Fire and forget missiles/torpedoes could have a dial, stay on the board more that 1 turn, and chase ships. The dial could be set during planning phase and revealed during the combat phase. If the movement template crosses a ship or obstacle, then boom. Maybe roll dice, or 1 auto damage, ion, stress, whatever depending on the cost. Because so many lists have fewer ships, setting the extra dial(s) for 2-3 turns shouldn't slow things down too much. It would be fun to "shake" a missile through the asteroids. And you could potentially lead the missile back into the guys who shot it at you.

Also, why not be able to shoot down these missiles. The missile might have 1 or 2 hull, maybe no greens? Again, stats depend on the cost. Choosing between K-turning and gunning down a missile that's chasing you, or staying on your own target, feels cinematic.

If anyone wants to proxy it, I'd suggest a small base for the missile with the A-wing dial. Give it 2 hull, no greens. Damage would be 2 auto damage, or 1 ion + 1 damage, or 1 stress + 1 damage. Cost, I have no idea. Duration, 3 turns.

Anyway, it's just a thought. There are tons of ways to set this up, I was considering ways to make new ordnance that wouldn't slow the game too much, and would be fun to play with or against.

Cheers!

I think it could work. I would use a smaller base, probably only as wide as the maneuver templates, and with a limited dial, no slow speeds at all just 3 turns and banks and 4-5 straights. Might be interesting. Give them decent payloads and they could be a counter to the various fat ships.

I always have been a fan of seeking weapons. The problem I see is that it might feel weird to have missiles blatantly navigating around obstacles and/or changing their target from turn to turn depending on circumstances. Maybe not though.

Awwww snap! I am homebrewing this with my buddy tonight!

It could be a nice addition for huge ships that can target lock from range five. Shoot the missiles early to distract the fighters while you pelt them with turbolasers. Maybe it should be a hardpoint upgrade?

I always have been a fan of seeking weapons. The problem I see is that it might feel weird to have missiles blatantly navigating around obstacles and/or changing their target from turn to turn depending on circumstances. Maybe not though.

I wondered about that too, but I don't think it's a big deal. Seeking missiles need basic sensors anyway to track their target, so it's not far-fetched for them to have minor dodging capabilities.

Simple enough to stop them changing target. Give them the blue target lock that was used to fire them and if it is somehow removed somehow they just go straight ahead until the go off the board or hit something

Simple enough to stop them changing target. Give them the blue target lock that was used to fire them and if it is somehow removed somehow they just go straight ahead until the go off the board or hit something

Yeah, just got there myself. Although, a huge ship could have an action that moved a seeking weapons corresponding red TL token from one enemy ship to another, which would be a really cool ability for a C&C ship.

Maybe their move should be the 3 bank or 4 straight only, twice.

I think they should definitely be able to turn quickly. I would almost want to give them a new maneuver that is a 135* turn.

Although you could differentiate seeking torpedoes and missiles with different types of maneuvers. Torps are slower with very wide turning radii while missiles can go faster flat out and make sharper turns.

I love the idea

Bravo!

This is more how I envision ordinance in the first place!

Very fast, but not instantaneous like they are now.

Represented by a token on the table.

Can be shaken or outmaneuvered, but only by small and/or agile ships.

Hits pretty darn hard.

Countermeasures? chaff, flares, and the like? (would this start a new arms race meta?)

I like the idea of the token being a square the width of the movement templates, and if it or its template overlap something, it detonates, but otherwise proceeds toward its target.

I, like many others, like the idea and have thought about it in the past. It'd be quite the re-work of the current system though, so actually coming up with something that works would be tricky, as would successfully crashing into a ship. Maybe make them all PS0 to help with that?

It'd be quite the re-work of the current system though, so actually coming up with something that works would be tricky,

How so? What problems that haven't already been addressed in this thread are you seeing?

As for it being difficult to actually crash into the target, I was concerned about that as well, but then I thought about how common overlaps are among ships in the game, and if you are TRYING to crash the rocket into something. Possibly give the ordnance the ability to boost every round?

+1

it would be really cool if ordinance worked like this in all circumstances---and can be treated like mines in terms of attacking.

ordinance fix?

