Gotta be quick and grab them off of Ebay before word spreads of how well they go with X-wing, I say. while they're still dirt cheap.

At least I'm not too worried. I just need to buy one of each and then fire up my pressure/vacuum chamber and resin cast away.

Actually I might just do that, time to go ebay hunting me thinks.

Well, these things are scary. We had a 50 point game tonight, with the following listing:

Droid Starfighter + Droid Leader

Droid Starfighter + Coordination

Droid Starfighter

Droid Starfighter

Droid Starfighter

-------------------VS-------------------

Scimitar Squadron Pilot + Seismic Charges

Scimitar Squadron Pilot + Seismic Charges

Black Squadron Pilot

Here's the initial layout:

The first round was nasty, as all the droids lunged forward and focus fired on a single bomber. Four hits and a critical, minor hull breach if I remember correctly. The things managed to avoid two Range 1 shots from the two bombers, who shot first. And most of them used the new action, Barrage, to increase their attack die by 1. The Leader used evade instead, I think. Gives you an idea on how suitable is 3 evade die is for nimble ships:

On the next round, the droid formation broke up into all directions in fear of my bombs, and that's why you see them scattering out like crazy in there. One of them managed to have the dying bomber in it's range, which I tried to shut down quickly using Black squadron pilot, but we both missed. The bombers missed their shots as well, but 2 droids came behind my Tie, seemingly out of nowhere with their wicked movements, and did 2 damage on him. Ouch.

The next turn is where it would finally get fun. I mean, check it out. Droids were ready to kill, and my partner had a bad call there when she left one of them in bomb range. There's no way I would let that one slip, so bombs f-king away:

Kaboom. This attack phase saw many good hits going, the bomb took out a droid, then the bomber got downed, the other bomber got hit, but Black Squadron pilot and the remaining Scimitar both landed awesome shots, killing two droids just like that.

...The tides have turned.

The next round was of weird maneuvers and missed shots.

Bomber flying casual.

Pew pew- KCHBOOOM!

Next round, the bold droid tried to confront the Empire head on. Roger roger- Pew pew- KDHKDHSBOOMM.

There he goes.


Result:
Scimitar Squadron Pilot - DOWN, 6 damage.
Scimitar Squadron Pilot - 2 damage
Black Squadron Pilot - 2 damage

10 damage in total.

Here's the other upgrade I missed: the dreaded Buzz missiles. Testing is encouraged!

Missile card:

-------------------------------

<Buzz Droid Missiles> 3
Droid only. Range 2-3

Attack: Discard this card

to perform this attack.

If this attack hits, the

defender is inflicted with

Buzz Droids. Then,

change all attack results

to blank results.

(Cost: 3)
-------------------------------

And the ref:

------------------------------------------------
Status: Buzz Droids - Reference Card

When a ship is inflicted with the Buzz

Droids status, it will roll one attack die

at the end of every attack phase, for

the remainder of the match.

On a (Hit) or (Critical Hit) result,

discard any Astromech cards attached

to the ship. If there are no Astromech

cards present, the ship suffers the

resulting (Hit) or (Critical Hit) in Hull

damage.

Action: If you have the (Barrel roll)

action icon, or the Expert Handling

Elite Pilot talent, perform a barrel roll.

You may then roll one defense die.

On a (Evade) result, remove the Buzz

Droid status from your ship. If you have

Expert Handling, receive 1 stress token

regardless of the evade die result.
-------------------------------------------------

This, the Coordination card, the Droid Leader card, and both normal and Adv. droid models give off interesting variations in sets and use. Not to mention it's fun as hell. Again, testing encouraged.

Wish I had the time and minis! Keep reporting.

A match against the rebels is coming soon.

Im getting plenty of sets going, such as..

Droid Starfighter + Droid Leader

Droid Starfighter + Coordination

Droid Starfighter

Droid Starfighter

Droid Starfighter

----------------------------------------

49 pts.

[basic 50 point swarm]

Adv. Droid Starfighter + Assault Missiles

Adv. Droid Starfighter + Impact missiles

Droid Starfighter + Droid Leader

Droid Starfighter

---------------------------------------------------

50 pts.

