Don't make Boba Fett fix scum only!

By NeverBetTheFett, in Imperial Assault Skirmish

Since there wasn't a whole lot going on at work today...

zH3WKkT.png

Like before, you'll have to replace his existing Deployment and Command Card.

Edit: Realized that I missed the chance to make the subtitle of this card "Responsible For Car Payments"

Edited by cnemmick
20 hours ago, DerBaer said:

Actually, I don't think so. This Boba has less health than Vader, waaay less defense than Vader, overall the same move like Vader (activation plus end of turn). Force Choke is better than both Flamethrower and Mandalorian Whip, rry does more damage than bgy, Vader has better Surges (except for Recover), both have a reroll, both can attack twice ... actually for 13 points I'd still really think twice about playing him.

  • True about less Health;
  • Totally not true about less defense, Boba has definitely the best defense in the game thanks to his free block and evade;
  • Totally not true about same movement than Vader, Boba moves 6 spaces thanks to mobility, Vader gains 4 movement points and with those he has to reach an enemy in melee in order to be effective, then he gets 2 more movement points at the end of the round, but in the meantime the opponent has had a lot of time to just get away from him;
  • Both Force Choke and Flamethrower deal unblockable damage, with the difference that Flamethrower loses 1 damage and adds weaken. Range is different, but Boba has a ranged attack, Vader no. As for Mandalorian Whip, that ability is the strongest one in the menu. Being able to reposition an enemy figure into an uncovered space (for example you get Han Solo out of an adjacent space from C-3PO) so that all of your figures can blast him to death is a strategical massive advantage, and Boba is Mobile with 6 movement points, he pretty much reaches everyone and everything immediatly.
  • True about RRY being better than BGY, but you made his command card free since you gain it even if you don't add it to your deck and you re-draw it on each round. Oh and, they don't attack both twice, Vader has still to reach his enemy with his movement points and he still walks (and i like it since it's a canon thing), if you have ever played Vader post fix you know that until end of round 2 / round 3 he basically never strike once with his lightsaber unless your opponent has a mind of an Ewok (figures tend to either ignore him or to just step away from him).

@cnemmick, That rework is indeed interesting (BGG dice are awesome in terms of canon), yet i don't like it.
If i look at that Boba, i see a figure with NOTHING unique of him. Every major character has an unique feature and THAT is what makes Imperial Assault high in longevity, because it has many different approaches. If all the fixes make the figures all the same, i can just quit playing because the game would become seriously boring.
Vader has his end of round action, Luke has a free attack so he can either move twice and attack or attack twice and move.
Boba has always been versatile, prepared for any evenience, so i don't see why it's so necessary to remove his mechanics to make him competitive when you can just improve them. Besides, fixes affect deployment cards, not command cards, so we have to move along with Battle Discipline, willing or not.
What i do believe is necessary is to configure him in the same way those major characters were, and therefore let me show you another config. i've been working for him.
I've made it by consider every concern and point of you all, therefore take a really close look to it and to the explanations and comparisons:

CONSIDERATIONS:

  • Vader and Luke are powerful, they have 1 passive free damage;
  • Both Vader and Luke can perform more than 2 actions during 1 round;
  • Both Vader and Luke have a unique special ability (Force Choke and Deflect)
  • (Post-fix only) Both Vader and Luke are the most expensive figures in their respective factions;
  • Fixes affect deployment cards only, not command cards.

Therefore....
THE CARD:

Deployment_Card_Mercenaries_Boba_Fett_In

CARD CONSIDERATIONS (from top to bottom):

