I like @librarian101 's idea for an R7. What keeps E-Wings from being full on "acey" is they cannot reposition and token up (mostly for defense).

Granted, they will have a TL for offense from turn 1, but after they use it, their ship ability ends up hurting more than helping because of the R1 TL ban.

I think linking a calculate would be more fair, that way it is like the droid doing the work. And being able to choose between reposition -> TL or reposition -> focus seems too strong.

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Or just make it a 2 or 3 charge Astromech any rebel ships could take. For like 5-6 points. "Spend a charge after boosting or barrell rolling to perform a red calculate action"

X-Wings could use it. Y-Wings or Arcs w/expert handling.

Rebel astromechs you say?

Well, I definitely agree. There's a conspicuous lack of them, plenty of source material for them and a ton of available gameplay for them.

So I made these

Might not be the real, official thing, but I've played with a couple of them and they work okay. Might be enough to tide you over until FFG realise Rebels have fewer astros than they did in first edition.

Edit: the images themselves so you don't have to dig through an old post.

Garven Dreis' (Red Leader):

Wedge Antilles' (Red 2):

Biggs Darklighter's (Red 3):

John D Branon's (Red 4):

Theron Nett's (Red 10):

Dutch Vander's (Gold Leader) :

Davish Krail's (Gold 5):

At some point I should get round to doing astros for Horton Salm, Corran Horn, Gavin Darklighter, Ibtisam and Thane Kyrell.

Trying to do astros for the Partisans might get a bit much.

1 hour ago, librarian101 said:

One I have thought about is a new R7-T1, would be unique to E-Wings as R7s were, "When you boost or barrel roll you could perform a red focus action. It would be a linked action allowed by the mech, Maybe a calculate would be better as other have said. No need at that point to add or delete different types of slots

R7 series was retricompatible with old snubfighter. But to fly E-wing and Xj series x-wings or later you should have r8, r9 or older models with upgraded systems as the modifications Artoo was due in the 2nd Civil War

I don't have any suggestions here, but I echo this sentiment. Especially because I love flying X-wings and Y-wings in thematic lists. I feel like this design space could also be useful for ships that might need a little help like E-wings where point cost alone might not be enough to make the ship viable beyond Corran. Maybe an E-wing restricted astromech? I believe the R7 line was an EU astromech that was made specifically for the E-wing, but it seems like FFG is more and more distancing itself from EU pilots/lore.

26 minutes ago, GuacCousteau said:

Biggs Darklighter's (Red 3):

John D Branon's (Red 4):

I really like these two. R2-F2 jives with Biggs wanting to take damage, but also potentially discourages firing directly at him. D4-R4B is interesting, and as far as I can tell, doesn't break anything on non-X-Wing ships. Both giving red actions to Ezra might be something have concern over, but they don't seem to make him over powered.

How about named and limited astromechs that can only fly with named limited pilots?

Besides new generic ones.

during Yuuzhan Vong War, on Borleias Artoo flew with Wedge and Jaina Solo... so better have some kind of latitude, and introduce "squadron titles" such us "Rogue Leader" or "Rogue Squadron" and limitate the Astromech to the Squadron.

33 minutes ago, CapitanGuinea said:

during Yuuzhan Vong War, on Borleias Artoo flew with Wedge and Jaina Solo... so better have some kind of latitude, and introduce "squadron titles" such us "Rogue Leader" or "Rogue Squadron" and limitate the Astromech to the Squadron.

They can do that with the spot that they use Light Side/Dark Side markers. I wouldn't truly see the need for locking the Astromechs down that far though.

The problem is that the astromech are all ill devised. They should be defined by their series C1, R2, R3 etc then by their specific module... there are many R2 with a D2 module. What make unique Artoo are the quirks of his personality which developed because it was never "refreshed" with a memory wipe... I would like to see such a thing... but xwing is gone on a very arid desert for those kind of things... worst than Jutland Wasteland

I feel like the Astromechs have a series identity already. Like most of the R5s deal with ship cards and repairing damage. R4s assist in maneuvers and/or their difficulty. I really think this should be a thing, that is kept in the game. I just think, that the amount of unique upgrades should be kept mostly equal between factions.

Republic is getting an amazing R2-D2 now, like holy **** it will be quirky. The ability to remove bombs and mines, and drones? Amazing. I hope the Phoenix Squadron Pack will have lots of Rebel goodness when it comes to faction unique upgrades, especially the Astromechs variety.

6 hours ago, Schanez said:

I hope the Phoenix Squadron Pack will have lots of Rebel goodness when it comes to faction unique upgrades, especially the Astromechs variety.

Hopefully it will have a LOT more new cardboard than the standard pack, yeah. Unless they start printing "X reinforcement packs" for the non-prequel factions to get stuff out without ships, I don't think my heart could take them getting like 3-4 new pilots, 2-3 upgrades, most of them ending up being bad, one of them a reprint from the Resistance one (or, nightmare scenario, 2 of them reprints, Hondo in theory COULD fit into the Phoenix Squad pack), and then having to wait another year for anything new.