Hey all, I'm currently making some cards for a fellow forum partitioner. I want to get some final advice on the cards stats. Please feel free to give any thoughts (yays or nays) you may have.

Chris, let me know if these aren't the last versions. Thanks

Z-95 Headhunter: (use X-Wing dial but add Red speed 1 Turns and speed 4 is red, K-turn is speed 3)

Bandit Squadron (12) 2 2 2 3 1 Focus, Target Lock

Upgrades: Missile, Modification

Tala Commandos (15) 4 2 2 3 1 Focus, Target Lock

Upgrades: Elite Pilot Talent , Missile, Modification

Lieutenant Blount (17) 5 2 2 3 1 Focus, Target Lock Unique

In the Planning Phase, he may look at one other player’s maneuver dial and then change his own, if he so chooses.

Upgrades: Elite Pilot Talent , Missile, Modification, System Upgrade

‘Ace’ Azzameen (18) 6 2 2 3 1 Focus, Target Lock Unique

Action: after executing a move, place a stress token on 1 enemy within Range 1.

Upgrades: Elite Pilot Talent , Missile, Modification

Airen Cracken (19) 7 2 2 3 1 Focus, Target Lock Unique

When taking damage, may take any face up damage card and turn it face down.

Upgrades: Elite Pilot Talent , Missile, Modification, System Upgrade

Corvan T-4: (use Y-Wing dial)

Terminator Squadron (20) 4 3 2 4 2 Focus, Target Lock, Boost

“The Corvan T-4 Attack Fighter combines heavy firepower, armor and powerful engines”

Upgrades: Astromech Droid, Elite Pilot Talent, Missile, Modification

Corvan Assault Bomber: (use Firespray-31 dial but add Red 0)

Liberator Squadron (24) 4 2 1 5 4 Focus, Target Lock

“The Corvan Assault Bomber is a compact, heavily armed small craft capable of delivering a variety of ordnance or troops against well defended targets”

Upgrades: System Upgrade, Cannon, Torpedo, Missile, Bomb/Mine, Crew, Modification

TIE/D Defender: (use TIE Interceptor dial)

Onyx Squadron (34) 4 3 3 3 4 Focus, Target Lock, Boost

“Arguably the best starfighter in existence, the TIE/Defender was also fitted with a tractor beam, increasing its lethality at close range.

Tractor Beam: when targeting small ships at range 1, reduce target’s Evade by 1 (to a minimum of 0)”

Upgrades: Elite Pilot Talent, Missile, (Ion) Cannon, Modification

Rexler Brath (38) 8 3 3 3 4 Focus, Target Lock, Boost Unique

Action: after executing a barrel roll, place a stress token on 1 enemy ship at range 1.

Upgrades: Elite Pilot Talent, Missile, (Ion) Cannon, Modification

TIE/gt: (use Y-Wing dial)

Imperial Army Pilot (13) 2 1 2 4 0 Focus, Barrel Roll “ The TIE/gt was based on the standard TIE Fighter design but with the main pod elongated to accommodate a bomb bay. It was designed to be dependent on the TIE/fc (or other source), to provided it with precise targeting information ”

Upgrades: System Upgrade, Torpedo, Missile, Bomb/Mine, Modification

Imperial Navy Pilot (14) 3 1 2 4 0 Focus, Barrel Roll

“ The TIE/gt was based on the standard TIE Fighter design but with the main pod elongated to accommodate a bomb bay. It was designed to be dependent on the TIE/fc (or other source), to provided it with precise targeting information”

Upgrades: System Upgrade, Torpedo, Missile, Bomb/Mine, Modification

TIE/fc: (use TIE Fighter dial)

Imperial Recon Pilot (14) 4 1 3 3 0 Focus, Target Lock, Barrel Roll, Evade “ The TIE/fc was designed to scan enemy forces and provide precise targeting information for TIE/gt or other ordnance-carrying ships ”

Upgrades: Elite Pilot Talent, Modification

I am not sure if I understand but Rexler Brath's ability is weird. They have no barrel roll action so does their ability only work if you give them Expert Handling? Generally the special ability should not force you to take one EPT to make it work. So does the Defender get a barrel roll action?

