The 0 point astromech thread got me thinking its not that we need more or better or cheaper mechs so much as the bad ones need to be fixed. Here are some of my thoughts.

Mechs that I feel are okay, not necessarily great, but okay, as is. I am totally open to hear other opinions on whether you think these are balanced or not.

• R2, 1 pt
• R4-D6, 1 pt
• R5, 1pt
• R5-X3, 1pt
• BB-8, 2 pt
• R3-A2, 2 pt
• M9-G8, 3 pt
• R5-P9, 3 pt
• R7-T1, 3 pt
• R2-D2 4 pt (possibly should have cost 5 but only because the other mechs are so bad. If there were other good options at 1-2 points he would not be a nearly so auto include.)

Mechs that are lackluster, too expensive, too random to be dependable, or just plain useless. I have tried to add possible errata changes that would still fit the spirit of the card and would not make them too powerful but would at least make them worthy of consideration.

• R2-D6, 1pt - Should have been generic.
• R3, 2 pt - When attacking with your primary weapon, if you spend a focus token to modify at least one focus result during the "Modify Attack Dice" step, then assign one evade token to your ship. (Some randomness still there, but at least you are not sacrificing offense for defense. Even if it only stops one damage per match it is better than Hull Upgrade.)
• R5-K6, 2pt - After spending your target lock, you may immediately acquire a target lock on the same ship. You cannot spend this target lock during this attack. (By taking out the randomness it is better than it was but still strictly worse than Fire Control System because you need a lock to spend to set it up. That is just how bad it is.)
• R7, 2pt - When defending, if you have a target lock on the attacker, you may choose one attack die. The attacker must re-roll the chosen die. (In many cases, 1 hit result makes the difference whether you are hit or not so by forcing only one re-roll while keeping the Lock means a lower PS ship can survive long enough to get a return shot that can do some damage. Also removed the once per round because gunner/Dengar.)
• Targeting Astromech, 2 pt - When you are assigned a stress token, you may acquire a target lock. (There are just not enough reds on the X's or E's dials for this to be effective for 2 points and Y's have so few greens that doing a red on purpose is almost suicide.)
• R2-F2, 3 pt - When defending, if the attacker is not in your firing arc at Range 1-3, roll one additional defense die. (Wasting the action for one die is almost always worse unless you know you will be defending at least 4 times. Its supposed to be Biggs droid and he was getting shot at from behind by Vader so let's put some theme into it.)
• R5-D8, 3 pt - Option 1 - Action: Discard one of your facedown damage cards. Option 2 - At the end of the Combat phase, roll a defense die. On a Focus or Evade result, discard one of your facedown damage cards. (The cost of an action for a random chance at saving a damage for 3 points??? This is the worst of the worst. Why would anyone take this over Artoo or R5-P9? Get rid of either the action cost or the randomness to give it at least a semblance of usefulness and I still have my doubts it would see play for 3 points.)

Finally, a couple unique droid abilities I would love to see:

*"Mynock" 3 points: When you are assigned a Red Target Lock token, you may perform a free Evade Action. (Wedge's droid that would shriek when he was locked by an enemy)

*R7-Y0, 0 points: You MUST equip 1 Tech or System upgrade paying squad point cost as normal. If you discard this card, you must also discard the equipped Tech or System upgrade. (An astromech is just basically a portable computer system so why not have one with the same programming as an on board system? Made it unique to keep the X's from completely replacing B's also, FCS TLT Y's en masse would kinda suck.)

*Clone, 1 point: You may equip another unique Astromech upgrade to this ship even if that upgrade is already equipped by another one of your ships. If a game effect instructs you to discard an astromech upgrade you must discard all equipped astromech upgrades. (You're telling me that in all the galaxy, R2-D2 is the only mech with the programming to divert power to the shields after you perform a low stress, low energy maneuver?)

Disclaimer: I have not yet flown my ARC-170 nor have I faced one, so if any of these are crazy good on that platform, feel free to provide feedback.

Astromech Purging Tube (0pts)

Attack 5; R 1-3

When attacking, you may discard your Astromech upgrade card to perform this attack. If this attack hits, remove the enemy ship.

Don't look at me like that. You all wanted an X-Wing fix.

