It happened again...
I began to fall for a ship as I made custom cards for it, only for them to destroy it days before I finished!
So before I start crying again over the loss of another inanimate object, today's article is on the Marauder, the Bad Batch's shuttle!
Overall Design:
The Marauder is an Omicron-Class Attack Shuttle and from what we saw of it in the show its stats should line up relatively well with the Lambda-class that it is based on.
Because of this, I set its stats at
2 front attack
2 rear attack
2 agility
5 hull
3 shields
This keeps it at a similar health to the lambda, but much more agile than it as we see the Marauder pull off some half-decent manoeuvres.
Dial:
The dial for the Omicron-Class Attack Shuttle is almost identical to the BTL-B Y-wing, making it relatively ok manoeuvrability-wise, but horrendous at shedding red tokens! This is to offset the rather decent set of linked actions the ship has access to:
Actions:
Outside of the basic focus and lock, the Omicron-Class Attack Shuttle showed itself as a relatively speedy ship, which makes sense for an attack shuttle, so it gets a boost and linked evade action to show this off. It also has the amazing, jam into red lock linked action, which makes sense as it is a ship used by a more covert clone team that frequently needs to be stealthy.
Upgrades:
Although it changes from pilot to pilot, most pilots have a couple of crew slots and a gunner slot, which is pretty basic for a shuttle, alongside a cannon slot to help improve the front attack of the Omicron-Class.
Marauder:
Before we get into the pilots themselves, here is the Marauder title they can all use. It is a much more dangerous version of the False Transponder Codes illicit upgrade that pairs fantastically with the Omicron-Class Attack Shuttle’s jam to linked lock actions, however, it needs time to recharge between uses.
Pilots:
For the pilots, I decided to make a collection of both normal and standard loadout pilots for the ship across the Republic, Scum and Rebel factions, with each faction getting four normal pilots and two standard loadout pilots and each of the six members of the Bad Batch getting two normal cards and one standard loadout card.
“Hunter” (Republic):
6 points, 20 loadout points
Crew, Crew, Gunner, Gunner, Cannon, Modification, Title.
The first of Hunter’s three cards, the Republic version is the most basic, letting him use his enhanced senses to quickly lock enemy ships in his bullseye at the beginning of the engagement phase. The only problem with this version of Hunter is that lining up a Bullseye with an initiative three pilot is a little tricky, especially against aces. Hunter also doesn't have access to a talent slot as he isn't a pilot by trade, however, to compensate for this, he does get an additional gunner slot so he can bring all of the Batch with him,
“Hunter” (Scum):
7 points, 26 loadout points
Crew, Crew, Gunner, Gunner, Cannon, Illicit, Title.
This Hunter represents when he was struggling to adapt to his new life while working as a mercenary. Although his intentions were good, he ended up doing bad things for people like Cid and his ability reflects this. It, like his Republic ability, works around target locking, however, instead of getting more locks, Hunter can push his red tokens to other ships when he locks. This could be deadly when it comes to stress, preventing a ship from performing an action or even a red manouvre, hence it is restricted to twice per game.
“Hunter” (Standard Loadout):
6 points
Hunter's standard loadout is a solid pilot for the large base Marauder allowing him to ignore obstacles he has in his bullseye or that he has locked. This is to show off his ability to read the terrain. Hunter's crew show the Batch at their original prime, with Crosshair, Wrecker and Tech aiding him and the Bad Batch ship ability showing how they work best alone, despite still being dedicated to their reg brothers.
“Crosshair” (Republic):
6 points, 14 loadout points
Talent Crew, Crew, Gunner, Cannon, Modification Title.
The first Crosshair represents him at his prime, allowing him to treat enemy ships in his front as being in his bullseye thanks to him being a cracking sniper. I did prevent this from working on cannon upgrades because heavy Laser Cannons would have been far too powerful and I still wished for him to be able to have access to the cannon slot. However, he can still boost his attacks by getting an enemy ship in his actual bullseye and then treating the attack as being at range 1 for the extra attack die.
“Crosshair” (Rebel):
5 points, 12 loadout points
Crew, Crew, Gunner, Cannon, Cannon, Modification Title.
