I'd like to see a cheap (1 point cost or even 0 point cost) "mag pulse turret" that is essentially a weaker version version of the tractor beam cannon: a turret that fires 3 dice at range 1-3 and if it hits then the target's agility is reduced by 1 to a minimum of 0 until the end of the combat phase. The mag pulse turret causes no damage and cannot move enemy targets like the tractor beam cannon ... the turret just makes the target easier to hit. However, if it hits then it also has the ability to strip stealth device from an enemy ship.

It's obviously weak sauce as an attack, but a turret like that would work on a support ship (helpig other ships nail high-agility aces) or on ships that can fire both a turret and a primary weapon in a single turn.

Objectives for tournament play.

Magnetic mines! At the end of the combat phase, move any magnetic mines remaining towards the closest ship using the one straight maneuver template. Resolve any effects if they are now in range.

I'd like to see a ship that benefits the more attacks it receives each round, like before the second attack it receives X bonus, before the third attack it receives X+Y. And also would like some kind of swarm benefits like the already mentioned, the giving up my attack to pass a target lock, or to pass a target lock to a friendly ship and this turn that target lock behave like an advanced targeting computer, or some bonus for flying multiple of same ships.

On the subject of turrets though.

What about something like the UH-1 side gunners.

A ship which has 90 degree side firing arcs, with 1 firepower each side, which may fire even if another weapon is fired.

Maybe requires a crew card to do so.

Is this the sort of mechanic you were looking for?

ELS. (Fans of the X-wing video games know what I mean).

Balancing power between engines, lasers, and shields?

I've thought a bunch about this and my favourite concept was to allow the following as either an ability or an upgrade:

Action: assign or remove a +1 red/-1 green or +1 green/-1 red token.

The tokens would do what they say they do (add to primary/agility or lower primary/agility values) to a minimum of 1 each. Best if you have equal and large values for your primary and agility, but still not terrible otherwise. Essentially an upgraded version of Expose.

Miles Obrien. Would make a great crew on the falcon.

Initiative changing at the start of each turn as it does in Armada would be nice.

I would say Z-axis for elevation gimics but i think that would be too huge of a change and would be better saved for a new game. DnD Fantasy Flight supposedly has it, never played it, but as we all know that game is kinda dead lol.

Theres a number of plane-maneuvers that arent featured in the game (inside loops, outside loops, corkscrews, etc) but since theres no Z-axis a lot of them make no sense. Inside loops could be used to basically back up 1 distance for a stress (and possibly something worse, maybe 2 stress).

Oh, heres a good one. Jettison. Its been used a few times in the movies and to my knowledge appears at least once as a viable tactic in literally ANY scifi universe.

Jettison: 3pt Modification that allows another modification to be taken. May elect to discard a different upgrade card to cancel 1 hit or crit die result. This may be used even if the attack says it cannot be modified or evaded and as often as you have upgrades to discard.

Basically, you dumped your crap and hit the incoming attacks away from your ship. May not be favorable unless you had a cheap 1pt card you didnt care about, but it would keep you alive. Immediately my thoughts goto a bomber with Extra Muntions, since that could give them some very good evasion, but it wouldnt really work more than once until they start removing vital upgrades and become kinda pointless lol

ELS. (Fans of the X-wing video games know what I mean).

Balancing power between engines, lasers, and shields?

I've thought a bunch about this and my favourite concept was to allow the following as either an ability or an upgrade:

Action: assign or remove a +1 red/-1 green or +1 green/-1 red token.

The tokens would do what they say they do (add to primary/agility or lower primary/agility values) to a minimum of 1 each. Best if you have equal and large values for your primary and agility, but still not terrible otherwise. Essentially an upgraded version of Expose.

My first thought was precisely that, ELS, something that represent the ship putting it best on thrust, weapons or shields.

And also, my first ideas was very similar to the "Action: assign or remove a +1 red/-1 green or +1 green/-1 red token"

But then, i figure that this would be very similar (but inferior) to the current focus action. In very few cases a +1 red o green would be superior to a focus, probably only with PTL or other EPT or pilot special abilities; and the ELS should be a "every pilot " action, the most "common" indeed.

So basically, focus is, actually, the pilot gestion of the ELS... Putting the effort in the laser is using the focus in the red dice, and using it in green dice is opting for the E in the ELS... Fluff wise, all the pilots with shield should have an R5P9 option to spend an unused focus in regenerating a shield, but I suppose this is too much for the game ballance.

But it's better than the focus action, because the tokens would be permanent - they wouldn't come off at the end of the round. SO your Defender or T70 could become a Phantom without a cloak (but with more HP) or could become a TIE with a stealth device (but more HP) or some unprecedented glass-cannon thing with 5 attack and 1 defence, or a tank with 5 defence and no scariness at all unless it was mounting secondary weapons.

It would make a really interesting slow-roll ability.

Squadron Synergies - 3 or more of the same shiptype within range 2 of each other gain x bonus.

Yup, something like that, perhaps as one of a number of optional 'realism' rules in a book of custom missions designed and marketed by FFG for more mission-oriented players like me.

I know, I know! Star Wars is science fiction, and this is a game! But we do have the OT as source material, after all; and to be honest a lot of what happens on our tabletops is becoming increasingly distant from that source material. This may not bother the vast majority of current players, of course, but it does bother me. An analogy: if I played a Battle of Britain skirmish game I wouldn't really want my RAF forces to comprise one Spitfire, one Hurricane piloted by super ace Douglas Bader and armed with special experimental cannons, a two-man Bristol Beaufighter with a hotshot rear gunner and a Wellington bomber with King George VI on board to give dice bonuses to all friendly craft within Range 1. Because that would defy all logic and, indeed, common sense. It would no longer be a game based on the Battle of Britain, would it?

