Even as a spawner it lacks a purpose. It would be better to start with everything deployed so all firepower and abilities are available.

The upside would be buying those ships at enough of a discount to make it worth while.

If "hangar bay" upgrade costs 30 points for a gozanti, but lets you, for 2 energy, crank out 1 academy pilot per round, by round 3 it has paid for itself and then some. It would have given you 36 additional points woth of ships, for a cost of 30, and 6 total energy.

The questions then are, do i expect my gozanti to survive that Long. (Likely) and am i willing to spend roughly half of my energy each round on fighter launches (harder to say, energy is important on a huge ship, and we do not know how much energy our gozanti generates, or what other options there are for using it.) I could definately see this paying off early on before anyone is in combat range.

X-Wing can absolutely have a place for a carrier.

I'm not fan of the gozanti - but imagine that it starts the game with all 4 of it's TIE's already deployed - and you have to pay for all 4 of them. The Gozanti itself would then really not do a whole lot, so it coudl be cheap. It coudl serve as a blocking ship, or it coudl move forward letting the TIE's fly behind it, providing cover - obstructing attacks.

Epic play allows for things like this.

Also there is another HUGE reason why having huge ships is much better in X-Wing - they are freaking HUGE! Armada has tiny star destroyers.... and I'll take my HUGE RAIDER over your tiny star destroyer any day of the week.

Carrier operations might make things pretty interesting.

How?

This idea has been floated before, and the prime sticking point remains "What would a carrier mechanic bring to the game? Of what use is it?"

There are a couple of possible reasons.

The first is simply to act as a slingshot: if a Huge ship acts as a deployment zone somehow, then instead of deploying at Range 1 from your edge, the carrier could deploy at Range 1, and then the carrier's fighter complement could deploy at (e.g.) Range 1 of the carrier. Even if the carrier doesn't get to move in between those events, altering your deployment that way could be useful.

The second is to act as an ablative shell. If you have four A-wings deployed inside whatever that upcoming Rebels carrier is, then as it approaches you across the Epic play area, you can't attack those A-wings. Of course they can't attack either, but the carrier is the difference between showing up just after the merge, undamaged and in the perfect position and orientation, or flying into the merge, getting dinged up a little, and then having to reorient on the badguys.

It's not a big advantage, but it's not a trivial one either.

But then they're not shooting either. And if they're shot, other ships of yours aren't.

But then they're not shooting either. And if they're shot, other ships of yours aren't.

Sure, but how much damage are A-wings typically doing on approach to the first merge? And would you rather collect that damage on an Epic ship, which could have either or both of the reinforce and recover actions, as well as upgrades that allow it to heal, or on your fighters?

If you were going to do something like what I was talking about, you would have to make it cheap enough to be worth the gamble. If suppose it was only 12 points, and cost 2 energy, who wouldn't do that to generate an AP each round?

At 30 points? I'm not sure if it's a good value or not. Probably depends on your overall strategy, points in the game, size of the field, etc.

Suppose we designed a scenario to use the GR-75 this way just to try it out. How much should our upgrade cost? how much energy to deploy a ship? Being rebel, what ship should it deploy?

Have the upgrade cost the same as the ship it deploys.

Academy pilot: The upgrade costs 12. Rookie pilot: The upgrade costs 21. Prototype pilot (chardaan): The upgrade costs 15.

I think it would be overpowered if that's all it cost. So for the cost of 12 points I can generate an academy pilot each turn for 2 energy? You ought to be able to get 2 on the board in the first 2 rounds of the game, and likely at least one more. that's 36 points of ties for the cost of one (and 6 energy) that seems to cheap to me. I'm also not sure if being able to spawn more expensive ships is a good idea. Adding a tie is one thing, but a Bwing? that's something else again.

as an experiment, I would suggest using the CR90 as the "chassis" the fighter bay upgrade to spawn academy ties starts with a cost of 30 points. It costs 2 energy to launch a tie, and the card has an energy limit of 4. the card is limited and only one may be used in this scenario.

