We don't know what deplete is yet. However my guess is that for one turn it depletes a ships shields so all your ships can attack it under the shields. If this is the case how much would you pay for such an upgrade?

That sounds game-breakingly overpowered. Any ship that could do that would have to cost at least 95 points.

Not sure. Wouldn’t just another damage be better? They permanently lose the shield (aside from regen) and no fiddly bits.

Considering Deplete is a part of the TIE/Baron’s ship ability and other factors, I am highly dubious this is what Deplete does.

11 minutes ago, SabineKey said:

Wouldn’t just another damage be better? They permanently lose the shield (aside from regen) and no fiddly bits.

Well, not if it would have been a critical. . .

Maybe something to do with ordinance? If you are depleted your ordinance charges are inactive?

Though that would be **** to keep track of during a game if someone had already used charges.

Guys, look at the new token in the FO interceptor spread. What token does it look like? (Strain)

I am 99.999% sure it is just the offensive version of strain, roll one less attack die for a single attack, then remove the token (or remove token on doing a blue).

Overthinking what it could mean when they practically told you what it does in the article.

2 minutes ago, ScummyRebel said:

Overthinking what it could mean when they practically told  you what it does in the article

You could be right, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us aren’t allowed to speculate other possibilities...

7 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

Well, not if it would have been a critical. . .

Perhaps, and that could be useful with the Mag-Pulse Missiles. But pure damage can take care of shields permanently (aside from limited regen).

Also, considering how limited tricks for getting crits under the shields are in 2.0, it further fuels my doubt that FFG would create a token to facilitate that.

Just now, kempokid said:

You could be right, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us aren’t allowed to speculate other possibilities...

True, but I’m seeing some wild and overpowered claims throughout more than one thread, and none of them have evidence to back it up.

5 minutes ago, ScummyRebel said:

Guys, look at the new token in the FO interceptor spread. What token does it look like? (Strain)

I am 99.999% sure it is just the offensive version of strain, roll one less attack die for a single attack, then remove the token (or remove token on doing a blue).

Overthinking what it could mean when they practically told you what it does in the article.

While I definitely agree Deplete is probably the 'offensive version of Strain', I don't know that we can necessarily say it'll be a 1:1 match. It might not reduce the roll by 1 dice.

It might just stop you from being able to modify your dice, or force you to re-roll, or cap the number of hits.

I think the simplest, and therefore most likely outcome is probably, as you say, just straight up Strain for attack. But people have pointed out that reducing attack could slow the game down, and I'd still say we should at least entertain the possibility the effect might not be quite so potent as Strain.

2 minutes ago, GuacCousteau said:

While I definitely agree Deplete is probably the 'offensive version of Strain', I don't know that we can necessarily say it'll be a 1:1 match. It might not reduce the roll by 1 dice.

It might just stop you from being able to modify your dice, or force you to re-roll, or cap the number of hits.

I think the simplest, and therefore most likely outcome is probably, as you say, just straight up Strain for attack. But people have pointed out that reducing attack could slow the game down, and I'd still say we should at least entertain the possibility the effect might not be quite so potent as Strain.

Maybe it changes a Hit to a Focus.

Or maybe it Depletes your enemies' lives such that a single Deplete token reduces your opponent's list to dust, winning you the game instantly!

4 minutes ago, ScummyRebel said:

True, but I’m seeing some wild and overpowered claims throughout more than one thread, and none of them have evidence to back it up.

Oh, come now. Where have you seen any OP or unreasonable theories?

You guys are reaching so hard. It's just strain for attack dice. It's mentioned alongside strain in abilities. Horses people, not Zebras.

17 minutes ago, SabineKey said:

Perhaps, and that could be useful with the Mag-Pulse Missiles. But pure damage can take care of shields permanently (aside from limited regen).

Also, considering how limited tricks for getting crits under the shields are in 2.0, it further fuels my doubt that FFG would create a token to facilitate that.

