Hard to imagine a game mechanic for this.

OP are you complaining about having too many Cannon slots? Yeah, we have found the Aggressor's weakness if has too many cannon slots!

I think the extra slot provides a minimal amount of flexibility, or maybe you just use an AutoBlaster and a HLC.

ever think that maybe they have yet to come up with a way to get it in the game that isn't over powered? I am sure the playtesters and designers have spent time on figuring it out.

Maybe a Tractor Beam cannon upgrade will come out in the future.

Anyone actually see the dual-cannon slots being useful? If it was "buy two cannons get the cheapest free" then fair enough, but would you really pay the full price of an extra cannon just to have a choice of what to attack with? Maybe to stress people with the first attack, then damage them with the second, but not for the full cost of a cannon.

Put a Flechette Cannon with a HLC. For 2 points, you now have a backup weapon for range 1 shots (or a way to just keep the target from K-turning behind you) as well as protection against an unwanted Munitions Failure crit.

At range 1 almost all ships that can take a cannon are firing with four dice anyway. You're right though that for two points it's not a bad option since it's about stressing, not dealing damage, and it's only at range two that you'd be choosing between them so you're not really making a substantially different investment than you would be if it was your only cannon. I can see that not being a bad way to go.

Maybe a Tractor Beam cannon upgrade will come out in the future.

Anyone actually see the dual-cannon slots being useful? If it was "buy two cannons get the cheapest free" then fair enough, but would you really pay the full price of an extra cannon just to have a choice of what to attack with? Maybe to stress people with the first attack, then damage them with the second, but not for the full cost of a cannon.

On whichever IG-88 has the 'Gunner with Cannons' ability, if you only have a HLC, and make an attack at range 1 that misses, you can't take advantage of his ability unless there's another viable target at range 2-3. But that's about the only situation, currently, where both would be useful. It may be a case of future proofing, or one of the yet to be revealed cards(there's still an EPT unspoiled I believe?) may allow it to come into play.

True. I doubt cannon-capable ships miss completely at range 1 very often though, most having 4 red dice.

Tractor beams are a well established part of starwars they really should have a place in the game.

Yep, they come up three times in the movies.

Once on a warship ship a mile long.

Once again on another warship over eleven miles long.

And finally on a battlestation the size of a small planetoid.

The rest is currently in Legends territory.

The thing about tractor beams is that when you pull on something it pulls back, hence why they're on such big ships. Capital ships don't tractor beam each other.

Much like people wanting boarding actions in this game, I have to wonder what possible use a pilot could find for a tractor beam during a dogfight. Seems to me not getting blown up would take precedence over locking one of several enemy ships into place. Tractor beams on Huge ships for scenario play could be interesting, but for standard play I don't see the realism.

Go to good old games buy tie fighter and educate yourself.

Maybe a Tractor Beam cannon upgrade will come out in the future.

Anyone actually see the dual-cannon slots being useful? If it was "buy two cannons get the cheapest free" then fair enough, but would you really pay the full price of an extra cannon just to have a choice of what to attack with? Maybe to stress people with the first attack, then damage them with the second, but not for the full cost of a cannon.

On whichever IG-88 has the 'Gunner with Cannons' ability, if you only have a HLC, and make an attack at range 1 that misses, you can't take advantage of his ability unless there's another viable target at range 2-3. But that's about the only situation, currently, where both would be useful. It may be a case of future proofing, or one of the yet to be revealed cards(there's still an EPT unspoiled I believe?) may allow it to come into play.

True. I doubt cannon-capable ships miss completely at range 1 very often though, most having 4 red dice.

It's amazing how often four dice will fail, especially when the defender has three dice and a token, and the attacker was blocked and had no action to modify the roll.

I've read the Star Wars EU extensively (admittedly not in a long while)....but I cannot recall any instance where a tractor beam based on a medium-sized ship was used in a dogfight against enemy fighters. There have been instances where ship-based tractor beams were used in certain maneuvers that have been already mentioned (corran horn w/ the station and luke w/ the star destroyer in the thrawn trilogy, etc.), but I cannot recall any instances of use to gain an advantage DIRECTLY against another ship in a dog fight.

