https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/3/7/terrifying-technology/

On a THURSDAY. Sacrilege.

I don’t need droids... I don’t need droids...

Buzz droids!

e: Did I get that right, the way to shake them off is to move so that they have no space anymore on either front or rear side of the ship?

And other question: They get launched at start of engagement. And then at their initiative, they immediately deal a crit?

Also transfering calculates to range 3.... I'm still buying republic, but this starts to look kinda scary

6 minutes ago, GreenDragoon said:

Buzz droids!

Did I get that right, the way to shake them off is to move so that they have no space anymore on either front or rear side of the ship?

Or have someone else shoot or ram them off. Or clip them on an asteroid I guess.

The wording on Discrod Missiles looks to be incorrect to me:

'You may spend 1 calculate token and launch one buzz droid' doesn't actually require the calculate token, to launch the buzz droid. The events are tied together, so if you have the token, you'd have to spend it, but if you don't, nothing stops you doing the latter. I don't think?

The droids looks seriously fun to play. I’m excited to get them on the table. Discord and probe droids are great mechanics.

6 minutes ago, GreenDragoon said:

Buzz droids!

Did I get that right, the way to shake them off is to move so that they have no space anymore on either front or rear side of the ship?

That's one way to do it, I think another way to do it is to move in such a way that the buzz droids can't be placed on your front guides, then next turn you won't move through them so they'll fall off. This will probably mean flying head first into an obstacle, but that won't be so bad if it's a gas cloud or a debris.

I think these buzz droids are a really flavorful design, love that you can either scrap them off or shoot them off before they damage you at the end of the engagement phase.

1 minute ago, thespaceinvader said:

Or have someone else shoot or ram them off. Or clip them on an asteroid I guess.

The wording on Discrod Missiles looks to be incorrect to me:

'You may spend 1 calculate token and launch one buzz droid' doesn't actually require the calculate token, to launch the buzz droid. The events are tied together, so if you have the token, you'd have to spend it, but if you don't, nothing stops you doing the latter. I don't think?

It seems you can lose them by simly moving. If I'm reading it right they only "stick" on the turn you clipped them, so if they can't be placed in your front (or if you can move backwards) they will just stay in place on the next turn.

1 minute ago, eMeM said:

It seems you can lose them by simly moving. If I'm reading it right they only "stick" on the turn you clipped them, so if they can't be placed in your front (or if you can move backwards) they will just stay in place on the next turn.

I think you're right. There's nothing that indicates that the drones actually move with you.

Also seems like if you're careful with your movements, you can pull the swarm along to your lowest priority ship (maybe an academy in a TIE formation) and then just abandon the swarm out there with it, if the sacrifice of the one ship is reasonable.

Who decides if it's front or rear guide? I assume the owner of the buzz droid swarm.

7 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

Or have someone else shoot or ram them off. Or clip them on an asteroid I guess.

The wording on Discrod Missiles looks to be incorrect to me:

'You may spend 1 calculate token and launch one buzz droid' doesn't actually require the calculate token, to launch the buzz droid. The events are tied together, so if you have the token, you'd have to spend it, but if you don't, nothing stops you doing the latter. I don't think?

"you may spend one calculate token and one charge token to launch..."

Gotta spend both, otherwise no launch.

More on Buzz Droids:

How to use them:

• You launch with a 3 bank or straight template - it doesn't matter if the template overlaps anything
• If the droids overlap a ship, you directly move the droids to the front or rear guides of that ship (e: this is not 100% clear. The card emphasizes that a ship overlaps or moves through, but I'd say the overlap is bidirectional...)
  • what if it overlaps two? I guess the droid owner chooses?
• If the droids are moved like this and can't fit, both the target ship and the droids take a damage
• If the droids fit, they deal a crit at initiative 0
• e: they don't stick to the ship. Placing them into the front guides almost guarantees that they will be overlapped again and again and "follow".
• On a subsequent turn, if the targeted ship moves into a position where the droids don't fit anymore, both the ship and the droids take a damage
• The droids can be shot off
  • this also answers the question for that probe droid of the infiltrator I'd say

How to deal with them/what they bring:

• The safe spot is within range 1 or at range 3
• The droids cover most of range 2
• They are in some way a mini Biggs: you should shoot them or you'll take a crit!
• One way to deal with them: have a ship at R1, R2 and R3 close enough that the droids don't fit between
• The bank+straight templates cover quite a bit of area, around half of a bomb maybe?

2 minutes ago, GreenDragoon said:

More on Buzz Droids:

How to use them:

• You launch with a 3 bank or straight template - it doesn't matter if the template overlaps anything
• If the droids overlap a ship, you directly move the droids to the front or rear guides of that ship
  • what if it overlaps two? I guess the droid owner chooses?
• If the droids are moved like this and can't fit, both the target ship and the droids take a damage
• If the droids fit, they deal a crit at initiative 0
• On a subsequent turn, if the targeted ship moves into a position where the droids don't fit anymore, both the ship and the droids take a damage
• The droids can be shot off
  • this also answers the question for that probe droid of the infiltrator I'd say

How to deal with them/what they bring:

• The safe spot is within range 1 or at range 3
• The droids cover most of range 2
• They are in some way a mini Biggs: you should shoot them or you'll take a crit!
• One way to deal with them: have a ship at R1, R2 and R3 close enough that the droids don't fit between
• The bank+straight templates cover quite a bit of area, around half of a bomb maybe?