Are you saying it's better to have 1 shield gone than a ship-debilitating exposed damage card?

5 minutes ago, Tvboy said:

You guys are reaching so hard. It's just strain for attack dice. It's mentioned alongside strain in abilities. Horses people, not Zebras.

Zebras? There is so little data, most of this is

44 minutes ago, Force Majeure said:

We don't know what deplete is yet. However my guess is that for one turn it depletes a ships shields so all your ships can attack it under the shields. If this is the case how much would you pay for such an upgrade?

I think I prefer the idea that it does something to shields or effects shields in some way. That idea sounds more "deplete" to me as does a hindrance or removal on charges. I'm not much one to make guesses on costs but that sort of effect seems like something that should scale with initiative and be generally "expensive."

However, I'm struck by the symbol looking very much like the one under the line of a disarm token. So an effect on weapons or attack until some condition is met to remove the token (per typical of square tokens) seems most likely. Since it isn't crossed out like a disarm a reduction or "strain for weapons" is the most logical idea.

Just now, Darth Meanie said:

Are you saying it's better to have 1 shield gone than a ship-debilitating exposed damage card?

In certain instances, yes. Now, on something like a TIE Defender, it makes more sense. But, on ships with lower shield counts, an extra damage (in exchange for this interpretation of the Deplete token) can still get the crit through. There are also a host of ships without shields, where this Deplete is useless.

3 minutes ago, Frimmel said:

However, I'm struck by the symbol looking very much like the one under the line of a disarm token. So an effect on weapons or attack until some condition is met to remove the token (per typical of square tokens) seems most likely. Since it isn't crossed out like a disarm a reduction or "strain for weapons" is the most logical idea.

Another thing that I think pushes the Deplete to being weapons focused is the Vonreg TIE. Paraphrasing its ship ability, you can get perform a target lock action or a barrel roll action for a deplete or strain token. If Deplete is shield based, then both token options affect the ships survivability. If it affects red dice in someway, then it becomes a question of what do you need this round? Offensive or defensive? It becomes a much more interesting trade off, similar to L’ulo’s ability.

Guys, it comes as a possible drawback to an ability use on a ship, so it definitely cannot deal with ordnance charges as it would literally dissolve to no drawback at all at list-building.

We have two mechanisms presented assigning strain or depletion token by choice, so it's quite obvious they have to be comparable when it comes to the power level or else the choice would be straightforward to the point of inexistence.

As a cherry on top, a good source of mine with access to "behind the scenes" commented when asked: well , we have stress limiting actions, ion limiting movement, strain limiting defence - there's still one attribute that has not been messed around with.

27 minutes ago, Ryfterek said:

As a cherry on top, a good source of mine with access to "behind the scenes" commented when asked: well , we have stress limiting actions, ion limiting movement, strain limiting defence - there's still one attribute that has not been messed around with.

It affects dropping/launching devices?

CHARGE SHENANIGANS CONFIRMED!!

My thought for the Deplete effect working to remove shields temporarily came from one of two places: The Mag-Pulse Warheads and games going to time more often than not, now in the era of Second edition.

If someone like Major Vonreg at I6 hits with the MP warhead and essentially short-circuits the Shields for a turn, that is a super powerful effect MAINLY against shielded ships, not to mention the jam it adds.

(Had to add this pic of such a pretty ship)

Folks have been crying for a Missile counterpart to Proton Torpedoes and the Mag-Pulse Warhead could be it.

But after further consideration I really don't think that the Deplete effect affects shields as I had put forward. Major Vonreg's pilot ability would have him near Dash Rendar prices if my guess was close to the mark: " During the System Phase, you may choose 1 enemy ship in your [bullseye arc]. That ship gains 1 deplete or strain token of your choice. "

and would put the new TIE/ba in a really tough spot if they used their ship ability: " Fine-Tuned Thrusters: After you fully execute a maneuver, if you are not depleted or strained, you may gain 1 deplete or strain token to peform a [lock] or [barrel roll] action. "

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1 hour ago, Ryfterek said:

well , we have stress limiting actions, ion limiting movement, strain limiting defence - there's still one attribute that has not been messed around with.

