Forget Aces pack. Let's go an Imperial Most Wanted "big box".

Bomber/Defender repaint. New pilots for Bombers, Defenders, Lambdas, Fighters (might as well give the basic TIE the most pilots).

That's really a tremendous idea. No need to produce new shuttles but give out some new cardboard to potentially drive sales of the existing expansion. Fix the defender.

Also what if the 3 ships were all different? Defender, Bomber and TIE? Or swap the TIE for a Phantom? They could cover a massive amount of ground to bolster a faction in one fell swoop.

Forget Aces pack. Let's go an Imperial Most Wanted "big box".

Bomber/Defender repaint. New pilots for Bombers, Defenders, Lambdas, Fighters (might as well give the basic TIE the most pilots).

+1 for Defender and Phantom

Put me in the Defender/Bomber camp as well. Both ships need a bigger variety of pilots.

I too vote for Phantom/Defender, mostly because I want to see what a PS9 Phantom pilot would look like.

Would the Card Art just be a bucket of tears? Hmm...

Forget Aces pack. Let's go an Imperial Most Wanted "big box".

Bomber/Defender repaint. New pilots for Bombers, Defenders, Lambdas, Fighters (might as well give the basic TIE the most pilots).

The Imperial 'Big Box', (IMHO), should be called 'Heroes of the Empire'. Which leaves the Rebel, 'Big Box', 'Heroes of the Rebellion'. Which will give FFG an opportunity to add a few Pilot cards to all the old ships. Like Bombers and the Lambda, as well as the X-wing and Hawk.

Scum already has their 'Big Box'.

Defender+Phantom gets my vote as well. Just because they're the two super-high tech, tri-winged TIEs. The Defender still needs help, and while the Phantom is fine, it'd still be nice to have more than two unique pilots.

Later, I hope to get a Bomber+Punisher pack. That way, all the upgrades in it can revolve around making ordinance awesome.

No bomber-type ship or shuttle should ever get aces. Aces implies some sort of dogfighting prowess while bombers and shuttles imply the exact opposite.

The B-Wing in Rebel Aces disagrees with you.

Are you implying that the B-Wing is some sort of support ship and not a dedicated dogfighter? Crazy talk. The B-Wing is the epitome of a dogfighter. It goes about it's business radically different than the TIE Interceptor, but it is at home in a dogfight nonetheless.

Defender + Bomber

Defender with high skill pilot and potent combat ability, and point reduction with Missile slot.

Bomber with support Pilot Abilities, and a TIE Shuttle Title that grants a Crew slot.

...and I will be happy for ages.

I think if the Defender is going to get anything, it is going to be a little bit more creative than merely rehashing the Chardaan Refit.

If anyone's curious, here's the running total for the thread (not including my own votes):

TIE Defender - 27

TIE Bomber - 17

TIE Phantom - 8

Lambda-class Shuttle - 7

Firespray-31 - 2

TIE Interceptor - 2

TIE Fighter - 1

Personally, I think the Defender is a shoo-in, and I'd be okay with either the Phantom or the bomber. I also think the shuttle could be an interesting candidate. But my preferred pairing would be Defender/Firespray, because the poor Firespray has been around so long and currently has so little impact on the Imperial metagame. It would be a chance to introduce a new Imperial-only crew or two, a mid-PS pilot with an EPT, and a couple of new named pilots with better and more interesting abilities than the Imperial versions of Kath Scarlet and Boba Fett.

I think the Defender is a shoo-in, and I'd be okay with either the Phantom or the bomber. I also think the shuttle could be an interesting candidate. But my preferred pairing would be Defender/Firespray, because the poor Firespray has been around so long and currently has so little impact on the Imperial metagame. It would be a chance to introduce a new Imperial-only crew or two, a mid-PS pilot with an EPT, and a couple of new named pilots with better and more interesting abilities than the Imperial versions of Kath Scarlet and Boba Fett.

I agree, the defender seems certain. I, personally, would rather a bomber pack came later. I liked someone's idea for a bomber/punisher pack down the road a bit.

Actively don't want an imp firespray aces pack. Now that scum is out I would rather the firespray just get supported there instead of imps where it never really felt right.

Bomber Aces would be amazing.

But I want Defender Aces and an Imperial Assault Shuttle.

Are you implying that the B-Wing is some sort of support ship and not a dedicated dogfighter?

It's a fighter-bomber.

Add me to the Defender/Bomber pack. Defenders are almost like super expensive Y-wings. Tie Bombers, new pilots please. What about a bomber pilot with a similar skill as Dash? One of the pilots that followed the Falcon into the asteroid belt and kept bombing. Can shoot/bomb while on an obstacle?