Can anyone fill in this gap, or are there no examples of this happening?

Just got to thinking about tractor beams, what if it reduced agility by 1 and cost an action to perform (so long as the target was in arc)

that means unless you had PTL or an EPT your attack would be unmodified and it would mainly be effective against lower PS ships.

Seriously have none of you ever played tie fighter? I know it's old but it's a classic dog fighting game with few sequels even to this day.

It's made by Lucas arts it was as Canon as you could get for twenty years, and shows perfectly how effective a tractor beam is against agile craft.

Much like people wanting boarding actions in this game, I have to wonder what possible use a pilot could find for a tractor beam during a dogfight. Seems to me not getting blown up would take precedence over locking one of several enemy ships into place. Tractor beams on Huge ships for scenario play could be interesting, but for standard play I don't see the realism.

Go to good old games buy tie fighter and educate yourself.

Much like people wanting boarding actions in this game, I have to wonder what possible use a pilot could find for a tractor beam during a dogfight. Seems to me not getting blown up would take precedence over locking one of several enemy ships into place. Tractor beams on Huge ships for scenario play could be interesting, but for standard play I don't see the realism.

You clearly haven't played the X-Wing PC games then, where the Tractor Beam Weapons were installed on TIE Defenders and TIE Avengers...

No need, I remember buying them (on 3.5s no less!) as a middle schooler. Of course, being 13, I never thought about how realistic or rational the gameplay was, I just liked that I was flying ships in space that shot lasers. However, memories of playing a video game 20 years ago don't do much to sway my current thoughts that tractor beams don't have a place in a game that simulates a few minutes of dog-fighting. YMMV of course, and that's fine too. If it does get implemented I doubt there will be anyone holding a gun to my head making me use it in my lists, and if there is I'd guess that giving up my suspension of disbelief will be worth not adding an additional hole to my noggin.

That said, I still don't understand the appeal.

Tractor beams are a well established part of starwars they really should have a place in the game.

Yep, they come up three times in the movies.

Once on a warship ship a mile long.

Once again on another warship over eleven miles long.

And finally on a battlestation the size of a small planetoid.

The rest is currently in Legends territory.

The thing about tractor beams is that when you pull on something it pulls back, hence why they're on such big ships. Capital ships don't tractor beam each other.

Well, so are half our pilots and ships at this point too, so...

Seriously have none of you ever played tie fighter? I know it's old but it's a classic dog fighting game with few sequels even to this day.

It's made by Lucas arts it was as Canon as you could get for twenty years, and shows perfectly how effective a tractor beam is against agile craft.

My mom actually credited X-Wing and TIE Fighter with making me a better driver when I was first learning to drive a car. Navigating a highway on-ramp is nothing compared to screaming down a trench while turbolaser batteries are trying to shoot you down so you can fire proton torpedos at a target that's only three meters wide.

It's also where I got my online handle. I wanted a name that would evoke a malicious ghost, taking down ships while remaining unseen. I came up with the perfect name for such a pilot: POLTERGEIST!

Unfortunately, X-Wing had an 8-character limit on player names, and "POLTERGE" wasn't going to cut it. So I switched to Phantom. I was so good that they named a ship after me.

3 things I miss about X-wing.

1: randomly generated pilot face based on your handle.

2: being able to use a friends pilot file as a wing man - this was before the Renaissance of online gaming.

3: Troll-killing a the same stardestroyer half a dozen times throughout a campaign. - Bonus when said Stardestroyer is called the Invincible or the Immortal.

Much like people wanting boarding actions in this game, I have to wonder what possible use a pilot could find for a tractor beam during a dogfight. Seems to me not getting blown up would take precedence over locking one of several enemy ships into place. Tractor beams on Huge ships for scenario play could be interesting, but for standard play I don't see the realism.

Go to good old games buy tie fighter and educate yourself.