CAN'T READ THE BLUE easily .

On the special abilities, you'll need to modify the one you have for Lt. Blount. " In the Planning Phase, he may look at one other player’s maneuver dial and then change his own, if he so chooses. " Last time I checked the "planning phase" is all jumbled up with both players acting simultaneously and with the chance to revise earlier choices. I'll point out that what you're looking at that is a pretty massive combination of Intelligence Agent and Navigator (4 points of crew!) except there is no range listed for the IA and the Navigator part allows him to completely change his dial. Even if you wait until the start of the Movement Phase that ability is just nuts.

Curious why some of the Z-95s have System Upgrades available yet others do not. It's also odd that the cheap Z-95s get Elite Pilot skills while few other rebels get them.

What happens if you have 2 Lt. Blounts one on either side of the table.

What happens if you have 2 Lt. Blounts one on either side of the table.

The reality we know of will collapse...

I think Nick did a fairly good job in overall with this custom ships. The point costs seem to be feasible. The abilities are creative but not too mighty ... they just need to be 'debugged'

Just remember Corvan ship speed is very high, but they are not quite as agile, and shields are not quite as good as those of other races as due to the heavy ion storms in the Corvus3 atmosphere they tend to rely on armour first and shields second so the ships are sturdier built. . Well, that is how i designed them, you can do them any way you like really

Mara Jade could be a Z95 pilot card...probably with highest Pilot Skill

What happens if you have 2 Lt. Blounts one on either side of the table.

The reality we know of will collapse...

I think Nick did a fairly good job in overall with this custom ships. The point costs seem to be feasible. The abilities are creative but not too mighty ... they just need to be 'debugged'

Thanks. I didn't do any of these stats though. Chris, who I'm doing custom cards for, came up with all the stats :-)

I am not sure if I understand but Rexler Brath's ability is weird. They have no barrel roll action so does their ability only work if you give them Expert Handling? Generally the special ability should not force you to take one EPT to make it work. So does the Defender get a barrel roll action?

Good catch, DB, the special ability is a hold-over from the first draft of this ship/pilot. After further thought, we decided to remove the Barrel Roll from the Defender (but give it to the Avenger, to differentiate the two, similar designs). That said... The concept was that the pilot was a bit of a "barnstormer/acrobatic pilot", throwing his ship around with wreckless abandon, that was unpredictable (perhaps even dangerous) to enemy pilots, thus the "Stress" token. I really like the ability but perhaps we should give this to an Avenger pilot? If that is so, what special ability should we give Rexler and what Avenger pilot should get the ability?

Chris Maes

(LuberjackNick's partner in crime)

On the special abilities, you'll need to modify the one you have for Lt. Blount. " In the Planning Phase, he may look at one other player’s maneuver dial and then change his own, if he so chooses. " Last time I checked the "planning phase" is all jumbled up with both players acting simultaneously and with the chance to revise earlier choices. I'll point out that what you're looking at that is a pretty massive combination of Intelligence Agent and Navigator (4 points of crew!) except there is no range listed for the IA and the Navigator part allows him to completely change his dial. Even if you wait until the start of the Movement Phase that ability is just nuts.

Curious why some of the Z-95s have System Upgrades available yet others do not. It's also odd that the cheap Z-95s get Elite Pilot skills while few other rebels get them.

StevenO,

yes, Lt Blount's ability was, indeed, based on a combination of Intelligence Agent and Navigator. My research (Wookieepedia, of course) mentioned that Blount was frequently charged with flying importany Recon missions, so I was looking for something that would be somehow related to this. Playtesting has shown that, despite how powerful the ability looks, it just hasn't proven to be very decisive (or often used) with such a mediocre ship/pilot combo. How would you suggest rewording rewording the ability to clear up the game mechanics issues? Move the ability to the start of the movement phase? Treat it as an "Action"?

