In the recent Team Covenant interview, a FFG rep explained the line of thinking behind ace packs like Rebel Aces, where they can buff underperforming ships like the Awing, but increase the options of ships that are viable like the B wing without aking it more powerful. (Adding Keyan Farlander and the Crew slot mod)

With that in mind, I'm trying my hand at buffing the Defender and making generic Ewings viable without making Corran OP.

Included cards:

Sequenced Guns (Cannon) 2 point (picture of an Assault Gunboat, shooting)

Add a cannon slot to your upgrade bar.

If your Cannon secondary weapon hits, you may choose to cancel all but 1 die. If you do, make a Primary Weapon attack at the same target. You cannot perform another attack this round.

Tie x7 Defender (Title- Defender only) (free)

Add a cannon slot to your upgrade bar. -Each- cannon and missile upgrade you purchace costs 1 less. (minimum 0)

Tractor Beam

Ion Cannon

Ruthlessness

(couple of missile options)

Generic PS5 with EPT

Interesting Defender pilot abilities

Ewing Series 4 (modification- Ewing only) 2 points

When you are dealt a faceup Damage card with the Ship trait, discard it immediately without resolving its effect.

(generic)R8 Astromech (droid slot), 3 points

If you dont have a shield at the end of the turn, recover 1 shield

(Unique R8 astromechs that can spend shields for powerful effects)

Plasma torpedos

Generic PS5 with EPT

Interesting non-corran pilots.

Thoughts?

Good ideas but my first thought is that they wont do cross faction Aces packs

Fair enough, but I'm mostly approaching this as a hypothetical. If someone at FFG introduced these cards to playesting, what do you think the playtesters would do to them?

Those E-wing helps wouldn't quite do it imo. They help Corran maybe. But he doesn't need the help. Generics are already spending lots of points. Any upgrade that makes them spend more isn't really helping them.

Defender title for free. Replace you missle slot with a second cannon slot. Once per turn, after hitting with a cannon secondary weapon, you may cancel all damage and attack with another cannon secondary weapon.

Defender title for free. Replace you missle slot with a second cannon slot. After hitting with a cannon secondary weapon, you may cancel all damage and attack with another cannon secondary weapon.

Infinite ion tokens?

Defender title for free. Replace you missle slot with a second cannon slot. After hitting with a cannon secondary weapon, you may cancel all damage and attack with another cannon secondary weapon.

Infinite ion tokens?

that wouldn't be especially useful since ions all go away the turn after a ships ioned. Infinite stress though? Ya. Probably a LITTLE broken.

Those E-wing helps wouldn't quite do it imo. They help Corran maybe. But he doesn't need the help. Generics are already spending lots of points. Any upgrade that makes them spend more isn't really helping them.

Immunity to 2/3 of the crits in the game is pretty significant when each one ignored is basically a hull upgrade. Corran might like it, but he'd have to give up his engine upgrade for it.

I feel it's more likely we'd see a Y-Wing and X-Wing Rebel Aces 2 pack.

That being said this is a solid attempt. Perhaps the series 4 modification is not what we're looking for with the E-Wing.

I for one would never bring that mod over engine upgrade.

First, for the Defender:

Integrated Cannons

Title. TIE Defender Only. 0 points.

After you perform a Primary Weapon attack that hits, after dealing damage, you may apply any non-damage effects from your equipped Cannon upgrades.

Targeting Interlink

Modification. 4 points.

After you perform a Primary Weapon attack, you may immediately perform a Secondary Weapon attack against the same target.

TIE/Ad x7

Title. TIE Defender Only. 3 points.

Lose access to your Missile and Cannon slots. Your action bar gains the Boost icon. When attacking, you may assign yourself a Stress token to increase your Primary Weapon value by 1.

Wrath Squadron Pilot

PS6 Elite Talent generic.

New PS7 Ace with ET.

When you reveal your dial, you may change the bearing of the revealed maneuver by one step. [Like Juno Eclipse, but side to side instead of up and down. It would radically expand the Defender's dial, giving it green banks and white turns, and access to a White 1 Forward.]

New PS9 Ace with ET.

When you perform an attack with a Secondary Weapon, increase the number of dice that you roll by 1.

As for the E-Wing:

R3 Astromech

Astromech. 2 points.

