So we've got a thread for fan-designed ships (primarily those of Diablo Azul, but still!), I thought it might be fun to just get some ideas out there for fan-designed upgrades you'd like to see.

Given my main faction is Imperials, most of my ideas are for the Empire. This isn't to say this a thread hostile to traitorous separatists, though .

Hoersch-Kessel Drive engine

5 points (no slot)

Engine. Modification. Victory-II Star Destroyer only.

Replace the navigation statistics of the Victory-II with that of the Imperial Star Destroyer (speed up to 3, one click of yaw for each point of speed barring the first speed segment of speed 3).

* Admiral Piett

27 points, Commander, Imperial only.

when resolving a Concentrate Fire command while attacking from a friendly ship's front arc, Add one additional attack die to the attack pool. That die must be of a color that is already in the attack pool

* Captain Pallaeon

4 points, Officer, Imperial only.

When this ship begins its activation with no enemy ship within range 1-5 in its front arc, it may gain a Navigation token.

TIE Reserves

6 points, Offensive retrofit, Imperial only.

Activate squadrons: Each TIE squadron with 2 or less hull points remaining activated by the order restores one hull point before proceeding with its activation.

MS-1 Ion Cannons

5 points, Ion Cannon upgrade

While attacking, any of the defender's hull zones that have damage Redirected to them suffer one additional damage.

Homing Missiles

7 points, Ordnance upgrade

The black dice in your battery armament may be used at Medium range. If you choose to do so, critical icons on black dice do not add to damage and cannot be used to trigger critical effects.

I like them all, especially because they seem balanced at first look. Not too strong, not pointless, and some of them get around the major things that happen in a usual game (MS-1 and Homing Missiles especially). TIE Reserves seems very strong, but since the average HP of TIEs is 3 (Adv and bombers have more but you also usually find less of them compared to fighters and interceptors), this upgrade seems useful only against anti-squadron ship-fire. Good work!

This all seem pretty well costed for their effects, all of which seem useful and none of which seem game breaking. Well thought out, nice work!

Thanks for the kind words! I'm interested in seeing what other ideas people have for upgrades, so this thread isn't just for me (sorry if I wasn't clear on that).

Nevetz, I agree that something like TIE reserves would be extremely strong if Rebels could take it, but TIEs have a tendency to get one-shotted, so it's not quite as good as it seems on first glance (which you identified in your post). You are correct that the intention was to lessen the sometimes-crippling impact of anti-squadron firepower on TIEs, but it's not generally going to save your bacon against dedicated fighters, who can usually one-shot TIE Fighters or Interceptors (with a good roll or if they're Wedge) or team up to eliminate them with two attacks (which is already standard practice). It's obviously of more use to TIE Bombers or Advanced, but the Bombers are generally losing ground if they're in a dogfight and the Advanced has some weird anti-synergy with it because the damage is not being spread out, it's being concentrated on the Advanced due to Escort.

I like most of them pretty well.

I do think the engine upgrade is way undercosted, though. You're giving the ship a better Nav Teams and a slightly modified Engine Techs for five points, and not charging it an upgrade slot. I think that card is worth 12 points, at least.

Edit: great ideas overall, though. Creative, useful, and mostly seem pretty well-balanced off the top of my head.

Ardaedhel, I agree that the VSD-II engine upgrades are very good for their points. I personally find that the 12-point bump for going from VSD-I to VSD-II is too pricey for me under most circumstances and so in a roundabout way I consider the engine upgrade subsidized by the "overcost" of the VSD-II upgrade. I expected that would be a contentious perspective, though, and wouldn't be opposed to a few points bump up if it resulted in consensus.

5 points to get the movement of an ISD. . . I am not sure about that. . . 90 points for a Mini ISD 2. . . 78 points for a Mini ISD 1. . .

