Not exactly what OP was proposing but:

Networked Astromech 1 point: discard this card to use the ability of any other Astromech within range 1-3

I like this, but how about 2 points, shorten the range to 1-2, and don't discard? That way it's in effect the whole game, pinballing back and forth between R2-D2 and R7-T1 (just to pick two).

I think it would be too good at 2 points. It would give you a second R2D2 for the whole game.

You may be right - on the other hand, Contracted Scouts are too good at 25 points

Tracking Astromech - 2 points

Enemy ships within your firing arc at range 1-2 cannot perform Boost or Barrel Roll actions.

You wanna joust? LET'S JOUST.

0 point Astromech:

"When you equip this card, place 1 ordnance token on an equipped Torpedo Upgrade card. When you are instructed to discard an Upgrade card, you may discard 1 ordnance token on that card instead."

With no points spent on Torpedo upgrades, this upgrade fuels IA. If you do spend a few points on torpedoes you get more out of the investment and can choose between being a bit tankier with IA or harder hitting with Guidance Chips.

Tracking Astromech - 2 points

Enemy ships within your firing arc at range 1-2 cannot perform Boost or Barrel Roll actions.

You wanna joust? LET'S JOUST.

The precedent is there to move enemy ships, so this wouldn't be too unreasonable. I'm not a big fan of it though. Maybe assign an evade token if an enemy ship within R1-2 and in arc performs a Boost or Barrel Roll.

0 point Astromech:

"When you equip this card, place 1 ordnance token on an equipped Torpedo Upgrade card. When you are instructed to discard an Upgrade card, you may discard 1 ordnance token on that card instead."

With no points spent on Torpedo upgrades, this upgrade fuels IA. If you do spend a few points on torpedoes you get more out of the investment and can choose between being a bit tankier with IA or harder hitting with Guidance Chips.

I agree there needs to be a 0 point astro, but I don't think this is the way to do it. It's just too similar to Extra Munitions, and I think we can be more creative than that. Granted, my example isn't very creative either.

How about something similar to Attani Mindlink - BB Unit - "After another friendly ship equipped with BB Unit executes the same action on their action bar as you, assign a focus token to both ships". That way, an X-Wing and a Y-Wing can target lock, and each still has a focus (or evade - I'm easy). Not sure about the point value for it though...

Lastly, this is an astromech I've been advocating for

R6 Charger Mech

Side A

Action: You may receive a weapons disabled token to flip this card

Side B

Increase your primary weapon value by 1. After making a primary weapon attack, flip this card.

2 points

This adds a bit of finesse to jousting, but is very much so a boost to the X-Wing and E-Wing's jousting capabilities.

Seems like it may be a bit overpowered on Corran though. That would give him an extra die for one of his attacks in a round that he double taps and he'd have the weapons disabled token for a round that he is already unable to attack.

The cost of an action and loss of R2-D2 might keep it in check though.

How about something similar to Attani Mindlink - BB Unit - "After another friendly ship equipped with BB Unit executes the same action on their action bar as you, assign a focus token to both ships". That way, an X-Wing and a Y-Wing can target lock, and each still has a focus (or evade - I'm easy). Not sure about the point value for it though...

I like a slightly different flavor of this. What about an astromech that kicks in if two or more of your ships has a Target Lock on it? Maybe have that restrict Boost and Barrel Roll, as a sort of jamming function.

When a ship in your firing arc that you have target locked takes an action, once per round, asa free action perform the same action.

Linked astromech: 1 point

Reduce the cost of every other astromech by 1 (to a minimum of 0)

The more T-65 or other ships with astromechs you have, the more profit you will have pointwise (more X, E and Y-Wings on the table)

0 point Astromech:

"When you equip this card, place 1 ordnance token on an equipped Torpedo Upgrade card. When you are instructed to discard an Upgrade card, you may discard 1 ordnance token on that card instead."

With no points spent on Torpedo upgrades, this upgrade fuels IA. If you do spend a few points on torpedoes you get more out of the investment and can choose between being a bit tankier with IA or harder hitting with Guidance Chips.

I agree there needs to be a 0 point astro, but I don't think this is the way to do it. It's just too similar to Extra Munitions, and I think we can be more creative than that. Granted, my example isn't very creative either.

It's absolutely a copy of Extra Munitions meant for ships that can't normally take Extra Munitions. If there were a rule card for Ordnance Tokens the text could be much shorter. I think it's a super fluffy upgrade since X-Wings in the books and comics are always firing off their torpedoes at stuff.

