So I pondering the list of astromechs we currently have and it got me thinking. There are quite a few models in production, from the famous R2 series, the infamious R5 series, all the way to the R9, which i suppose isn't canon now but what the hell.

So here is what I come up with:

R1 Astromech: -2 points

This card has a negative squad point cost.

R3-D Astromech: 2 points

"The Astromech droids were used to assist target acquisition and management on star fighters. The use of the droids allowed the pilot to concentrate on flying the craft."

At the start of the combat phase, if you have an enemy ship within range 1 - 2 and in arc of your ship, you may acquire a target lock on that ship.

R6 Astromech: 2 points

Your action bar gains the "SLAM" action. After you have completed a SLAM action, receive a stress token.

R8 Astromech: 3 points

"The R8 was better with repairs, navigation, and piloting than any other R-series droid, and provided far-superior software customization. Additionally, in times of emergency, the R8 was capable of piloting small craft (and mid-sized craft if so programmed) with a great deal of skill directly from its astromech socket."

At the start of the combat phase, if you have no enemy ships in your primary firing arc within range 1 - 2, you may perform a free boost or barrel roll action.

Anyone else got any ideas of what they would like to see?

I don't think a -2 point blanket astromech is necessary or balanced.

A 0 point astro with a good and bad effect is a nice idea though - my thought on that score came up a while ago but was this:

Incessantly beeping astromech. 0 points.

All ships at range 1 of you treat all [eye] symbols rolled on all dice as blank results.

In space no-one can hear you beep.

In space everyone can hear you play never gonna give you up over the comms.

I did brew up very simple astro that would fix the t-65:

pts 0 or 1 max.

T65 X-wing only.

When defending you may add <eye> result to your roll.

Here you have it. T65 is alive as hell. Luke becomes a thing, Wedge finally can utilize his action economy. Generics try to manage theirs TL so they can spend eye for this new epic defence. No broken balance on other ships.

T65 fixed, check.

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T65 fixed, check.

It was inevitable that a discussion of astromechs would turn into another X-wing fix thread. Even this very decent fix makes the X-wing less durable, maneuverable and efficient than an X7 defender.

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Anyone else got any ideas of what they would like to see?

You should check out the CCL (Custom Card League), as they have dozens of innovative astromech ideas. My favourite (and one I cam up with):

Whistler (3 points, unique) - He is an intelligence droid after all.
During the activation phase, treat your pilot skill as 12.

4 minutes ago, Astech said:

It was inevitable that a discussion of astromechs would turn into another X-wing fix thread. Even this very decent fix makes the X-wing less durable, maneuverable and efficient than an X7 defender.

Cheaper. Don't forget cheaper. Luke+Pred+IA+This = 32 pts. I would field him with this config any day vs defenders

As for the thread turning into "t-65 fix" - pure coincidence as i was thinking about this mech yesterday and now we have this thread

3 hours ago, Viktus106 said:

R1 Astromech: -2 points

This card has a negative squad point cost.

I think it should be instead:

Your upgrade bar gains the EPT upgrade icon.

If you equip a EPT upgrade, its squad point cost is reduced by 2 (to a minimum of 0).

Because 5 Rookies are apparently something that should be avoided. Maybe it would have to be limited by PS though.

R1 astromechs won't fit in the sockets, they were designed to help as a crew member.

How about a Lothal Astromech ?

There won't be any good Astromechs because there's R2-D2.

All the astro-capable ships (bar Y-wing), seem costed to adjust for the magical regen fairy, ending up overpriced for their stats, dials and action bar choices. If you take anything but R2, you're stuck with a piece of expensive junk that loses dice exchanges with pretty much everything at its price point.

If the iconic cocky trashcan had the use of Chewbacca Crew (which would be both good gameplay value, and thematic as hell), maybe the main Rebel fighters would have a chance to get fancy stuff like 3 Agility, token stacking, green hards, innate barrel rools, free dice mods, etc. You'd then actually see more than one of them on the table at once, and other astros would have some use. But as things are, it's either R2-D2, or don't bring an Astromech-slotted ship at all.

I don't think we will ever see a negative cost astromech that can be used on the X-Wing (or Y-Wing) because of IA, that said the E-wing could probably use one and it wouldn't be too bad with Corran.

I would also maybe like an astromech that gives E-Wings the talon roll ability (sort of like the S-loop falcon title)

When you discard this card, you can regen 1 shield.

Integrated Astromech improved

•R3-S6 0 points

when attacking a large or huge ship, you may add one red die to your attack role, if you have any shields left, lose one shield

R8 Astromech, when attacking a target with at least one damage card at Range 2, you may add one Eyeball result to your roll. 2 points.

(Why Range 2? Because most of the time X-Wings wind up ineffectually slapping away here, and at Range 1 you usually wind up with no mods.)

M9 Astromech, when you acquire a target lock you may perform a free barrel roll action. You may then remove 1 tractor beam token. 2 points.

(A mashup of M9-G8 and BB-8)

Not an astromech, but:

Tractor torpedo (torpedo slot). 3 dice, range 1. 1 point. Action: Choose an enemy ship at Range 1 in your firing arc. Roll an attack dice and on a (hit) result assign 1 tractor beam token to the target and on a (crit) result the target receives one damage. 1 point.

C1 Astromech ("Chopper"'s lineage)
During the End phase, if you didn't defend during this round, you may discard 1 face down damage card, or flip 1 face up damage card over.
Cost: 2

A different kind of rebel regen, that reminds to the huge ship only WED repair droid. Makes astromech-carrying ships last a bit longer, but not if under fire. This encourages to disenagage to get rid of nasty crits or some damage cards before coming back for more. In particular, this astromech doesn't do anything for Biggs, since he will be attacked every round.
I think this would be most useful for generic X-Wings, high PS arc-dodging X-Wings with Integrated Astromech, or Y-wings.
It's cheaper than the other regen droids because it doesn't regen shields, and it is more limited to when you can use it.

17 hours ago, GreenDragoon said:

I think it should be instead:

Your upgrade bar gains the EPT upgrade icon.

If you equip a EPT upgrade, its squad point cost is reduced by 2 (to a minimum of 0).

Because 5 Rookies are apparently something that should be avoided. Maybe it would have to be limited by PS though.

5 Naked Rookies was something to be concerned about in Wave 1 - I'm not sure you'd get very far with just the dice in the current system. Plus too close to an upgrade we already have for that slot.

I mean, if 5 rookies were a problem, 5 k-fighters would be a problem, and 5 k-fighters is absolutely not a problem.

(The rookies would have 1 extra hit point, sure, but still)...

BT-1 (link) astromech 3 pt (unique)

When performing a primary weapon attack, choose up to 2 other friendly ships that have the defender target locked. Remove 1 pair of target lock tokesn from each chosen ship to roll 1 additional attack die for each token removed.

That would be a really neat way to make Bodhi (crew or pilot) work.

Paranoid Android - 5 points

Unique

When an enemy ship moves within Range 1-3 of this ship, roll an attack die. If you roll a focus, you may assign a focus token to your ship.

(The whole point is not for the focus but to be able to measure Range 1-3 on everything that moves)