I would also love this. Even something like the mindlink card but that gives multiple ships of the same type a Lone Wolf type of effect would actually be an easy way to do it. Fly your swarm in formation and get bonuses, how crazy is that?

Firstly offcourse: better stats and dial for the HWK-290.

But I would also like the option to opt out of an attack/defense with possible bonusses attached to that choice.

Maybe be able to adjust your own dice to blanks? This way you could take only 1 hit, but gain a evade token to counter a next, maybe more brutal attack.

Like a tie-ace shoots at you and has 1 hit. You opt out of defense and take the hit and gain an evade token. This would help to counter the phantom at range one that will attack next.

Or offcourse, take one hit, to assure he cant roll again with gunner.

Or if you have a ship in arc and range, but choose not to attack. You can gain a free crit on the next roll against that ship (like ATC) or a free target lock? could help to make the next shot even better.

Or don't attack to cause the defender to gain a stress token. Could really assist against Arc-dodgers. you dont need to make a futile attempt at attacking against their high agility, but the next round they might not be able to move/action as they wished, allowing you to get a better shot at them.

That last one can be an EPT called "arrogance"

I also would like to pitch in on the whole ELS mechanic. It would be great!

When you make a wrong turn and end up targetless, but very much targetted, you can choose to take a 'no attack' token (that would last until end of next round) and gain shields or evades.

Or choose to limit your movement next turn to speed one to gain an extra attack die!

There are a lot of options for this, that are not too difficult or make the game too complex.

Weighing in on the whole "determine your turret direction"... seriously guys... no.

Turrets are there to counter the arc-dodgers. If you implement a system like that, Soontir is just going to barrel-roll out of arc (if he even got into it in the first place) and play the old "you watch me slowly kill you and there is nothing you can do about it" game.

Turrets are fine.

And lastly...

Strange nobody asked for this mechanic yet:

Yeah, that mechanic needs to be in the game... I see your point re Soontir/PTL interceptors.

Firstly offcourse: better stats and dial for the HWK-290.

Strange nobody asked for this mechanic yet:

I miss her. She was a real gem.

I'd have liked it if every point of pilot skill matters, no matter what opponents you're facing. But I cannot think of a good mechanic that would achieve this.

Pilot skill should count more. PS differences greater then 3 or 4 should give a extra die like range, or if that is too much, at least a single die reroll for free. Non turrets only.

That's kind of why they introduced Predator I think, to make bidding above minimum pilot skill useful

I wish ships that traditionally have ion cannons built in had them as part of the basic 4 stats. It could have been a different colored number after the red primary attack number, for instance:

Tie Defender

Attack - 3/2 (2 being purple or whatever)

Agility - 3

Shields - 3

Hull - 3

All costs adjusted accordingly.

I'd love to have different setup options. Something that lets you place ships on the playmat after the first round.

Or maybe reinforcement rules... something like "you can reserve up to 35 points of ships to be placed later in the match... placed at a random round (roll d6?), but before all your initial ships are destroyed. "

Could be risky but it fun when I do this at home.

Missiles and torpedoes you could shoot outside of your firing arc! Yeah!

Just kidding.

I don't have much to add in the choice of mechanics that are in the game, but I'd gladly remove a couple of things.:

- Multiple mobility actions per turn. Yup, was so much more interesting before those. Planning Phase made a lot more of a difference. T-65s didn't suck as much back then.

- Veteran Instincts. Cut down the choice of EPT for a bunch of Aces, there was no need for that. You should be taking the PS as-is, as a part of the trade, c'mon.

- TLTs... Oh boy, I haven't really seen any other turret being fielded afterwards. Just like I haven't ever seen a Y without one (bar Kavil). Horton born for torps? Yeah right, not even once.

Death Touch - Crashing into a ship kills that ship

Assimilation - Crashing into a ship adds that ship to your squadron

Not being very serious, but those would be funny rules for a casual game.

The more I think about it, the more there is really only one mechanic I would change.

Its the fact that you know exactly which pilots you are facing and what their ship is equipped with. If I'm Soontir Fel leading my squad of Interceptors against 4 oncoming X-Wings, there is no way I would be able to tell from 5000km away that the second one on the right is Wedge and direct my whole squad to ignore everyone else and go after him. Maybe after a few passes it would become obvious that some of the opposing pilots had special skills, but you would start the engagement having no idea who the biggest threat was.

I may have to start some house rules for my friends and I where we each pick our ships, pilots and upgrades, but the cards are all just sort of off to the side until you do something that is outside of what a naked generic could do. Then you say, oh and this X-Wing actually has BB-8 so he is going to barrel roll before doing his 1 bank.

This type of mechanic could get fairly complicated so it is probably why they did not go this route. For example, with no knowledge of which ship has which pilot skill, how do you determine the order for deployment, activation and combat?

It would be nice once in a while though, for Wedge to get more than a shot or two off before the entire enemy squad puts all their guns on him and completely ignores the other enemies on their tail.

Death Touch - Crashing into a ship kills that ship

Assimilation - Crashing into a ship makes adds that ship to your squadron

Not being very serious, but those would be funny rules for a casual game.

Genuinely, more options for ramming damage outside Epic would be great. It's a shame Oicunn is the only one.

Objective mechanics, ala Armada.