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Quantum Dot Guy

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Posts posted by Quantum Dot Guy

  1. Posted

    4 hours ago, Democratus said:

    I think there was an episode of Clone Wars where a Venator was nearly captured by droid boarding parties.

    But I don't recall any other instance in canon SW where a capital ship is captured by direct assault.

    I think that's because there was never much need for it in the stories told by Star Wars films and shows. During the Clone Wars era, the Separatists never really needed to bulk up their fleet with captured ships, and the Republic certainly didn't (though I do remember one Venator being captured, loaded with explosives, and very nearly kamikazed into a Republic space station). And during the Civil War era, only Rebels has a scope that includes the actual process of forming the Rebel Fleet. In Rebels, we do see some ships captured or stolen, but the rebellion isn't yet large enough to operate super-capital ships (As of season 2; I lament that I've been unable to watch the third season).

  2. Posted · Edited by Quantum Dot Guy

    I was thinking about this earlier today. Certainly, boarding and capturing a ship would be a risky waste of time and resources in a stand-alone, 6-round game. However, with the advent of campaigns and long-term strategy, and fleets that may well need to survive several tough battles with limited reinforcement...suddenly capturing is looking more useful. [If you've played the Homeworld series of real-time tactics PC games, then you know exactly how this feels.]

    Let's say a flight of bombers has ripped into the starboard side of an ISD, destroying the shields and dealing several damage cards. Then, a Hammerhead comes in and launches a boarding party toward that same side. This boarding attempt, by some cleverly designed rule, rolls <x> number of <y> dice (immune to friendly and enemy card effects, and defense tokens). The damage total of that is then dealt to the ISD with some sort of special type of damage card (a "boarding card"). If the total number of damage + boarding cards becomes equal to the ISD's hull value, and there are more boarding cards than damage cards, then the ship is considered captured. If the damage cards outnumber the boarding cards, then the ship is scuttled. Perhaps it could even be that if the ISD has boarding cards, but is not captured or destroyed by the end of the round, the number of boarding cards it does have is reduced by <x> (to reflect losses in the boarding team).

    I'm sure there are a number of problems with that system, but it has the advantage of not needing special-case rules for different classes of ships (i.e. larger and stronger ships are more difficult to capture by their nature), and quick-and-easy captures would be extremely rare, since the boarding attack still has to deal at least half of the target's hull value in special damage to take the ship in order to capture it. This would also allow the possibility of multiple ships working in conjunction to take over a big, valuable target like an ISD.

    EDIT: Yet another facet of a system that works like this is that the attacker does genuinely have to be careful about how much damage they deal to a ship they want to capture.

    thestag reacted to this

  3. Posted

    My experience with the MC80 Star Cruiser has been very good, though I have never tried to take down an ISD with it alone. The ship favors a very aggressive strategy, and the wide front arc and powerful shields do much to shelter smaller ships on its flanks. These in turn guard the MC80 SC's weaker spots. As long as I hold formation and I've chosen my ships well, I can be fairly confident in success. In fact, last time I did it, I forced a complete surrender midway through the third round.

  4. Posted

    20 minutes ago, Rune Taq said:

    The long range middle ships from star wars empire at war would fit this category perfectly.  Broadside cruiser for empire and Marauder cruiser for the rebels. Comes with new dice that have three misses, two hits, two crits and 1 accuracy. These ships were great at attacking fighters when they were ideal.  And ships that were close together as the missiles sprayed an area. I would have two upgrades assisted with the new dice:

    You can attack an area with a diameter of distance 2 at ultra long range with three new dice. All fighter squadrons in that area suffer 1 damage for every hit icon.

    When you attack a ship at ultra long range if damage is dealt every other ship at close range suffers 1 damage.

    Forget hammerhead Corvettes I want ultra long range middle ships.

     

    I guess you beat me to the punch Quantum Dot Guy.

    I actually have a Marauder piece from MelMiniatures, awaiting a proper test run. So far, the Broadside isn't available, but I hope it will be eventually.

  5. Posted

    29 minutes ago, D503 said:

    This brings back bad memories of artillery 'pogs' in Mechwarrior dark age.

    If there are ultra-long range ships they should be relatively low damage, fragile and absolutely not use scatter dice/templates

     

     

    Define "relatively". I posted several months ago about a possible implementation of the Broadside-class kdb-1 from Empire at War. The post also detailed a couple possible upgrades. A fully upgraded ship had the ability to perform a single, reduced attack against an enemy ship within distance 1-5 (sensor range) of another friendly ship or two friendly squadrons. In addition, it could forgo standard attacks completely and place a special token anywhere in its attack range (including the previously mentioned upgraded range), up to 3 times per game. This token represented the target of a missile volley, and would detonate (at the beginning or end of the next Ship Phase) in a true area of effect that dealt fairly significant damage to both enemy and friendly units.

