I've been giving some thought to a few older cards that could use a bit of love. I don't expect FFG to actually do this sort of thing, but I think it's useful to think about why certain cards don't work and how they could be redesigned. One card that intrigues me is Squad Leader. It looks great, and in Wave 1 it saw a fair amount of play. So... why doesn't it see more play today? I've given it a bit of a tweak to see if it can be made more competitive in Wave 9. I look forward to your thoughts!

A bit overcomplicated

Just add COORDINATE to the action bar

Slap on a ps restriction to equip

Go home happy

The perfect card for a stress stacker- you'll never get an action, but your allies get actions just by having you around.

squad leader isnt used that much anymore because there are so many ways to get a free action, the best of which came out during wave 2 (called PTL)

to make it better, you could either remove the PS restriction (but thematically it would be super weird to have a small black sqd pilot bossing around the likes of Turr Phennr and Vader), or have it target up to 2 ships

A bit overcomplicated

Just add COORDINATE to the action bar

Slap on a ps restriction to equip

Go home happy

Coordinate is an action passing card, not an action multiplying card, though.

The perfect card for a stress stacker- you'll never get an action, but your allies get actions just by having you around.

Without being able to take PTL, or another stress-generating EPT who is stacking stress?

squad leader isnt used that much anymore because there are so many ways to get a free action, the best of which came out during wave 2 (called PTL)

to make it better, you could either remove the PS restriction (but thematically it would be super weird to have a small black sqd pilot bossing around the likes of Turr Phennr and Vader), or have it target up to 2 ships

Yes, you're totally right about PTL.

This card actually does target up to 2 ships- the card holder and a friendly at Range 1.

The perfect card for a stress stacker- you'll never get an action, but your allies get actions just by having you around.

Without being able to take PTL, or another stress-generating EPT who is stacking stress?

Bossik with Zuckuss?

With the current game, I wonder if you couldn't do something interesting with Vader, the original Squad Leader.

Something like:

Vader, x1 title, Squad Leader, Accuracy Corrector, Proton Rockets, Guidance Chips = 34

Carnor Jax, PTL, Hull Upgrade, Autothrusters = 34

Inquisitor, PTL, Title, Autothrusters = 31

99 points (adjust for a higher initiative bid as desired)

Carnor can close quite aggresively, because if he is blocked, Vader can make him take an action, and he can then PTL off of that action. With the Inquisitor, you can do something like take a Focus on the initial merge, have Vader make the Inquisitor take a repositioning action, and then PTL off of that to take a Target Lock at PS9 instead of 8. With Accuracy Corrector and Prockets, Vader will contribute, and he can spike damage when necessary.

Without being able to take PTL, or another stress-generating EPT who is stacking stress?

Bossik with Zuckuss?

Fair point! I had forgotten about that combination, tbh. However! Bossk is PS7, and thus can't take Squad Leader as I have written it.

kinda makes me think more along the lines of a "follow the leader" mentality. Would be interesting to have it give a limited free action out, say:

"Once per round, when you declare an action you may pick another friendly ship within range 1-2 and has a lower Pilot Skill than you. Both ships must perform the same action. If one cannot complete the action, both must choose another action. Cannot equip this card if your Pilot Skill is 7 or lower."

That way its literally just a buff to the non-aces, but not a full blown "have an action buddy!" which has 0 restrictions, and free actions need a restriction or hefty price.

For instance, Vader triggers this off of his Barrel Roll and selects a schmuk TIE Fighter as the other friendly ship. The TIE fighter cannot barrelroll because of things in the way, so Vader cant barrelroll either unless he uses the "may" in the card to opt out of the ability entirely or select a different action.

Also prevents its use if one ship has an upgrade action, but the other does not. EU on Vader being pretty common comes to mind: he wouldnt be able to hand out an action when hes boosting unless they could boost too.

With the current game, I wonder if you couldn't do something interesting with Vader, the original Squad Leader.

