(I'm aware that all the images are currently unavailable, due to a technical problem I lost them and I'm currently working to replace them, until then please look at my Instagram where you can find most of the images sorry for the inconvenience!)
After the first few episodes of Andor released over the last couple of weeks I have been obsessing over how amazing the show is so far!
One of the main things I love about the series so far is the more down to earth feel it has and the way the Preox-Morlana were using what felt like older, less advanced tech as the Empire wanted them to act as a first line of defence, but didn't want them to be too powerful themselves.
A good example is the Mobile Tac-Pods used to bring in the Preox-Morlana troops to capture Andor. The show has made them feel cramped and low tec, quite like a lot of classic Star Wars ships.
Lets get stuck in:
The Overall Design:
We know little about the Tac Pod as it is still new in cannon, however we can make some good guesses from what we've seen in Andor so far:
Firstly its going to be an Imperial ship. They may not be a part of the Imperial military, however they are under its jurisdiction.
Next, its attack is probably rather light as it only has a single ball mounted cannon for weapons, this means it should be a 2 dice attack. With a ball mounted cannon, it should have a full front arc, making it unique in the Empire's resources and improves its weak attack massively.
The agility value is 2 as it seems to be manoeuvrable enough to fit that number, but no higher due to the low tech feel of this ship.
Hull/Shield wise it is... weak. This thing is small and cramped, so I feel its hit points should reflect this, so its only got 4 hull.
For actions, it is also rather poor with only one white action, but its more defensive actions are red and the same with its jam action.
It's dial is an improvement from the rest of the stats as it seems to be rather manoeuvrable, its dial reflects this, with a dial similar to the Quadjumper's plus a handful of reverse manoeuvres.
For the ship ability, the size of the ship again comes into play. As I watched Andor, I really felt the small size of the ship and the claustrophobia its crew must have felt, so although this ship's primary purpose is as a crew carrier, its ship ability prevents you from using all your crew in each round, making you choose which of your crew you want activate for each round.
The Pilots:
Pre-Mor Corpo:
Upgrade Slots: Crew, Crew, Modification
Points: 2.5: 3 points with 9 loadout points 2.0: 28 points
Hyne:
The Chief Inspector of Preox-Morlana, Hyne seems to be both better and worse than the other Preox-Morlana officers in the show so far. He actually sees that his men were in the wrong, and that Cassian was only acting in self defence. Instead of making it right however, he just covers it up, if only so the Empire doesn't have a reason to crack down on them. Because of this somewhat casual disregard for his own men's deaths, his ability allows him to soften the blow or even cover up the situation for his allies, destressing them when you lose a ship.
Upgrade Slots: Crew, Crew, Modification
Points: 2.5: 3 points with 13 loadout points 2.0: 31 points
Verlo Skiff:
One of the Pre-Mor Corpos who jump Cassian, Verlo trying to collect Cassian's bribe inspired his ability, letting him acquire a lock on a ship before performing an attack on them, unless they give you a green token of their choice as a bribe. He and his partner are the only two in this pack who have illicit slots to show their less than lawful activities.
Upgrade Slots: Talent, Crew, Crew, Illicit
Points: 2.5: 3 points with 10 loadout points 2.0: 29 points
Kravas Drezzer:
The other Pre-Mor Corpo who jumped Cassian, Kravas was far too quick to choose Cassian as a target for his blackmail, as Cassian was able to easily take them down. This is shown in his pilot ability, letting you massively increase your initiative value at the cost of his enemies acquiring locks on him for free.
Upgrade Slots: Talent, Talent, Crew, Crew, Illicit
Points: 2.5: 3 points with 11 loadout points 2.0: 32 points
Syril Karn:
Our current main antagonist of Andor, Syril is an interesting character, who seems a little too locked onto Cassian and is forgetting the crimes his own men committed. Although we haven't seen him do anything that puts his men in danger to complete his goal, I'm sure that probably the next step in his story and so his ability reflects that. He can lock down a single crew upgrade with additional stress tokens so he can roll an additional attack die, making him one of the most aggressive pilots in this pack.
Upgrade Slots: Talent, Crew, Crew, Modification, Modification
Points: 2.5: 4 points with 14 loadout points 2.0: 38 points
Linus Mosk:
The Sergeant who lead the team that Deputy Inspector Syril Karn brought to capture Cassian, Linus seems very capable of inspiring his men and seems to genuinely care about them. His ability lets his embarked crew avoid the Tac-Pod's ship ability by gaining a stress token to prevent one of his crew being locked down.
Upgrade Slots: Talent, Talent, Crew, Crew, Crew
Points: 2.5: 4 points with 17 loadout points 2.0: 36 points
The Upgrades
Syril Karn (Crew):
As our main antagonist and best look into Preox-Morlana, Syril of course has a crew upgrade as well. His ability here is similar to his pilot ability, forcing him to hone in on one target. He uses the same condition card as Kallus, however his ability lets him remove the threat to Preox-Morlana by assigning deplete tokens to his target after successfully hitting them.
Points: 6 points
Linus Mosk (Crew):
As an officer that seems to be more in touch with his troops, Linus is capable of inspiring them, and therefore able to coordinate them. This coordinate has some restrictions, being red and also restricted to only targeting pilots with a lower initiative than him. So unless he is on a high initiative ship, he can only target grunts. However as he can also easily inspire them, he can decrease the difficulty of their red actions as a bonus, especially useful for the Tac-Pod.
Points: 8 points
Pre-Mor Corpos:
This generic group crew upgrade shows off the Pre-Mor Corpos tactics of surrounding their enemies to pin them down, in turn make them easier to take down. This ability is rather useful, especially on the Tac-Pod, as they are cheap points wise for a crew carrier so you can easily run a handful of them to activate this card.
Points: 5 points
Listening Device:
As in 2.5, the Informant upgrade has been banned because of the new design philosophy of the game preventing any ability that looks at dials. I've made a new version of the Informant's Listening Device condition. It gives your ship a way to react to your bugged opponent's movements, however you cannot move as a result of their movements.
Points: 8 points
The Conclusion:
Although we are now rapidly leaving the Preox-Morlana behind and moving into Imperial territory in the Andor series, I really hope the Mobile Tac-Pod keep reappearing as well as the rest of the Preox-Morlana as I love the look and feel of the organisation.
I'm sure this ship will one day make it into the game for the Empire, however until then, feel free to use my version of the ship in your own games!
Thank you all for reading,
Watcher Leader out.
Komentáře