So I have never been really thrilled with Probes since their introduction. As they are now, they are just another expendable weapon. Reading the description in the rulebook it states (and I paraphrase) that probes are used for various purposes including scouting etc… That got me thinking, what if they had a Scout related function as well as or even instead of their attack function. My thought was something like this: launch however many probes you want/have at a target within 12 hexes exactly as you would a seeking weapon (placing a probe marker on the table).  The probes are then resolved as a seeking weapon before other weapons fire from the launching vessel, “hitting” on a 5 or 6. If a probe “hits” a target, place the probe marker on the target ship and it does no damage but that target's ECM is reduced by 1 for all other attacks against it by the ship that launched the probes. ECM may only be reduced by 1 no matter how many probes hit. Think of it as something like a targeting drone. After the probe “attacks” are resolved they are removed from the game. Any thoughts?
Cheers, Erik
PS My next project is a setting with no shields, just armor and ECM, so I might try this as a reason for probes to exist.