We've all seen threads about fixing the x-wing, but there's another Rebel ship that needs love just as much. With only two red dice, the humble a-wing is borderline useless these days. The dial is glorious, they're not too expensive and they can procket something fierce, but they can't dogfight to save themselves. They just can't get the damage out. I played a 1on1 game against a friend to test my hypothesis that an a-wing can't kill a Defender and I was proven right; two red dice can't kill something that has a focus and an evade. The Rebels are in need of a Defender-esque ship, and I say it could be the a-wing; this would kill two birds with one stone by bringing the a-wing back to prominence and giving the Rebels a new powerful ship.

This one is obviously just a tweak of the Chardaan Refit. The change to the dial is an attempt at balancing the card since the dial is amazing even if an a-wing only has four health in total.

Again a card clearly inspired by an existing one. I felt that the existing a-wing cards were fine at the time they came out, but were no longer competitive so I've tried to imagine what they'd be like if they were released now. This one is supposed to be a Rebel X7. It's zero points because any further points reduction would be too powerful, it applies to focus or evade so there's some versatility, and it has a slight caveat built into it that you can't have a token already (like the X7 requirement that you do a speed 3 manoeuvre). The Unique Pilot Only restriction felt right because it would prevent cheap generic blockers from becoming too good.

This is as much a Daredevil fix as anything else. I've always loved the idea of Daredevil but it was just too restrictive to get enough play. I'm sure 1 point is probably not enough, but the cards in this thread are supposed to substantially increase the power of the a-wing and I don't want to cost them out of feasibility. Considering an a-wing can't natively barrel roll, 1 point didn't seem too offensive.

Imagine if Fire Control System and R5-K6 had a baby. The idea of R5-K6 isn't bad but it doesn't get all that much use, so I thought it could be an ok game mechanic to recycle. 1 point for this one seemed ok since FCS is 2 and High-Speed Targeting Computer has a chance to fail. This card seemed like a good action economy one, since if there's a chance you don't have to worry about target locking you could be boosting or focusing. Keeps with my theme of attempting to make the a-wing more aggressive.

Finally, the card for folks who still want missile a-wings. Not everyone wants to sacrifice that slot, and they shouldn't have to, but after those missiles are fired you still have only two red dice left. It seemed as though 3 red dice and missiles was a bit much, and traditional a-wings should get to keep all their dial green, but the primary weapons still needed a little something. This one was inspired in part by Trick Shot, hence 0 points, but has the restriction that you have to get in close

These aren't tested yet but I'd appreciate any tips you've got for me.

...why an A-Wing needs to be able to kill a Defender? Wanna we even fix the Z-95 then?

A-Wing is amazing as right now.

If I wanted to fix the A-Wing, I'd do something like this:

First of all, your custom upgrade cards are beautiful. Congratulations.

I disagree with you about that the 1 vs 1 aspect. If a lone A and a titled Defender engage...Puma vs Lion. IMHO they are two very different ships. An E Wing should face a Defender in equal terms. Not a single A.

I love A Wing. The main problem with them is that Pivot Guns are not easy to be represented in the tabletop. This is not a broken ship, simply 2 reds. Eons ago in my game group playing at home simply auto included Chardaan Refit without filling missile slot.

As we play Scenarios a lot dometimes we see things like...

- Pivot Guns. 180 degree field of fire

Or

- Pivot Guns mk II. Consider R2 targets at R1 and R3 targets at R2 when firing Main Armament ( I like this one a lot)

But while playing 100/6 A wings are just fine... Or perhaps not

A-wings are alright. The best 2-attack ship in the game right now with its 2 talent slots. Plenty of options.

Cards look nice, but increasing its primary is just contradicting the idea of a-wing.

I love the idea.

Enhanced blasters is not so good because it makes x-wing (with one shield less and better dial) out of an a-wing for -2 points. It should have positive cost.

The rest is great, especially recklessness. I think it really gives a-wing that maneuverability it should have.

I've had an X/7 Delta Defender run for dear life from my Snap Shot/Juke Green Squadron Pilot in a kit tournament.

A-wings, like all other 2-attack ships, have a hard time vs 3-defense token stackers. They are supposed to. But the ability to combine 2 EPTs leave them with a huge space for fun and useful builds. Just don't expect them to be heavy hitters without missiles. They shine as utility/support.

If the 2 attack dice are proving consistently problematic, maybe it is time to consider putting missiles on them rather than automatically chucking Chaardan refit on them all the time. Prockets are cheap and easy to fire. Concussion and Homing missiles are harder to pull off, especially with the generics but give the ship some badly needed punch at Ranges 2-3.

Snapcracklepop A-wings can beat Defender lists. Outside of that I'd more like to see general improvements to 2attack ships, not only A-Wings

1 hour ago, dodam said:

Enhanced blasters is not so good because it makes x-wing (with one shield less and better dial) out of an a-wing for -2 points. It should have positive cost.

