Intredictor class Star Destroyer is one of most awesome Star Wars designs. It would be cool to have it in the game. But lore-wise it had really specific role of preventing ships from escaping into hyperspace.

What about game mechanic that would manipulate with speed of ships? Kind of gravity manipulating. For example:

Intredictor class Star Destroyer

Special ability: at the start of turn change speed dial of any other 4 ships by one for their next maneuver.

Enforcer class picket cruiser

Special ability: at the start of turn change speed dial of any other 2 ships by one for their next maneuver.

This special ability may exchange squadron command from ship card.

So with this two babies Imperials could manipulate both speed of their Star Destroyers, and slow down rebels... or maybe speed up this one CR90 into the trap

Would be cool to have this ships in wave 4 or 5.

Any other mechanics ideas?

Intredictor class Star Destroyer is one of most awesome Star Wars designs. It would be cool to have it in the game. But lore-wise it had really specific role of preventing ships from escaping into hyperspace.

What about game mechanic that would manipulate with speed of ships? Kind of gravity manipulating. For example:

Intredictor class Star Destroyer

Special ability: at the start of turn change speed dial of any other 4 ships by one for their next maneuver.

Enforcer class picket cruiser

Special ability: at the start of turn change speed dial of any other 2 ships by one for their next maneuver.

This special ability may exchange squadron command from ship card.

So with this two babies Imperials could manipulate both speed of their Star Destroyers, and slow down rebels... or maybe speed up this one CR90 into the trap

Would be cool to have this ships in wave 4 or 5.

Any other mechanics ideas?

Force fighters to move towards it

On a serious note, this has some interesting possibilities -- for one of my favorite SD variants. Pulling opponents into Obstacles / Debris fileds. Or messing with their ability to complete Navigate Mission goals.

The ability might be limited by arc, and range bracket. For instance, all ships in forward arc at long range.

Or, the effect could be increased for ships closer to the Interdictor.

Not sure -- though -- how finely the effect could be controlled. Interdictors always seemed like a huge, cumbersome club.

almost seems more like it could be a mission centric thing, rebels have to destroy or heavily damage an Interdictor to hyperspace away, i would be outraged if told it could just push my fighters around

For an Interdictor machanic, I would probably get the player put down up to 2 markers anywhere within range 3. Any capital ship passing within range 1 of the marker is slowed by one or reduces the number of clicks on the maneuver ruler by 1. Fighters ignore this effect. The markers effects are stack-able. I would probably make it a token ability like Redirect that way it has a cost to it for game balance.

Edit:

On thinking about it, I wouldn't make it a token like redirect. I would make it into an Interdictor only upgrade card like this:

Gravity Well Projector

Exhaust: Place a Gravity Well token anywhere within range 3 of this ship. Capital ships entering or passing through Range 1 of this token reduces their speed and maneuver clicks by 1 (to a minimum of 0). You may choose to not refresh this card to keep the Gravity Well token in play.

The beauty of this card is that it could be used offensively or defensively. You could effectively "stall" your fleet to reposition or buy more time to fire.

I would probably make the Interdictor ship the same as the Nebulon-B. Except make the front and side shields values to 2 and change the front attack value to 2 red and 1 blue.

I like the Intredictor but it was built for a very specific task and I don't think the mechanics in the game will take that into account. Now if I'm wrong awesome but If the Intredictor does make it into the game I think they should have it block the Rebels from completing a Navigation victory to represent it's gravity well projectors messing with their nav computers.

Sadly I don't think the interdictor will appear in Armada. Its effect is all about preventing hyperspace travel, which doesn't appear at all in Armada (but totally could with some type of reserves implementation, and would be awesome!). Slowing down ships or altering their speeds isn't really what interdictors do.

If they do introduce Interdictors then I hope their ability makes sense with the lore.

Many liberties have been taken in X-Wing in order to make a fun game. I think there can be room for an interpretation that allows for an interesting ability.

What if it restricted the max speed of all ships in an area? As long as it's cool and balanced I think the Interdictor would be awesome.

What would the Rebels get to counter it?

Here's an idea. People will buy this ship because of how iconic it is. How about they make the ship and it contributes no special abilites when it comes to "sucking ships in" but the ship does come with a special mission sheet for a hyperspace jump.

Why buy the ship you ask. Because it is iconic and because it will come with cards you will need to improve you fleet in other areas.

Been reading the thread and pondering this. Also slept on the idea... This idea is rough, but it should be subtle enough to capture the flavor of the Interdictor.

Sell the Interdictor and 3 Freighters and/or Transports together. Unique Mission Cards in the pack "grant" the use of the Interdictor and the Freighters for No Fleet Build Points. The Rebels have to kill the Interdictor to allow the Freighters to escape. The Imps just need to stall. They are granted a number of points for each turn they can prevent the target vessels from escaping. ( Turn count will probably begin on at least the second or third turn.)

