Ok, how bout dis for a fix for the poor old TIE Egg Carton:

Salvo Barrage (missile and torp upgrade, 7-8 points)

TIE Punisher only.

6 red dice, range 2-3

Attack [focus]: spend a focus and discard this upgrade to attack any or all enemy ships in arc. For each ship past the first reduce attack dice by one for all attacks.

It doesn't help with the insane cost of the ship, but it does seem fluffy enough to fit. Works with EM too! So, what did I get wrong, cost? Damage too much?

lol 6 red dice

it's sad that I can't even tell if that'd break Redline so bad, just because the base ship is so horrid

so, sounds like Fickle likes it!

Consider this:

Salvo-Fire

Title

After you perform an attack with a secondary weapon, you may perform a second attack with a secondary weapon. If you do, you may not perform any other attacks this turn. You may only equip this card if you have both a missile and a torpedo symbol on your upgrade bar.

It works for any of the massive ordnance boats and encourages you to take more secondary weapon upgrades. It works especially well for Redline or in combination with some of the Rebel TL swapping/borrowing mechanics.

Or possibly:

Salvo fire - 3 pts

modification

discard one target lock you have on the defender to perform an attack against that ship with each equiped (missile) and (torpedo) secondary weapon

makes a single salvo from the punisher potentially terrifying, but unless you also have a fire control system, it's not going to be the most accurate - also competes with guidance chips and LRS

pair well with

TIE Interdictor

Title 3pts

you must equip one (missile) and one (torpedo) upgrade cards at no additional cost

actually encourages you to load up on ordinance, but lowers the cost for you

FFG just needs to errata the punisher pilots to swap boost for slam. It might not fix it all the way but it would go a long way towards making the punisher useable. Either that or a title that goes something like this-"At the start of the combat phase you may perform a SLAM action. You may not perform any more actions this turn." 0 points. Helps get out of bad situations and live to fight another day.

Consider this:

Salvo-Fire

Title

After you perform an attack with a secondary weapon, you may perform a second attack with a secondary weapon. If you do, you may not perform any other attacks this turn. You may only equip this card if you have both a missile and a torpedo symbol on your upgrade bar.

It works for any of the massive ordnance boats and encourages you to take more secondary weapon upgrades. It works especially well for Redline or in combination with some of the Rebel TL swapping/borrowing mechanics.

This is what I think the Punisher needs. . .a way to unload ordnance fast enough that you feel like you got the value out of the ship ere it dies.

Giving it SLAM just makes it a version of the K-Wing. . .and this loss of ship mechanics specialization would annoy me more than having ships that cross faction lines.

Maybe a dual-side card, since they're so nice:

Loaded (Title, 0 pts, Punisher Only) (Choose side during setup)

[side A] You may drop more than one bomb per round. You may not drop two bombs of the same type in one round.

Or:

[side B] You may perform up to three attacks in the combat phase with equipped secondary weapons. If you perform three attacks receive an Ion token.

Thematically, the Punisher has more launching mechanisms, both for bombs and missiles/torpedoes, so it should be able to do more than one attack per round.

Side A gives Deathrain a place again, because who wants to have an Ion Bomb/Thermal Detonator Combo (For Stress + Ion + Damage).

Side B gives the generics a major boost. Think of a Cutlass squadron pilot - You could launch 2 homing missiles (modified by target lock) and a Plasma Torpedo (With either guidance chips or focus) in the one turn, if you equip it with fire control system to re-acquire target locks. While three attacks with modifiers does seem a bit extreem for a 32 point ship, its virtually useless afterwards (Ion + no munitions + horrible dial + primary weapon value is 2). You can't fit 4 decent punishers into 100 points, so you're limited to a 9 missile alpha strike. Yeah, wow. Still, arc-dodgers have their arc-dodging, Regen ships have their shenanigans, and Dengar just might survive all 9 shots. I think its balanced.

Consider this:

Salvo-Fire

Title

After you perform an attack with a secondary weapon, you may perform a second attack with a secondary weapon...

I prefer this, but only if it is restricted to Imperial - K-Wings don't really need any more help.

Maybe a dual-side card, since they're so nice:

Loaded (Title, 0 pts, Punisher Only) (Choose side during setup)

[side A] You may drop more than one bomb per round. You may not drop two bombs of the same type in one round.

Or:

[side B] You may perform up to three attacks in the combat phase with equipped secondary weapons. If you perform three attacks receive an Ion token.

...

I like the general idea... but:

* for Side A, I'd prefer if they could opt drop 1 bomb normally, or two bombs using the 1-left-bank and 1-right-bank. (V-shaped Conner trap - mwahaha!)

* for Side B, I think 3 is too much, unless there was a further qualifier such as something like "you may not modify more than 1 die during each attack".

Endless Barrage: TIE Punisher only—You must equip 1 missile or torpedo upgrade. When instructed to discard this card, do not discard it. You cannot equip any other missile, torpedo, or bomb upgrades.