Something like:

Vader, x1 title, Squad Leader, Accuracy Corrector, Proton Rockets, Guidance Chips = 34

Carnor Jax, PTL, Hull Upgrade, Autothrusters = 34

Inquisitor, PTL, Title, Autothrusters = 31

99 points (adjust for a higher initiative bid as desired)

Carnor can close quite aggresively, because if he is blocked, Vader can make him take an action, and he can then PTL off of that action. With the Inquisitor, you can do something like take a Focus on the initial merge, have Vader make the Inquisitor take a repositioning action, and then PTL off of that to take a Target Lock at PS9 instead of 8. With Accuracy Corrector and Prockets, Vader will contribute, and he can spike damage when necessary.

I love the X1/ accuracy corrector combo, and I wish it got more love.

The difficulty I see with your list- and it may not be that big a difficulty- is that Squad Leader has a range restriction, and both the ships you've put next to Darth tend to want to be either on the front lines or in the back row.

Having said that, Range 1-2 is a pretty big bubble, and I may be seeing a problem that isn't there.

I have been running this locally with some success.

Jan Ors (25)
Squad Leader (2)
Twin Laser Turret (6)
Nien Nunb (1)
Moldy Crow (3)

Nera Dantels (26)
Deadeye (1)
Extra Munitions (2)
Proton Torpedoes (4)
Guidance Chips (0)

Total: 70

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Jan feeds Nera a TL to who she wants to shoot at PS 8 after Nera takes a focus as her action. if you have a TL and focus already you can BR to reposition at PS8. Jan also gives her a +1 red to make her trops 5 att with TL GC and a focus to crit.
Moldy crow lets jan still have some focus to mod Att/Def. my filler has been Biggs recently and FC on Nera.

How about something like

ACTION: Perform the a free action. Then, choose 1 ship at Range 1-2 that has a lower pilot skill than you. The chosen ship may immediately perform the same action for free.

OK, need something to avoid cloak actions like that. OR not

kinda makes me think more along the lines of a "follow the leader" mentality. Would be interesting to have it give a limited free action out, say:

"Once per round, when you declare an action you may pick another friendly ship within range 1-2 and has a lower Pilot Skill than you. Both ships must perform the same action. If one cannot complete the action, both must choose another action. Cannot equip this card if your Pilot Skill is 7 or lower."

That way its literally just a buff to the non-aces, but not a full blown "have an action buddy!" which has 0 restrictions, and free actions need a restriction or hefty price.

For instance, Vader triggers this off of his Barrel Roll and selects a schmuk TIE Fighter as the other friendly ship. The TIE fighter cannot barrelroll because of things in the way, so Vader cant barrelroll either unless he uses the "may" in the card to opt out of the ability entirely or select a different action.

Also prevents its use if one ship has an upgrade action, but the other does not. EU on Vader being pretty common comes to mind: he wouldnt be able to hand out an action when hes boosting unless they could boost too.

I like the thinking here, a lot! I'm not sure I agree, but I do like it. I'm going to riff off your thoughts for a bit, so a lot of what I'm going to say isn't because of a problem with what you've said, just problems as I'm musing aloud.

I do think you underestimate the range limit as a limit to what can be done. Plus the PS restriction. As well as the opportunity cost for equipping this EPT instead of a different one.

I also really like your wording in a way that you say won't work (but I think would). I think it would be a great way to give certain actions to ships that cannot otherwise take them.

For instance: Bat Wedge (Wedge + BB8) could let another T-65 X-Wing perform a barrel roll. Vader could let an Academy Pilot take a Target Lock.

Downside: Bat Wedge could let a Lothal Rebel take a Barrel Roll. I mean. That's hilarious, but probably not a great idea.

Then the bigger problem: Han with Jyn Erso crew* letting everyone have focus tokens forever.

I really like some of this, but the rest it is broken. I wonder what the easy way is to keep the good bits while not letting the broken stuff through?

*Jyn crew text:

Action: Choose 1 friendly ship at Range 1-2. Assign 1 focus token to that ship for each enemy ship inside your firing arc at Range 1-3. You cannot assign more than 3 focus tokens in this way.

I like to stick this card on Kavil as he whizzes around with his TLT

Thats why i said they have to both be able to do the action, and obviously havnt done it yet. You risk handing actions to others that shouldnt have that action. Barrelroll/boost on a large base being the main thing that comes to mind.

