Hi all

I’ll be running a series of “Historical” battle team games for my local players soon, based on encounters in the canon/Legends material.

I want to keep these as close to the source as possible, both in ship types, numbers and how the ships are actually equipped. This last point is the reason for this post….i wish to enlist your assistance!

Some of these are relatively easy, and the background is specific in their armaments (we know ISD-1’s have XX-9’s and NK-7’s for example, and we know CR90’s have H9 turbolasers), some will need to be reasoned out and justified.

There’s 2 main reasons for doing this. First, it’ll make the battles more “accurate” (a laughable term here, but you know what I mean). Second, it helps keeps things simple. Some of these will be big. Like….BIG. Really big, with 10-20 ships per side and dozens of fighter squadrons. Simplyfying things is very important.

I’m going to follow a few rules here to stay consistent:

1 – Established information will not be overridden. If a ship has “X “ listed in it’s canon data, it will have it in game even if it isn’t a great choice. Design flaws are a thing.

2 – If a ship does not have a specific known armament or equipment, I will likely lean towards FFGs card art. This means SW-7 Ions and Redundant Shields on the MC80 for example (which fits well anyway). This isn’t as set in stone as rule 1 however.

3 – If there is a conflict around multiple modifications or other slots, the more “iconic” upgrade will stay. For example, SO many capital ships have tractor beams. If this conflicts with something more iconic (such as the aforementioned redundant shielding on Mon Cal ships), the tractor will be dropped.

4 – Not every slot has to be filled on every ship by any means.

I’m not worrying about crew teams or officers….i’ll be handling those a bit differently by giving each side a “pool” of points/cards to select their crew from for each game, and assign them where they see fit.

So, for the first ships…..the Imperial Star Destroyers.

Imperial I-class – 131pts

Turbolasers: XX-9

Ion Cannons: NK-7

Offensive Retrofit: Phylon Q7 Tractor beam

Offensive Retrofit:

Should this use an expanded hangar or Boosted Comms as the other Offensive slot? ISD’s were famed as heavy battle carriers effectively. Everything else on this ship is well established and so this was the easiest start point.

Imperial II-class Star Destroyer – 148pts

Turbolasers: Heavy Turbolaser Turrets

Ion Cannons: NK-7

Offensive Retrofit: Phylon Q7 Tractor beam

Defensive Retrofit: Advanced Projectors

Ok, reasoning time.

First, the HTT. There is no confirmed make for the ISD2 heavy guns. Odds are they are XX-9’s still, but remounted in heavy 8 gun barbettes. Lacking definite info though, I think the famously heavy anti-ship guns on the ISD2 justify being counted as Heavy Turrets for this.

The Advanced Projectors I expect to be a little controversial. However, the ISD2 is supposed to have stronger shields than the ISD1, which this represents (and which cannot be represented any other way). Furthermore, the card art matches (see rule 2 for guidance).

CR90A Corvette – 52pts

Turbolasers: H9

Defensive Retrofit:

Simple. I will be using only A’s, since I am not aware of any CR90 that every replaced its Turbos with ions in the background. This also helps keep it simple for players.

Victory I-class Star Destroyer – 86pts

Turbolasers:

Ordnance: Assault Concussion missiles

Offensive Retrofit: Phylon Q7 tractor Beam

Victory II-class Star Destroyer – 106pts

Turbolasers: Enhanced Armament

Ion Cannons: Ion Cannon Batteries

Offensive Retrofit: Phylon Q7 Tractor Beam

MC80 Assault Cruiser – 134pts

Turbolasers:

Ion Cannons: SW-7

Defensive Retrofit: ECM

Defensive Retrofit: Redundant Shields

MC80 Command Cruiser – 123pts

Turbolasers:

Ion Cannons: SW-7

Defensive Retrofit: Redundant Shields

Offensive Retrofit: Boosted Comms

More to come as they are done. Please put forward any ideas, ship setups for discussion or arguments against my reasoning by all means. I’m hoping for some help here, especially when it comes to the AF Mk2 (which is basically a blank slate).

You could even see squadrons as part of their carrier ships;

so a VSD would come with a complement of 2 Tie Fighter squadrons I think.

ISDs have a complement of 4 Tie Fighter and 1 Tie Bomber squadrons ... according to Wookiepedia.

So maybe take the Hangar for the ISD-I to bump squadrons up to 5.

For the ISD-II just go with 3 Tie Interceptor and 1 Tie Bomber squadron.

I was actually going to do something very much along those lines.

ISD's SHOULD have 6 squadrons each, but thats not practical anyway. I'll likely go either 2/1/1 Fighter/Interceptor/Bomber for all ISD's, or add another fighter if i go the Expanded Hangar route for the ISD1.

If you are doing games with 20 ships, I wouldn't do ANY upgrades... Leave the ships stock.

You can't match it perfectly canonic.

But you can use more advanced squadrons on the ISD2

Wookiepedia is telling ISD1 have 4 Tie/ln and 1 Tie/sa ... the other craft listed an't in Armada anyways:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_I-class_Star_Destroyer

You could of course go as well with 2/1/1 for all ISD

This is an awesome idea

I'm actually kind of excited to see how it turns out!

I could go more advanced on ISD2 true, but tbh i kind of want a good mix of squadrons. pre-Endor, Interceptors were still just starting to become common, so i think thats a solid mix and looks good on the table. We'll see on that one, i'll give it some more thought.

Lord Ashram: Sorry, i should also have added the really big games wont be played in 1 day all the time, so some upgrades will be fine. I really want the different ships to feel unique whilst also not being overwhelming. After a few games people will start remembering exactly what an ISD1 does compared to an ISD2, which will be great. Different tactics will start evolving hopefully!

