In the team covenant interview where they showed off the four new cards, seen here , they mention that Hera's ability Smooth Landing is to reflect that she was a pilot, and that was something after they said they had to take some time to come up with that ability. I'll be fairly honest, I mostly want some Rebel and Imperial pilots in the IA scale to paint to run campaigns alongside X-wing and Armada, but couldn't they go with a idea that the pilots are used as a buff to vehicles. Just treat the Pilot as a deployable group that during set up you can place one of them on a vehicle, though that might lead to a silly interaction with the Jet Troopers so maybe a figure with Vehicle and Heavy weapon, and then that vehicle gains some kind of buff with each faction having a different kind of buff.

Naturally the only faction with vehicles, to my knowledge, is the Empire. This could be dealt with a skirmish wave releasing the T2-B or T4-B tank for the Rebels and a Desert Skiff for scum, I know that it shows up in the campaign but it might be a neat way for them to make a unit that can shelter weaker figures that could be deployed in a more optimal position.

Smooth Landing is an interesting leadership ability but does it honestly have anything to do with flying? I don't think so, but you have to have clever names for your abilities, and when you can't pull lines directly from the IP then you settle on something that seemingly fits with that character. Flavor text is all it is. Hera can move herself and each adjacent figure 1 space after deployment. Quick, we need some flavor text that fits the character Hera.

1 minute ago, Rikalonius said:

Smooth Landing is an interesting leadership ability but does it honestly have anything to do with flying? I don't think so, but you have to have clever names for your abilities, and when you can't pull lines directly from the IP then you settle on something that seemingly fits with that character. Flavor text is all it is. Hera can move herself and each adjacent figure 1 space after deployment. Quick, we need some flavor text that fits the character Hera.

In the interview they described Smooth Landing as showing that she was a better pilot so that the strike team gets into a better position for deployment then they would have otherwise.

There's only so many times one can re-interpret 'Leadership' or 'Guidance' style abilities. One character that enables a figure to be Focused has to be different to another character performing the same task (well, the same effect). It's all to represent the character's style and flair.

I feel like if they wanted a vehicle buff theme in the game, they could get that as well as a support theme for droids by adding the Mechanic trait.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/239694-is-it-time-for-a-new-trait/

Darn double post

Hera's a different kind of pilot than, for instance, someone from Rogue Squadron or a TIE pilot. She's more like Han Solo- she flies her ship, but she's also often part of thew away team.

I wouldn't mind having pilots, as I think they're a huge part of Star Wars, but they'd need to be incorporated right, and I don't know if ground vehicles are the way to go.

Honestly, I'm thinking the best way to do it is to simply go with the obvious "crashed pilot" excuse.

Maybe give them an action that lets them resolve a tech test with up to two successes, and maybe a surge ability that restores health.

They could always pull from the old Battlefront games where they had fusion welders so they would at least be able to have them repair vehicles, or give them their weapons from those games, the Rebel Pilot having a shotgun, and the Imperial Pilot have a grenade launcher. They could also be based of the Rogue Squadron games or some of the books where they kind of served as saboteurs, which lines up with the Battlefront 2 game as well.