Hmm... in that case...

Plasma Torpedo 4 points

4 dice 2-3 range

Turn all crit results into hits

Each hit from this attack will remove 2 shields from the target

...changes it's role to an opening salvo to strip a Decimator or Bwing of it's shields, but strictly worse than a normal torpedo against shieldless craft. A lucky hit can drop shield-upgrade Corran, however...

Taking 4 tie bombers with extra Munitions sounds awesome. Going to be pretty expensive getting the card four times though, you think they'll ever consider selling card packs?

I have already made some horrible bomber lists, and I am super psyched to run them. Can't wait for wave 7 just for the bombs and extra munitions.

Ten Numb with Proton Torpedoes, and PTL (or if you wanna get REAL crazy, Experimental Interface and Marksmanship, but that's just dumb) makes for a fine smasher, and can do undiluted nastiness to the current Chiraneau/Fel spam. Sink a crit straight through Fel's defenses, doing something hopefully nasty to him and stripping the Stealth Device in the same go. Extra Munitions just makes him able to do it twice...Hell, I might try it without the EM sometime soon... Mangler Cannons do this just as well for the same cost. The only benefit to the Torpedo is a larger alpha.

Plasma Torpedoes, in the Legacy fluff (which FFG pulls from), are specific anti-shield tech. From Wookiedpedia:

The T-33 plasma torpedo was a projectile weapon designed to disable deflector shield systems and carried by the K-wing bomber. Sometimes known as "shieldbusters," "rotten eggs," or simply "eggs," the T-33 detonated at the shield perimeter and overloaded ray shields with a powerful cone of radiation. The radiation burst was described as "several times the output of a capital ship's ion cannon batteries," but this description has not been explicitly quantified.

I'm seeing two possible versions:

Plasma Torpedo, 4 pts

Attack 3, Range 2-3

Attack (target lock): Spend your target lock and discard this card to perform this attack.

When dealing damage from this attack, ignore the first shield token on the defender.

Not likely, if they're going by fluff. This one's more of a shield penetrator than a shield overloader. Let's try again:

Plasma Torpedo, 4 pts.

Attack 4, Range 2-3

Attack (target lock): Spend your target lock and discard this card to perform this attack.

If the attack hits, remove one shield token per [hit] or [crit]. Then cancel all dice results.

That's better...

Plasma Torpedo, 4 pts.

Attack 4, Range 2-3

Attack (target lock): Spend your target lock and discard this card to perform this attack.

If the attack hits, remove one shield token per [hit] or [crit]. Then cancel all dice results.

That's better...

Isnt that weaker than the existing proton torpedo?

Isn't it possible the plasma torp will kill shields for one round with little or no damage?

Isn't it possible the plasma torp will kill shields for one round with little or no damage?

Or Yes.

Or maybe.

It's possible they could do anything, but we won't know for a while. I doubt any weapon will be allowed to 'kill the shields' for any lea try of time, because it would run counter to the shields being present until 'spent' to absorb damage. Plasma torps causing damage cards t be dealt directly, like proton bombs and seismic charges sounds about right tho.

"After dealing damage, for each [hit] or [crit] dealt that turn, you may remove one shield token from the defender."

Double damage to Shields, a normal attack to everything else.

A great opening strike against big stuff, but I think a bit too wordy. Hm.

I think if you want Luke to shoot down a TIE fighter or firespray with a proton torpedo then you are misunderstanding how that ordnance functions within the Star Wars lore. People are expecting all ordnance slots to be viable in 100-pt dogfights. They really shouldn't be...

Don;t agree at all. While we don't see it as much in the movies, the lore is full of pilots firing torpedoes at other fighters. Especially the X-Wing novels.

I think if you want Luke to shoot down a TIE fighter or firespray with a proton torpedo then you are misunderstanding how that ordnance functions within the Star Wars lore. People are expecting all ordnance slots to be viable in 100-pt dogfights. They really shouldn't be...

Don;t agree at all. While we don't see it as much in the movies, the lore is full of pilots firing torpedoes at other fighters. Especially the X-Wing novels.

Very true. Wedge specifically advocated using proton torpedoes as an instant kill at the beginning of a battle in order to reduce the number of tie fighters they would be facing. Thus drastically reducing x wing casualties. There is a reason he is the rebellions best pilot.

Having said that this is from the EU not the movies...

Having said that this game draws heavily from the EU...

Personally, in terms of game balance I think torpedoes working better against large and huge ships is the way to go.

