So I know there is some debate as to whether FFG should put more clone wars era ships in the game. In some of the new expanded universe novels (Lords of the Sith and Thrawn) the Empire faces off against forces using reprogrammed droid fighters. Ultimately they failed, but still made for interesting dogfights in those books.

I would love to see 2-3 vulture droid ships for 20 points. 2 attack, 2 agility, 2 hull, 0 shields. Target lock, Evade And Barrel Roll for actions since droids can't focus. And since they could transition to walking mode and post up on capitol ships I would love to see an ability where they can land on asteroids or epic ships and become range 1-2 turrets.

And since the CIS is no longer a thing they could be the first universal ships capable of being used by all factions simply takong into account the pointa needed to field them.

I think there is room for droid based ships using the IG88 model of same pilot skill, but depending on the setting determine what abilities they have. I dunno. Just a thought

Thoughts:

• Any X-wing era Vultures would, I agree, be 'reactivated' clone wars units.
• They probably (much as I don't want to say it) belong in scum, because in most cases it seems to be pirates and holdouts using them (some battle droids pop up in a pirate base in the Vader comics, too).
• As a dedicated swarm player, I really, really wouldn't want to see them weaker than a TIE fighter because having more than 8 ships on the board makes the game a tiresome mess. 8 is pushing it at times.
• This is a problem, because they are weaker than TIE fighters and probably should cost less points.
• I know 'walking mode' was a thing, but I'm not convinced about landing on asteroids. I don't think I ever saw landed droids operate as flak turrets, only attempt to shoot at ground targets, and being able to both stop and park unaffected on a rock is a big deal.

If I was making vultures, I'd use the same thought process I had for TIE/droids; fielding multiple small ships as a large base "swarm".

• Imagine 4 vultures flying in essentially base-to-base contact. Now replace the 4 small bases with one big base.
• There is a combined statline of attack 5, agility 0, hull 4, shields 0 (looks weird, will make sense in a minute)
• Through text-on-pilot card, or auto-include titles:
  • Any time the ship receives damage, critical damage, or damage cards from any source, it is instead dealt a single face-down damage card
  • The ship's primary weapon value is reduced by the number of damage cards assigned to it
  • The ship's agility is increased by the number of damage cards assigned to it.
• This results in a 'full' swarm having impressive firepower (because one attack is essentially 4 ships combining fire at you) and each 'hit' (whether it's 1 damage from a Twin Laser Turret or 5 damage from an Advanced Proton Torpedo) shoots one down, making their attack lower but also making it harder to hit them as the solid 'mass' of fighters becomes lone, elusive droid fighters.
• I agree with Target Lock/Evade but not focus. Similarly I would recommend giving them SLAM rather than Boost, and then fair enough on Barrel Roll.
• To give them some sort of useful capability, a systems slot would be nice - if you wanted a unique element, double systems slots does not currently exist in the game, and the option of (for example) Fire Control System and Sensor Jammer is a nice pairing.

40 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

If I was making vultures, I'd use the same thought process I had for TIE/droids; fielding multiple small ships as a large base "swarm".

• Imagine 4 vultures flying in essentially base-to-base contact. Now replace the 4 small bases with one big base.
• There is a combined statline of attack 5, agility 0, hull 4, shields 0 (looks weird, will make sense in a minute)
• Through text-on-pilot card, or auto-include titles:
  • Any time the ship receives damage, critical damage, or damage cards from any source, it is instead dealt a single face-down damage card
  • The ship's primary weapon value is reduced by the number of damage cards assigned to it
  • The ship's agility is increased by the number of damage cards assigned to it.
• This results in a 'full' swarm having impressive firepower (because one attack is essentially 4 ships combining fire at you) and each 'hit' (whether it's 1 damage from a Twin Laser Turret or 5 damage from an Advanced Proton Torpedo) shoots one down, making their attack lower but also making it harder to hit them as the solid 'mass' of fighters becomes lone, elusive droid fighters.
• I agree with Target Lock/Evade but not focus. Similarly I would recommend giving them SLAM rather than Boost, and then fair enough on Barrel Roll.
• To give them some sort of useful capability, a systems slot would be nice - if you wanted a unique element, double systems slots does not currently exist in the game, and the option of (for example) Fire Control System and Sensor Jammer is a nice pairing.

