Today's ship pack is my favourite starfighter of all time, the Nssis-Class Clawcraft, better known as the Chiss starfighter!
This ship is the perfect example of the Chiss and more specifically Mitth'raw'nuruodo's tactical superiority compared to the Empire. The Clawcraft was built as a hybrid between the best of both the Empire's Tie and Chiss' Clawcraft technologies, combining the superior ball cockpit of the Tie line and the Chiss' more artistic and flowing wing designs. The final product was a craft that balanced: mass production, manoeuvrability, durability and firepower, making it the X-Wing of the unknown regions!
I've tried to capture both the Chiss craft and it's people in this pack that starts a whole new faction for X-Wing 2.0. I've also tried to combine both Canon and Legend aspects of the Chiss military because although we have yet to see the Clawcraft in Cannon, I'm sure it could easily be added in, even if the Tie parts were changed out for a Chiss style cockpit (which I'd prefer!).
The Overall Design:
The Clawcraft was built with modest shields, hull plating and weaponry. However, the Clawcraft was best known to be incredibly manoeuvrable, letting it easily outmanoeuvre almost all other starfighters it came across. Because of this, I've decided to make this ship almost a pure ace which lets it turn on a dime. It can't be easily caught out, however it still has the firepower to keep up with heavier ships.
The Stats:
As I've already said, the Clawcraft is an all-round solid ship, similar to the X-wing, but slightly lighter and more manurable. This lets it either dance around with the aces or slug it out with the heavy brutes. So because of this, I decided on this stat line:
3 Attack
3 Defence
3 Hull
2 Shields
The Actions:
The line up for the action bar is relatively simple, taking inspiration from the ship I consider the inspiration for some of the Clawcrafts design, the Tie Advanced v1:
Focus
Evade
Barrel Roll - Red focus
Boost - Red focus
I decided against a target lock as the Clawcraft was originally built without any warhead launchers, so it wouldn't need any advanced targeting computers. This means that the attack is more dependant on the Chiss' superior training and discipline.
The Ability:
The Clawcraft was built to turn, letting it easily outmanoeuvre its opponents while keeping its arc on the enemy at all times. To show this I decided to remove any need for advanced manoeuvres like K-turns and sloops, and instead let you rotate your ship during the system phase. This lets you rapidly change the direction of your manoeuvre, becoming a very unpredictable ship. However, because it's during the system phase you have no idea of your opponent's movements without some upgrades or pilot abilities to aid you. I do plan to make a Chiss Skywalker (Chiss children that could use the force to see the future) with similar abilities to sense that could aid this ship a lot.
The Dial:
Although the Clawcraft is extremely manoeuvrable, it does suffer in one respect, its slowwwww! To replicate this I kept the Clawcrafts dial quite basic, giving it access to all the basic speed 1-3 manoeuvres, but making them gradually harder to execute as they go on, to show how the Chiss built this for manoeuvrability, not speed.
The Modifications:
The upgrades for the Clawcraft are very basic, similar to the Tie's of the Empire. The Chiss did not want excess systems bulking down their craft, so a single modification slot seemed fitting. I've also decided that all the Chiss pilots should have access to a talent slot. Even the worst generic pilots should have access as the Chiss seem to emphasize having all their warriors being well trained and ready for battle.
Pilots:
Soontir Fel:
For those who didn't know, the legendary ace Fel eventually joined the Chiss in the unknown regions after Thrawn showed him threats to the galaxy that were out there. He was rather fond of the Clawcraft, with the combination of familiar Tie controls and advanced Chiss manoeuvrability.
His ability is designed to allow him to make the best use of the control jet nozzles ability, letting him know which direction is best for him and his squadron to rotate their ships.
This also shows his knowledge of his opponents that he gained with his years of service and experience.
Jagged Fel:
Soontir's son who was raised among the Chiss, and eventually grew up to a pilot who could almost match his father in skill. His place in the Clawcraft's cockpit seems even more fitting as he was like the Clawcraft, a product of both the empire and Chiss (in training though, not construction). He is a living embodiment of the starfighter.