Who wants to give this a go at 300 points per side. This CR-90 would be an imperial prototype for fluff puproses. no rebel upgrades but all others are legal. the fighter bay would count as a cargo slot. Anybody wanna playtest this and report back?

It's easy to dismiss this idea by arguing that a X-Wing dogfight is too short a time span for any carrier operations to occur.

Docking/repairing/etc - yes, I'd say the representative time frame is too short and doesn't make much sense in the middle of a dogfight thematically. Not only that, but gameplay mechanics to get that to work sounds unnecessarily complicated to me.

Watching Rebels though you'll see it only really takes a second or two for a TIE to detach from the Gozanti and be ready for battle. There's already a mechanic in place in the game for this with dropping stuff like bombs and mines. Why not have a carrier card that lets you deploy a TIE fighter? As an action, use a 1 or 2 movement guide and deploy it to the rear (or where ever). Like others have said, the cost of the "TIE carrier upgrade card" is determined by whichever TIE fighter pilot it's carrying. The TIE benefits from having the Gozanti's shields and hull protecting it until it's ready to be deployed on a flank or the middle of the battle. Maybe there's some sort of additional added synergy between them to offset the risk of having two ships essentially sharing the same base until the fighter is deployed.

I always imagined that a TIE carrier like the Gozanti would be more like a support ship after all the TIEs have been deployed. The TIEs are really there to do the damage while the carrier supports by helping with commanding, targeting, jamming, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if they do release a Gozanti for Imperials and it was similar in a lot of ways to the transport. But I do think it would be really cool to see some kind of deploying mechanics for future ships as like, a new category of ship, or a new kind of action. It's not hard for me to imagine something like the above as there is sort of already a mechanic for it.

That new corvette is rather nice imo. and little A-wings popping out? cute.

It's easy to dismiss this idea by arguing that a X-Wing dogfight is too short a time span for any carrier operations to occur.

Docking/repairing/etc - yes, I'd say the representative time frame is too short and doesn't make much sense in the middle of a dogfight thematically. Not only that, but gameplay mechanics to get that to work sounds unnecessarily complicated to me.

Thematically, my thought was that repairs do not actually occur, but perhaps the pilot swaps his damaged ride for a spare that was not originally deployed. I went back and forth on my thinking on this point before suggesting that the ship that re-emerges is the lowest-PS pilot -- the player is getting a fresh ship but has to utilize the least skilled pilot onboard the carrier, who did not originally deploy. But it could be the same named pilot with his traits just enabled as he flies a new spaceframe. Mulling things over here.

In terms of game mechanics, I think this could be reasonable within the game as it exists. Rebel ships with astromech slots have a wealth of options for self-repair during combat. Imperials don't have any healing abilities anywhere (unless I'm forgetting something?).

Maybe the mechanics are that the wounded ship must execute a maneuver that causes it to overlap the carrier. The wounded ship spends its action to "dock" (although do you really want a stressed ship to be unable to get to safety?). The carrier must spend an energy (think tractor beam) to complete the docking operation before it moves, or perhaps spend its action to retrieve the wounded fighter, thus losing its action after it moves. Maybe to get around the stress/action problem for the wounded, the carrier must only spend energy to tractor in a stressed ship, but still loses its action.

Another cool supportive action of the Gozanti, could be to give all tie fighters and interceptors the target lock ability as long as th Gozanti is on the table. The smaller fighters get feedback from the Gozanti about the battelefield.

The problem with a carrier that's not a spawner is you've no incentive to use it. Yeah, you can dock your TIE on the Gozanti. But why? Why would you want to remove one of your ships from the field, meaning it no longer draws fire from your other ships or can itself attack?

So a Gonzanti that came out around the same size as a CR-90 wouldn't bother me too much

The Gozanti's actual size is about GR-75ish.