Something that would have a similar effect (no benefit but IA if you don't spend more points, encourage torpedo usage) but be different from Extra Munitions:

"0 point Astromech:

When you discard a Target Lock as the cost for using a torpedo secondary weapon you may acquire a target lock on the defender."

I proposed this one before:

Hyperdrive Astromech

During the setup phase, your pilot skill is 12.

0 points.

I really like this one, but I'd make it 1 point as deployment can really affect the game.

Such an astromech would almost never be chosen by unique pilots. Most already have a much more suitable astromech, and the higher the PS, the less there is to gain. Generic ships with an astromech slot are, as a rule, overpriced at least a bit. So they have already payed the price to at least some degree. Exceptions might be made for Red Sq. Vets and TLT Gold Sq. Pilots. But would these ships really want to deploy last instead of enjoying the benefit of another astromech, like R2 or Targeting? The TLT Y-Wing has something to gain here (better range control) but at a significant opportunity cost.

As for the Red Veteran, maybe the Rebels deserve a good mid-PS generic. Maybe it would complement the Contracted Scout (and the Baron o/t Empire?) nicely.

Not trying to price it right, just shooting ideas.

1 point astromech

At the start of the activation phase place an overwatch token next to this ship. Once per round when an enemy ship enters your firing arc you may move the token next to that ship.

When activating you may rotate your dial to any maneuver that keeps the enemy ship with your overwatch token inside your firing arc. If this was a red manuever gain a focus token.

1 point astromech.

At the start of the activation phase place an overwatch token next to this ship.

When an enemy ship performs an action within range 1-2 you may discard an overwatch token to cancel the effect of the action.

It's absolutely a copy of Extra Munitions meant for ships that can't normally take Extra Munitions. If there were a rule card for Ordnance Tokens the text could be much shorter. I think it's a super fluffy upgrade since X-Wings in the books and comics are always firing off their torpedoes at stuff.

Something that would have a similar effect (no benefit but IA if you don't spend more points, encourage torpedo usage) but be different from Extra Munitions:

"0 point Astromech:

When you discard a Target Lock as the cost for using a torpedo secondary weapon you may acquire a target lock on the defender."

Hmm... I can see your point here, but X-Wings shouldn't be as good at carrying munitions as Y-Wings or other dedicated torpedo carriers. Though I do like this astromech idea quite a bit, as it boosts all torpedo carriers (more so for Y-Wings.)

I proposed this one before:

Hyperdrive Astromech

During the setup phase, your pilot skill is 12.

0 points.

I really like this one, but I'd make it 1 point as deployment can really affect the game.

I agree that the ability is powerful and can justifiably be valued at one point. But as an astromech, I would argue it can be balanced at 0 points.

Such an astromech would almost never be chosen by unique pilots. Most already have a much more suitable astromech, and the higher the PS, the less there is to gain. Generic ships with an astromech slot are, as a rule, overpriced at least a bit. So they have already payed the price to at least some degree. Exceptions might be made for Red Sq. Vets and TLT Gold Sq. Pilots. But would these ships really want to deploy last instead of enjoying the benefit of another astromech, like R2 or Targeting? The TLT Y-Wing has something to gain here (better range control) but at a significant opportunity cost.

As for the Red Veteran, maybe the Rebels deserve a good mid-PS generic. Maybe it would complement the Contracted Scout (and the Baron o/t Empire?) nicely.

It'd be interesting to make it scale in points differently depending on PS. Something like "Reduce the cost of this card by 1 point if the ship's PS is 4 or more."

Lots of good ideas in this thread.

I would rather not see the X-Wing's role change, I just want it to be an efficient jouster that can out-shoot things like Agressors and U-Boats. IMO, one of the best ways to do that would be an astromech that rewards you for starting the combat phase with ships in arc, as that means you sucessfully predicted your opponent's manuevers.

I would suggest:

XXXX Astromech

2pts

At the start of the combat phase, you may aquire a target lock on an enemy ship inside your arc.

Not sure how the math works out on that. This also helps Y-Wings using ordnance, and is useful for for E-Wings and T-70s. IMO, this is what the Targeting Astromech should have been all along.

Whatever the astromech is, I think it would make sense for it to be 2 points, as it makes it too expensive to spam on generic T-70s.

This is waaaaay too good. Think of it as a 2 point PTL with no stress. Easily a 4 point mech.

Not trying to price it right, just shooting ideas.

1 point astromech

At the start of the activation phase place an overwatch token next to this ship. Once per round when an enemy ship enters your firing arc you may move the token next to that ship.

When activating you may rotate your dial to any maneuver that keeps the enemy ship with your overwatch token inside your firing arc. If this was a red manuever gain a focus token.