When defending, you may remove one Stress token from your ship to treat all Focus results as Evade results.

Training Astromech

Astromech. 0 points.

When you perform a Focus action, you may assign yourself an Evade token. This upgrade may not be taken if your Pilot Skill is 4 or higher.

E-Wing Series I

Title. E-Wing Only. 0 points.

Reduce your Primary Attack value by 1. You may equip an additional System upgrade. The Squad Point cost of any System upgrades that you equip are reduced by 2 points each, to a minimum of 0. [Accuracy Corrector carrier with room for something extra, like Advanced Sensors or something. Include a couple Accuracy Correctors in the box.]

E-Wing Series IV

Title. E-Wing Only. 2 points.

You may treat all 1 Bank and 2 Turn maneuvers as Green maneuvers.

New PS6 generic with Elite Talent.

New PS6 Ace with ET.

When you perform an Evade action, you may assign yourself a second Evade token.

New PS7 Ace with ET.

When you are declared as the target of an attack, before any dice are rolled, you may immediately perform a free Boost or Barrel Roll action. [This makes the ship especially slippery. You get a chance to open up range, or attempt to arc dodge, but since it's limited by the ability to do any single action only once per round, it rewards the enemy player for smart flying with the ability in mind. Plus, it may force him to forego his own shot at a higher PS enemy, or to hold off on the ability and hope that he survives to fire back.]

Naturally, anything here is essentially a first draft (though the Integrated Cannons title has gone through several iterations on these forums, as far as I know it hasn't been tested in any way).

I actually really like the sequenced guns title as a freebie for the Defender. It would encourage ion cannons- thematic!- and would increase their damage potential.

I know everyone thinks Corran is just fine, but I'm concerned that he only ever seems to be in lists with Dash. I'd like to see him with options that let him be listed with other ships.

An ideal world puts Corran on a championship list with a pair of Rookies.

The E-Wing and the X-Wing both share the problem of not being quite tanky enough for the cost. Your proposed modification helps that, but making it cost 2 points, be limited to what damage it is ignoring, and taking the mod slot seems a bit too much.

An ideal E-Wing fix is 2 points cheaper than its "fair" cost- as the E-Wing is 2 points over costed.

So the super easy "fix" is a 2 point title that adds the boost icon to the action bar. This would also allow autothrusters. Extra mobility and tankiness fairly easily. And if Corran runs R2, he isn't running R2D2.

One thing I will say: lets not create new droids as a fix for any ship- there are several good droids, and we don't want to preclude any of them.

Defender title for free. Replace you missle slot with a second cannon slot. After hitting with a cannon secondary weapon, you may cancel all damage and attack with another cannon secondary weapon.

Infinite ion tokens?

that wouldn't be especially useful since ions all go away the turn after a ships ioned. Infinite stress though? Ya. Probably a LITTLE broken.

Forgot the once per turn =S.

Let's see:

Riffing off your idea:

Sequenced Guns

TIE Defender only)

(Zero points)

(Title)

When attacking with a secondary weapon if the attack hits, you may choose to deal your opponent 1 damage and cancel all dice results and . If you do, you may make a Primary Weapon attack at the same target. You cannot perform another attack this round.

This wording lets you use tractor beams and assign both damage and a tractor token. Also if you use an ion cannon, you don't lose _anything_ for making the second attack. And the wording I've chosen lets you use the ability with missiles as well. Brath could use the tracer missile, pass a bunch of TLs around (and do damage!), and then fire a primary weapon.

Or heck! If your Procket does a terrible job? Try try again.

Let's see:

Riffing off your idea:

Sequenced Guns

TIE Defender only)

(Zero points)

(Title)

When attacking with a secondary weapon if the attack hits, you may choose to deal your opponent 1 damage and cancel all dice results and . If you do, you may make a Primary Weapon attack at the same target. You cannot perform another attack this round.

This wording lets you use tractor beams and assign both damage and a tractor token. Also if you use an ion cannon, you don't lose _anything_ for making the second attack. And the wording I've chosen lets you use the ability with missiles as well. Brath could use the tracer missile, pass a bunch of TLs around (and do damage!), and then fire a primary weapon.

Or heck! If your Procket does a terrible job? Try try again.