As far as having two Lt. Blounts on the table... Well, he is a unique pilot, so there can be only one of him in a squad. Also, as these cards are for personal use, there is no need to worry about another Rebel force fielding his "clone". There is no way anyone would allow these cards in an official tournament.

Perhaps my ignorance... but when I reviewed the published cards to determine how FFG did theirs, I thought that I came to the conclusion that PS 1-3 pilots did not ever get the Elite Pilot Skill ability; PS 4 pilots got a built-in, unique ability (that mimics an EPS) and PS5+ pilots all had unique abilities AND the Elite Pilot Skill trait. Am I wrong?

Re: System Upgrades- Hmmmm... I think my line of thought was that the lower PS Z-95 pilots were getting "bottom of the barrel" ships, probably from salvage yard or storage depot, so nothing special about these ships. Lt. Blount, I wanted to have the ability to mount some sort of customizable "mission package" to assist with his "recon" missions. The other, higher PS pilots (Azzameen and Cracken (especially Cracken) also had a certain amount of notariety and thus would probably be able to get the groun crew mechanics to perform some unique modifications. Perhaps this is not the way to do it. Does it violate FFG conventions/precedent? What if we eliminate this abilitybut replacee LT. Blount's unique text ability (which others have said could cause confusion) with something like: "This ship adds the System Upgrade trait to its (?) bar"? * Can't think of the technical term for the place on the pilot card that lists possible upgrades, like Missiles or Astromech Droids, etc ... "Upgrade Bar"...? Whatever, I think you know what I mean.

Chris Maes

Mara Jade could be a Z95 pilot card...probably with highest Pilot Skill

By all means, suggest PS, unique ability, cost, etc... I am not at all familiar with the character other than knowing that she comes from the EU (and I don't mean Europe).

Chris Maes

Just remember Corvan ship speed is very high, but they are not quite as agile, and shields are not quite as good as those of other races as due to the heavy ion storms in the Corvus3 atmosphere they tend to rely on armour first and shields second so the ships are sturdier built. . Well, that is how i designed them, you can do them any way you like really

Oh, Hi Gosric... Nice to hear from the ship's designer in person . I have to say that I LOVE that models, and it never fails to impress anyone who sees it. I had no idea that Corvan/Corvus was a "real" place from SW; I just assumed that it came from your imagination. I simply took what you said about the ships in the "Shapeways" product descriptions and what details I could see/infer from the models and just, sort of, used my imagination to come up with something that makes sense. So, how do the stats compare with what you (as designer of the 3D models) imagined?

Chris Maes

PS- If you want photos of the painted models, I can provide those

I am not sure if I understand but Rexler Brath's ability is weird. They have no barrel roll action so does their ability only work if you give them Expert Handling? Generally the special ability should not force you to take one EPT to make it work. So does the Defender get a barrel roll action?

Good catch, DB, the special ability is a hold-over from the first draft of this ship/pilot. After further thought, we decided to remove the Barrel Roll from the Defender (but give it to the Avenger, to differentiate the two, similar designs). That said... The concept was that the pilot was a bit of a "barnstormer/acrobatic pilot", throwing his ship around with wreckless abandon, that was unpredictable (perhaps even dangerous) to enemy pilots, thus the "Stress" token. I really like the ability but perhaps we should give this to an Avenger pilot? If that is so, what special ability should we give Rexler and what Avenger pilot should get the ability?

Chris Maes

(LuberjackNick's partner in crime)

OK I see what you mean. An idea for an ability could be something like "If they perform a red maneuver they get a free evade token" to show acrobatic prowess. However this might be strange if they do not have an evade action but then again it is not impossible for a ship to gain an action it does not normally have (TL or barrel roll for example as given by cards).

Please post pics if you have them!

Perhaps my ignorance... but when I reviewed the published cards to determine how FFG did theirs, I thought that I came to the conclusion that PS 1-3 pilots did not ever get the Elite Pilot Skill ability; PS 4 pilots got a built-in, unique ability (that mimics an EPS) and PS5+ pilots all had unique abilities AND the Elite Pilot Skill trait. Am I wrong?

