Right now squadrons use the same dice that capital ships do. That makes them highly effective in combat against both other squadrons and capital ships. I propose replacing the anti-ship dice listed on cards with a new Green die (Squadron Anti-Ship).

1. All dedicated bombers, ie ships that are designed to bomb first and fight other squadrons second will still keep their same die's on card. Examples: Y-Wing, TIE Bomber, B-Wing, Scurrg.

2. All other squadron cards will replace their Anti-Ship dice with the new green die color.

3. Some hybrid squadrons may still have more than one color of die, like the VT-49 might have 2 green die, 1 blue.

4. This new die will only be used for anti-ship, not anti-squadron

5. Ships with the Bomber keyword that are not dedicated bombers (X-Wing, TIE Defender) will have 2 of these new dice. This is to signify the 2 proton torpedoes that they would fire, in conjunction with their cannons.

6. Dedicated Anti-Squadron Squadrons (A-Wing, TIE Fighter/Interceptor) will be limited to a single green die.

When the dice ship, they will ship in a thick blister that also contains the erratted cards.

DIE SIDES

1. Blank

2. Blank

3. Hit

4. Hit

5. Accuracy

6. Crit

7. Crit/Hit Combo

8. Blank

Why 3 blanks? (effectively 4 with the Accuracy, 5 with the 2 crits) Well, some squadrons are designed to go up against other squadrons (TIE Fighter/ TIE Interceptor) They don't generally carry missiles or torpedoes. Plus, all the juking, dodging, hitting non-vial parts, and a general nerf makes this a necessity. This is also a soft buff to capital ships as it assumes that the squadron is trying to dodge incoming anti-squadron fire.

Ships with bomber that are not dedicated bombers (X-Wing and TIE Defender I am looking at you here) are still reasonably effective with a 50/50 chance of dealing damage, but still have a 3/8 chance of missing.

Eh. Don't see why this is necessary. Kill Intel and you kill the effectiveness of bombers.

Not to mention this would be a huge logistical problem with core sets already out at stores, rules have already been written, and new players would be expected to look at the FAQ/new rules just to play the game.

Anyway, in regards to your idea, I think 3 blanks is way too much. Change 1 to a hit and 1 to a crit. Otherwise you remove squads from the game. Why bring any bombers if they have a 50% to hit?

Also get rid of any thematic reasons when you are designing rules. They just get in the way of a balanced system. How does Intel give other squads Heavy? Does it add weight to their fighters and slow them down? How can bombers make runs when they have Tie/I engaged with them but a HWK "makes them Heavy"? Most of the abilities for squads don't make any sense thematically.

Another issue I see is the lack of diversity in the future with new squads. You now have to design all upgrades, new squads, and abilities based around a single die.

I think the idea is the intel ship is doing things like using ECM and ECCM to jam up the enemy targeting computers and scanners, plot fighter trajectories and make calculations to outmaneuver them, etc.

What might be a way to tone Intel down a bit would be something where if you attack something you normally would not have been able to, but can now due to intel, enemy fighters can make counter attacks on you somehow. Basically, intel lets you make the attacks you want, but leaves you a little exposed? I'm not sure exactly how that should work, but something like that.

Not the same dice. Crits doesn't count.

(1) So at the end the deadly bombers would keep the deadly dice.

(4) Are those green crits supposed to work without bomber keyword? Cause if not, you filled it with tons of useless faces while you could just make 5 blanks, 3 hits. If yes, then you made a die more deadly than the current non-bombers blue and red and almost as good as black (with he chance of doubles we don't have right now).

(5) So you would trade 0.75 av.dam. (1 blue/red bomber die) for 1.25 av.dam. (2 green bomber dice) in order to make squadrons less effective?

4 hours ago, emmjay said:

When the dice ship, they will ship in a thick blister that also contains the erratted cards.

Ewww. I'm going to have to sterilize those theorized cards and dice first before use.

KDY has some additional dice colors. I don't think any of them match your exact proposal, but have a look.

So why include accuracy if they're exclusively for targeting ships? I would get it if these could be used against fighters but it seems pointless if they can't. I guess it's better than a blank, but still. If you're overhauling may as well do it right.

Also I think this would be a terrible idea. It makes the barrier to entry for new players even higher, and really we could fix the same problem by adding an Offensive Retrofit that's actually good at killing squadrons and nerfing Intel. Or they could say that Escort stops working when the squadron has taken damage equal to its hull value, that shuts down some troublesome synergy.

Certainly, the ship has sailed on this option as a practical matter. It's just beyond precedent for FFG to gut a section of the rules this big in the middle of a product line's run. Who knows if they'd use more than three dice colors if they ever released a new edition of the game, but for now I think they would only and should only tackle this with new content. What is it that you're trying to accomplish with this? Just nerf squadrons and buff capital ships? That can be done much more simply than by forcing all players to trade in their dice and squadron cards.