Ok it has been a very long time....i would say when wave 1 was first released was when I last used anything with the ability to ion anything.

With wave six coming soon, I see a flood of people jumping on the ion bandwagon.

My question is do ion tokens stack? and if so does the damage stack? And lets say i smack my advisary with three seperate hits from ion cannons from three different ships, does that mean niw that my enemy has three ion tokens on him and has now taken three points of damage.. now does that mean that the ion effects/tokens last till he makes the initial 1 movement then all three ion tokens go away or does he suffer the ion effect on three seperate accounts?

You are correct that each hit with an ion cannon deals a damage and gives an ion token, but when a ship suffers the ion effect and does their 1 forward move you take off all tokens, so any excess tokens are a waste.

Edit: worth noting also, keep in mind also that a large ship requires 2 tokens in order to suffer the ion effect. If a large ship only gets 1 token in a turn that token stays on the ship until it receives a second.

On small ships, when it receives one ion token it is ionized and will move 1 straight white maneuver on the next round. Then the ion token(s) are removed. LArge ships need 2 ion tokens to be ionized. So it gets ionized once, it will carry that ion token for the rest of the game until it receives another ion token from an ion weapon and will be ionized on the next turn.

Multiple ion tokens will not stack. If you waste all your ion cannons on one ship and it is ionized. All the ion tokens are removed next turn after he does his 1 white straight maneuver. That ship will only be ionized for that one turn regardless of how many ion tokens it has.

You are correct that each hit with an ion cannon deals a damage and gives an ion token, but when a ship suffers the ion effect and does their 1 forward move you take off all tokens, so any excess tokens are a waste.

The excess tokens may be a waste, but the damage done will last a lifetime!

The excess tokens may be a waste, but the damage done will last a lifetime!

Or at least the game.

Well the lifetime of a fighter pilot was sometimes measured in minutes.

Or untill a ship gets walked off a table. I walked Vader off the table in a tournament in wave one using the Y-Wing and me using the Y -Wing drew a crowd because I was the only one using it and after I walked Vader that match I was scoweled at by the person the rest of the tournament....and it was the day the Y-Wing became one of my favorite ships and im really looking forward in using them again in the scum and viliany expansion.

And thank you all for the replies on the question.

Well the lifetime of a fighter pilot was sometimes measured in minutes.

That's what she said.

Sorry couldn't resist.

The tokens do "stack" but they are still all removed at the same time. Of course stacking more than one token on a small ship doesn't do anything more to it. It takes two on a large ship but then more done help that.

Where stacking 3 or more tokens on could make a difference is when you're running Epic ships. Unless I'm mistaken the huge ships ignore the movement restrictions but the Ion tokens do affect the ship's energy. I haven't played enough Epic to remember how but I'm thinking that for each ion token the ship gains one less point of energy with its next maneuver.

That is correct. Ion tokens reduce the energy a huge ship generates, then are removed.

Somewhat counter intuitively, this can mean the the huge ship travels faster when ioned because they won't get any energy anyway, may as well.

So as a brand new player there is one question I have regarding the ion weapons. If it does hit and results in the ion token I know the target ship is essentially"dead in space" with the 1 forward move, BUT... If my Y-wing pilot shoots first and deals an ion token to the target ship does that mean the target ship can not perform his actions as normal that combat turn?

If my Y-wing pilot shoots first and deals an ion token to the target ship does that mean the target ship can not perform his actions as normal that combat turn?

Ion tokens do not affect actions in any way. Ships with ion tokens perform actions as normal.

And ships with ion tokens can attack as normal as well. They can use tokens as normal.

If my Y-wing pilot shoots first and deals an ion token to the target ship does that mean the target ship can not perform his actions as normal that combat turn?

Ion tokens do not affect actions in any way. Ships with ion tokens perform actions as normal.

And ships with ion tokens can attack as normal as well. They can use tokens as normal.

So roughly ion weapons serve no real tactical purpose except to make your enem move 1 space.

So as a brand new player there is one question I have regarding the ion weapons. If it does hit and results in the ion token I know the target ship is essentially"dead in space" with the 1 forward move, BUT... If my Y-wing pilot shoots first and deals an ion token to the target ship does that mean the target ship can not perform his actions as normal that combat turn?

The only thing the Ion token(s) does to non-huge ships is force there next movement while not allowing them to reveal a dial.

The Ionized ship still gets its normal actions but if it has things that happen "before revealing your maneuver dial" or the like they do NOT trigger because you don't reveal a dial. It couldn't decloak or use Advanced Sensors for example.

If my Y-wing pilot shoots first and deals an ion token to the target ship does that mean the target ship can not perform his actions as normal that combat turn?