  • Figure cost is 13. This makes Boba still the most expensive figure in the faction, just like Vader and Luke.
  • Added 1 passive damage: Just like Vader and Luke. I've taken this trait as a trait of major figures only, and therefore i wanted Boba to be part of that field. Besides, gaining 1 damage helps a lot his damage output to be as solid as Luke's, if not even more.
  • Keeping his free block and evade keeps him at the very best of defensive capacity. This get balanced by manteining a solid comparison with Vader's defense and both Vader and Luke health pools (Boba defends way better than Luke, but he doesn't dodge and he has 1 less health than Luke and costs 1 more than him).
  • Pierce 1 into Pierce 2: This affects pure damage, as you'll see below when i explain about his attacks and damage.
  • Replaced Weaken with 1 power token: It's more of an addition, since the flamethrower adds weaken with no surge (see below). The power token helps collecting precious damage for Boba's next attacks and makes Battle Discipline definitely more versatile and interesting.
  • Battle Whip: There we go, here's Boba's "third action", his free action. Luke attacks, vader chokes, Boba repositions. As i stated above, being able to reposition figures out of covers and benefits, in a place with line of sight to your other groups, is a strategical massive advantage, and in this way Boba would be able to that on each turn. Not only, because he's perfectly suited for this job since he's got the best defense and he moves 6 spaces thanks to the mobile trait, that means Boba, better than Ahsoka, is able to reach everyone and everything almost immediatly. In the ultimate outcome, Battle Whip helps you a lot in gaining map advantage, especially if you grab and move a figure into a difficoult terrain.
  • Battle Discipline: No doubts this is the most discussed ability. But willing or not, there is nothing we all can do to remove it, Boba MUST move along with it. BUT! That doesn't mean there's nothing we can do to make it viable!
    Boba is a skilled, versatile bounty hunter equipped with a small arsenal to being able to adapt to each situation during his hunt, we all know that. Therefore, this is what Boba should look like in Imperial Assault aswell, and that's exactly what i've done here. Battle Discipline is now splitted into 2 parts, the second part is still the ability pool to choose from which is affected by Mandalorian Tactics, while the first part makes you choose the weapon to attack with.
    Boba's blaster is a EE-3 Carabine Rifle, which weapon is obtainable in the campaign aswell. For those who don't know about this, there's another version of the Carabine Rifle, the EE-4, which differs from the EE-3 in terms of power and range (the EE-4 is more powerful but has a way shorter range than the EE-3 -> the +2 passive accuracy from the campaign weapon is both useful and a canon feature, since the EE-3 emphasizes the range and Boba chose it for that specific reason). Since Boba opted for the EE-3, and that weapon rolls GG in the campaign, i don't see why it should roll differently in skirmish. Therefore, as i stated above, i've gone with GG and added 1 Blue die to emphasize range and give Boba his proper power/skill boost, mantaining the canon aspects.
    Now, you may be still unhappy because you don't see any +2 damage surge in Boba's traits, but before even complaining take a closer look to the damage output. To do so, i'll bring you an exhaustive graph which consider a comparison between Boba and Luke:

    Graph_1.png

    In the graph, the red line shows Boba's blast damage by choosing +2 damage surge from Battle Discipline ability. The simulation is calculated based off an attack against 1 black die in defense. Compared to Luke Jedi's sabre strike, Boba's blast deals definitely more damage than Luke, with a precise 50% of chance to deal 6 damage, against the (around) 20% of Luke. But now you'll say "and the third line?"
    The blue line in the graph shows Boba's attack damage without getting the +2 damage surge from Battle Discipline ability. Indeed, damage is reduced, but as you can see the difference with Luke's strike is minimal. This means that the dice combination + the passive damage bonus trait allow Boba's blast to hurt, much. Automatically, choosing one of the abilities given by Battle Discipline gets MUCH MORE interesting, because now you have the chance to SNIPE (+2 ac. +2 base ac. from Blue die +2 ac. from both Green dice = 6 base range, up to 13) or to heal up if you ain't in a good shape, while still dealing a solid amount of damage (more than 50% of dealing 5 damage, even more if you've collected a power token to spend while you heal or snipe) -> A.K.A. Versatile (doesn't this make Boba more unique as a figure? :)). And what about Mandalorian Tactics then? Mandalorian Tactics becomes massive, by making Boba strike twice with such damage output and by giving him 1 free surge already, which you may even use to collect power tokens for your nest strikes!
    Ok so, you've seen closely the normal attack, but don't forget i've added one more to choose from, which is the Flamethrower!
    Wanted by y'all i guess, the first thing you'll definitely notice is that it rolls 2 dices only. "OMG really? why? how could you..." Quit thinking! before squeezing your noses, let's take a closer look at it, shall we?
    First thing off, the attck gains +1 strain and Weaken. This immediatly forces the opponent to choose wether taking 1 more damage (or 1 damage enough to suffer the keyword for the condition) or discarding 1 command card, and we love seeing them discarding, oh yeah. BUT! don't forget that Boba had one passive addition, that famous +1 damage! So, in the end, before even rolling a die, the attack gains +1 damage, +1 strain and Weaken. WAIT, isn't that Terro's flamethrower? :D
    NOP! This is Boba's flamethrower! In facts, it's a proper weapon, with its dice against a defense roll, so let's go to this part with another simulation:

