This is a small category, and criminally underused in my opinion. The ships that do get Support Team slots are relatively rare, and most of the cards in this category are a mixed bunch. When you do bring a ship for its Support slot, you generally have a plan in mind — which means many of these upgrades never see daylight.
Auxiliary Shields Team
Originally designed to boost the fragile Nebulon-B’s side arcs, it also works well enough on Peltas and a few other hulls with the neccessary Support slot. It’s cheap, effective, and mechanically sound.
So why don’t you see it more often? Because the Support slot itself is semi-rare, and when you do spend it, it’s usually on something more dramatic.
Verdict: A solid card that just suffers from opportunity cost.
Engine Techs
The OG Support upgrade. Once upon a time it enabled double-rams (thankfully fixed), and even today it defines whole ships.
The problem is that it was costed with large and medium ships in mind, making it a bargain on a Liberty (arguably the only reason to bring one), fine on a Munificent, but kind of ridiculous on a CR90. How many Engine Tech Peltas do you see? Maybe on a flagship on occasion, but that's about it.
It also warps design space. The Recusant Support Refit lacks an actualy Support slot purely to avoid speed 3+1 shenanigans. The Onager Testbed was oppressive partly because of Engine Techs. And the Liberty’s cost and overall design pretty much assumes you’ll be stapling this card to it.
Verdict: Brilliant but problematic. In an ideal world, it’d be small/medium only — but then what about the Liberty? What about speed-2 Home Ones? A tricky balance.
Engineering Team
Reduced to 3 points, but still an “eh.” On paper, the idea of an Interdictor gaining 4 engineering from a single token sounds great. In practice, there’s always something more useful to take.
Verdict: Drop to 2 points or rework entirely. Otherwise, bin it.
Fighter Coordination Team
A great card that patches a fundamental flaw in the base game design: speed-2 squadrons. BWings, ARCs, and similar lumbering squads need this to function. The issue isn’t the card — it’s that those squadrons were designed too slow in the first place.
Verdict: Keep as is (or fix squad speeds globally, but that’s another can of worms).
Medical Team
It exists. It’s 1 point. Sometimes it saves you from a Crew crit; most of the time, you regret spending the slot.
Edit: Several comments have pointed out that the main use for this card is to encourage your opponent NOT to resolve the standard crit (or I guess APT effect) for fear of pulling a CREW crit. That is a fair point, but it doesn't really change the fact that this card is OK, but that you probably want to spend the points elsewhere or on a bid. The only time I've seen it is on Onager Testbeds, really. That is, if they don't take Engine Techs.
Verdict: Niche but fine. Not much else to say.
Nav Team
Four points to turn a nav token into an extra click instead of a speed change. Not terrible, but… realistically, who wants this? A Victory with Harrow? No thanks. For 4 more you get Engine Techs and leave Nav Team in the dust.
Edit: Commenters have pointed out it might have a role on Raddus larges, and possibly now also on ARC-Leia larges, to keep the ship on target. Still quite niche, and the price gap between this and Engien Techs is still too small.
Verdict: Could be okay at 3 points. At 4, binder fodder.
Projection Experts
The ultimate love-hate card. Love, because it enables some fleet archetypes that otherwise wouldn’t work (hello, triple Munificent PE tank builds). Hate, because it props up degenerate fleet designs (Tranquility + PE Peltas) that are anything but fun to play against.
I also hate the concept — shield shuffling all the way out to distance 1–5 makes zero thematic sense. But mechanically it’s effective, which means it will always have a place in “tanky” fleets.
Verdict: I'd like to see this one burn alongside PD Ions.
Battle Droid Reserves (CIS only)
Looks decent on paper, but where does it actually fit? The Comms Munificent (6 hull, no defensive slot) or the Hardcell Transport (5 hull, no defensive slot). Both are fragile enough that they often vanish before this card can trigger.
Verdict: Completely useless in practice. Just take Engine Techs or Projection Experts instead. Trash compactor.
Verdict:
Support Teams are a fascinating category: full of flavor, but rarely seen because the ships that carry them are rare and the best cards in the slot are too good. Engine Techs shape ship and fleet design, while Projection Experts enable entire archetypes on their own. The rest? Either decent-but-niche (Aux Shields, FCT) or pure binder fodder (Engineering, Nav Team, Battle Droid Reserves).
This category would really benefit from a few additional cards. Right now it’s simply too narrow, and the dominance of Engine Techs and Projection Experts actively limits design space for new ships that might have had Support slots but couldn’t be balanced around them.
Next Up:
Fleet Support — once solely flotilla territory, but now available on other platforms as well. Comms Net and other token-shufflers, to Slicer Tools and Bomber COmmand Centers, this slot has always been about utility, tricks, and keeping your fleet ticking.
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