To be fair, Boba is pretty great (though over costed), there just aren't a lot of chances to use his strengths (toughness and ability). Imagine if rebels could bring him as an ally in campaign. It would be almost an instant win in some cases, even with the extra threat. Being mobile and moving 12 in one turn means that those "get through the enemies and push a button" missions are alot easier. But...You can't do that. If the imperial player had more missions that required more than just stalling or wounding heroes, Boba would be much more useful.

That fits my prediction of an announcement at start wars celebration

Heh, so gets where I reveal I'm just concern trolling to get all the other Saska fans to show themselves :-) But seriously, every post that mentions her talks about how limited she is (unless you need lots of attribute tests), and yeah, most of what you guys have been saying is true, and I agree with it. (T21 + plasma + power converter is pretty amazing, no lie.) That said, for the midst party if it weren't for twin shadows missions being tailor made for her, I'm not sure she's the equal of other heroes. Have you guys played her during a standard campaign? I find myself mostly playing mini-campaigns due to limited time.

Agreed, but the beauty of campaign is that you can house rule stuff to make sure all options are fun. :-)

Let me start by saying I love Saska but she has a problem: Saska is under powered. She needs a boost. Get core problem centers around her device tokens which have 3 problems: * quantity * distribution * usefulness * Lack of quantity means there are never enough tokens for the cumulative effects to be useful. * difficulty of distribution makes it even harder to get them to heroes * even then, the tokens lack usefulness At the simplest analysis, Saska is transferring strain from other heroes to herself (since device tokens can always be used for a surge to recover strain). This is lame. Like really really lame. As a support character her tokens need to be more useful, as by herself she contributes little more than an extra body. Additionally, because her abilities center around the tokens, which she can give to others, she becomes an inferior version other heroes, since they can can use her tokens just as well as her, essentially gaining all her strengths plus their own, while not having her disadvantage of having to take strain to gain the token in the first place. Also problematic is that she has to pay a cost for using the tokens just like everyone else. All these issues should be addressed. So what role do we want for her? It looks like the goal for her was to be able to provide a variety of abilities that suit different situations. Use them when you need them for what you need. Power converter for weapon flexibility (need range: Swap in a blue. Need damage - swap in a red; need surge, swap in a yellow). Adrenaline injector for movement. Unstable device for that one last damage you need to get through, or free damage on a group. Etc. I'm going to propose some changes to Saska that keep the theme and idea while strengthening her abilities. One idea I'm showing here is the idea that each ability, in addition to the device token ability, gives her a lesser version of the ability of the device tokens or an improved version of what other characters get. This is based on what can be seen in the toolbox skill (which is a pretty good skill all around, you should always get it - remember it can work for attribute checks you need to pass in order to use your abilities). By doing this it makes her a bit stronger and more useful, more than just a token generator - avoiding the sameness tendency mentioned earlier. First we start with her base ability and address both the quantity and distribution problems: * Battle Technician usable twice per activation, additionally, you can "give" a device token you have claimed to another adjacent friendly figure (note only Saska can do this, because her devices are freaky and scare people too much to go passing them around, and also balance). With this fix she can generate the tokens faster and then hand then out as she gets a chance later on. Admittedly the second part may be too much, or simply not useful. Not sure. * Change practical solutions to"While attacking" instead of when you declare an attack. As for her class cards: * Unstable device. Change it so you only take damage if you deal no damage to your opponent. Maybe also weaken damaged enemies. Saska rolls a green die when using unstable devices. * Energy shield. While defending, if Saska has device token , if you do not roll a block or evade, apply +1 block or +1 evade to your roll. * Structural Weakness. Seems fine? I guess. Her only skill that applies only to her and it's usefulness is limited. Maybe something to just exhaust the card to deal 1 damage + weaken to droids and vehicles. * Gadgeteer. I can't decide if it should give you two device tokens whenever you use battle technician, or exhaust to gain one free use of battle technician without paying the stress that doesn't count against your per turn limit (ie, one free token per round, even out of activation). As a bonus I'm thinking either she can equip one more accessory, but those are rarely used it seems. Maybe also give a 50 credit reduction on future modifications and accessories? Another option: for each modification on your weapon, your attack gains one of: 1 accuracy/reach, 1 pierce, weaken; each may be selected once per attack. But...I don't know it may not need the extra boost. Extra device tokens for free may be useful enough to not need more buffs. Maybe even getting like 10 credits at the end of the mission for each unused device token. Really not sure on this one. * Power converter. The easy one is to remove the strain cost. I think also allowing a reroll when using practical solutions would also increase the usefulness of the tokens. Reroll effects are not super common for the rebels so providing that effect to the whole team would be great so long as they had some device tokens. For Saska, I'm thinking "if your attack deals no damage, you may choose to reroll all your attack dice (even those already rerolled). Once per round." Or simply reroll one attack die. * Remote distribution is fine as is. * Adrenaline injector. I think this really obvious: remove the move action requirement. Just straight up: discard a token and take a strain to gain two movement points and get focused. Pretty great really. Maybe buff Saska by giving her...something? Extra use of battle tech while focused? Extra movement point when using adrenaline injector? Dunno. Those are my thoughts as of right now. I would really like some input as I know some of them aren't very good, and I am hoping to implement some buffs in my current campaign (already doing the rewording of practical solutions). These are kind of being thrown against the wall to see what sticks. What are your suggestions?

Dunno, I like him. Yes he does have limits but that's fine because you don't *have* to use him if the rebels will just wipe him out. But I think he'll be effective to bring in at the right time. His saber throw + cleave means you can't just run past and ignore him. His agenda cards are decent I think. I'm not a fan of the discard style either but both are such that used at the right time, they can be game changers. Plus the fluffiness is amazing. He's strong enough and cheap enough that he's a good choice for a combat oriented villain to kick rebels in the pants.