[Missile test set at 50]

Adv. Droid Starfighter + Buzz Droids

Adv. Droid Starfighter + Buzz Droids

Adv. Droid Starfighter + Buzz Droids

Droid Starfighter

Droid Starfighter

--------------------------------------------------

60 pts.

[A viable, rounded saboteur squad, which should be played against the coming behemoth ships]

Adv. Droid Starfighter + Droid Leader

Droid Starfighter + Coordination

Droid Starfighter

Droid Starfighter

Droid Starfighter

Droid Starfighter

------------------------------------------------

60 pts.

[A pure 60 point swarm, with Adv. Leader and coordinator, able to jump the leader to 5 PS when needed.]

I'll have me another battle and then decide if I should start the card design. Right now they seem ideal to me in both difficulty and lore however.

I'm not very fond of the buzz droids. It's a death sentence to any ship you hit with it on the rebel side. I would even it out so it was just a Action to attempt to remove them.

Buzz droids are too much. Make it deal 1'damage initially like an ion cannon. Have it kill an astromech somehow and then have it discarded after it deals 1 damage. Keeps it cheap, flavorful, and not Op.

Buzz droids are too much. Make it deal 1'damage initially like an ion cannon. Have it kill an astromech somehow and then have it discarded after it deals 1 damage. Keeps it cheap, flavorful, and not Op.

What about it does damage normally. it also puts down tokens equal to the number of hits. At the start of each combat phase take damage equal to the number of tokens left then remove a token.

Action: remove a Buzz Droid token.

This sounds like poison status. ^ They'll take damage without having means to avoid it, but I like the idea. Didn't even think of Buzz droids in -amounts-.

Maybe this wasn't as clear, so..

The way it works is that if the attack hits, regardless of the number of hits, you get one single buzz token, always. The attack itself does no damage, so all the die results are then turned blank. It's after the fact that the damage starts building in with every attack phase ending.

[The perfect reference here is when Obi Wan gets them for the first time. No damage from the missiles themselves, until a while after they land.]

This means inflicted ships get to shoot before dying. Possibly taking out an enemy droid in the meantime.

Rebels with Astromechs have to have them sacrificed before starting to take damage, so in a way this puts them at a slight advantage in that before the damage starts counting down, they can take out all the droid starfighters.

As for the imperials, who would better likely be in danger.. Their usual 3 evade often saves them from the get-go. If not, barrel roll.

Still, the dice decides the fate of the afflicted. One thing to weaken this attack would be to only have it do normal damage instead of critical rolls, or, limit it's duration to 2-4 turns. So a ship could get the status, and with luck get clean rolls and not suffer a single damage or the loss of an Astromech. Think of those times when you roll that promising four attack die, only to have them all blank.

On the other hand, how can a pilot inside his cockpit or the ship itself get rid of the tiny buggers eating at it like that? As implied with the action icon. It just doesn't sound logical enough to me within the understanding that these things can crawl all over and are glued to you.

(The barrel roll at least implies that you shake them off by flinging them out in a throwing/spinning fashion with your ship. But even this can fail.)

Pilots could always pull out a Skywalker and try to shoot your friendly ship, to hit the buzz. But this could be like, risky.

Maybe R2 units can duel it out with the buzz droids at one die each. This could be more fun, but a bit too complicated maybe. And screams of movie.

Perhaps the Buzz droid missile can be a simple, assign three tokens to a hit ship (tokens are provided in sets of three like the ship numbers. In fact you could just use ship numbers). Each turn remove a token for each buzzdroid hit and roll and attack die. Suffer any hits or crits rolled.

So the Buzz droids have a limited time that they can affect the ship. But this is countered by the fact that a single hit with the missile gives you potentially three points of damage against an enemy ship that can't evade or block it with defense dice. Multiple hits by buzz droid missiles will cause a ship to die faster as you will be rolling extra attack dice each turn.

Example of play:

Enemy ship is hit by a Buzz droids missile and has three "1" tokens applied to it. In the following turn you remove a "1" token and roll an attack die and apply the damage. In that turn, the same ship is hit again by another buzz droid missile giving it a set of three "2" tokens. On turn two, you remove a "1" token and a "2" token for the new missile that hit, and a roll two attack dice.