Rebels are fast, and likely to favor Navigate Missions. This Mission will require the Rebels to Assault the Imp formation. It will also favor Neb B, and fighter heavy Fleets. That will make it a particularly nasty trick for an Imp player with Mission choice vs Corvette swarms.

Requiring the Interdictor to hyper out at a given damage threshold could also make this a more interesting exercise for the Imps...

Been reading the thread and pondering this. Also slept on the idea... This idea is rough, but it should be subtle enough to capture the flavor of the Interdictor.

Sell the Interdictor and 3 Freighters and/or Transports together. Unique Mission Cards in the pack "grant" the use of the Interdictor and the Freighters for No Fleet Build Points. The Rebels have to kill the Interdictor to allow the Freighters to escape. The Imps just need to stall. They are granted a number of points for each turn they can prevent the target vessels from escaping. ( Turn count will probably begin on at least the second or third turn.)

Rebels are fast, and likely to favor Navigate Missions. This Mission will require the Rebels to Assault the Imp formation. It will also favor Neb B, and fighter heavy Fleets. That will make it a particularly nasty trick for an Imp player with Mission choice vs Corvette swarms.

Requiring the Interdictor to hyper out at a given damage threshold could also make this a more interesting exercise for the Imps...

Problem is that you are now selling this ship just as a straight scenario piece. In order to have more incentive for people to buy it, you have to make it more playable outside of that. You can always make homebrew story missions and not rely on FFG to make it for you.

Been reading the thread and pondering this. Also slept on the idea... This idea is rough, but it should be subtle enough to capture the flavor of the Interdictor.

Sell the Interdictor and 3 Freighters and/or Transports together. Unique Mission Cards in the pack "grant" the use of the Interdictor and the Freighters for No Fleet Build Points. The Rebels have to kill the Interdictor to allow the Freighters to escape. The Imps just need to stall. They are granted a number of points for each turn they can prevent the target vessels from escaping. ( Turn count will probably begin on at least the second or third turn.)

Rebels are fast, and likely to favor Navigate Missions. This Mission will require the Rebels to Assault the Imp formation. It will also favor Neb B, and fighter heavy Fleets. That will make it a particularly nasty trick for an Imp player with Mission choice vs Corvette swarms.

Requiring the Interdictor to hyper out at a given damage threshold could also make this a more interesting exercise for the Imps...

Interdictor is small, so shouldn't be super expensive, with little gameplay effect, a la the GR-75

I would suggest that having an Immobilizer in your squadron would change the objective cards - perhaps even for both sides.

Maybe it would mean that the Immobilizer has to be destroyed in X turns or else the Empire wins (ie. reinforcements show up, and the rebels can't escape.)

I'm not certain I would go as far as "if this happens than this team wins", but I do think something along the lines of "if the target ship is alive at the end of the game (6 rounds remember) the Imperials get 50 points, otherwise the Rebels receive 75 points" should work well. This way you still have to be smart with your ships or you may lose anyway, but there's certainly still incentive to focus what you're doing.

I'm not certain I would go as far as "if this happens than this team wins", ...

I see how that seems draconian, but aren't military clashes supposed to be about strategic objectives, rather than I kill more of the enemy than the enemy kills of mine?

You could introduce some funky gameplay mechanics such as:

Immobiliser (upgrade)

Interdictor Cruiser only

Instead of shooting or moving you may activate this card.

For every ship or fighter moving reduce its movement by 4 less the range value to this ship.

This card remains active until you next shoot or move.

i.e. a ship moving at greater than range 3 is unaffected

a ship moving at range 3 loses 1 speed

a ship moving at range 2 loses 2 speed

a ship at range 1 would lose 3 speed.

If a ship got reduced below speed 1, then they would not get to move at all.

So basically it could bring all but the fastest ships (like corvettes) to a standstill that the rest of its team could pummel them - would be a very powerful anti rebel ability but at the cost of an entire ship that cannot attack - and it could only do it by staying still - since its routing all its power to the gravity generators. Also I said "movement" rather than speed, as its not changing their "throttle" rather just the result of the movement, so as soon as they got out of range or the interdictor stopped the effect they would move at their original speed.

Edit: Basically it would play out a bit like the ion token effect in X-Wing - being able to control or predict your opponents position for a future turn to focus fire on a particular enemy.

Sadly I don't think the interdictor will appear in Armada. Its effect is all about preventing hyperspace travel, which doesn't appear at all in Armada (but totally could with some type of reserves implementation, and would be awesome!). Slowing down ships or altering their speeds isn't really what interdictors do.

If they do introduce Interdictors then I hope their ability makes sense with the lore.

FFG introduced TIE-Phantom in X-Wing without "real" cloak, as well as rarest imperial fighter in EU - TIE-Defender.

