6 minutes ago, PaulRuddSays said:

People shouldn’t forget just how fragile these ships are. You’re fairly likely to lose one every engagement that you have more than one 3 atk focus shot coming in. You can’t price upgrades on these up too high before the costs become prohibitive for something that will get initiative killed.

You're looking at just Vultures I think. Hyenas and any other Separatist missile carrier that can acquire Calc tokens will be able to take and use these as well. Hyena Bombardment Drone for reference:

1 hour ago, JJ48 said:

A crit without possibility to defend should be hard to trigger consistently. If they get a couple hits in, great, but using them to scare your opponent where you want them can also be useful.

Just like seismics. I don’t use them to do damage, I use them to induce my opponent into making mistakes.

31 minutes ago, PaulRuddSays said:

If you fire them, you have to spend your token (or one nearby) before the enemy attacks.

I don't think you'll be able to "borrow" calculate tokens to shoot your energy shells or use their ability or to launch the buzz droids. A ship will need its own calculate tokens for those.

1 hour ago, PhantomFO said:

Not every ship can barrel roll as a white action. Plus, you're forcing them to spend their action to reposition, instead of focusing or target-locking. It could even force them to choose between staying in place and eating a damage, or barrel rolling but losing their shot.

Yeah......I dunno. Maybe?

I do think it sticks with you until they are gone or knocked off. I think it will be stupid if they just drop off.

1 hour ago, Hippie Moosen said:

The Separatists are looking so cool. The Buzz Droids are easily the most exciting thing they showed off today, and I really hope that they find a home in the meta. Still gonna fly for the Republic, but I love how the CIS is shaping up.

What's got me intrigued is that there don't seem to be any vultures that get above I3. I'm not sure if that's gonna hold true for all of their droid fighters, but if it does that may make I4 a little more valuable. Right now, if initiative is important to your strategy, your looking at groups of I5's or maybe I6's depending on your faction. Maybe we'll see I4 pilots get a little more love since they will be able to pick of priority clanker targets before they can shoot, or simply out fly them in general.

This would go a bit of the way towards mitigating that 3-4 Initiative "dead zone" in the game, for sure.

12 minutes ago, Frimmel said:

I don't think you'll be able to "borrow" calculate tokens to shoot your energy shells or use their ability or to launch the buzz droids. A ship will need its own calculate tokens for those.

In allot of cases you're correct. Don't forget this one though.

2 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:

In allot of cases you're correct. Don't forget this one though.

***DFS-311***

I think we're on the same page. To be more clear Networked Calculations doesn't let a ship without a calculate token shoot energy shells or deploy buzz droids. DFS-311 is the only one who gives the token to another ship. Droid ships aren't going to be able to entirely do without having their own calculate tokens.

3 hours ago, heychadwick said:

Yeah......I dunno. Maybe?

I do think it sticks with you until they are gone or knocked off. I think it will be stupid if they just drop off.

They only drop off if they are in back. It will stick with the ship if it can continue to be placed in the front. Why is that not good enough?

At the very least you deal a guaranteed 1 damage or have denied shots for a turn. If ignored, they will destroy ships without you having to roll a single die.

These may become 2.0's harpoon missile equivalent in that everybody will hate them, except they are faction locked.

Just now, Skitchx said:

These may become 2.0's harpoon missile equivalent in that everybody will hate them, except they are faction locked

Thankfully Buzz Droids are easier to mitigate than Harpoon chains.

45 minutes ago, Skitchx said:

They only drop off if they are in back. It will stick with the ship if it can continue to be placed in the front. Why is that not good enough?

At the very least you deal a guaranteed 1 damage or have denied shots for a turn. If ignored, they will destroy ships without you having to roll a single die.

These may become 2.0's harpoon missile equivalent in that everybody will hate them, except they are faction locked.

I do not get it either why people here are so fond of them.

They are not an attack, so the ship launching still can attack.

They are not in system phase (unneccessary complication).

They have a built in tragedy simulator, with not only straight, but even bank templates.

Opponent can even choose if they are in front of or behind you.

If you for some reason cannot get rid of them, it is an unavoidable crit(!) every round. In order to get rid of them, you either have to waste an attack (and hit(!), they have 3 green dice) or a reposition (if your ship can do it) or you ram them into an obstacle, eating a hit doing that.

All the separatist player's ships are immune to them, like old 1.0 Nym (and only he, not everyone in his squad) was to his bombs.

