Recently came across something which might make an interesting card for a future supplement: R2-Q5

This fashionable little droid was extremely competent, well equipped, and even issued with some distinctly non-standard upgrades by Imperial Intelligence (spy tools and armed with a concealed blaster) - as you might expect from the Astromech assigned to Emperor Palpatine's personal shuttle....

Now, obviously he should be Imperial Only, which is an issue because no Imperial ship has (or should have) an Astromech slot. Therefore, logically, he should be a crew upgrade, and unique. The question is, what should he do?

Option one is to replicate the ability of a 'stock' R2 astromech - which is nice for an imperial crew upgrade. It might be a little powerful given the ships it's likely to be assigned to, though: the Firespray is pretty X-wing-esque, and the Decimator isn't exactly unwieldy. The Lambda, however, would go from red speed 2 hard turns to green, which is a hell of a jump. I suspect the concept of a Ninja Albino Void Moose pulling tighter turns than a snubfighter as well as merely outrunning them may be a step too far...on the other hand, it would definitely push the Lambda back up the scale of usefulness, and it would certainly make Sablegryphon a happy bunny.

My other concern is the TIE Phantom - a green Hard 1 turn is kind of harsh - not that the Phantom needs improved manouvrability or anything, you understand...

You could always make him Lambda Shuttle Only and price him appropriately, I guess.

On a less ridiculous but still pretty **** awesome scale, there's an upgrade in D&D attack wing which makes all your red manouvres white, and costs 2 points + the number of red manouvres. Assuming you make that 'all forward red manouvres' (because a white 'stop' would lead to boringness), that works out at 6 points - which is expensive but maybe not unreasonable when you consider how tough the essentially-heavy-fighter-manouvrable ship now is...

Option two is something unique - which, if he's the Emperor's Shuttle's astromech, should logically be designed to pair well with Captain Kagi's ability of forcing every bugger on the board to target lock him. Either helping you discard target locks or preventing the enemy from spending them would be a possiblity.

"When defending, attackers may not spend target locks against this ship."

....That's going to have to be expensive. I suppose in its own way it's no worse than Dark Curse, but Dark Curse is on a TIE Fighter, not a large ship or a TIE Phantom.

Thoughts?

A Lambda-only crew upgrade would be very interesting. The no spending target locks might be a bit OP though on the shuttle that forces you to target lock it rather than any other ship. Effectively that would mean your opponent cannot use target locks at all until the shuttle was dead.

Improving the manoeavres would be interesting. I'm sure the Emperor's shuttle would have been upgraded so it makes sense.

Also interesting would be to give it some synergy with the Emperor Palpatine crew card, but we don't know what that does yet.

What about making him force attacker to reroll all dice when spending a target lock against the shuttle?

Make his ability more... spy/disruption?

2 points.

R2-Q5

Unique, crew, Lamda only.
Action: You may remove a target lock from your ship, if you do gain an evade token.

This means you can trade your own target lock for an evade token. But if you have an enemy target lock on you, you can remove it for an evade as well. And implies that R2-Q5 is scanning your ships attack pattern due to the target locks.

Make a it a Modification:

Tie Defender, Tie Advanced Only

1 Pt

Astromech Upgrade

May use non unique Astromech Droids.

For your droid you could make it Imperial Only its a crew member.

I would pay it for sure.

Or maybe other ships too. Not sure which Empire ships make sense. Making a modification make you take some choices, and it costs more slightly since you are basically paying 1 more point then the rebels for their non unique droids.

I like that target lock removal for evasive actions, though I would make it remove red target locks only.

The Removal R2 isn't so strong that it should be Lambda only either, it could work nicely on any imperial large and huge ship I think?

At the start of the combat phase, choose 1 enemy ship within range 1-2, that ship must discard a blue target lock token and its corresponding red token.

possibly make this optional and then you get a stress for doing so.

I think if this ability was range 1 only, then it's automatic and doesn't give you stress, but if it were up to range 2 then it's optional and it gives you a stress for using it.

What about:

Crew

Large or Epic Ships only. Imperial Only.

Unique

Once per round. When defending, if you have a target lock on the attacking ship, you may spend your target lock to re-roll any number of defence dice.

(Defensive use of target lock - not OP on Shuttle/VT-49 Decimator/Epic ship)

Or:

Crew

Large Ships only. Imperial Only.

Unique

(i.e. it works vs gunner ships and Corran should he fire in the end phase)

Or:

Crew

Large or Epic Ships only. Imperial Only.

Unique

Or like something of a reverse Fire Control System:

After you are attacked you may acquire a target lock on the ship that attacked you. (Maybe only if it hits, or only if it doesn't hit.)

Or after an attack against you is resolved, if the attacker still has a target lock on you he must either discard the target lock or receive 1 stress token.

Let's take it away from the target locks for a bit.

Unique, large or huge ships only

At the end of the end phase, you may recover 3 shield (up to your shield value), if you do assign 2 ion tokens to your ship.

It has a price, but it has a benefit.

Let's take it away from the target locks for a bit.

