So I was thinking about the Tech Upgrade, and while Weapons Guidance is pretty underwhelming, Comm Relay is pretty dang sweet. But the question is- what is the future of the upgrade slot?

Are we under the impression that it will forever be exclusive to ships from the new movie time table? And that it will be included on ALL of these ships?

I understand that it is a nice little distinction between old and new, but I would be perfectly okay with it making an appearance on ships in future waves from earlier time tables as well.

And while we are at it, as a bit of a side discussion- Is anyone else a little worried about the possibility of getting 3 nearly identical Tie Fighter models (Tie Fighter, Tie/Fo, Special Force Tie), as well as 3 nearly identical X-wings (T-65, T-70, and T-85)? I feel like that is kind of... Dull. I'd appreciate anyone willing to help me see why/how this could be a good thing for the game of X-wing (and yes, it is called X-wing. Doesn't mean that's reason to have 3 version of the X-wing in the game )

Thoughts?

The upside is that there's an increased number of easily recognized ships on the table top. It's not as fun when an interested person wanders by and all there are on the table are ships from some video games with limited exposure.

I wish it were possible to give the defender and Ewing the tech upgrade, so that it was themed more as "super advanced tech for the advanced fighters" and less as "modification by another name to distinguish ships in the new movies"

I wish it were possible to give the defender and Ewing the tech upgrade

I'd be willing to bet that we'll get a one time use turret (like Poe uses in the movie), as well as a movement modification upgrade (like inertial dampeners).

We don't even know what the T-85 looks like or whether it will appear in the movies.

It is good to have an upgrade only usable by TFA ships so they can release upgrade cards targeted more towards them.

We'll probably start seeing faction specific stuff in Rebel Veterans to keep titles for Rebel Alliance X-wings off of Resistance X-wings.

Maybe the Tech upgrade is where the rear guns on the TIE/sf and Poe's early-sequence X-wing come in...

There's already an illicit upgrade card for that out of arc blaster!

I was hoping the TIE/sf would get its own expansion with the cannon and missile launcher and red stripe paint job.

There's already an illicit upgrade card for that out of arc blaster!

That sucks so hard it's not used even in fun play?

I rather like Weapons Guidance, though I don't think the T-70 is the right ship for it. I think it pairs _very_ well with the TIE/FO, but Com Relay obviously pairs even better. Imagine what weapons Guidance would do on the Z-95, for instance.

So far, the 2 Tech slots we have seen both make tokens even more efficient. So maybe something that lets you use another ship's target lock? Or something that lets you take a specific action (say: boost) outside of the movement phase.

Maybe one to gain extra defense dice against secondary weapons.

Weapons Guidance pairs well with Predator.

If I had to guess Tech is another way to distinguish factions, sub-factions, and older designs. Just like scum got different astromechs and illicit to prevent some of their tricks spreading around. Tech will likely remain TFA and beyond only.

We don't even know what the T-85 looks like or whether it will appear in the movies.

I understand this, but I would presume it looks very similar to existing X-wing models. Why else call it an X-wing? If it never appears in the game, I am happy with that. I've just heard talk about it, and figure it's probably next in line considering we don't have much else to go on.

I'm kind of surprised that there wasn't a new tech upgrade or two included in the blister packs of the T-70 and TIE/FO. It would have been a good place to put them there.

You know what would be fun to see? An upgrade like Shield Cover: if a friendly ship would suffer damage and the line of the closest point for range passes through your ship, you may remove a shield from your ship to cancel one of those damages.

Not useful normally. But it creates so good blocking for trench runs.

I'm kind of surprised that there wasn't a new tech upgrade or two included in the blister packs of the T-70 and TIE/FO. It would have been a good place to put them there.

I feel the same way. Where are our tech upgrades?

We don't even know what the T-85 looks like or whether it will appear in the movies.

I understand this, but I would presume it looks very similar to existing X-wing models. Why else call it an X-wing? If it never appears in the game, I am happy with that. I've just heard talk about it, and figure it's probably next in line considering we don't have much else to go on.

The Clone Y-Wing and the Clone Z-95 Headhunter look very different from the Galactic Civil War versions of those ships. Maybe the T-85 X-Wing will look very different from the traditional X-Wing.

Or alternatively, maybe the T-85 just won't appear prominently enough to get its own expansion. Lots of Star Wars ships exist that never got a X-Wing counterpart.

I'm kind of surprised that there wasn't a new tech upgrade or two included in the blister packs of the T-70 and TIE/FO. It would have been a good place to put them there.

There was one: Comm Relay.