So the Ghost and the Phantom have been out for a while now and as a huge fan of the TV show I have come to feel that I'm pretty dissapointed with how the ships are represented in the game. I was skeptical when they were first announced but decided to reserve judgment until after actually playing with them.
My two main complaints are that I feel the firing arcs are not very thematic, and I hate how the two titles are useless the second that the ships are not docked. So I am proposing these alternative rules for how I feel they should have been. I know it's kind of pointless now that the ships are already out, but I figure some people might have fun with them in casual play, and maybe they will be considered if the game ever gets a version 2.0.
First, to address the firing arcs: in the show, the Ghost has a nose turret that can clearly swivel 180 degrees, so I feel it should obviously have a 180 auxiliary arc the same as the YV-666. Also, despite the fact that they do it frequently on the show, hitting anything out the rear with a docked Phantom seems pretty unlikely and would not be using the ghosts primary weapon either, so I feel that the rear "special" arc should be removed (I also see no evidence on the show to support it firing torpedoes out the back), although I do have another idea about that later. I also feel like the 4 dice primary is pretty generous so I would also understand just a three maybe since it is now half of a turret, but either way is fine so long as it's cost balanced.
Secondly the other issue is the title cards. First the Ghost: I would include the Ghost title that we have for zero points with the added text at the end: "you may equip a second, alternate Ghost title to this ship." And then include another unique Ghost title that reads: "at the end of the combat phase if this ship has not performed a [turret] attack this round, you may perform an attack with an equipped [turret] upgrade card. You may not attack again this round". This second title would cost maybe 12 points. The idea here is that docking the phantom is just a natural ability of a VCX and the first title is just to explain how to do it, the "real" title that you can decide to take or not (options!) is the second one that functions wether you have a shuttle docked or not (because why would that effect this). I guess you could also add the stipulation "if you have at least one [crew] upgrade equipped" but I don't think it would often be an issue.
Then for the Phantom I would scrap the current title for a double sided card (still with the -- point cost) with the following on side 1: "Title, docked Attack Shuttle only. While you are docked to a friendly ship with the Ghost Title, that ship may treat your equipped [crew] upgrades as its own. During the combat phase you may perform a primary weapon attack against ships "directly behind*" the Ghost at range 1-2.
And then side 2: "Title, Deployed Attack Shuttle only. If you start the activation phase at range 1-3 of the Ghost, you may treat your pilot skill as equal to theirs during the activation phase."
*Now the caveat here is that The new FAQ needs to clarify the term "directly behind" as "a ship is directly behind another ship when any portion of its base is in the space created between two parallel lines that would run along the side edges of the other ships base". They could also go ahead and define "behind" as "a ship is behind another ship when the entirety of its base is in the space created behind a straight line that runs along the rear edge of the other ship". They could of course also define similar terms for "in front", "left", and "right". Using a diagram should make this pretty clear and really open up the options for future upgrades instead of always being limited to "inside of arc" and "outside of arc". And if this is too confusing, you could also just scrap that part of the title card.
A few final tweeks:
The VCX-100 should have a third crew slot, the Decimator gets one and it's needed to fit all six Specters in a list with just these two ships (endlessly frustrating that I can't already do this).
Maybe there should be no VCX-100 Generic? Just make Ezra the 4th pilot.
Kanan and Chopper should also be available as Attack Shuttle pilots. Two more cards, one more small ship token? Really too much to ask?
It would be a sweet bonus if the pack included some A-Wing only Pheonix Squadron titles. Not sure what they should do though.
I also thought about significantly over costing the ships and making the titles negative costs to compensate and therefore discourage ever fielding more than one of each.
There's probably not room on the title I already suggested, but an alternate Phantom title that you can equip only if you don't bring a VCX might be cool. Maybe just add a second crew slot to simulate an away mission.
In conclusion, my main goal was to make the ships feel more thematic, and to make the titles useful wether or not the ships were docked, or even if you only brought the Ghost to the party. I hope you enjoyed hearing my ideas and if you try them out, let me know what you thought.