Re: System Upgrades- Hmmmm... I think my line of thought was that the lower PS Z-95 pilots were getting "bottom of the barrel" ships, probably from salvage yard or storage depot, so nothing special about these ships. Lt. Blount, I wanted to have the ability to mount some sort of customizable "mission package" to assist with his "recon" missions. The other, higher PS pilots (Azzameen and Cracken (especially Cracken) also had a certain amount of notariety and thus would probably be able to get the groun crew mechanics to perform some unique modifications. Perhaps this is not the way to do it. Does it violate FFG conventions/precedent? What if we eliminate this abilitybut replacee LT. Blount's unique text ability (which others have said could cause confusion) with something like: "This ship adds the System Upgrade trait to its (?) bar"? * Can't think of the technical term for the place on the pilot card that lists possible upgrades, like Missiles or Astromech Droids, etc ... "Upgrade Bar"...? Whatever, I think you know what I mean.

Your view on Elite Pilot skills is DEFINITELY full of ignorance. The ONLY non-unique Rebel ship with an Elite Pilot slot in the Green Squadron Pilot granted it comes in at PL 3. The B,X, and Y-wings all have basic PL 4 ships with NO elite pilot skills. Only 2/6 X-Wings (PL 8,9), 2/4 A-Wing (3,8), 2/4 B-WIng (6,8), and 2/4 HWK (6,8) of the small rebel ships get elite pilot skills and 6/13 unique pilots don't get Elite skills.

With the exception of Elite Pilot skills, the "Falcon", and a title or two ALL ships of a given type have the same available upgrades. Maybe you'll say the Falcon sets a "precedent" with its expanded upgrade line and you may be right but should also look at the jump the ship's base stats and price take when doing so.

Now if I go back to Blount it would seem your playtesting may have failed to utilize him. Maybe you'll get the timing fixed but revealing an opponent's maneuver die "to this ship" essentially reveals it to all of your ships. Some of those hyper-mobile B-Wings could certainly benefit knowing where their opponent's will be as they can alter their destination. The built in SUPER-Navigator also means that ship should always be able to get the the best position it can.

Thank you, im always glad to hear that.

Actually it isnt from canon.I orignally created the race and ships for a tactical rpg a friend and i designed. The Corvans were the race my favourite character came from. But i guess i was doing something right *S*

I would love to see painted versions. my painting skills are not what they once were.

As for the stats I would say they are pretty close to what i envisioned though perhaps i would maybe up the hull slightly while dropping the shields by the same, Evade would probably be more of a pilot skill thing as while they were capable of skilled manouevers in the right hands they were definitely bore in and hit hard kind of designs like most Corvan vessels.

Though rpg stats are of course radically different, i am trying to figured out a way of converting the stats of my originals to X Wing to make things easier.

But unless some miracle happens and they decide to put Corvans in the Rebels tv show or the new movie, they are not canon and so feel free to run with whatever works for you. By the time of the original films the Corvus system had already been laid waste to by the Imperial fleet so any ships running around will no doubt have been modified.

Oh, and there is going to be a somewhat heavier Corvan fighter/bomber to bridge the gap between the assault craft and T4 as well a smaller light and agile fighter available soon as well.

The GT has some issues. Currently it has no way to fire off missiles. I believe the FC was meant to hand out Target Locks but is entirely missing the ability to do so. I would probably give it a similar skill to "Dutch" Vanders as standard, make it non-unique, but have no unique pilots for it to stop it doubling down on abilities. Either that or have higher pilots with different abilities that buff in a similar way. So something like this.

TIE/fc: (use TIE Fighter dial)

Imperial Recon Pilot (14) 4 1 3 3 0 Focus, Target Lock, Barrel Roll, Evade - After acquiring a target lock, choose another friendly ship at Range 1-2. The chosen ship acquires a target lock on the same ship.

Upgrades: Modification

And drop off the EPT to pay for it. tbh it probably shouldn't have one.

