I know. In fact, not being infinite makes it worse

So what you're saying is that I probably shouldn't worry too hard, jam her in at the low low price of 14 points and see how it works out?

Pretty much yup

20 hours ago, Mangipan said:

So I've hit a snag in that I really want to jam in a Condition card for this latest design, but I can't find a good template for them. Strange Eons can't do it and apparently I'm not web-savvy enough to find another solution. Is it just photoshop or bust?

If you want when I get to my computer later I can post the blank condition card I photoshopped for use in my CCL entries.

36 minutes ago, Dr Fsticuffs said:

If you want when I get to my computer later I can post the blank condition card I photoshopped for use in my CCL entries.

You're a gentleman

These definitely deserve more detailed thoughts. This is a really balanced and well-designed group of cards overall.

Cartel Ace: It kind of bugs me that Scum get so many more EPT generics than the other factions, but there's nothing wrong with this design. Flying five with Concussion Missiles, Deadeye, and Guidance Chimps sounds fun.

Greedo: Situationally annoying, sounds like Greedo! I think his Crew ability would be pretty appropriate as well.

Eelo Begraas: Very neat ability, since all 3 slots (EPT, Missile, and Illicit) have good discard options. Would love to see him pull off a Glitter Crack Homing Missile and get them all back!

Mara Jade: This ability would make me look twice at any other ship, but it's a Z-95. Very cool if you can get other ships to concentrate fire with her.

Precision Blasters: I would prefer this as basically an inverted Lightweight Frame. "When attacking, after rolling attack dice, if there are more defense dice than attack dice, roll 1 additional attack die. You cannot equip this card if your attack value is "3" or higher." Simple and to the point. As-is, I don't like that shieldless ships still just fly around and laugh at you. Sure, it'll help early, but it'll still be very difficult to close out a game. I could also see allowing an additional Modification (with a point limit). How funny would it be on a Bomber with LWF as well?

"Shrieker" Flares: Pretty cool. No complaints.

Discord Drones: I like them, even if Illicits are pretty contested at 2 points with Feedback and Glitterstim. Don't they have a different name, though?

Wing Leader: Another good way to help 2-attack ships. This seems like it could really put the hurt on high agility targets.

Star Jewel Guard: I like it. My only complaint is this seems like a pretty solid ability for pretty much any "squadron" title.

Dire Hound: Neat.

Dicer: Stress control is always good.

As I said, this is an incredibly well done set of custom cards. Thanks for sharing.

I appreciate the feedback!

I'm running into an issue where I don't have nearly as many chances to play test as I'd like to, so a lot of things have to be "In theory this should work!" Precision Blasters is a victim of this. I like that it's a unique ability and in theory it should really help (Particularly paired with Crack Shot, as it lets you save the Cracks for once the shields are down) but I haven't actually jammed it on the table yet. I've got a week off coming up save on hopefully I can get together with someone for a day of testing - I really want to run a Crack TIE Swarm with Wing Leader and Precision Blasters against Commonwealth Defenders and see how it goes, and the alpha strike Z-95 list needs to go on the table too.

It's been a really fun set of cards to work on, because Z-95s don't need "fixing" in the same way that StarVipers or Punishers do. Yes, they aren't doing well in the meta at the moment, but that's a case of a bad environment for 2-dice ships. As we see the meta shift with RAC, Kylo and Rey becoming more common, I can see them seeing more play again.

So instead of "fixing" anything it's more aimed at expanding the range of options for the ship, throwing a bit of love to the existing pilots and dropping in some upgrades to help 2-dice attacks manage in this world of excessive defence.

After all, the Z-95 was one of the most common fighters in the Galaxy, it makes sense that there should be a whole range of options for a player fielding them.

As I said, the blank condition card. Its low res but the best image I could find at the time.

Also here is where I found the info on the fonts used.

http://www.afewmaneuvers.com/topic/122-hi-res-photoshop-templates/

18 hours ago, ObiWonka said:

These definitely deserve more detailed thoughts. This is a really balanced and well-designed group of cards overall.

