I think they are fairly balanced with an interesting combo.

The Level 7 ARC-170 build that I am playing now is:

Push the Limit, Hobbie Klivian, and Jake Farrell for EPTs (Have not decided on last one yet). With Targeting Astromech and Kyle Katarn.

That gives me the following options:

Perform Non-Red Maneuver (I should almost never start the turn stressed). Take Focus for my Action and do a Jake Boost or BR, PtL to Target Lock. During Attack, spend Target Lock, Remove Stress with Hobbie, Gain Focus from Kyle, and reposition if needed with Jake (whichever option I did not take prior). Net Gain: 2x Focus, Target Lock, Boost, BR, and No Stress.

or

Perform a Red Maneuver and gain Stress. Gain TL through Astromech, Loose Stress with Hobbie, Gain Focus from Kyle, use Jake to Boost or BR. Take Focus for Action, use Jake again. Net Gain: 2x Focus, Target Lock, Boost, BR, and No Stress.

Now to decide what to do for my last EPT...

If you PTL to target lock, Hobbie would remove the stress then and not when you use it, his is when you gain or spend a TL remove a stress.

I was going back and forth on that, the reason I settled on not removing stress is according to the FAQ you receive the stress for PtL or Ex. Interface after abilities resolve. So the stress would not be there when I actually take the TL action.

I think they are fairly balanced with an interesting combo.

The Level 7 ARC-170 build that I am playing now is:

Push the Limit, Hobbie Klivian, and Jake Farrell for EPTs (Have not decided on last one yet). With Targeting Astromech and Kyle Katarn.

That gives me the following options:

Perform Non-Red Maneuver (I should almost never start the turn stressed). Take Focus for my Action and do a Jake Boost or BR, PtL to Target Lock. During Attack, spend Target Lock, Remove Stress with Hobbie, Gain Focus from Kyle, and reposition if needed with Jake (whichever option I did not take prior). Net Gain: 2x Focus, Target Lock, Boost, BR, and No Stress.

or

Perform a Red Maneuver and gain Stress. Gain TL through Astromech, Loose Stress with Hobbie, Gain Focus from Kyle, use Jake to Boost or BR. Take Focus for Action, use Jake again. Net Gain: 2x Focus, Target Lock, Boost, BR, and No Stress.

Now to decide what to do for my last EPT...

If you PTL to target lock, Hobbie would remove the stress then and not when you use it, his is when you gain or spend a TL remove a stress.

I was going back and forth on that, the reason I settled on not removing stress is according to the FAQ you receive the stress for PtL or Ex. Interface after abilities resolve. So the stress would not be there when I actually take the TL action.

You're right it is then receive a stress. My plan is for Hobbie, Targeting Astro and stay on target on my Y-wing; change any move to make it red, get stress, get TL, remove stress, take a focus.

I posted this in a smaller topic, but thought it may be helpful here as well.

I've put together a file that details some changes needed to Vassal to make it friendly to run HotAC.

Essentially, replacing the Target Lock background, resizing the Ion Storms, along with a few other tweaks.

I've also created files for all the missions, plus an additional one I made to unlock the ARC-170.

After loading the continuation file you will need to individualize it for your squad based on PS and other random factors.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w05k8rgtj7nutad/HotAC_Vassal_Changes.zip?dl=0

Enjoy

A Capture Officer mission question:

What happens if you ion the Lambda shuttle and it's forced to leave the map (non Imperial friendly edge)? Is the shuttle considered disabled? Or destroyed and we fail the mission?

Thanks!

It's counted as a mission kill... and you do not get to proceed...

I'm at 0-4 on this mission now, for those keeping track.

1-4 now! Yay! Take that you Imperial slugs. Our squad tonight of four Xwings and one Awing successfully disabled the Moff's shuttle and wiped out all witnesses by the end of turn 6. I wasn't that effective, but two successive rounds of firing proton torpedoes at the elite TIE Advanced scored me a kill and shared XP with everyone in celebration.

Oh, this thread has been dark too long. Arise, oh lost thread of the Aturi Cluster for I must tell my tale of woe...

Played Cloak and Dagger tonight with most of our group and suffered total player kill. The Phantoms ripped us apart. We had half a chance in the final rounds but our group were too beat up and out of position after a final all out assault on the phantom base. The last Phantom, with one hull left, killed off most of our team. We lost two ships on turn 11. Our lone survivor tried to hyper out on turn 12 but a damaged academy pilot cut him off and prevented his jump. Game over.

Since most of our crew has spent a very long time to build up experience, we're going to pretend this didn't happen... Losing the storyline is one thing, losing everything is very harsh. We were far too aggressive trying to pull a victory out of a bad roll.. We didn't find the station till around turn 6...