3 minutes ago, Procastination said:

Astromech Purging Tube (0pts)

Attack 5; R 1-3

When attacking, you may discard your Astromech upgrade card to perform this attack. If this attack hits, remove the enemy ship.

Don't look at me like that. You all wanted an X-Wing fix.

@Procastination , sure took you long enough to post that idea.

Some neat ideas right there. Many (actually most) of the astromechs were created when the game was at a much different stage and even then many were not that great. These days they really are lackluster, though truth be told, so are most of the ships that could equip them.

Ehhhhh... to the best of my knowledge none of them have ever made a particularly huge meta impact except the Regen droids, R2-D6 (who really doesn't need fixing), R4-D6, and R3A2.

I think your R7 Astromech change makes it worse. On ships where it's useful (Tarn Misan most notably, I know some folks used to run FCS E-Wings with it), it's very strong--one of the most powerful defensive actions in the game (or at least it was... new upgrades and dice mods may have changed the math). Limiting it to one die would probably kill it, since M9-G8 does the same thing. The only change I'd make would be to remove the once-per-turn, even though it would rarely come into play due to few ships having multiple target locks (Tarn and a Weapons Engineer ARC come to mind). R7 is kind of a niche droid, but it does its niche role very well.

Here's a thought for R5-D8: "At the end of the activation phase, you may discard a face-down damage card, or flip a face-up card face-down. If you do, roll a green die. On a Focus result, discard this card." So it'd work automatically, but you'd have a chance to break your droid, kind of like Cloaking Device or Scavenger Crane.

I like the R2-F2 change, but I don't think "at range 1-3" line is needed. It should work fine if the attacker is simply outside your firing arc. To that end, my current idea for a Biggs nerf is that his ability should only trigger against opponents outside your firing arc. It'd be a simple text errata, and introduces an interesting counterplay, where you can fly straight at Biggs to shoot someone else.

I know this is a droid-buff thread, but I think R4-D6 needs a bit of a nerf. I'd make it "once per turn." If more than one 4+ hit attacks come in, the droid can prevent four or more damage in a single turn, for one point. That's kind of a lot. If it only prevents 2 damage, that seems kinda fair to me, because it is just a one-point droid. Yes, this is Biggs-motivated, but that ought to be taken into account. I hope they can nerf some of the things which help Biggs (limit Draw Their Fire to "once per turn" also), to make it easier to buff the X-Wing on the whole.

R4-D6 is also surprisingly good on ARCs, much more so than on x-wings. that 1 agility and large pile of hull makes a big difference.

3 minutes ago, theBitterFig said:

I think your R7 Astromech change makes it worse. On ships where it's useful (Tarn Misan most notably, I know some folks used to run FCS E-Wings with it), it's very strong--one of the most powerful defensive actions in the game (or at least it was... new upgrades and dice mods may have changed the math). Limiting it to one die would probably kill it, since M9-G8 does the same thing. The only change I'd make would be to remove the once-per-turn, even though it would rarely come into play due to few ships having multiple target locks (Tarn and a Weapons Engineer ARC come to mind). R7 is kind of a niche droid, but it does its niche role very well.

Here's a thought for R5-D8: "At the end of the activation phase, you may discard a face-down damage card, or flip a face-up card face-down. If you do, roll a green die. On a Focus result, discard this card." So it'd work automatically, but you'd have a chance to break your droid, kind of like Cloaking Device or Scavenger Crane.

I like the R2-F2 change, but I don't think "at range 1-3" line is needed. It should work fine if the attacker is simply outside your firing arc. To that end, my current idea for a Biggs nerf is that his ability should only trigger against opponents outside your firing arc. It'd be a simple text errata, and introduces an interesting counterplay, where you can fly straight at Biggs to shoot someone else.

I know this is a droid-buff thread, but I think R4-D6 needs a bit of a nerf. I'd make it "once per turn." If more than one 4+ hit attacks come in, the droid can prevent four or more damage in a single turn, for one point. That's kind of a lot. If it only prevents 2 damage, that seems kinda fair to me, because it is just a one-point droid. Yes, this is Biggs-motivated, but that ought to be taken into account. I hope they can nerf some of the things which help Biggs (limit Draw Their Fire to "once per turn" also), to make it easier to buff the X-Wing on the whole.

