This is referring to th new configuration for the Droid Tri-fighters when they are released.

When they are active, they instruct the player to attach a disarm token to the ship unless it chooses to flip/deactivate the configuration. But the only effect of the boosters being activated is that they are able to slam, which also attaches a disarm token to the ship?

What is the purpose of the intercept boosters attaching a disarm token to the ship? I'm having trouble seeing the benefit of this configuration since it disarms the ship regardless of whether it chooses to take the slam action or not.

Is the entire point of the card simply to add the slam action at the price of being disarmed before even choosing to take the slam action?

In essence, you're correct: Intercept Boosters give the Tri-Fighters the ability to SLAM, at the cost of being able to attack. It helps them get into fighting position during the first few rounds of combat, by moving faster than the opponent might have expected. In that way, they can create the first engagement in a more advantageous location on the battlefield. The cost for this is, of course, de-activating the droid's weapons, whether or not you choose to SLAM. On any turn, of course, you can choose to flip the boosters over in the System Phase; this turns off the SLAM action for good, but you're now at full combat efficiency.

2 hours ago, player655164 said:

What is the purpose of the intercept boosters attaching a disarm token to the ship? I'm having trouble seeing the benefit of this configuration since it disarms the ship regardless of whether it chooses to take the slam action or not.

It's about starting the game going FAST.

It's kind of like Resistance Han Solo, Major Dormitz, or Boba Fett crew--the effects that let you deploy in funny places, and start the game with some really wild positions. But they didn't want this used as a shoot-and-bug-out tool; they didn't want you to get in, shoot, then get out.

I kinda like these more than the "forward deploy" cards since they're a lot more reactive and interactive, and the no-attacks part (whether you SLAM or not) means that things almost surely can't get broken.

A bunch of zoom, get anywhere you want to get, and see how things go from there. Being able to link into a Lock for next turn is pretty handy too. Is the upgrade useful or good? Honestly, probably not. Forward deploy tricks are mostly kind of useless (and sometimes actively bad, if you hang ships out in space and they get killed in bad positions). They were kind of weak even with Upsilons, but they were wicked unpleasant, and that can be enough.

7 hours ago, theBitterFig said:

Is the upgrade useful or good? Honestly, probably not. Forward deploy tricks are mostly kind of useless (and sometimes actively bad, if you hang ships out in space and they get killed in bad positions). They were kind of weak even with Upsilons, but they were wicked unpleasant, and that can be enough.

There is a bit of a difference though. Boba and Han were limited to that one ship, and yes, sticking one ship out their by itself vs a fresh squad is very risky.

With the Upsilon, you have to spend a good chunk of your squad point, to send the Rest of your squad forward... abit.

The tri-fighers, its all on them. I imagine lightly equipped, we can *probably* get 3 tri-fighters with boosters in the field, that are fairly agile, and can hit fairly hard. It's yet to be determined if this will be effective or not, but i imagine it will depend on the list they are against.

That said, this also in a way feels like a card with Epic, 3x6 size games in mind or the Scenarios. They have been putting in upgrades that are more tailored for that than standard play, but could still be *technically* used in standard play, if you really wanted to. And putting them more in epic where you have points to field more of them, kinda feels like it would be a very strong Alpha.

6 hours ago, Lyianx said:

And putting them more in epic where you have points to field more of them, kinda feels like it would be a very strong Alpha.

Maybe. I just don't know how strong the alpha strike could be, if you can't attack on your position round. You'll be able to flank a bit better, but probably nothing unfair, and nothing too excessive. If you can land it just-right so that you've got locks on an opponent who can't shoot you, so you can follow-up with Calc/Lock on the next round, that could be pretty nice, but it's also something a Hyena or Infiltrator or HMP could get you with DRK-1 Probes.

Another way to look at "is this upgrade good" is to try to figure out what you lose by not taking it. I don't think a normal-deploy Tri really loses all that much. Even if top players can leverage this well, that probably doesn't translate super well down through to the casual level, and it'll probably be an entirely cut-able upgrade.

