The most memorable ship in Star Wars: Rogue One is easily the Hammerhead Corvettes. These are the big longships with the, well, hammer-shaped front that play a critical role in the Rogue One movie and look iconic and eye-catching. Collectors of merchandise and fans of Fantasy Flight’s famous Star Wars: Armada game both wanted their own versions as soon as they appeared on the screen.
It’s easy to see why; who doesn’t want a spaceship designed for ramming. Especially when it comes to Star Wars: Armada, a game in which the Rebels tend to have weaker (but faster) ships than the giant grey wedges that the Empire can bring to bear.
You get two in the set, and they come in two modes – a scout model and a better-armed torpedo boat version with extra firepower where it counts. So far so standard, and the stats aren’t that special. What you need is to add the Task Force Antilles or Task Force Organa upgrades. These let you block damage or re-roll damage to all friendly ships within range.
Given that Corvettes are traditionally fighter escorts (and have the manoeuvrability to back it up) this a real boon. Add to this upgrades that let you do lots of damage at close range or boarding engineers that allows you to turn an enemy’s regular damage into something more critical. Of course, there’s an upgrade for ramming damage as well. Note that the Hammerhead is still a Corvette; using it to ram a Star Destroyer is going to hurt it, but with the right upgrade cards added to it, then you’ll end up doing very serious injury to the ship. Add a boarding party and some
Y-Wings and your opponent’s capital ship is going to explode. Hopefully.
These are very pretty models that will look lovely on your desktop (or shelf), but really they’re for playing Star Wars: Armada with. They add punch to a game that is sometimes a little toothless as far as the Rebels are concerned, and are a great addition to your fleet.
HAMMERHEAD CORVETTE – STAR WARS: ARMADA / DESIGNER JAMES KNIFFEN, CHRISTIAN T. PETERSEN / ARTIST BEN ZWEIFEL / PUBLISHER FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