As low as 3-4pts suggested here, are you people serious?

I do not think they are good for the game, even if they show themselves being gimmicky.

2 minutes ago, Managarmr said:

As low as 3-4pts suggested here, are you people serious?

I agree that 3-4 points is too low for them, but over 6 is ludicrous since they are very easily mitigated on most ships. The biggest thing they bring is messing with the opponent's decision processes for a bit till they're destroyed or dumped somewhere out of the way. The crit just makes it potentially painful for them to be ignored.

4 hours ago, Skitchx said:

They only drop off if they are in back. It will stick with the ship if it can continue to be placed in the front. Why is that not good enough?

At the very least you deal a guaranteed 1 damage or have denied shots for a turn. If ignored, they will destroy ships without you having to roll a single die.

These may become 2.0's harpoon missile equivalent in that everybody will hate them, except they are faction locked.

I don't like it because it doesn't make sense. The stuck on the ship until it was destroyed or they were shot off. They didn't just fall off for no reason. I just don't think it makes sense per the rules with what they were in the movies. I think that they will attach and the only way to get them off is to have them shot off.

15 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

I don't like it because it doesn't make sense. The stuck on the ship until it was destroyed or they were shot off. They didn't just fall off for no reason. I just don't think it makes sense per the rules with what they were in the movies. I think that they will attach and the only way to get them off is to have them shot off.

Thats what I would like to see - but also passing through debris/asteroids.

8 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

I don't like it because it doesn't make sense. The stuck on the ship until it was destroyed or they were shot off. They didn't just fall off for no reason. I just don't think it makes sense per the rules with what they were in the movies. I think that they will attach and the only way to get them off is to have them shot off.

Nothing we have seen suggests that they operate that way, though. You are describing a condition. But, they didn't make them into a condition. As is, they can be scraped off and shot off, like in the movie. And how you get them is just like in the movie, by flying through a cloud of them. And honestly, barrel roll to spin them off kind of makes sense.

As is, they are a neat addition to the game, and the board is quickly going to get crowded with all sorts of junk now besides your starting 6 obstacles.

42 minutes ago, Sithborg said:

Nothing we have seen suggests that they operate that way, though. You are describing a condition. But, they didn't make them into a condition. As is, they can be scraped off and shot off, like in the movie. And how you get them is just like in the movie, by flying through a cloud of them. And honestly, barrel roll to spin them off kind of makes sense.

As is, they are a neat addition to the game, and the board is quickly going to get crowded with all sorts of junk now besides your starting 6 obstacles.

Yes, I agree that nothing we have seen posted so far say that the Buzz Droids stick to the ship. They don't really say they don't, though. I recall some people back in 1st Ed who were utterly convinced that the Aggressor and Tie Aggressor counted as the same ship due to the name. Rules As Written for what we saw at the time absolutely had the two ships as identical. Except anyone with common sense saw that it wouldn't happen. Or....when Vader had the Tie Advanced Prototype X1 instead of the Tie Advanced X1 (or whatever the nonsense was). Yes, we can only see things as the rules are now, but do you really think it's going to be that way when it comes out? I, for one, don't think the Buzz Droids will just fall off the ships for no reason.

When it comes to preview articles: Rules As Intended > Rules As Written (as the previews show them).

Ever since wave 3 was announced i couldnt wait to fly for the republic..... now that i see buzz droids, i cant get a vulture fast enough!

im not even super excited about the damage over time, im just excited to see the shenanigans that happen from people trying to shake them off, having to possion your ships to be able to shoot at your own ships, purposely flying as close to bombs and astroids trying to blow them off. im even thinking we could use them as utility! got a proximity mine you dont want? just use the droids as a battering ram with you a safe distance from the mine.

get it on a head hunterwith dead man switch, and just watch the ships try and run from your ticking time bomb!

whatever happens, im excited!

5 hours ago, Hiemfire said:

I agree that 3-4 points is too low for them, but over 6 is ludicrous since they are very easily mitigated on most ships. The biggest thing they bring is messing with the opponent's decision processes for a bit till they're destroyed or dumped somewhere out of the way. The crit just makes it potentially painful for them to be ignored.

I think 8 points would be fair tbh.

They are not easy to avoid. Unless you are PS6, they are unavoidable for you cause i run a Darth Maul with Palp to coordinate a barrel roll on my low ps carriers and a good chunk of ini bit to land them.

