Custom Ship Pack: Chiss Warship

Hello there!

I’m Watcher Leader of Watcher Squadron, I normally make custom cards and ships for X-Wing 2.0. However, I’ve always been a fan of Armada and have wanted to make some custom cards and ships for the game but have been held back by the lack of a custom card maker. But I’ve finally got round to it thanks to the last Thrawn book coming out last week. It’s driven my obsession with him and the Chiss in general to a new high that has motivated me to finally make the Chiss Warship for the game.

I would like to quickly say, although I love and have a lot of Armada stuff, I haven’t been able to actually play for years as there aren’t many armada players in my area. I’m a little rusty with rules and the design language of the game and may make a few mistakes, so please be forgiving!

So let’s get stuck in!

The Overall Design:

We know little to nothing about the Chiss ships. Timothy Zahn has quite cleverly written the books barely describing their ships overall design so future writers and designers can fill in the gaps without being too restricted.

The one ship we have an image of is the Chiss Warship, Ar’alani’s ship during Thrawn Treason. We know it’s smaller than a Star Destroyer but looks to be relatively well-armed, capable and Vader even saw its potential to be a threat to a Star Destroyer.

We know a lot about Chiss weapons, shields and how they work, with them showing favour towards munitions like breacher missiles and plasma spheres while using weaker shields compared to the Republic.

We also hear no reference to any Chiss starfighters at this point (I NEED A CANNON CLAW CRAFT!!!) so we know they would have no real need for high squadron values.

With all of this combined, I’ve decided on a medium-size ship that makes good use of all three basic weapons upgrades. I have also placed it in the Imperial faction as that is the faction they have the closest link to.

The Arnments, Shields And Hull:

From the descriptions and the single image we have, the Chiss Warship seems to depend on broadside attacks as the bulk of the breacher and plasma sphere launchers are on the side of the ship. Because of this, the Breacher variant has well-rounded sides with two of each dice colour and the Command variant has the same stats across its front and sides as it’s not making as much use of its munitions. The rear zone is the real downside to the Warship with it only having one shield and one red and black dice, so don’t let your opponent outmanoeuvre you.

On the topic of shields, as I said before, the Chiss’s shields are not as strong as a normal shield; however, they did gain access to a Republic shield generator at the end of the Clone Wars so I expect they did eventually backwards engineer it and improve their shields. But for my design I kept their shields light, this is countered with their relatively tough hull.

The Defence Tokens And Manoeuvres:

I went with both evade and salvo tokens as the Chiss ships seem to be more manoeuvrable compared to most of the lumbering Star Wars capital ships we see. This is also reflected in its manoeuvre options, being rather agile for a medium ship.

The Command, Squadron And Engineering Values:

These are all relatively low with the engineering sitting at three to show their weaker shields more than their ability to repair their ship.

The squadron value is one on the Breacher variant thanks to the Chiss’s lack of starfighters, but the Command variant gets an increase to two because of its role as a command ship. However, this responsibility of being the centre of a fleet means it also increases its command value as well, as the crew have to deal with coordinating other ships as well as its self.

The Upgrade Slots:

The two variants as normal take the ship in two very different directions for upgrades, with the Breacher variant getting one of each of the basic weapon slots, Turbolaser, Ion Cannon and Ordinance. Where the Command variant only retains the Turbolaser. Because of this though, it does gain an additional crew slot and two Fleet Command slots to aid it.

The Upgrades:

Admiral Ar’alani:

There are few people in Star Wars who I rate as high as Thrawn (Revan, Doctor Aphra, Hera…) but Ar’alani is definitely one of them, and she deserves to be the one to lead this ship into battle.

For her ability, I wanted something similar to Thrawn but still very distinct. I was originally inspired by Varnillian, letting you swap out dice but being able to hold multiple, then I decided to do something similar but with Command dials.

This shows her skills as a commander and her ability to use her subordinates' ideas to her full benefit.

Grand Admiral Thrawn:

If you’ve seen my X-Wing stuff you already know I’ll always jump on any excuse to make Thrawn a card, and this is no exception.

His crew card allows you to guess your opponent's next command and get a bonus if you guess correctly. Although it costs you a command token, if you have a good idea of your opponent's strategy, you will be rewarded, which is like Thrawn’s plans, a risk at first glance, but his foresight helps the success of the plan.

This works well with his main allies from the books, Eli Vanto and Wullf Yularen thanks to their abilities keeping you flush with command tokens.

Chiss Skywalkers:

The Chiss Skywalkers are an amazing and interesting concept for the Star Wars universe, so I love the idea of adding them into the game.

For anyone who hasn’t read the books, the Chiss Skywalkers are force-sensitive children who are used to navigate hyperspace in the chaotic hyperspace lanes of the unknown regions. Because of this, they can change the course of a starship while travelling and can react to dangers which I tried to show in this upgrade.

Being able to place your ship last is a massive boon to your list especially on a ship like the Chiss Warship with a weak rear that your opponent could take advantage of.

Breacher Missiles:

As one of the core weapons of the Chiss Ascendancy, Breachers were a must for this pack. These missiles would release acid on impact that would eat into the hull and make ships more vulnerable to laser fire.

