giving tokens to generic squadrons is a bad idea. Currently there is no way to differentiate between repeat squadrons because there is no reason to, adding a brace to them would require markings as leaving the brace near their base would get lost QUICK
An alternative would be to give the Commander Card itself the braces, and any squadron may use them as needed. Make it 4 braces for 20pts.
I like that idea.
That is one of the biggest travesties in my book is how crappy the humble tie is and how under represented it is on the table top. I'm sure it wasn't the designers intent for "fireballs" to be so popular but that's just the way things shaked out. Firesprays are awesome and ties are 'meh'.
One of the severe draw backs to the tie fighter in my opinion is that in order to be effective you have to field a lot of them. But the current game mechanics of squadron activations from ships doesnt support that. When a squadron command is played on on average your're only going to be able to activate 3 squadrons. Therefore, its not that advantageous to use those activations on 3 weak tie fighters.
Thats where I really really like the idea of a Tie focused fleet commander.
Couple ideas that would definitely 'Make Ties Great Again!'
"All Tie Fighters gain the rogue ability" 25 pts.
Reasoning - Fixes the inability to effectively move and and attack with tie fighters. And in a list the maximum number of tie fighters you can field is 16. And comparing various squadrons we can come to the rough approximation that the rogue keyword is worth about 2 points. So at 25 pts you get a discount if you wanted to go all out on fielding all ties.
"Tie Fighters count as half an activation when being activated by a ship" 20 pts
Reseasoning - This makes it advantageous to activate tie fighters with ships as you can now move a lot of them there fore you shouldn't feel like you are wasting ship activations on lessor squadrons that fail to perform in small groups. But still requires fleet coordination in order to take advantage of it. Sacrificing command dials for squadron commands brings the price down for a budget fleet commander for imperials.
Just a couple ideas I had the would really bring tie fighters back to the table top. I mean ask yourself this... when did you last play a list that fielded standard ties outside the role of "I need a cheap way to delay my deployment".
Come on people, with some creativity I know we can bring back the thematic feel of the tie fighter.
Edit* Speling is hard
Edited by PartyPotatogiving tokens to generic squadrons is a bad idea. Currently there is no way to differentiate between repeat squadrons because there is no reason to, adding a brace to them would require markings as leaving the brace near their base would get lost QUICK
An alternative would be to give the Commander Card itself the braces, and any squadron may use them as needed. Make it 4 braces for 20pts.
I like that idea.
I like this idea but it really will only buff the strongest squadrons out there, who really dont need a buff. Are you going to use these braces on ties or firesprays/jump masters?
I like the "Tie fighters count as half an activation" idea for a commander a lot.
Maybe even as a title for the Light Carrier coming out in wave 6
Agent Kallus, Commander, Unique, 25 points: You may activate two non-unique TIE squadrons of any type for every point of squadron value when resolving the squadron command.
Meaning that a basic ISD can command up to eight non-unique TIEs.
8 Non- Unique TIEs.
Or 6 Non-Unique TIEs and Howlrunner.
(Before, of course, you start including a Squad Token and Expanded Hangars)...
Which lets you, what....
3 Dice
+ 4 Dice w/ Reroll x 6
At Speed 4...
...
Or, if indeed, you decided to go FULL BORE as above....
10 Non-Uniques and Howlrunner.
TEN.
With the only "Defense" to that being Jamming Field ?
Yeah, no thank you... That makes the Squadron Game pretty much one sided.
At best
, Give yourself a Yavaris-type ability...
But its up to you to do the legwork of getting TIE fighters into the battle, and surviving long enough to use it (since they can't move if they want to double-tap)...
Agent Kallus, Commander, Unique, 25 points: You may activate two non-unique TIE squadrons of any type for every point of squadron value when resolving the squadron command.
Meaning that a basic ISD can command up to eight non-unique TIEs.
That's the best one I've seen yet.
8 Non- Unique TIEs.
Or 6 Non-Unique TIEs and Howlrunner.
Which lets you, what....
3 Dice
+ 4 Dice w/ Reroll x 6
At Speed 4...
...
With the only "Defense" to that being Jamming Field ?
Yeah, no thank you... That makes the Squadron Game pretty much one sided. At best , Give yourself a Yavaris-type ability...
But its up to you to do the legwork of getting TIE fighters into the battle, and surviving long enough to use it (since they can't move if they want to double-tap)...
It just.... Wow. I shuddered. A LOT.
It could be interesting as a One-Off title, where you are inherently limiting where it could be placed and how it could be used....
I mean, it would make an interesting Gozanti Title, for example...
But as a Global commander effect, Man... I feel it would be
impossible
to balance out.