I would like new pilots for the Imperial Firespray, but on the other hand I would rather just have another big ship, more Imperial in presence, the Firespray found a good home in the Scum Faction.

Are you implying that the B-Wing is some sort of support ship and not a dedicated dogfighter?

It's a fighter-bomber.

Not in this game given it doesn't have a bomb slot. It is a jouster plain and simple.

As Alex mentioned in the latest interview from TC at GenCon, they try to put a ship that needs help and a ship that is usually ok in an Aces set.

So I'd go for the Defender (needs help) and Bomber (has already been helped by the munitions changes/updates).

Bomber just needs some different pilot options for me. Defender needs a title or something and a few pilots.

Not in this game given it doesn't have a bomb slot. It is a jouster plain and simple.

That's stupidly reductive. Does that mean every ship with torpedoes is a "torpedoer"? Or every ship with missiles is a "missiler"?

Fighters designed for anti-capital ship roles are still bombers, regardless of whether they carry what this game categorizes as "bombs".

The Y-Wing and B-Wing are both categorized as fighter-bombers in the lore.

As Alex mentioned in the latest interview from TC at GenCon, they try to put a ship that needs help and a ship that is usually ok in an Aces set.

He didn't say that they try to do that, he said that is what they happened to do in the case of rebel aces. He was making the point that aces boxes don't have to be limited just to ships that need "fixed", not outlining some rule they follow.

I will add to the Defender/Bomber aces pack. I have seen a lot of amazing ideas on here, and I think there are a ton of options out there for these two ships, design-wise. However, I can see the argument for the phantom, too. It is a great ship, but there are so many avenues to go down with the decloak mechanic that it would be a really good ship to see more pilots for. I would love to see a phantom that had the option to decloak backwards!

Not in this game given it doesn't have a bomb slot. It is a jouster plain and simple.

That's stupidly reductive. Does that mean every ship with torpedoes is a "torpedoer"? Or every ship with missiles is a "missiler"?

Fighters designed for anti-capital ship roles are still bombers, regardless of whether they carry what this game categorizes as "bombs".

The Y-Wing and B-Wing are both categorized as fighter-bombers in the lore.

I don't know what part of "in this game" you don't understand. I find it stupid to call something a bomber when it is incapable of carrying bombs. I will use all caps to make it easier. IN THIS GAME B-Wings, generally, do not carry ordnance and are used as dogfighting jousters. How do you use yours smart guy?

I guess I can start calling my TIE Fighters bombers because... reasons.

Honestly, the Bomber doesn't need a ton of "fixes". It's going to benefit from Extra Munitions and all the new munitions and bombs that are coming. What it needs are more pilots. Jonus is okay, but Rhymer is grossly over-costed.

The Defender could also benefit from better pilots, particularly of the non-unique variety. It is supposed to be the elite Imperial fighter; every pilot should have an EPT, even the junky PS1 guys. Honestly, that's what the title should do: cost zero, give the pilot an EPT slot (like A-Wing Test Pilot does) and a cost reduction on the first secondary weapon equipped (missile or cannon). All of that might bring the Defender in line in terms of cost.

I don't know what part of "in this game" you don't understand.

Oh I understood just fine. I just didn't give a **** about your made-up terminology.

I give zero **** what meta-game players use the thing for. It doesn't change the fact that it was designed to be a type of bomber.

I don't know what part of "in this game" you don't understand.

Oh I understood just fine. I just didn't give a **** about your made-up terminology.

I give zero **** what meta-game players use the thing for. It doesn't change the fact that it was designed to be a type of bomber.

Have fun storming the castle.

Have fun storming the castle.

I don't know what to tell you. Your original argument wasn't based on game mechanics. It was based on your opinion of what an Ace was. Since you weren't talking about game mechanics, I didn't argue with you using game mechanics. And when I pointed out you were wrong, you suddenly tried to reframe the argument into a discussion of what a bomber was "in this game".

Have fun storming the castle.

I don't know what to tell you. Your original argument wasn't based on game mechanics. It was based on your opinion of what an Ace was. Since you weren't talking about game mechanics, I didn't argue with you using game mechanics. And when I pointed out you were wrong, you suddenly tried to reframe the argument into a discussion of what a bomber was "in this game".

Speaking of which, here's another stupid thing you said:

But since that bothers you, I'll nitpick some other part of your argument that was stupid instead:

Aces implies some sort of dogfighting prowess while bombers and shuttles imply the exact opposite.

Actually, any starfighter pilot that achieves 5 kills is an Ace . There are countless ace bomber pilots. Maarek Stele is one of the Empire's greatest ace pilots, and he flew TIE Bombers all the time.

Remember your blood pressure meds. They are important.