The upgrade lets you deal each damage card dealt to the defender by red dice face up, during the attack.

This is an amazingly strong ability and is why the Chiss Warship depends on its speed to get in range for missile attacks.

Plasma Spheres:

The Chiss’s version of ion cannons, these balls of plasma were able to effectively disable a ship's systems and any squadron foolish enough to get in their way.

The upgrade is a sort of combination between Flechette Torpedoes and Overload Pulse, exhausting your opponent’s defence tokens or toggling their squadrons to the active side if you target a squadron. This effectively allows you to shut down enemy ships or squadrons, however, unlike ion cannons, plasma Spheres were a sort of missile, so I decided to force them to take up both slots. This does mean there are only three other ships in the game that can bring them into battle.

Spectrum Lasers:

The Chiss’s version of laser cannons and turbolasers, Spectrum Lasers, were able to be easily adjusted to different frequencies so an opponent's hull absorbed the energy better, damaging them more effectively.

To show this you can use these to change a die to a critical result or add an accuracy result, which is useful if you have Breachers already active, however you do need your opponent’s shields to be down for this to work.

Steadfast:

Ar’alani’s ship, the Steadfast, was one of the Chiss’s best ships in the fleet, being sent on the most crucial missions for the expansionary defence fleet.

My design for this title is specifically for the Breacher Missiles, allowing you to change out your blue dice for red so you can make the most of the Breacher’s effect. This lets you roll four red dice, with the two black dice in the side, and that’s before other upgrades and modifiers!

Ufsa'mak'ro:

Although he was Thrawn’s officer on the Springhawk, which is a different class of ship completely, I really liked Sa’mak’ro in the books so I wanted him in this pack. His ability aids your gunners in getting your black and blue dice off at longer ranges making him much more effective at using the Breachers and Spheres upgrades in this pack.

This is great for attacking squadrons as you can use Flechette Torpedoes at medium range, making his ship better at locking down enemy squadrons!

Reactive Gunners:

As the Chiss depend so much on their missile attacks for their style of warfare, I felt it would be necessary to make a gunner upgrade to let you use missile critical effects while performing a salvo attack.

Originally I was going to make this a Chiss gunners card, however, I decided it would be unfair to make it an Imperial only upgrade, and the rest of the factions could make good use of it as well, so it became reactive gunners.

Hard Shutdown Mode:

Although unable to cloak, the Steadfast could shut down all its systems to the point where it was only detectable by visual sightings. As this is the first thing we see this ship do in Thrawn Treason, I was determined to work this into the pack.

My design allows you to become undetectable (as long as you activate it before coming in range) except at close range. The only disadvantage is that you cannot perform any attacks, spend any tokens or use any abilities, you are as good as dead, just floating in a straight line towards your opponent’s ships.

But that is the point, you can do this just before reaching combat range, then float into long or medium range, be safe, then spring to life now your enemies are closer and launch your heavier missiles and weapons!

The Example Build:

Chiss Breacher Warship: 74

Steadfast: 5

Admiral Konstantine: 23

Hard Shutdown Mode: 8

Breacher Missiles: 6

Enhanced Arnments: 10

Ordnance Experts: 4

Ufsa'mak'ro: 6

Chiss Breacher Warship: 74

Assault Concussion Missiles: 5

Reactive Gunners: 4

Reactive Gunnery: 4

Chiss Breacher Warship: 74

Assault Concussion Missiles: 5

Reactive Gunners: 4

Reactive Gunnery: 4

5 x Firespray-31: 90

Total: 400

Using rough estimates of points for my upgrades, this list gives you a hard-hitting Flagship alongside a pair of deadly protectors.

The Steadfast can use the Hard Shutdown Mode as a way to safely get close to your opponent for your Breacher Missiles. Failing that, you can use Sa’mak’ro as a way to get black dice at medium range.

The other two ships can use their Reactive Gunners to get off reactive missile shots with their Assault Concussion Missiles. This means even if they move first they can use their movement to get close to an opponent and wait to be shot, then use their missiles.

Konstantine will keep your opponent’s ships slow so you can keep up with them and let your missiles fly more often, and the Firespray’s don’t care about the Chiss ships lack of squadron values!

The Conclusion:

I’m a massive fan of the Chiss and all their stuff, so having this ship in the game is a dream for me. Yet I know it is very unlikely we will see an official version of this ship, in the game and on-screen (although I will sit with my fingers crossed while watching the Ahsoka series hoping we’ll see the Steadfast, Ar’alani and Clawcraft starfighters).

But customs are what I do and I’m happy with what I made so I’m just going to spend far too much money on Mel Miniatures and hope my wife doesn’t find out...

I hope you’ve all enjoyed my first Armada customs, I do plan to make a load more custom ship packs and individual cards (I have like six that didn’t make the cut for this pack…).

I’m not sure which to do next, the Subjugator Heavy Cruiser (aka, the Malevolence) or the Republic Stealth Ship, so please comment which you’d prefer next!

As normal with my custom stuff, feel free to use my cards!

Thank you all for reading,

Watcher Leader out.