Fair point. I was trying to bring them up to par with Defenders, but I see you're right and as Zura said that's not really what a-wings are about. What if the card was 0 points? I don't want to make the ship cost more but perhaps it doesn't deserve to cost less.

regarding 1v1 with Defenders, you would need 2v1 to really get the right points costings for a "fair fight".

Snap shot with Crack Shot is a good combo both for Token stripping and damage. or snapshot opportunist if x7's aren't a thing.

23 minutes ago, Karhedron said:

If the 2 attack dice are proving consistently problematic, maybe it is time to consider putting missiles on them rather than automatically chucking Chaardan refit on them all the time. Prockets are cheap and easy to fire. Concussion and Homing missiles are harder to pull off, especially with the generics but give the ship some badly needed punch at Ranges 2-3.

Prockets virtually cost 5 pts for awings, because of chardaan, which is a needed fix.

Awings would be wonderful with a "slot free" chardaan instead.

But right now, 7 pts for a homing missile, and without chimps because you need to pay the AT tax? Nope.

Enhanced Blasters + Endor Veteran = 3/3/2/2 Statline with Elite Slot and a free focus or evade token regardless of stress every turn? All that for 17?

Can I have 5 of these and just wreak havoc? All with PTL? If I don't use the elite slots I can basically field 6 of these, what?

In my opinion this sounds awfully overpowered. That's 6 3atk fighters that have a brutal good dial, have included boost (alright they miss the barrel roll, I give you that). And get 2 actions per turn (without PTL) because they get focus or evade for free. I'm sorry what? Or I could get 5 fighters with 3 atk which get 3 actions per turn. Whaaaaa?

I mean I love the A-Wing but this makes it from borderline ok/struggling to THRU TEH ROOF. With PtL they're like Soontirs with 1 more HP... just 5 of them. And only for 20 instead of 30 points.

17 minutes ago, Giledhil said:

Prockets virtually cost 5 pts for awings, because of chardaan, which is a needed fix.

Awings would be wonderful with a "slot free" chardaan instead.

But right now, 7 pts for a homing missile, and without chimps because you need to pay the AT tax? Nope.

Chardaan should be title thats all. Either you make em cheap or you make em elite.

Cause now you either make semi-cheap-semi-elite green squadrons or 1 time hitters in form of Tycho or Jake consting 35 pts each...there is literally nothing between like Green+Prockets+AT+Chardaan+PtL for 25 points. I would love to fly 4 of those.

3 minutes ago, JayDestroyaC said:

Enhanced Blasters + Endor Veteran = 3/3/2/2 Statline with Elite Slot and a free focus or evade token regardless of stress every turn? All that for 17?

Can I have 5 of these and just wreak havoc? All with PTL? If I don't use the elite slots I can basically field 6 of these, what?

In my opinion this sounds awfully overpowered. That's 6 3atk fighters that have a brutal good dial, have included boost (alright they miss the barrel roll, I give you that). And get 2 actions per turn (without PTL) because they get focus or evade for free. I'm sorry what? Or I could get 5 fighters with 3 atk which get 3 actions per turn. Whaaaaa?

I mean I love the A-Wing but this makes it from borderline ok/struggling to THRU TEH ROOF. With PtL they're like Soontirs with 1 more HP... just 5 of them. And only for 20 instead of 30 points.

While i agree card here are OP Awings are nowhere near Soontir - 2 attack and 1 focus and no BR. Not every PtL,3agi ship is soontir...

14 minutes ago, JayDestroyaC said:

Enhanced Blasters + Endor Veteran = 3/3/2/2 Statline with Elite Slot and a free focus or evade token regardless of stress every turn? All that for 17?

Can I have 5 of these and just wreak havoc? All with PTL? If I don't use the elite slots I can basically field 6 of these, what?

In my opinion this sounds awfully overpowered. That's 6 3atk fighters that have a brutal good dial, have included boost (alright they miss the barrel roll, I give you that). And get 2 actions per turn (without PTL) because they get focus or evade for free. I'm sorry what? Or I could get 5 fighters with 3 atk which get 3 actions per turn. Whaaaaa?

I mean I love the A-Wing but this makes it from borderline ok/struggling to THRU TEH ROOF. With PtL they're like Soontirs with 1 more HP... just 5 of them. And only for 20 instead of 30 points.

Endor Veteran is only for unique pilots. The cheapest unique pilot is 22 points, and there are only four of them.

I must echo the prevailing sentiment here - the A-Wing categorically does NOT need a 'fix' and certainly should not be able to tackle a Defender one-on-one.

There are precisely four ships that need 'fix' cards at the moment: the Starviper and Kihraxz (which will be covered in the upcoming Scum Aces), the X-Wing (which I expect to be dealt with in a R1 Aces pack), and non-Corran E-Wings. The idea that any ship with 2 attack dice needs 'fixing' in the same way is ridiculous.