    Graph_2.png

    Yep, there are 5 lines. Why?, don't worry, you'll know that right now!
    To begin with, let's take the base of the comparison: the red line shows Boba's damage by choosing +2 damage surge from Battle Discipline ability while the green line shows Luke Jedi's damage. Once more, the blue line shows Boba's damage without choosing the +2 damage surge from Battle Discipline ability. Yep, the difference is big this time, yet we have to remember that the simulation doesn't consider the strain damage and the Weaken condition. Now you're getting at the sense of the fourth and fifth line, don't you? :P the yellow line shows Boba's damage by choosing +2 damage surge from Battle Discipline ability + adding 1 more damage from the strain. NOW things become interesting, because the damage output is pretty much the same as Luke's, but flamethrower adds Weaken aswell. The bright blue line, instead, shows Boba's damage without choosing +2 damage surge from Battle Discipline ability but adding +1 damage from the strain. The line is slightly better than the red one for lower damages, while becomes slightly weaker from 4 on. This means that you can choose to go for damage and get a yellow line damage output, or to heal up if necessary and still deal a few damage while applying Weaken.
    But the real interesting part comes now: What about Mandalorian Tactics?
    You'll say it's useless, i say no. Instead, with Mandalorian Tactics the flamethrower gets a HUGE boost, take a look:

    Graph_3.png

    Red: Boba's damage without the strain damage
    Green: Luke Jedi's damage
    Blue: Boba's damage + 1 more damage from the strain

    That's definitely huge, but MAYBE you haven't consider the biggest part of this rework (that's why i've kept this up to the grand final):
    By being able to choose which one to perform when you attack, you can combine both Flamethrower (1st) and EE-3 (2nd) attack to get something simply devastating.
    Start by consider the graph right above we've just looked at. If you consider that Flamethrower applies Weaken, the EE-3 Carabine shot becomes even more powerful than before, like in this simulation:

    Graph_4.png

    Red: Boba's damage with the enemy being Weakened
    Green: Luke Jedi's damage
    Blue: Darth Vader's sabre strike with Driven by Hatred
    Yep. You've seen it. It's something similar to Vader's strike, with even a very little chance to deal 10 damage.

    CONCLUSION:

    Again, i'm sorry for this post's dimensions, but after all of this i really hope you could enjoy it and, who knows, maybe this fix will suit all of your wishes!
    Again again, i wish to hear your opinions!
Edited by erlucius90

Strange wording. "Flamethrower: Roll XX dice." does nothing by itself.

You need "You attack pool is X." (Or "Perform an attack with X and Y.")

1 minute ago, a1bert said:

Strange wording. "Flamethrower: Roll XX dice." does nothing by itself.

You need "You attack pool is X." (Or "Perform an attack with X and Y.")

Hmm, now that you make me think you may be right, i'll correct it right now

On 11/1/2017 at 11:46 AM, NeverBetTheFett said:

LMAO! It was a force kick OK?!! A force kick!

Could also be the air movement created by the kick swing ... if you look at it from a certain point of view ... :lol:

Regarding Jabba's tug, I did not know he hired some WW II german soldiers ... ;)

Star-Wars-Kick.gif

Edited by IanSolo_FFG

I like all the thought put into your Boba Fett rework, @erlucius90! In particular, the rework of Battle Discipline is AMAZING. Saves the need to create a seperate new command card for him. Great job with that!