With R7 at 2 points and M9 at 3, I made R7 weaker on purpose, but your ideas make sense. If the two were worded identically except for M9 being able to lock friendlies, then it would probably be enough to justify the one point difference.

I like your R5-D8 idea.

I put the range limit on R2-F2 in for epic play. You would get the extra die at range 4-5.

You make some good points on R4-D6 but I think that the stress penalty virtually assuring that the ship he's on never takes an action or red Maneuver again is a stiff penalty.

How about this

________

Improvised repairs Astromech

When you are dealt a Damage card, you may discard 1 of your

Modification Upgrade cards to discard that Damage card (without resolving its effect).

Cost: 0
__________

Here is how I attempted to help some of them out in my custom cards:

Targeting Astromech- Give Hobbies an EPT!

I never start worrying about individual upgrade cards as long as the upgrade pool for that slot has a few usable cards. Sure that does mean you will have your R7-T1s but you will also have your R2-D2s as well.

For the most part as long as ship model has a viable build and each upgrade slot has a good value upgrade card I will consider that fair and balanced.

6 hours ago, pickirk01 said:

R7-T1 is almost usable. For 3 pts it should just require a ship at range 1-2, not for you to be in it's arc. Or it should just be a free action if your in it's arc, similar to how K4 is free on any green. Compared to the other 3pt astromechs like r5p9 and m9g8, its garbage.

R3 astromech - Should be "When attacking with your primary weapon, you may roll one less attack die, if you do, receive one free evade token." This makes it actually usable and can help ships in range 3 survive a missile attack by reducing their range 3 primary and getting an evade (along with their focus) so they can move in next round. Also, could kick in Juke for EPT pilots, and stock evades for Comm Relay T-70s. As is though, it should be 0pts.

R5-K6 - Should be "When you declare an attack on an enemy, roll one red die, on a hit or crit result, you may acquire a TL on the defender". Its a poor mans Vessery ability, and does not require an action, but still has some RNG so it isnt broke. This means Xwings have a chance for full mod attacks without PTL or other shenigans like Dutch etc.

R7 - I think it is fine as is. On the right pilot its is powerful.

Targeting Astromech - I agree, should be when you receive a stress token. Could be a decent combo with Elusiveness on lower PS ships with EPT.

The trend is to make newer stronger cards not make old cards better. They could make one or two new astromechs that esentially deleat all those old cards from the competitive pool.

Xwing 2.0

You may find that on some future release these " bad astromechs" may be come useful. It took a while for Genius to be used.

They have made duplicates of existing cards with different text (Ghost, Millenium Falcon, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Poe). So they can create a new R3 Astromech or new R5-D8 if they so wanted, just altering the art, or not even that.

My view on the 'mechs

• R2, 1 pt - awesome. Often overlooked, but awesome - green hard turns are impressive, and on a heavy fighter it's far more than simply impressive. For a point you can do far, far worse - especially since they give you a 25 point blue novice with a really good dial for his cost, or paired with pattern analyser and push the limit to make a super-tie-interceptor analogue on named fighters.

• R4-D6, 1 pt - also awesome. Only really useful on Biggs - but there are plenty of upgrade cards which could say [Pilot] only and we'd still use them. For 1 point, it has to trigger once and stop 1 damage to be worth it, and in a game featuring cruise missiles, Fenn Rau and so on, it's brilliant - especially with the Outrider peeking its toe in the game again, because heavy laser cannons are especially vulnerable to this effect.

• R5, 1pt - Less awesome than the R2 - but still nice. Only really worth it on the Y-wing or ARC (although most of those have a 'default' mech) - but on a Twin Laser Turret Y-wing it's pretty good - with 6 hull and no integrated astromech, you can anticipate a critical or two.

• R5-X3, 1pt - takes a bit of finess, but being super-dash-render for a turn can be game-winning if your opponent forgets you have it. Pair with Snap Wexley or Ello Asty for some serious "how the [censored] did he get there!?!?" tricks.

• BB-8, 2 pt - amazing - on Intensity Poe, this little droid goes a long way to giving the Rebels their first 'proper' ace.

• R3-A2, 2 pt - amazing. R3-A2 has caused probably more grief to players than any other droid save R2-D2.

