I've been playing with a Scimitar/Sith Infiltrator/Star Courier expansion.

There's a lot that I have drawn from the Lando comics, where the Scimitar is used in the GCW era. Cha Chanath is a bounty hunter in the personal employ of Palpatine, while O-66 is the droid caretaker of the Scimitar. Galen Marek (Aka Starkiller) is Darth Vader's apprentice, and although he never canonically flew the Scimitar he is exactly the type of Imperial agent who might be lent the ship on occasion, and is conspiciously missing from X-Wing. PROXY is his droid companion. While the pair would be more likely to be seen on the Rogue Shadow, the Scimitar feels like a good way to bring them into the game.

As a one-off custom-made vessel, the Star Courier features no generic pilots, and in fact is the first ship to be completely unique - the ship itself has the unique signifier preventing you from ever fielding two of them in a squad - even with different pilots!

First up I've got a dial and a title for the ship. The Star Courier flies completely unlike any large ships. With a very limited array of low-speed moves, it will be in constant motion, particularly with its native boost action and the cloak it gains from its title. Similarly to the barrel roll action on large ships the Scimitar's cloak action is slowed to compensate for its base size.

Our first pilot is O-66, the droid caretaker of the Scimitar. While Chanath Cha beheaded the droid to prevent him from backstabbing her, he got the last laugh when he left her for dead on a scuttled ship, piloting the Scimitar to safety. As a pilot, O-66 is just as callous, happy to see his allies shot down around him.

You'll note here that while the Star Courier is an incredibly advanced ship for its time, featuring multiple System upgrades, S-Loops, a high shield value and a strong action bar, it is missing the Tech upgrade as no matter how overdeveloped and cutting edge the ship might be, it is simply outdated at the point we see T-70 X-Wings and TIE/fo Fighters.

Next up is Starkiller's droid companion, PROXY. Able to mimic the fighting styles of opponents, here PROXY can similarly approximate their abilities in a starfighter.

Chanath Cha is a relentless hunter. When Palpatine assigns her a target, she will hunt it mercilessly until one or the other of them is dead. With an ability reminiscent of Agent Kallus, Chanath Cha can single out an opponent at the beginning of the game.

Finally we get Starkiller himself. Similarly to Asajj Ventress, I have gone for a psychological impact of his presence on the battlefield. Him merely decloaking nearby is enough to shake the boldest pilot. Except Tycho. Tycho's just a loose cannon like that.

A number of our pilots also feature as Crew cards. You'll see that Chanath Cha and Galen Marek's crew card assist the other as a pilot in a neatly circular way, while matching closely with what they as a pilot are trying to achieve. O-66, as he gets beheaded by the pilot, offers some crucial action economy and can even function as a one-use Advanced Cloaking Device for the Scimitar.

I've been toying with some designs for the DRK-1 Probe Droids that Darth Maul uses to locate his quarry in The Phantom Menace, but nothing that has really resonated so far. I would definitely like to include a System card in the mock 'expansion pack', so I'll keep playing with ideas.

This is the current frontrunner for a system card. It offers the low to middling skill pilots in this expansion (Along with other system-carrying Imperial vessels) a really strong tool to deal with high-skill aces. Being able to roll up on an Interceptor, take a target lock on it and tell it to stop being so dang squirrely sounds like a really refreshing option.

Anyway, for the moment, this is what I've been working on and I'd be keen to hear any input.

No PROXY crew card? I'm not sure on ability...maybe (since crew tend to partially invert their pilot abilities) let him 'copy' a friendly ship's pilot ability?

For the Probe Droids, maybe a one-use long-range scanners - action: Discard this card to acquire a target lock on an enemy ship (even if the enemy ship is outside range 1-3).

Probably a zero-cost, item. I feel that probe droids should definitely be a 'discard to use' card, so there's only so much they can do. Alternatively, a one-use boost to pilot skill might be nice - discard to treat your PS as 12 for this round (or maybe just this activation phase)?

It looks nice. Cloaking is fair enough - with the speed reduction it's not too bad, and you can't take an advanced cloak (a stygium would not be bad, though).

I liked the interplay between Stygium Particle Accelerator and Autothrusters, both very strong modifications for the ship in different contexts.

I had shied away from letting PROXY copy friendly ships abilities as I felt that would enable some dumb combo options, and I'm not a clever enough man to figure out if that is okay or not. Perhaps the Crew card could mimic nearby Crew, but that will just end up with double Palpatine and nobody wants a part of double Palpatine.

My current working ideas for the Probes were as a droppable token similar to Bombs. It would leave a permanent Probe marker on the field with a passive effect, the two I had been looking at were.