In comparison, my wording is intended to keep HLC and Mangler expensive but not unreasonable options. Hlc has the highest accuracy but can only hit- mangler always crits- ion and flechette do damage and control- and tractor beam is pure control.

Re: Sequenced Guns

I'm not sure I want to see a Corran on the table who can Ion me for the turn he's not going to be shooting (admittedly he can only do it for his second attack in the round, but given that every attack he makes is probably going to be at least Target Locked, it's a concern).

Full disclosure: Corran might be my least favourite ship in the game. That ******* doesn't need a buff.

My TIE Defender fix has always been:

Linked Ion Cannons

TIE Defender Only

Modification

You must add an Ion Cannon Upgrade card at zero cost. After performing a primary weapons attack, perform a new attack against the same target with your Ion Cannon.

Cost: 0

I feel it's more likely we'd see a Y-Wing and X-Wing Rebel Aces 2 pack.

That being said this is a solid attempt. Perhaps the series 4 modification is not what we're looking for with the E-Wing.

I for one would never bring that mod over engine upgrade.

Y-wing? That's the most versatile ship in the game right now. I don't think it needs more over other ships.

I feel it's more likely we'd see a Y-Wing and X-Wing Rebel Aces 2 pack.

That being said this is a solid attempt. Perhaps the series 4 modification is not what we're looking for with the E-Wing.

I for one would never bring that mod over engine upgrade.

No we would get a Scum Aces pack first, as we already have an Imperial Aces pack and a Rebel Aces pack. Now that being said there could be more special packs that are not waves as waves always bring in new ships but epic and aces pack can bring out already released ships with an alternate paint scheme and new pilots for a model that has already been released.

Re: Sequenced GunsI'm not sure I want to see a Corran on the table who can Ion me for the turn he's not going to be shooting (admittedly he can only do it for his second attack in the round, but given that every attack he makes is probably going to be at least Target Locked, it's a concern).Full disclosure: Corran might be my least favourite ship in the game. That ******* doesn't need a buff.

The defender has the only problem of being overpriced already so any title shouldn't add a cent to the squad point cost.

I like the idea of a Juno Eclipse-like ability but why add something like that when we have Twin Ion Engine Mk2 now?

IMHO the only title that the defender needs is one that gives him the boost and sensors option, without adding any cost.

Price is well high already.

Defender title for free. Replace you missle slot with a second cannon slot. After hitting with a cannon secondary weapon, you may cancel all damage and attack with another cannon secondary weaplon.

Tell me what I'm missing. You run through all the steps for the first attack, then cancel all the damage just so you can use a different weapon? It's not achieving anything. The defender doesn't need to use any focus tokens as you are going to cancel the damage anyway.

Why not just shoot and do damage as normal?

Man, we've talked these to death. I understand why... we want to fly these ships more often and they just don't feel competitive outside of a few lists.

Honestly, every time I look at the Chardaan Refit card I wonder why they didn't make it limited small ship only. I can't name a single small based ship (with a missile slot) that ISN'T overpriced. This would have helped the Defender.

I think the E-wing and the X-wing could both be fixed by the same type of card... new 0 cost astromechs. Additionally, I think the E-wing suffers from the same problem the TA does. So, a similar fix should do the trick. I'm thinking a torpedo slot card that gives a discount to system cards.

Both ships could use PS5 generics with EPTs. Would be fluffier than the current PS1s (why are you giving your most advanced, most expensive ships to rookies?).

Well, in the past 4 months I've been playing only Tie Defender (uncle Rexler <3 ) and three Tie Fighters, with pretty decent results.

Problem is that when you look at the other ships that sit in the same price range of the defender you see :

Boost! Sensors!! Droids!! Awesome abilities that kick your ass! ... Then you go back to your action bar... And see target lock and barrel roll. And you go -.-'

Then once you master how to fly Rexler...they crawl away in fear.

Defender title for free. Replace you missle slot with a second cannon slot. After hitting with a cannon secondary weapon, you may cancel all damage and attack with another cannon secondary weaplon.

Tell me what I'm missing. You run through all the steps for the first attack, then cancel all the damage just so you can use a different weapon? It's not achieving anything. The defender doesn't need to use any focus tokens as you are going to cancel the damage anyway.

Why not just shoot and do damage as normal?