• M9-G8, 3 pt awesome. Jess Pava, Thane Kyrell or Tarn Mison love this lil' droid, and it turns them into cheap, cost-effective support ships without removing their ability to act as a heavy fighter.

• R5-P9, 3 pt - good on Poe Dameron. Kind of sucky on other people without a source of free focus, but cheaper than R2. Has its limitations now there are quite a few ways to remove focus tokens.
• R7-T1, 3 pt - awkward with its rather stringent requirements, but a boost and target lock for less than the price of an engine upgrade can't be sneered at. I wonder if intensity might work well with this - giving you boost, target lock, evade/focus for a serious range 1 hoedown (don't try this one against fenn rau!)

• R2-D2 4 pt - The big name astromech - there's a reason he's had serious use from wave 1 to now and why as @ficklegreendice put it when the ARC first came out, if you have an astromech slot, the question is always " why aren't you using R2-D2 ".

The 'worse' ones by your views that I'm not convinced are that bad.:

• R2-D6, 1pt - I'm fine with him not being generic; I agree Red Squadron Pilots and Horton (at least) should have a native EPT but he's pretty fairly costed when you throw in his also enabling integrated astromech.
• R7, 2pt - Works, but only really on Tarn Mison (due to the free lock). It's a nice counter to things like cruise missiles - if you can reroll a hit when someone doesn't have a focus it's far more effective, and that tends to occur when you're using target lock ordnance.
• Targeting Astromech, 2 pt - the T-65 and Y-wing are shy on reds. The T-70 has the Talon Roll, and being able to pick up a lock whilst doing one is awesome. Plus, it's amazing on Hobbie Klivian, turning him into a baby TIE defender.

The 'worse' ones which I agree are bad.

• R3, 2 pt - I'll grant you this one. Even with Swam Leader now being a thing, I've yet to see anyone come up with a reliable use for this mech. Being locked to primary weapon shots, and cutting into your own attack results, makes it hard to trigger, and a free evade is kind of useless unless you can get it before you're shot at.
• R5-K6, 2pt - It's a fire control system, that doesn't always work, for a point more than a fire control system. So.....kinda guff. Theoretically it's better on Dutch, but still not good enough to actually use (especially compared to targeting astromech).
• R2-F2, 3 pt - As noted, the problem is that the extra die is generally not a lot better than the focus token you could get for free unless you can modify dice.
• R5-D8, 3 pt - I think this one is okay specifically on Jek Porkins, as it pairs well with his ability, but it's only 'okay'.

So how would I 'fix' the real stinkers? Well, there is a good thing that all the 'bad' mechs have something in common - all of them are dependent on dice results . K6, F2 and D8 all depend on green dice rolls, whilst R3 depends on getting focus results.

Giving an X-wing some means to manipulate dice that's not tied to 'attacking' or 'defending' /does not require tokens would make these mechs much more useful, and make the X-wing more capable by itself anyway.

6 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

My view on the 'mechs

• R7-T1, 3 pt - awkward with its rather stringent requirements, but a boost and target lock for less than the price of an engine upgrade can't be sneered at. I wonder if intensity might work well with this - giving you boost, target lock, evade/focus for a serious range 1 hoedown (don't try this one against fenn rau!)

The 'worse' ones by your views that I'm not convinced are that bad.:

• Targeting Astromech, 2 pt - the T-65 and Y-wing are shy on reds. The T-70 has the Talon Roll, and being able to pick up a lock whilst doing one is awesome. Plus, it's amazing on Hobbie Klivian, turning him into a baby TIE defender.

The 'worse' ones which I agree are bad.

• R2-F2, 3 pt - As noted, the problem is that the extra die is generally not a lot better than the focus token you could get for free unless you can modify dice.

I agree with most, just adding a few more comments.

R7-T1 - I do enjoy R7-T1 + Intensity + Rey on Norra. With the two firing arcs. I enjoy the guy!

Targeting Astromech - I so wish Hobbies had an EPT for Stay on Target! (One of my biggest wishes from FFG!) On an ARC-170 or the Phantom II with EPTs you have the kind of cool combo of Stay On Target + Hera (Crew) + Targeting Astromech where you just don't care about stress. In the ARCs it is limited to low(er) pilot skill (usually Shara), the Phantom II is going to be limited by fire power.