     

    I agree the ship should be pretty fragile and worthless in direct combat. As in, something a CR90 could confidently handle by itself.

    Rune Taq reacted to this

  7. Posted

    Just now, Drasnighta said:

    Well, if you go by the Rebels images, in which the Interdictor Overloads and explodes, it does so with a blue crackle and im/ex-plosion, rather than a Red one.

     

    Yes, that would be due to the experimental coolant system. The bugs aren't quite worked out yet. This is, of course, reflected in the card by a random chance to explode upon resolving the ECP upgrade in order to prevent explosion.

  9. Posted

    4 hours ago, Kendraam said:

    Omg - how did i not know about this. Thank you!

    Easily one of the best blogs I've ever read, so enjoy. Every article is great and worth reading, but some of my old favorites were #12, #20 and #35.

    Protip(s): the citation/footnote markers (which look like [1]) are clickable, and usually offer expanded text. [Citation needed] is often clickable as well. Finally, each picture has mouseover text that's usually quite funny. If you're on mobile, you can read it through this lite app and tap the pictures to see the text. Using the app has the added benefit of getting a notification when a new article goes up.

    Just so this isn't COMPLETELY off topic, #2 features Yoda and mentions an X-Wing.

    Ardaedhel reacted to this

  12. Posted

    1 hour ago, Drasnighta said:

    The same thing comes up with my emails with Mr. Gernes in the past - I don't discuss specifics or examples within those, because they're in-confidence and this, unverifiable and not for public consumption.

     

    21 minutes ago, Undeadguy said:

    I wasn't there at the tournament, but JJ and several others were. I highly doubt they were all in on it together to give false information to us about RLB.

    And EVEN if the ruling is false or overturned in the FAQ, for the time being, we at least have an answer so people are calm.

    Am I correct in understanding that he was acting as a tournament official when he said that? If so, would it thus be reasonable to say that he could have been using his executive authority to resolve the debate - in the way he thought best - for that match, in lieu of an official ruling? I'm not trying to be contrary or anything. I just want some honest opinions about precisely how official that statement is.

  14. Posted

    [citation needed]

     

    Really, though, we DO need a written clarification. Undeadguy's comment lends weight to #TeamOrange, but it isn't enough. Plus, as an exclusively Rebel player, I REALLY enjoy carefully orchestrated and convoluted battle plans, with multiple moving parts that all have to be perfectly positioned in order to work. [You should see me playing a Total War game.] #TeamPurple fits in to the Rebel combat philosophy much better, in my opinion.

     

    By the way, I've read through 9 pages of the thread so far. Compelling arguments on both sides.

  15. Posted

    If I may, it would seem to me that they should not be considered activated (from the perspective of game consistency and the greater Star Wars canon). I mean, squadrons that hyperspace in during an objective are not considered activated, so it seems that specially-designed launch bays - created to spew out fighters at a moment's notice - should work in a similar way. It's not like these fighters take any significant time at all to get up to speed; certainly not 16.7% of an entire battle.

  18. Posted

    I was thinking about battle choreography for the Rebels, and I had this idea. Now, I know it's absurdly expensive and difficult; my question is simply if it's possible.

    Let's say I have a fleet with (among other things) Yavaris (Neb-B Support) and Gallant Haven (AFII-B). Yavaris has Adar Tallon on board, and Gallant Haven has Flight Commander and Rapid Launch Bays. Contained in the launch bays are Hera Syndulla, a regular VCX-100, and Keyan/Luke. Perhaps my target is an ISD which has already activated.

    1. Gallant Haven manages to maneuver close behind the ISD. Thanks to Flight Commander, it resolves its earlier squadron command after it completes its maneuver. With its squadron value of 3 and its Rapid Launch Bays, it deploys all 3 stored squadrons in a tight formation within distance 1 of the ISD's rear hull zone.
    2. Yavaris issues a squadron command which is relayed through the VCX-100 to Keyan/Luke, who attacks the ISD twice. Adar Tallon then toggles the activation slider.
    3. Squadron phase begins, and Hera gives "Rogue" to both Keyan/Luke and the VCX-100. Now all 3 in the strike group have "Rogue", all 3 attack the ISD, and then all 3 fly off into the sunset together.

