Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Commander's Guide - CR-90 Corellian Corvette

This article is part of the Commander's Guide series.

Welcome to your first command, the CR-90 Corvette.  The smallest and fastest ship currently available today, the CR-90 Corvette is more than capable of filling several roles within the Rebel Fleet.  Let's review the CR-90's abilities, strengths and weaknesses.

Overall Statistics

The CR90 Corvette comes standard with a Command of 1, making it by far the most reactive of ships- you will be able to dial in the appropriate command every single time you need it.  It's Squadron is also a 1, which means it really doesn't work as a carrier except in extreme emergencies. And an Engineering of 2 means you will likely be repairing shields and not ever hull.  Speaking of hull, it comes with 4 hull points, 2 shields each on fore, starboard and port, and one in the aft.  It also comes with 2 evade tokens, and 1 redirect token, making it difficult to pin down against a long range threat.

As an anti-starfighter platform it does a serviceable job, for it's points.  The redirect gives it a way to mitigate squadron hits against hull zones other ships have stripped of shields.  It also has the standard 1 Blue die anti-squadron armament.

Speed is where the Corvette truly shines.  It is the only ship capable of a natural speed 4, and can do an unassisted 90 degree turn while going at flank speed.  Plus, it will always be able to orient itself at least 45 degrees regardless of speed, and 72.5 degrees at speed 2 or 3.

All CR90s can be upgraded with a CR90 title, an officer, a support team, and a defensive retrofit.

CR90 Corvette B

The CR-90B is the least expensive option for ships, both Rebel and Imperial, worth exactly the cost of 3 X-Wing Squadrons (39 points).  The CR90 comes with all blue attack dice, 3 out of the fore, 2 out either side, and 1 aft.  It also allows for an Ion Cannon upgrade.

CR90 Corvette A

The CR-90A comes in at just 5 points more (44 points) and changes out some of it's blue dice for red. It gives 2 Red /1 Blue on the fore, 1 Red / 1 Blue on the sides, and 1 Red on the aft.  It also allows for the Turbolasers upgrade.

Upgrades

For Commanders, as a smaller, low hull, cost effective ship, the Corvette is likely not where you are going to hide your commander, unless you are running some sort of gimmick.  That being said, the commander that really works well with Corvettes are Mon Mothma (making those 2 evades you have work at any range, and against starfighters).  Gen. Dodonna really doesn't add anything specifically to Corvettes, unless you are running Dodonna's pride, and Bel Iblis... doesn't really help Corvettes in any way at all.

For titles, Dodonna's Pride gives you the ability to trade out all dice rolls on a Blue Crit result in exchange for one face up card dealt to the enemy.  This title works best on a Corvette B, but necessitates closing in to medium range with your ship.  This works well on a flanking ship that can slip past a Victory's large front arc, or splashing a Gladiator from medium range.  Against mirror match rebels it makes the Pride fly like a brawler, getting in close and mixing it up.

The Tantive IV lets you pass a command token to a friendly ship.  Very useful if you have Raymus Antilles, or if you want to focus your tokens on a different ship.

Jaina's Light gives you the ability to ignore obstacle's affects (if you want to.  You don't HAVE to ignore the space station) and your attacks are never obstructed.  This makes for a wonderful objective ship that can hide away in the asteroids, and can fire back unopposed.

Officers give you some equally interesting options.  Leia gives you the chance to change one of your other ships's top dial to your ship's dial.  Very good for when an Assault Frigate made a tactical error.  Raymus Antilles lets you get a free token when you reveal a dial - very synergistic with Tantive IV.  Adar Tallon isn't particularly useful to a Corvette - there are much better carrier based ships he can find a home on.  Also less useful are the weapons and defensive liaisons - with a command of 1, you should be able to dial in the correct command.  Veteran Captain is a poor man's Raymus Antilles, good for a once per game boost.  Intelligence Agent is always an excellent idea, especially when sniping enemies from long range with a CR90A.

Support Teams - Engineering teams can make it so that you are able to repair hull damage, or get 2 engineering off tokens.  Nav Team isn't very exciting, as you aren't likely to have a maneuver token instead of just the dial.  Engine Tech though, with the ability to take an extra 1 maneuver after your regular maneuver, makes you the fastest ship in the galaxy, and is an excellent upgrade for objective ships and hit / run tactics.

Defensive Retrofits - Advanced Projectors can go a long way to keeping you afloat, letting you use all 7 of your shields with redirect before taking hull damage.  Electronic Countermeasures let you use one of your defense tokens (probably your redirect, since you have 2 evades) instead of it being blocked by an accuracy.  Both are good for high value Corvettes, not as much for swarm based lists.

Ion Cannons can only go on the CR90B, and most don't mix well with Dodonna's Pride, since they have Blue Crit activations.  Leading Shots does not though, and has good synergy with the Pride - letting you reroll with one less blue die to find that crit you are looking for.  For other ones - Ion Cannon Batteries works well with a Brawler style CR90B build, do more damage if the opponent doesn't have command tokens, and maybe rob an important one that they banked (like a Gladiator w/ Wiluff banking on a maneuver token to be there every turn).  Overload Pulse works better as an opener - it lets you exhaust all your opponents defensive tokens - if this is the first shot of the round, you can really make the opposing ship suffer.

Turbolasers can only go on the CR90A.  Enhanced Armament is an expensive upgrade to consider, but it gives 2 Red / 1 Blue for every arc but the aft, making maneuvering to set up shots less crucial.  Good for a long range strafing ship.  XX-9 Turbolasers let you flip up the first 2 damage cards on a crit - not really for the CR90, since you aren't likely to be putting down that many damage cards in the first place.  H9 Turbolasers let you change 1 die from a hit / crit to an accuracy - again a good choice for long range sniping ships, and making sure you can get a double hit red through a brace, or directly onto exposed hull.  Finally XI-7 Turbolasers lets you limit redirects to one shield at most, very useful for going against Victories.

Roles

Now that we've looked at all the upgrades possible, lets look at the different roles that the CR90 can have in your Rebel flotilla.

Support Ship - Tantive IV / Raymus Antilles and Princess Leia all give the option of a cheap support ship that can make your other ships work better, or correct mistakes.  This ship works best as a CR90A adding long range firepower and staying out of the main brawl.

Lead Shot - A CR90B with Overload Pulse lets you take the first shot on a larger target, which your other ships can follow up with to finish it off.  With a bit of luck, you can strip it of it's tokens letting you mop it up in the next round.  Being able to blast away at flank speed is crucial, and Mon Mothma works very well with this ship since you'll be trying your best to survive once you take your medium range shot.  On the other hand, having nothing but that 1 upgrades gives you a 47 point gambit for one of your opponent's prize ships.  Ramming Speed!

Navigation Objective Ship - This is something that the CR90 excels at, being the fastest ship on the board.  The only upgrade it really needs for this is Engine Techs, to give it the Speed 5 movement, and 135 degree net yaw in a single turn.  Jaina's Light is also a good upgrade for this ship.

Swarm - You can fit 6 CR90s of various types into a single 300 pt list.  With limited upgrades and a commander.  That's a lot of dice.

Long Range Flanker - Works best with an Intelligence Agent and Enhanced Armaments.  Fly around the battle taking long range pot shots on targets in the flank and eventually rear.

That's it for this installment.  Know anything I missed?  Any other roles for the CR90, or good setups for it?  Let me know in the comments!

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