Ouch.

I like this idea. Wouldn't it be much simple to just add up the count to 6?

Nevermind, instead classify each trio of Buzz droid tokens with a letter, so that you have to spend one of each letter per turn. Just like Target Lock tokens.

Therefore, a ship gets 3 "Buzz Droid A" tokens can get another 3 "Buzz Droid B" tokens and calc the damage easier.

Now I'm itching to play this.

Ouch.

I like this idea. Wouldn't it be much simple to just add up the count to 6?

Nevermind, instead classify each trio of Buzz droid tokens with a letter, so that you have to spend one of each letter per turn. Just like Target Lock tokens.

Therefore, a ship gets 3 "Buzz Droid A" tokens can get another 3 "Buzz Droid B" tokens and calc the damage easier.

Now I'm itching to play this.

That's what I was initially thinking, but then I thought, hey you have all of those unused Ship ID number tokens that could easily serve the same purpose and wouldn't require you to make up new tokens. You could use any number really, give the ship three "29" tokens or whatever. You just need to be able to tell to which set each token belongs so that you remove the right amount of tokens each turn to roll the right amount of damage each turn.

Alternative idea that uses less tokens would be to give it a specified amount of damage immediately that ignores shields (since the Buzz droids are inside the shielding). But this would be quite powerful and would need an increased cost to reflect it. And in the end I'm sure that it would be too OP against some builds (B Wings anyone) so from a game balance point of view, my first suggestion is better to implement.

Here's the updated cards, they're working quite well.

-------------------------------

<Buzz Droid Missiles>
Droid only. Range 2-3

Attack: Discard this card

to perform this attack.

Roll 2 Attack die. On any

[hit] or [critical hit] results,

the defender is inflicted with

3 Buzz Droid tokens.

(Cost: 3)
--------------------------------

This "attack" in itself does no damage, but counts as a missile upgrade card. The rolling of the dice themselves are to determine if the defender will have buzzies latched on to it.

-------------------------------------------------------------
Status: Buzz Droid tokens - Reference Card

When a ship is inflicted with a Buzz Droid token,

it will roll one attack die at the end of every attack

phase, suffer the result, and discard one Buzz

Droid token from the ship.

On a (Hit) or (Critical Hit) result, discard any

Astromech cards attached to the ship. If there are

no Astromech cards present, the ship suffers the

resulting (Hit) or (Critical Hit) in Hull damage,

regardless of shields.

Action: If you have the (Barrel roll) action icon, or

the Expert Handling Elite Pilot talent, perform a

barrel roll. You may then roll one defense die. On a

(Evade) result, remove all Buzz Droid tokens from

your ship. If you have Expert Handling, receive 1

stress token regardless of the evade die result.

-------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------

Spending Buzz Droid Tokens - Reference Card

When a ship has attached to it Buzz Droid tokens

from two or more different attackers, every set of

3 tokens will come with an identification letter.

Ships will resolve the normal conditions for every

different letter separately, in the same instance.

Example: Rookie Pilot has just acquired 3 'A' Buzz

Droid tokens. In the same turn, the same Rookie

Pilot is inflicted with 3 'B' Buzz Droid tokens.

Rookie Pilot now has 3 'A' Buzz Droid tokens, and

3 'B' Buzz Droid tokens, to a total of 6.

However, when it is time to resolve Buzz Droid

token damage, Rookie Pilot rolls two Attack die,

one for a 'A' token and another for a 'B' token.

Afterwards, one of each 'A' and 'B' Buzz Droid

tokens are discarded.

-------------------------------------------------------------

In essence, this is like a novelty poison status. It'll wear you down over time, and the fact that the damage begins to roll after the attack phase finishes, makes it less desirable than any missile that does instant damage. Just like you roll dice to fire missiles, you roll dice every turn to resolve buzz damage. Only that the enemy will shoot at you first.

So why even use buzzies? They are cheaper, can bypass shields and kill Astromechs.

Score one for the droid army.

Still think 3 damage is too much unless these buggers cost a lot. Also, still think it's too complicated. Keep it simple.