I had to share this experiment, as it was quite fun.

I played a skirmish last night and used tiered items for deployment groups/cards.

For the rules, we played that 1dp = 750 credits and you could spend a max of 4dp to gain credits.

Any item that didn't work in a skirmish at all you couldn't buy (ancient lightsaber, etc.)

Each deployment card could only have 1 tiered item card attached.

Weapons had to respect the type of attack, so no ranged tier item weapons could be given to melee figures and vice versa.

For attacks, you had access to all the item surges and deployment card surges.

No duplicate items, so we took turns with our purchasing.

Imperials

Driven by Hatred Vader had Laminate Armor

Elite Stormtroopers had Pulse Cannon

Elite Stormtroopers had Overcharger

Rebels

Elite Rangers had Valken-38 Carbine

Wookiee Warriors had Force Pikes

Wookiee Warriors had combat coat

In conclusion, it was absolutely insane!

Lessons learned, giving items to multi-figure groups is the way to go to maximize the item effect but is super OP. In hindsight, we should probably have played it as only unique figures can have tiered items.

For the record, Rebels won! The Rangers were far too much being able to sit in one place, focus, not have to worry about line of sight, and then become hidden. Force Pike Wookiees were also entertaining but the Wookiees with combat coat sat in front of the Rangers and provided a solid meat shield. Couldn't touch those Rangers!