“I say we fight!”

–Admiral Raddus, Rogue One

As we saw chronicled in Rogue One, the Rebel assault on the Imperial installation of Scarif was integral to the later events of A New Hope. Without the courage and heroism of Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor, and the other Rebels, the Death Star plans would never have been recovered. And without the Rebel fleet arriving in orbit above Scarif and engaging in a desperate space battle with the Imperial garrison fleet, the Rebels sacrificed on the planet below would have lost their lives for nothing.

Throughout this battle, the Rebel fleet was commanded by Admiral Raddus in his MC75 cruiser, Profundity. Now, with the Profundity Expansion Pack for Star Wars™: Armada, you’ll be able to bring your own MC75 cruisers into your Rebel fleets! Today, we’ll take a closer look at just what you might expect to find within, as you expand your Rebel armadas with these new Mon Calamari ships.

You can pre-order the Profundity Expansion Pack at your local retailer or online through our webstore today!

Cruiser Assault

The MC75 cruisers belonged to the first generation of warships launched by the Mon Calamari as they escaped from the Imperial occupation of their oceanic homeworld. Converted from passenger craft and even civic structures, these vessels were nonetheless armed with a fierce mix of turbolasers, ion cannons, and proton torpedoes. Among the first of this class was the Profundity, the flagship of Admiral Raddus and the bastion of the Rebel fleet.

MC75 cruisers enter your games of Star Wars: Armada with two distinct ship cards: the MC75 Armored Cruiser and the MC75 Ordnance Cruiser. Perhaps uniquely for the Rebel fleet, the front hull armaments for the MC75 cruiser are nearly as powerful as its flank armaments—five attack dice from the front and from both flanks. It’s up to you to determine which configuration of the MC75 is best for your fleet—and how you’ll use these ships’ stacked range of available upgrades!

This Expansion Pack comes with a new commander, who opens the door to cunning strategic choices, starting before you even deploy your fleets. If Admiral Raddus is the one leading your ships into battle, you may enter the game at a disadvantage in exchange for better positioning later. Before you deploy your fleet at the beginning of the game, Raddus lets you choose another friendly ship and set that ship aside. Then, at the start of any round, you can deploy that ship close to a friendly ship, bringing it straight into the heat of battle and into perfect position to concentrate fire on the weakest part of your opponent’s formation. Essentially, you’re holding one of your ships back, bringing it out of hyperspace at the perfect moment to change the tide of battle with an unexpected attack.

Your attacks become more powerful when you have Caitken and Shollan occupying the Weapons Team upgrade slot on a ship like the MC75 cruiser. These Mon Calamari aides to Admiral Raddus can be used to reroll any number of dice of a single color when you’re making an attack. Since the MC75 cruiser boasts three dice of the same color from its front and flank hull zones, you’ll always get good value for using Caitken and Shollan to make your attacks with this cruiser more effective.

Alternatively, you may devote both your Weapons Team and Offensive Retrofit upgrade slots to a single individual— Jyn Erso, a hero of the Rebellion. Provided you spend a Squadron command dial or token, you can target an enemy ship with Jyn Erso to shut down your opponent’s plans with raid tokens. Each raid token matches a single command, and so long as a ship has a raid token, it cannot execute any commands that match the raid token! Jyn Erso lets you issue two raid tokens to the targeted ship, potentially hamstringing your opponent’s plans to repair his ship or concentrate firepower. What’s more, if that ship had a greater tactical significance by having an objective token, Jyn Erso grants you a victory token, as her noble sacrifice brings you one step closer to winning the game.

The new ordnance included in the Profundity Expansion Pack also gives you the tools to bring down your foes. A Wide-Area Barrage may be used during any attack, spending a critical hit from a black die to spread your damage across multiple ships. Provided there’s another enemy ship or squadron at close range to the defender, you can deal that ship half of your total black hits—targeting multiple enemies and spreading your damage across the enemy fleet.

If you’re a fan of Admiral Raddus’s ability to hold one of your ships in reserve, you’ll be equally thrilled to see his flagship offers a similar effect with the Profundity title upgrade. Profundity lets you choose a small ship with a command value of one and set it aside at the beginning of the game. Then, as with Admiral Raddus, you can bring this ship into play at the start of any round, adding a new attacker to your fleet. There is, however, one notable difference when you’re using the Profundity—you may choose to unequip a Commander and an Officer from the Profundity and add them to the ship that you’ve just brought into play! Perhaps your commander’s flagship has been grievously damaged, and you’re in danger of losing some of your most important upgrades. By bringing in another ship and moving your high-ranking officers over, you’ll continue the fight without losing your key personnel.

Finally, you can build an entire fleet of Mon Calamari ships and take advantage of their similar design by equipping your “MC” ships with the Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet upgrade. Hearkening back to the Mon Calamari flight from their homeworld after Imperial occupation, you can use this upgrade to boost your ships’ engineering points and repair your fleet. So long as you have plenty of Mon Calamari ships in your fleet, it’s certainly worth considering if you want to declare that your fleet is a detachment of the Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet.

Fighting for Freedom

Admiral Raddus and the crew of the Profundity were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to ensure that the Rebellion could survive. It’s up to you to honor that commitment by adding new MC75 cruisers to your fleet.