Hey guys. So I recently got the Strange Eons card creator, and I figured I'd try my hand at making some X-Wing stuff. Specifically, I thought I would try and make the Upsilon-Class Shuttle (Kylo Ren's shuttle) from the new film. I figure it's almost certain that this will come to X-Wing officially at some point, so it would also be interesting to see how my version compares to FFG's (and if I actually manage to predict anything correctly ).

Please bear in mind that I don't have a huge amount of experience with making cards. That being said, I'm a fan of and pretty knowledgeable about the game itself, so hopefully my sense of balance is okay when it comes to costing new stuff appropriately. I'll leave it to you to decide.

I decided to approach this from the viewpoint of creating a complete expansion pack. I used the Lambda-Class Shuttle as a starting pint, both for the ship itself, and an idea of what number and sort of cards would come in said pack. Like any actual expansion, it includes some goodies specific to the ship, as well as some more general cards that should go well with the ship they come with, but can be used elsewhere.

I'll break down each aspect as I go, noting my thought process where necessary. Like I said, I do not expect this to be perfect by any means; it is very much a WIP. I welcome any advice, suggestions, or critiques of what I've done, be it points costs, thematic fails, or OP abilities etc. Also, there is precious little fan art for TFA yet, so some of the pictures are either kind of placeholder or simply missing.

Anyway, here we go:

The Ship

So here is the base for the ship. You'll probably notice its quite reminiscent of the Lambda, but with a few 'upgrades':

I figured that Boost was something the original Lambda loved, and helps a lot with manoeuvring large, clunky ships. It also follows the T-70 X-Wing trend of using Boost to represent an upgrade in mobility from earlier models. It's also slightly tougher overall (again, like the T-70), and has more of its health in its shields to represent advanced systems.

Next, here's the spiffy new dial:

I wanted a dial that remained true to the original Lambda, representing a somewhat ungainly beast, but that also emphasised this new ship's superior capabilities. The Upsilon still finds it hard to turn, but can do a long k-turn in an emergency if it needs to about face. It can also move faster a bit more comfortably, with white 3 banks and a 4-red for 'speedy' getaways.

The Pilots

First, the generic pilot, again drawing inspiration from the Lambda (and from the TIE/fo sqadron of a similar name):

As you can see, it's traded out the Cannon upgrade slot for the new Tech upgrade slot, which seems like it may be on all the new ships (although as you will see later, it actually can still take a Cannon upgrade with the right cards). The 6-point increase over the base Lambda it to take into account the improved dial, shields, and the Boost action. I feel like it's a fair price to pay, but if you disagree, I'm open to suggestions. The other pilots are based on the assumption that this is a fair cost.

Now, the named pilots:

This guy is good at doing what the ship was built for; namely, shuttling people. As befitting his role as just another generic trooper guy, he takes a back seat (pun intended) to his passengers.

I know we do not see her pilot it in the films, but she seems like a hands-on sort of Captain, who may fly a ship from time to time, especially if someone important like Kylo Ren is on board. I feel like it makes more sense than putting her in a small fighter-like craft, since she is primarily a ground soldier and thus more likely to be on a ship that also transports troops. Her ability emphasises the fact that as a Captain, she likes to fly in formation with soldiers under her command, and is most effective when doing so. Sort of like a reverse Scum-Boba ability.

I thought the idea of having an ace-level pilot on a large, cumbersome ship was interesting. It could actually be a potential drawback, making you prone to being blocked. But, the idea is that this guy/gal gained their codename from fearlessly leading the charge through enemy AA fire to establish a beachhead for troop deployment, and that is reflected in their ability. It's a mass Swarm Tactics that allows for a devastating alpha strike at the cost of having to fly your list in tight formation. I figured that this has the potential to be a very brutal ability (especially when paired with Veteran Instincts), hence the premium you pay for it in points cost.

First Order/Upsilon Specific Upgrades

The title for Kylo-Ren's own shuttle (I don't know if it's given a name anywhere; Pursuer is my idea). It's sort of an inverse of Fearless's ability, and meant to represent the intimidating presence and debilitating stealth technology the shuttle brings to the battlefield.