As an old Star Fleet Battles player, this is how that game handles fired ordnance. In that system, they are called drones, not to be confused with the term drones in Star Wars. While fun, it can and will(if used in mass) slow the game down exceedingly.

Missiles are far faster that the space ship launching them, if not they are quite useless. So if we made them so they travel farther than most ships, there would be a range when they they would hit the same time they were fired. Then they would only be fired the first turn of the game, and the second would be spent running from each other.

Yeah this is something that I have worked up too once I started pondering making Star Blazers a game for my own enjoyment. In the new show and films Yamato 2199 the torps and missiles do follow their targets for a time basically equal to one game turn in X-Wing.

I would say that this tracking stays on line one turn after they are fired. So you get a free second attempt to hit your target. You can just allow the ordnance to get a single maneuver including a K-Turn in the second turn. There is no need for setting a dial say, it just attempts to follow the target with a single maneuver. Now if you want to go further than have fun. I think that treating these zoomies as a bomb that can move once in the turn after it is fired is easy and still gives you the flavor.

Heavy Missiles. That is an idea although it would have problems.

They could basically start the game as a small ship on your side. The should move at PS 0 and would detonate when they would collide with something by having the maneuver template go over something or the final position overlapping. They probably should be Interceptor fast but without green maneuvers.

The problem with them will come down to how you price them and how you figure what damage they would do. The probably should have a hull value so they can be shot down but it will be low although they could have a high agility to reflect size. Another danger with them is that they probably should be cheaper than 12 points which could make it possible to run too many ships which can really eat the clock in a timed event.

For the war head token you could use the blue target lock. If this were a separate type of ordnance that is instead of a modification to existing stuff. So to fire your guided ordnance you get a target lock, then when you fire the blue lock is placed in play at whatever the designated launch point is. Subsequent turns you'd move it based on the maneuver template.

Issue with that is there is the risk that the warhead blue target locks get confused with ship blue target locks. Maybe a yellow token that matches a target lock pair (same letter). Hell we've all probably got enough target locks that it'd be possible to get a duplicate of an existing blue and edge that with a different colour. Get say two blue E target locks and one red E target lock, use a sharpie to colour the edge of one of the blue target locks with green or yellow, and presto, warhead token.

It'd probably be best to build ordnance with this in mind rather than applying it to existing ordnance.

cool topic...at last a new idea!!

how about this thought?

missiles do not have a "dial" but instead fire 2 strait ahead, in subsequent rounds they move in a strait line towards the closest enemy ship in their fire arc. If there is no target, they make a 2 turn towards the closest target. If they cross over any ship, (friend or foe), or obstacle, they explode on that point as if it was a mine.

I think a big issue would be order of movement. Do missile/torpedoes move before or after all other pilots in the activation phase?

I think a big issue would be order of movement. Do missile/torpedoes move before or after all other pilots in the activation phase?

Good question. Moving them with the source ship's PS would just further break the TL divide.

What if they activate immediately BEFORE the ship they're tracking?

I think Silent Death had mechanics for guided missiles and rockets. It has been a while. Love this idea...saw it with Jango Fett and Obi-Wan.

I think a big issue would be order of movement. Do missile/torpedoes move before or after all other pilots in the activation phase?

Good question. Moving them with the source ship's PS would just further break the TL divide.

What if they activate immediately BEFORE the ship they're tracking?

I was going to say after all ships have moved...but I like this idea more.

Massive props for a truly original idea OP!

As an old Star Fleet Battles player, this is how that game handles fired ordnance. In that system, they are called drones, not to be confused with the term drones in Star Wars. While fun, it can and will(if used in mass) slow the game down exceedingly.

Pretty much my exact thought.

"Oh...wow. Someone who's obviously never played Star Fleet Battles and seen what tracking seeking weapons on the map can do a game! Kids these days, eh?"

Trust me, you don't want to go there...

its actually a debuff to ordnance actually, as you dont get the giant splatter of killing damage until a turn or some delay later.

but a great idea nonetheless. keep brewing, if you can make it a buff id love it even more.