I'm just kicking around ideas for a "blow up the tibanna refinery" sort of mission and I want to gather ideas about how to handle it. My thinking is that the refinery will be represented by a printable terrain piece that looks like this:

It's 4cm high by 12cm long. The stats I've assigned to it are entirely flexible (I'm hoping to get suggestions for other configurations), but I figured it should be reasonably well-protected with its high Pilot Skill (for shooting purposes), 3 attack dice, 0 agility (because refineries can't dodge), fairly fragile skin with 4 hull (once you get through that, they blows up real nice), and 8 shields (what you really have to worry about cutting through).

Whoever's defending the refinery has to place it in their deployment zone, flush with the edge of the play area but at least Range 1 from any other edge.

Ships that end their movement overlapping the Tibanna Refinery token are immediately destroyed.

Critical hits against the refinery are treated as 2 damage rather than flipping a damage card.

The refinery doesn't move and doesn't have any actions. (I could be convinced to give it some actions.) It doesn't have any upgrade bar and doesn't have a point cost (I could be convinced to do both).

The firing arc leaves blind spots (but that's negotiable, and there could be multiple firing arcs, each with their own upgrade slots for cannon or something).

What would do with this idea? How would you change it?

Off top of my head, placing it against the edge of a table, and not allowing to overlap really hampers the attacking player....as in really bad, can't shoot by it, and if u land on it while banking you go boom

Reading the topic title, my first reaction was hmmmm make it almost like that episode of BSG where Apollo had to fly thru the conveyor belt while his squad was busy up top with turrets etc...I don't know how this would work, but will definitely take some deeper thought on this very type of scenario

Interesting idea but I agree with GRM about the placement. If it were placed more centrally, that would allow enemy ships to do fly-bys and strafing runs - this seems more appropriate for a fighter-based game. Maybe have it built into an asteroid so it can only be attacked from one side.

As for actions, what about giving it some of the Huge Ship actions?

Probably should be a turret primary weapon as well no? Also not sure about the pilot skill 9. Not like the average miner is an ace.

No, but you could argue stronger sensors, additional targetting equipment and being a stationary/relatively stable platform might help with that.

As well as the fact that they would just be sitting there waiting for incomers not trying to fly a fighter/Dodge fire etc etc

I'd like to echo the Huge ship comparison. I'd say go with a full hexagon for the platform, a turret range 3-5 with 3(4?) dice primary, and 2, maybe 3, hardpoint secondaries, with one firing arc out of every other side. I'd further reduce the PS to 4, because while individuals may be able to shoot faster, teams and groups are going to be slowed by their numbers. I would also give it one Crew slot and one Team slot, though I'm not sure if there should be more (or less) of either. Finally, I think room for two Cargo slots might not be bad.

Energy generation would be a little bit of an issue, so it might get 2-3 per turn since it's not going anywhere. I'm also not sure if they would have such strong shields, though it makes sense from a narrative perspective (wanting to protect Tibanna Gas from any passing raiders).

As for actions, I think the Corvette's action pool, Coordinate, Reinforce, Recover, Target Lock, might be best, though I'm not sure if you'd want to give it two actions per turn like the CR90, unless you actually split the station into two halves of the hex, though that gets trickier still. Alternatively, you could swap the TL out for a Jam action instead.

I currently see three scenarios that could dictate the starting placement of the platform.

1. Platform in the center. A balanced approach where the Attackers and the defending Air/Space Patrol start from their respective sides and close to attack/defend the station.
2. Platform closer to the Defender's deployment zone (no more than range 3 from the Defender's side, and not closer than range 2 from the neutral sides). The Defenders received advanced warning of the incoming attack and are ready to meet the attackers head on.
3. Platform closer to the Attackers, probably same setup as above, just in regards to the opponent's Deployment zone insted. The Air/Space Patrol was caught napping, and now have to rush to save their Tibanna Gas Platform before it's destroyed.

Thoughts?

I'm not crazy about an armed tibanna platform, to be honest. From a fluff/lore perspective, even the decent hull value and strong shields are questionable, but they are probably necessary for balance.

I'm putting together a similar 'raid' style mission, but there are going to be multiple lightly armored targets. The attacker has a head start on the mission, but also starts with fewer squad points than the defender. The raiders have to evade the superior defense forces and destroy as many targets as possible before fleeing. I think that better reflects an actual raid and would be fun.

This has great potential, and I agree with several of the above comments... let's keep this going I like this idea a lot.

This makes me think of missions from Rogue Leader and this table that was posted on Board game Geek

I think that it depends a lot on what role you want the platform to play. If it's main purpose is an objective to be destroyed, then I would not treat it like a huge ship. I would probably give it 2 180 degree firing arcs with 3 attack dice each, but a range cap of 2. This means that while it can attack twice, it can attack one target in each arc per turn. Maybe 4 dice but with no actions. This means that it is helpless against ships at range 3, so the defender will have to get out there and engage those threats. I'd give it an extra die at range one as per normal range rules as well. I think it needs to be fairly robust, especially with 0 agility which makes sense. 12 total hit points can go fast. That's only 3 or 4 torps. The attacker could alpha strike at range 3 and just go home. I would at it up on the defenders side of the map, but not so close to the edge that it is hard to fly past. Other than that, I think you need to play test it for balance.