I have almost no rule gripes with this game except for one. I am not a fan of abilities that provide a benefit to an unrestricted number of friendly ships. If there is no limitation, it creates a value issue as the point level scales in either direction. As I just opened an E-Wing, consider A'baht. His abilitity allows all friendly ships to convert a hit to a critical hit if they are attacking a ship within A'baht's firing range. I don't see how that ability can be propertly valued when the points level of the game is variable.

For example, if you play at 100 points, he can let your 5 Tala Squadron Pilots each flip over to one critical hit. If you are playing at 300 points (the Epic level), now he can let your 22 Tala Squadron Pilots each flip over to one critical hit. Whether he nets you an additional 5 or 22 critical hits, he still costs the same in points. The result is that he is either too expensive at the lower points level or not expensive enough at the higher points level. That example is obviously the most dramatic available, but the idea stands even when fewer ships are in play.

I get that there are limitations on his effectiveness (like, as with all named pilots, having a bullseye on his ship in a 300 point game - which is another problem in itself), but I wish they would just pass on abilities like this.

All true except you can only have 12 small base ships of any one type in Epic.

Howlrunner's ability is better, although she is far squishier.

now he can let your 22 Tala Squadron Pilots each flip over to one critical hit.

Per the Epic Tournament rules, you can have no more then 12 of any single small ship, or 6 of any large ship.

Whether he nets you an additional 5 or 22 critical hits, he still costs the same in points.

It's unlikely that you'll be able to get much more then 5 or so ships that can benefit from him. First off the target has to be in range and arc Etahn. So that's going to limit things. Then how many extra crits do you really need to score a kill?

The very idea that you could get 22 extra crits is simply not possible, realistically, you'll be lucky to get more then 5-6.

Howlrunner's ability is better, although she is far squishier.

And Howlrunner is limited by how many ships you can fit in range 1 of her.

Personally, I'm a fan of "force multiplier" abilities, and feel there are few enough as is.

Typically "force multiplier" abilities ARE more valuable the larger the battle, which makes sense. General Patton is going to contribute a lot more to a large scale battle than a three man brawl.

And even then, we don't actually have any large scale force multiplier abilities, just small scale ones that are limited by range. I don't think you could realistically fit 22 Z-95s within range 1-3.

Personally, as long as they are balanced in points, I don't have a problem with force multipliers. It adds an additional interesting dimension to the game, and A'baht's is hardly overpowered.

Good to know. I never actually played in an Epic tournament, but I have messed around with 200 point games.

I have the same issue with Howlrunner. That type of mechanic just bugs me.

@ VandorDM

One ship can have quite a few elegible enemy targets. If A'bhat can select between 4 enemy ships, then his allies targetting any of them can benefit from his ability. Unless I am reading that incorrectly. As I said, I am yet to fly with him, it is just the way that the ability works that bugs me.

Personally, I'm a fan of "force multiplier" abilities, and feel there are few enough as is.

Typically "force multiplier" abilities ARE more valuable the larger the battle, which makes sense. General Patton is going to contribute a lot more to a large scale battle than a three man brawl.

And even then, we don't actually have any large scale force multiplier abilities, just small scale ones that are limited by range. I don't think you could realistically fit 22 Z-95s within range 1-3.

Personally, as long as they are balanced in points, I don't have a problem with force multipliers. It adds an additional interesting dimension to the game, and A'baht's is hardly overpowered.

That is the thing. He can't possobly be balanced. If he is flying with Han Solo and lets him alter one die then he isn't worth it. If he is flying with a pile of Z-95s then he is too cheap (if he isn't at that level, then that would mean that he is also too expensive if flying with only a moderate number of ally ships).

I am a fan of the buffing ships as well, but I prefer them to always have a discrete impact, like passing a focus when they spend a focus.

One ship can have quite a few elegible enemy targets. If A'bhat can select between 4 enemy ships, then his allies targetting any of them can benefit from his ability.

True, you park Etahn in front of a tie swarm and everyone else who fires at it gets the benefit of his ability. But that's still a limited number of ships.

I'm going to assume that FFG took the variable nature of his ability like Howlrunners into consideration when they assigned the point value. Although I think they undervalued it when they created Howl.

Howlrunner's ability is better, although she is far squishier.

And Howlrunner is limited by how many ships you can fit in range 1 of her.

Good point. Etahn actually scales slightly better in Epic games.

There actually is one card buff that has no range limit. Leia Oregana. Admittedly her ability is a bit more subtle than Etahn or Howlrunner, but it affects every single friendly ship on the board.

I would hope that they costed his ability for 100 point games, since that's the standard format.

I have almost no rule gripes with this game except for one. I am not a fan of abilities that provide a benefit to an unrestricted number of friendly ships. If there is no limitation, it creates a value issue as the point level scales in either direction. As I just opened an E-Wing, consider A'baht. His abilitity allows all friendly ships to convert a hit to a critical hit if they are attacking a ship within A'baht's firing range. I don't see how that ability can be propertly valued when the points level of the game is variable.

For example, if you play at 100 points, he can let your 5 Tala Squadron Pilots each flip over to one critical hit. If you are playing at 300 points (the Epic level), now he can let your 22 Tala Squadron Pilots each flip over to one critical hit. Whether he nets you an additional 5 or 22 critical hits, he still costs the same in points. The result is that he is either too expensive at the lower points level or not expensive enough at the higher points level. That example is obviously the most dramatic available, but the idea stands even when fewer ships are in play.

I get that there are limitations on his effectiveness (like, as with all named pilots, having a bullseye on his ship in a 300 point game - which is another problem in itself), but I wish they would just pass on abilities like this.

You should also remember that Etahn considers himself for his own ability. So he'd be flipping those 5 Tala's and his own die.

Eh, all of these have restrictions. Even Leia. How many red manuevers will you be doing in a turn? Not all that many.(Also the dude that has your whole force move at PS12)

Howlrunner is very good, but she's got the downside of clumping which makes manuevering a royal pain, and her radius is tiny. I wish we had more abilities like hers, not less. Support ships in this game are really limited.

I would also like to point out that the ability ceases to matter when his friends lose focus aim at multi targets,, or all die. That means pretty well useless in the endgame.

If Etahn is buffing 22 friendly ships I would naturally assume that the other side also has 22 ships with which to wipe Etahn from existence in short order

Once you scale the game up that high I don't really feel like individual ship contributions matter very much, and any ship whose ability is good enough to matter will be a priority target and probably won't make it past the first couple turns

Once you scale the game up that high I don't really feel like individual ship contributions matter very much, and any ship whose ability is good enough to matter will be a priority target and probably won't make it past the first couple turns

This!

The designers obviously had an 'ideal' situation in mind when pricing these things. Much like buying an Engine Upgrade, it's up to us as the players to figure out whether we should put it on an Interceptor, or a Lambda. Obviously, those abilities are 'worth' different points depending on what they go on.