ARC and Legacy Review
12th January 2026
Barry
12 mins
ARC & Legacy Review
Alright, so ARC has done a points update for a couple of commanders and squadrons for consideration for ARC02, and …separately? Concurrently? Elsewhere? How are we actually doing this?
Legacy Wave 1 has dropped and seems to have elicited more interest from our community than wave 0 which I haven’t given more than a cursory glance at previously noting that it fleshed out the Republic and Separatist squadrons mostly. Now to be clear, the lack of my own personal interest in Wave 0 has less to do with the quality of the content (which is a difficult task) and more the need to print materials such as cards, bases, squadrons.
Similarly, the initial ARC release created some buzz as there was a lot of errata’s to already existing content and have only now looked at getting cards and ships bases. The ARC release appeased my laziness more readily though now that laziness has come to haunt me, so I’d better get cracking with the completely uninformed assessment of these releases. For simplicity’s sake I’m reviewing these as a unified suite of upgrades and won’t be asserting which of the releases – competing or not – is better.
Rebel Alliance
There’s been a couple of changes to Admirals like Sato and Draven – which we’ve seen in action recently at HeroCon where the majority of lists had Sato and the winner was Draven (Coolant Discharge covered this most recently in episode 16), but the addition of titles such as Rebel One adds options in how you might consider building and employing a Rebel Providence.
The Big Winner: I’m going to say Luke, partially because it’s true and also it will frustrate Lester endlessly. Luke ditching the Escort keyword alone to my mind means he doesn’t get killed off so quickly and should be put on the table more with other X-Wings.
Additionally, giving him Rogue keyword means that he joins Rogue Squadron in squadron phase shenanigans. And whilst there’s the temptation to give him Adept keyword would be appropriate – I appreciate that would require costing him absurdly high.
The Big Loser: Picking a loser amongst Rebels, however, if I were to pick on something it would be that Wedge also did not pick-up Rogue keyword to lead Rogue Squadron into the fight.
What To Look At: Draven remains something to consider – albeit at the risk of creating Rube Goldberg raid machine. Draven alone is an absurd proposition but with the support of other raid inducing upgrades he becomes quite frustrating to overcome. Beware though - you might not be popular if your efforts are successful.
Watch Out For: If the results of the recent HeroCon event are anything to go by, Sato is clearly tempting players. Paired with a minor point reduction for Han, it would seem that you will undoubtedly see players try and make their mark with the ARC-revised Sato.
Galactic Empire
Combining both ARC and Legacy you still don’t get a lot of new content – which isn’t surprising given that like Rebels they’re pretty well fleshed out as a faction. And so similarly, we’re looking at some minor errata’s and points adjustments to existing content, with the only new item being Intrepid title for the Imperial Venator II.
The Big Winner: Similar to the Luke revision, Vader is a big winner ditching Escort keyword – which feels more thematic to the faction since he is not sacrificing himself for anyone, and so it always seemed weird that it would be there.
The Big Loser: I don’t think it would be controversial to say that the Victory class are somewhat over-costed if you consider their complete inability to turn – a pedestrian accomplishment that apparently requires a title and maybe Jerry’s help.
What To Look At: My personal pick is the Interdictor Combat Retrofit being discounted and finally getting those abilities on the table. Suppression Retrofits always sparked joy in me due to their ability to disrupt my opponent’s well-conceived plans and levelling the playing field - since I still don’t have plan - but they aren’t heavy hitters. This has a foot in both camps and doesn’t feel overcosted.
Watch Out For: I’m looking forward to trying Intrepid with Reeva Demesne supporting and keeping that ability rolling to making a fighter ball a bit more survivable.
Galactic Republic
Story time! There was a brief moment of confusion for me with the initial ARC reveal for the Republic Arquiten’s showing it as unique – which felt reasonable given the Quarren MC-30 is a unique unit that could (obviously) be amazing in multiples for that faction. The final release though dispelled that notion, sparking fears that Republic would continue to have the ability to out-activate and out-gun Separatists.
The Legacy Wave 1 actually realizes those fears with two additional (and cheaper) variants of the ship which provides lots of options for different list design. Initially the ARC variant seems over-costed given the upgrade options. Important note: Andrew Doty has confirmed the ARC movement chart is not correct since the time of publishing.
The Big Winner: The faction’s MSU players come out the big winner with the inclusion of the Arquitens, for which options abound courtesy of the upgrade variants, titles and the Republic Admiral’s and crew options.
The Big Loser: The Acclamator remains to my mind GAR’s answer to the Empire’s Victory class Star Destroyer; relegated to more niche roles. In this case, it is probably pushing fighters out and around. I’m sure that there will be opportunity for additional titles or variants to get them back on the board…later.
What To Look At: Delta-7 Aethersprite’s have gone down in cost, and I gotta say they’re pretty terrific especially when bolstered by Luminara, Nevoota Bee to give them Swarm keyword – seriously has the opportunity to punch up.
Watch Out For: Ignoring the aforementioned Anakin/Arquiten pairing for a Republic MSU; I think the Victory presents a genuine threat courtesy of their unique title Arlionne, and it’s meandering manoeuvrability is mitigated by Admiral Coburn even if there is a burden of execution to it.
Separatist Alliance
Okay so there’s a bit for me to unpack here with the creation of the Pinnace-Class, the MC-30, the Admiral’s, and the squadrons. There’s honestly not a lot to dislike and it’s a matter of where to start putting a list together.
My default option for Separatist’s has often been Grievous for my squadron heavy lists and TF for damage output.
Those are sort of blended together now with the squadrons now bringing Assault keyword, and multiple options for ships beyond the obvious Patriot Fist.
Poggle the Lesser looks like a great option for players that want to get into the fight and brawl, and Daultay Dofine is an all-rounder for squadron-focused players.
The Big Winner: Clearly the addition of the Quarren MC-30 is a significant win for the faction, and whilst it lacks the titles like the Rebel variants it has a lot of options open to differing play styles. You can try to make it a little tank to dive in and out of conflict or go looking for damage output and know you’re likely trading up.
The Big Loser: This is a hard one actually because previously it would have been the faction’s lack of MSU options – though honestly now the faction seems fairly well rounded. So…no comment just yet.
What To Look At: Munificent-Class Command Frigate give the faction immediate access to the Fleet Support upgrades, and whilst it might strike its inclusion as strange, previously the only way to do this was the Hardcell-Class transport at 47pts. The Command Frigate offers more options (albeit for more points) to move fighters, support the rest of the fleet and punch hard with Bombard keyword.
Watch Out For: Separatist MSU is now plausible with the MC-30 - and more importantly the Pinnace-Class – means that there’s an avenue for Separatists to make it work though it might be a path to success with commanders like TF or Mar Tuuk, but the burden of execution is so much higher when compared to an Ackbar/CR90 MSU list.
What Next?
Look there’s a lot to get through and honestly I don’t have a lot of time to play them all as we lead up to the Not Nationals. I’ve had a tentative run with a couple of Republic Arquitens-class Light Cruiser with Clone Gunners and it definitely doesn’t disappoint.
My problem is admittedly I’m less inclined to play anything I don’t have physical material for, and the cost of getting them printed is somewhat prohibitive…so I’ll probably panic and cobble something together with what I have that doesn’t require some kind of errata or points changes to make work even if Jim isn’t going to bust my chops about it.
But look that’s literally no different to what I usually do. So I should probably just relax and see what happens with the evolution of the ARC and Legacy content for the game and how that resolves within the community.
Anyway, stay salty…
- Barry