Analysis...

We didn't scan fast enough. By the time we found it three of four ships were on the wrong side of the map and neck deep in fighters. And those Phantoms hit hard! Our Y-wing pilot has a pretty strong setup but didn't stick to plan and tried to range three things... Losing line of sight in the ion clouds too often early on.

I think we should have beaten it. We just flew it badly!

I don't have the mission to hand, but is it not just roll 3 Red dice rather than everyone is insta-killed?

2 hours ago, Shockwave said:

I don't have the mission to hand, but is it not just roll 3 Red dice rather than everyone is insta-killed?

if the entire group is shot down, everyone is considered K.I.A.

4 hours ago, Shockwave said:

I don't have the mission to hand, but is it not just roll 3 Red dice rather than everyone is insta-killed?

By the rules, if all the player ships are destroyed in a single mission, the campaign ends because it is assumed that everyone is killed or captured.

Honestly though, it doesn't really make sense unless your group has a fixed composition (the same players show up every week), and really it wouldn't be any harder to rescue four pilots in enemy space than it would be to rescue one. HotAC isn't really designed to be lethal (to the contrary, the players are somewhat humorously durable), so having that rule seems a bit incongruous with the rest of the campaign. Dunno. We've never had it happen. We've had a couple rough rounds, but never been party-wiped.

Depends on your playstyle. "Losing" a campaign like this does give me nothing, so I essentially won't let it happen (rather repeat the mission), but I can see that other people derive a sense of tension from it. All how you like it.

9 hours ago, VaeVictis said:

Honestly though, it doesn't really make sense unless your group has a fixed composition (the same players show up every week), and really it wouldn't be any harder to rescue four pilots in enemy space than it would be to rescue one. HotAC isn't really designed to be lethal (to the contrary, the players are somewhat humorously durable), so having that rule seems a bit incongruous with the rest of the campaign. Dunno. We've never had it happen. We've had a couple rough rounds, but never been party-wiped.

Our group is fairly stable. There's a couple that come in and out, but the core is the same players every week. I agree, the design of the game isn't to be lethal, but I do like the tension added by the thoughts of what could go wrong. I like the design, really, but I can see how a more casual player would be totally opposed to the total party kill result. I am certainly not blaming my group for their revolt against the reset button. I even volunteered to just reset my own pilot to take one for the team - really KIA my pilot and start over - but they were totally not having it!

I'm restarting the Campaign tomorrow (scaling it to 3 players when we are running 1 ship each)

I don't have time in work to trawl through the thread (and internet is down at home), but does anyone have a link to the AI pilot bases showing the different Arcs? makes it easier than holding the AI card up against every ship to get the AI bearings right. I'm sure I've seen it somewhere but cant find the damned things.

Thanks in advance

Here's what I got.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9r5giirhohfm61m/HotAC ship bases.pdf?dl=0

14 hours ago, drathbun said:

Here's what I got.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9r5giirhohfm61m/HotAC ship bases.pdf?dl=0

Thanks drathbun, ill get them printed and on the bases shortly!!

19 hours ago, drathbun said:

Here's what I got.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9r5giirhohfm61m/HotAC ship bases.pdf?dl=0

These are great. I have a ton of unused bases and I printed these out on 8x11 sticker sheet, cut them out and applied directly to the base. Now I have all my HotAC bases ready to go just have to match the ship to the base.

I'm not sure I want to overlay the existing bases, but I like the idea of printing on stickers. I printed the rest of the HotAC items on labels and put them on mat board to cut out. The same thing would work for this... other than that pesky hole in the middle...

I continue to be impressed by this campaign. We're through about 3/4 of the missions, and the tension / difficulty has kept up with the increased pilot skills. We regularly run a crew of six, but last night we only had four. Still the mission came down to a few key rolls and went the full ten rounds. Amazing stuff!

For those that can't bring themselves to put a sticker on their FFG bases (like me). There's these:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/483874759/ship-identifier-overlays-10-for-use-with

I would like to see Pirate (Scum) AI as a side-quest/random adversary. I could see changing the action order around for more preservation (getting out of enemy's arc or taking evade instead of getting enemy inside arc and focus) I could also see a run away mechanic when ever their shields are down or they take the first damage (Concard Dawn will have a special rule that doesn't have them disengage). Also I could see them taking grudges choosing a Target lock then trying to stay on the locked ship instead of nearest enemy. (until the target is beyond range 5.

Also you could widely diverse the personality of the scum illicit load out with random quirks such as below.