     

    I suppose all this hinges on one thing: are squadrons deployed via Rapid Launch Bays considered activated? The card seems to imply that they are, but it doesn't actually say that.

  20. Posted · Edited by Quantum Dot Guy

     

     

     

    A major balancing factor is that if all your ships die, then so do all your squadrons. So long as that rule stands, squadrons will be useful, but not dominant.

    Really that should only be true for Imperial squadrons without hyperdrives shouldn't it? :P
    He's not making a suggestion. That's the rule right now, lore grievances not withstanding.

     

    *I'm* making a suggestion!

     

    This is actually one of our house rules here:

     

    "In deathmatch games, a player may declare victory once all of his opponent's hyperdrive-equipped vessels are destroyed."

     

    For Imperials, this includes all ships and TIE Advanced x1's. For Rebels, it includes everything so far released. To balance this a little, we're thinking about trying to implement damage cards that affect hyperdrives, or a new passive effect for the Interdictor which prevents vessels from entering hyperspace.

     

     

     

    I would post something on-topic here, but I don't have enough experience with the new waves to say anything. I was just here for the WWII reference.

  21. Posted · Edited by Quantum Dot Guy

    Welcome!

     

    1) Squadrons can move anywhere between 0 and their max speed. In other words, you can move a TIE fighter squadron at speed 0, speed 4, speed 2.7, etc.

     

    2) The current speed of a ship cannot exceed it's maximum speed, even with a Navigate dial/token. Since the max speed of a Victory is 2, and the one in your example is already at 2, then your Navigate dial/token can only lower the speed to 1. You can choose to save tokens indefinitely, but there are a couple rules you have to keep in mind:

    • You can only have up to one token of each type in reserve at any given time.

     

    • The total number of tokens a ship may save is equal to that ship's command value.

     

    If you have a command dial revealed (or a token just taking up space in your reserve), you can spend it at the appropriate time and simply choose to not resolve its effects.

     

    3) Example: If you lock in* a speed-2 maneuver for your Victory, but it cannot complete that maneuver because a nasty little CR90 is in the way, then you have officially crashed. The next step is for you to temporarily reduce your speed by 1 and try again to maneuver. You keep repeating this step until you can successfully complete a maneuver, or your temporary speed reaches 0 (meaning your ship does not move at all during this activation). After that, your ship's speed returns to what it was before the crash, and both ships involved in the crash receive 1 facedown damage card.

    [* A maneuver is considered "locked in" only when the maneuver tool is attached to the moving ship's base. A locked-in maneuver cannot be changed, so don't do that until you are quite sure what course you want to set.]

     

    4) Yes, any speed change done by a Navigate dial/token is permanent, until another Navigate dial/token changes it again. You can stop your ship completely, but keep in mind that no defense tokens may be used when you are defending at speed 0.

     

     

     

    Hope this helps!

    Flengin reacted to this

  22. Posted · Edited by Quantum Dot Guy

    Thanks for the input!

    I definitely agree that you wouldn't get much use out of this ship on its own, but that was really quite intentional. Just as the new flotillas are largely designed around the 'Fleet Support' upgrade type, I wanted this artillery ship to be designed around the 'Ordnance' type. It may not look impressive on the surface, but I want it to be able to wield Ordnance upgrades with deadly effect.

     

    The Diamond-Boron Missiles upgrade is currently ridiculously powerful, yes; I have considered reducing it as you said, or possibly delaying the effect:

    >"You may spend this card to skip your attack step and place one objective token in your front firing arc at long range. At the beginning of the next ship phase, you must roll an attack pool of 4 red dice against all enemy and friendly hull zones and squadrons within distance 1-3 of the token."

    This version is limited to one use only, and allows faster vessels to possibly escape the blast, but still retains the potential for extreme damage if used properly. Having a true area effect allows for the possibility of collateral damage against your own vessels, which I hope would somewhat balance the card.

     

    I really like your thoughts on the other upgrade. I want players to be able to use their squadrons to call in these long range strikes, but allowing them use only one (such as Soontir Fel, with his speed and Scatter) might be too powerful.

    >"Ordnance Targeting Sensor Network [Ordnance, 7pts.]: During your activation, you may perform one of your attacks against a target at close-long range of any two activated friendly ships or squadrons, using only the black dice in your battery armament. Only 'Ordnance' and 'Weapons Team' upgrades can be resolved during this attack."