I couldn't find a suitable image for this one sadly, but it's meant to be the jamming technology inside those huge wings the shuttle has. I think Jam is a very interesting and powerful action, and could find a home outside of Epic play if used sparingly. Plus, it just seemed way too fitting an idea not to include.

Strip out the crew area to put big guns in. I felt like it would be strange for the Upsilon to have no Cannon option when the Lambda did, so this is the compromise. You can kit it out for transport or combat.

There are lots of fan-made Kylo Ren cards, but this is my take on him. Hopefully the wording is clear/correct. He can drastically improve the effectiveness of your attack, but at the cost of piling on the stress. I wanted a card that bore similarities to Vader without being identical.

Not much to say here. He combos a bit with Kylo and the red-filled dials of the Upsilon/Lambda. Could maybe cost 1 point.

General Upgrades

So, here are the cards that can be used elsewhere. I fee like these are the hardest to balance by far, since you have to think of every existing ship that could take them:

This was a tricky one. The idea is that it's a very heavy but inaccurate laser cannon that overwhelms the opponent with sheer firepower. Maybe broken, maybe rubbish; I'm having a hard time deciding which.

You scan them by target locking them. Meant to be more thematic than super useful, but may have some applications.

She can use her stolen codes/system access to temporarily weaken their shields, allowing you to go in for the kill-shot during that small window of opportunity.

The fact that there isn't a card like this already makes me wonder if it's broken with something. In any case, it seems like a good fit for larger ships that often have trouble evading damage.

Sort of like a super, one-use Stay on Target. Again, this seems like a card that I'm surprised they haven't printed yet.

Another card which I think has the potential to be very powerful, but could also be a total flop. It rewards you for careful flying and for always facing your enemy.

So, there you have it. Like I said before, I'd love feedback, comments, suggestions, you name it. Is this a pack you would buy? Are any of the cards meta-defining? OP? Worthless? Let me know what you think

EDIT: I have made various tweaks to the cards here in the OP. For a list of what was changed, see my post a bit further down the page.

You've made an ungainly shuttle and made it as fast and maneuverable as an A-Wing.

At a cost of a stress, sure. But still. I thoroughly dislike any speed 3 maneuvers on large based ships, that's personal, but a straight 5 is not a good thing.

Then a boost built in, so yay for autothrusters I suppose.

Heavy battery, 5 dice for 6 points, focus and TL's can easily be worked around with stuff like Predator, Emperor and other things. Maybe if it said Your dice cannot be modified. Maybe.

Skilled Co-Pilot, on a ship with Ysanne and Rec Spec? Yummie, you won't hit me any time soon.

Even without, put that thing on Whisper and see your opponents crumble in terror.

Heavy battery + marksmanship.

That would be overkill on most small ships i think!

I do like Feint by the way, but it is a little cheap, maybe an ion token in exchange? Especially since Tomax will use it exclusively. You need a tax.

No Retreat looks a bit like an Expose fix. I like the idea but it is very fiddly (lots of measuring, which in turn also gives extra information to other ships, time consuming) and there's not a whole lot you can do, at those ranges. You are very much dependant on what the opponent does. Instead of rewarding you for jousting you are rewarding the opponent for arc dodging. Maybe Boba Fett's mechanic, only arc instead of range dependant? Reroll one die for each enemy other than the defender in your arc?

The Informant I like, though I would return the shield tokens regardless of damage dealt. Make it limited though, you wouldn't want a YT 1300 PtL'ing someones shields completely away.

Advanced Scanners rewards the lower PS ships using it, by providing information to the ace for repositioning.

This is way to cheap, and unbelievable maneuverable not been talking about the built in boost that dial is great I would trade my tie advanced dial for it any day. Just because it has reds does not make it bad it has a ton of white and green. The original shuttle is 41% red, yours is 29% ontop of that the reds were moved to things like k turn and 5 straight. Those are good reds in that you wouldn't have them white anyways so you add options the only "real" reds on that dial are the hard 2's unbelievably good dial.

I can't get over how good the movement dial is for a ship you claim is ungainly beast.

3 of your omega group pilots would be near unstoppable, highly maneuverable loaded with hit points and full of tricks.

I am being highly critical but I feel that's why you posted to get feedback.

I just now looked at the pilots. .

