I'd like to see one of the more iconic ships from the core updated: the Firespray. With too many flavors of TIE Fighters and the Aces updates of the Inquisitor, you're left with potential updates to Advanced, Prototype Advanced or Phantom since the Punisher is the in-betweener, although most in need of updating.

So yeah, what the hell! Firespray and Punisher in a Heroes of the Resistance type package.

I'd favor TIE Striker and TIE Punisher. Give the Striker bombs and make it about imperial bombs. Put an imp bomb buff inside that makesthem on par with sabine (maybe something like a better phrased "You may force enemy ships you have target locked to reroll all bomb- and obstacle-related dice"?) and show both ships some love through new pilots.

22 minutes ago, MaxPower said:

I'd favor TIE Striker and TIE Punisher. Give the Striker bombs and make it about imperial bombs. Put an imp bomb buff inside that makesthem on par with sabine (maybe something like a better phrased "You may force enemy ships you have target locked to reroll all bomb- and obstacle-related dice"?) and show both ships some love through new pilots.

^ THIS. So much this. The Striker was supposed to be about bombs anyway

2 hours ago, Arkanta974 said:

Tie/Rc in this case :

I thought about it a while ago designing TIE Vanguard as a 'troll ship' - support for other fighters/bombers but unable to win on its own.

I really regret tha fact I couldn't find better images of this recon ship so the card designs seem rather dull.

5 hours ago, Marinealver said:

We don't need Imperial Veterans II ...

We Need Imperial Aces II . Yes there's a difference I tell you!

Both were pretty ineffectual. Imp Aces was 7-8 months late and made 1 pilot better (title) and added a second that could play (Jax). Both pilots would be better on a better chassis.

Imperial Vets was interesting but didn't fix bombers (shuttle option is nice but meh) and made defenders so good that they had to be nerfed back into disuse.

Vets was great in style and scope with poor execution. Aces was and still is a joke. 2/3 of those ships still need help. 1/3 still see table time. 1/3 has simply been powercreeped out of the game.

I'll just keep hoping for an imperial war machine box with punisher and Firespray boosts. Missiles and torps for bombers too and another mod or title for the phantom so it can do something. A few imperial officers would go a long way for the hipposhuttlebus, deck, and bomber shuttle.

Let scum keep Fett they never use him either and he was never Imperial just worked for them briefly. Imo the punisher should be the shuttle convert in bombers but that ship has sailed. I do think Imperials as a whole need more large based ships. We are talking an organized military group here with an absolute mentality of go big or go home. Scum has gotten plenty of large base love and in cases way to much, rebels don't use large bases near as often and the imp's get 2 shuttles and a bounty hunter with one that counts the decimator. If they do release an ace or veterans box I want to see new large based ships not fixes for garbage I never wanted.

2 hours ago, boomaster said:

While I appreciate your sentiment.. I fail to see how you can fit a device to any ship rendering it immune from an EXPLOSION.

Also, why do only imperial ships need avoidance for mines and bombs?y

Because Rebels are doing the bombing and Scum is OP enough already

Imperial firespray should get an aces/vets treatment before the punished even. Preferably with some cool new toys the scum firesprays can use as well.

2 minutes ago, markcsoul said:

Imperial firespray should get an aces/vets treatment before the punished even. Preferably with some cool new toys the scum firesprays can use as well.

Why not both? Both need it.

21 hours ago, boomaster said:

While I appreciate your sentiment.. I fail to see how you can fit a device to any ship rendering it immune from an EXPLOSION.

Also, why do only imperial ships need avoidance for mines and bombs?y

Well, it would give Imperials a new niche. Plus they suffer the most from bomb prevalence since they can't do the "if you can't beat em, join em" stance with ordinance.

As for how, it could be a device that jams the bomb's sensors making it think there isn't a ship there. It basically keeps it from detonating. High tech, makes sense because its the Empire.

1 hour ago, BadMotivator said:

Well, it would give Imperials a new niche. Plus they suffer the most from bomb prevalence since they can't do the "if you can't beat em, join em" stance with ordinance.

As for how, it could be a device that jams the bomb's sensors making it think there isn't a ship there. It basically keeps it from detonating. High tech, makes sense because its the Empire.

They could indeed use some form of ECM system to jam the bomb/mines sensors. On table however it should only work against the "action" bombs/mines which detonate when interacted with, the bombs which detonate at the end of the phase shouldn't be spoofable, Yes I know there are systems which can currently prevent a bomb from detonating but these don't work against a bomb which has already been set to explode at a pre-determined set of conditions.

While I appreciate Imperials are suffering from bombs on two fronts, one of those being that they generally have ships with a smaller damage pool than the rebels or scum and the second that the "generally" rely on arc dodging fire and bombs ignore this element of the play (almost like some for of counter.... and yes, I realize it's now "to effective" a counter).

Why should it only be the Imperials which have this technology, the Rebels and Scum both copy, steal, modify, find etc nearly all Imperial technology throughout the films and the EU (makes you wonder why Bothans are even alive given the number of things "Bothan spies" keep stealing). That the technology should be available to all three factions, just as bombs are. Bombing K-Wings (with Adv Slam) and Sabine Wren are the actual issues facing the Imperials and anyone that's not a "fan" of bombs in general.

So why not change things to:

If the SLAM maneuver was limited to only provide a straight maneuver of the corresponding speed (rather than any maneuver) then the K-Wing minefield circling the internet would have a lot fewer mines on it. Similarly if Sabine was limited to only function with bombs which detonate at the end of the activation phase (thermal det's for instance) she would still be worth her cost but wouldn't provide an overwhelming degree of power.

Sure, the rebels do steal imperial stuff. But they can't possibly steal everything.

It's frankly absurd that the rebels always have a technological edge in everything over the empire.

Villains of the Empire

Punisher

• Alternate paint job.
• 2 copies of a new Generic Pilot, and new Pilot skill 5 and 8 named pilots
• 2 new titles. One that lowers cost and adds survivability, the other that provides action economy (free focus or TL during attack phase) and functions like TIE/D.
• New system upgrade (adds focus tokens whenever you acquire a target lock?)

Firespray-31

• Complete re-imagining of Firespray-31 back to their original non-bounty hunter role: system security.
• Alternate paint job: Imperial Grayscale or Imperial Blue/Black
• Replete with blockier cockpit, solar panel themed side wings. (same idea as rectangular radar dish on falcon, slightly different)
• Imperial Security specialist themed pilot cards with slightly different stats and actions from the original, native Boost. (Outer Rim Smuggler has different stats)
• Different hull to shield ratio, such as 7 hull and 3 shield. Same dial. Priced comparatively to Scum ships, PS 2 or 3 at 26-27 points.
• No cannon, bomb, or missile slots, but one more crew slot and a title to add similar ability to TIE SF where you can fire with 4 attack dice from front arc, or make an extra shot into your auxiliary arc.

New Imperial only upgrade and pilot cards for YV-666 , IG-2000 Aggressor , and Jumpmaster 5000 .