Now gimmy a tie fighter and tie inquisitor like this.

Why on Earth would you need the Tie V1 to be like this???? Its an elite fighter just like the Advanced X1 and Interceptor...so is perfectly capable in a villains game by itself.

Did the AI cards for the A-wing and B-wing, as well as fixing the lack of K-turn on the X-wing card.

Better quality Pilot stat cards finally! I have not ignored your request for the dual TIE/ln Rakaydos, I'm just not happy with what I have tried so far.

So, what's the current status on this? If I see this right, we have player cards and basic Rebel AI. How would actual missions look like?

So, what's the current status on this? If I see this right, we have player cards and basic Rebel AI. How would actual missions look like?

Right now there are a couple of missions put togeather earlier in this thread. The current disscusion is how an Imperial campaign should work. ie Hero ship like in HotAC or more gernaric swam as that's how the empire works.

I'm building towards a semi combo of the two. You can field a squad of basic ships, or a single advanced design. The "broken" ships will be restricted to higher PS, prob 7. With basic ships, you will be able to have a support craft of a Lambda, Deci, or Gonzi. They will be able to be upgraded, but will not accumulate exp, nor have multiple upgrades the way a player can.

So, what's the current status on this? If I see this right, we have player cards and basic Rebel AI. How would actual missions look like?

Right now there are a couple of missions put togeather earlier in this thread. The current disscusion is how an Imperial campaign should work. ie Hero ship like in HotAC or more gernaric swam as that's how the empire works.

I'm building towards a semi combo of the two. You can field a squad of basic ships, or a single advanced design. The "broken" ships will be restricted to higher PS, prob 7. With basic ships, you will be able to have a support craft of a Lambda, Deci, or Gonzi. They will be able to be upgraded, but will not accumulate exp, nor have multiple upgrades the way a player can.

I'm working with the same concept, but with a lower bar. The broken craft like Tie D and Phantom are unavailable, the lambada, Intercepter, Bomber, and Advance are "hero craft", and the inquisitor and LN are paired swarmcraft. Missions include either a friendly Hanger Bay, Gozanti, or escape edge because imps cant hyper.

So, what's the current status on this? If I see this right, we have player cards and basic Rebel AI. How would actual missions look like?

Right now there are a couple of missions put togeather earlier in this thread. The current disscusion is how an Imperial campaign should work. ie Hero ship like in HotAC or more gernaric swam as that's how the empire works.

I'm building towards a semi combo of the two. You can field a squad of basic ships, or a single advanced design. The "broken" ships will be restricted to higher PS, prob 7. With basic ships, you will be able to have a support craft of a Lambda, Deci, or Gonzi. They will be able to be upgraded, but will not accumulate exp, nor have multiple upgrades the way a player can.

I'm working with the same concept, but with a lower bar. The broken craft like Tie D and Phantom are unavailable, the lambada, Intercepter, Bomber, and Advance are "hero craft", and the inquisitor and LN are paired swarmcraft. Missions include either a friendly Hanger Bay, Gozanti, or escape edge because imps cant hyper.

I'm incuding the Defender (and my missile boat) as my campaign group is made up of people who remember playing the original TIE Fighter game way back. We all have dreams of tearing around in TIE Defenders and the like. By limiting it to PS7, it will limit it to later in the campaign, when you've pretty much already broken the game with crazy combos anyway. At that point, might as well go all in

So, what's the current status on this? If I see this right, we have player cards and basic Rebel AI. How would actual missions look like?

Right now there are a couple of missions put togeather earlier in this thread. The current disscusion is how an Imperial campaign should work. ie Hero ship like in HotAC or more gernaric swam as that's how the empire works.

I'm building towards a semi combo of the two. You can field a squad of basic ships, or a single advanced design. The "broken" ships will be restricted to higher PS, prob 7. With basic ships, you will be able to have a support craft of a Lambda, Deci, or Gonzi. They will be able to be upgraded, but will not accumulate exp, nor have multiple upgrades the way a player can.

I'm working with the same concept, but with a lower bar. The broken craft like Tie D and Phantom are unavailable, the lambada, Intercepter, Bomber, and Advance are "hero craft", and the inquisitor and LN are paired swarmcraft. Missions include either a friendly Hanger Bay, Gozanti, or escape edge because imps cant hyper.

