Idle conversation topic while wait for some info from FFG.

Have any units felt a bit off to you? Like they are just not quite the way you envisioned them? As an imperial player 3 spring to mind.

Darth Vader fighter squadron. To me Vader is not primarily a team player. Hence Escort just feels wrong. If anything Rogue suits him better.

Interdictor. Seems to big and too well armed. To my mind this should be a medium base, say 6 hull, 60-70 point support vessel that needs protection. More in keeping with the old immobiliser 418 from the EU.

Quasar. A bit too well armed. I'd remove a dice from front and both sides and remove rear guns altogether. Drop the points cost accordingly.

Discuss ?

1) Vader I can go either way on.

2) Interdictor. Keep it exactly as it is. That way, there is design space for the Immobliser 418 at some later Stage. Plus, current Interdictor ties into Rebels , which is always good for Marketing.

3) Quasar. Quote happy with the way it is. I wouldn't want it cheaper. Cheaper would make it even more stupidly ubiquitous .

Luke! Granted, he had a Force shot on the Death Star but he is still an awesome FIGHTER pilot and not a bomber pilot. I would prefer i he would have some AS ability rather than a bombing ability.

Vader I agree, but it doesn't bother me too badly.

If the Interdictor was meant to be the Immobilizer 418, I'd agree with you. But since it instead represents the Interdictor cruiser from Star Wars Rebels, which was significantly larger and more heavily armed than the Immobilizer, I'll have to disagree there.

I'm with Dras on the Quasar.

I'll add one to the list, though. The cloak keyword on the TIE Phantom. I have no problem with the mechanical effect, and I quite like the squadron, but I don't think that it thematically captures the feel of a cloaking device. I'd have preferred a scatter defense token that didn't refresh, or something like that.

Vader should not be an escort. They didn't have a huge list of keywords when he was released though. Would be interesting if he GAVE escort to 1 non-unique squad within 1 of him.

Interdictor is in a pretty good spot IMO. Tough in a close in brawl and providing good tactical gravity effects.

Quasar I think is OK as well. Not finding a lot of use in my Imperial lists but I see the value in a large Flight Controllered alpha strike.

Yeah, Vader should have Rogue and Valen Rudor 's ability (the opposite of escort).

I am ok with the other two you mentioned.

TIE Phantom is mechanically meaningless in most engagements, it's a less powerful version of a TIE Interceptor that inexplicably costs more. The ability is useless as it doesn't trigger until after the opponent has had a chance to bring all their firepower to bear on the target. If Phantoms had Rogue their ability would make sense; but as it is they have to be activated into range to attack and then weather the remainder of the ship and squadron phase before they can try ducking back out of the fight.

The Interdictor should be a great ship, but it's absurd cost makes it difficult to coordinate with anything. Too expensive to back up a dedicated combat ship, not enough squadron to be a carrier, overly dependent on specific objective choices to be effective, and a cost premium for defensive retrofits to do anything other than repair constantly. In the campaign it has a critical bonus ability plus a points advantage to bring it into line with other ships, but in normal tournament or casual gameplay it is an over-costed mess.

Vader and Luke need to lose escort.

The Interdictor needs to be large base (it's as big if not bigger than a liberty class cruiser) with slightly (and I mean slightly) better maneuvering to compensate for the bigger base. Otherwise I agree with cactusman.

The TIE phantom needs to have a standard scatter die and be cost appropriate.

All Squadrons with Relay. Relay as a whole. Feels completely OP. I shouldn't be able to use Yavaris to double tap 3 B-Wings from across the map and complete safety.

Valen Rudor is also a bit too powerful. Turning Lambda's into Escorts is a bit insane.

Also, I'd like Han Solo to be a bit more worthwhile. He feels overcosted to me. I haven't done the math.... I just NEVER EVER use him. I just can't pay that much for a squadron that feels so useless.

Titles:

Independance and Redemption for the Rebels.

Both Arquitens titles for Empire.

Interdictor, too well armed?!?!?!

(Agreeed on vader's escort tag)

1 hour ago, Crabbok said:

All Squadrons with Relay. Relay as a whole. Feels completely OP. I shouldn't be able to use Yavaris to double tap 3 B-Wings from across the map and complete safety.

Valen Rudor is also a bit too powerful. Turning Lambda's into Escorts is a bit insane.

Also, I'd like Han Solo to be a bit more worthwhile. He feels overcosted to me. I haven't done the math.... I just NEVER EVER use him. I just can't pay that much for a squadron that feels so useless.

Titles:

Independance and Redemption for the Rebels.

Both Arquitens titles for Empire.

Don't you dare mention mah boi Rudor.

Also yea on the relay. Should be in squadron activation range of the lambda/VCX.

Also I feel like both Arquiten titles are decent, just wish the whole package was a bit cheaper. Or they had some way of rerolling the reds other than Vader.

I don’t get why everyone hates Vader’s escort ability... pair him with Dengar and now people have to shoot at him, and he has a 75% chance of returning a damage. Double tap him with flight controllers and Jendon and you have a legit shot of wiping two fighters off the board with just Vader

1 hour ago, Crabbok said:

All Squadrons with Relay. Relay as a whole. Feels completely OP. I shouldn't be able to use Yavaris to double tap 3 B-Wings from across the map and complete safety.

Valen Rudor is also a bit too powerful. Turning Lambda's into Escorts is a bit insane.

Also, I'd like Han Solo to be a bit more worthwhile. He feels overcosted to me. I haven't done the math.... I just NEVER EVER use him. I just can't pay that much for a squadron that feels so useless.

Titles:

Independance and Redemption for the Rebels.

Both Arquitens titles for Empire.