I love this. That would be awesome

Really who's demanding droids? Certainly I don't know anyone clambering for them.

Unlike the gunboat which is selling gangbusters im pretty sure droids would just sit on shelves, certainly I'd never touch them.

Here is my rendition of the Vultures.

The 3 attack keeps the cost not too cheap, and I added mechanics to make them behave differently.

The greatest problem with most Clone Era ships is the scale: they would look too small in the small base.

1 hour ago, Hobojebus said:

Really who's demanding droids? Certainly I don't know anyone clambering for them.

Unlike the gunboat which is selling gangbusters im pretty sure droids would just sit on shelves, certainly I'd never touch them.

I'm pretty sure that, if they're good on the table they'll sell in droves. How long was the iconic K-wing out of stock pretty much everywhere?

The empire came across Vultures in "Tarkin" as well.

But to be honest, IF we're going to do this, we should probably take the time to fully develop the Republic and CIS as factions. Just putting Vultures in the game is not going to muffle the demand for Clone Wars content, but enhance it.

Not to mention that these ships are very much icons of their own era. Content for new releases is going to run thin eventually, and while I'm all for sensibly including CW era content in the GCW where it fits, let's not pretend that this is the main reason we want the ships in the game.

5 hours ago, LordBlades said:

I'm pretty sure that, if they're good on the table they'll sell in droves. How long was the iconic K-wing out of stock pretty much everywhere?

So your answer is to make them too strong so they sell, that's even worse.

Miranda and tlt cards was what sold the k-wing not it's looks, not it's fan base which was non existent.

2 minutes ago, Hobojebus said:

So your answer is to make them too strong so they sell, that's even worse.

Miranda and tlt cards was what sold the k-wing not it's looks, not it's fan base which was non existent.

That's FFGs answer, I didn't make the k-wing. IMO ships are bought for two reasons:

-people like it (mainly for inconic ships)

- it's good in play

If a ship is neither, you don't need to be a prophet to predict it won't sell (I'd be genuinely surprised if the Punisher isn't the worst selling x-wing ship).

1 hour ago, LordBlades said:

I'd be genuinely surprised if the Punisher isn't the worst selling x-wing ship.

I doubt it's the worst selling. It does come with extra munitions and it seems every other wave has some sort of "fix" for it that try to lure people in like LWF, unguoded rockets, Bomblet and minefield mapper. I never bought one, but those things made it look interesting

7 hours ago, LordBlades said:

I'm pretty sure that, if they're good on the table they'll sell in droves. How long was the iconic K-wing out of stock pretty much everywhere?

The K-Wing has always sold well. Mostly because for a long time they were the only ship that came with TLT. EBay was packed with discount K-Wings that didn't come with upgrade cards because sellers were selling TLT separately. Never had anything to do with K-Wings actually being used until more recently.

15 hours ago, Hobojebus said:

Really who's demanding droids? Certainly I don't know anyone clambering for them.

Unlike the gunboat which is selling gangbusters im pretty sure droids would just sit on shelves, certainly I'd never touch them.

I would fly some Vulture Droids.

Honestly, I like the look of them, and pirate operated ones could have a great variety of paint schemes.

Add in buzz droids as a new mine type as well.

22 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Thoughts:

• Any X-wing era Vultures would, I agree, be 'reactivated' clone wars units.
• They probably (much as I don't want to say it) belong in scum, because in most cases it seems to be pirates and holdouts using them (some battle droids pop up in a pirate base in the Vader comics, too).
• As a dedicated swarm player, I really, really wouldn't want to see them weaker than a TIE fighter because having more than 8 ships on the board makes the game a tiresome mess. 8 is pushing it at times.
• This is a problem, because they are weaker than TIE fighters and probably should cost less points.
• I know 'walking mode' was a thing, but I'm not convinced about landing on asteroids. I don't think I ever saw landed droids operate as flak turrets, only attempt to shoot at ground targets, and being able to both stop and park unaffected on a rock is a big deal.

If I was making vultures, I'd use the same thought process I had for TIE/droids; fielding multiple small ships as a large base "swarm".

