So, I like playing with Strange Eons and coming up with how I would like to see my favourite EU ships in the game. Mostly, I think I like compositing the pictures together, but the theorycrafting is fun too. Today, it's the Skipray Blastboat, made famous in Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire books and, in my version, coming to X-Wing as a large base ship for Scum.

So, the basics: First, the generic, and the dial:

There're a lot of similarities, stat wise, with two existing scum ships: the Firespray, and the new Lancer, but the Skipray doesn't have the auxiliary or mobile arc that defines each of those ships. As such, the base model is quite a few points cheaper than either the Mandalorian Mercenary or the Shadowport Hunter, much closer to the YV-666. However, the dial is significantly better than the YV's, and, at least theoretically, 10 HP behind 2 dice is a better bet than 12 HP behind 1 defence die. So stats wise, I think it's pretty well balanced. There are also a couple of other key tricks that distinguish it from its competitors in scum, in the form of a pair of titles:

The GAT 12g was the Skipray variant used by the empire. I've chosen to ignore the fluff that says that the missile launcher was replaced by the tractor beam, and simply include both. I figure this would be used for a couple of reasons - it's the cheaper of the two titles, and, on a pilot with an EPT, opens up some potentially fun combos like Assault Missiles, Extra Munitions, Ruthlessness and Guidance Chips on a platform that's tanky enough to survive long enough to get both missiles off. But I do think this would be used less than the next title - it's primarily fluffy.

The GAT 12h was the most common variant, and it had an ion cannon primary. This represents that. For the same price as an ion cannon, you can now have the control element without the damage restriction. I think this gives the Skipray a bit of a unique place, and I'd expect it would be used quite a bit more. You'll also note that there's room to run three basic Skiprays, each with the title, with room for a few choice upgrades. I think that'd be one hell of an annoying squad to face down.

That said, I think that at least one or two of the named pilots would be worth considering:

Aves is inspired a bit by the Shadowcaster, which, through pilots and upgrades, gives you te choice to double down on tractor tokens. In this case, it's the ion effect that Aves doubles down on. Being stressed around Aves would be extremely dangerous, even for big ships. Assuming he has the GAT-12H title, the danger of being walked off the board becomes enormous, far too great to risk. Even big ships would be in considerable danger, and would have to rely on being able to dodge Aves' arc with higher pilot skill.

Talon Karrde is an information broker and a smuggler ,who only resorts to combat as a last resort. Wherever possible, he likes to be as far away from his enemies as possible. But, if his network reveals something useful - a tasty blocking opportunity perhaps - he acts on it. That's the basis for this ability. It's thematic, and not game breaking, though it does make force high PS Palp Aces to pick their initial engagement manoeuvres very carefully - a simple block could very easily end the game for them.

The Skipray, of course, needs Mara Jade as a pilot, and "I wanted her to have two things - high pilot skill, and a simple, straightforward, efficient ability. Extra dice are always powerful, and, besides being difficult to trigger, this one has no drawback. It's just good.

Now, no expansion is just about the ship. It's also about the cards. As with any, there a few key elements that suit the ship already released, and as a large base ship, there're lots of spots to fill in the box, so these cards would be included:

Ion Cannon Turret
Homing Missile
Tractor Beam
Ion Projector
Long Range Scanners

As well as a few new ones:

Automated Scanners is a strictly worse FCS, but it has the same points cost because it's in a much more accessible slot.

Masking Transponders is more or less anti-synergistic with Automated Scanners, but since they're in the same slot, it's not such a big deal. This is a purely defensive, support upgrade that would probably go just as well on a Hawk as on this ship. Speaking of the HWK, both of the new crew would work well on that ship:

Talon Karrde's crew ability is a slight variant on his pilot ability - very useful on the Skipray, as a cheap way of gaining boost, but perhaps as useful on a HWK, especially Palob, who loves getting up close (but still dodging arcs).

The benefits of the Gunnery Officer to any ship with a turret upgrade. It's also a point more than Autothrusters, which is kinda-sorta cancels out. I think it's worth int in a few specific situations, though I'm a little worried about seeing it on Dash...