Piett is sound. Though I would have him add an extra die per ships activation not just off the command. If you do it off the command he should be worth a bit less (28 or 27 points I think)

Pallaeon is a hair too expensive I think. 4 points sounds right. It is a limiting upgrade and often you would have a token at times. It also is a great counter to Tractor Beams to a small degree

TIE Reserves seems extremly abusable with the TIE Bomber and the TIE Advanced.

Homing Missiles are worded wierd. . . I would just make it so that they can not resolve critical effects that turn and bump the cost to 8 points.

Fair enough, I see what you're saying, and I do agree about the VSD-2's price point. But that upgrade on a VSD-1... Yeeeee..

Fair enough, I see what you're saying, and I do agree about the VSD-2's price point. But that upgrade on a VSD-1... Yeeeee..

Oh absolutely, which is why it is restricted to VSD-IIs only (I bolded it because the two most recent commenters missed that, so I just wanted to be sure it was clear). Both fluffwise and playwise I see no reason for a VSD-I to have that option, it would be crazy good.

5 points to get the movement of an ISD. . . I am not sure about that. . . 90 points for a Mini ISD 2. . . 78 points for a Mini ISD 1. . .

Like I said, VSD-II only. I think it would open up room for VSD-IIs to potentially see more play once ISDs come out. The point cost is definitely contentious though.

Piett is sound. Though I would have him add an extra die per ships activation not just off the command. If you do it off the command he should be worth a bit less (28 or 27 points I think)

I'd be amenable to a point drop. I wanted a commander who made Concentrate Fire more appealing, especially on larger ships (as getting up to an 8 or 10 dice clobbering from the front arc on a VSD/ISD is pretty harsh), and he was the obvious candidate for that role ("Intensify forward firepower!").

Pallaeon is a hair too expensive I think. 4 points sounds right. It is a limiting upgrade and often you would have a token at times. It also is a great counter to Tractor Beams to a small degree

I'd also be amenable to a point drop there as well. I originally was deciding on how cheap to make him and was worried about it being too good. Basically he'd assist in getting you into the fight if you're not already in the fight or you could use some cheeky nonsense with Gladiator broadsides and Engine Techs (see? nobody in the front, as I have two of your ships in my broadsides - I'll take that free Navigate token and blast you then run away with Engine Techs, though!).

TIE Reserves seems extremly abusable with the TIE Bomber and the TIE Advanced.

Like I said above, I think with an Advanced it's got some anti-synergy because you'd realistically just be healing one or two Advanceds due to Escort. It would also be to the exclusion of running other squadron-based Offensive Retrofits like Boosted Comms or Expanded Hangar Bays (and I find Boosted Comms to be default more applicable in more circumstances). The bombers I think would get silly with Intel+Rhymer, but otherwise dogfighting is a death sentence for most TIE Bombers.

I would be amenable to limiting it to only TIE Fighters, however, at perhaps a 1 or 2 point discount. Fluffwise, TIE Fighters are the spammable squadron of the Empire so it makes the most sense to have extras. What are your thoughts on that? Maybe include Interceptors as well, given they're not currently getting a lot of love?

Homing Missiles are worded wierd. . . I would just make it so that they can not resolve critical effects that turn and bump the cost to 8 points.

I think if you disallowed crits entirely it would be a hard sell, as it would also negate crits on other color dice and not just the black dice. I agree the wording is a bit odd, but I wanted to make the mid-ranged black dice a little less potent as a trade-off.

Alternatively, change the wording to "black critical icons do not add damage to attacks and cannot be used to trigger critical effects for this attack." Would that work out better? Means Screed can at least flip the blank black dice to something with a hit.

Ion Engines for Vic-II are cool, but the Vic-II is too expensive to begin with. Make it only a few point and it might make the Vic-II a real alternative.

Missiles are also a great idea.

Intriguing, I certainly will come back to this thread, hopefully with my own ideas. I like yours (without evaluating them right now, that seems to have been done well by the community already)!

Fair enough, I see what you're saying, and I do agree about the VSD-2's price point. But that upgrade on a VSD-1... Yeeeee..