I'm incuding the Defender (and my missile boat) as my campaign group is made up of people who remember playing the original TIE Fighter game way back. We all have dreams of tearing around in TIE Defenders and the like. By limiting it to PS7, it will limit it to later in the campaign, when you've pretty much already broken the game with crazy combos anyway. At that point, might as well go all in

You've clearly never seen a Poe/Gemner/PTL/Farlander SD/EU/AT/hull R2F2 Sensor Jammer Ewing solo an imperial raider.

Currently wondering how this thread has gotten so far without a project rename, yet?

'Villains', indeed!

My vote: "Law and Order: Aturi Cluster"

Currently wondering how this thread has gotten so far without a project rename, yet?

'Villains', indeed!

My vote: "Law and Order: Aturi Cluster"

This one should be Hero's of the Aturi Cluster . The original one should have been villians. Terrorists fighitng the legitamet and legal goverment forces.

Thanks. I can swap the extra EPT to a mod slot myself

I ran one round of Final Exam. A couple items that came up:

1. Do we have a separate AI for fleeing? I just forced the ship to do a green maneuver so it would be able to start the hyperdrive engine, then had it start rolling during combat per the rulebook for HotAC. Just curious if there is a way to choose which green maneuver.

2. I am not sure I was putting down the right number of enemies. I had just me playing 2 TIEs, so I put 1 X Wing for Red Squad, skipped Green Squad, 1 Y Wing on turn 4 for Gold Squad, and 1 X Wing on turn 7 for Blue Squad. Does that sound correct Rakaydos?

I will be running this at least a couple more times with different starting mods and trying different strategies against the AI. For now, the traitorous rebels are ahead 1-0 (my go to strategy with academies of blocking is pretty useless if they are choosing their maneuvers with knowledge of where I am ending).

Thanks. I can swap the extra EPT to a mod slot myself

I just posted it to see if this was what was being asked for.

I ran one round of Final Exam. A couple items that came up:

1. Do we have a separate AI for fleeing? I just forced the ship to do a green maneuver so it would be able to start the hyperdrive engine, then had it start rolling during combat per the rulebook for HotAC. Just curious if there is a way to choose which green maneuver.

2. I am not sure I was putting down the right number of enemies. I had just me playing 2 TIEs, so I put 1 X Wing for Red Squad, skipped Green Squad, 1 Y Wing on turn 4 for Gold Squad, and 1 X Wing on turn 7 for Blue Squad. Does that sound correct Rakaydos?

I will be running this at least a couple more times with different starting mods and trying different strategies against the AI. For now, the traitorous rebels are ahead 1-0 (my go to strategy with academies of blocking is pretty useless if they are choosing their maneuvers with knowledge of where I am ending).

The HoAC rules for Flee AI has them make a beeline for their escape edge. for simplicity's sake, its easier to ignore the green maneuver requirement for hyperspace- another case of the cheating AI.

That enemy spawn sounds about right, but those numbers are pure guesswork- if you have too much trouble I can scale them down, or too easy scale them up.

I went through the whole thread and picked up what I like best (see below). It seems that there's no final agreement how the imperial squad should work,

although the wingman thing seems to be the way to go.

For me it's the Squad Building opposed to the Hero Building of HotAC that sounds attractive. A different feel and experience. Each player has a basic ship (for example TIE) and the whole squad is buffed up with additional TIEs (wingmen). The player sets the maneuver for his ship, the wingmen are flown by the trusty imperial AI. Maybe allowing the players to see the AI moves first before setting their own moves, or as mentioned before allowing a modification on the wingmen AI die rolls.

The squad levels up, players get a share of the XP to purchase PS or elite talents. Great idea. Special Ships available depending on mission, given to the player(s) with the highest reputation (either kills or PS, or whatever), up to a point where a player has "his" ship (like Soontir).

I also like the Gozanti carrier idea, giving some support especially for the rather weak TIEs/ln, and having a additional objective in each mission ("protect the carrier"); not sure if it needs to be on the map every mission though, could be "parked" off map to one side making that the escape edge. The support ship idea that can also level up/be modified with the squad points sounds good too, gives several choices what to do with the points earned in each mission.