    This version of the upgrade would be quite useful on other ships as well. In fact, it would open up whole new applications for the Raider.

     

    I also agree that the ship's stats need revision; however, I can't possibly remove all the black dice from the front hull zone, simply because of the three giant, forward-facing missile tubes embedded in the ship's hull. Perhaps this arrangement would work:

    Battery Armament (f/s/r): 4 black/1 red, 1 black/1 red

    Anti-Squadron Armament: -

    An alternative version could sacrifice a front black for a single blue anti-squadron die. Having such a powerful black battery means that the Ordnance Targeting upgrade can be especially effective on this ship (and the Gladiator, though I think there are better upgrade choices for a close-combat ship like that).

    To really highlight this ship's designed purpose, I've even considered adding two 'Ordnance' slots. What do you think?

     

    EDIT: Just saw your second post and I like it. The cost seems goods for it's potential, and I like the upgrade slots. I will definitely give this a go whenever I'm able to play another game. Thanks again!

  23. Posted · Edited by Quantum Dot Guy

    [Originally posted in the Star Wars Wishing Well]


     


    I used to play a good bit of Star Wars: Empire at War on PC, and I fell in love with the Imperial Broadside-class cruiser kdb-1 (and the Rebel Alliance's equivalent, a refitted Republic Marauder-class corvette), which was basically a moving missile battery with practically unlimited range. It had very little ability to protect itself in direct combat; the hull and shields were weak, the speed and maneuverability left something to be desired for a ship of its small size, and it was completely helpless against fighters at close range. In addition, the act of firing temporarily revealed the ship's location on the map, exposing it to enemy missile attacks. But, the range of the missiles allowed the cruisers to fire on nearly any target that was within the line of sight of other Imperial ships, and a successful volley was DEVASTATING. A single missile was enough to turn half a dozen squadrons into so many fireworks, and three or four well-placed shots could reliably cripple (or outright destroy) all but the very largest of targets. Overall, using the ship was often quite difficult, and one misstep was usually fatal. Even so, it was almost always worth the cost and the risk to deploy them.


     


    Given my love of this ship, I have often thought about how it could be incorporated into Armada. Borrowing the ship's data from the archives, and its stats from Empire at War - relative to other ships which have already been released for Armada, like the CR90 and the VSD - I've devised a prototype. The ship's two turbolasers are represented by the red dice in the attack pools, while the missiles would be the black dice. Since an unlimited supply of Diamond-Boron missiles would be far too powerful, I feel the upgrade should be limited to 3 uses per game. I don't have an enormous amount of experience with this game, though, so I'd greatly appreciate any input from other players. Once I feel like I have the details worked out, I hope to implement it in a test game.


     


    Hull: 4


    Shields (front/sides/rear): 2/1/1


    Defenses: 1 redirect, 2 brace


     


    Battery Armament (f/s/r): 2 red, 3 black/1 red, 2 black/1 red


    Anti-Squadron Armament: -


     


    Command: 2


    Squadron:1


    Engineering:2


     


    Maneuverability:


    @ speed 1: I


    @ speed 2: I, I


     


    Upgrade slots: Officer, Ordnance, Fleet Support?[others TBD]


     


    Fleet cost: [TBD]


     


    Included upgrade cards: Assault Concussion Missiles (Ordnance, 7pts.), Diamond-Boron Missiles (Ordnance, 15+pts?), Targeting Sensor Network (Fleet Support? 7pts?), [others TBD]


     


    Upgrade card descriptions:


    >Diamond-Boron Missiles (15+pts?): "At the beginning of your attack step, you may attack as normal a target hull zone or squadron at medium-long range and in line of sight with your front arc, using an attack pool of 4 red dice. All hull zones and squadrons at distance 1-3 of the target, both enemy and friendly, must be treated as individual targets of the attack. You cannot perform any other attacks this round. This upgrade may be resolved up to 3 times per game."


    >Ordnance Targeting Sensor Network (7pts?): "During your activation, you may perform one of your attacks against a target at close-long range of any activated friendly ship or squadron in play, using only the black dice of your selected firing arc. Only 'Ordnance' and 'Weapons Team' upgrade effects can be resolved during this attack."


     


    Obviously, these two upgrades are designed with each other in mind, enabling the ship to function at incredibly long range without creating special upgrade categories or special ship rules. I'm uncertain whether Fleet Support is the correct category for the Targeting upgrade, since it doesn't really affect any other part of your fleet; but, then again, neither does slicer tools.


    Flengin reacted to this
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