Oh absolutely, which is why it is restricted to VSD-IIs only (I bolded it because the two most recent commenters missed that, so I just wanted to be sure it was clear). Both fluffwise and playwise I see no reason for a VSD-I to have that option, it would be crazy good.

5 points to get the movement of an ISD. . . I am not sure about that. . . 90 points for a Mini ISD 2. . . 78 points for a Mini ISD 1. . .

Like I said, VSD-II only. I think it would open up room for VSD-IIs to potentially see more play once ISDs come out. The point cost is definitely contentious though.

Whoops, you're correct, definitely missed that.

Move along! Move along!

What if TIE Reserves was something like:

"When you reveal a Squadron Command, each TIE squadron that at the end of the turn is in range 1 from you, recoverse 1 hull point."

Seems more logical and lore friendly since TIE clouds are usually employed as a defense for Star Destroyers, and also big ships benefit more from it, like normally a big ship would supply a better/faster employment of fighters.

What if TIE Reserves was something like:

"When you reveal a Squadron Command, each TIE squadron that at the end of the turn is in range 1 from you, recoverse 1 hull point."

Seems more logical and lore friendly since TIE clouds are usually employed as a defense for Star Destroyers, and also big ships benefit more from it, like normally a big ship would supply a better/faster employment of fighters.

My problem with reworking it that way is it encourages you to use the Squadron command but then you're sending away the TIEs you wanted to help (quite likely) and they're not benefiting from the healing. Plus the healing at the end of the turn makes it take a while for the effect to trigger (could be several activations plus the squadrons phase) and you would need a way to keep track of it so you didn't forget. I'd rather have it resolve in a single activation to just keep it neat and tidy.

I'm currently thinking I'll change it up a little so that it either:

1. Works only on TIE Fighters/Interceptors
2. Works only on TIEs with 2 or less hull remaining

I'm currently leaning towards option #2. It future-proofs it (TIE Defenders?) and makes it clearly more useful with TIE Fighters and Interceptors (as it works on them as soon as they're damaged at all) and less useful for constantly band-aid fixing up your TIE Advanced and TIE Bombers.

Emperor Palpatine -Cost (40)

When an enemy ship activates outside Short-Medium Range of one of your ships add a victory token to that ship. If a ship gains a fourth token, that ship is destroyed.

This adds a deathstar feel to the game where rebels must engage to block the deathstar from targeting and destroying their ships. This forces close combat at a high cost of 40 for the imperials.

Emperor Palpatine -Cost (40)

When an enemy ship activates outside Short-Medium Range of one of your ships add a victory token to that ship. If a ship gains a fourth token, that ship is destroyed.

This adds a deathstar feel to the game where rebels must engage to block the deathstar from targeting and destroying their ships. This forces close combat at a high cost of 40 for the imperials.

Ooooh... I like it. Though of course susceptible to the obvious cheese of taking one Raider and running away the entire game.

You are shooting black dice at medium range. Not being able to resolve critical effects is a perfectly reasonable capability when it turns Gladiators into Stronger Raiders and make Raider 1's into CR90 B's.

You are shooting black dice at medium range. Not being able to resolve critical effects is a perfectly reasonable capability when it turns Gladiators into Stronger Raiders and make Raider 1's into CR90 B's.

I understand where you're coming from, but it makes no sense for your other weapons systems to be unable to proc crits. If you're firing turbolasers and missiles at something (like a VSD-I could), your XX-9 Turbolasers suddenly turning off due to sympathy with your missiles is very odd. Plus allowing the black crit symbols to still "hurt", even if they can't proc crits makes black dice superior at just dealing damage compared to blue dice at medium range.

You are shooting black dice at medium range. Not being able to resolve critical effects is a perfectly reasonable capability when it turns Gladiators into Stronger Raiders and make Raider 1's into CR90 B's.