Ion tokens do not affect actions in any way. Ships with ion tokens perform actions as normal.

And ships with ion tokens can attack as normal as well. They can use tokens as normal.

So other than placing a token on a ship and causing 1 damage and making him move 1 forward they are pretty much useless.

Correct. But it is far from useless. During the planning phase you know that enemy ship is going to perform a white one straight maneuver. Use that knowledge to your advantage.

So other than placing a token on a ship and causing 1 damage and making him move 1 forward they are pretty much useless.

So roughly ion weapons serve no real tactical purpose except to make your enem move 1 space.

The basic tactical purpose is to make them move 1 forward but that can be a MASSIVE tactical advantage. They can't turn to point their firing arcs somewhere else so you get then get out of the way. Knowing where they will be also allows you to point your guns in that location which is where most ships will end up unless they have actions that allow movement.

While the forced forward 1 white may not be the end of everything it can mess up things like Decloaking. A cloaked Phantom that gets Ionized may still be hard to hit with 4 defense dice but you'll know where it will be and when.

While the forced forward 1 white may not be the end of everything it can mess up things like Decloaking. A cloaked Phantom that gets Ionized may still be hard to hit with 4 defense dice but you'll know where it will be and when.

Plus a cloaked Phantom can't shoot at you.

Also, a ship with stress doesn't clear that stress, because it performed a white maneuver.

I understand and see the very limited potential of ion weapons, however I fail to see the full reasoning. The the weapon ionizes the target ship causing it to have reduced power and maneuvering, yet the energy weapon systems remain fully operational at normal power.

Do not underestimate the power of the Dark Side , I mean Ion weapons. You're still giving them a damage point and on Imperial ships without shields, that's a good thing. By knowing where they are going to be, you can repeatedly hammer them. I've managed to ionise a ship in one round and then easily plan where to put two more ships to finish it off in the next round. Goodbye TIE Defender!

There's been numerous threads here about Ion Cannon Turrets and what a complete pain in the rear they can be. You sneak in behind a Y-wing to give it the good news only to get zapped by it's ion cannon turret. They can turn a HWK from something feeble into something to avoid. There's a lot of players that absolutely detest ion weapons. And for good reason. If you zap a ship at the right time, you can steer them into asteroids and maybe compound their damage, or even make them fly off the board.

You're looking at it with a little "background-fluff" logic here. The Ion weapons don't seem to do some of the things they are supposed to, but if they did, that would make them overpowered. In theory they should bypass shields, take out the weapons systems, cloaking devices etc, but in the game they don't. What they do, is give the target some damage and fry their controls for a bit. But it's what you can manage to do within that window that counts.

What Parravon said

Don't expect the game to always conform to the fluff, because quite often that could break the game. Ion weapons in Star Wars are very powerful, but are also limited in other ways, ways that can't be simulated here.

For example if you were to use the XvT version of them, a small ship would most likely need 5+ ion tokens before it was effected. It's unlikely anyone would take them if that were the case, because then they're effectively 1 damage turrets, as most ships would be dead before the ion effect kicked in.

Also don't underestimate how big an advantage knowing where a ship will be next turn is.

Pair a Y and X together for example. The Y hits a Tie Fighter with a Ion doing 1 point of damage. Next turn you know exactly where it will be, even if it can barrel roll. That lets you drop your X-Wing in out of it's arc at range 1, for a 4 dice attack against a target that can't fire back.

Keep in mind that Ion tokens are not damage they are ion tokens. Which is why most cards state if hit deal 1 Ion token (2 if Ion pulse Missiles) and 1 damage. Ion tokens and damage are separate things.

Ionized is when the ship has enough ion tokens to suffer the ion effect (2 for large ships 1 for all others) in which next maneuver revealed will count as a white 1 straight (can be changed into a green by nein nub or R2 astromech) then discard all ion tokens.

Keep in mind that Ion tokens are not damage they are ion tokens. Which is why most cards state if hit deal 1 Ion token (2 if Ion pulse Missiles) and 1 damage. Ion tokens and damage are separate things.

Ionized is when the ship has enough ion tokens to suffer the ion effect (2 for large ships 1 for all others) in which next maneuver revealed will count as a white 1 straight (can be changed into a green by nein nub or R2 astromech) then discard all ion tokens.

Only going to nitpick that a ship "suffers" the damage as opposed to being "dealt" the damage.

Suffers goes through shields first where Deal does direct damage to the hull because a damage card is "dealt" to the ship.

Also, to mention, an Ionized ship is not assigned a maneuver dial, so for cards that rely on "before a maneuver dial is revealed" effects, it can shut down potential upgrades. Or in the case of a Tie Phantom, they cannot decloak meaning they cannot attack that round.