I was reading through the TAP thread on whether FFG would introduce fighters that would overlap the niches of others and that got me thinking. One major gap in the X-Wing line is a fighter that is immune to stress. This might be for good reason due to being potentially game breaking, but could we make it work?

The best candidate for such a mellow fighter would be the TIE/D automated starfighter. Droids for the most part don't get stressed (minus the odd golden protocol droid).

So what would this ship be like and what would it have to give up to make immunity from stress tokens possible?

According to lore, they have no shields, around the same hull and armament as a basic TIE, but are more resource intensive and worse flyers (the resource issue being mitigated by World Devastators).

The major issue here would be to make these fighters viable, but not totally render the TIE/LN obsolete on the tabletop.

Two obvious concessions would be pilot skill and action bar. Making it more difficult to shoot first compared to a TIE pilot of similar cost would make the player run the risk of getting 1 shotted before they even had a chance to respond. A droid most likely wouldn't be able to focus or evade, so the action bar could contain only Barrel Roll or some other action.

Dial could make up for these shortcomings by having no red or green maneuvers on it. This would give the TIE/D a white K turn.

Some other aspects such as no elite pilot skill could come into play, but the major draw of this ship would be the ability to take whatever movement it wanted without drawing stress tokens and shrugging off cards such as flachette and rebel captive.

Anybody think a ship like this would be workable, or is immunity to stress game breaking?

I have also been thinking about stress and the way it affect the game, what about a pilot skill like this: You may perform red maneuvers when you have stress.

Tycho Celchu would like to have a word with you.

Tycho is living proof that a stress-immune pilot at the right cost doesn't totally break the game

The best candidate for such a mellow fighter would be the TIE/D automated starfighter. Droids for the most part don't get stressed (minus the odd golden protocol droid).

IG-88 still takes stress but is able to pull off manuevers that an organic being normally couldn't handle. I think that's a better way to handle droids. Stress in this game is more about physical limitations on both the pilot and the ship than just the pilot's emotional stress. Droids are still perfectly subject to those limitations; it's just that their limitations are a little more forgiving when it comes to pulling off sharp turns and such.

Tycho Celchu would like to have a word with you.

Tycho is living proof that a stress-immune pilot at the right cost doesn't totally break the game

Well, he's not completely immune, though. He still can't perform red maneuvers while stressed.

This may sound nuts, but I think the TIE/D would work well along side a scum Vulture Droid fighter.

Tycho Celchu would like to have a word with you.

Tycho is living proof that a stress-immune pilot at the right cost doesn't totally break the game

But he is not stress immune. He cannot carry out red maneuvers when stressed.

I tried making it in the card maker and this is what i thought up

PS0 A2 D2 H3 S0. actions: target lock, barrel roll. Upgrade bar: system. Movement dial: same as standard tie except cannot do 1 hard turns. Ability: you may preform actions and red maneuvers even if you have 1 or more stress tokens. 8pts

Title: Hive mind

TIE/D only. When attacking, if both you, and a friendly TIE/D have a target lock on the defender, roll 1 extra attack die.

2 pts

Movement dial: same as standard tie except cannot do 1 hard turns.

So has NO speed 1 maneuvers at all?

2/3/2/0 TL/BR/evade

Z dial with 1 turns and a 5k

Make them "all" unique with alpha numeric designations and they all do something different with stress.

Alternatively:

Large Base

Tie Droid Swarm

3/3/6/0

Immune to crits

Deploy a single Tie/d upon death

A friend of mine made up some rules for TIE Droids where they have no actions on their action bar. And then created this crew card:

So they generally don't get any actions. But you load a Decimator up with like 3 of those guys, and at least 3 of them get to take actions as long as they stick close.

And it's not specific to any one droid ship, so if you have a larger squadron, as they get destroyed, you just give the actions to the ones that are still alive.

Would TIE/D be run like a swarm, or have multiple minis on one stand? (Like fighters in STAW: Thrre fighters get one base and the firepower of the unit decreases as it takes damage.)