• Suicidal, Deadmans Switch, Adrenalin Rush. *Does not disengage when last shield token is discarded.
• Twitcher, Glittter Stim Wired, place EM token on Glitter Stim, uses glitter stim when <focus> is rolled on attacks or recieves stress token. Discard all stress tokens when pilot uses glitterstim. When glitterstim is discarded pilot will attempt to disengage.
• Merc, Hotshot Blaster Crack Shot, Place EM token on Crack Shot. Merc will use crackshot when evade results = # of hits+crits.
• Slicer, Feedback Array or black market slicer tools. Feedback Array will be used when no attack is avalible and an enemy ship is inside range 1. Black Market Slicer Tools will be used on an enemy ship with a stress token in range.

i decided to see how a Z95 would work as a base ship (running at PS3 starting with with 2 mod slots and native missile)

It died horribly! i ran it with EU and guidance chips with Cluster missiles. it did a total of 2 damage the whole game. our TLT hwk cleared up everything (local trouble)

saying that though, it did strip tokens quite nicely but that was all as it doesn't have the power to punch through the evade results early game.

The Z95 has no chance. Not only is its statline terrible, it also can't take much in the way of upgrades, so you're stuck with that bad baseline for the rest of the game. Don't do that.

Any good builds for a HWK?

I don't really have a good idea for the ship, apart from a focus battery with TLT.

18 minutes ago, costi said:

Any good builds for a HWK?

I don't really have a good idea for the ship, apart from a focus battery with TLT.

Well this is what I came up with so far...

Quote

HWK-290 SUPPORT BUILD 1 (Actions for everyone!):
======================
Kyle Katarn (+Focus when -Stress)
Moldy Crow Title (Focus Store)
Twin Laser Turret

2 Engine Upgrade
4 Stealth Device
6 Shield Upgrade / Vectored Thrusters
8 Shield Upgrade

3 Push The Limit
5 Dutch Vander
7 Lando Calrissian
9 Airen Cracken

Every turn, push the limit for 2 actions, one of them target lock -> range 1-2 ally also target lock, then attack -> range 1 ally free action, next turn clear stress from PTL with green -> get focus for free, -> range 1 ally free action

Quote

HWK-290 SUPPORT BUILD 2 (Tokens for everyone!):
======================
Recon Specialist (+Focus)
Moldy Crow Title (Focus Store)
Twin Laser Turret

2 Engine Upgrade
4 Stealth Device
6 Shield Upgrade / Vectored Thrusters
8 Shield Upgrade

3 Predator (To make an impact with the twin laser turret)
5 Esege Tuketu ( For Focus store-share )
7 Lando Calrissian (Good combo with jan ors since need green anyway to clear jan ors stress)
9 Jan Ors

every turn basically focus to get 2 focus, share them around with esege, use jan ors to boost ally attack then clear stress next turn with green to have lando give someone at range 1 an action, repeat.

Quote

HWK-290 SUPPORT BUILD 3 (Target Locks for everyone!):
======================
Weapons Engineer (2 TL)
Moldy Crow Title (Focus Store because why not)
Twin Laser Turret

2 Engine Upgrade
4 Stealth Device
6 Shield Upgrade / Vectored Thrusters
8 Shield Upgrade

3 Predator (To make an impact with the twin laser turret)
5 Shara Bey (6) ( TL share )
7 Dutch Vander (Give another TL to someone when you take one)
9 Jan Ors

every turn basically focus to get 2 focus, share them around with esege, use jan ors to boost ally attack then clear stress next turn with green to have lando give someone at range 1 an action, repeat.

Wanna give one of these a spin?

25 minutes ago, Stefan said:

The Z95 has no chance. Not only is its statline terrible, it also can't take much in the way of upgrades, so you're stuck with that bad baseline for the rest of the game. Don't do that.

I was looking at running it with multiple mods to help the stat line (so PS3 has 2 mod slots plus chimps for free) then missiles and extra munitions to make the most. maybe splash damage missiles would work as the ties are generally bunched up, then load up on Shield and Hull upgrades (after vectored thrusters, PTL and Engine Upgrade!) maybe give it 6/7 mod slots (2 at base PS3, then one at ps 4, 2 at ps 6 and 2 at ps8)

I've been banned from running an A wing this time and on a similar note my work mate is banned from running his OP B wing (seriously op, he managed to Solo a mission with 6 ties, a shuttle and 2 interceptors after i exposed myself and got shot down second turn!) i think he wants a T70 now though lol.

16 hours ago, drathbun said:

I'm not sure I want to overlay the existing bases, but I like the idea of printing on stickers. I printed the rest of the HotAC items on labels and put them on mat board to cut out. The same thing would work for this... other than that pesky hole in the middle...

This was my original plan as well. You can buy punches to pop out the hole. I was going to buy a 1/4" and 1/2" puch and then I realized that I have about 30 bases I will never use, so I just put the sticker on the bases. I still have a ton of unused bases so it was no big deal for me.