Many people believe the Ewing needs a "Fix", despite appearing in the final round of Worlds this year. I am one of those people. Bu it is not enough to say, "Here's some cool things, that'll fix it, right?" Any fix FFG puts out must make the Ewing competitive as a ship, without making the worlds-list Corran OP.

With the revelation of the x7 Defender fix, we have a solid basis for comparison. For a cost reduction to just 1 more point than a same-PS Ewing, the X7 loses several upgrade slots and gains benifits to reflect the original videogame ship's raw speed and durability.

Like the Ewing, it brings 3 attackdice under 3 agility, but has an extra health, and the x7 title gives it a free evade token if it uses any of 6 different maneuvers, including the Tie Defender's signature White Kturn. According to Majorjuggler's jousting values, the x7 Defender has a 104% efficency, higher than baseline jousting ships like the Z95 and the Imperial Tie Fighter, the highest value in the game.

The Ewing, on the other hand, relies on combinations of upgrades being worth more than they are worth individually- System, Astromech, Modification, Torpedo, Pilot skill. Unfortunately, this has led to the One True Build, usually just called "corran", as if the pilot was soley responcible for the combo.

Before it receved it's fix, the Tie Defender also had it's True Build- HLC. Keep in mind that neither of the new titles for the defender, the Tie/X7 or the Tie/D support the HLC. "Corran" needs to be sidestepped by the Ewing fix.

So what is "Corran?"

"Corran" is the shorthand for a chain of combos made possible by a Ps8 pilot of an Ewing with an EPT slot who can double tap. Keep in mind that everything except the last will be equally valid for, say, Luke in an Ewing- Still PS8, still have an EPT, still in an Ewing. So what is the combos?

R2D2 on an Agility 3 ship is at his most effective- each point of shield is protected by the most defence dice printed on any card in the game. (I'm discounting effects like Cloak or Stealth Device that raise agility above the printed value with restrictions) This maximises R2D2's utiity.

R2D2 and Push the Limit have drawbacks that lign up perfectly- PTL's stress is cleared by R2D2's green maneuver. By adding an Engine Upgrade and a high end Pilot skill, you can leverage PTL to cancel out the maneuvering disadvantage given by the green manever limitation. An arcdodger with shield regen behind 3 agility- Soontier Fell wishes he could match that kind of survivability.

Then tack on Fire control System with Corran's double tap ability- by sacrificing next round's shooting, corran can attack twice this round, making the most of depleted token stacks, range bonuses, and anything else. Then his next round he goes full turtle, arc dodging and evading as he restores his shields and his weapons recover from the double tap. No wonder he was in a Worlds Final list.

How do we cripple this supercombo? Rather, how do we break down this combo into digestable chunks as we buff the ship that makes it possible?

I feel R2D2 is the key. Without shield regen, Corran is no tougher than Engine Upgrade Vader- weaker, even, because of Corran's reliance on green maneuvers and Vader's higher pilot skill. Admidedly, that is still a high bar- EU Vader was also a Top 4 Worlds contender- if the buff is too strong, taking away Corran's EU by using the modification slot for the fix is an additional level for balance.

So how do we take R2D2 away from the Ewing? Legends Tell of a thematic solution- Limiting the Ewing to R7 astromechs. The R7 and the Ewing were literally designed with each other in mind, and the first few generations of Ewing could not accept any other droid. By Equipping a droid named R7 (R7 Astromech, R7-T1, or any new R7 series droid), the ship and droid together unlock their full cababilities of (insert buff here). (It probaby also needs a discount for R7 series droids, to keep the ship at the 27-28 point level comparison with the x7)

The Ewing's strength is supposed to be it's synergy, however, and we've just killed the EPT droid, Stressdroid, even BB8 with the same stroke that removed R2D2. What can we offer EPT-less Ewings to make them worth (almost) as much as an x7 Defender?

