For now, lets take a look at the Rebel ships.
The MC75 Star Cruiser
The MC75 is one of the more obvious new Rebel ships as one of the them, the Profundity, acted as the flagship of the Rebel fleet at Scarif. This is the only Rebel capital ship from Rogue One to have been created solely for the movie. As such it might be considered the only truly new Rebel ship. This also means we have the least information on it of all the newer ships.
The MC75 seems very similar to the familiar MC80s. Both are listed as being 1200 meters long, so they fill the same size class. (Technically the MC75 is 1204.44 meters.) The MC75 however seems to be less heavily armed than the 80s. It is listed as only hainvg about a third of the Turbolasers and Ion Cannons. In addition it is not listed as having any carrier capacity, though we know it has room for a CR90 in it’s hanger bays. It does carry more torpedo tubes and anti-fighter weapons than the other classes, giving it an advantage in that regard.
If I had to guess (and I do) I would say the MC75 is going to fill a close range bruiser role. I would expected it to be very similar to the Victory I in armament. In addition it should have heavy anti-squadron firepower, two blue dice or a blue and black. If they go off the listed stats it should be as tough as the MC80s, but have less firepower. I would expect it to have ordnance upgrade slots, but to be a poor carrier. It also seems like a sure bet that Raddus will be the commander that comes with it.
The Hammerhead Corvette
While most people were introduced to the Hammerhead Corvette in Rogue One, the ship had actually shown up much early on Rebels. Now that’s made the jump to the big screen it seems likely it will come to Armada for sure. Size wise the ships seem to be a little smaller than the CR90s. In addition they are fairly lightly armed carrying only three dual laser cannon turrets.
Game wise it’s a little hard to see where these will fit in. I think it would be very interesting to see them act as a combat oriented flotilla. So far both flotillas we have seen are more support/carrier oriented. A flotilla that had a zero squadron rating but with some guns could be pretty cool. I don’t really know how else the ship would fit in, as it would just be a weaker version of the CR90.
The Hammerhead that shows up in Rogue one is the Lightmaker under the command of Kado Oquoné. Kado will almost certainly show up, though as an Officer upgrade or as the Admiral I don’t know. Lightmaker I think we can lock in as one of the title cards. Given the events of the movie I would bet that something that comes with the Corvette, either a title, upgrade or Admiral will have something to do with ramming. For my part I think it would be really cool to give the ship the ability to move enemy ships through ramming. Either way, we shall see.
The Braha’tok-class gunship
The Braha’tok, also known as the Dornean, Gunship is the oldest ship on this list. In fact many Armada players have been wondering if this ship would be added to the game since Wave I. The Braha’tok first showed up in the background of the Rebel fleet during the battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi. Despite bring in the original trilogy it was mostly overlooked by fans and never made an impact in the old EU. In Rogue One the ship once again shows up in the Rebel fleet at Scarif.
Squadrons
In addition to large ships Rogue One added a number of new squadrons to the setting. I would expect the U-Wing, TIE Striker, TIE Reaper and at least some of the three new Imperial transports to show up in Armada. That being said I don’t really have any solid guesses as to how they might be represented in game.
Final Thoughts
As I have said before I have no doubt the that the large ships will be added to the game at some point. I would honestly bet on sooner rather than later so that FFG can capitalize on the movie being fresh in peoples heads. It’s possible the could even be part of a new box set with updated rules, much like X-Wing had after Episode VII came out. That however is pure guessing. What I can say for near certain is to be on the lookout for these new(ish) ship to shake up the game.
That’s all for this week BoLS fans. Let us know how you think the new ships should be added to the game, down in the comments!