Because Crosshair doesn’t rejoin his brothers until after they begin to act more selflessly, I decided to make his second card a Rebel card. This card also shows him at his weakest, with the shake in his hand affecting his ability to shoot straight. This means he’s forcing a reroll of defence dice, but unless he has the enemy ship in his bullseye or the defender rolls perfectly the first time, Crosshair will find it harder to hit his opponents. He also loses the talent slot he had on his Republic card due to the struggles he's going through.
“Crosshair” (Standard Loadout)
5 points
This grumpy clone's standard loadout pilot ability again shows off his skills as a sniper at his prime, preventing enemy ships he's shooting, or that he has in his bullseye, from rolling additional defence dice. This pairs especially well with his trick shot upgrade, allowing him to hit harder without the benefits to the defender.
“Tech” (Republic):
7 points, 18 loadout points
Talent, Crew, Crew, Gunner, Cannon, Tech, Title.
As the primary pilot for the Marauder, Tech's pilot abilities work well with the ship's overall design style, with them all being based around the jam mechanic in one way or another. His first card for the Republic lets him benefit from the removal of tokens and locks when jamming an opponent. He also has access to the tech slot which feels fitting, both because of his name and his amazing technical skills, however, this does come at the cost of the second crew slot most of the pilots in the pack get.
“Tech” (Scum):
5 points, 6 loadout points
Talent, Crew, Gunner, Cannon, Tech, Illicit, Title.
This version of Tech uses an ability very similar to the First Order’s Biohexacrypt Codes, letting him use longer-range jamming and coordination (if he can get the action on his action bar). The main difference is that he does not have to spend the lock to be able to use the ability so he can either then spend the lock for its normal use, or keep it for his ability. With this Tech being one of the weakest pilots in the pack I decided to make him rather cheap, however, it does also have a small amount of loadout points as well.
“Tech” (Standard Loadout)
6 points
Again Tech uses an ability similar to the FO’s tech upgrades, a coincidence I promise! His ability is similar to the TIE Silencer's Enhanced Jamming Suite upgrade except it also allows him to boost his attack dice. His crew upgrades depict the Batch during the first season, with a younger Omega being hunted by many people across the fledgling Empire.
“Wrecker” (Republic):
7 points, 19 loadout points
Crew, Crew, Gunner, Cannon, Device, Modification Title.
In my head, when we first see the Marauder flying to the Republic's base on Anaxes, I imagine Wrecker flying it. Just the chaos it brings, making clones scatter across the landing strip, it also just feels like the sort of thing he'd do and find funny. Because of this, his pilot ability is designed to force opponents and allies to scatter to make way for Wrecker or suffer damage as a consequence. He also, as the group's demolitions expert, has access to a device upgrade allowing him to leave even more chaos in his path!
“Wrecker” (Rebel):
5 points, 6 loadout points
Crew, Crew, Gunner, Cannon, Device, Modification, Title.
Originally I was going to make Wrecker's second card a scum card, but to balance out the number of cards each faction got he's getting a spot in the Rebellion, which to be honest still makes sense as he probably has the biggest heart of the Batch after Omega! His ability shows his experience with munitions and surviving their explosions, letting him become suddenly much faster and more manoeuvrable by being thrown around by his allies' explosives at the cost of some agility.
“Wrecker” (Standard Loadout)
6 points
This standard loadout gives Wrecker a spot in the Scum faction like I originally planned. His ability allows him to pin down his opponents who get too close to him. This does come at the cost of reducing his agility as well as potentially the agility of other friendly ships that bump him that round. His upgrades include Hunter, his trusty weight set, Gonky, and a set of Thermal Detonators.
“Echo” (Scum):
7 points, 22 loadout points
Talent, Crew, Crew, Gunner, Cannon, Modification, Title.
Scum Echo makes use of his implants to save data for the future by keeping around calculate tokens during the end phase in a similar way to the Moldy Crow's focus storage ability. This does mean he has to calculate instead of focus, but if you build up your supply before engaging, he will be able to maintain double mods for attacking, or defending, if he boosts and evades. Also as a side note, as the most reluctant member of the crew while working for Cid, Echo doesn’t get access to an Illicit slot.
“Echo” (Rebel):
6 points, 15 loadout points
Talent, Crew, Crew, Gunner, Cannon, Modification, Title.