Here's my issues. Please note I'm presenting these in the form of constructive criticism -- I really think you've gotten closer to making Boba a great figure than I have! -- and not in the usual message board parlance of snotty "WELL ACTUALLY YOU'RE WRONG".

  • You say, "Every major character has an unique feature and THAT is what makes Imperial Assault high in longevity, because it has many different approaches. If all the fixes make the figures all the same, i can just quit playing because the game would become seriously boring."

    That's a fair assessment, and I'm okay with thinking outside the box for Boba's abilities. However, this Boba has Shyla's whip ability, which is counterproductive to the previous statement. To reiterate what I said above: I'm not trying to be a ****. But I think you need to be careful to state a very explicit design restriction and then ignore it.
  • My other problems with Battle Whip -- and the reasons why I never added it to my Boba build -- are the following:
    1) Boba never uses a pull-like whip in the movies, or any of the official videogames. He does use the Wrist Cable thing to wrap up Luke in RotJ. Maybe he uses a whip in the old Extended Universe?
    2) Boba has a Speed of 6 and Mobile. He should have *no* problems finding a position to attack from. There's nothing stopping him from running 3 spaces into a mess of hostile figures, attacking once (or twice with some sort of free attack), and then running 3 spaces away (through blocking terrain if necessary) to safety.
  • 15 Health, with a static +1 BLOCK and +1 EVADE with a black die roll. Speed 6 and Mobile -- plenty to get away from pursuers without any Command Card tricks. SURGE: Recover 2 DMG and the ability to have an attack with 2 yellow dice.

    I'm honestly not sure if your Boba Fett can be killed in a skirmish game that is 4 rounds or less. Boba should be as great as Vader or JK Luke, but killing Vader and JK Luke happens regularly because both figures have to be in melee range. There's nothing in this Boba design that gives the opponents an incentive to chase and kill Boba... and if they do, they'll likely not be able to do it.

    If you want to keep Boba at 13 Deployment Points, he's gotta be weakened in some way. Speed 6 & Mobile is as much of a defensive boon as it is offensive -- but that is a very unique combination, and I would not want to remove that for any reason. If you keep Recover 2 DMG and both the static +1 BLOCK and +1 EVADE, then his Health should be no more than 10. If you get rid of the Recover 2 DMG, I think you still need to reduce Health to 12 or 13. If you get rid of one or more of the static defense abilities, then Recover 2 DMG could become a considerable choice late in the game, when Boba should have Hunter cards to help amp up his primary attack.

To reiterate - I think the work you did with Battle Discipline here has gotten Boba closer to a tier-1 character. But your changes to Boba's offense with no subsequent reduction in Boba's defense makes him Tier 0, where players will refuse to play at a tournament where somebody runs a list with him in it. Also, I think Battle Whip doesn't fit your design goals - he should be able to do some sort of secondary free attack that also lines up with his kit. If you tweak those things, I think you'll have it!

Edited by cnemmick
On 6/11/2017 at 6:49 PM, cnemmick said:

I like all the thought put into your Boba Fett rework, @erlucius90! In particular, the rework of Battle Discipline is AMAZING. Saves the need to create a seperate new command card for him. Great job with that!

Here's my issues. Please note I'm presenting these in the form of constructive criticism -- I really think you've gotten closer to making Boba a great figure than I have! -- and not in the usual message board parlance of snotty "WELL ACTUALLY YOU'RE WRONG".

  • You say, "Every major character has an unique feature and THAT is what makes Imperial Assault high in longevity, because it has many different approaches. If all the fixes make the figures all the same, i can just quit playing because the game would become seriously boring."

