Speedball rework proposal

I think it's a fairly reasonable statement that the majority of the community does not like speedball as a mechanic, with the most broad complaints being that it simply further enables alpha strikes and doesn't really function in the deadlock breaker/comeback mechanic type roll it was intended to.

To break down the problems with speedball as it exists right now in a bit more detail;

• It's strongest and most common use case is to apply the VITApack/autorepair drop to essentially grant an extra wound to an aggro piece of your choice, or use the switch on drop to essentially grant a free mulligan against hacking and E/M based defenses for said aggro piece. If you get first turn you throw it down before you do anything else and enjoy throwing an effectively 4 STR TAG at your opponent. This has the effect of forcing the reactive player to work even harder to try and keep themselves intact against an alpha strike, and seriously negates the effectiveness of hacking network and corner guard based AROs - something that feels pretty problematic in an edition where hard shooting AROs for the most part just don't seem up to the task of defending the majority of strong active turn gunfighters, and the overall pace of the game has seemingly increased.
  
  
• There is some enormous disparity between the usefulness of some of the options. VITApack, autorepair and switch on are leagues better than jetpack, overkill and nanoshield. Nanoshield especially stands out as being strictly inferior to VITApack and autorepair. The former is effectively +2 ARM/BTS for an order, while the later two are effectively +1 VITA/STR until they get used up. The jetpack and overkill on the other hand are extremely niche and minor. I can imagine some use cases for the former, but even with how good super-jump is in N5 there is very little you can do with a single order. The later just lacks a really useful impact - BS Attack (-1SR) for a single order is very unlikely to be the difference maker, and a free reload is nice but limited in it's use cases, especially with the (deserved) buffs to baggage in N5. Overall, speedball as it exists right now doesn't really offer a wealth of options and utility to the player, as much as it does a choice between putting +1 VITA/STR on any unit of their choosing, letting them run through an E/M mine/hacking area once for free, or handing out an extremely marginal bonus that is unlikely to really shift the game state. I've never seen someone choose any other speedball option other than the VITApack, autorepair and switch on, and it's always a disappointment when you roll an overkill, nanoshield or jetpack.
  
  
• The mechanic is subject to some pretty high levels of variance. CB seemed to at least be aware of this, and as a result attempted to mitigate it by letting the player pick the contents of one of the two speedballs they deploy, but I still feel it's way too random. I understand why the deployment of speedballs are attached to the combat jump skill, but not even being able to guarantee where you want it within your DZ can be fairly frustrating at times. The disparity of usefulness between the options also comes into play here - compare the difference in what a player can do if they pick a VITApack and roll a switch on, and what they can do if they roll an overkill instead.
  
  
• The mechanic isn't that effective as a comeback/deadlock breaking tool. Take for example, a scenario where your opponent has successfully knocked your big gun unconscious, and has posted a bunch of AROs that you can't deal with otherwise. Maybe your doctor has also been taken out, or can't reach the big gun due to the AROs. This seems like the exact kind of situation that speedball is supposed to help in - but it actually doesn't appreciably help that much, as you can't deploy a speedball in silhouette contact with a trooper - you need another trooper to pick it up and walk it to the unconscious big gun, which essentially makes it... a one use doctor that auto-succeeds. A related issue is that it's really hard to use speedball in a defensive capacity, given that you can't activate it outside of your active turn, and none of the buffs it provides are especially useful for a defensive piece, and if they are (VITApack, autorepair), they are almost always better used on an active, aggressive piece.
  
  
• The strength of the VITApack, autorepair and switch on options effectively speedballs a must take. I haven't played or seen a game so far in N5 where taking speedball was a bad play, and where not taking speedball wasn't a mistake. It's essentially a command token tax, which especially feels rough if you are the player going second, as you already are spending a command token on stripping orders.

I think speedball is conceptually cool and feels thematic to infinity, and I like the idea of breaking deadlocks and allowing players to recover better from having mission critical tools going down and staying in the game for longer. I also think that it needs a rework to get to that point. So to get to the point, this is my proposal for a speedball rework.

A single speedball can be requested once per game per player at the start of the orders phase by either player. First resolve any speedball requests made by the active player, and then requests made by the reactive player. Requesting a speedball uses a CMD token.

When requesting a speedball, pick the contents of the speedball from the list of options below, and then place it on the table using combat jump, ignoring exclusion zones. For the purposes of the combat jump, treat the speedball as having PH=20 if you place it inside your DZ or inside your half of the table. If you place it within the enemy half of the table, treat the speedball as having PH=12 for the purposes of combat jump. Speedballs may be placed in silhouette contact with friendly troopers.

List of options:
- Resball: single use S1 token, trigger as soon as possible. Select friendly uncon trooper in silhouette contact. That trooper regains a VITA/STR as if it has been subject to a successful doctor/engi roll.
- Techball: single use S1 token, trigger as soon as possible. Select friendly trooper in ZoC removes IMM-B/ISO/Target states as if it has been subject to a successful engi roll.
- Turretball: place a combi TR turret upon deployment.
- Boogieball: place a disco ball and activate it upon deployment.
- Coverball: place deployable cover of either type upon deployment.
- Spotterball: place an S2 token and remove it in the next states phase. When activating a friendly troop in ZoC of the Spotterball, spend a CMD token to have it gain the triangulated fire skill for the duration of the order.

The intent here is to provide a wider range of more equally useful options to help break stagnating game states. I've also tried to minimize the usefulness of speedball to alpha strikes - Boogieball might still enable some, but a CMD token for a single free disco ball feels a lot less impactful than giving your Nourkias the ability to walk through a Zapper and not care.