• Imagine 4 vultures flying in essentially base-to-base contact. Now replace the 4 small bases with one big base.
• There is a combined statline of attack 5, agility 0, hull 4, shields 0 (looks weird, will make sense in a minute)
• Through text-on-pilot card, or auto-include titles:
  • Any time the ship receives damage, critical damage, or damage cards from any source, it is instead dealt a single face-down damage card
  • The ship's primary weapon value is reduced by the number of damage cards assigned to it
  • The ship's agility is increased by the number of damage cards assigned to it.
• This results in a 'full' swarm having impressive firepower (because one attack is essentially 4 ships combining fire at you) and each 'hit' (whether it's 1 damage from a Twin Laser Turret or 5 damage from an Advanced Proton Torpedo) shoots one down, making their attack lower but also making it harder to hit them as the solid 'mass' of fighters becomes lone, elusive droid fighters.
• I agree with Target Lock/Evade but not focus. Similarly I would recommend giving them SLAM rather than Boost, and then fair enough on Barrel Roll.
• To give them some sort of useful capability, a systems slot would be nice - if you wanted a unique element, double systems slots does not currently exist in the game, and the option of (for example) Fire Control System and Sensor Jammer is a nice pairing.

Excellent idea! This please FFG!

15 hours ago, Browncoat50 said:

I doubt it's the worst selling. It does come with extra munitions and it seems every other wave has some sort of "fix" for it that try to lure people in like LWF, unguoded rockets, Bomblet and minefield mapper. I never bought one, but those things made it look interesting

My vote goes to the Quadjumper.

I would love vulture droids, so I can recreate lords of the sigh, great book.

I also want a chopper y wing pilot where he can control another y wing.

On 1/11/2018 at 6:45 AM, Odanan said:

Here is my rendition of the Vultures.

The 3 attack keeps the cost not too cheap, and I added mechanics to make them behave differently.

The greatest problem with most Clone Era ships is the scale: they would look too small in the small base.

I like your vulture droid fighter ideas a lot. I’m working on a batch of custom Hunter-Killer droid starfighters.

On 1/11/2018 at 4:38 AM, Hobojebus said:

Really who's demanding droids? Certainly I don't know anyone clambering for them.

Unlike the gunboat which is selling gangbusters im pretty sure droids would just sit on shelves, certainly I'd never touch them.

Well geez there it is guys, the entire fanbase's desire for droids is determined by this guy right here. I bet he's right, nobody likes Prequel stuff and FFG has no intent to relea-

OH.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Honestly? Droid Starfighters should come as a set of 2-3 on one peg. Single Vulture Droids weren't all that bad, but loads of them were the problem. If one unit costs 12 points, in a very bizarre way, it's a 4 cost ship. You could do something really unique with this, too. For every hull you lose, you also lose attack value. Here's my proposed stat line.

3
3
3
0
And every time one goes, hull/attack is lost. However... Agility is not. So by the end, you've got a 1ATK - 5AGI ship running around. But it's also worth 4 points every time you take one down. That's eight units costed at 12 points with a 3ATK value. That's also 32 points you're gonna have a hard time getting unless you're rolling loads of dice, using bombs, or other proximity things. It'd actually make that volley/spread card useful. Like, really useful.

There's even more you could do with this. When you have three individual droid fighter units on the field within range 1 (we're talking 1-hull-1-attack units at this point), "When two other Vulture droids with 1 hull value are at range 1, remove the other two from play and increase your hull and attack value to 3."

The cool part about that, is that you've got a choice. Keep rolling ones and fives? Or start rolling three and three to cause more damage but at much higher risk? Here's the thing though.

No EPTs. No Titles, just that condition above. Just the ability to evade or barrel roll. No focus.

@Captain Lackwit : Brilliant! I wish to subscribe to your newsletter!

On 12-1-2018 at 3:22 AM, That Blasted Samophlange said:

Add in buzz droids as a new mine type as well.

No but really, I think Buzz Droids were rockets (so maybe a missile which gives a Condition)

On 1/11/2018 at 2:38 AM, Hobojebus said:

Really who's demanding droids? Certainly I don't know anyone clambering for them.

Star Wars fans. Not all of us, but some of us. Similarly: I didn't know anyone who wanted gunboats, but, well... Star Wars fans wanted those. All of us, but some of us.

7 hours ago, Hawkstrike said:

@Captain Lackwit : Brilliant! I wish to subscribe to your newsletter!

Alas, I lack as much newsletter as I do wit.