I understand where you're coming from, but it makes no sense for your other weapons systems to be unable to proc crits. If you're firing turbolasers and missiles at something (like a VSD-I could), your XX-9 Turbolasers suddenly turning off due to sympathy with your missiles is very odd. Plus allowing the black crit symbols to still "hurt", even if they can't proc crits makes black dice superior at just dealing damage compared to blue dice at medium range.

Giving up those crits from other weapon systems shows that they increased their Missiles at the expense of their other weapons. Which is why it is so cheap to equip such a potent upgrade. Otherwise they would be 10 points.

Okay, made some changes to the initial post to alter things a bit based on discussion below.

Hoersch-Kessel Drive engine Victory-II only phrase bolded and underlined

Admiral Piett Reduced cost to 27 points. Clarified text to read "when resolving a Concentrate Fire command while attacking from a friendly ship's front arc, Add one additional attack die to the attack pool. That die must be of a color that is already in the attack pool." Makes it clear it triggers on either tokens or dials.

Captain Pallaeon reduced to 4 points.

TIE Reserves reduced to 5 points (-1 point). Changed text to read "Each TIE squadron with 2 or less hull points remaining..." It means you can still use it with Bombers and Advanced, but it will always work on wounded TIE Fighters and TIE Interceptors but only sometimes work on heartier TIEs. Fluff-wise this makes sense as well, as shielded squadrons' first few HP are shields and not actually dead fighters.

MS-1 Ion Cannons left alone. No complaints or concerns from anyone about them. I wanted Ion Cannons to get an upgrade that helped them strip shields better than the rather underwhelming Ion Cannon Batteries.

Homing Missiles text changed to "The black dice in your battery armament may be used at Medium range. If you choose to do so, critical icons on black dice do not add to damage and cannot be used to trigger critical effects."

I love Piett, but the price seems too high, as others have mentioned, UNLESS, like Motti, it adds additional dice based on base size. 1 for Small, 2 for Medium & 3 for large!... May require a slight increase in cost, as that is 4 extra dice out of the front arc of an ISD. Maybe +1 for Small, and +2 for Medium-Large.

Written before the above change.

I love Piett, but the price seems too high, as others have mentioned, UNLESS, like Motti, it adds additional dice based on base size. 1 for Small, 2 for Medium & 3 for large!... May require a slight increase in cost, as that is 4 extra dice out of the front arc of an ISD. Maybe +1 for Small, and +2 for Medium-Large.

Written before the above change.

See I considered making Piett add more dice for larger sized ships, but the end results got really monstrous. Like... +3 dice for an ISD means the monster is rolling 11 dice (or 12, if the +3 is in addition to the +1 from the base Concentrate Fire). That's... wow. I'm open to hearing alternate ideas, however. I'd like to make Concentrate Fire more appealing for larger ships (ISDs, VSDs) but once you get to a certain number of extra free dice it feels so very strong that I'd have a hard time choosing a different commander.

Emperor Palpatine -Cost (40)

When an enemy ship activates outside Short-Medium Range of one of your ships add a victory token to that ship. If a ship gains a fourth token, that ship is destroyed.

This adds a deathstar feel to the game where rebels must engage to block the deathstar from targeting and destroying their ships. This forces close combat at a high cost of 40 for the imperials.

Ooooh... I like it. Though of course susceptible to the obvious cheese of taking one Raider and running away the entire game.

That would be my concern as well. If you made the effect apply to both your own ships AND the enemy ships, then I think it would be better (but make the Emperor cheaper, obviously) as you'd have less incentive to run your ships away from the enemy.

Wait, lets look at the origin of the effect. Piett's ever so famous order to concentrate forward firepower, only occurred when all forward shields were down. So you make it the disgusting, yet situational:

Admiral Piett- A Concentrate Fire Dial adds +1 die to small, +2 to medium, +3 for large to an unshielded forward arc of all friendly ships, when the defender is a ship.

32 points

He wasn't able to shoot down that A-wing after all.

But it was meant to hit fighters.

And unshielded is a bit harsh. He must be much cheaper then.