Ok, so I have seen it appear a few times on these forums. I dont mean to hate on those that say "one ion and i'll make ____ fly off the board." but to me the whole thing seems very unlikely. Im no expert player, i usually get maybe one game in a week with my brother and i have all the ships. But really, hitting something with a ion gun and then making them fly off the board, that doesnt seem very realistic to me. There was one time where my brother with a y-wing ioned darth vader three turns in a row, but vader was half way in the table and the y wing would have destroyed him before he could even hit the edge....

how many of you have actually caused something to fly off the table due to ionizing?

how many of you have actually caused something to fly off the table due to ionizing?

It's actually quite hard to do, unless you catch them pretty near the edge to start with, or you have 3-4 ships with Ion's.

There are times when this can happen. It's rarely useful, as you're better off actually damaging things. But against low agility ships with stress Ion cannons can lead things off the board.

It is not as difficult as it seems, because you don't have to literally drive them of the board.

You just have to force the ship into a place that no matter what maneuver he chooses next, its base will end partially off map.

Large base ships are specially susceptible to this, since its base is much wider than those on small fighters, and both cover greater distance and require more space to fit. Many people maneuver too close to the map's edge. One sudden and unexpected forced 1-Forward can literally left you without room to maneuver in the next round, specially if you are also stressed.

And last but not least, you can help the 'ionizer' by blocking with your other ships their attempts to desperately turn their ship before it's too late.

I've seen players ioned into a corner but it was pilot user error that they ended up off the board

It is not as difficult as it seems, because you don't have to literally drive them of the board.

You just have to force the ship into a place that no matter what maneuver he chooses next, its base will end partially off map.

Large base ships are specially susceptible to this, since its base is much wider than those on small fighters, and both cover greater distance and require more space to fit. Many people maneuver too close to the map's edge. One sudden and unexpected forced 1-Forward can literally left you without room to maneuver in the next round, specially if you are also stressed.

And last but not least, you can help the 'ionizer' by blocking with your other ships their attempts to desperately turn their ship before it's too late.

While large ships are susceptible to it because they move so much more, they also require 2 ions for it to take effect

I have seen a B or 2 be ioned right off the board, you get them ioned get behind them and just keep right there and lead them off the board. it would work on the low Ds like 1s (mainly Bs) but it can happen, the ion guy needs to keep getting 2 hits on the ion roll to make it work.

But my question is how many ships have you (either witnessed or actually done it yourself) get ionized off the board? I know that it is probable, but i dont think its very possible, especially when you have a decently smart pilot.

Your opponent would have to set himself up to use this tactic.

especially when you have a decently smart pilot.

All depends.

How good of a pilot you are doesn't matter when you're stuck moving 1 forward. It really comes down to how likely you are to score a hit.

The other thing though is how many HP's does the ship have. A Tie Fighter or Interceptor is likely to be destroyed before it reaches the edge of the board, unless it's pretty close to start with.

If you can make a 1 turn, you can get pretty close to the edge without going off. Even at about 1.5 bases away from the edge a small ship can make that turn.

So for many ships, anything with 5 HP's or less, unless you're less then 6 bases away from a edge at the start, you'll be destroyed before you go off the edge... Even for a X-Wing or other ship that at best can make a 1 bank, you still can get to about 3.25 bases and still stay on the board.

I have never seen it happen. I am not saying it can't, but I don't think it is a good over-all strategy for winning a game. It isn't as though when a ship is ionized it can't dodge your attacks, you still get your agility dice.

I think the best thing to do with ionization is to hit a stressed ship. Especially ships using PtL or Advanced Sensors.

There is nothing Sootir Fel's player hates more than having Soontir get ionized after he just Pushed the Limit. Without the chance to clear his stress he get's no action and you know exactly where than nimble little bugger is going to be. If you Ionize him one turn there is a good chance you can kill him the next.

I have only seen a ship get an ion token twice, much less run off the board with them, and both times the ship was destroyed with that one damage so I have yet to see an ion token have ANY effect.

I could have done it in a game last week in some hot Firespray on Firespray action. Caught him pointing towards the edge, got my first hit with the ion cannon, and could have just walked him off the edge, I took mercy after the second or third time when it was apparent that was what was going to happen and took a regular shot.

I use HWKs and Y-Wings a lot.

I use Ion Turrets a lot.

I've run a ship off the board twice to my recollection.

All it takes is a B-Wing or a TIE/Bm to cut in front of me and end up facing the wrong way a bit too close to the edge.

So long!

You just have to force the ship into a place that no matter what maneuver he chooses next, its base will end partially off map.

This is exactly what I did the one time I've managed it in my limited X-Wing experience. There was an enemy X-Wing just inside an asteroid in the corner of legal asteroid space. Kath Ion-ed him toward the edge a couple times, then left him close enough that no matter what maneuver he chose he was off the board. My opponent tried the best turn he could manage, but a corner off is a corner off.

On the other hand, I've also managed to chase a Shuttle with double Ion Turrets and make it explode a turn before it would've been forced out anyway.

I Ionned a Bomber off the board, took 2 ion hits and sent him packing, it was pretty awesome.

I've had TIE fighters of mine get ioned off the board when I just started playing the game. Now mostly it is the threat of potentially being ioned off the board that forces you to turn earlier than you would like to.

I had a game at Worlds where my Y-Wing and a HWK-290 walked each other off a corner with their ion cannon turrets. He hit the board edge before I did, but I couldn't turn sharp enough to avoid it. We both had a good laugh about that.

I once ion'd Han Solo off the board. A combination of flight error by my opponent and my list's strategy (ran falcon, biggs, and gold squadron y-wing with an ion turret, flew in a tight formation around the edge of the board).

Just once, and I've been playing for a while. Flying an ionized ship into an asteroid field, though, and watching it pinball around taking damage and losing actions… priceless fun, and a lot easier to accomplish.

Just once, and I've been playing for a while. Flying an ionized ship into an asteroid field, though, and watching it pinball around taking damage and losing actions… priceless fun, and a lot easier to accomplish.

This is why when I play an Ion build, I put loads of asteroids on my side of the board. I fly slowly, let me opponent get close, then ion them right into the waiting rocks.

how many of you have actually caused something to fly off the table due to ionizing?

Once. A 4 ion list shot one of my bounty hunters off the board when I flew Trip hunters. I was not ionized the turn I flew off, but no maneuver I could make would keep me on the board. It's much more likely to happen to a big base ship.

I knew before the shot came, before I made the hard turn that set it up even, that I could be in danger of this happening. I thought that my 2 evade dice and one evade token would make it an acceptable risk.

Note to self: never count on the green dice.

Even if you don't acutally ion them off the board, just ionizing them repeatedly is fun enough. Especially deadly vs something like a B-Wing with it's single agility. A focused, 3 die attack is will hit 90% of the time against a focused, 1 die defense roll.

I've incapacitated 2 B-Wings for 3-4 turns in a row with 2 ion-turret Y-Wings. Enough to massively influence the outcome of the game in your favor.

Talking about pushing people off the board... I've witnessed Mu0n block a Firespray (I think?) as it hard-turned over the edge of the map to have it land off the map. I reckon' that's harder than ionizing them off the board

My first game playing with wave 3 ships and one the best come backs I've ever had, I ioned the Lambda off the board with my HWK.