X Wing Wave 9

Clone, Mandalorian, Special Forces and Bounty Hunter ships inbound.

ARC-170

Clone Wars Era Starfighter 

Mother of Poe Dameron, Shara Bey is the first of the pilots revealed for this ship. Whilst fluff wise its nice to have this pilot added, the pilot skill isn't exactly setting the world on fire. The ship itself makes for a pretty sturdy fighter platform with the six hull and three shields, not great agility but to be expected of a ship with multiple crew.

Being able to shoot forward and backwards seems to be the main theme is this new wave.

Giving you the extra firepower needed in the front arc or extra punch to unshielded enemies that are chasing you.

Probably the ship I am most excited about in this new wave. Whilst not only looking completely badass, it looks like we are going to get some really interesting combos with astromechs and crew members in a fighter.

Special Forces Tie

As seen piloted by Poe and Finn

Not much shown for this ship but what they did show was pretty cool. The first Tie Fighter to ever sport three shields.

Now this is a great title card for zero cost. Bumping up your forward firepower to three when needed or being able to fire two shots behind you at any pursuers.  

Protectorate Starfighter

Mandalorian Ship from Star Wars Rebels

Giving Scum an Interceptor with higher firepower and agility. Whilst having no shields making it vulnerable it has other tools to keep it out of danger like boosts and barrel rolls just like Tie Fighters. Also boost means we can have Autothrusters on this thing. Fenn Rau's Pilot Ability makes him lethal and pretty survivable in close combat bumping his shots up to a scary five if attacking and up to four agility whilst defending at range one.

Shadow Caster

Ketsu Onyo's Ship from Star Wars Rebels

This ship is introducing a new mechanic to the game called a mobile firing arc and also a tractor beam. The Shadow Caster can deploy debris fields to make things more difficult for its opponents which I think fits in with the Scum & Villainy fluff pretty well.

The base stats for this ship look pretty promising, a pretty agile ship for its size with the two agility and the ability to evade. Firepower is strong and with seven hull and three shields its going to last in the fight. 

So we are going to get a Scum version of Sabine it seems, just like we did with Boba Fett in the Most Wanted expansion. Her ability shows that if you use your mobile firing arc right and have a focus on that you will always at least get one evade. You could always just evade but this gives you the flexibility of having the focus offensively but being able to use it defensively if caught short.

Conclusion

Already I am thinking of ways to field these new ships, I cannot wait to get a squadron of ARC-170's on the board with all manners of combinations. I hope we continue to see more ships from other parts of the Star Wars universe such as Rebels or Rogue One later this year.