Unique, large or huge ships only

At the end of the end phase, you may recover 3 shield (up to your shield value), if you do assign 2 ion tokens to your ship.

It has a price, but it has a benefit.

Intriguing...

Lots of risk. Lots of reward. I like it.

Let's take it away from the target locks for a bit.

Unique, large or huge ships only

At the end of the end phase, you may recover 3 shield (up to your shield value), if you do assign 2 ion tokens to your ship.

It has a price, but it has a benefit.

Intriguing...

Lots of risk. Lots of reward. I like it.

It's better on a large ship than on a huge I think, because the loss of energy is potentially more crippling.

I think it might be overpowered the way it is. A shuttle or decimator with this and an engine upgrade is still pretty maneuverable.

Maybe recover 2 shields for the price of 2 ion tokens. It would fit well with the Leebo crew who they said was the first of a group of cards with an alternate cost to abilities

on the other hand, it would definitely push the Lambda back up the scale of usefulness

I don't think the Lambda has issues on the usefulness scale. It's a 3/1/5/5 for the price of a Rookie Pilot. It's dial is what keeps it from being ridiculous.

How about: Unique; Crew; When you spend a target lock you immediately acquire another target lock on the same target. This would make me want to put some torpedoes/missiles on my firesprays.

Target locks against this ship cannot be used on primary weapon attacks. 4 or 5 points?

When you perform an action, you may immediately duplicate this action, choosing different targets if applicable.

I'm now imagining a Decimator barrel rolling all over the place. .

Let's take it away from the target locks for a bit.

Unique, large or huge ships only

At the end of the end phase, you may recover 3 shield (up to your shield value), if you do assign 2 ion tokens to your ship.

It has a price, but it has a benefit.

Intriguing...

Lots of risk. Lots of reward. I like it.

I like the idea. But perhaps this instead.

At the end of the combat phase. Discard this card. You receive 2 ion tokens to recover 3 shields (up to your shield value). You skip your perform action step in the next round.

Or this:

Action: Discard this card. Roll 3 attack dice. Firstly for each {crit}, deal one face up damage card. Then for each {hit} or {focus}, either discard one facedown damage card or choose one faceup card and flip it facedown.

I'd love to see R2-Q2 as an Imperial crew as well.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/R2-Q2_(Imperial)

The Lambda is fine.

Yorr and Jendon could use a range upgrade for their aura effects:

R2-Q5

Crew

Imperial Only.

"You may increase the range of your pilot ability by 1 to a limit of Range 1-3"

2 points

It would also be cool to revert target locks:

R2-Q5

Crew

Imperial Only.

"Action: Select a friendly ship in range 1-2. If this ship has a red target lock token, assign it to the ship with the corresponding blue target lock token, then assign the blue target lock token to the friendly ship."

3 points

Didn't the Emperor's shuttle have a cloaking device?

5 Points, Crew member, Lambda only, your Bar gains the Cloak Action (or when you attack you may receive a cloak token this one might need to be closer to 8 points)

Didn't the Emperor's shuttle have a cloaking device?

5 Points, Crew member, Lambda only, your Bar gains the Cloak Action (or when you attack you may receive a cloak token this one might need to be closer to 8 points)

What should this be good for?

Didn't the Emperor's shuttle have a cloaking device?

5 Points, Crew member, Lambda only, your Bar gains the Cloak Action (or when you attack you may receive a cloak token this one might need to be closer to 8 points)

What should this be good for?

Who said it had to be good? It could just be for fun.

I probably should have added only eligible to be taken on PS4+ Shuttles

The decloak though would increase the chance of a Lamda getting something in Arc during later game stages, and/or the extra 2 agility makes it a little more survivable.

Shuttle's were meant as "support ships" so if they are just cloaked and buzzing around all game taking a pot shot here or there it would make the named shuttles (in my mind) more attractive if they were easier to keep alive.

Also, correct me if I am wrong but being cloaked would not impair any of the named shuttle's abilities

A cloaked large base ship just sounds bonkers.

Maybe large base ships use the 1 straight template to decloak.

A cloaked Decimator has as much agility as... an X-Wing.

How about: when defending, for every red target lock token on your ship, roll an extra defense die. For every blank result, take one ion token.

-OR-

When defending, for every red target lock on your ship, you may take 1 ion token to turn an (eyeball) into an (evade).

Didn't the Emperor's shuttle have a cloaking device?

5 Points, Crew member, Lambda only, your Bar gains the Cloak Action (or when you attack you may receive a cloak token this one might need to be closer to 8 points)

What should this be good for?

Who said it had to be good? It could just be for fun.

I probably should have added only eligible to be taken on PS4+ Shuttles

The decloak though would increase the chance of a Lamda getting something in Arc during later game stages, and/or the extra 2 agility makes it a little more survivable.

Shuttle's were meant as "support ships" so if they are just cloaked and buzzing around all game taking a pot shot here or there it would make the named shuttles (in my mind) more attractive if they were easier to keep alive.

Also, correct me if I am wrong but being cloaked would not impair any of the named shuttle's abilities

Cloak Kagi and all have so much fun.