1 point astromech.

At the start of the activation phase place an overwatch token next to this ship.

When an enemy ship performs an action within range 1-2 you may discard an overwatch token to cancel the effect of the action.

Never thought of introducing Overwatch into a game like this, though I like your first version of it. Getting a free shot on someone isn't very original, but allowing you to change your bearing left or right and increase or decreasing speed by 1 would be pretty cool. Would be significantly more useful on high PS ships though.

Weapons Systems Mech: 1 point you may ignore any [Attack Target Lock] and [Attack Focus] requirements for secondary weapons; when a secondary weapon instructs you to spend a target lock or focus to perform an attack you my ignore it

Will make torpedo and Blaster Turret Ys viable alternatives to TLT carriers and possibly make Ordnance worth considering on Xs and Es

R3 Astromech: 2-3 points enemy ships inside your firing arc that you have target locked cannot perform boost or barrel roll actions

Preventing opponents from performing specific actions is an established game mechanic (see Connor Jax) and this still requires a decent bit of planning and foresight to get to work so it wouldn't be a auto loose for arc dodgers

Not trying to price it right, just shooting ideas.

1 point astromech

At the start of the activation phase place an overwatch token next to this ship. Once per round when an enemy ship enters your firing arc you may move the token next to that ship.

When activating you may rotate your dial to any maneuver that keeps the enemy ship with your overwatch token inside your firing arc. If this was a red manuever gain a focus token.

1 point astromech.

At the start of the activation phase place an overwatch token next to this ship.

When an enemy ship performs an action within range 1-2 you may discard an overwatch token to cancel the effect of the action.

Never thought of introducing Overwatch into a game like this, though I like your first version of it. Getting a free shot on someone isn't very original, but allowing you to change your bearing left or right and increase or decreasing speed by 1 would be pretty cool. Would be significantly more useful on high PS ships though.

I think that the Overwatch idea is cool but is too rewarding for high PS pilots that are already getting a lot of benefit form their high PS.

"Action: You may choose an enemy ship that is in your arc at range 1-3. This enemy is considered to be in your arc until the end of the combat phase."

Weapons Systems Mech: 1 point you may ignore any [Attack Target Lock] and [Attack Focus] requirements for secondary weapons; when a secondary weapon instructs you to spend a target lock or focus to perform an attack you my ignore it

Will make torpedo and Blaster Turret Ys viable alternatives to TLT carriers and possibly make Ordnance worth considering on Xs and Es

R3 Astromech: 2-3 points enemy ships inside your firing arc that you have target locked cannot perform boost or barrel roll actions

Preventing opponents from performing specific actions is an established game mechanic (see Connor Jax) and this still requires a decent bit of planning and foresight to get to work so it wouldn't be a auto loose for arc dodgers

I like your way of doing it better than mine.

It would make someone like VI Wes into an absolute nightmare for arc-dodgers. Soontir can't boost or barrel roll, so he takes his usual token stack. Wes then gets to shoot and forces at least one of those tokens to go bye-bye, and possibly all three on a good attack roll.

EDIT: I also love that it works great for all three Rebel Astromech carriers, without being super-strong on the already-used guys. Biggs can't really use it because he won't have a defensive token. Corran and Poe can't use it because it would cost them their regen. But low-PS E-Wings can easily take FCS to maintain the effect while still having a TL to spend, and other X-Wings can afford to spend the action on the TL. Even Y-Wings can use it, though they'll have a harder time maintaining arc.

Not trying to price it right, just shooting ideas.

1 point astromech

At the start of the activation phase place an overwatch token next to this ship. Once per round when an enemy ship enters your firing arc you may move the token next to that ship.

When activating you may rotate your dial to any maneuver that keeps the enemy ship with your overwatch token inside your firing arc. If this was a red manuever gain a focus token.

1 point astromech.

At the start of the activation phase place an overwatch token next to this ship.

When an enemy ship performs an action within range 1-2 you may discard an overwatch token to cancel the effect of the action.

Never thought of introducing Overwatch into a game like this, though I like your first version of it. Getting a free shot on someone isn't very original, but allowing you to change your bearing left or right and increase or decreasing speed by 1 would be pretty cool. Would be significantly more useful on high PS ships though.

I think that the Overwatch idea is cool but is too rewarding for high PS pilots that are already getting a lot of benefit form their high PS.

"Action: You may choose an enemy ship that is in your arc at range 1-3. This enemy is considered to be in your arc until the end of the combat phase."

I think limiting it to Range 2-3, and the ship is considered to be out of arc if their final position is Range 1, is best. You've gotta make it so it can be dodged somehow, and this is a good way to represent turning inside someone.