The squadrons are set-up to their carriers, I guess?

The Gladiator is supposed to be a carrier as well.

Any data on this ship concerning squadrons?

For Raiders I maybe would accompany them with a Tie Advanced squadron.

The X-Wing Raider comes with a Tie Advanced and the campaign with the Raider is involving Tie Advanced ... and it would make sense since the Advanced are equipped with hyperdrives... and the Raider has no hangar bays for squadrons... Yeah its not really canon - unless you admit FFG is making canon, too.

For fighters, i'm only using the capitals as a guideline in how many to bring. They wont be "tied" to the carrier or anything like that, and can be affected by any ships Squadron commands as per usual. Far too much to track otherwise.

Raider wont come with any squadrons for 2 reasons.

1) not a carrier

2) TIE Advanced aren't production ships regardless. Only a couple of squadrons in the entire Empire actually flew them, and they didnt enter mainstream production in favour of the Interceptor and Avenger. I deeply dislike that FFG used the Advanced in the way they have, and it has no place in this kind of scenario 99% of the time.

Fair enough.

Thats what I thought in the first place. But now. The models for the Tie Advanced are so cute - I can't deny them.

I can and will deny them! Although, I'll probably have some Assault Gunboats to take their place.

Bit of discussion on VSDs now.

The Vic-1 will have ACM...that's established background. For turbos I'm thinking of putting nothing on. It's old tech compared to the XX-9s on the ISD (which are cutting edge) so I want to represent that they are serviceable guns, but nothing special.

The Vic-2 is known to have "extra turbolasers" in addition to swapping out the missiles. So...to show more of the same older guns, Enhanced Armament?

Sounds ok.

Ion Cannons on the VSD-II?

Yea I would definitely use ion cannon batteries on the Vic-2

Good call. It does feel like an "older" forerunner to the NK-7s they put on the ISDs when they designed them to replace the Vics

Wow sounds like a great idea in the future (if you aren't currently) it could be fun to set it up where each class of ship has a certain amount of total points with upgrades and ships and then have everyone bring 1 ship of their choice and squadrons corresponding to the value and fly them in a huge battle. This will provide a feeling that your a captain.

So you know all of this but here is a list of all of armadas weapons and there appropriate ships according to Wookieepedia.

Xx-9: Isd

H9: Cr90

Xi7: nebulon-b

Sw-7: mc80

Nk-7: Isd

Acm: Vic-1

Apt: n/a

Cluster bombs: mc30

Thanks clontroper5....i've been using a combo of Wookieepedia and my collection of books and pdfs so far.

I've added the VSD's to the original post, and next up will be the MC80's. Redundant Shields will be a given on these....it's pretty much the most famous feature of Mon Cal ships (and will likely go on the MC30 for the same reason).

For the Command Cruiser, i'm thinking Boosted Comms. Because...you know, it's a command cruiser. SW-7's will be on both in the Ion slot. For the Assaults second Defensive slot, ECM. The ECM card shows the MC80 using ECM, and it does make sense with the Mon Cals good tech base.

Question for these is now....which turbolasers, if any?

XX-9's and XI-7's were both Imperial designs.

H9's were quite small, and unlikely to be on a major capital ship.

Turbolaser Reroute Circuits are out for obvious gameplay reasons.

HTT's just dont really fit in my mind...firstly,. MC80 doesn't have turrets. Secondly, the guns are far less heavy than the ISD2 (for example).

That leaves Slaved Turrets (definitely wouldnt be a standard fitting), Enhanced Armaments (enhanced over what? The card stats are the basic ship weaponry), or nothing.

So, at present i'm leaning towards nothing. This actually feels fairly right....MC80's were known to be tougher but less destructive than ISDs in a direct comparison.

Thoughts?

sounds all good to me, so far. Great idea, wish I could take part. But I think in practice it will be quite complex, will need dedicated players.

Fortunately, i have a solid core of absolute Star Wars nuts in my local scene. Makes stuff like this easier!

Right, MC80's are up.

MC30's next. I expect this to be....controversial. because honestly, the MC30 just isnt as good a design using it's canon loadout as it is using "pick your own" upgrades.

MC30's have Cluster Bombs. I don't like it, but it's a thing, and sticking by my own rules that means their defensive slot is cluster bombs. So....yeah.

For the scout, i'll likely give a turbolaser upgrade. For the Torpedo variant, APT's.

And for the scout i'm thinking turbolaser re-routes, which i will justify as follows. We dont know what guns they use....probably a mid sized turbolaser design of Mon Cal origin, or an independent builder that has had their equipment shoehorned into the weird Mon Cal ship. We dont know what, but odds are it's just generic turbolasers of medium calibre.

The MC30 has a LOT of engine and shield power for its size. This would give it plenty of juice to channel into the guns if needed, especially in the Scout variant in which it concentrates more on it's lasers. Slaved turrets would also make some sense, but there's no real evidence of that in the only source material using this ship (videogames).

Further thoughts or disagreements?

I like the idea, but I'd make a clearer distinction wether you want a true 'canon experience' or more of a rule of cool interpretation of canon. About the upgrades, I always figured the ships come standard with all the canon weapons/shields/systems etc. The upgrade cards to me are more like high powered prototypes, or 'extra' weapons etc. That's one way to look at it at least.

Really i's as close to canon as i can get, while still adding some upgrades. So as per my initial post stuff that we KNOW is canon (or was) will be the main focus, but in many cases we just dont have that info so it'll be reasoning out sensible setups.