Ignoring for a moment concerns about what exactly the Executor was (Super Star Destroyer vs Super-class Star Destroyer vs Star Dreadnought or a combination thereof), ignoring concerns about whether or not FFG will make such a ship, I have collated some ideas about creating a Star Dreadnought template for the Armada battlespace, ableit an enlarged one. The following is a set of concepts and ideas around Epic style starships in Armada. For now I will assume such a ship is the Executor. This is by no means complete, and constructive criticism and new ideas are welcome.

To be completely upfront, I would like to avoid making new rules wherever possible and staying within reasonable expansion on precedent from FFG or successful custom ship cards. That said, this type of ship is so far beyond the normal rules as to render the sentiment nearly moot (although it stands all the same). I would also like the end result to be balanced, insofar as such a ship can be.

Star Dreadnought Executor

Consideration One: Hull and Shields

I think the best way to simulate such a large vessel is to break her down into sections. My thoughts at the moment: six Hull Zones, each Zone has 6 HP, with various Shields and Armament. One Zone covers directly fore and aft respectively, with the broadsides of the ship divided into two sections. Once a Zone is destroyed, it no longer recevies command dial benefits (more on that in a minute), and its guns are silenced. Destroyed Zones cannot be repaired and restored, but shields can be transferred to these Zones from other Zones. Executor herself requires 24 damage to kill, so theoretically four Zones must be destroyed. The other consideration is Overflow Damage, of which each Zone can take two. In other words, a given Zone can suffer eight damage, including two after its destruction. Additional damage to a Zone with 8 damage does nothing. Overflow Damage can be repaired by Engineering Commands in other hull zones. Shield arrangements would be to the tune of 5 fore, 4 fore side, 4 aft side, and 2 aft, although I would be open to higher values if it does not render her functionally invincible (she needs to be close to that, but can't actually get there, otherwise she's pointless as a game piece). The keen-eyed observer will notice so far Executor is triple a VSD in total.

Consideration Two: Command Dials and Tokens

This is probably one of the most crucial parts of Armada combat, and frankly where Executor will have to break the most rules. As she is such a titanic ship, I do not feel a single command stack adequately accounts for commanding a ship crewed by a quarter million people. As such these are my thoughts. Executor has two separate Command 3 stacks, each independent of the other. Upon her turn, she reveals both dials and applies each to certain Hull Zones, two or three, I am still weighing my thoughts. Each Zone can only recieve one command dial. The Zones then execute the commands as if they were individual ships with these commands. Command Tokens I am even less sure on, but the obvious solution is to play off the multiple dials theory and give the same number of Zones tokens for their own use.

For its Engineering and Squadron Values, I would follow the pattern and treat each Zone as a ship. Engineering Value would be the in the range of 6-8 (this is a dreadnought, with the appropriate armor and damage control units) and a Squadron 4-6 to whistle up Executor's fighter escorts.

Consideration Three: Combat

Now for what Executor was designed for, blasting the living daylights out of Rebel starships. Each Hull Zone is a single firing arc, and thus could not be fired more than once without Advanced Gunnery or Gunnery Team. For attacks, there is the idea that she gets three attacks, no more than two from one zone, due to being 1.5 ships' worth of hull arcs. I'm not sure that adequately captures her combat power, but I wouldn't want to go above four attacks per turn without a very good reason. Here is the running idea of her armament (keeping in mind this is a dreadnought intended to overwhelm entire star systems):

Fore 5 Shields 5R, 4B, 3K
Fore Side 4 Shields 4R, 3B, 2K

Aft Side 4 Shields 3R, 4B, 3K

Rear 2 Shields 2R, 3B, 2K

For Defense Tokens, the entire ship would share a pool of tokens to be spread across the ship. Right now the list stands at four Brace, five (six?) Redirects and two (three?) Contain tokens. Obviously Evades are not in the cards here.

For Anti-Squadron Armament, my thought is one red die one blue die. This reflects, in my mind, the awesome power and range of Executor's armament, while adequately modeling the idea of shooting a heavy turbolaser at a zooming starfighter. As a concentration of bombers would be one of the most effective ways to attack Executor (as shown in canon), and since Executor's AS guns are a direct counter to that, I would be open to a restriction on the number of targets her AS armament can engage per volley. This is an effort to account for that if Executor is even only 500 points, a Rebel player can hurl a metric ton of squadrons at this ship, and a powerful AS armament would potentially unbalance the ship by engaging all those squadrons at once. Such a limit on targets would be based on the number of squadrons that could engage Executor at once, and their survivability/damage output over such an encounter. A matter for playtesting/further theorycrafting.