Assuming this source is a good one, looking at a typical Ship/Pilot card we have these common attributes: Initiative, Attack, Defense, Hull, Shield, Actions and Force.

Initiative, Attack and Force are three that have not been "messed around with" in a significant and negative way (excluding Torkil Mux for Initiative and the Weapons Failure damage card for Attack dice). I'm certain there's something I'm forgetting.

Could Deplete still affect shields? Maybe but not likely. The same goes for Force as we don't have an infestation of Force users running rampant just yet.

3 minutes ago, Force Majeure said:

Assuming   this source is a good one, looking at a typical Ship/Pilot card we have these common attributes: Initiative, Attack, Defense, Hull, Shield, Actions  and Forc  e  .

On some last of occasions my source was right we learned e.g. Mace was not I5, despite FFG's official article.

Shields and Force are common yet not omnipresent attributes. Multiple ships existing not having theses values assigned.

I think it works exactly like strain. It would be neat if you could remove it by removing a non recurring charge on an equipped upgrade (as an alternative to 1 less die or blue maneuver) but that could make the rules unnecessarily complex.

I am leaning towards Deplete removing a shield at the end of the turn, or perhaps immediately if there is an active shield token.

Deplete basically being a method of shield removal wrapped up in a named mechanic now, much like how Optimized Prototype and Plasma Torpedoes had to have everything written out.

It would basically turn the Mag-Pulse into a way of stripping Locks while doing 1crit, 1 shield damage depending on if your opponent is shielded or not, which is much more reasonable than the effect of 1 crit damage + strips Locks + reduce offense by 1. Effectively 2 damage + Jam if shielded, or 1 Crit to Hull + Jam if not.

AFAIK, the first time Mag Pulse appeared in Star Wars was in the TIE Fighter PC game in the 90s.
The effects of Mag Pulse missiles in TIE Fighter was that it depleted the weapon systems of the target for a while, meaning that it couldn't attack, or the attack was greatly reduced.

It had nothing to do with shields, or anything like that.

Considering that in that game it also appeared the Tractor Beam, Jamming Beam, launched bombs, SLAM, the TIE Defender, Gunboat and Missile Boat, and countless other game components and mechanics that eventually made their way to this game, more or less faithfully, I would bet that the right answer is what others have already said: It's just like strain for the Attack value.

Affecting charges makes absolutely no sense as we'd have no need for a separate token

There's no conceivable way (short of FFG ffging it up) that it's something other than red die strain

Whether that's -1 die or a "sensor jammer sorta deal", we'll have to see

7 minutes ago, Azrapse said:

AFAIK, the first time Mag Pulse appeared in Star Wars was in the TIE Fighter PC game in the 90s.
The effects of Mag Pulse missiles in TIE Fighter was that it depleted the weapon systems of the target for a while, meaning that it couldn't attack, or the attack was greatly reduced.

It had nothing to do with shields, or anything like that.

Considering that in that game it also appeared the Tractor Beam, Jamming Beam, launched bombs, SLAM, the TIE Defender, Gunboat and Missile Boat, and countless other game components and mechanics that eventually made their way to this game, more or less faithfully, I would bet that the right answer is what others have already said: It's just like strain for the Attack value.

These are some really good points, and does help the argument of removing a red die from your next attack.

Which is really scary, considering with a mag-pulse, you are already removing either a Lock or Focus/Calc, then -1 Attack die, you seriously neuter the opponent's next attack. For a list that rely's on a small number of ships (2-3 ship lists), that could be devastating. As someone who flies a lot of RAC, I'm still trying to wrap my head around how the mag-pulse is going to effectively remove the VT-49 from its limited role in the game already.