This is a really cool idea, I much prefer this to something assigning or regenning shield tokens. Only thing I'd say is maybe instead of limiting it specifically to the U-Wing and Reaper, to make the restriction instead something like Medium Base, Coordinate action. That way future ships can take of advantage of it and you're not limiting it to just two factions. The Xi class shuttle and a LAAT/i with Yoda, Palps or Aayla would get to use it that way as well, which seems fitting as similar small support craft.

Anyone else baffled by the choice to make Obi-Wan's card art feature the replacement Eta-2 he took to Utapau and not the classic red that pairs with Anakin, matches his Delta-7 and comes in the friggin' box?

The fact that it's a deplete instead of a disarm token alone is enough to make him better. Also, in most cases the extra charge on Rebel R2-D2 is irrelevant. You don't often get or even want three turns of no shooting to regen three shields. I might be wrong on this but I think the fact that Republic R2-D2 doesn't specify face up or face down means he can repair either. So he gets to repair Loose Stabilizer. Particularly galling as that's basically all R2 does in Luke's X-Wing in ANH. I'd take or leave the buzz droid killing, but this card is basically what Rebel R2-D2 should have been all along.

I'm not so sure about that. Historically, lock support just hasn't been a strong replacement for self served double mods. I'm wary about assuming a ship with the Eta-2's intended role, statline and pilots will be fine if you have to bring a whole extra ship to provide the re-rolls. Tarkin especially I'm really not sure on, he's System Phase, requires Tarkin himself to have taken a lock the previous round (which he only gets at I3!) and requires the target he locked to have ended the last turn at range 1. That's so many restrictions, so much of the order of play that has to go right. Compare that with Dutch, who gets to just pass a lock at I4. And Dutch still isn't great ace support. I know Wedge isn't technically an ace, but who would you rather have supporting him? Jake Farrell or Dutch Vander? One of those combinations has made it to a Worlds final.... The point is, I5 and I6 ships tend to want to be locking themselves because they have the best chance of getting the locks when they need them. Also, think about the days before B-Wing s-foils. Who was better, Ten Numb with Dutch Vander around to give him locks for re-rolls and double mods? Or Braylen Stramm getting them by himself? Like, it's not even close. As for Synchronized Console, we don't even know if the Eta-2 is getting the modification slot. I actually suspect it won't. Seems in line with how tiny the ship is. Also, consider this. If the Eta-2 has a mod slot, what's to stop you just putting Targeting Computer on the Eta-2 to give it a white lock and bypass the purple? 3 points is way, way cheaper than a whole support ship. Again, this is all points dependent. If the Eta-2 is cheap enough that you can involve one or two high I aces, a support ship and maybe a flanker or blocker then it's probably fine. But if it's costed, as I suspect it will be, not far behind the Delta-7, Fang or other strong ace ship then it's probably going to be the domain of three ship lists. And three ship lists don't tend to like a whole third of the list being given over to support. You're right about the white evade, though. Eta-2s are basically Precog TAPs, and they've demonstrated how scary they are. Again, points dependent though. If the Eta-2 is expensive enough that it's a focal point of the list, I'm cool with it playing hyper defensively - if it's doing that, it's offence is going to be terrible. It might be a hard to kill ship, but a hard to kill ship that does no damage is easy to ignore.