Obsidian Squadron Relay *
Title
TIE Fighter Only. Unique.

All friendly Obsidian Squadron Pilots gain your pilot ability.
You may not equip this title if your Pilot Skill is 4 or lower.

(3pts)

So, the pilots this works meaningfully with: Night Beast (free Focus on green), Winged Gundark (hits -> crits at R1), Dark Curse, Backstabber, Mauler Mithel, Howlrunner. Deliberately set at PS>4 to avoid spamming Wampas.

3pts cost is just enough to fit Night Beast + title, Howlrunner, 4 Obsidian Sqd and 1 Academy Pilot into a 7 TIE Swarm. If you go for anyone more expensive, like Backstabber, you have to start sacrificing Obsidian Pilots for Academies and the benefit you get is going to go down (eg it's got to be Backstabber, Howlrunner, 3x Obsidian, 2x Academy).

Intention is to allow a bit more 'customisation' to TIE Swarms by giving them a leader who hands an ability out. Dark Curse swarm flies very differently to Backstabber swarm. Also makes target priority a bit more interesting and it's not so obvious to just pick on Howlrunner first, as if you remove the Relay you stop them sharing abilities.

I'm not sure I'm a fan of the idea mechanically but it's certainly interesting.

Dark Curse is not so great - because the generics won't get much in the way of target priority compared to the uniques anyway, and even more so if they're all Dark Curse, but a swarm of Mauler Mithels is a nasty thought to contemplate.

Also; you may want to be a bit more specific with restrictions. Otherwise.....

...well...

• Omega Leader, A Score To Settle, Obsidian Squadron Relay
• Obsidian Squadron Pilot, Targeting Computer x 5

Are we really, really sure we want this to be a thing?

I like the idea, but maybe it should have some range limitation. You know, so that TIE swarms still have to fly in those beautiful formations.

10 minutes ago, Giledhil said:

I like the idea, but maybe it should have some range limitation. You know, so that TIE swarms still have to fly in those beautiful formations.

Well, partly I wanted to give TIEs a chance to avoid being locked into flying in blocks like that. Plus it's costed to assume Howlrunner would still incentivise formations.

But you'd think we've learned enough lessons about rangeless abilities, so yeah Range 1-3 should be on there.

@Magnus Grendel I wondered about that, wasn't sure how to word it properly to limit purely to TIE Fighters (as in, the Wave I ship) as the Youngster ruling really screws with that in a way that I don't think any other ships have to deal with.

9 minutes ago, Stay On The Leader said:

Well, partly I wanted to give TIEs a chance to avoid being locked into flying in blocks like that. Plus it's costed to assume Howlrunner would still incentivise formations.

But you'd think we've learned enough lessons about rangeless abilities, so yeah Range 1-3 should be on there.

@Magnus Grendel I wondered about that, wasn't sure how to word it properly to limit purely to TIE Fighters (as in, the Wave I ship) as the Youngster ruling really screws with that in a way that I don't think any other ships have to deal with.

"You may not equip this upgrade if your upgrade bar includes [Tech]".

It's a common issue with people's "X-wing Fixes", too, and that's generally agreed to be the simplest means of excluding Resistance/First Order era ships.

Gotta love FFG wording.

I'd leave it at TIE Fighter and then just have the FAQ fix it 'because we said it works this way'. That's the FFG way of doing it.

17 minutes ago, Stay On The Leader said:

Well, partly I wanted to give TIEs a chance to avoid being locked into flying in blocks like that. Plus it's costed to assume Howlrunner would still incentivise formations.

But you'd think we've learned enough lessons about rangeless abilities, so yeah Range 1-3 should be on there.

You're right, it seems fine to think Howlrunner will keep them TIEs close together. I'm just too much a fan of beautiful formations, but I admit it would be better to give them some other possibilities, with tractor beams and harpoons around.

4 hours ago, Stay On The Leader said:

Obsidian Squadron Relay *
Title
TIE Fighter Only. Unique.

All friendly Obsidian Squadron Pilots gain your pilot ability.
You may not equip this title if your Pilot Skill is 4 or lower.

(3pts

So Give Tie Swarm the IG 88 pilot ability more or less.

Just now, Lonestar83 said:

So Give Tie Swarm the IG 88 pilot ability more or less.

Sort of. One pilot shares their ability with the others, they don't share with each other.