One of the features of the card is that you get the SLAM action for up to three turns.

There's a conceivable scenario where you might want to SLAM on turns 1 and 3, but not on turn 2. In that case, if the card didn't give you the disarm token itself, then you would have an effectively normal turn 2.

Given the speed 5 on the dial, it wouldn't be too difficult to SLAM turn 1, be in engagement range in turn 2 and consequently shoot, then use SLAM in turn 3 to get away from the ship you just shot.

Even without this factor, the choice to flip the card is system phase, but the choice of whether or not to use SLAM is at Initiative order in activation. So the higher Initiative pilots would get to choose whether to SLAM or shoot with good information on any of those first three turns. That's really strong.

The purpose of the disarm token regardless is basically to make this a 'no take backsies' card - either you're SLAMing and not shooting for up to three turns, or you can shoot for the rest of the game but never SLAM again. It's neat design, IMO.

18 hours ago, player655164 said:

I'm having trouble seeing the benefit of this configuration since it disarms the ship regardless of whether it chooses to take the slam action or not.

The benefit of the configuration is that you get access to SLAM on a 5 speed ship for up to three turns.

This is sort of ship that would be 100% broken if it could SLAM as a normal action all the time. The benefit of the configuration is to give the ship a unique degree of freedom in pre-engagement positioning, but it self balances by taking that freedom away once the shooting starts

ahhhh, I think I understand more now. I have never actually used ships with SLAM before, so I guess I've never personally seen the uses for it.

Hypothetically, if she ship still had its boosters attached, would it be able to launch its buzz droids if it took the calculate rather than the SLAM action?

9 hours ago, Lyianx said:

I imagine lightly equipped, we can *probably* get 3 tri-fighters with boosters in the field, that are fairly agile, and can hit fairly hard.

... only three? You think they’re gonna be pricing these in the 60+ points range?

I’m gonna have to go back and look at the preview article, but I thought I remembered them being closer to TIE Interceptors than to Defenders. Which (if true) could (could!) mean more like 4-6 of them.

1 hour ago, player655164 said:

Hypothetically, if she ship still had its boosters attached, would it be able to launch its buzz droids if it took the calculate rather than the SLAM action?

Yes. Launching the Discord Missiles is not an attack. Launching devices isnt blocked by the Weapons Disabled token.

2 minutes ago, Cpt ObVus said:

... only three? You think they’re gonna be pricing these in the 60+ points range?

I’m gonna have to go back and look at the preview article, but I thought I remembered them being closer to TIE Interceptors than to Defenders. Which (if true) could (could!) mean more like 4-6 of them.

60 points lightly equipped. So the ship, the boosters, and some kind of weapon upgrade OR hull mod, sure. Just the ship with the boosters *could* be ok, but i would think the point would be to gets some ordnance or heavy cannons in range quickly.

1 minute ago, Lyianx said:

60 points lightly equipped. So the ship, the boosters, and some kind of weapon upgrade OR hull mod, sure. Just the ship with the boosters *could* be ok, but i would think the point would be to gets some ordnance or heavy cannons in range quickly.

Right. I suppose I was looking at it from an angle of “how many of these might we have SLAMing around?” but the real question is how many would be *effective*. If you send five of them out to flank the opponent, that’s kind of a waste, because you won’t have any threat left in front, and the opponent just spins to face them.

11 minutes ago, Lyianx said:

60 points lightly equipped. So the ship, the boosters, and some kind of weapon upgrade OR hull mod, sure. Just the ship with the boosters *could* be ok, but i would think the point would be to gets some ordnance or heavy cannons in range quickly.

Of course, it’s hard to say until we see points and upgrade slots, but I still think these things are gonna play out much closer to 30 points than 60, most of the time. If the ship itself costs ~30 (for a cheap generic), and the boosters cost in the low single digits (4?), I’m betting a fairly common play might be to just boost 2-3 of these behind enemy lines early, with no other upgrades.

Starting the fight with two TIE Strikers/TIE Interceptors deep in enemy territory is something I’d pay ~70 points for, but not 120.