One of the fun things about Star Wars Armada is that playing the Imperial side means you get to have all the big ships. Sure you get eaten away by the nippy X-Wings and the manoeuvrable rebel frigates but you’ve got the big guns and the big hull. Still, it would be nice to have something a little more agile as an option.
The Imperial Light Cruiser Expansion Pack adds an extra dimension to Imperial play by giving you a small-base ship to play with. The cruiser will be familiar to anyone who’s watched Star Wars Rebels; the light cruisers are the ships that tend to do the blockades and look suspiciously like old refitted Jedi cruisers from The Clone Wars.
In play, it’s fast but not terribly tough. You can outfit with some Turbolasers and enhanced armament to give it a lot more punch. This means you can play the Rebels at their own game and sneak behind their larger ships and take out the weaker shields located there.
The extra cards will be familiar to fans of Star Wars Rebels. For example, you can add Ministrer Tua to your ship. She’s an annoying (and not very competent) busybody on the show, but in game she’s really handy as she lets you add more upgrades. The Imperial Commander that comes with this set is Moff Jerjerrod. That’s the bloke from Return of The Jedi who’s responsible for getting the Death Star finished in time for the Emperor’s visit. Much like in the movie, he’s a bit rubbish. He allows you to change movement slightly at the cost of one hull. Any competent player can plan far enough ahead to not need this power. There are better commanders in the game.
The Imperial Light Cruiser is a nice upgrade. To get the most out of it you do need plenty of TIE fighters and perhaps more than one cruiser, but it’s still quite entertaining to operate.
STAR WARS: ARMADA – IMPERIAL LIGHT CRUISER EXPANSION PACK / DESIGNERS: JAMES KNIFFEN CHRISTIAN T. PETERSEN / ARTIST: BEN ZWEIFEL / PUBLISHER: FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