According to wookiepedia (not always accurate) the Gozanti is 64.8m long and the GR-75 is 90m

If they were produced at the same scale, this would render the Gozanti around the same size as the Decimator - too small for epic

On the up side, this means that the Gozanti could be produced at 1/270 scale and come in at 24cm - which is about the same size as the CR-90

Despite the mismatch in scale, I don't think it would look too out of place at that size

At that scale, the kid in me would really hope it had actual attachment points for carrying the TIEs.

I could see it being in epic play but not standard. A gonzanti like cruiser that supports ships like the transport.

I think if it could hold any two small based ships and as an action the ships can be deployed at range 1 from the cruiser. That way you could try to protect key fighters by not having them in combat...but if the huge ship is destroyed everything goes with it

Maybe the Gozanti could act as a moveable deplyment zone. You drop the Gozanti in the normal deplayment zone, with ties equipped, you speed ahead and can release ties in all directions.

In the X wing novels wraith squadron commandeers a cr90 and launches fighters from it, and the ship is already in game sans carrier ability. So I don't think we'll see it.

It's on the daredevil card too.

In the X wing novels wraith squadron commandeers a cr90 and launches fighters from it, and the ship is already in game sans carrier ability. So I don't think we'll see it.

In many books, comics, and video games the ywing had bombs and the bwing had a place for a passenger. Yet when those expansions came out, bombs and passengers were not options either. So I think your logic is sound. Oh wait...

Also, I think I've said it in every thread that has been started on the subject of carriers or even Epic ships, since Disney has included the Gonzati into its new show, and it looks really cool with 2 ties under it, I would bet that we are getting it and it will at least be able to "undock" Ties during Epic game and then serve a transport-like support role.

In many books, comics, and video games the ywing had bombs and the bwing had a place for a passenger. Yet when those expansions came out, bombs and passengers were not options either. So I think your logic is sound. Oh wait...

B-wing/E2 and Bomb Loadout spring to mind.

The dock serves as a repair bay. For a certain energy cost, the ship that docked re-emerges with fully restored hull/shields on the following round.

Mid battle?

The dock serves as a repair bay. For a certain energy cost, the ship that docked re-emerges with fully restored hull/shields on the following round.

Mid battle?

Sit one turn for repairs...

Undock as an action, move as normal, lose action as it was used to undock...

Maybe something like that!?!

I don't think it will work in a 3x3 playing field or most likely a small game. But an Epic game perhaps and it would be fun.

You might be able to repair and rearm. Reinforce just a few (not all so the game can be finished in a reasonable time frame).

I'd buy another Huge for this.

The dock serves as a repair bay. For a certain energy cost, the ship that docked re-emerges with fully restored hull/shields on the following round.

Mid battle?

As I said in another post in this thread, maybe it's more like the pilot is swapping ships mid-battle.

In the real world, how fast can a carrier jet land, refuel and rearm, move from the arresting cables to one of the bow catapults, and launch back into the fight? (Not that it's ever had to happen in any real combat scenario, but I'm wondering what the operations procedures are in the real U.S. Navy.)

The dock serves as a repair bay. For a certain energy cost, the ship that docked re-emerges with fully restored hull/shields on the following round.

Mid battle?

As I said in another post in this thread, maybe it's more like the pilot is swapping ships mid-battle.

In the real world, how fast can a carrier jet land, refuel and rearm, move from the arresting cables to one of the bow catapults, and launch back into the fight? (Not that it's ever had to happen in any real combat scenario, but I'm wondering what the operations procedures are in the real U.S. Navy.)

Most likely much longer than an X-Wing scenario lasts in terms of its internal clock. Even simply swapping ships would take much longer.

Something I've been working on for the last couple months. Surprisingly, some of the mechanics matches some of the responses to this thread.

All feedback is welcome.

Nice work on the cards, but I don't see a fighter being fully repaired in 30 seconds, or even a minute or two.