Wedge also makes it clear that they were just about the only squadron doing it. Those books were written in and around and with obvious influence from the games. You can hit a lot of jousting fighters with a 4 km dry-fired proton torpedo, but getting a lock and expecting it to hit often enough to be worth the time spent acquiring a lock? Plz..

I think the current game reflects this reality quite well for torpedoes.

Wedge also makes it clear that they were just about the only squadron doing it. Those books were written in and around and with obvious influence from the games. You can hit a lot of jousting fighters with a 4 km dry-fired proton torpedo, but getting a lock and expecting it to hit often enough to be worth the time spent acquiring a lock? Plz..

I think the current game reflects this reality quite well for torpedoes.

Which is why I think it would make an interesting rider on a Rogue Squadron Title, for the Xwing to have basically a free "1 dead academy pilot" card (proton torpedo). Something like, "Torps cost 3 points less, and when you choose the target lock action, you may choose to place your target lock at the end of the activation phase."

Wedge also makes it clear that they were just about the only squadron doing it. Those books were written in and around and with obvious influence from the games. You can hit a lot of jousting fighters with a 4 km dry-fired proton torpedo, but getting a lock and expecting it to hit often enough to be worth the time spent acquiring a lock? Plz..

I think the current game reflects this reality quite well for torpedoes.

The only squadron using proton torpedoes? Certainly not true. That tactic, maybe. Also those games provide much of the fluff for X-Wings and space dogfighting in general - even if torpedoes as a weapon against fighters only existed in those games, it would still be a good argument for their use in general.

The talk of shield over loading gave me an idea that I like:

Plasma torpedo

Attack : 3

Cost : 5

[Target lock] spend your target lock and discard this card to perform this attack.

If this attack hits, reduce damage to less than our equal to the targets current number of shields. Then for each point of shield damage, deal one face down damage card.

The idea is that as the shields over load it causes damage, but the torpedo itself doesn't do actual hull damage. So ships with low agi and high health are very vulnerable. Tie fighters are unaffected, and the bwing is terrified of this as it can be OHK while the xwing knows it will survive no matter how well the attacker rolls. The single biggest complaint about the meta is the dominance of 2 ship builds, but the dominant ships are the most vulnerable to this attack. At the same time, it isn't very useful against much else.

If Plasma Torps are anything like the mag pulse warheads of TIE Fighter then the ship in question would be ionized and cannot fire weapons, which would probably be something like:

Attack 3 dice (TL) spend TL and discard this card to attack

If this attack hits add one ion token and one 'no attacks' token to target ship, then cancel all dice results. (No attack token is the same one the SLAM causes the K-wing to take, it would be taken away when the ion token would be)

If Plasma Torps are anything like the mag pulse warheads of TIE Fighter then the ship in question would be ionized and cannot fire weapons, which would probably be something like:

Attack 3 dice (TL) spend TL and discard this card to attack

If this attack hits add one ion token and one 'no attacks' token to target ship, then cancel all dice results. (No attack token is the same one the SLAM causes the K-wing to take, it would be taken away when the ion token would be)

Except if that was the case, the Kwing would come with a "no attacks" token.

If Plasma Torps are anything like the mag pulse warheads of TIE Fighter then the ship in question would be ionized and cannot fire weapons, which would probably be something like:

Attack 3 dice (TL) spend TL and discard this card to attack

If this attack hits add one ion token and one 'no attacks' token to target ship, then cancel all dice results. (No attack token is the same one the SLAM causes the K-wing to take, it would be taken away when the ion token would be)

Except if that was the case, the Kwing would come with a "no attacks" token.

The K-wing does come with a no attacks token. The article on the FFG site describes the SLAM action and its associated "Weapons Disabled" token. In the picture of the ship and cards, you can see the new token along side the new extra munitions tokens.

Maybe they are just fixing the bomber for Epic games and it won't see much in the way of dog-fighting?

If Plasma Torps are anything like the mag pulse warheads of TIE Fighter then the ship in question would be ionized and cannot fire weapons, which would probably be something like:

Attack 3 dice (TL) spend TL and discard this card to attack

If this attack hits add one ion token and one 'no attacks' token to target ship, then cancel all dice results. (No attack token is the same one the SLAM causes the K-wing to take, it would be taken away when the ion token would be)

Except if that was the case, the Kwing would come with a "no attacks" token.