Cartel Ace: It kind of bugs me that Scum get so many more EPT generics than the other factions, but there's nothing wrong with this design. Flying five with Concussion Missiles, Deadeye, and Guidance Chimps sounds fun.

TBF this is mostly because Scum were by and large designed after they realised it's mostly pointless publishing two generics both without EPTs, because only the cheaper one will ever get used.

Yo,

Pretty sure in one of the old SW novels I read, a lot of Z-95's, or at least some, had bubbled out Cockpits so that scum and such could smuggle people and serve as sneaky transport. What if we got a Z-95 only Illicit that essentially gave the Z-95 a crew slot? Would open up some fun options perhaps. I'm pretty new to the game so I'm just throwing out an idea.

I'd just say an illicit that gives a single crew slot that can't be used for unique crew would be a cool upgrade generally.

I've been considering the idea, though I had it as a mod. Both N'Dru Suhlak's Z-95 and the Dire Hound were customized to fit an extra passenger, so it suits the game too.

The thing is though, that it's exactly that, a passenger. You can't really have a Gunner sitting in the back of a Z-95. He doesn't have any controls, the pilot is running the guns. Is he leaning over the guy's shoulder like "No Gary aim left. You're a terrible shot Gary do you know that?"

I still like the idea, but right now the expansion is at capacity for cards, so it would be a case of dropping something to make room for it - Both Shrieker Flares and Discord Drones could go, but they're good designs achieving worthwhile things.

5 hours ago, Dr Fsticuffs said:

Awesome things

These things are awesome thanks so much.

I like the Z-95 love. Really like the upgrade cards design and content. Great job!

I really like your ideas, but I think the Stressbot Mara has some serious balance issues. Let's compare it to the classic Y-Wing stressbot build (the same one Paul Heaver used to win the Naboo Open last weekend).

Mara Jade (18) + Dicer (1) + Veteran Instincts (1) = 20 (optionally Vectored Thrusters for 22).

"Stressbot"- Gold Squadron Pilot (18) + BTL-A4 (0) + Twin Laser Turret (6) + R3-A2 (2) = 26

Both builds are capable of assigning two stress tokens within their firing arc in a single turn. While the stressbot can only assign the second stress beyond range 1, Mara might occassionally fail to roll the hit symbol required to assign the stress- which probably evens out most of the time.

Mara Jade costs between 4 and 6 points less than the Stressbot. That's a lot, even if we take the 3 or so effective HP more the stressbot has over her.

I saved the most important point for last:

Where the Stressbot flies at a laughable pilot skill of 2 and is unable to perform any relocation due to self-assigned stress, Mara Jade has an insane PS value of 10 with the ability to add relocation for just 2 points. Additionally, her dial is innately better, even more so because the Stressbot is usually limited to the green and white maneuvers on his dial.

P.S. Is it intentional that the Dire Hound title allows you to take Autothrusters? Combined with mindlink, that Z-95 is going to get insanely defensive for it's price.

It is worth noting that the Stress-95 is a much squishier platform than a Y-Wing. If you're taking the Dicer title you're sacrificing the defensive options you've noted with Dire Hound so you're still just four hits behind two agility.

That said, it warrants testing - it might be that the synergy with Mara Jade is too strong, and that it needs a clause to prevent it from double stressing ships.

As for the Dire Hound/Mindlink/Autothrusters upgrade pile, it's a definite deliberate option but that's still only two dice with Focus/Evade/Autothrusters. Yes, you can consistently get 3 evades against the first attack but we're in a world of hyper competent defence that that's significantly less tanky than things like 3-dice /x7 Defenders or Asajj Ventress who is that good even without supporting ships. Realistically, it's a Z-95 so your opponents can, if necessary, just ignore it while they burn down your squishier ships and a Z-95 in a 1 on 1 endgame is going to be a sad time, because if it gets to that you've already lost on points.

I need to get some more table time with these, because they are deliberately strong options for an underloved ship, and we've seen fixes push things too far the other way before.