    That's a fair assessment, and I'm okay with thinking outside the box for Boba's abilities. However, this Boba has Shyla's whip ability, which is counterproductive to the previous statement. To reiterate what I said above: I'm not trying to be a ****. But I think you need to be careful to state a very explicit design restriction and then ignore it.
  • My other problems with Battle Whip -- and the reasons why I never added it to my Boba build -- are the following:
    1) Boba never uses a pull-like whip in the movies, or any of the official videogames. He does use the Wrist Cable thing to wrap up Luke in RotJ. Maybe he uses a whip in the old Extended Universe?
    2) Boba has a Speed of 6 and Mobile. He should have *no* problems finding a position to attack from. There's nothing stopping him from running 3 spaces into a mess of hostile figures, attacking once (or twice with some sort of free attack), and then running 3 spaces away (through blocking terrain if necessary) to safety.
  • 15 Health, with a static +1 BLOCK and +1 EVADE with a black die roll. Speed 6 and Mobile -- plenty to get away from pursuers without any Command Card tricks. SURGE: Recover 2 DMG and the ability to have an attack with 2 yellow dice.

    I'm honestly not sure if your Boba Fett can be killed in a skirmish game that is 4 rounds or less. Boba should be as great as Vader or JK Luke, but killing Vader and JK Luke happens regularly because both figures have to be in melee range. There's nothing in this Boba design that gives the opponents an incentive to chase and kill Boba... and if they do, they'll likely not be able to do it.

    If you want to keep Boba at 13 Deployment Points, he's gotta be weakened in some way. Speed 6 & Mobile is as much of a defensive boon as it is offensive -- but that is a very unique combination, and I would not want to remove that for any reason. If you keep Recover 2 DMG and both the static +1 BLOCK and +1 EVADE, then his Health should be no more than 10. If you get rid of the Recover 2 DMG, I think you still need to reduce Health to 12 or 13. If you get rid of one or more of the static defense abilities, then Recover 2 DMG could become a considerable choice late in the game, when Boba should have Hunter cards to help amp up his primary attack.

To reiterate - I think the work you did with Battle Discipline here has gotten Boba closer to a tier-1 character. But your changes to Boba's offense with no subsequent reduction in Boba's defense makes him Tier 0, where players will refuse to play at a tournament where somebody runs a list with him in it. Also, I think Battle Whip doesn't fit your design goals - he should be able to do some sort of secondary free attack that also lines up with his kit. If you tweak those things, I think you'll have it!

Sorry for the late reply, had a lot of stuff to do irl!
Hmm maybe you're right, i might have overpowered him a bit xD I'll make some calculations and tests, then i'll post a fix!
As for the whip, yeah he uses a lot of stuff in the legends, sniper rifles, fist weapons and much more, whip included. But isince you recall of the ROTJ scene with Luke, maybe i could just change its name or figure it out to do that action?

On 11/4/2017 at 1:44 PM, IanSolo_FFG said:

Star-Wars-Kick.gif

Sorry that I don't really have anything to add to the thread's conversation, I just wanted to pop in and say that this is my new favourite GIF

18 hours ago, ManateeX said:

Sorry that I don't really have anything to add to the thread's conversation, I just wanted to pop in and say that this is my new favourite GIF

Agreed! Dude, I can't stop laughing when I watch it. Not sure what's funnier, the "force kick", the WWII Nazi, or Boba Fett flying horizontally across the screen (from a vertical jetpack)! LOL.

Edited by NeverBetTheFett

@erlucius90 I took your ideas and my ideas and mashed them up into an actual Skirmish Attachment card:

Quote

Unique Skirmish Attachment Card: Infamous Car Owner (Boba Fett: Infamous Bounty Hunter only)

You lose "+1 BLOCK", "SURGE: Weaken" and "Battle Presence". You gain "+1 DMG" and "SURGE: +1 DMG TOKEN" Your attack pool is now 2 Green and 1 Blue Dice.

EE-4 Carabine: When you perform an attack with your regular attack pool, figures do not block line of sight for that attack.

Flamethrower: When you declare an attack, you may choose to use 2 Yellow dice as your attack pool. If you do, the target suffers 1 STRAIN and becomes Weakened.

Villainous: Once during your activation, you may spend 4 movement points to perform an attack without spending an action.

So instead of the whip and the wrist rocket, Boba gets an extra attack per activation provided he sacrifices some of his movement. With those two attacks, you can choose to use the SURGE: Recover 2 DMG on one or both of them.