Armada: The CR90 is great support

Lego support ship running for its life!

Having experimented with just having one CR90 in my Rebel list in the last couple of weeks, I have to say that it's changed me.  I'm not talking about just the raw damage potential that can come out of a little CR90 with TRCs equipped, I'm talking about the amount of flexibility it can provide for the rest of the fleet.  For example, the one that I have in Vassal tournament is sporting the Jaina's Light title and nothing else.  Having played with the Tantive IV variant in the last couple of days, I'm regretting taking Jaina's Light in my current tournament list.  This is not saying that Jaina's Light is not good, it's just saying that I think the Tantive IV is better overall for my fleet.

Check out the things you can do with the CR90 outside of TRCs:

• Jaina's Light - Allows you to shoot through your massive MC80, get the obstructed bonus from enemy attacks, while not being obstructed yourself when you shoot.  You can also run around all day and land on asteroids, claiming objectives, or getting into better position to shoot the enemy ships from more vulnerable arcs.
• Tantive IV - Allows you to gear up your ships in the beginning so you can fight the longer battle.  If the CR90 is going to be out of range of most things in the beginning, why not throw an engineering token on the MC80 so when you do repair, he can potentially heal up to 3 shields instantly?  Or why not throw a nav token on it so it can Concentrate Fire and trigger Engine Techs on the same turn?  In the first 1-2 turns where the CR90 is still moving around and positioning for shots, there's no better time to stock up on tokens that will really matter.
• Leia Organa - Another great upgrade that basically allows you to change one of your ship's dials to the CR90s while still holding onto the dial itself.  A lot of things can change during the course of the battle and being able to instantly change a dial for 3 points cannot be underestimated.  For example, if you have a repair queued but would rather navigate to full effect, Leia can actually make that happen.  There's almost no other ability in the game that is quite like this, and even if you activated the CR90 last, you can still change the outcome of a ship's next unrevealed dial.

Now that the basics are out of the way, let's dig a little more:

• Tantive IV + Leia Organa - This is a great little support ship if you can afford the 6 points in the fleet.  It's also probably the most reactive combo in the game because with your command-1 ship, you can have Leia turn the MC80's dial into Engineering on reveal, turn its own dial into a token, and then throw the token onto the MC80 as well.  Next turn, you activate and have 6 engineering points to spend on your big ship.  I would certinatly do this if your opponent's damage spikes all of a sudden and you were not prepared for it.  It can seriously mean the difference between living and dying next turn.  On the opposite side of the spectrum, you can always use the same combo to push out extra damage with Concentrate Fire if you need to seal the deal next turn.
• Tantive IV + Raymus Antilles - Would you like a token generator for two ships on your fleet?  Raymus basically allows you to do this because he generates a token to get thrown onto one ship, and then you can bank the dial for another token that you can throw on another.  This is great with ships using stuff like Engine Techs or has high enough engineering values where having that extra repair has a noticeable result on the battle.  Concentrate Fire tokens are also great tokens to have if you're throwing a good amount of red dice.  Either way, you can choose to just use the dial for yourself and throw out Raymus' extra token to another ship if you so desire.  That is the benefit of having this particular combo.

I think that going forward, I will be replacing the Jaina's Light with the Tantive IV as my default title.  I've fallen absolutely in love with the ability to power Engine Techs without dedicating a command and having a stronger Engineering value for when the dice starts flying.  Having the extra re-roll from CF tokens are also nice, but keeping your MC80 moving with techs while repairing with 6 points is just too good.