Or would it run like normal reinforcements for x wing where it replaces itself when killed?

I'd rather see Canon droid fighters before the droids but thats just me.

Would TIE/D be run like a swarm, or have multiple minis on one stand?

The only way the latter makes sense is if TIE Droids are literally incapable of breaking formation with each other, which is not the case.

I see no reason why they would play any differently than any other starfighter.

how i'd make TIE/D

1: Make them cheap say 4 or 5 points a stand

2: stat wise 1,2,1,0 pilot skill 1 or 2

3: make it so they can't "bump" each other

give a named one an ability to coordinate otter D's maybe one that when it dies goes up like a proton bomb, one that has better stats that can swap it's position with another D, one that boosts other D's around it...

Tie Droid: Title, Tie Fighter only

Lose any pilot skill you may have.

Your turns become green mneuvers.

K-wings can't get stressed (at least not by their dial anyway).

I think we can glean some ideas from IG-88; though a droid, it still has access to the focus action and most importantly, is not immune to stress. Instead, this is shown by the large number of green maneuvers on the dial.

I also don't think that it should be any different stats wise from a normal tie; in fact, it's noted as having heavier armor in a few sources I've read (aside from wookiepedia).

So I would The following:

A 2, D 3, H 4, S 0

Actions: barrel roll, focus, evade.

Dial would be identical to a normal TIE dial, but include green banks and straights, from 2-4.

Now pilot skill is a bit tricky; I feel 2 is about right; its noted as being a poor combatant compared to living pilots, but I can't imagine it being academy pilot bad.

I haven't given much thought to upgrades; I like the droid controller idea; since I'm not limiting the fighters to being unable to use its actions, I would say: at the start of the activation phase, you may choose 1 TIE/D at range 1-3. Until the end of the phase, you may take 2 actions.

Or somehow improve the pilot skill of that ship.

IG-88 is a much more sophisticated droid that the brain in a TIE Droid though. They aren't really comparable.

for game mechanics

introduce low-lowish health ships

introduce upgrade: disregard stress, acquire damage

Would TIE/D be run like a swarm, or have multiple minis on one stand?

The only way the latter makes sense is if TIE Droids are literally incapable of breaking formation with each other, which is not the case.

I see no reason why they would play any differently than any other starfighter.

Because they are different. They're machines that have no differentiation between each other and no regard for their own survival. They can pull off inhuman maneuvers (s-loops?) but unlike ig-88, are meant to be interchangeable and replaceable

And how does any of that mean they should fly as a single swarm on a large base?

Also, there's nothing inhuman about S-Loops. If there was, Starvipers wouldn't be able to make them.

On another post, I had this idea for a swarmer's attack value (1-red only)

"After performing an attack, place 1 swarm token next to the defender."

and

"After you execute a maneuver that causes you to overlap another friendly swarm ship, you may immediately take a free action" (so they can bump into each other)


Swarm Tokens:
For each swarm token, the owner reduces their agility value by 1, to a minimum of zero. At the end of the round, remove all swarm tokens.

So each drone rolls a single die to attack (+1 at range 1), but each subsequent attack reduces the target's agility by 1. A single drone deals practically no damage, but together they can overwhelm even the most maneuverable targets.

Also, there's nothing inhuman about S-Loops. If there was, Starvipers wouldn't be able to make them.

It's more about the thrusters. I don't mean simple jets to spin the craft around, but thrusters powerful enough to add lateral momentum. The aggressor's arms are actually directional thrusters. If I recall from Shadows of the Empire, the starviper was described to fly like a living creature, shifting and folding its wings to be highly maneuverable, to the extent that humans couldn't pilot the craft because it was so difficult.

And before someone claims Guri is a human, she is an assassin droid designed to look like a human who was also Xizor's bodyguard (and she happens to grace the card 'bodyguard')

for game mechanics

introduce low-lowish health ships

introduce upgrade: disregard stress, acquire damage

I was thinking along these lines for an EPT instead of a ship:

Level-Headed (2)

When you receive a stress token, roll one attack die. On a hit result, immediately remove that token.