The K-wing does come with a no attacks token. The article on the FFG site describes the SLAM action and its associated "Weapons Disabled" token. In the picture of the ship and cards, you can see the new token along side the new extra munitions tokens.

...but if it was an effect of the Plasma Torpedo, the Tie Punisher would also have that token.

If Plasma Torps are anything like the mag pulse warheads of TIE Fighter then the ship in question would be ionized and cannot fire weapons, which would probably be something like:

Attack 3 dice (TL) spend TL and discard this card to attack

If this attack hits add one ion token and one 'no attacks' token to target ship, then cancel all dice results. (No attack token is the same one the SLAM causes the K-wing to take, it would be taken away when the ion token would be)

Except if that was the case, the Kwing would come with a "no attacks" token.

I mean they do have a handy dandy 'weapon disabled' token and rules set for it, if this is what that weapon does.

Maybe they are just fixing the bomber for Epic games and it won't see much in the way of dog-fighting?

The PS2 TIE bomber definitely has a place post EM in the 25pt range. The trick is budgeting yourself with your ordnance. Ion Pulse and Flechette gives decent firepower and good control, even over Larges, swap IPM for Assault Missiles and you have crowd control, and you've got that x2 bomb slot too.

Ptl on rhymer with APTs and extra munitions?

That's seems /somewhat/ decent. 37 points though, sheesh, not much better than before.

I was just about to post this is it makes APTs more reasonable but I can see Rhymer, Keyan, and Nera probably being the only ones to use them.

Depending on the New Plasma torpedoes Horton Salm will love these so he can either save 2 points on a double proton load, or save a point or two on a double plasma load

Maybe Rhymer as a replacement for Soontir in a Soontir + 5 TIE? If you ran Academies you'd be at 97 points, so maybe you could throw on an Ion Pulse? Ion Pulse a Turretwing ship and then next combat phase you APT it?

Gives you some options. Only problem is that Bombers are rather easy to burn down with double tap/RAC predator gunner shenanigans in a turn, so you'd have to be careful with it. You might want to ditch the Ion Pulses and up one of the Academies to a Black Squadron with Draw Their Fire.

Plasma Torpedo, 4 pts.

Attack 4, Range 2-3

Attack (target lock): Spend your target lock and discard this card to perform this attack.

If the attack hits, remove one shield token per [hit] or [crit]. Then cancel all dice results.

That's better...

Isnt that weaker than the existing proton torpedo?

No. It is better, in terms of pure damage, than the proton torpedo, but it cannot cause damage to hull. The only way that a proton torpedo can do just as much damage as this version to a ship with 4 or more shields is if the defender gets no evades.

I realize where the confusion may have come from. To clarify: the idea is similar to an ion cannon attack, in that if there are any uncanceled hits, the defender suffers the damage and ion token specified on the card instead of what it shows in the dice pool. This is why the attack dice are canceled. Similarly, for the plasma torpedoes, if the defender is hit by the attack, they remove one shield token per [hit] and [crit] shown in the die pool, since the defender's dice don't matter. The attacker's dice don't matter after this step either, so they are also canceled. If they weren't canceled, they'd remove a shield token and do normal damage per [hit]/[crit]. Make sense now?

For example:

A proton torpedo scores three hits on an E-wing with no upgrades. The defender cancels two of them, and suffers one damage.

A plasma torpedo scores three hits on an E-wing with no upgrades. The defender cancels two of them, which isn't enough to not be hit, and so removes three shield tokens.

A plasma torpedo scores three hits on an X-wing with no upgrades. The defender cancels one of them, which isn't enough to not be hit, and so removes two shield tokens; the last "damage" is lost, as there are no more shields to remove.

This makes the plasma torpedo very effective at taking out shields quickly, but its use is situational, as the fewer shields the defender has, the less use you get out of the torpedo. Remember, the aim isn't to make something better than the proton torpedo, but to make something different .

If you're that worried about the plasma torpedo doing less work by itself, we can make it +1 pts (to the base cost of 3 or 4) and add the following line: "If this attack results in all of the defender's shields being lost, deal one damage card to the defender." (wording to be fixed). I don't think it needs it though. The torpedo specializes in stripping high-shield, high defense ships of everything they've got: E-wings, Defenders, Phantoms, Firesprays, and three-evades-per-turn Chewbacca, for example.

Oh please, Ordnance fix is really easy. Nerf Target Lock... And no more whining that "i loose so many attacks without it booohooohooo"