Perhaps my ignorance... but when I reviewed the published cards to determine how FFG did theirs, I thought that I came to the conclusion that PS 1-3 pilots did not ever get the Elite Pilot Skill ability; PS 4 pilots got a built-in, unique ability (that mimics an EPS) and PS5+ pilots all had unique abilities AND the Elite Pilot Skill trait. Am I wrong?

Re: System Upgrades- Hmmmm... I think my line of thought was that the lower PS Z-95 pilots were getting "bottom of the barrel" ships, probably from salvage yard or storage depot, so nothing special about these ships. Lt. Blount, I wanted to have the ability to mount some sort of customizable "mission package" to assist with his "recon" missions. The other, higher PS pilots (Azzameen and Cracken (especially Cracken) also had a certain amount of notariety and thus would probably be able to get the groun crew mechanics to perform some unique modifications. Perhaps this is not the way to do it. Does it violate FFG conventions/precedent? What if we eliminate this abilitybut replacee LT. Blount's unique text ability (which others have said could cause confusion) with something like: "This ship adds the System Upgrade trait to its (?) bar"? * Can't think of the technical term for the place on the pilot card that lists possible upgrades, like Missiles or Astromech Droids, etc ... "Upgrade Bar"...? Whatever, I think you know what I mean.

Your view on Elite Pilot skills is DEFINITELY full of ignorance. The ONLY non-unique Rebel ship with an Elite Pilot slot in the Green Squadron Pilot granted it comes in at PL 3. The B,X, and Y-wings all have basic PL 4 ships with NO elite pilot skills. Only 2/6 X-Wings (PL 8,9), 2/4 A-Wing (3,8), 2/4 B-WIng (6,8), and 2/4 HWK (6,8) of the small rebel ships get elite pilot skills and 6/13 unique pilots don't get Elite skills.

With the exception of Elite Pilot skills, the "Falcon", and a title or two ALL ships of a given type have the same available upgrades. Maybe you'll say the Falcon sets a "precedent" with its expanded upgrade line and you may be right but should also look at the jump the ship's base stats and price take when doing so.

Now if I go back to Blount it would seem your playtesting may have failed to utilize him. Maybe you'll get the timing fixed but revealing an opponent's maneuver die "to this ship" essentially reveals it to all of your ships. Some of those hyper-mobile B-Wings could certainly benefit knowing where their opponent's will be as they can alter their destination. The built in SUPER-Navigator also means that ship should always be able to get the the best position it can.

StevenO,

Thanks for not mincing words Re: my ignorance. Have you ever considered a career in diplomacy or counseling? Just kidding, I have thicker skin than that, plus... I am/was ignorant on the subject. Actually, looking back on it, the inclusion of EPS on the generic, PS4, Tala Commandoes is probably a cut-n-paste artifact from an early version. Thanks for helping to proofread it.

On the issue of Lt. Blount's special ability as a recon pilot- your points are valid. What do you think of the idea of giving him the ability to take System Upgrades (where other Z-95 pilots cannot), allowing for some special equipment that would be helpful for recon missions? Or do you have another suggestion for how to reprsent his skill, ability and experience as a top-notch recon pilot?

Chris

The GT has some issues. Currently it has no way to fire off missiles. I believe the FC was meant to hand out Target Locks but is entirely missing the ability to do so. I would probably give it a similar skill to "Dutch" Vanders as standard, make it non-unique, but have no unique pilots for it to stop it doubling down on abilities. Either that or have higher pilots with different abilities that buff in a similar way. So something like this.

TIE/fc: (use TIE Fighter dial)

Imperial Recon Pilot (14) 4 1 3 3 0 Focus, Target Lock, Barrel Roll, Evade - After acquiring a target lock, choose another friendly ship at Range 1-2. The chosen ship acquires a target lock on the same ship.

Upgrades: Modification

And drop off the EPT to pay for it. tbh it probably shouldn't have one.

Rodent,

good catch! Yes, indeed, the idea was for the TIE/fc to be able to aquire TLs and hand them off to the TIE/gt's to launch missiles. So, how do we word this? I know that there are other pilots with similar abilities and I would like to mimic this and keep within the precedent set by FFG.

