"The Good the Bad and the Uglies!"
Hello to everyone!
I'm a X-Wing fan form oversees (Germany) and I want to show you the progress of my 3rd Faction
Project: Black Sun Pirates. Well, and I love uglies!
Well, I guess my English is not perfect, but I hope you guys and girls can handle it.
First of all I have to say, that Black Sun and Pirates are different faction. Furthermore,
in the STAR WARS Universe we have many many different pirate factions, but I want to build a faction witch is big enough to fight against the Rebels and the Imperials. This faction should be a strong counterpart to the two major faction. So here are my Black Sun Pirates!
The idea comes from the internet and it goes back to it.
I found a DIE-Wing and a Y-TIE ship card at the "a few maneuvers" and start thinking, building and testing. My idea was to create a faction that combines both strengths of the major fractions; Imperials high shipcount and Rebels durable and hard hitting X Wings. The weakness of the Pirates are bad, rotten, scavenge ships, in comprehension to the Rebels with lower hull and shields and to the Imperials with lower agility and maneuverability. (Well A-Wing and TIE-Bomber don't fit in this computation, but anyway... )
"It is a vast criminal syndicate…its influence felt on every planet from the Core Worlds to the Outer Rim. Black Sun has existed for hundreds of years, and embedded itself in the very fiber of the galaxy. The resources at its disposal are almost limitless. The soldiers under its command number in the tens of thousands. The ignorant even call it the most powerful force in the known universe."
―Darth Sidious, to Darth Maul
I did a bit of reconstructing, card-building and blanching. Noting final yet, but the pirates did some test fights against Rebel and Imperial lists. I had to rise the cost oft the ships, because the where to strong at first.
(A4 printable ship card sheet, send me a pm and I send you the file. Try them, they are fun to play!)
(Inspired from the card build editor and the developer of the DIE-Wing and Y-TIE card builder Guest__*) Look here http://www.afewmaneuvers.com/forum/24-uglies/
OK, lets go down to business, m y first setup was this:
DIE-Wing 8
Y-TIE 16
Deathseed 17
X-Ceptor 18
With the DIE-Wing the Pirates gets a week, but very low cost ship. With the X-Ceptor and the Deathseed they get a X-Wing-like ship. That means a high shipcount and pretty durable and hard hitting X-Wing-like ships in one list. This wars a bit to overpowered in my opinion. The pirates could run a 8 ship list with 4 X-Wing-like ships and 4 DIE-Wings. (4x17+4x8=100)
So, I altered the deal:
DIE-Wing 10
Y-TIE 17
Deathseed 22
X-Ceptor 22
Now, the maximum is 4 X-Wing-like ships and 1 DIE-Wing. Maybe a bit to expensive now, but when you compare a Rookie with a Deathseed or X-Ceptor, the Pirates are still strong, with a pilotskill of 3 they shoot first and the one less shield isn't a to big drawback, when you can kill first. Ok, but how do they fight against 24 points Red Squadron Pilot? Well, maybe I try the Deathseed and X-Ceptor at 21, same as the X-Wing, or even 20, but with 20 we have a 6 ship build with 4 x-wing-like ships and 2 DIY-Wing blockers.. too strong? Hmm, hard to say. Think about the 10 DIE Wing swarm
and the 4 DIE-Wing and 3 Deathseed build. It needs many testgames with different players and builds to balance this right...
(Pirate test fight - no enemy in sight... yet)
I like the idea of having a Deathseed with barrelroll and evade and a X-Ceptor with targetlook, a astromach (of course, only generic) droid and torpedos at the same cost. So you have to decide witch actions and upgrades you prefer and I think it fits quite well in the theme of the both ships.
The Y-TIE is basically the Y-Wing for the Pirates, but with a build in missile-modifiction and lower hull and shields. It can carry the ion cannon witch is very thematic for the pirates in order to robe and other scavenge ships. (Are still some pirate campaigns out there?)
We although have to talk and think about maneuverability of the ships. For now I use for the the DIE-Wing and the Y-TIE a Y-Wing dial and for the Deathseed an X-Ceptor the X-Wing dail. I think the Y-Wing dial is OK for them, but the X Wing dial needs a bit of modification in order to reflect the lower maneuverability of the scavenged ships. So maybe the straight 4 and the hard 3 turns have to be red.
I have some ideas for pirate only upgrade cards, too. So lets have a look.
Suicide Device - Modification - DIE Wing only - Action: Destroy your ship, every ship in Range 1 suffers 1 Damage. (3)
Pirate Instincts - Modification - Pirates only - Your Pilot Skill is +3 (1)
Bomb Slot - Modification - Y-TIE only - Add the (Bomb) symbol to your tool bar. (1)
R5-P8 - Astromach Droid (unique) - Pirates Only - Secondary Attack - Range 1 - 360 degree Attack 3 (4)
What do you think? Any other ideas?
Now we come to the big things! For now the Pirates can use both the Outer Rim Smuggler and the Bounty Hunter! So you can run both ships in one List. This is fun to play. Well, more pilots and even other big ships like Xizors Virago would be a good thing...
Another point is named pirate pilots. I'm developing some. I let you know, when there are ready.
(Pirates under construction, one X and one Int. makes one Deathseed and one X-Ceptor)
I hope you like the Project and I'm happy for every constitutive comment. I need your help to develop this 3rd Faction Project: Black Sun Pirates and love to see more ideas and good thoughts about the theme and gameplay based topics. Maybe some of you like this and help to develop a really good looking and nice balanced DIY 3rd faction. Let's build the Black Sun Pirates a 3rd faction for the wonderful X-Wing boardgame! Thanks for reading!
Can anyone fix this?