"giving a second astromech slot" is one possible soution, not literally welding a second astromech to the ship, but expanding the droids capabilities withthe effects of a second card., say something like:

Expanded R7 Protocals: Ewing only-

At the start of the match, If you have a (droid slot)

named R7 Equipped, you may select a non-unique

astromech (so R2, R5, R7, or Targetting) and

add it to this ship.

Not an entire fix, but something definately interesting. Simply combining R7T1 with R7 generic gives an interesting synergy, but R7 Generic with Targetting astro? Some Action: R7, Expirimental interface, and R2? In theory the ability to swap "secndary programming" between matches is powerful, but the selection available is limited and difficult to exploit. This might not be the best solution, but I'm leaving it out here.

In addition the the R7 restriction, Early Ewings also had probems with their guns- the wingtip lasers were too close to their engines, where evasive maneuvers could overheat them. An ability to sacrifice attack power for additional survivability is perfectly plausable, allowing even generic ships to "tank" fire for the rest of the squad, only to return to the fight he next round. however, it needs to be set up that high PS pilots actually suffer from using it after their shot for the round- the exact phrasing needs work.

In FFG's Age of Rebelion RPG, the R7 has several abilities that it loses when equipped in any fighter other than an Ewing. Allowing for the differences between an RPG and a minis game...Galaxy Mapper makes it easier for the pilot the droid is helping to avoid dangerous terrain, Hold Together lets the Ewing take hull damage as strain. The simplest and most literal conversion of those abilities to Xwing Minis, I think, would be something like this:

Counterpart Integration

Ewing only, -2 points

If you have an astromech named R7 equipped,

you may ignore one critical result you receive

from an attack or obstacle each round.

Debris fields hold no fear, asteroids are less threatening.

Moreover, it improves the ability of the R7 generic slightly, turning a reroll-with-focus from a 1/4 chance per die to a 3/8 chance. And it makes getting through the Ewings 3 greens more difficult, as you have to do so without rolling any crits.

The evential Ewing fix may not be any of these, but I think I've putshown what the Ewing needs.. and what it needs to avoid, if we wish to avoid another OP "Corran" or "Super-E-Luke." Feel free to add your own thoughts on the matter.

Make Corran cheaper? Uhh...

Yea you have to use the astro slot to avoid buffing Corran. If you don't use it you need to stipulate that they lose it.

It's tricky that's for sure corran needs no help but the generics don't even see much casual play.

I've never had a half plausible idea how to achieve it though.

I think the thing that E-Wings have going for them that the Defender didn't is the non-weapon system upgrade slots. Those have the potential to add a lot of flexibility and capability to the E-Wing that just wasn't present on the Defender. If the goal is to "fix" all of the E-Wings without making Corran more powerful, fixed upgrade packages for the E-Wing at discounted costs seems like a reasonable way to go. Pair a droid with a system slot upgrade and give the E-Wing a price break if they take the combo and you've just made the E-Wing much more desirable. Even a "If you have an R7 Astormech equipped reduce the cost of a Systems upgrade by the cost of the equipped Astromech (to a minimum of 0)" would work. Release a couple of extra R7 series Astromechs to provide some increased flexibility.

There's a nice little nugget of insight in the OP.

The E-Wing was designed alongside the R7 Astromech series so the two systems could complement each other.

Certain E-Wings are very powerful with Astromechs that aren't from the R7 series

so make some more R7 Astros that synergise really nicely with the characteristics of the E-Wing - even to the point that it might make Corran think twice about R2

Smart idea

As I said, its not the PILOT Corran whos a problem, its putting him in an arcdodging regenerator. Luke with Sensor jammer and the same build would be at Least as painful.

Corran Horn is playable, very competitive and does not need a fix.

Etahn A'Baht is fringe playable and can be grouped with a lot of other named pilots who are overshadowed by better options.

If you want generic E-Wings to see competitive play, then whatever fix the ship needs should only be applied to pilots with PS 4 or less.

As I said, its not the PILOT Corran whos a problem, its putting him in an arcdodging regenerator. Luke with Sensor jammer and the same build would be at Least as painful.

