Well well.

So we'll get him.

The One and Only.

What will he be like?

Kind of 3PO evading effect?

Or a devastating damage add effect?

The cat in the box is both dead and alive, until you look in the box.

From a fluff standpoint, I don't see it. The Emperor/Palpatine/Darth Sideous was not a frontline guy. He has people for that. Lots of people. The only direct (canon) confrontations he had were when the Jedi tried to arrest him in Episode III and when he tried to kill Luke in Episode VI (plus a small number of times in The Clone Wars). He was very much the puppet master and not a direct conflict guy.

EDIT: I see the card on Imperial Raider news page with his art on it, but I am guessing (hoping?) it is just flavor art for another type of upgrade. I will be surprised if it is indeed the Emperor.

Then again, I have a hard time seeing C-3P0 being effective in any situation in canon other than by accident. Yet C-3P0 is one of the strongest crew cards in the game. So I could be dead wrong.

Retracted.

His presence, or even the idea that he's observing (through the holonet, perhaps?) would be a simultaneously motivating and stressful for an Imperial Crew.

I could see him allowing a ship to take a stress in order to add some bonus to the ship for the round.

Then again, I have a hard time seeing C-3P0 being effective in any situation in canon other than by accident. Yet C-3P0 is one of the strongest crew cards in the game. So I could be dead wrong.

"Never tell me the odds..."

Except that this game is based on the dice, so betting with the odds is very helpful. I think the card fits pretty well.

I don't seem to see his card. I see a card towards the end that looks like those guys from a new hope that fire the superlaser from the Death Star (the ones with the black sort of bubble looking helmet).

It can be easily justified if the battle represents an ambush on the Emperor's convoy or something.

Sure, Palpatine will usually be ruling from Imperial Centre, but he does travel and has been shown to utilize various craft, from small shuttles to Super Star Destroyer-sized vessels. It's not entirely out of the realm of possibility for him to be completing a leg of a journey on a Raider-class corvette.

Makes about as much sense as a Doomshuttle anyway.

Yes but what aspect of the Emperor would be best for a crew card in X-Wing?

A Leadership ability - like Squad Leader (w/o using an action) or like Howlrunners ability?

A Force ability like the force lightning to do some additional damage to the defender - or even to the attacker!

Alright, I retract my statement. It certainly looks like Emperor Palpatine on the card's title.

And I agree, he should have both a beneficial and a harmful effect when used.

.. Something like:

for each critical hit you suffer, roll a red dice to damage the attacker ...

to counter the Mango Cannon

here's a possible few:

Leia's ability with a Range cap of R1-3 but does not need to be discarded.

Reverse Dodonna "While defending turn 1 of the attacker's Critical results into a Hit result."

A Torun Farr clone but range 1-5 or rangeless.

or

Navigator / SoT ability: "during the activation phase you may spend 1 energy to change the dial of any friendly ship within R1-3 that ship then receives a Stress Token"

"Because all is as he's foreseen."

Emperor Palpatine (crew - imperial only): After you perform an attack against an enemy ship, call out a red die result, then roll 1 red die. If you guess the die result correctly, any enemy ship immediately receives 1 critical damage. Then you must receive 1 damage.

thoughts?

I was thinking an imperial version of a C3P0...

Some kind of dark influence over the enemy?

"At the start of the combat phase select a ship within range 2. The opponent must choose between getting a stress token or skipping the combat phase."

"With each passing moment you make yourself more my servant."

Edit: Maybe losing the ship where he is in causes some kind of a drawback, or even a r1 explosion? May work additionally.

"Once per round when defending, you may ignore the pilot ability and (EPT symbol) cards of the attacker."

Boom

"Once per round when defending, you may ignore the pilot ability and (EPT symbol) cards of the attacker."

Boom

Cool, but useless against all the generic pilots.

I have a very strong feeling. He should:

Cause stress OR make you choose something.

Example: When an enemy shoots within range 1 of your ship (where Palpatine is), choose between changing a hit to a blank, or receive a stress token. I don't know, I'm like a kid right now, guessing and stuff xD

Turning an enemy to shoot his own team once per game should be nice too. Some kind of mind control.

Palpatine was a master of the ancient art of Battle Meditation, so his card ability should reflect such an efficiency-boosting ability. Also it could instead mess with the ability of enemy ships to perform well.

Maybe something like this: Epic Only: All allied abilities can be increased or decreased by one range band (Max 5, Min 1). All enemy abilities are decreased by one Range Band (Min 1).

My other thought was more support-oriented:

"At the start of the Combat phase, choose one enemy ship at range 1-3. Friendly ships may ignore the pilot ability and (EPT) cards of that ship this turn."

Honestly, I'd like him to be silly points (like...10+) with a correspondingly crazy good ability.

It's the freaking EMPEROR.

Highly unlikely i know, but still. I can wishlist with the best of them

I like to think that the he's one step a head of the just about everyone. "He's foreseen it" so here's my idea. At the start of the activation Phase you may look at an opponents dial then you may change your dial.

Another variation in the Battle Meditation (thinking of Thrawn series, tbh) would be Veteran instincts for all imperials whilst he's alive. Upon his loss, all imperials PS is 2 below their printed PS value (to a min of zero).

Obviously the more ships the better value he becomes (much like Leia's card)

"At the beginning of the end phase, assign a stress tokens to all enemy ships within ranges 1-3. When this ship is destroyed, assign one stress token to every friendly ship at ranges 1-3." 10 points

8 points for a second primary weapon attack ... ?

Huge ship only

Huge ship only

We can see he actually uses a lambda in the original trilogy. Could be nice if he were expensive, but not only for huge ships.

So in the LCG, Vader lets you deal damage after playing an event card. That is very similar to his X-Wing crew ability.

Palpatine's ability in the LCG lets you pull a card from your discard pile when you destroy something. I'd like to see something similar:

When you destroy a ship, deal 1 damage to any other enemy ship, then take 1 stress.

Alternatively, I'd be really cool for him to use force lightning:

Attack (focus): Range 1. Atk 3, Perform a secondary attack. For each focus converted to a hit, apply 1 stress to the defender.