The Rebel Echo is designed around being a solid support ship as he was the most determined to help Rex in his mission to free all the Clones from the Empire's influence. The ability allows him to transfer calculate tokens to other friendly ships during the end phase and then prevent that calculate token from being discarded so it can be used in the next round. Because of this, he would be especially effective paired with C3-PO or K-2SO to provide him with more calculate tokens.
“Echo” (Standard Loadout):
5 points
Standard loadout Echo makes use of his implants to gain bonus calculate tokens if he spends a focus token for less than its full potential. This makes him incredibly defensive, which is useful as his crew of rebellious regs make Echo an effective support ship.
Omega (Scum):
6 points, 22 loadout points
Crew, Crew, Gunner, Cannon, Illicit, Title.
The first Omega shows her at the beginning of her story in the Bad Batch series. She is untrained and wanted by everyone in the Empire, so this allows her enemies to focus on her at the beginning of the game, with every opponent being able to acquire a lock on the kid. Although this is not a great start, Omega's strength is that she is good at bringing people to her side with her kindness and compassion, so the second half of her ability allows her allies to protect her at all costs with an ability similar to the selfless upgrade.
Omega (Rebel):
6 points, 20 loadout points
Talent, Crew, Crew, Gunner, Cannon, Modification, Title.
The Rebel card for Omega shows off her ability to replicate her brother's abilities, letting her increase her initiative by one for each of them onboard, or nearby, letting her make the most of their collective skills. This means even though she starts at initiative zero, she has a top potential initiative of five making her simultaneously the highest and lowest initiative pilot in this pack. She also gains access to a talent slot due to her improvement in her skills as a pilot, thanks to Tech's training.
Omega (Standard Loadout):
7 points
Like her normal Rebel card, Omega's standard loadout shows off her skill at replicating the skills others have. She can copy the pilot ability of a friendly ship she has locked. This is made easier with the addition of Batcher, her loyal hound, who picks up on the movement of both enemy and friend ships nearby. She also has learned Tech's Tech Turn talent, allowing her to pull off a Tallon Roll instead of a K-Turn at the last second. She finally also has the liberated AZ to help her endure damage pilot damage cards better.
Upgrades:
“Hunter” (Crew):
6 loadout points
This Hunter is relatively basic, but powerful for any crew and munitions carrier, letting him long-range lock at the cost of a stress token during round one so when the ship finally gets into range their torpedo or missile is fully moded.
“Crosshair” (Gunner):
2 loadout points
Crosshair’s gunner upgrade is simply a double version of Marksmanship, meaning if you can put him on a ship also equipped with Marksmanship, that ship would be able to change three hit results to critical results.
“Tech” (Crew):
6 loadout points
This Tech not only adds a jam action to your ship's action bar but also allows him to gain a calculate token when he attempts to jam a ship, even if his attempted jam fails making him great as a failsafe when you try to jam ships.
“Wrecker” (Gunner):
6 loadout points
Wrecker’s gunner card gives his ship a bit more endurance with a red reinforce action as well as focusing again on his skills with explosives, essentially giving his ship the TIE/sa Bomber’s Nimble Bomber ship ability.
“Echo” (Gunner):
6 loadout points
Echo's ability allows him to intentionally miss an attack so he can reattempt it. This means if your first attack roll is so bad that even modification can't help you, you get another shot at it. It also pairs well with Echo's old friend Fives.
Omega (Crew):
8 loadout points
Omega’s crew upgrade shows her kind and caring personality, allowing her to draw away red tokens from friendly ships that are being shot. This is especially useful for preventing enemy ships from keeping locks on your allies.
Phee Genoa (Crew):
5 loadout points
As I didn't fit her in the standard loadout cards, it felt fitting to put Phee in here. Her ability is similar to Cutthroat as she's a pirate and collector of artefacts, however, as she is a potential future Rebel I let her work in their faction as well.
“Cid” (Crew)
3 loadout points
A selfish version of Omega's crew card, Cid allows you to offer your opponent an opportunity to attack another friendly ship after giving them a free lock on your friend. God I want the Batch to get revenge on her.
Conclusion:
I'm going to be honest, every season of the Bad Batch I've told myself I need to make the Marauder a ship pack, but every season I've held off for some reason. Well, at least I knew its full history before making its pack. However, that being said I am very happy with how it came out and hope one day it'll make it into the game as it's an interesting ship and crew that would be fun to add to the game!
As normal thank you all for reading,
Watcher Leader out.
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