I for one absolutely got that point

Corran Horn is playable, very competitive and does not need a fix.

Etahn A'Baht is fringe playable and can be grouped with a lot of other named pilots who are overshadowed by better options.

If you want generic E-Wings to see competitive play, then whatever fix the ship needs should only be applied to pilots with PS 4 or less.

The question is what builds can we make viable for low PS, EPT less pilots.

How much does a generic E-wing need to be for someone to take it over the T-70 (whose generics might also be over costed)?

The E-wing is in such a hard spot, even worse with the T-70 around, should it cost more than the T-70? I don't really think it should, they are very similar (do you like more green dice and the evade or an extra hull and boost). But we probably can't drop it too many points, 4 E-wings was purposefully avoided by setting it's cost so high.

Corran Horn is playable, very competitive and does not need a fix.

Etahn A'Baht is fringe playable and can be grouped with a lot of other named pilots who are overshadowed by better options.

If you want generic E-Wings to see competitive play, then whatever fix the ship needs should only be applied to pilots with PS 4 or less.

I think its more that High Pilot Skill Arcdodging Regenerator is a viable build.

The question is what builds can we make viable for low PS, EPT less pilots.

Only ship in the game with Sensor and Astromech slots. Let's see if there's any synergies.

​When last I did this, I found R7 + FCS.

We have had very few Astromechs and Sensors added since then: the Force Awakens set, the Accuracy Corrector, and the Baffle.

I'm not seeing any particular synergies leap out at me.

The E-Wing suffers a bit from being 1 point more expensive than a T-70 with Autothrusters, leading to unfortunate implications for fans of the craft.

Corran Horn is playable, very competitive and does not need a fix.

Etahn A'Baht is fringe playable and can be grouped with a lot of other named pilots who are overshadowed by better options.

If you want generic E-Wings to see competitive play, then whatever fix the ship needs should only be applied to pilots with PS 4 or less.

Major Juggler's math suggested Etahn is slightly overpriced, so we don't need to worry about him. That leaves just Corran. Now, the main power of the Corran build is in the high value of R2-D2 on a 3 agility ship combined with the synergy between his ability and Fire Control System. So, a fix doesn't need to be PS 4 or less, it just needs to target something that Corran needs. A mechanic focused around R7 Astromechs or something that prohibited attacking more than once a turn would do the job without restricting the upgrade from any new Unique pilots in such an expansion.

I think OP is on to something here. Using the astro slot and offering bonuses of taking R7 droids (and FFG could bring out some more variants) could help buff the generics and Etan, without over buffing Corran. People could still run the traditional Corran; but there might be incentive to see other E-Wings on the board.

Counterpart Integration

Ewing only, -2 points

If you have an astromech named R7 equipped,

you may ignore one critical result you receive

from an attack or obstacle each round.

I like your fix, it's creative and fluffy, but unfortunately in its current form it would break Corran (And by extension, any high PS E-Wing with R2-D2).

Looking at the top 16 of Worlds, there are five different lists using Corran Horn. Of the five Corrans, only three have modifications and only two have Engine Upgrade. All five have R2-D2 of course. Corran doesn't actually need Engine Upgrade to be highly competitive. All he needs is R2-D2. And your suggested upgrade would be 2 free points for two of the top 16 lists at Worlds.

So here is my suggested tweak that avoids making Corran+R2-D2 cheaper.

Counterpart Integration

E-Wing only, Modification, -2 points

If you have an Astromech named R7 equipped,

you may ignore one critical result you receive

from an attack or obstacle each round.

You cannot equip an Astromech upgrade card

that costs more than 3 squad points.

There is only one Astromech (Rebel or salvaged) in the game that costs 4 or more squad points: R2-D2. So by excluding any Astromech that costs more than 3 squad points, we only exclude the one that breaks the E-Wing. This is similar to the clause on the TIE Shuttle title that is there to prevent the Emperor from being equipped, so it has precedence. Now your upgrade fixes the E-Wing and gives Corran more reason to not be married to R2-D2 while not being available to the powerful Corran+R2-D2 combo.