2 minutes ago, Stay On The Leader said:

Sort of. One pilot shares their ability with the others, they don't share with each other.

Then is this a Limited title force you to choose 1 ship to share ability with or can you have 2 or 3 of them going at once?

4 hours ago, Stay On The Leader said:

Obsidian Squadron Relay *
Title
TIE Fighter Only. Unique. <------ This bit here!

All friendly Obsidian Squadron Pilots gain your pilot ability.
You may not equip this title if your Pilot Skill is 4 or lower.

(3pts)

Sorry missed that when I first read the card

2 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

"You may not equip this upgrade if your upgrade bar includes [Tech]".

It's a common issue with people's "X-wing Fixes", too, and that's generally agreed to be the simplest means of excluding Resistance/First Order era ships.

As ever, FFG need to errata all the early ships to include a numerical designator so as to avoid this issue in future. TIE/ln Fighter, TIE/sa Bomber, T65 X-Wing etc,

7 hours ago, Stay On The Leader said:

Obsidian Squadron Relay *
Title
TIE Fighter Only. Unique.

All friendly Obsidian Squadron Pilots gain your pilot ability.
You may not equip this title if your Pilot Skill is 4 or lower.

(3pts)

So, the pilots this works meaningfully with: Night Beast (free Focus on green), Winged Gundark (hits -> crits at R1), Dark Curse, Backstabber, Mauler Mithel, Howlrunner. Deliberately set at PS>4 to avoid spamming Wampas.

3pts cost is just enough to fit Night Beast + title, Howlrunner, 4 Obsidian Sqd and 1 Academy Pilot into a 7 TIE Swarm. If you go for anyone more expensive, like Backstabber, you have to start sacrificing Obsidian Pilots for Academies and the benefit you get is going to go down (eg it's got to be Backstabber, Howlrunner, 3x Obsidian, 2x Academy).

Intention is to allow a bit more 'customisation' to TIE Swarms by giving them a leader who hands an ability out. Dark Curse swarm flies very differently to Backstabber swarm. Also makes target priority a bit more interesting and it's not so obvious to just pick on Howlrunner first, as if you remove the Relay you stop them sharing abilities.

Night beast ties woild be op

I just want Tie Fighters to have a suppressive fire mechanic... but I like this idea

12 hours ago, rafcpl6868 said:

Night beast ties woild be op

Not really. Yes, free focus token, but what else are they doing with their action? Evade? Fair enough, but only one ship (the one your opponent shoots at) gets any use out of it. Barrel Roll....how often, really, do you need to do that - especially since it's on a green move, so a bank/barrel roll only gives you so many advantages over just doing the corresponding turn instead?

Good, yes. Overpowered? Not so sure. With a swarm leader in tow, maybe better, but it's already easy to field two TIEs who don't can easily generate an evade to give up (Wampa and Night Beast).

Especially since a TIE Fighter's green dial isn't that great, being just two straights and a bank, much like the X-wing.

9 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Not really. Yes, free focus token, but what else are they doing with their action? Evade? Fair enough, but only one ship (the one your opponent shoots at) gets any use out of it. Barrel Roll....how often, really, do you need to do that - especially since it's on a green move, so a bank/barrel roll only gives you so many advantages over just doing the corresponding turn instead?

Good, yes. Overpowered? Not so sure. With a swarm leader in tow, maybe better, but it's already easy to field two TIEs who don't can easily generate an evade to give up (Wampa and Night Beast).

Especially since a TIE Fighter's green dial isn't that great, being just two straights and a bank, much like the X-wing.

Sorry, meant dark curse/

On 9/26/2017 at 4:53 AM, Magnus Grendel said:

Also; you may want to be a bit more specific with restrictions. Otherwise.....

...well...

• Omega Leader, A Score To Settle, Obsidian Squadron Relay
• Obsidian Squadron Pilot, Targeting Computer x 5

Are we really, really sure we want this to be a thing?

Oh, wait, no. No, of course not. Pfft. Game balance and all that.

I really like that there is no range/formation limitation so that OL the ship giving the ability can run around the board like pre-nerf Manaroo while the squad gets to work.

1 hour ago, rafcpl6868 said:

Sorry, meant dark curse/

I'm not sure if Dark Curse would be OP, or just enough to slow the current situation where TIE's get popped every turn making TIE swarms toothless. I like Dark Curse, and have a list I regularly fly him with and he still insta pops to the occasional green blank-out.