Even if you dont shoot them but barrel roll next round you took 1 unavoidable crit now and there is a 7th obstacle on board.

But i got 3 of them.

So you will have to shoot them, and they have 3 green dice,so you better mod your shot.

Don't forget not every ship can barely roll! These could,be monsters against some large based, hully ships.

edit: I'm talking about Buzz Droids.

8 hours ago, heychadwick said:

I, for one, don't think the Buzz Droids will just fall off the ships for no reason.

Fair. And really, maybe you'll be right if there's some inserted rule to describe this. Less likely to be correct does not mean incorrect at this stage.

That said, you have to agree the price tag needs to be a LOT higher if these can't be shaken off your ship. Like, seriously high points.

10 minutes ago, LagJanson said:

Fair. And really, maybe you'll be right if there's some inserted rule to describe this. Less likely to be correct does not mean incorrect at this stage.

That said, you have to agree the price tag needs to be a LOT higher if these can't be shaken off your ship. Like, seriously high points.

Remember the Tie Aggressor and it being the same as the Aggressor from IG-88? There were those people that insisted they counted as the same ship because RAW based on what we knew at the time?

I don't think they will be more expensive than Proton Torpedoes. I mean, you still have to hit them. It's not incredibly easy, but it's not super hard. There is the potential your own ships will fly over it, especially if you are flying a swarm of Vultures. The lists that would hate it the most would be a few Aces.

The ships that can use them are 2/2/3 and can be shot down pretty easily.

5 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

Remember the Tie Aggressor and it being the same as the Aggressor from IG-88? There were those people that insisted they counted as the same ship because RAW based on what we knew at the time?

Yes there were a small minority that interpreted that as such. That is not exactly a case you want to build here, is it?

6 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

I don't think they will be more expensive than Proton Torpedoes. I mean, you still have to hit them. It's not incredibly easy, but it's not super hard. There is the potential your own ships will fly over it, especially if you are flying a swarm of Vultures. The lists that would hate it the most would be a few Aces.

If you can't shake them off, they are doing that damage every turn until you do something VERY disruptive to your attempts to play the game. Running over rocks or using your shots instead to shoot the buzz droids are significant penalties. And if you read the card you'll see the buzz droids only activate on enemy ships, so friendly ships can run over them with no effect.

10 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

The ships that can use them are 2/2/3 and can be shot down pretty easily.

Currently. That we know of. They are going to get more ships, and this statement will no longer be true.

Jim, relax. This is the internet guessing game. You've put your guess in. I don't really need to change your mind, I'm merely asking you to look at the implications of unshakeable buzz droids. They can be pretty devastating. At 12 points, if you get one stuck that can't be shaken, I'm totally bringing the max of three every time. The rest of my list will be bigger hitters (if they exist) because you're going to be so preoccupied by the buzz droid carriers. It sounds very much like a miserable experience for my opponent. I don't want for that.

3 minutes ago, LagJanson said:

Jim, relax. This is the internet guessing game. You've put your guess in.

😄

I'm relaxed! I just don't think you will move off them. I am uncertain about the Barrel Rolling off. I've put my opinion in and I'm more than happy to wait and see in the next 2 weeks (or until some leak from Poland).

10 hours ago, heychadwick said:

I don't like it because it doesn't make sense. The stuck on the ship until it was destroyed or they were shot off. They didn't just fall off for no reason. I just don't think it makes sense per the rules with what they were in the movies. I think that they will attach and the only way to get them off is to have them shot off.

Well, a lot of the stuff in this game doesn't match what is in the movies. Chalk it up to balance. If the buzz droids stuck until shot or knocked off they would be incredibly unbalanced and would most certainly ruin the game.

2 minutes ago, Skitchx said:

Well, a lot of the stuff in this game doesn't match what is in the movies. Chalk it up to balance. If the buzz droids stuck until shot or knocked off they would be incredibly unbalanced and would most certainly ruin the game.

I guess we will have to see. There is always points to balance things. As it stands now, only fragile ships can carry them. You can only have 3 at the most. It might be pretty easy to focus fire them down if you are terrified of them. There is also the possibility that your own ship will fly through them, especially if you take a lot of Vultures.

I do see lists with just a few ships being terrified of them. Lists with more ships not so much.

2 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

There is also the possibility that your own ship will fly through them, especially if you take a lot of Vultures.

No, no, no! "After an enemy ship moves through...."

I will allow for the rest to go for now....