• When a friendly ship acquires a target lock, that ship can lock onto an enemy ship at Range 1-3 of this token.

or

• At the beginning of the activation phase, you may look at the dial of each ship at Range 1-2 of this token.

Then invert him the other way around; let him cancel the pilot ability of an enemy pilot.

That's potentially a really powerful ability, so I'd make it one-use (discard?) and probably an action as well.

That's relatively compelling. I'll definitely think on that - I do have limited space for upgrades. I'm designing this ship for Babaganoush's excellent Custom Card League which is a lot of fun and the guys who get involved are super creative and it deserves every plug it can get. But as a result, I'm limited to four new upgrade cards to 'package' with the ship, along with an optional autoinclude title (Which I've already used.)

So I could include Crew cards for every character, but that's at the expense of a potential System card.

Perhaps it's just me, but I would like there should be a Darth Maul pilot card.

He is canonically alive during the GCW, even though he'd probably be best affiliated with Scum. He could definitely work without a crew card though.

I prefer Starkiller flying the Rogue Shadow!

Darth Maul should pilot the Scimitar and be available as crew card!

Wow proxy's ability is mean. i could see that getting out of hand quick.

I read the thread title as "Hebrew Sith Infiltrator". I was expecting something much more Mel Brooks.

Proxy Crew:

At the beginning of each turn, choose one crew on a ship at R1-2. Proxy gains that crew's ability until the end of the turn.

It's the same as the pilot ability, but it targets crew instead of pilots.

I like it. It looks like it would be a lot of fun to fly.

On pilot Galen, what's the timing on his ability? Is it based on his position as he decloaks or on where he ends up after he drops the cloak?

Perhaps it's just me, but I would like there should be a Darth Maul pilot card.

He is canonically alive during the GCW, even though he'd probably be best affiliated with Scum. He could definitely work without a crew card though.

I prefer Starkiller flying the Rogue Shadow!

Darth Maul should pilot the Scimitar and be available as crew card!

The Darth Maul issue is something I spent a lot of time thinking on, and while it's true that Fantasy Flight has introduced a number of pilots and crew from the Clone Wars era that have no real business getting involved in the Galactic Civil War (Asajj Ventress, Captain Kagi and Latts Razi all spring to mind), I don't think Maul is transferable in the same way. If he had died during Phantom Menace and that had been the end of it, I probably would have included him without blinking - despite the fact that this would kill him a good ten years before the Clone Wars even begin in earnest. In fact, my original draft of the Galen Marek pilot literally was just for Darth Maul.

The issue is that he isn't dead. Maul is alive and operating during the Civil War, and definitely not working for the Empire. When (And it's definitely a when at this point) we see him, he will definitely be a Scum card.

As for Galen Marek, while it's true that he never canonically flew the Scimitar, I see it like Juno Eclipse in the TIE Advanced or Ahsoka and Rex in Sabine's TIE. These characters never canonically flew those ships, but it's very thematically appropriate that they might have at some point, and we just didn't see it. Or haven't seen it yet. Of course, if there was a Rogue Shadow expansion, Starkiller would be right at the top of it, but there isn't a Rogue Shadow expansion (Though if there was, it would probably be almost identical to what I have here. I simply felt the Scimitar was a more iconic, better looking design) and I felt that of my options to expand the pilot roster for the Scimitar, Galen Marek and PROXY were the most appropriate even if they aren't perfect fits.

Proxy Crew:

At the beginning of each turn, choose one crew on a ship at R1-2. Proxy gains that crew's ability until the end of the turn.

It's the same as the pilot ability, but it targets crew instead of pilots.

I think the biggest problem here is double Palpatine. As long as there's a clause to avoid double Palpatine shenanigans? I think that flies fine as a card. I mean, you're using it to double down on a crew member cheaply, but at the cost of flying in close formation. Perhaps at that point you could look at a Decimator/Scimitar list, where PROXY could on the fly adapt between using Gunner's ability most turns, or Darth Vader's if you really needed that guaranteed damage. Certainly an interesting card, it would mostly be a game of finding a cost that was both worthwhile and not too abuseable.

I like it. It looks like it would be a lot of fun to fly.

On pilot Galen, what's the timing on his ability? Is it based on his position as he decloaks or on where he ends up after he drops the cloak?

Ahh, that's my fault. I had known that the ambiguity was an issue when I was brainstorming that ability, but then forget and copy-pasted from Stygium Particle Accelerator to get the wording accurate. I would like it to trigger after the decloak is completed, but I also need to do some testing on how powerful that ends up. So his ability should read "Immediately after you decloak".

Not a fan of proxy as is. Mimic effects are problematic. Perhaps if it was limited to a ship you have target locked(any range).

For a crew..action: acquire a target lock. If the ship you have locked has a target lock on you, remove it.