So, what do you think? Would a Skipray expansion built like this be worth your hard earned cash?

huh, usually it's the inverse with custom cards, but...

yeah that statline is too absurdly good for the cost (and excellent dial + action bar)

it'd need to be a 2-die primary to prevent spam (which wouldn't effect the overall effectiveness because, goddamn, look at all them secondaries)

It actually started with two attack, but I bumped it to three while working on it. If you ignore the titles, the PS3 generic at 28 is pretty directly comparable to the PS3 generic Imperial firespray. Same attack, same agility, same total HP, though biased in favour of shields for the Skipray and hull for the Firespray. Before the proliferation of shield ignoring abilities, shields were probably better, but with the new Kylo condition, Wampa and things like that, I'm not sure there's as mich of a difference any more.

Anyway, the question, essentially, is whether the Firespray's aux arc and the evade action is worth paying 5 points and losing barrel roll for. Maybe not. Probably not. But it's not too far off - the aux arc is probably worth a solid 3 or 4 of those points, and the rest, well, let's be honest, the Imperial Firespray isn't quite where it needs to be these days. The slight discount helps account for that.

I also don't think spamming would necessarily be a problem. Yes, the ion effect would be powerful, but they'd remain pretty vulnerable to U-boats in the joust and very vulnerable to being arc dodged. At the end of the day, three of these would be very similar to three bounty hunters with ion cannons - good, and strictly speaking more than 100 points worth, but still very, very beatable IMO.

5 points for an aux arc trade for b-roll is quite possibly a worse investment than flight instructor + int agent on a ship that can't re-position

esp given the utility of the large base roll, you're looking at a 33 point minimum especially with a dial that good

those pilot abilities alone are just insane, nevermind all the cards/stats for the price.

Remove 1 stress, give 1 ion. That is a literal 100% counter to PTL users, slicers at least is a chance and Latts crew only gives you a guaranteed evade, but guaranteed ion? thats beyond crippling.

I like it and want FFG to make this ship, but agree this version is a bit undercosted. I am ok with 3 attack but want to see it at 29 or 30 points I think. The dial is also just too versatile, I'd remove the zero, the hard 1, and the 2K and probably make the 4 straight red. It definitely shouldn't have a zero or 1 hard imo.

And yeah, Aves is a bit too good. He is going to be like a zuckuss bus just piling on the stress.

A little undercosted (personally I think the dial is also too good for a Skipray). But otherwise fairly solid.

Yeah Id have to agree this is definitely undercosted compair to Firesprays. Id expect something starting at 30 and Mara costing 37 so maybe a 2 point increase all around

Should be a primary Weapon MOBILE Arc, with only 2AD (the turret are the main lasers) with a crew, cannon, torpedo and missile upgrade slots.

And a title that lets you take the Ion Cannon upgrade for a slight 1or 2 point discount.

The ship itself as you have it needs a points increase though!

Problem is no sabine pilot. Every ship released now has to have sabine as pilot

A little undercosted (personally I think the dial is also too good for a Skipray). But otherwise fairly solid.

The dial also has way too many maneuvers. Nearly every standard maneuver is on there including a stop and 2 k-turns.

The Skipray could be the first expansion that includes both Imperial/Scum pilots. I doubt they would ever do that, but it could be fun.

I've always figured teh Skipray should have a 2 die primary weapon turret. After that it would get a cannon upgrade (or even two!) to account for what is routinely seeing as the "true" primary weapon along with missile, torps, and probably a crew slot. The big Ion effect from the ship would come from that Cannon slot or possibly a double cannon slot upgrade and that second slot could hold your tractor beam if another cannon were used instead.

The dial is pretty much nuts although maybe that's just the way dials need to be these days. No speed 5s but this is a LARGE based ship but then it has pretty much everything else including a fair selection of greens.

You may think I'm crazy but I see the Skipray and being very similar to the YT-2400 although considering how much play the WSF gets (none) the lower price point could bring it back into use. While I see it as being a lot like the YT-2400 that also means it is going to get compared to the Jumpmaster which it could be argued is under costed at the generic level.

Ship is bonkers. You just run 3 of them with autoblaster turret and K4 droid.

OP AF.

Edit : Just got done reading all the upgrades. Kudos for putting in the effort. Everything here is creative and fun. That said, they're also not well balanced. Lots of these proposals are outright game breaking. Keep at it though. Love the effort.