First off this is coming from someone who plays rebels. So I have been playing the game for a while and trying different builds and facing other squads. one thing i noticed is Astromechs seem to be a huge game changer. yeah some of them have dope abilities and stuff, but what makes them unbalacd from the empire is there is no way to disable it. There are damage cards and abilities that effect: secondary weapons, eliet skills, pilot abilities, action bars, agility.

So while yes i love my astromechs, i think they make the fight a little unfair for the empire. which is why i kind of hope in wave 3 there is an ion missle that disables astro mechs and cannons with a hit, or a tie-fighter pilot that can spend a hit or crit on an attack roll to disable a card attached to a pilot. Thoughts, comments?

Could you be a little more specific with regard to what you mean is making them overpowered or unfair? I mean, some of the astromechs do cost a decent amount of points, some almost one third of a TIE Fighter. After all, it's part of the balance that rebel ships tend to be bigger points sinks than Imperial ships…

I guess the reason for my view would bethe restoring of shields, and discarding facedown damage. (R5-D8 and R2-D2) There is the balance of rebels costing more than imperials to compensate hull VS shield/hull. and also the balance of agile actions and evade dice VS damage output and (generally) higher pilot skill. But maybe i'm looking at this wrong since I don't play imperial, but the Astromechs are exclusive to rebels (due to empire unable to install them on ships). But the empire seem to be losing 2 things with this deal. 1: empire have no damage recovery and, 2: empire have no exclusive upgrades that rebels have to worry about.

Then again, i guess in a game of 8 V 3, damage recovery is a blessing. lol

sorry if the thought process is a bit scattered.

I feel like astromechs are a good way to build a "custom character" that Empire just doesn't get. While a character may have a cool ability sometimes an astromech/elite pilot tallent + a Modification goes a long ways to offset that lack of ability.

Granted I feel like "Options" is rebels' schtick.

Silver leader said:

Silver leader said:

I am not saying that you're wrong, but I do believe that you are missing a point (or 2) in your viewpoint:

1. Most astromechs require either a green maneuver or an action in order to work ie; they wont work if you're stressed. This means that you can be somewhat restricted in your choice of maneuver/planning which can be "read" by an experienced opponent to his/her advantage
2. The ones that don't require actions/no stress either takes/requires a roll or is for increasing green maneuvers or similar.
3. As you point out yourself in a comment further down the rebels generally are fewer ships on the board than the TIE (swarms) and therefor the astromechs even out that bit of "unbalance".

In general I do find the game much balanced, and certainly it depends very much on your list building skills combined with your playing style, the luck of the dices, maneuvering, the opponents list and so on and so on……

They certainly tipped the scales for me in my first few games. A few days ago I cracked open the core set and convinced my wife to try it with me. We started with the simplified rules, and she was very skeptical about the game (I was playing Imperials, and I destroyed her because I forgot to explain how a K turn works, so I ended up maneuvering a TIE behind her and that was that).

When we switched to trying the standard rules, we stuck with the same pilot breakdown (rookie, academy, and obsidian), but since the TIE total added up to 25 and her rookie was only 21, I told her she should pick an upgrade. She grabbed R2-D2, and then proceeded to utterly wipe the floor with me for three games in a row. I freaking hate R2-D2 now. :-D

Which of course is not to say that astromechs are ultimately unbalanced, but I can definitely see how, given the wrong matchup of ships/player skill, they can feel like an unfair advantage for the Rebels.

Thematically, I would love if FFG added a way to disable astromechs for the Imperials, since although I don't recall TIEs having any weapon in particular that accomplished that in the movies, astromechs certainly took damage along with the ship. I can already hear the imitation yeeeeOOOOOOW squeals we'd be making as soon as such a hit landed.

Astromechs are very nice options that are worth their points cost.

Since highly competitive tournament builds can be built with or without them, they are not under priced or over powering.

However, R2D2 is emotionally overwhelming to bring into learning games with novices. Luke with a shield upgrade and R2D2 is extra cruel. For early learning games, I like bringing in a basic R2 as a gateway droid.

you could also argue the same logic with the empire has a siginifcant advantage over rebels because they can all barrel roll without adding in expert handling

i'd honestly say that barrel roll is a much stronger ability than astromechs.. especially considering it comes standard on ties

Totally agree with the barrel roll thing. My girlfriend just beat me yesterday by constantly barrel rolling out of my firing arcs and into hers. Barrel rolls can really change a battle if used correctly and with good maneuvering.