I've been playing with a couple of ideas for a System for the ship. They're not exactly top-down thematic hits for the DRK-1 Probes, but justifiable, and effects that I think would be interesting to see available to a number of Imperial ships.

I've been playing with a couple of ideas for a System for the ship. They're not exactly top-down thematic hits for the DRK-1 Probes, but justifiable, and effects that I think would be interesting to see available to a number of Imperial ships.

The system-juke is a bit expensive. I would say just between 2 and 3 points, as offensive upgrades usually cost a bit less than defensive (jammer), the system slot is a really good one and unlike jammer it can only be used once (or twice) per round. But it's nothing new really, just giving ships without evade acess to juke.

The no boost/roll thing is good. Could be solid ace-insurance for a lot of lists. and is costed reasonably fairly.

I like it. It looks like it would be a lot of fun to fly.

On pilot Galen, what's the timing on his ability? Is it based on his position as he decloaks or on where he ends up after he drops the cloak?

Ahh, that's my fault. I had known that the ambiguity was an issue when I was brainstorming that ability, but then forget and copy-pasted from Stygium Particle Accelerator to get the wording accurate. I would like it to trigger after the decloak is completed, but I also need to do some testing on how powerful that ends up. So his ability should read "Immediately after you decloak".

The system-juke is a bit expensive. I would say just between 2 and 3 points, as offensive upgrades usually cost a bit less than defensive (jammer), the system slot is a really good one and unlike jammer it can only be used once (or twice) per round. But it's nothing new really, just giving ships without evade acess to juke.

The no boost/roll thing is good. Could be solid ace-insurance for a lot of lists. and is costed reasonably fairly.

The more I think about it, the more I like the Omega Leader-esque positioning lock. I think it's a really powerful ability for the middling pilot skills that we see on this ship, letting it target lock a ship and actually keep their guns on it. Chanath Cha with that System will be an incredibly strong anti-ace tool, but at this stage of the game I think anti-ace tools are actually an okay thing. Having somebody roll up and say "You're going to have to joust me" feels pretty reasonable to me.

Used on someone about to reveal a red maneuver, that could end up being a pretty strong control ability although it may make his decloak action predictable. But then, if you're starting the turn near Galen, you probably shouldn't set a red maneuver, just a green to be ready to deal with the stress he's about to hand you, making your move somewhat predictable.

I wouldn't even be considering this if we hadn't had the recent FAQ change regarding red moves while stressed. It's definitely a strong ability though and I want to see him on the table against a couple of different lists before I consider it final. Me and my housemate keep missing each other this past week, so I haven't had a chance to get any proper testing in.

Technically in this period, Emperor Palpatine should pilot the Scimitar as it was him that owned it as a private ship and he did use it in the Civel War period, but agents he has lent it too also work. The Star Courier was not in any way unique, it was a standard Sienar System ship. But the Scimitar was and should probably have a cannon upgrade, the front opens up to quite an array of weaponry.

For some reason I was convinced that the Scimitar was a unique prototype. This opens up a lot of options for me and gives definite potential to trade out Galen Marek directly for Valin Draco and to replace PROXY with another Darksider.

I think I'll avoid using Palpatine as a pilot. He owned the ship, but I'm not sure he ever flew it.

For some reason I was convinced that the Scimitar was a unique prototype. This opens up a lot of options for me and gives definite potential to trade out Galen Marek directly for Valin Draco and to replace PROXY with another Darksider.

Part of the point of the Scimitar was really that it looked like a standard diplomatic / courier ship. So they took a standard mass produced chasis and upgraded it.

I think I'll avoid using Palpatine as a pilot. He owned the ship, but I'm not sure he ever flew it.

I know he did during the Clone Wars... I'm not sure after that probably not too often.

Well, with some new information on hand, our updated pilot roster looks like this. I like the Cannon slot on the ship, as it helps upgun it a little while not making just a big TIE Phantom. Though it's a fairly inefficient use of points for the most part, it's at least an interesting option.

Yansu Grjak is a Dathomiri Nightsister Shaman. Able to draw upon the force in strange and unnatural ways, the Dathomiri Nightsisters are darksiders completely unlike Sith. Her ability certainly wants to be focus-based, and this was the first thing that sprang to mind as a sort of inbuilt Push the Limit. It's certainly not as interesting as what I had for PROXY though, so I'm not entirely enamoured.

Valin Draco is an Imperial Inquisitor who was given use of the Scimitar. He suited a straight swap of Galen Marek's ability well enough, though he has had his pilot skill reduced a little as a result.

Chanath Cha now takes the top spot in the pack, with the reassigned pilot roster.

And finally, we get Galen Marek's crew card replaced with a familiar face who feels overdue for a crew option.