R2-F2- In casual epic games I like using him on Etahn Abaht+Expertise+ System Jammer + Stealth Device. He makes a extremely hard to kill support ship. Green dice are worth a lot more in Epic. Also, I have just started seriously flying Jess Pava+R2-F2+Auto Thrusters and 3 Green Squadron Snap/Juke pilots. In a tight squadron, those 3 defense dice plus Jess's reroll and auto thrusters, she becomes pretty hard to hit. I love flying a 4-Ship squadrons. Granted, R2-D2 makes more sense (Maybe? I would need someone smarter than me to do the math), but not as fun.

Just some thoughts of fun I have had with these driods are often over-looked.

Also, R3 Astromechs COULD be useful if the Rebels had a generic cheap PS 3 pilot with EPTs equipped with Snap Shot. (You can't change the dice anyways, and it could make a cool close combat fighter.)

Hey FFG, how about an X-Wing "Partisan Pilot" PS3 EPT pilot for 21 points. Snapshot + R3 + Integrated Astromech. I may try flying 4 with this combo, but that is me and my lust for 4-Ship squadron flying. (won't happen)

But really R3 should be the 0 point astromech everyone has been asking for.

One of the best fixes you can give any of these astromechs is to give them a secondary effect equal to R2-D6.

All useless mechs, take away the action header, make it at certain situations like said (end phase, whatnot), and also state that if placing this astromech onto a ship that is PS3+, the ship gains an EPT slot. IMHO, This immediately brings X-Wings, and even E-Wings, right back into top tier. By also doing this, you aren't really boosting Biggs either, because Biggs wants r4d6. Here's how I would do it:

• R2-D6, 1pt - Gain an elite slot if PS3+ and don't already have a slot. Reduce the cost of Elite upgrades by 1 to a minimum of 0. Can only equip to ships that don't have Elite upgrades. Keep Unique
• R3, 2 pt - Gain an Elite pilot skill slot if the ship doesn't have one and is PS3+ . When attacking with your primary weapon, if you spend a focus token to modify at least one focus result during the "Modify Attack Dice" step, then assign one evade token to your ship. (Some randomness still there, but at least you are not sacrificing offense for defense. Even if it only stops one damage per match it is better than Hull Upgrade.)
• R5-K6, 2pt - Gain an Elite pilot skill slot if the ship doesn't have one and is PS3+ . After spending your target lock, you may immediately acquire a target lock on the same ship. You cannot spend this target lock during this attack. (By taking out the randomness it is better than it was but still strictly worse than Fire Control System because you need a lock to spend to set it up. That is just how bad it is.)
• R7, 2pt - Gain an Elite pilot skill slot if the ship doesn't have one and is PS3+ . Keep normal ability. No change needed.
• Targeting Astromech, 2 pt - Gain an Elite pilot skill slot if the ship doesn't have one and is PS3+. Keep normal ability. This encourages the use of Stay on Target.
• R2-F2, 3 pt - When defending, if the attacker is not in your firing arc, roll one additional defense die. (Wasting the action for one die is almost always worse unless you know you will be defending at least 4 times. Its supposed to be Biggs droid and he was getting shot at from behind by Vader so let's put some theme into it.) (This one stays as you designed, I like it)
• R5-D8, 3 pt - Gain an Elite pilot skill slot if the ship doesn't have one and is PS3+. At the end of the Combat phase, you may discard a facedown damage card, then roll a defense die. On a Focus result, discard one of your facedown damage cards. (At 3 points, it was still way too tough to use. Make it so just on focus results, and can always happen. Combined with IA, it can prove to be very tanky, as long as it doesn't blow itself up in the process, and only works on facedown damage cards. Porkins will still love this mech).

This does two things. It fixes useless mechs, and it also fixes X-Wings and E-Wings. This doesn't affect T-70's that much, they like all the other mechs. It might affect ARC's, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Beside, the Arc's we have tend to want R2D2, BB-8, and R3A2, which those should all stay as is.

@droz69 briallant! Have each Mech give an ept (unless already have one)

I also think that mechs should not use an action. What is the purpose of a mech if the pilot has to do their job?

and... each Red Squadron member should at least have their own mech.