Are you sure you want to have the PS9 flying with 5 AP's, all at PS9? Or 3 AP's and Howlrunner and a bunch of upgrades?

That's just brutal.

Phasma at PS7? She's a Stormtrooper captain, not a pilot.

Don't be afraid to balance stuff out. There should be a cost to improvements.

First off, those are some really nice cards -- good-looking and well-written. Props for that. I do, however, have a few little problems.

First is the price of the ship. Obviously, this is just me eyeballing it, but 27 seems just a point too high. I'd at least try it out at 26 and see what you think. Secondly, I'm really not a fan of the PS 9, mainly because PS 9 is too high for anyone at this point. FFG has made it clear that they're sticking with two PS 9 pilots per faction -- I mean, c'mon, if Poe isn't getting PS 9, then how is some petty officer from the First Order?

As for the upgrades, I feel like the ship should come with a native cannon slot -- Ren's shuttle had two heavy laser cannons on it, and still had plenty of room for crew. The Assault Laser Battery might be too expensive at 6 points (a focus or TL will increase your expected damage about as much as adding a die), but then again, it also allows for some dangerous interactions with Predator, Howlrunner, and the like. I'd knock it down to either four or five points and rephrase it to say "you cannot spend focus tokens or reroll attack dice."

Advanced Scanners seems cool but I really don't understand why you want to look at the facedown damage cards, since I'm pretty sure every crit fishing ability in the game tells you to randomly pick a facedown card and flip it (but I could be wrong).Informant should affect small and large ships equally; big ships don't need any more nerfing, and this gives swarms quite the advantage against them as it is. No Retreat is too situational for three points, but would be solid at two. I think Feint is dead-on; it's what SoT should have been.

Overall, these look really good. Some of the best custom cards I've seen.

I like the idea and the effort you've put into this endeavor. That said there's lots of busted stuff in here brother.

The dial is far too good especially considering the new electronic baffle but even without it. I feel the cost needs to go up on each ship considerably, lose the 5 speeds altogether, and possibly lose the sensor slot as well or revert closer to what the lambdas dial is. Oh and lose the inherent boost although in its place you could keep the 4 straight for reasons you mentioned.

The upgrade cards I won't go into but suffice to say that even at first glance there are some extremely powerful interactions that may/may not be intended but do exist. Players would bust this thing wide open given any time to brew with it.

Now all that said if your gaming for fun with other home brewed ships of similar nature then it sounds like fun man.

Edit- I think If I were to pursue this I'd test it without the sensor slot and the 5 speeds.. then this thing starts to feel more appropriate. Bring back the cannon slot instead (reminiscent of the yv 666) Otherwise you'd need to increase cost and then its a worse decimator.

I love feint and skilled co-pilot. The co-pilot may need to be more points though

Ok heres a short list of issues with the cards. And obviously this is just one guys opinion, its your baby and its your prerogative. Anyway heres some I noticed immediately:

Assault Laser Battery- Scum love it with say gunner yv666 or bobas rerolls or IGB aggressors. Add glitterstims. Actually anything with predator/wired/gunner/jonus etc.

Advanced scanners- Greater range and strictly superior to intel agent for the same cost, then consider you can trigger this thing multiple times a turn and certain upgrades allow it to be infinite range. Idk if that actually busts it or not but I think theres potential to make it a little too good.

Informant- Now this card is busted. Add this to vader crew for example. Certain ships could also combine both with gunner. Now you have 4 guaranteed damage before dice are actually rolled. RAC for example. Anything that says auto remove is bad.

Skilled co-pilot- No restriction on number of activations. I think this is at the root of some of these cards being so good. A 'once per turn' type of effect would make this ok.

Feint- should really add a stress, possibly another limitation idk. Its better than inertial dampeners even with the stress and ID is **** good.

Anyway just some friendly input. Cards look sick and I like the idea overall.

I'll take that Co-pilot on my Palob. slow roll in with the crow and laugh at the lesser people I crush.

Thanks for all the great feedback guys. Don't worry about being too critical. Like I said, this is a WIP, so ideas/fixes/highlighting of broken combos is all great. It helps me refine the design and make it more 'authentic', if you will. I don't know whether I'm actually going to try and use these cards in actual play, but it's a fun project either way, and I want them to feel balanced and faithful to X-Wing as it currently stands.

