Did anyone here used to play Overpower waaaaay back in the day?  I was thinking about the game the other day, and an idea hit me.  Do you remember the Teamwork cards that allowed several of your heroes to work together to perform an attack, provided they met the requirements of the Teamwork card?  This got me thinking about X-wing squadrons and how their training together is not really reflected in the game.  Thus, I came up with the idea of Squadron cards.

They basically represent tactics and abilities that result from a squadron having trained and worked together.  You can have 1 Squadron card for your squad in a game, and your squad must match the requirements of the Squadron card, though it may have more ships than the card's requirement.

Here's a few examples of what I have in mind (I have not even considered power balance for these; they've just mechanical examples):

• Rogue Squadron (4 points)
• Trust Your Wingman
• Squad Requirement: 3 X-wings
• One per round, a X-wing pilot may spend the Focus token of an allied X-wing pilot at Range 1-2 as though it were his own.

• Red Squadron (3 points)
• Run Interference
• Squad Requirement: 4 X-wings
• If an attacking ship's firing arc to any part of the defending X-wing's base passes through an allied X-wing, you may assign (at most) 1 point of damage done to the allied X-wing.

• Gold Squadron (3 points)
• Share Targeting Data
• Squad Requirement: 2 Y-wings
• Once per round, when a Y-wing fires a Proton Torpedo, if an allied Y-wing has already fired a Proton Torpedo at the same target this round, you may (once) reroll any number of dice on the attack.

• Black Squadron (3 points)
• Suppression Fire
• Squad Requirement: 3 TIE Fighters
• Once per round, a TIE Fighter pilot may forego their attack to give an allied TIE Fighter at Range 1-2 one additional attack die for the round.

• Academy Elite (2 points)
• Sensor Data Assist
• Squad Requirement: 4 TIE Fighters
• If a TIE Fighter would pass through an obstacle, if there is an allied TIE Fighter within Range 1 at the beginning of movement, the TIE Fighter may pass through the obstacle at no penalty.

• Obsidian Squadron (4 points)
• Advanced Training
• Squad Requirement: 2 TIE Advanced
• A TIE Advanced pilot may use the Action of an Upgrade card of any allied TIE Advanced pilot within Range 1-2.

Thoughts?

Tawnos said:

Interesting.

I would also include a bonus in squad building in the form of pilots costing -x (I'll leave it to you to plug in the revised cost) to your squad.
 

Liking these :)

Another idea would be to give a def or att bonus if all squad members are withing range 1 of each other.  Concentrated fire, Defensive Manuevers.

SteveSpikes said:

Do you mean to say that specific pilots would get a small point reduction if put in an appropriate squad?  Such as having Wedge in Rogue Squadron?  That's an interesting concept.  May be a bit difficult to implement, because you could (in theory) generate a situation where using the Squadron card becomes a net gain in squad points instead of an expenditure.

@Justin: Yeah, there's all kinds of neat stuff you can do with them.  In fact, the Squadron cards themselves don't necessarily have to represent a specific Squadron; they could instead reference a squadron strategy or tactic, like this:

• Bomber Escort (3 points)
• Protect the Huttball
• Squad Requirements: 1 Y-wing, 2 X-wings
• If 2 allied X-wings are within Range 1-2 of an allied Y-wing, increase the Y-wing's Agility by 1.

This way, you can have mixed-ship Squadron cards.

Tawnos said:

Take Red Squadron (Garven Dreis [Red Leader], Wedge Antilles [Red 2], Biggs Darklighter [Red 3], and Luke Skywalker [Red 5]), for instance.  If you have Garven in your squad, you may field any other "known" Red squadron pilot at a discount.

As for the Imps, Vader needs something that grants a bonus to a pilot(s) within a range of, for the sake of argument, 1 - 2 for attacking enemy pilots of the same skill rank (Vader -- "I'll take them myself."  Wingman [Mauler Mithel] -- "Yes, sir.").

I dont like the last one, but apart from that they are all good ideas.

I dont like the last one because: i think darth vader and another tie advanced which can steal is upgrades sounds too overpowered… I may be wrong about this thoughm as I havent really used my tie/advs yet…

Tawnos said:

But, whatever you do, do not kick the ball!

Yeah, I'm liking these ideas :)

JustinKase said:

Hutts don't have feet!  Show our sponsor Giradda the respect he deserves.

Yes, the squad cards look like a great idea!  The question is will they happen?

Ah, probably not.  This is just a fevered dream of mine.  I do think that they're fairly simple and in the spirit of the game, though.

Tawnos said:

Agreed, and I think they would fit the game nicely. Giving even more depth and variety that breathes longevity into game systems.