TIE Interdictor: TIE Punisher only—Your action bar loses the boost action and gains the SLAM action. You may put an ordinance token on each equipped bomb upgrade.

(snip)

hmmm... interesting...

...combo's with EM, but shuts out APT, AHM, Prockets and Clusters (all R1-2) and Seismic Torps ('cause they aren't an attack)...

[edit] ...oh, and Tracers also I guess, since there's very little point.

Still, has considerable merit as a mechanic.

I can agine Redline with Clusters and this. It's White Glint Spread Missile spam all over again.

I can im agine Redline with Clusters and this. It's White Glint Spread Missile spam all over again.

The only pilot that could use this with Clusters is Major Rhymer (they are only R1-2).

- - -

The more I contemplate this suggested upgrade, the more I'm liking it... though would perhaps like to see it "Punisher only".

It would actually make the ship quite a versatile platform (albeit, still an expensive one)...

...just doesn't do much to address making the investment survive (only a R3 alpha strike as the best defense).

I prefer original OP idea. It needs balancing, but its totally crazy and take a look at the punisher. This is the beast so it needs to be crazy and terryfing.

Interesting, but the Punisher already costs too much - without ordnance.

What about "Deathblossom": Expend all ordinance at any target or targets within range 3. Assign 3 stress tokens, 1 ion token and 1 "can't fire" token to this ship.

The problem with this idea is that you don't have to discard another ordnance card, so that essentially this is acting as another version of Extra Munitions. And what if a ship has both?

I like the idea, but maybe make it a different kind of upgrade (or a mod, but that kills GC), and don't make it a seconds attack but rather allow an additional torp/missile to be fired and discarded.

I like the Macross Missile Massacre idea. Makes a lot of sense, seeing how the Punisher looks like 4 Bombers welded together.

Came to this thread thinking this was some crazy finalsalvo question/interaction involving a punisher..a little dissapointed.

The tie punisher is a very bad b-wing. B-wing stats and squad point cost, but only 2 atrackdice and a worse dial? For what? A lot of munition slots to add expensive munition? And not elite pilot talent in sight?!? So no deadeye!!!! So basically a bad tie bomber for more points...I have no idea what FFG was thinking when designing this ship.

Which is so **** shame cause the model is just so pretty.

How about this one..

Title: Linked Fire (Tie Punisher only)
Cost: 0
After you perform an attack, you may perform a second attack with a secondary weapon.
If so, lower the attack value by 1 for both attacks. Your attack dice modifications from the first attack also affect the second attack.

Can be combined with fire control system or gives some more dice if you already have a target lock. Should mostly be useful against low agility ships.

Consider this:

Salvo-Fire

Title

After you perform an attack with a secondary weapon, you may perform a second attack with a secondary weapon. If you do, you may not perform any other attacks this turn. You may only equip this card if you have both a missile and a torpedo symbol on your upgrade bar.

I would add "against another valid target within range 1 of the defender" or something similar. More punch, not too crazy as an alpha strike as both on one, and you don't get to double down on mods (focus, guidance chips, etc.).

Consider this:

Salvo-Fire

Title

After you perform an attack with a secondary weapon, you may perform a second attack with a secondary weapon. If you do, you may not perform any other attacks this turn. You may only equip this card if you have both a missile and a torpedo symbol on your upgrade bar.

I would add "against another valid target within range 1 of the defender" or something similar. More punch, not too crazy as an alpha strike as both on one, and you don't get to double down on mods (focus, guidance chips, etc.).

You wouldn't get to double down on mods anyway, since Focus goes away once you spend it and GC is once each round. That said, a stipulation that it can't double tap a single target could be added if you wanted to make it somewhat cheaper (I didn't propose a cost, but I'd assume that it would be a bit high, like 4-6 points).

As I wrote it, unless you have a Crew option for Weapons Engineer or Recon Specialist, are Redline, or are in a Rebel Target Lockapalooza list of some kind, it's going to be pretty hard to abuse this ability. The ship that might benefit most is the Firespray, actually, which would need to take the Slave 1 title but could then double-tap with its cannon. I'd not be averse to seeing the FS get a boost, and it might even encourage them to bring something other than just a cannon, too (maybe Extra Munitions and Cluster Missiles to cover the R1 gap on their HLC).

Came to this thread thinking this was some crazy finalsalvo question/interaction involving a punisher..a little dissapointed.

The tie punisher is a very bad b-wing. B-wing stats and squad point cost, but only 2 atrackdice and a worse dial? For what? A lot of munition slots to add expensive munition? And not elite pilot talent in sight?!? So no deadeye!!!! So basically a bad tie bomber for more points...I have no idea what FFG was thinking when designing this ship.

Which is so **** shame cause the model is just so pretty.

That's exactly why I feel that a title putting free ordinance on board the punisher would be perfect.