Chris

The GT has some issues. Currently it has no way to fire off missiles. I believe the FC was meant to hand out Target Locks but is entirely missing the ability to do so. I would probably give it a similar skill to "Dutch" Vanders as standard, make it non-unique, but have no unique pilots for it to stop it doubling down on abilities. Either that or have higher pilots with different abilities that buff in a similar way. So something like this.

TIE/fc: (use TIE Fighter dial)

Imperial Recon Pilot (14) 4 1 3 3 0 Focus, Target Lock, Barrel Roll, Evade - After acquiring a target lock, choose another friendly ship at Range 1-2. The chosen ship acquires a target lock on the same ship.

Upgrades: Modification

And drop off the EPT to pay for it. tbh it probably shouldn't have one.

Rodent,

good catch! Yes, indeed, the idea was for the TIE/fc to be able to aquire TLs and hand them off to the TIE/gt's to launch missiles. So, how do we word this? I know that there are other pilots with similar abilities and I would like to mimic this and keep within the precedent set by FFG.

Chris

Well there is "Dutch" Vander and Jendon. My wording is a reworked version of "Dutch"'s ability. I felt as the ship is meant to be scanning for his crew it would make more sense if he got a Target Lock and then radio'd over the details to a ship close to him. It's not like he is going to do a lot with the extra TL. So

After acquiring a target lock, choose another friendly ship at Range 1-2. The chosen ship acquires a target lock on the same ship.

Thank you, im always glad to hear that.

Oh, Hi Gosric... Nice to hear from the ship's designer in person . I have to say that I LOVE that models, and it never fails to impress anyone who sees it. I had no idea that Corvan/Corvus was a "real" place from SW; I just assumed that it came from your imagination. I simply took what you said about the ships in the "Shapeways" product descriptions and what details I could see/infer from the models and just, sort of, used my imagination to come up with something that makes sense. So, how do the stats compare with what you (as designer of the 3D models) imagined?

Just remember Corvan ship speed is very high, but they are not quite as agile, and shields are not quite as good as those of other races as due to the heavy ion storms in the Corvus3 atmosphere they tend to rely on armour first and shields second so the ships are sturdier built. . Well, that is how i designed them, you can do them any way you like really

Chris Maes

PS- If you want photos of the painted models, I can provide those

Actually it isnt from canon.I orignally created the race and ships for a tactical rpg a friend and i designed. The Corvans were the race my favourite character came from. But i guess i was doing something right *S*

I would love to see painted versions. my painting skills are not what they once were.

As for the stats I would say they are pretty close to what i envisioned though perhaps i would maybe up the hull slightly while dropping the shields by the same, Evade would probably be more of a pilot skill thing as while they were capable of skilled manouevers in the right hands they were definitely bore in and hit hard kind of designs like most Corvan vessels.

Though rpg stats are of course radically different, i am trying to figured out a way of converting the stats of my originals to X Wing to make things easier.

But unless some miracle happens and they decide to put Corvans in the Rebels tv show or the new movie, they are not canon and so feel free to run with whatever works for you. By the time of the original films the Corvus system had already been laid waste to by the Imperial fleet so any ships running around will no doubt have been modified.

Oh, and there is going to be a somewhat heavier Corvan fighter/bomber to bridge the gap between the assault craft and T4 as well a smaller light and agile fighter available soon as well.

OK, I can change the stats on the Corvan Assault Bomber to 2/1/6/3 to reflect your original intent, since you are the resident subject matter expert.

How about the T-4? Do those stats look right? To me, it appears to have the same firepower of an X-wing, probably torpedoes or missiles and astromech droid. It looks a bit more bulky/boxy than an X-wing, so probably up-armored or more durable (very useful in the assault role). Doesn't look super maneuverable, so same evade as X-wing. Shields are probably Rebel/X-wing standard. Those big engines remind me of the A-wing for some reason, so I gave it a Y-wing maneuver dial with Boost ability.

Really looking forward to your new Corvan design and can't wait to get the Customs Cutters (Reb and Imp) as well as the Baudo and the Voidrunner! Could use some help working on stats for those so Nick and I can field the ships complete with custom cards.