I think OP has a good point, though. Corran's taking an Astromech is what makes him so powerful. Astromechs are certainly an option on other E-Wings, but R2D2 isn't doing so much for low-PS ships that still only get one action per turn.

I won't go into trying to create a "fix," but I think that's a solid train of thought. Either via the Modification slot (to disallow EU on Corran) or the Astromech slot (to disallow R2-D2), or some title that in one way or another affects one or both slots, is a great idea to buff the generics / Etahn while allowing Corran to exist in his current state.

How about a system upgrade called

Advanced Astromech Communication 0pts

If you have an equipped R7 series astromech droid you may use the abilities of all friendly R7 series astromech droids as well as your own. You cannot perform actions except for target lock.

How about a system upgrade called

Advanced Astromech Communication 0pts

If you have an equipped R7 series astromech droid you may use the abilities of all friendly R7 series astromech droids as well as your own. You cannot perform actions except for target lock.

The creativity is strong here, but it's not going to help the E-Wing. It's putting more points into an already-expensive ship, and this combo would require you to at least field a second already-expensive ship with at least another point into an R7 upgrade. Multiple R7 series abilities wouldn't do well enough to get around the base cost of the ship while increasing its capability. It would look more akin to triple Delta Squadrons with Ion Cannons. Durable and somewhat of a threat, sure, but too expensive.

Excellent insights. I do believe there's something in the angle of tweaking the Astromech slot to exclude R2-D2; be that via a points restriction or an R7 encouragement.

I'd actually go with the points cap, if only to encourage further build diversity, but I wonder just how potent Corran is if he's using Focus-to-shields regeneration? It's certainly less every-round, but might still be enough (especially with his full dial) to play regeneration shenanigans in between strafing runs.

It's not as potent as R2-D2, sure, but it's also getting whatever mechanical benefit (and potential cost decrease) the ship carries, too.

Ignoring Crits sounds hilarious, incidentally. The E-wings greatest fear evaporated, along with Manglers and Advanceds.

Excellent insights. I do believe there's something in the angle of tweaking the Astromech slot to exclude R2-D2; be that via a points restriction or an R7 encouragement.

I'd actually go with the points cap, if only to encourage further build diversity, but I wonder just how potent Corran is if he's using Focus-to-shields regeneration? It's certainly less every-round, but might still be enough (especially with his full dial) to play regeneration shenanigans in between strafing runs.

It's not as potent as R2-D2, sure, but it's also getting whatever mechanical benefit (and potential cost decrease) the ship carries, too.

Ignoring Crits sounds hilarious, incidentally. The E-wings greatest fear evaporated, along with Manglers and Advanceds.

Much less potent. R5-P9 takes an action, can't be done while stressed, and is stopped by blocking.

If Corran+R5-P9 were good with this fix, that would be a happy surprise, but I doubt it would be near as effective as R2-D2, and it would be much easier to counter.

Counterpart Integration

Ewing only, -2 points

If you have an astromech named R7 equipped,

you may ignore one critical result you receive

from an attack or obstacle each round.

I like your fix, it's creative and fluffy, but unfortunately in its current form it would break Corran (And by extension, any high PS E-Wing with R2-D2).

Looking at the top 16 of Worlds, there are five different lists using Corran Horn. Of the five Corrans, only three have modifications and only two have Engine Upgrade. All five have R2-D2 of course. Corran doesn't actually need Engine Upgrade to be highly competitive. All he needs is R2-D2. And your suggested upgrade would be 2 free points for two of the top 16 lists at Worlds.

So here is my suggested tweak that avoids making Corran+R2-D2 cheaper.

Counterpart Integration

E-Wing only, Modification, -2 points

If you have an Astromech named R7 equipped,

you may ignore one critical result you receive

from an attack or obstacle each round.

You cannot equip an Astromech upgrade card

that costs more than 3 squad points.