I mean, even if it was slapped on the ISD as I said... Twelve Squadrons! TWELVE. Can activate TWELVE Generic TIE squadrons as one command............. The scariest part about it is, you can readily TAKE 12 TIE Squadrons to use it with, because, let's face it, they're cheap!
It just.... Wow. I shuddered. A LOT.
Limiting it to only pertaining when activating non-uniques to trigger lessens it a lot. Makes it a very hard choice scenario. Howlrunner plus three? Or eight? Would really shake up the Imperial fighter meta too.
It just.... Wow. I shuddered. A LOT.
Limiting it to only pertaining when activating non-uniques to trigger lessens it a lot. Makes it a very hard choice scenario. Howlrunner plus three? Or eight? Would really shake up the Imperial fighter meta too.
Redo the math, man... Not 4-8.... 6-12
PER ISD.
Because you can fit in 2 ISDs and the Requesite Fighters....
It just.... Wow. I shuddered. A LOT.
Limiting it to only pertaining when activating non-uniques to trigger lessens it a lot. Makes it a very hard choice scenario. Howlrunner plus three? Or eight? Would really shake up the Imperial fighter meta too.
Redo the math, man... Not 4-8.... 6-12
PER ISD.
Because you can fit in 2 ISDs and the Requesite Fighters....
I'd personally like to see it this way. A lot less overpowered.
Agent Kallus, Commander, Unique, 25 points: You may activate two non-unique TIE squadrons per point of squadron value. If you choose to, you cannot activate any unique TIE squadron or non-TIE squadrons with this command. Additionally, TIEs activated in this fashion cannot benefit from friendly dice modification effects (i.e. Swarm , Flight Controllers, etc.).
A simple solution to tone it down would be to make it a VSD unique ship title. Then at most you can activate is 10 if you have expanded hangers and a token.
Lets say an 8 pts Named ship card lets you activate 2 non unique tie fighters for every 1 point.
So yes technically OMG YOU CAN ACTIVATE 10 tie fighters, but you'll want to send howl runner with them. So now its 9, but what about Mauler hes usaully never far behind, now its 8. And your fielding a build that goes all in on anti squadron, that doesnt really help in the anti ship department.
I really dont think its that over powered when compared to other popular builds that are currently popular. Does it provide a big incentive to field lots of ties? Yes, yes it does... but wasn't that the point? Send one raider through that giant swarm of ties and watch them all explode in a beautiful fashion.
All I did was put BrobaFett's idea into card lingo. I agree, overpowered as hell. I'd add the additional caviat that you cannot activate more than four non-unique TIEs in this manner, OR limit it to where the squadron activation bonus ONLY applies if you activate ONLY non-unique TIEs. If you activate a unique, it's a 1:1 ratio.8 Non- Unique TIEs.
Or 6 Non-Unique TIEs and Howlrunner.
Which lets you, what....
3 Dice
+ 4 Dice w/ Reroll x 6
At Speed 4...
...
With the only "Defense" to that being Jamming Field ?
Yeah, no thank you... That makes the Squadron Game pretty much one sided. At best , Give yourself a Yavaris-type ability...
But its up to you to do the legwork of getting TIE fighters into the battle, and surviving long enough to use it (since they can't move if they want to double-tap)...
BrobaFett has the BEST ideas.
Palpatine: When one of your ships activated you may move one shield from your opponents ship within range 1-5
or
remove a command token, gain same command token
or
when you suffer a critical effect the attacking ship loses one shield
It just.... Wow. I shuddered. A LOT.
Limiting it to only pertaining when activating non-uniques to trigger lessens it a lot. Makes it a very hard choice scenario. Howlrunner plus three? Or eight? Would really shake up the Imperial fighter meta too.
Redo the math, man... Not 4-8.... 6-12
PER ISD.
Because you can fit in 2 ISDs and the Requesite Fighters....
The real horror of the "all Tie Fighters activate on a two for one basis" is the addition of flight controllers to ISDs with expanded hangars.
Giving the 2 for 1 rule to a named ship is not so bad as you can determine the squadron value and if it can have flight controllers.
The real horror of the "all Tie Fighters activate on a two for one basis" is the addition of flight controllers to ISDs with expanded hangars.It just.... Wow. I shuddered. A LOT.
Limiting it to only pertaining when activating non-uniques to trigger lessens it a lot. Makes it a very hard choice scenario. Howlrunner plus three? Or eight? Would really shake up the Imperial fighter meta too.
Redo the math, man... Not 4-8.... 6-12
PER ISD.
Because you can fit in 2 ISDs and the Requesite Fighters....
Giving the 2 for 1 rule to a named ship is not so bad as you can determine the squadron value and if it can have flight controllers.