With both Intredictor Star Destroyer and Intredictor cruiser we can have:

1) Tractor beam mechanics, which are excluded from game right now.

2) New objectives sets of 3 for intredictors

3) Custom scenarios with transport ships (anyway Star Destroyer size expansion must have one or several minis like rebel transport do in X-Wing)

And gravity wells are sexy!

Perhaps FFG can go the BFG route and have the Interdictor stop ships from retreating if retreating is allowed.

Sadly I don't think the interdictor will appear in Armada. Its effect is all about preventing hyperspace travel, which doesn't appear at all in Armada (but totally could with some type of reserves implementation, and would be awesome!). Slowing down ships or altering their speeds isn't really what interdictors do.

If they do introduce Interdictors then I hope their ability makes sense with the lore.

FFG introduced TIE-Phantom in X-Wing without "real" cloak, as well as rarest imperial fighter in EU - TIE-Defender.

With both Intredictor Star Destroyer and Intredictor cruiser we can have:

1) Tractor beam mechanics, which are excluded from game right now.

2) New objectives sets of 3 for intredictors

3) Custom scenarios with transport ships (anyway Star Destroyer size expansion must have one or several minis like rebel transport do in X-Wing)

And gravity wells are sexy!

almost seems more like it could be a mission centric thing, rebels have to destroy or heavily damage an Interdictor to hyperspace away, i would be outraged if told it could just push my fighters around

"Outraged" seems a bit excessive for what essentially amounts to playing with toys. Really cool, expensive toys with lots of rules, but toys nonetheless. I'm hoping that was hyperbole and that you don't actually take miniatures gaming THAT seriously.

lol, no, that WAS hyperbole. Though I would probably mutter something about canon if it was ever used against me in a game

Okay, here's the thing. I've never read an account of an Interdictor's gravity well generators being used to manipulate movements outside of hyperspace. Imperials used them to suck in Rebel or pirate ships and attack with their own fleet waiting in ambush, neither the target nor their own fleets were hampered by the in-system generator. It was only for hyperspace.

The only time an Interdictor affected a ship in system with its gravity well generators I can recall was in X-wing: Wraith Squadron. An Interdictor escapes being rammed by inverting the gravity well generators, causing it to push itself away from the oncoming ship and, in conjunction with its own power, speed away from the oncoming ship. Even there though Rebel commanders note that it is an unorthodox move that must've strained the ship's systems since it wasn't designed for that.

Tractor beams could manipulate ships in-system. In X-wing: The Bacta War they even use several dozen tractor beams to trap a Super Star Destroyer in place and keep it from moving.

--

So I hope tractor beams become viable at some point. It's a simple mechanic, strategic, and totally fluffy.

In terms of Interdictor mechanics, what if bringing an Interdictor allowed you to force your opponents first moves to all be straight 2 speed manuevers.

This is an early game perk that otherwise leaves you with a ship whose ability has been used and is somewhat underpowered. I But knowing all your opponent's moves for an entire round would surely be helpful since you would know where they'd be in advance. This feels fluffy to me too, recreating the effect of knowing where your enemy will be and taking their opening moves out of their hands.

In terms of Interdictor mechanics, what if bringing an Interdictor allowed you to force your opponents first moves to all be straight 2 speed manuevers.

This is an early game perk that otherwise leaves you with a ship whose ability has been used and is somewhat underpowered. I But knowing all your opponent's moves for an entire round would surely be helpful since you would know where they'd be in advance. This feels fluffy to me too, recreating the effect of knowing where your enemy will be and taking their opening moves out of their hands.

Something like that would make sense. Your Interdictors pulled the enemy fleet out of hyperspace so they need a few turns to get to full readiness, so for the first little bit they are at a disadvantage.

In terms of Interdictor mechanics, what if bringing an Interdictor allowed you to force your opponents first moves to all be straight 2 speed manuevers.

This is an early game perk that otherwise leaves you with a ship whose ability has been used and is somewhat underpowered. I But knowing all your opponent's moves for an entire round would surely be helpful since you would know where they'd be in advance. This feels fluffy to me too, recreating the effect of knowing where your enemy will be and taking their opening moves out of their hands.

Something like that would make sense. Your Interdictors pulled the enemy fleet out of hyperspace so they need a few turns to get to full readiness, so for the first little bit they are at a disadvantage.

Plus, for the point investment and fielding a ship that is itself offensively weak, you've negated the potential navigation commands AND gained knowing the enemy positions for two rounds.

The matter of Interdictors being relevant hinges on one question: Is Hyperspace a mechanic in the game?

If so, then Interdictors naturally fall into controlling that mechanic. Maybe controlling deployment mechanics? Restricting/focing placement close to their location to control where they set up on the board? Would this create a negative play experience for your opponent?

If not, then all they become are set pieces. You might as well put in Vindicators.