Simple Sabine Nerf. Once per turn, when a bomb on your squad activates. You may activate Sabine. Roll a red die and on a hit or crit Sabine works. This goes along with all the other nerfs in the recent FAQ. This goes along way to fixing her. She is still very good, but not Automatic.

A range limit would be a lot better than an RNG.

Make her only work on friendly bombs at range 1-2 of her ship and a big chunk of the issue goes away.

A RNG roll would kill Sabine crew and relegate all bombs back to the binder. I do agree with the range limit though.

A range limit would also be much more in keeping with the kind of errata FFG published recently. An RNG just randomises whether she works, it doesn't change the decision making process even a tiny bit, and doesn't add any tactical depth to the card.

A range limit on the other hand means that you have to fly the ship with Sabine more aggressively than you toherwise might, and you have to make more meaningful decisions about where that ship has to be in relation to other ships in your list for her effect to go off.

Although, a range limit has virtually 0 effect on Super Doni, so it's probably not enough for my taste

I find it interesting that there's no strong feelings about the crew card adding a bomb icon.
It seems when she's most potent, bomb slots aren't the issue - but she's, say, on a Captured Tie, Sabine's ability doesn't ruffle too many feathers.

I'll throw my pitchfork in with the range 1-3 restriction crowd. I think the Rebel faction deserves viability - but I hate it being another f*cking Sabine Wren card.

1 minute ago, Rinzler in a Tie said:

I find it interesting that there's no strong feelings about the crew card adding a bomb icon.
It seems when she's most potent, bomb slots aren't the issue - but she's, say, on a Captured Tie, Sabine's ability doesn't ruffle too many feathers.

I'll throw my pitchfork in with the range 1-3 restriction crowd. I think the Rebel faction deserves viability - but I hate it being another f*cking Sabine Wren card.

The added bomb slot is rarely all that big of a deal. She's either used on K Wings which already have 4 available bombs anyway, and going up to 6 is probably pushing it beyond what you are likely to survive dropping (except on Super Doni of course), or she's used on Ahsoka at which point the K Wings are still the problem. The one single bomb she adds (often an ion bomb) makes comparatively little difference, if she gets round to dropping it at all. I've yet to face an Ahsoka list where, pretty much regardless of her loadout, I didn't feel I could mostly just ignore her when I couldn't pop her with a higher-skill pilot.

Of course, I've yet to fly against the Herahsoka build above.

Have you guys even flew against sabine? She is always around combat, almost always within range 1 to 2. Very rarely except on the tie is she beyond it. I don't think range has anything to do with her, if flown correctly. Her ability to auto damage is what makes her so powerful, IMO.

2 minutes ago, eagletsi111 said:

Have you guys even flew against sabine? She is always around combat, almost always within range 1 to 2. Very rarely except on the tie is she beyond it. I don't think range has anything to do with her, if flown correctly.

Frequently, yes. If she's on Miranda, she's around. If she's on a triple K Wing list, she's usually on the one that's hovering around at the back, because she's such a key elemtn tot heir damage. If she's flying in close formation with her mates... KILL HER FIRST and be glad that your opponent gave you that golden opportunity.

The range limit also means that doign 3-SLAM-3-bomb will quite frequently take the bombing ship out of her bubble.

But I;'d be more than open to dropping it down to range 1 only...

14 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

Frequently, yes. If she's on Miranda, she's around. If she's on a triple K Wing list, she's usually on the one that's hovering around at the back, because she's such a key elemtn tot heir damage. If she's flying in close formation with her mates... KILL HER FIRST and be glad that your opponent gave you that golden opportunity.

The range limit also means that doign 3-SLAM-3-bomb will quite frequently take the bombing ship out of her bubble.

But I;'d be more than open to dropping it down to range 1 only...

I'll agree with the 3 Slam 3 Bomb, but on the new tie this will not affect her. Not allowing her to be automatic is the best way to nerf her on every ship she might be on.

Just now, eagletsi111 said:

I'll agree with the 3 Slam 3 Bomb, but on the new tie this will not affect her. Not allowing her to be automatic is the best way to nerf her on every ship she might be on.

Agree to disagree then.

Adding an RNG doesn't change anythign about the decision making process, it just makes her less reliable. It would make her less powerful, but no more interesting. So it's not a very good nerf.

1 minute ago, thespaceinvader said:

Agree to disagree then.