Consideration Four: Movement (And Ramming), Physical Size, and Upgrades

Ok, this is a Star Dreadnought. If you thought the Victory's handled poorly, don't break out one of these. For size, I'm anticipating a 1/2/2/1 arrangement of bases just to support the ship, probably all large bases. I would like to not commit to a specific size without a large ship to play with (hurry up with Wave 2 already, FFG), but that is my running thought. For maneuver, I really can't justify more than speed 1, with one click, especially considering such a ship already stretches across the table. Such a playspace would have to be agreed upon beforehand by players, probably at least 6x6 if not 8x5, with all the commeasurate changes in starting positions. On the other hand, you have the Executor, you can deal with it.

Ramming I would like to avoid making too powerful, as maneuvering around such a titanic ship is a tactical challenge in and of itself. Ships which Executor impacts obviously suffer ramming damage, possibly extra considering the physics of such a size differential. If a ship can move past Executor with its maneuver, I would think that it should be able to, considering the slow speed of such a behemoth. This does fly in the face of existing ramming logic, but with all the movie stills of another ship vertically above or below Executor's titanic spaceframe, I don't feel too bad. Ramming damage could either go to the impacted zone or become overflow damage, another case for playtesting/theorycrafting.

Upgrades would I think be best served by following the model of the command dials. Executor can equip two, maybe three depending on the exact upgrade, of each upgrade slot, but a given card in such a slot is permanently tied to a pair of Hull Zones. This ought to allow a fair bit of flexibility and strategy just around the ship, while maintaining a semblance of balance.

In conclusion, Executor and her ilk break all of Armada's sacred rules in order to work, at least in any fashion I can contrive. Her turn would easily take twenty minutes in and of itself, and a full Death Squadron (Executor, five ISDs, fighters and upgrades) would be on the order of a 2000 pt game, a whole day battle, if not a weekend. On the other hand, I think this is cool and fun, and I may do this just for kicks and giggles. Comments, concerns, thoughtful constructive criticism?

Hmmmmmm if anything in the game gets 6 shields it should be this thing. . .

Engineering of 7 feels right, command value of 4 to 5 feels right as well but 4 would be the best start. Squadron value of 6 should be a thing (the ISD 1 has a value of 4 base)

The shield values can certainly go higher, but at a certain point Executor will take a very long time or an enormous amount of force to bring down. On the other hand, someone broke out Executor, so my sympathy is limited on play time. Command 4 I could go for, but the multiple command dials still seems like a necessary evil.

I think it should be 1 stack for the fore and 1 for the aft.

Would the command affect all three hull zones? And how would tokens be handled, fore and aft as well? It's an idea worth considering certainly. I'm just tired of the Will They Won't They about Star Dreadnoughts. I want one, and at this rate I'll have my own functioning mechanics before FFG ever gets around to it.

Will they won't they ever realese wave 2?

Will they won't they ever realese wave 2?

Yes!

I'm not sure how I feel about the limit on overflow damage. I can see its benefits, but I'd be annoyed if I couldn't attack a ship because it was too weak where I had LoS. All in all though, this is a very well written post about the challenges of designing a ship like this to fit in Armada. Nicely done.

The overflow damage is a continuing compromise. If she is broken into Zones, I want a mechanic that incentivizes/forces players to engage more than one Zone. I'd rather not watch Executor fall from fifteen B-wing squadrons all clustered on her bow Zone. It seems somewhat ridiculous to me, especially considering how large she is. You could hammer her bow all you wanted, and snap off the front five hundred meters, but her engines will be fine. That is what that is intended to mimic. Overflow damage is the fires spreading from compartment to compartment as the armor and bulkheads are breached. She is so much larger than an Imperial-class Star Destroyer (where you could pull the B-wing stunt), I feel justified in forcing further maneuver and attack. I would also note this may make Executor tankier than raw numbers shows, but you also get successively silenced armament as your consolation prize.