Range2 isnt uber far to the point it makes it unfair. You are still losing on a potent card for that PS8/9 guy, that is a hidden price most people dont realize.

I could i guess see it letting you perform the same action twice, long as you have it to begin with. I.e. the tie fighter in my example already barrelrolled, but Vader made him barrelroll again. Problem is i'd pretty much only see it be used as a way to double-evade or double-focus.

Designing upgrades has to be done carefully otherwise we get crap like Kanan crew. He was playtested to only work on other ships, but wording flop that nobody caught until he was released let him work on the ship hes on. Which in THIS example im fine with, as i think crew that only do "other friendly ship" stuff are BS and make no sense.

Allowing it to hand out an action that a ship otherwise wouldnt have would make this card double in points if not more. Like you said, a barrelrolling ghost would be a thing. The amount of power that could offer is insane for a 2pt ept

How about something like

ACTION: Perform the a free action. Then, choose 1 ship at Range 1-2 that has a lower pilot skill than you. The chosen ship may immediately perform the same action for free.

OK, need something to avoid cloak actions like that. OR not

Toss a "cannot equip if your PS is 7 or lower" restriction on there to avoid Whisper Shenanigans, and you should be ok.

However! This seems hilarious and I love it:

Talonbane Cobra (28)

Squad Leader (2)

Cloaking Device (2)

Total: 32

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

It's Scum, and EVERYONE GETS A CLOAK!

I think the Kihraxz Fighter is the only ship in the game that can be kitted out to perform a cloak action at PS9 and also have an EPT open for Squad Leader.

I love it. I really want this. I don't care if it breaks everything.

Designing upgrades has to be done carefully otherwise we get crap like Kanan crew. He was playtested to only work on other ships, but wording flop that nobody caught until he was released let him work on the ship hes on. Which in THIS example im fine with, as i think crew that only do "other friendly ship" stuff are BS and make no sense.

I think Kanan crew is perfectly designed. In fact, he neatly avoids the problem that Squad Leader has: upgrades that are purely support tend to not get played. They make the support ship a much bigger target without providing a commensurate benefit to that ship. And when the support ship dies, a lot of the Squad's total power dies with it.

Each of the HWK-290's named pilots is great! But they die too quickly to earn back their points.

Sometimes I think Squad Leader could be an interesting option for Youngster especially when grouped with higher level ships that may already be using the EPT for something else. Assuming they are in range any of those higher PS ships could utilize Squad Leader to pass its action to another ship down the line if they didn't need it.

OP, you mention using your variation of this card on Darth Vader, but this card is actually horrifically bad on Vader. It says "Skip your perform action step". This means Vader has to skip BOTH of his normal actions to do this. He doesn't get two perform action steps, he just performs two actions during the single step. It's the same reason why advanced sensors is so bad on Vader. You would basically remove Vader's pilot ability by using this card.

OP, you mention using your variation of this card on Darth Vader, but this card is actually horrifically bad on Vader. It says "Skip your perform action step". This means Vader has to skip BOTH of his normal actions to do this. He doesn't get two perform action steps, he just performs two actions during the single step. It's the same reason why advanced sensors is so bad on Vader. You would basically remove Vader's pilot ability by using this card.

Good point, I'll have to rewrite it a tiny bit.

I think it is fine as written, just lower the cost to zero. 2 points is way too much.

A bit overcomplicated

Just add COORDINATE to the action bar

Slap on a ps restriction to equip

Go home happy

PS restriction necessary?

I would have thought being an ept would be enough of a restriction.

Sometimes I think Squad Leader could be an interesting option for Youngster especially when grouped with higher level ships that may already be using the EPT for something else. Assuming they are in range any of those higher PS ships could utilize Squad Leader to pass its action to another ship down the line if they didn't need it.

It actually works pretty well. A TIE All-Stars list has lots of TIE fighters all at different PS scores, so once you get into a furball you often find a TIE fighter with a 'spare' action; being able to pass it on to someone who's actually got a shot is quite useful.