Ah-ha, first person who doesn't like "Improved Manufacturing"!

Gotta admit, it is true, I am not sold on it :-)

"Improved Manufacturing" - so 2 points less - is good and fine.

But I'd say lets make the TIE Defender the unique ship what it should be with the free (and built-in, so no upgrade cards needed, no modification slot used) FCS. It would be fun to use and the Defender would be an option for 2 TIE Academies, and no Howlrunner is needed for them to hit! They don't even need to move in formation. The FCS would be a good replace for the unique X-Wing pilots, the Advanced don't have.

Together with the EPT for the Storms I would consider the Advanced as 'fixed' ...

If we went with FCS and Elite I'd run

Storm with PtL and Engine Upgrade x 2

Vader with Daredevil, Engine Upgrade, Concussion Missile

Would be a great squad

It's hard to extrapolate what the TIE Defender will be, assuming it gets released. FFG will probably introduce some new dynamic (could be the tractor beam) that will totally change how we look at it anyway. Which is good.

There are benefits to simply giving the Advanced a built in FCS vs the option to reduce points by 2:

• its the same cost as an x-wing
• it stays truer to the original intent, where the ship was considered expensive
• it's simpler

I'll probably play house rules for a while allowing either points or the FCS. I'll try it without the elite slot first. It may be a while before I get enough games in that use it to gt enough useful data though.

I will send you some game data.

Oh ... I almost forgot about Maarek ...

What now about changing his ability to "Your critical hits ignore targets' shields" !?!

I would take this into consideration. I think Maarek should get a buff as well. I found this to be a very interesting and unique ability and rebel players wouldn't ignore Maarek any longer ^^

So, as the discussion slows down, I'd just like to say thanks to all those who have participated with some great ideas.

You never know, we may even, eventually get an FFG update.

Regards Pete

Nobody? I mean - we know about Maareks' weakness: there are so many IF which makes Maarek not only a non no-brainer but more an unlikely event:

IF Maarek produces a crit in his attack and IF this crit isn't cancelled (which happenes quite a lot due to an attack value of 2) and IF the target has no shields wich would negate the crit, THEN choose 1 out of 3 faceup damage cards.

It is unlikely to produce crits without Markmanship, but even then it is not guaranteed that you produce a hit during your attack roll. Even worse: Markmanship takes the EPT and your action, so no evade or focus left for defence, which makes Maarek expensive, ineffective in attack AND ineffective in defence. So this is the most ineffective unique pilot by far. Even Fel's Wrath is more useful then Maarek.

So I want to chance Maareks ability so you have a better chance to get a revenue. Something about crits would be just fine.

A no-brainer ability to produce more crits would be ok, so you can use your EPT slot for whatever but for Markmanship, like:

"When attacking, you may change 1 of your [eye] results to a [critical hit] result."

or the IF a crit was rolled, then...- like ability would stay, but I would negate at least one IF;like suggested already:

"When attacking, your [critical hit] results ignore the shields of your target."

This would be more like:

IF Maarek produces a crit in his attack and IF this crit isn't cancelled, the target will recieve a critical hit. So, this ability would improve the likeliness a critical hit would actually harm the target as a critical hit and not as a normal hit.

So, as the discussion slows down, I'd just like to say thanks to all those who have participated with some great ideas.

You never know, we may even, eventually get an FFG update.

Regards Pete

This would mean we are either satisfied with the results or this topic became boring

Now, Pete - and all others - help me to fix Maarek as well, since he is part of the Advanced line.

In principle it looks to work ok. Sadly it would require re issuing Maarek's card and I don't see that happening.

I shall put on my thinking hat....

I don't know how FFG is used to cope with this kind of fixing - but in the end all you need is an entry in the errata as well ... like cut this box out and lay it above Maarkes' card text. The next generation of Maarek cards (re-prints) could have the new text, so ... there is a way

There is a way, but FFG has seldom taken it. Only card I can think of that got a text errata is DareDevil

... just like there could be a rule-card (just like for boost, bombs, ....) for the Advanced which explains that the Advanced has a built-in FCS which would come in future reprints

One option for Maarek could be.

"You may not use defense dice to negate any critical hit inflicted by Maarek"

That still allows shields and evade tokens?

It would be effective, but not overpowered I think

There is a way, but FFG has seldom taken it. Only card I can think of that got a text errata is DareDevil

And this is a good sign. Its a start! X-Wing is still young ... so. Don't give up so fast. You'll never know how nerdy the FFG designers are - and maybe they like the ideas as well.

One option for Maarek could be.

"You may not use defense dice to negate any critical hit inflicted by Maarek"

That still allows shields and evade tokens?

It would be effective, but not overpowered I think

Ouch ... this would be a hard one for unshielded craft with high defence ...

Thats actually a very good idea!!! I like it ... i need to test it ... but i really like it

It kind of reflects the fact he can place hits very very accurately.

Another option is change all of his hits to crits, but draw cards like every other pilot.

Also not bad! A real no-brainer! And a strong one - This would be almost the Wedge for the Empire then, from my feeling.

Maybe a bit OP when Maarek is outfitted with Expose? ... But maybe this would make Expose worth the 4 points and Maarek would be an easy kill if he'd use Expose ... so ... i need to think about this

I kind of like all hits become crits, you still have to get hits, then you have to defeat defense dice, then shields.

If you can do all that, Maarek was capable of placing his hits in critical spots.

Let's face it, even with FCS, most of the time you'll get 2 crits before defense rolls and shields, it is hardly overpowered for a pilot that costs 27 points base.

I both like your two suggestions. There might be the issue that FFG evaluates crits higher then players would do ... just like Markmanship - 3 points is quite a lot for that single crit you could produce ...

So, the FFG designers may consider a "all hits become crits" ability as overpowered, even if the ship has only attack 2.

You could try keeping his ability the same but add "you may change one hit to a critical hit" as the first line of text. Much more useful, but keeps his unique flavor.

Edit: you're already discussing this. Capping it at one hit to critical hit is more balanced.

You could try keeping his ability the same but add "you may change one hit to a critical hit" as the first line of text. Much more useful, but keeps his unique flavor.

Edit: you're already discussing this. Capping it at one hit to critical hit is more balanced.

Ok this is jet another option ... so it is very likely to produce a crit and if the crit is not cancelled by defence rolls and not converted to a normal hit by a shield then select 1 out of 3 faceup damage cards.

Honestly he's fine as is, I personally don't see a need to change him...

You could try keeping his ability the same but add "you may change one hit to a critical hit" as the first line of text. Much more useful, but keeps his unique flavor.

Edit: you're already discussing this. Capping it at one hit to critical hit is more balanced.

Ok this is jet another option ... so it is very likely to produce a crit and if the crit is not cancelled by defence rolls and not converted to a normal hit by a shield then select 1 out of 3 faceup damage cards.

There's no way I would add "crits bypass shields" if you let him change 1 hit to a crit first, and also get to choose 1 of 3 crits to deliver. I'm not sure that would be balanced for a PS9 ability, let alone a PS7 ability.

Smaller changes are good, don't need to overdo it.

Also, the more I have been thinking about it, if I was a game developer and had to re-balance the Advanced, I would go with the built-in FCS and not add the EPT to the PS4 ship, so the Advanced would be at parity with the X-wings.