On 9/5/2017 at 6:04 AM, pickirk01 said:

• R5-X3, 1pt

That should be a 0-pointer. It can't even be used realistically with Intergrated Astromech. Could be: "You may ignore obstacles until the end of the Activation Phase. If you do, assign yourself one stress token or remove one focus token."

Quote

• R2-D2 4 pt (possibly should have cost 5 but only because the other mechs are so bad. If there were other good options at 1-2 points he would not be a nearly so auto include.)

"After setup, assign four shield tokens to this card. After performing a green maneuver, you may move one of these shield tokens to your pilot card, up to your shield value."

Quote

• R2-D6, 1pt - Should have been generic.

Agreed.

Quote

• R3, 2 pt - When attacking with your primary weapon, if you spend a focus token to modify at least one focus result during the "Modify Attack Dice" step, then assign one evade token to your ship. (Some randomness still there, but at least you are not sacrificing offense for defense. Even if it only stops one damage per match it is better than Hull Upgrade.)

That's too strong. "When attacking, you may cancel one [blank] result to assign yourself an evade token." Still random, and I don't particularly like the usefulness of this card being tied so heavily to high PS, but I can't immediately think of anything better.

Quote

• R5-K6, 2pt - After spending your target lock, you may immediately acquire a target lock on the same ship. You cannot spend this target lock during this attack. (By taking out the randomness it is better than it was but still strictly worse than Fire Control System because you need a lock to spend to set it up. That is just how bad it is.)

I'd like to differentiate it from FCS: "After spending your target lock, you may immediately acquire a target lock on an enemy ship at range 1-2. You cannot spend this target lock during this attack."

Quote

• R7, 2pt

R7 is fine, IMO.

Quote

• R2-F2, 3 pt - When defending, if the attacker is not in your firing arc at Range 1-3, roll one additional defense die. (Wasting the action for one die is almost always worse unless you know you will be defending at least 4 times. Its supposed to be Biggs droid and he was getting shot at from behind by Vader so let's put some theme into it.)

That's not bad (and I get the thematics), but why not give the ships some defense against turrets? "When defending, if you are not in the attacker's firing arc, assign yourself one evade token."

Quote

• R5-D8, 3 pt

"After executing a planned maneuver in which you did not overlap a ship or an obstacle, you may assign yourself a weapons disabled token to discard a facedown damage card."

16 hours ago, Jadotch said:

Also, R3 Astromechs COULD be useful if the Rebels had a generic cheap PS 3 pilot with EPTs equipped with Snap Shot. (You can't change the dice anyways, and it could make a cool close combat fighter.)

R3 is primary weapon only - one of the persistant bugbears with it. Otherwise it'd be a shoe-in for snap shot/R3 on Red Squadron Veterans and maybe even T-70 aces.

16 hours ago, Jadotch said:

In a tight squadron, those 3 defense dice plus Jess's reroll and auto thrusters, she becomes pretty hard to hit. I love flying a 4-Ship squadrons. Granted, R2-D2 makes more sense (Maybe? I would need someone smarter than me to do the math), but not as fun.

A fair point. Jess Pava can get (rare) green dice rerolls, so extra dice are worth it on her, and she simultaneously gets red dice rerolls so she doesn't need her action to focus. My one problem with the idea is that she's generally the least appealing target anyway, so sinking her action into an equivalent of an evade action is kind of redundant; if she doesn't get shot at the action is wasted, but unlike biggs you can't force people to shoot at her.

As a sort-of-biggs-but-not-really, though, Jess with R2-F2 and Selflessness should be rather nice; you can't really afford not to shoot at her but shooting at her is going to be deeply frustrating, especially paired with one of the many ways Rebels have of sharing round free focus tokens.

14 hours ago, droz69 said:

When attacking with your primary weapon, if you spend a focus token to modify at least one focus result during the "Modify Attack Dice" step, then assign one evade token to your ship. (Some randomness still there, but at least you are not sacrificing offense for defense. Even if it only stops one damage per match it is better than Hull Upgrade.)

That feels like enough of a beef by itself. This is now generating a free evade about 60% of the time but isn't compromising your ability to attack . That's worth it right there, I suspect.