Adding an RNG doesn't change anythign about the decision making process, it just makes her less reliable. It would make her less powerful, but no more interesting. So it's not a very good nerf.

Truely, I don't think there should be anything that deals damage, except for the non action bombs, that is automatic in X-wing period.

13 minutes ago, eagletsi111 said:

Truely, I don't think there should be anything that deals damage, except for the non action bombs, that is automatic in X-wing period.

I wholeheartedly disagree.

Automatic damage is fine, as long as it's *balanced* for being automatic. Conner Nets on their own are fine. Oicunn is fine. Ruthlessness isn't even close to bad, indeed, it's yet to find a good platform at all.

Sabine is bad because she offers little or no tactical choice in her use and is too cheap (either in points or in downsides), not by inherent dint of her doing autodamage.

Why are manoeuvre bombs your only exception?

4 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

I wholeheartedly disagree.

Automatic damage is fine, as long as it's *balanced* for being automatic. Conner Nets on their own are fine. Oicunn is fine. Ruthlessness isn't even close to bad, indeed, it's yet to find a good platform at all.

Sabine is bad because she offers little or no tactical choice in her use and is too cheap (either in points or in downsides), not by inherent dint of her doing autodamage.

Why are manoeuvre bombs your only exception?

Any bomb that does automatic damage are fine. Because they require you to fly better when dropping them. I like things that force people to fly better. Oicunn does that, and Ruthlessness isn't bad either. So there are few that I like, because in almost all of these cases you discuss, you must fly well to pull them off.

So... why not advocate for a change to Sabine that forces her player to fly better rather than just adding an RNG?

In our group, we limited Sabine effect to the normal area of effect of the bomb, and only to bombs dropped by the ship she's on. So Sabine damage works at range 1 of bombs and only under the template for action mines.

52 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

The added bomb slot is rarely all that big of a deal. She's either used on K Wings which already have 4 available bombs anyway, and going up to 6 is probably pushing it beyond what you are likely to survive dropping (except on Super Doni of course), or she's used on Ahsoka at which point the K Wings are still the problem. The one single bomb she adds (often an ion bomb) makes comparatively little difference, if she gets round to dropping it at all. I've yet to face an Ahsoka list where, pretty much regardless of her loadout, I didn't feel I could mostly just ignore her when I couldn't pop her with a higher-skill pilot.

Of course, I've yet to fly against the Herahsoka build above.

Flew against a Thermal Detonator/Salvage Crane Ahsoka the other day that really threw that to the wind. Couldn't shut down Sabine without PS9, and it really limited my maneuvering options since I was taking at minimum 2 damage and a stress anytime I landed behind her. I think she dropped 3 times in the match-- 6 guaranteed damage and 3 stress with literally no way to take it off the board is no joke.

Sabine does not need a nerf.

How about it only works within range 1 of the bomb in question. Yeah....I like that.

2 minutes ago, RampancyTW said:

Flew against a Thermal Detonator/Salvage Crane Ahsoka the other day that really threw that to the wind. Couldn't shut down Sabine without PS9, and it really limited my maneuvering options since I was taking at minimum 2 damage and a stress anytime I landed behind her. I think she dropped 3 times in the match-- 6 guaranteed damage and 3 stress with literally no way to take it off the board is no joke.

I've not flown against the Crane variant it does sound a lot more annoying than most.

One could always try a reversed range requirement, such as having Sabine only work on bombs at range 3 or beyond. Thematically speaking, she doesn't exactly want to be close to these bombs when they detonate.

Edit: In a similar vein, activating Sabine could cause damage to all friendly ships at range 1 of the bomb token.

Is Sabine really powerful enough to warrant a nerf?

1 minute ago, FourDogsInaHorseSuit said:

Is Sabine really powerful enough to warrant a nerf?

Considering she's auto include in any Rebel list that has at least one bomb? Yes, yes she is.

All the recent Fixes by FFG were made to require risk/reward when using them.

Right now there is no risk/reward for using Sabine. So yes!

7 minutes ago, Johen Dood said:

Considering she's auto include in any Rebel list that has at least one bomb? Yes, yes she is.

So the answer was no actually because she only works in a narrow subset of lists?

7 minutes ago, eagletsi111 said:

All the recent Fixes by FFG were made to require risk/reward when using them.

Right now there is no risk/reward for using Sabine. So yes!

The risk is your opponent doesn't fly into your bombs.