Personally, I am more a fan of giving yourself more options, rather than limiting what the opponent can do.

Yet there are a number of different uniques and upgrades already in the game, which do just that. Option limitation is a thing in the game already. Certainly for Imps and Scum, maybe Rebels ought to have a bit more of that. Biggs is the only Rebel example I can think of right now.

Personally, I am more a fan of giving yourself more options, rather than limiting what the opponent can do.

That's why I like giving it restrictions.

High PS aces may not actually like the idea of a TL restriction, since they're spending their action to get that lock.

Expert Handling makes it worthless unless you have multiple locks. You can use EH to remove the token, then do a barrel roll anyway.

But as other have noted, it wouldn't be the first upgrade that limits what the opponent can do. Dark Curse has been making Target Locks useless since the Core set. Carnor Jax and Palob have been doing the same to focus and evade tokens. Forcing your opponent to adjust the way they fly and the actions they take has been part of the game since its very beginnings, and being able to accommodate for that in both your list-building and your maneuver choices is part of what separates a good player from a great one.

Too bad there are no imperial astromechs. Hey does anyone know if there is room on that assault gunboat or missile boat for an imperial astromech? What about the TIE scout?

The empire was never big on on-board astromechs.

Firstly, their ships tended to be short-range and simple so didn't need the astromech to help manage hyperdrives or shields, whilst the few that did were 'no expense spared' designs like the Defender which had custom-designed computers to do the job.

Secondly, they didn't want their fighters having autonomous maintenance and repair capability - it helps keep everyone under control if your fighter pilots are dependent on their base ships for repair.

Thirdly, they just didn't like them very much. Most Imperial Admirals during the Galactic Civil War won their spurs during the Clone Wars - and therefore didn't like seeing droids on the front line; the average senior Imperial officer would react to the word 'battle droid' in much the same way a certain segment of the contemporary US military hierarchy would react to the word 'commie'.

A generic R3, R6 and BB unit would be nice. We know naff all about their capabilities, but adding barrel roll as an action might be nice - it's not free, but it can be done after hard turns.

A big issue is that most people really want a 1-point astromech for rebels. That gives you something you can slap on a Blue Squadron Novice and still get integrated astromech. The problem is that for only a point you can't exactly get an especially good ability.

For T-65s, the Targeting Astromech works okay for Red Squadron pilots - nicely making them 25 points each, and allowing them to target lock on a K-turn.

For Rookies, a chaardan-equivalent might be nice; maybe an R1 Astromech? It only needs to have a cost of -1 and that lets you field five T-65 fighters. At the same time..... might be too good if you let them take integrated astromech too - giving them a shield advantage over the equivalent Khiraxz. I'd include either a prohibition on modifications, or else some other downside like a PS penalty.

I think There wasn't a R1 astromech I think It was actually a P1 Probably would be a good fix though

For generic jousters to be good, they need either

A) to be not so loathsomely predictable

B) to not be slapped by RNG

For cheap one point Astros, I'd look to misthunter crew for inspiration (offense gain at significant drawback). With generic ships, you should have enough to be able to use risky Astros with and still come out okay. Meanwhile already viable aces won't touch them for fear of exploding

For example,

Ex-p0s3

At the beginning of combat, you may reduce your agility by 1. If you do, you may roll an additional red die when performing a primary weapon attack

Finally, an expose worth using

R3

Astromech, 2-3 points?

Must have 2 agility or more to equip. (Sorry Y's with your crazy TLT's)

At the start of the combat phase, if there are no Blue Target Lock Tokens on this card, you may place a Red Target Lock token on an enemy ship at Range 1-3, and place the corresponding Blue Target Lock token on this card. This ship may treat any Blue Target Lock tokens assigned to this card as being assigned to itself.

Maybe too wordy, but the idea is to let X's and E's get a free Target Lock at the beginning of the combat phase as well as letting them have 2 target locks.

What can you do with this?

1. Have 2 locks for firing Torps.

2. Take any action AND a Lock

3. Low PS generics can lock those pesky high PS guys that were out of range during their action phase.

4. Got blocked, grazed a rock or just K-Turned/Talon Rolled? No problem, here is a free action.

5. Locked Soontir, but only have Palp in arc after that shifty **** moved? Well go ahead and Lock Palp too and save the one on Soonts for later.

R7-A (2pts)

You may spend Evade token while defending to reroll up to all your Defense Dice.

R4-P (4pts)

Once per round after acquiring a Focus Token or a Target Lock assign your ship an Evade Token.