Much like people wanting boarding actions in this game, I have to wonder what possible use a pilot could find for a tractor beam during a dogfight. Seems to me not getting blown up would take precedence over locking one of several enemy ships into place. Tractor beams on Huge ships for scenario play could be interesting, but for standard play I don't see the realism.

You clearly haven't played the X-Wing PC games then, where the Tractor Beam Weapons were installed on TIE Defenders and TIE Avengers...

No need, I remember buying them (on 3.5s no less!) as a middle schooler. Of course, being 13, I never thought about how realistic or rational the gameplay was, I just liked that I was flying ships in space that shot lasers. However, memories of playing a video game 20 years ago don't do much to sway my current thoughts that tractor beams don't have a place in a game that simulates a few minutes of dog-fighting. YMMV of course, and that's fine too. If it does get implemented I doubt there will be anyone holding a gun to my head making me use it in my lists, and if there is I'd guess that giving up my suspension of disbelief will be worth not adding an additional hole to my noggin.

That said, I still don't understand the appeal.

I'm replaying tie fighter 1998 version at the moment and I'll tell you when flying against a tie advanced as fast and agile as the avenger is in that game having a beam weapon is priceless.

You can't tell me a tractor beam reducing the falcons insane movement would never be useful.

And given that very few missions in tie fighter go over the ten minute mark and quite a few can be done in five or less it's an excellent analogue of the table top game.

I think a great mechanic for a Tractor Beam Cannon would be:

Range 1-3 Attack 3

If target is hit, do not place a maneuver dial on the target next turn - instead, the target performs a []0 maneuver

You can't tell me a tractor beam reducing the falcons insane movement would never be useful.

Mounted on what?

I think a tractor beam would be a cool new game mechanic, but I think it should only be available to Epic ships. Here is what I came up with.

Hardpoint: Tractor Beam

Energy: 2

Attack: 4

Range: 2-4

Attack (Energy): Spend 2 energy from this card to perform this attack. If this attack hits, cancel all dice results. Then the defender immediately performs a red 2 straight or bank maneuver.

The other idea I had while reading Heir to the Empire, was a mechanic to simulate the gravity well projectors.

Cargo: Gravity Well Projector

Energy: 5

Energy: Spend 5 energy from this card and discard this card to cause each ship within a printed fire arc at Range 3-4 to skip their perform maneuver step next round.

Tractor beams are a well established part of starwars they really should have a place in the game.

Yep, they come up three times in the movies.

Once on a warship ship a mile long.

Once again on another warship over eleven miles long.

And finally on a battlestation the size of a small planetoid.

The rest is currently in Legends territory.

The thing about tractor beams is that when you pull on something it pulls back, hence why they're on such big ships. Capital ships don't tractor beam each other.

The Star Destroyer and the Death Star I get, but when did we see the Executer using one?

It's amazing how often four dice will fail, especially when the defender has three dice and a token, and the attacker was blocked and had no action to modify the roll.

Well the very fact you say it's amazing I think demonstrates how unlikely it is, based on the odds, right?

The Star Destroyer and the Death Star I get, but when did we see the Executer using one?

The end of ESB. Vader wanted to capture the MF, but it jumped into hyperspace before they could do it.

When attacking a ship inside your firing arc, if you are not inside that ship's firing arc, you may spend your Target Lock to cause the defender to receive 1 ion token

Takes up a cannon slot, but does not have an attack.

-edit- hmmmm maybe too much. I think the attack has to hit, otherwise you'll just walk a ship off the board guaranteed

The big issue is that loosing control of your ship is anti-fun

Tractor Beam:

Cannon slot, 2 points.

When you make an attack against an enemy ship at Range 1-2, you may spend a Focus token to reduce the target's Agility by 1 (to a minimum of 0).

Put this on a Firespray with Recon Spec and murder stuff.

I think a great mechanic for a Tractor Beam Cannon would be:

Range 1-3 Attack 3

If target is hit, do not place a maneuver dial on the target next turn - instead, the target performs a []0 maneuver

and cost 100 points