I've made a bunch of changes, which I'll edit into the OP, but I'll list them here with reasoning, as well as responses to various points:

Assault Laser Battery - Yeah, I can see immediately how this could be a problem. I don't think individual die modification, like Predator or Palpatine would be too much of an issue, but things like Marksmanship, Glitterstim etc. would be. I've changed it to blanket disallow any dice modification, and reduced it to 5 points. I think it now compares favourably to HLC; it's cheaper, rolls more dice, but lack of any modification will make it unreliable.

Informant - Instead of a set removal, now has a 50% chance (from rolling hits on an attack die) for each shield token to remove it. Also increased the price by 1 point and made it Limited. This makes it less consistent, but allows for the occasional clutch moment.

No Retreat - Reduced the cost by 1. I don't think measuring will be too much of an issue, as it's usually pretty obvious when it will trigger. If you ship is on the outside of the action facing in, it will. If it's embroiled in the middle, it won't. There will only be the odd time when the actions broken up that you'll have to actually measure.

Skilled Co-Pilot - Definitely changing this to once per round; great idea. It can still give ships that little defensive boost, but can no longer be abused on certain builds.

Omega Group Pilot - Reduced cost by 1.

FN-3559 - Reduced cost by 2 and also changed his ability to apply a 2 point discount to the total of all crew upgrades you have equipped (so the discount is the same whether you have 1 or 2).

Captain Phasma - Reduced cost by 3, pilot skill by 1, and he ability now includes friendly ships at Range 1 -2 (instead of just 1).

Petty Officer "Fearless" - Reduced cost by 4 and pilot skill by 1. I think it's correct that PS 9 should be reserved for the best of the best. PS 8retains that ace feel without going into ridiculous territory. I realise that may seem a little odd that he's as good as Poe, but bear in mind the limitations of a large ship, and the fact that PS can actually be a disadvantage in this case.

Dial - Yes, I agree that the original dial was too good for a shuttle like ship, especially with native Boost. I wanted to keep Boost though, so instead I have dramatically scaled the dial back to be only a slight improvement over the Lambda's. The only differences now are: white 3 banks instead of red, a red 4 straight, and a 5 k-turn. I always liked the fact that TIE Bombers had a 5 k-turn but were otherwise slow, as it felt like a clunky ship having to take a long loop to turn around. I want something similar here.

Let me know what you think of these changes. Better? Worse?

There's some good idea's here but in some cases I think you've taken it a bit to far.

The only reason the Lambda's stat-line is reasonable is because it has no white turns. You've upped the stats a bit and increased the cost accordingly, but then went bonkers on the dial. A K-turn on a beast like this? 5 straight (even red) has never been seen before on a large ship, especially with boost and for good reason. The only large ship with native boost is limited to 3 speed maneuvers and is bloody fast as is (aggressor).

EPT's, I think, are also a mistake, due to expert handling and daredevil. A shuttle bouncing around in space would really break the feel you'd want to give a ship like this. Then again, denying a ship all EPT's is always harsh.

Your PS 4 guy does nothing. I get to pay 3 points to get a 2 point discount and become a worse blocker than I was, no thanks. (Maybe make him a really good blocker? During the activation phase you may treat your PS as 0?).

Phasma is fine, maybe a bit high on the PS, a Storm Trooper, even a Captain, on the same level as pilots as Farlander, Steele and Dash? That's a bit hard to sell.

Fearless is broken, Super Swarm Tactics at PS9 with a max of 5 academies is just the end of the game for any low agi list. If this guy was lower PS without the ability to take VI it might be OK. PS9+EPT pilots are very rare in this game and should be reserved for the best of the legendary pilots (and Dengar, apparently).

I like Pursuer a lot, but again, it's way to powerfull. Either R1 only or limit it to 1 enemy ship. Maybe increase the effect and you may want to consider a downside (stress, ion) for yourself when you do.

The Jam action is death for any action dependent ship (all High agi ships). The only source of this action is the only ship in the game that cannot attack. Maybe that should be the downside, (Action; Perform a [Jam] action, then assign a weapons disabled token to your ship.) Still feels very strong, maybe discard after use?