27 minutes ago, MalusCalibur said:

The idea that any ship with 2 attack dice needs 'fixing' in the same way is ridiculous.

I disagree. They are completely worthless right now - incidentally with the exception of A-Wings. Obviously ARCs and TIE/sf don't count due to their title.

So the question is if all these ships with 2 attack dice can now be thrown away because you don't think they should be playable?

11 minutes ago, GreenDragoon said:

I disagree. They are completely worthless right now - incidentally with the exception of A-Wings. Obviously ARCs and TIE/sf don't count due to their title.

A bold claim - do you have anything to support the notion that 2 attack dice ships are 'worthless' besides baseless hyperbole? Perhaps you think that when they fire at Defenders (that seems to be where all the moaning is coming from), they just automatically always miss? Or perhaps you think a single 2 dice shot should be able to punch through dedicated token defences, rather than concentrating fire and/or removing said tokens first?

The TIE/SF and the ARC do count to an extent, since their rear-arc shots (arguably where a greater percentage of their shots will be made during a game) are only two dice.

Snapcrack swarm says hello.

42 minutes ago, MalusCalibur said:

A bold claim - do you have anything to support the notion that 2 attack dice ships are 'worthless' besides baseless hyperbole? Perhaps you think that when they fire at Defenders (that seems to be where all the moaning is coming from), they just automatically always miss? Or perhaps you think a single 2 dice shot should be able to punch through dedicated token defences, rather than concentrating fire and/or removing said tokens first?

The TIE/SF and the ARC do count to an extent, since their rear-arc shots (arguably where a greater percentage of their shots will be made during a game) are only two dice.

How about the stats which show that no 2 red dice small ships are proving successful in the current meta?

38 minutes ago, MalusCalibur said:

A bold claim - do you have anything to support the notion that 2 attack dice ships are 'worthless' besides baseless hyperbole?

We can take a look at meta-wing. Wave9 to today (22.11.16-15.2.17)

Rank 11: Z-95
Rank 15: TIE/fo (mostly OL and Zeta Ace (3 red dice))
Rank 19: TAP (Inquisitor always shoots 3)
Rank 23: TIE Fighter
Rank 24: M3-A (Mangler Cannon shoots 3)
Rank 27: TIE Bomber (Ordonance)
Rank 32: TIE Advanced (+1 crit which is better than 3 red dice)
Rank 34: A-Wing

Obviously I left out K-Wings and Y-Wings (TLT) and Hawks (not played for their primary attack). ARCs and TIE/sf are, as mentioned, effectively 3 attack ships - focusing on the rear arc is pedantic at best.

So yes - I think I do have something to support the notion.

2 hours ago, Vitalis said:

Green+Prockets+AT+Chardaan+PtL for 25 points. I would love to fly 4 of those.

No you don't. Prockets at low/mid Pilot skill sux.

Some of this is from the TIE thread, relevant here, edited to fit:

i think the buffing creep needs to stop. As per Pundit, we need to make what we have work, not create larger dice pools and token stacks

In particular 2 red dice platforms need to work better. What we are talking about is rewarding a certain list composition when used in a certain way... In this case, swarms.

To avoid piling more dice on in a creep, I'm instead prosing the idea of giving swarming a mechanic that either removes green dice or tokens. Giving sequential shots from additional same ships being able to "debuff" already bloated ships. After going back and forth with others, I like the idea that each additional same ship after the first forces green tokens to be spent at no effect, if there are no tokens, then reduce the dice pool by one (Pundit likes a floor of 2, I agree). You only get this ability if you have a set number of same ships at deployment (I really think it should be 5 but maybe 4 would be more helpful to A-wings and we certainly shouldn't be dropping to 3... Defenders don't need anymore help). Again, we're not altering stats we're incentivizing using ships left behind.

This isn't a flat buff, you can fly around it if you're the opponent

I then like the idea of whatever card slot best unlocks this reward to have a second side. This would show a squadron going more defensive than aggressive. I'd think flipping this card at the end of the combat phase would be the most appropriate, gives the opponent a fair warning.

This side would allow a single reroll if the attacker is in another friendly ship's fire arc at a given range (I like 1-2, but some playtesting would obviously be needed). Defense needs to be a softer buff than offense, otherwise a swarm v swarm battle would drag on.

6 hours ago, Verlaine said:

If I wanted to fix the A-Wing, I'd do something like this:

I can verify that Green Squadron has had many victories when equipped with this card and Juke.

5 minutes ago, AngryAlbatross said:

I can verify that Green Squadron has had many victories when equipped with this card and Juke.

I'm going to try several variations on that theme, but it's a shame that you can't fit an OpSpec with those four A-Wings. This is possible with 4 SnapCrack A-Wings. I like to call such squads Alan Partridge, after a suggestion by Stay o/t Leader. AAHAA.