Chris

I wouldnt cancel the Defenders barrel roll ... even this is the most underused standard action.

As a pilot it makes me feel like ... "**** I am flying the finest craft of the Empire and I can't even barrel roll? What **** is this? Even the sh*tty Tie Bombers can barrel roll!"

If xou wanna have the Tie Avenger as well as the Tie Defender, I think you need to make the Defender fairly stronger and more expensive. Kicking the BR on one of both just isn't a good way to differenciate them.

For example:

Tie Avenger

3-2-3-2 (yes. its the X-Wing stats - and why don't? you can consider the avenger as the (better) x-wing of the empire)

Dial: Tie-Advanced with a minor +

Actions: TL, BR, EV, FC

Upgrades: missile, system upgrade

Tie Defender

3-3-3-4 (or even more shields and less defence, which would make the defender a large ship stat-wise: 3-2-3-8)

Dial: Tie-Interceptor with minor changes

Actions: TL, BR, EV, FC

Upgrades: missile, cannon

I would look to the dial and upgrades to make the difference. The Tie Advanced is more maneuverable at low speed so allow it to do tighter turns as greens. Slightly lower Shields so it will come in cheaper.

About the same as an X Wing firepower wise. Shields would likely be a little less than an X Wing but the sturdiness of the hull would make it very durable. An advantage that they have, which im not sure how it would work in game, is a high resistance to ion attacks. As i mentioned earlier i think the charged upper atmosphere of Corvus 3 can fry electonics easily so they tend to be very well shielded against EMP.

In the game we were playing the main villains had a Praetor class with an extra reactor simply to power the forward mounted V-150 ion cannon and to counter this the rebels used a converted Pulson D Frigate (we were having fun with the Nebulon B naming thing, Quazon, Pulson etc*L*) called the 'Ion tempest' with a similiar ion cannon mounted, which on a smaller rebel ship of course left no power or room for armaments so having escort fighters that could handle the fringes of an ion blast of that level was handy. Needless to say even the Corvan fighters cannot handle an actual hit from an ion blast of that level but against fighter mounted ones it comes in handy.

As you can imagine this made fleet action a bit brutal since in ESB we saw what happens when capital ships get hit with one of those and in the presence of the Y wing and Corvan assault bomber a ship whose weapons and shields were temporarily down has a tendency to become permanently out of the picture.

Ok, now im rambling since this game isnt about fleets. Sometimes i get carried away *L*

I wouldnt cancel the Defenders barrel roll ... even this is the most underused standard action.

As a pilot it makes me feel like ... "**** I am flying the finest craft of the Empire and I can't even barrel roll? What **** is this? Even the sh*tty Tie Bombers can barrel roll!"

If xou wanna have the Tie Avenger as well as the Tie Defender, I think you need to make the Defender fairly stronger and more expensive. Kicking the BR on one of both just isn't a good way to differenciate them.

For example:

Tie Avenger

3-2-3-2 (yes. its the X-Wing stats - and why don't? you can consider the avenger as the (better) x-wing of the empire)

Dial: Tie-Advanced with a minor +

Actions: TL, BR, EV, FC

Upgrades: missile, system upgrade

Tie Defender

3-3-3-4 (or even more shields and less defence, which would make the defender a large ship stat-wise: 3-2-3-8)

Dial: Tie-Interceptor with minor changes

Actions: TL, BR, EV, FC

Upgrades: missile, cannon

Somehow, I don't see one of the Empire's most advanced starfighters being less evasive than a TIE/Ln or even the TIE Defender... especially the Defender which is substantially heavier. I think 3/3/3/3 (or at worst 3/3/3/2). I was going to give the Defender the A-wing Maneuver Dial, whereas the Avenger would use the TIE Interceptor dial. Both would have TL, Focus, Boost and I think I have been convinced that both will have Barrel Roll. What if I differentiated the Defender/Avenger by giving the (lighter) Avenger the Evade action, whereas the (heavier) Defender does not?

Just food for thought but I'd like opinions.

Chris