I really don't know how many times this will be said before people get it: the early figures are badly priced (among other issues), and so they were obsolete from the beginning. The only reason Vader saw play in skirmish at first was because he was so badly over costed that he became a point bank. You don't solve the problem of over costed figures by simply making more of them. You adjust your strategy and make new figures that are better costed, and maybe go back and fix the old ones, but you never let bad design in the beginning force you into continued bad design.

No his biggest problem is he's only terrifying so long as you just stand and fight him. If you can avoid him, then he's not doing much.

I think the staff is surge for +2, and you can choose between reach and cleave. So not bad.

Lots of good stuff in this pack. Good stats on inquisitor. Great command cards. That attachment will make me buy a sorin figure just to try it out. Perhaps most interesting is that item that's included. They haven't told us anything about it. Is it a reward? Or something that gets shuffled into the item deck to be purchased (I hope the later as it gives us another high level melee option).

No I don't. Not in this case anyway. Your derision is badly misplaced in this case, like someone who gets snobby about their Starbucks coffee. I see from your profile you've been registered only since this January. I've been on these boards for quite a bit longer than you so "stopping by" is hardly the best term to describe it. Just because IA is a board game doesn't mean it can't learn from video games. Why, after all, would someone play a board game when video games are present? What make board games usefully different? I play because I enjoy the physical components. It is very satisfying to hold and touch and move the figures in a way video games can't match. I pay because because I enjoy the social interaction and the tune with my friends that you just don't quite get in the same way with video games. I play because no video game quite captures the feel and experience of IA (XCOM comes closest in mechanics but fails in tone and theme). The app in question already blends video and board game. There is fault in wishing the enemy was more automated. There is good reason in fact: doing so would enhance the feeling of taking up with your friends against an enemy. Even if all the scripting and enemy actions were the same, simply making it transparent the player would increase immersion and buy in. Sure it would require players to input the results of actions, but that's not too bad, a simple GUI with like a number field and check boxes for status effects would do. Move of this is silly our unreasonable, and it would be nice if they did it, but I do understand why they didn't. Just not sure it is worth it to me in this case.

That's what I've been wondering about the app. Having to follow a script to move the enemies seems less fun to me than a program that says "put the enemies here, he attacks for this much damage"

Word the street it'll be long awaited rebel veterans. The first ship is the underused e wing. They've listened to player demand and are including a few fixes for the ship: an astromech and a system upgrade. The astromech is call N33-DD2-W1N and it says when you would take damage, don't. The system upgrade is called advanced GIT GUD deflectors and it reads "when you perform an attack, the opponent does not roll defense dice. Both are Corran Horn only. Incidentally they only include one pilot fir the ewing: corran horn. The other ship is the much maligned HWK. Don't know much about it, but it includes a new (fixed) C3P0 that allows you discard the card and win the game I'd your opponent is annoying. The pack will cost $100 :-)

...what? FFG actually releasing something on time or early? Huh. Okay so they like make big announcements at conventions or special dates. Origins is going on now, but probably not good enough. Gencon is August 4. Star wars celebration is July 15. Looks like celebration is the most likely Tie in if those are released in July.

Disney marvel movies suck, huh? Yeah I'm sure Disney cries about how bad they are...all the way to the bank. I do think that one problem they have with the early villains is they just make them tougher regular combat figures. What they are doing with Ben and the inquisitor defies that and makes them interesting. I'm going to do a write up about it at some point, but a unique figure who's only purpose is combat has to be super points efficient to be worth it. Ben has his ability to help attribute tests and move enemies, while the inquisitor is purely a combat figure but he's tough with a high damage output. More importantly though, the inquisitor also had a ranged attack and has cleave which helps him overcome the trouble with melee figures, and then his dodge cancel gives him extra utility as an anti-white die attacker. Greedo is cheap enough it doesn't matter.

What? Serious? This is like the second wave they Got the costing right on the uniques. it's worth buying if only for that. Meh. If Darth maul taught us anything, it's that being cut in half with a laser sword and then disappearing from view is no barrier to showing up again in this universe.

If you think for one minute that i'm not going to get and use obiwan just because he's supposed to be dead, then you my friend are dearly mistaken

I meant you would actually be able to have (not simply go through) 14 Supply cards. Granted most of that assumes having mhd and using his ability every round, as well as his reward armor. Actually, make it 15. Forgot mhd had that combat override.

If I'm doing my math right you could get a total of 14 supply card in a 6 round mission with 3 crates. That's a sizable part of the supply deck. If you have Jyn actually draw the card you could just about guarantee getting valuable goods.

I believe the Cam droid is the reward from Murre's red mission. It is pretty interesting tho. All the pix once seen put it next to the r5 do o assumed they were both items

Davith has normal above average hands. Great hands. Amazing hands. The BEST. Yoda told him he has the strongest most average hands he's ever seen.

I know it won't be the most competitive team but it would be fun to get a group with Mak, loku, jyn, and mhd with r5 and just burn down the supply deck every mission. That said, the two droids you can buy are both pretty neat. The cam droid has an interesting effect, giving the heroes a control effect they wouldn't normally have

I've had missions go from difficult to easy with a good card draw. Best example was trying to get to a terminal that was on the upper part of the bridge tile. I was coming from the complete wrong direction and would have to wade through some estormies with Saska, except I grabbed a create and drew the grappling hook. Zoomed right up there just a couple of spaces from the terminal.

Yeah I can see that. Would have made Jundland Terror easier to write the text for.

I was really impressed with Davith. All his abilities are pretty good. He's solid, and I look forward to trying him out. @Norgath, you say device tokens were badly implemented. How would you suggest implementing them?