The issue with Relay is the combination with multiple options that seem to have been developed in a vacuum to boost squadrons. If you told me in particular that flotillas and relay squadrons had never been tested together I'd be entirely too willing to believe you.

Independence and Redemption have both found interesting niche uses over the last few waves due to cards that buff or make use of their particular traits. The aforementioned Relay for example makes Independence a great tool for quickly pushing squadrons out beyond ship support ranges. Redemption has some interesting combinations with certain tanky MC80 builds.

FFG set some very funny precedents with their squadrons. or one the lack of defense or damage mitigation so they either get hit or they don't. To be honest the best defense squadrons have is the 6 turn limit. You attack at squadrons that is an attack that could remove a ship and go for the table victory.

• So squadrons have basic atributes (Speed, HP) Squadron Attack and Ship Attack and Key Words.
• Unique Squadrons can only change keywords. No Special Rules, No defense tokens.
• Aces can change anything and have defense tokens. But for some reason they have to keep all the so called "positive" keywords, however we all know Escort is a double edge sword.

26 minutes ago, MandalorianMoose said:

I don’t get why everyone hates Vader’s escort ability... pair him with Dengar and now people have to shoot at him, and he has a 75% chance of returning a damage. Double tap him with flight controllers and Jendon and you have a legit shot of wiping two fighters off the board with just Vader

The problem is that you can double or triple-tap him with a less costly or critical squadron, after forcing him to attack an unimportant target. For example, locking him down with Wedge and punching 2 6-die attacks back with Yavaris, which can easily result in Wedge surviving even through the Counter and killing Vader with 5 damage in one activation.

5 hours ago, ISD Avenger said:

Have any units felt a bit off to you?

Fahrenheit and anything not in common sense metric.

Re: VCXs... Bear in mind that Rebel Relay with Yavaris requires three VCXs... which are expensive, and detract from the fighting power of your attack force. It makes sense to me that shuttles are better relay craft than VCXs because it's military equipment vs civilian appropriation.

VSDs are supposed to be lesser Imperial Star Destroyers, but for the points you invest in them they're easy to knock out with a big battery, accuracy, and and one upgrade card (XI7). Having every medium being weaker than the weak VSD means the Empire's entire "point" of medium-large ships is pretty much a farce. That the game favors quantities of units spammed with powerful upgrades means the entire medium range is brought into a list on a risk. Taking a Quasar makes it vulnerable to any capital-killing opposition. Taking an Interdictor is a huge points investment for not a lot of combat power return. The VSD is the most straightforward ship, but to survive it pretty much has to rely on hit points and shields- not its tokens.

Small ships expendable, large ships can tank the hit, mediums can do neither. Just feels wrong... I can't build medium-heavy lists knowing my VSDs will get out-activated and shot up.

Maybe swap Vader’s escort for grit, like Maarek has. Not brokenly amazing, but not a 21-point fire magnet, either.

And lore wise, Vader wouldn’t take any of this “engagement” crap from some lone rebel scum.

6 hours ago, The Jabbawookie said:

Maybe swap Vader’s escort for grit, like Maarek has. Not brokenly amazing, but not a 21-point fire magnet, either.

And lore wise, Vader wouldn’t take any of this “engagement” crap from some lone rebel scum.

We all want Vader Errata but we want Escort to be removed. Hey start playing vader with Rhymer and maybe we will get Vader nerfed (remove Escort)

9 hours ago, Marinealver said:

Aces can change anything and have defense tokens. But for some reason they have to keep all the so called "positive" keywords, however we all know Escort is a double edge sword.

A couple of counterexamples off the top of my head:

Han loses Escort.

Jendon loses Strategic.

Hera loses both Relay and Strategic.

There may be others, not sure.

19 minutes ago, Ardaedhel said:

A couple of counterexamples off the top of my head:

Han loses Escort.

Jendon loses Strategic.

Hera loses both Relay and Strategic.

There may be others, not sure.

Yeah, with Aces they just make the rules but with other squadrons, I don't know again it has been my biggest complaint in the game that the squadron mechanics feel so incomplete.

11 hours ago, MandalorianMoose said:

I don’t get why everyone hates Vader’s escort ability... pair him with Dengar and now people have to shoot at him, and he has a 75% chance of returning a damage. Double tap him with flight controllers and Jendon and you have a legit shot of wiping two fighters off the board with just Vader

I don't hate it, it just doesn't seem like Vader. He doesn't strike me as being particularly concerned about protecting other fighter units from what we have seen in various sources.

Gladiator should have been on medium base

Regarding Vader and other cards that feel like they've been mis-costed or now have mere appropriate mechanics available:

I don't know how FFG usually deal with these issues, or if they do at all, but I have the impression that they don't like doing things like outright errata-ing (is that a verb?) cards. Instead preferring to do things like release updates that make the overcodted card cheaper (TIE Advanced from X-Wing, if I understand correctly).

Is there any precedent for them just issuing a replacement card alongside the original? For example, just a new Luke, or Vader, or Han card. They don't need to deal with any of the issues of errata and the confusion that can bring, they just sell a new squadron pack with the new cards in.

The new Han Solo movie might be a good prompt to do that, with the original Millennium Falcon model ( relevant link ) since the Falcon we know and love will look different.

You could still choose to use either card, but one is an effective replacement for the original, without them having to remove anything. That might be a solution for anything that you can't modify with upgrade cards to 'fix'.

I suppose, the new ISD refits sort of fit this replacement card solution, except they're 'new' variant s, rather than alternate ones.

The Corvettes should have been Flotillas.

Since the core it has felt weird for a single CR90 to go at any of the bigger ships. A flight of 2 CR90’s would be far more thematic. Same goes for the Hammerheads and Raiders. Maybe even the Neb-B’s