It doesn't now work when you lack a focus token, but it's still a pretty good cheap way of boosting an ace's defence.

14 hours ago, droz69 said:

After spending your target lock, you may immediately acquire a target lock on the same ship. You cannot spend this target lock during this attack. (By taking out the randomness it is better than it was but still strictly worse than Fire Control System because you need a lock to spend to set it up. That is just how bad it is.)

It is worse in that sense, but X-wings and Y-wings don't have barrel roll and have low green dice, so target lock rather than focus isn't a massive burden. Plus, yes, it's slightly worse than Fire Control system, but it's pretty darn close. More importantly, it has the interaction with Hobbie Klivian and Dutch Vander to account for - any reliable way to acquire a free, actionless target lock becomes massively more powerful when it can be strapped to these two pilots.

It also applies when spending a target lock outside of attacking, so a T-70 with Targeting Synchroniser gets its lock back instantly if someone else spends its lock on a target - meaning a T-70 locking onto a target provides target locks on that target for your entire squad.

14 hours ago, droz69 said:

At the end of the Combat phase, you may discard a facedown damage card, then roll a defense die. On a Focus result, discard one of your facedown damage cards. (At 3 points, it was still way too tough to use. Make it so just on focus results, and can always happen. Combined with IA, it can prove to be very tanky, as long as it doesn't blow itself up in the process, and only works on facedown damage cards. Porkins will still love this mech).

Again, this is more than powerful enough as is - because it's one-and-a-third regen that doesn't require any setup - no restriction in your dial, no action, no token, no 'consequence' damage or ion tokens - making it easier to use than any regen short of miranda doni's ability. Making it potentially double-trigger as well isn't needed unless you're going to keep it as an ACTION header.

14 hours ago, droz69 said:

When defending, if the attacker is not in your firing arc, roll one additional defense die. (Wasting the action for one die is almost always worse unless you know you will be defending at least 4 times. Its supposed to be Biggs droid and he was getting shot at from behind by Vader so let's put some theme into it.)

I have no particular problem with this one. R2-F2 does have its uses, but this version is okay too. It's probably tactically less useful (because you can't use it in a joust) but it doesn't require you to actually do anything to trigger it, which makes it much more useable.

As noted, the main thing all these recommendations do is take the dice out of the equation on the shoddier mechs. I agree this would be good, but my response is that if you give a T-65 some dice fettling ability inherently, then it becomes better (because it can modify its own green or red dice) regardless of what 'mech it has, but it also becomes much more viable to choose an astromech which requires you to roll a given result to trigger it.

I'm not suggesting that an X-wing should have its own personal palpatine (that seems too strong at first glance), but for the sake of argument imagine that it did (or some variation on the theme, maybe reroll one die whenever you roll any?); being able to be confident in R5-K6 triggering, for instance, makes it much better value, and the number of dice is often more valuable than one modifier on them if you have others up your sleeve, so R2-F2 might be more tempting.

16 hours ago, Jadotch said:

Hey FFG, how about an X-Wing "Partisan Pilot" PS3 EPT pilot for 21 points. Snapshot + R3 + Integrated Astromech. I may try flying 4 with this combo, but that is me and my lust for 4-Ship squadron flying. (won't happen)

A bit too good compared to the existing pilots - I know they're a touch overcosted, but not that much. 22 points would fit between Rookie and Red Squadron; throw in the EPT as a "sorry, we know you need a power increase" gift, and you have a rather nice ship: a Partisan Pilot with Targeting Astromech and a 1-point EPT can still fit 4-in-a-squad, trading a shield and boost for the superior 2-point astromech, a PS increase, and a 1-point 'dirty trick' like crack shot or lightning reflexes (or Cool hand, for focus and target lock on the first K-turn!)

Magnus, wow, sorry man. I just reread some of the stuff I put up there and I mistyped some things. lol. On R5-D8 it should read:

At the end of the Combat phase, you may discard a facedown damage card, then roll a defense die. On a Focus result, discard this astromech (At 3 points, it was still way too tough to use. Make it so just on focus results, and can always happen. Combined with IA, it can prove to be very tanky, as long as it doesn't blow itself up in the process, and only works on facedown damage cards. Porkins will still love this mech).