Onager Generic Upgrade Card Spoiler - Hot Takes

And so did someone in Germany get their hands on the Onager expansion, with due release date when the stars align, the time is right, and the 7th son of the 7th son has a daughter that will make the kingdom once more prosper... 

They where kind enought to share a spoiler of the upgrade cards with the Internet, and im taking a nose dive into what they might bring to the game!

When figuring out how to best utilize new upgrades, have a bottle of gin ready

And now is the part where I stick my weather vane out and tries to scry the best uses for each and every upgrade. My german is on the novice scale of proficiency so there is a risk of some things being lost in translation. NOTE: I will not be held responsible if anything I have written in this post will ruin a game experience for you :^).

Generic Upgrades

Three upgrades can be taken by both factions, and the are covered first.

ZONE MIT SCHWEREM BESCHUSS - Heavy Fire Zone

This Turbolaser upgrade sounds more like a tactic than an actual weapon. Regardless, it makes the blue anti squad dice into red, and working at red range. But only against squadrons that are not engaged with friendly squadrons.

Where this will work is on ships that has at least one blue anti squadron dice and a Turbolaser slot, but even better on those with 2 blue, and first the Nebulon Escort comes to mind, and the ISD 2, which of course will have to give up its valuable turbolaser slot for this. The never used Assault Frigate mkII A can make this work too but you are paying 9 points for a different assault frigate. One ship that definitley can make use of this upgrade is the SSD Assault Prototype. Since it has two Turbolaser slots it can be a really evil threat against Unique squadrons with H9 and Kallus.

How usefull will this be?
First you give up a Turbolaser slot, and some ships like to run with their usual gear like the ISD 2. And this does not help at all against ships so being matched against an all ship list will moot this upgrade, which puts it in a tricky category of how useful it will be. I can see this one go on a Vanguard or Yavaris but it competes with Linked Turbolaser Towers from RITR. For the Empire it is a bit harder to pinpoint the ship that will really make this card good, besides the SSD Assault Prototoype and ISD 2 for the abilty of throwing 2 red dice at squadrons.

FLAGGSHIFF-BRÜCKE - Flaggship Bridge

Have you ever, as an Imperial admiral, been envious of all the cheap ways the rebels can bring Fleet Commands with. Probably not since the Cymoon is a very solid platform, but it makes building lists kind of uninteresting when it is only 2 ways of bringing a Fleet Command, The Cymoon or Chimaera title. And all for the cheap price of a Offensive retrofit slot and 0 points. Down side is that you can't use a token to activate the Fleet Command. KEINEN KOMMANDOMARKER AUSGEBEN! Very similar to the Liberator title, but cheaper and as a modification and only on a medium or large ship. The Quasar, Victory Star destroyer, ISD and Onager can take this.

This upgrade works for the Rebels also, but with the Liberator title that can go on a 39 pts platform, I see few reasons for using it other than there is no CR90 is in the list. The MC75, Assault Frigates and Starhawks can make use of this.

How useful will it be?
This upgrade can make some interesting combinations with the Fleet Commands, but few gamebreaking ones. There is in one Fleet Command that benefits from being used once, and that is All Fighters Follow Me!. The others wants to be activated as many rounds as possible to gain the most benefit out of them. AFFM! might not need more than one turn of speed bumping the Squadrons.

LOKALES FEUERLEITSYSTEM - Local firesupport system

And now, the most interesting and maybe most useful of all three generic upgrades. The Weapons-Team that will make the Salvo defense token possible for more ships than the Onager and the Starhawk.

Straight forward, upon deployment, the ship with this upgrade MUST, no ifs or buts, replace one defense token with a Salvo token, for a cheap cost also.

How useful will this be?
Very. The only requirement is that the rear-arc has some dice, so no Hammerhead, and a Weapons-Team. Depending on how much a ship wants Gunnery Team, this can be a very good choice if the Salvo Token is good to have.


Rebels
Assault Frigate - A good choice for any list with an Assault Frigate, depending on what it is going to do. The slot is usually tied fot Gunnery Team (Ackbar) or Flight Controller (squadron heavy list) but this can help the ship put out more damage as the rear on the A-version is as good as a starhawks or the B-version has at least 2 reds. This makes the Assault Frigate a little more suspectible to damage, as the Evade token is probably the least helpfull.

MC30c - No or Maybe. Not the best choice unless, again, Ackbar is the admiral and the MC30c is not supposed to go into close range, then maybe one red dice can be something, but its not something that will deter a ship to fire at the MC30c.

MC75 - Might be a good choice, since the Defense tokens this ship has is somewhat lacking. The Ordnance will probably still favor the Ordnance Experts. The Armored Cruiser will say YES to a Salvo. Replacing one of the Contains is a no brainer. The downside for the salvo is that the rear is either Black/Black or Blue/Black, so close range is prefered to get any effekt out of it. Other Close range ships might think twice before going in close with the MC75.

LMC80 - Well. This will probably want Gunnery Team more as the front arc is so heavy with dice. And this ship badly needs both its double Brace and the Redirect to stay alive. Blue/Blue or Reb/Blue can be something but again. Gunnery Team is better since this ship is not built to stay in any outdrawn slugging engagement.

Vanguard - Yes. Anything shooting Vanguard will take 2 Reds back. And with Linked Turbolaser Towers that brings a reroll the damage. The tricky part is what to make of the defense tokens. What is in front of the Vanguard should be an indication. Lots of squadrons? Switch a Brace, keep the Evade until deployment and switch that for a Salvo. Many heavy ships? Do nothing and switch the Evade for a Salvo when deploying Vanguard. Some teststing will be needed to find the sweet spot for this upgrade.

Empire
ISD-2 - Maybe leaning no. The Gunnery Team is still the go to here

ISD-1 - Maybe leaning yes. The rear is the same as the ISD-2 but Gunnery Team is slightly less good on the ISD-1.

Cymoon - No. The front arc is where the moneys at. Gunnery Team for days.

Kuat - Ordnance Experts go on this triangle.

Gladiator - No. Stick to Ordnance Experts

Onager - It already have a Salvo so one more seems redundant.

Quasar - What? No.

Raider - No

Victory - Maybe yes. This can make use of the Salvo. It has just as good dice pool as the Starhawk at long range so it is a contender. It's just a matter how well can it behave without Gunnery Team...