Kylo Ren can't be used on non TFA ships, because the First Order is a sub-faction to the over-arcing Imperial faction. Not sure if this was intentional, but it is rather limiting.

I like that he gets angry, increases damage but stresses his ship while doing so (poor console). However, no one is going to double stress himself just to bump a hit to a crit if you don't whether it's going to hit or not. I'd change him to something like; (after you preform an attack you may receive a stress token to randomly choose one of the defenders face down damage cards and flip it face up).

Is inevitable, like Vader, applies critical effects, like Vader, has a downside, like Vader, but is less potent with a less drastic downside.

FN is fine, a bit weak/situational maybe. I'd change him to start of the Planning phase and have him remove Ion as well and/or drop him to 1pt.

Assault laser battery; 5 dice is extremely potent and never seen before on a non-one shot weapon. Put expose (you are not TLing/Focussing anyway), predator, howlrunner or marksmanship combined with gunner on this baby and you'll have insane firepower on this weapon. I'd make it; Attack (target lock); Spend your target lock to preform this attack, you cannot modify any dice during this attack. You cannot preform another attack this round). To shut everything down and make sure you have 5 naked dice and have to predict you opponents moves.

Adv. scanners are very cool, I love Int agent and this is very much like it. A bit more limited because they work well on low ps ships, but those have trouble keeping the ship they locked onto in arc and a bit less limited because they go op to R3 and you have the chance to decrease the distance before using it.

Informant is fine I think. A ability that costs an action should be quite powerful, but she's pretty situational and will only be used once or twice per game.

Skilled co-pilot should be limited to one token per turn to prevent evade token stacking on large ships.

Feint is also a great card. It's not suited for the super aces due to its one use nature, but great for the struggling mid ps pilots while fighting low ps pilots.

No Retreat is a sort of inverted lone wolf, you need every enemy ship in you firing arc, or out of range. Probably only useful during the opening exchange and during the end game. I'm not sure about this one, R1-2 would lift some of it's limitations but you'd have to play test the card to find a balance.

TLDR; Improved Dial+boost is to much. Pilots stink, but there are some great ideas in the upgrade cards.

The changes sound appropriate.

The dial I believe should still be toned down more otherwise you end up with a large ship that can maneuver like a defender every turn with electronic baffle.. if that's what you want fine but otherwise maybe find a way to avoid that symptom? The other issue is just how fast a 5 + native boost is on a large base. IMO large bases should cap at a 4 straight, or 3 if your going to include boost.

So here's a thought, lose the sensor slot and the 4 and 5 straights but keep the 5 K turn. seems about right to me and still unprecedented.

I think if you made this close to a Kwing dial you'd be doing fine. I don't think K-turning is entirely within reason for a ship like that.

More interesting points. I'll continue to examine the dial, see if there are some tweaks that can be made.

Very nice work! Wow, don't know how you make the cards look that nice!

As others have noted, The K-turn is perhaps too much. Especially comined with native boost and the sensors slot. Advs-boost into a 5K lets it cover wast disances and be something of and arc dodger (brobot-style). I think one of the two has got to go. Rather it was the K. Not sure if the turns need to be red if you loose the K.

The EPT on petty officer might be a bit problematic with that pilot abiliy. VI/adaptability feels like a no brainer. One could then add in 2 sigmas with ACD, FCS and intel agents to make a pretty scary 100 pts list. Another option is ofcourse a bunch of tie fighters. 3 basic tie bombers with ordnance of some sort would also be pretty ruthless next to that thing. All that said, it's really expensive, so it might in fact be decently blanced. Same ability on a lower ps pilot could be pretty interesting, as a middleman from someone lie vader with swarm tactics.

Lots of great ideas. I really like Kylo, Informant and Skiled Co-pilot!

An ability that, imo, could go well on a higher PS-pilot for this ship is omething like this. "Instead of attacking this turn, you may choose another friendly ship at rage 1-3 with lower pilot skill than you. That ship may attack twice during its attack phase." Would be a very strong ability, so it should be costed accordingly and perhaps not go on something higher than say PS 7. No ept. This would also make a solid, although expensive, carrier for palpatine.

FN-3558 pilot ability is just rather confusing. Sounds like you were trying to make an even larger palpmobile. Might have been better as a title instead.