His ability reflects his skill controlling the ship, using its reverse control jets to reverse the ship when he would execute a speed 1 manoeuvre.
This gives him access to even more unpredictable manoeuvres to throw off his pursuers, and hopefully get behind them.
Wraith Runner:
The obligatory oh damn there are no more named pilots!
Wraith Runner is a design I feel works very well for the Clawcraft. It flutters between obstacles, using them for cover and easily manoeuvring around them to confuse and outmanoeuvre its opponents. However Wraith's design is both beneficial and a disadvantage, it lets you almost always gain an extra defence dice, but also gives the same advantage to your opponent when attacking with Wraith. Because of this, Trick Shot is almost always a staple on the Chiss allowing them to gain advantage from both sides of their ability.
The Generics:
As normal there must be a pair of generics. These two as I've said before both have access to the talent slot due to the Chiss vigorous training and dedication to having the best of the best serve them. Yay generics!
The Upgrades:
Arrogance:
As with every faction, the Chiss need a faction-specific upgrade and Arrogance seems fitting. The ability shows the Chiss' superior training and discipline compared to most groups, letting them constantly modify their attack if they are not stressed. But it also shows the Chiss' overconfidence in their abilities by forcing them to modify the attack no matter what, and then not letting you modify the second result again. So even though your attacks are always modified, a perfect roll is always a bad thing for them.
Honing In:
Like all ships without a native lock action, the Clawcraft would benefit from a target lock action and although it could gain one with the Targeting Computer upgrade, I feel that there is space in the game for a talent version of the upgrade. This card is designed to let ships acquire locks on objects. However as it's a pilot honing in on a target and not a computer locking a ship, if you can't keep them in your sights you will lose the lock.
Heavy Clawcraft Refit:
Although originally built without warhead launchers and dedicated navigation computers, a later heavier version was built adding these feature to make the Clawcraft. This made it less dependent on a beacon ship (a ship designed to give the Clawcraft the information to let them make hyperspace jumps) or dedicated bombers, at the cost of some manoeuvrability. The addition of the hyperdrive upgrade is holding a spot for any future upgrade(s) that may be made (*cough cough* hyperdrive expansion pack *cough cough*).
Breacher Missiles:
A missile from the new canon Thrawn books, and an idea that I love! Breachers were designed to launch globules of acid that would scar ships hull, making it more susceptible to laser fire. The added advantage of this is that if the missiles were shot down, the acid would still be released and cause damage.
To show this advantage;
If you get one hit on the target then only the target gets scarred.
If you get two hits on the target all ships at range 0-1 of the target will get scarred to show that you hit the target perfectly and the acid has spread.
If you get full damage on the defender, the acid damages the ship more than expected, causing it to suffer a damage, to show the acid eating at vital systems.
The Acid Scarred condition is a permeant Hull Breach for primary attacks. This makes this missile the perfect swarm killer by splashing acid across an entire swarm then letting your friends do the most critical damage possible to them without the need for secondary weapons. Because of this though it would make the missiles very expensive.
Conclusion:
I am a massive fan of the Clawcraft and Chiss in general, the first upgrade I posted on my Instagram was Thrawn himself! I feel with the current Thrawn books and the supposed linking of the stories of The Mando, Ahsoka and Rangers of the NR, we could see the Chiss make a live-action appearance and be a big enough faction to warrant their addition to the game.
I'd love to see this and a cannon take on the Clawcraft, and even expand the Chiss' ships in general as even in legends we saw very little of their tech.
I do plan to keep making my designs for other Chiss starfighters from the Empire at War game with Thrawn's Revenge mod to flesh out this faction as I feel they could be very different. Their tech has developed completely separately from the rest of the known galaxy. I'd also like to make my own designs of Chiss ships as it's a blank canvas that I'd like to expand!
As normal feel free to use them in friendly games to show the rest of the X-Wing community that to defeat an enemy you must know them. Not simply their battle tactics, but their history, philosophy, art.
Oh god, I love Thrawn...
Watcher Leader Out.