If we're assuming you eat the first crit, a barrel roll will able to shake them on the next turn...I guess spinning is a good trick.

1 minute ago, MasterShake2 said:

If we're assuming you eat the first crit, a barrel roll will able to shake them on the next turn...I guess spinning is a good trick.

Wait, how? After every movement the droids are placed again at front/rear guides if they fit at one of them. I think?

6 minutes ago, GreenDragoon said:

More on Buzz Droids:

How to deal with them/what they bring:

• Be Arvel
• Have Zeb Crew

8 minutes ago, CaptainJaguarShark said:

Also seems like if you're careful with your movements, you can pull the swarm along to your lowest priority ship (maybe an academy in a TIE formation) and then just abandon the swarm out there with it, if the sacrifice of the one ship is reasonable.

Who decides if it's front or rear guide? I assume the owner of the buzz droid swarm.

So in general, I guess you want to put these on the front guide, right? For most ships then, they'll overlap again when the ship moves, and follow it along.

Spinning does sound like a good trick to get rid of these.

2 minutes ago, GreenDragoon said:

• On a subsequent turn, if the targeted ship moves into a position where the droids don't fit anymore, both the ship and the droids take a damage

So, here's the thing - the buzz don't move with you. They're not "stuck" to you.

Rather, if they lock onto your front guides, then you'll overlap them when you move and they'll get to re-place. If you fly at a rock, they can just move to the rear. But, that also means the turn afterwards, when you move again, they'll be left behind.

So that opens up some options.

• A reverse maneuver works too, if you can then avoid them when you move forwards later.
• A barrel roll just escapes them. Buzz droids are powerless before spinning, which is a good trick.
• You can just shoot them. I don't know how correct this is, but it's probably not that incorrect. They get one shot and it can't be recovered, and they deal a crit damage every round until they're shot off, and if you fly away they're just discount prox mines all game. Except, they know how to not blow up allies.

Just now, GreenDragoon said:

Wait, how? After every movement the droids are placed again at front/rear guides if they fit at one of them. I think?

They only follow you if you overlap.

Just now, svelok said:

So, here's the thing - the buzz don't move with you. They're not "stuck" to you. 

1 minute ago, MasterShake2 said:

They only follow you if you overlap.

Ah, thanks!

I immediately jumped to thinking they'd move with you. But that makes sense. Placing them into the front guides means you'll again and again overlap them of course.

1 minute ago, GreenDragoon said:

Wait, how? After every movement the droids are placed again at front/rear guides if they fit at one of them. I think?

Nothing on the card(s) indiates they follow you if you didn't move through / overlap them with your movement.

As far as we may find it weak, after giving it a spin in my head this is brilliant for the Separatist player. It denies the enemy the option to use their cheapest, **** generic to fly the buzz droids off the battlefield - instead, if you want to stick to the enemy, place buzz in the front guides and they have to move through them and drag them further along. If you didn't hit a priority target, attach to the rear, proc once, then next turn stay in your place, blocking the lane for another target incoming.

5 minutes ago, GreenDragoon said:

More on Buzz Droids:

How to use them:

• You launch with a 3 bank or straight template - it doesn't matter if the template overlaps anything
• If the droids overlap a ship, you directly move the droids to the front or rear guides of that ship
  • what if it overlaps two? I guess the droid owner chooses?
• If the droids are moved like this and can't fit, both the target ship and the droids take a damage
• If the droids fit, they deal a crit at initiative 0
• On a subsequent turn, if the targeted ship moves into a position where the droids don't fit anymore, both the ship and the droids take a damage
• The droids can be shot off
  • this also answers the question for that probe droid of the infiltrator I'd say

How to deal with them/what they bring:

• The safe spot is within range 1 or at range 3
• The droids cover most of range 2
• They are in some way a mini Biggs: you should shoot them or you'll take a crit!
• One way to deal with them: have a ship at R1, R2 and R3 close enough that the droids don't fit between
• The bank+straight templates cover quite a bit of area, around half of a bomb maybe?

This seems plausible to me. I am curious if they can move from front to back and vice versa. Say they attach on the back and they no longer fit on the back, do they blow up or can they move to the front where they would fit? One crit a round until destroyed is truly terrifying.

Also, the way I read Discord Missles is they can get launched before any ship starts shooting. It is at the start of the phase, not before the carrier ship would engage.

Another reason for people to keep flying double tapping ywings

This is not the ARC-170 preview I have been looking for.

Would have been nice if the Discord Missiles were usable on the Starviper!

Just now, GreenDragoon said:

I immediately jumped to thinking they'd move with you. But that makes sense. Placing them into the front guides means you'll again and again overlap them of course.

A pre-maneuver barrel roll will escape them, although that means taking a crit...

But having an i6 coordinate a barrel roll from another ship will mean you avoid it completely.