There is only one Astromech (Rebel or salvaged) in the game that costs 4 or more squad points: R2-D2. So by excluding any Astromech that costs more than 3 squad points, we only exclude the one that breaks the E-Wing. This is similar to the clause on the TIE Shuttle title that is there to prevent the Emperor from being equipped, so it has precedence. Now your upgrade fixes the E-Wing and gives Corran more reason to not be married to R2-D2 while not being available to the powerful Corran+R2-D2 combo.

Did you read his idea?

Counterpart Integration

Ewing only, -2 points

If you have an astromech named R7 equipped,

you may ignore one critical result you receive

from an attack or obstacle each round.

I like your fix, it's creative and fluffy, but unfortunately in its current form it would break Corran (And by extension, any high PS E-Wing with R2-D2).

Looking at the top 16 of Worlds, there are five different lists using Corran Horn. Of the five Corrans, only three have modifications and only two have Engine Upgrade. All five have R2-D2 of course. Corran doesn't actually need Engine Upgrade to be highly competitive. All he needs is R2-D2. And your suggested upgrade would be 2 free points for two of the top 16 lists at Worlds.

So here is my suggested tweak that avoids making Corran+R2-D2 cheaper.

Counterpart Integration

E-Wing only, Modification, -2 points

If you have an Astromech named R7 equipped,

you may ignore one critical result you receive

from an attack or obstacle each round.

You cannot equip an Astromech upgrade card

that costs more than 3 squad points.

There is only one Astromech (Rebel or salvaged) in the game that costs 4 or more squad points: R2-D2. So by excluding any Astromech that costs more than 3 squad points, we only exclude the one that breaks the E-Wing. This is similar to the clause on the TIE Shuttle title that is there to prevent the Emperor from being equipped, so it has precedence. Now your upgrade fixes the E-Wing and gives Corran more reason to not be married to R2-D2 while not being available to the powerful Corran+R2-D2 combo.

Edit: Ninjad

Did you read his idea?

If you have an Astromech named R7 equipped,

This would make it impossible to be taken on Corran + R2-D2.....so you don't need to specify a cost limitation...

@OP - I like the ideas. If nothing else, it's outside the box, and fluffy and would be cool to see more R7s, not just on the E-wing, but potentially on the T-70s/Xs as well if the new ones were well designed.

R2-D2 is not named R7 so he is already excluded.

The upgrade doesn't require an Astromech named R7 to be equipped, just for the anti-crit ability to work. Hence you could slap it on Corran Horn with R2-D2 and get a free 2 points.

Did you read his idea?

If you have an Astromech named R7 equipped,

This would make it impossible to be taken on Corran + R2-D2.....so you don't need to specify a cost limitation...

@OP - I like the ideas. If nothing else, it's outside the box, and fluffy and would be cool to see more R7s, not just on the E-wing, but potentially on the T-70s/Xs as well if the new ones were well designed.

R2-D2 is not named R7 so he is already excluded.

The upgrade doesn't require an Astromech named R7 to be equipped, just for the anti-crit ability to work. Hence you could slap it on Corran Horn with R2-D2 and get a free 2 points.

Ah. Yea, re-read it and see. I think it would be easier to just make the card only equip-able if you had an R7, then you could leave the cost restriction off and shorten the ability text.

ALA:

MOD. You may only equip this card if you have an astromech with 'R7' in the title or no astromech equipped.

-2 points

Did you read his idea?

If you have an Astromech named R7 equipped,

This would make it impossible to be taken on Corran + R2-D2.....so you don't need to specify a cost limitation...

@OP - I like the ideas. If nothing else, it's outside the box, and fluffy and would be cool to see more R7s, not just on the E-wing, but potentially on the T-70s/Xs as well if the new ones were well designed.

R2-D2 is not named R7 so he is already excluded.

The upgrade doesn't require an Astromech named R7 to be equipped, just for the anti-crit ability to work. Hence you could slap it on Corran Horn with R2-D2 and get a free 2 points.

LOL! Ninjad again!