Great job done by all that work on the rebel AI, thanks a lot! Whatever the end version(s) will be, the rebel AI will be needed.

One of the tricks to getring this working is to rethink how to run a campaign and how to balance it.

You will be a squad trying to take out a more powerful opponent, such as stopping a fleeing outer rim smuggler before they jump. As such, playing up the squad aspect might be the best idea. Imperials would be less about individual accolades, and more about the cohesive whole - the swarm. Treat the pilot skill as how the squadron operates as a whole. Now each player needs a reason to be unique, so earning upgrades and elite talents for surviving multiple missions is necessary.

To think of it another way; the empire will always replace lost pilots. But notable squad leaders such as Soontir Fel of the 181st aren't going to accept rookies straight from the academy; they'll get replacements of equal capability (in terms of pilot skill)

Perhaps earning upgrades for the whole squad could work. If you succeed on a mission, you unlock 1 hull upgrade for the squad. Any player can take this. If pilot abilities are earned for survival, such as Howlrunner's, etc.
This way, players can change loadout for each mission.

While requiring a purchase of a specific ship to run a campaign might not be great, having the gozanti function as a home base to protect during a mission could be interesting. It stores all your earned crew, modifications, and elite talent upgrades earned. Not to mention that TIEs dont have hyperdrives so need a way to get to each mission.

You would also need to have some missions that were more than just straight up combat. Scanning ships before they jump out to find the target, or which target has the mission macguffin and has to be destroyed.

Some Imperial thoughts so far after playing a bit.

Wingman Type: It seems to play better when both ships are the same type with the same modifications. I think that works better thematically as well, pilots in the same squad will generally have the same ship type. One Caveat, I believe the Punisher may be too powerful to fly as a pair.

Wingman EPT: I'm still leaning towards different abilities and skill level. You have the possibility of some cool combos if they have different EPTs, but it is slightly more complicated to keep track of. This also gives more uniqueness to the different pilots, and acknowledges that not everyone in the squadron is identical. Lastly, with different skill levels you are forced to think of your moves more strategically to ensure no collisions.

Decloak changes: The Ai has too much advantage if you Decloak before they determine movement, the Player has too much advantage if they Decloak after the Ai moves. Therefore, the Phantom needs to Decloak at the beginning of Activation as normal, but mark where they were for the Ai movement purposes. Pre-movement TL is measured after in Decloaked position.

I have not played with XP yet, but I think the limit of 1 Hit XP per turn is fair

I'd agree about starting in TIE fighters. Just give the 'named pilots' a bit of an edge.

I might actually have the mission define the ships all the pilots will fly - normally all the same (TIE Fighter: All), occasionally offering options (TIE Bomber: Any, TIE Interceptor: One per Three Pilots) for appropriate missions. As a result, you don't need to allow for what the players are flying, because you mandate it as part of the mission.

The pilots, it can be assumed, are qualified on all imperial craft, and keep their pilot skill and elite pilot talent(s) - with other upgrades to be determined based again on the mission (after all, Imperial ships aren't personal custom fighters - not until you get higher up the food chain, anyway).

So to start with, each player gets an EPT slot, PS1, and - for mission 1, is mandated to use an unmodified TIE fighter.... yes, quite a lot of them will end up punching out.

I kind of want the first mission to be "Graduation Day" - combat deployment #1, against some Binyare pirates in Headhunters.

Nice work, you guys. Took the words right out of my mouth. Having one wingman is a terrific idea- two or three would be nice, but balancing would be hard and it's not entirely easy to move a whole swarm around like that. Sounds like we've decided it's nigh-essential for normal TIEs, but I'd argue it might be appropriate for interceptors and bombers, if it balances, that is. I'd also argue that wingmen should come standard with Biggs' ability, or at least be able to do a "protect" action. It kind of boils down to having a bit more HP and attack dice that way. Kind of neat.

Also, this sounds like a hard campaign. (Which is good.) Experience points might be hard to come by with Rebel ships having a 'flee' mechanic, and I like that. Increased encouragement for team-play is never a bad thing. Just because it interests me, it would be a fun bit of setting if the Empire is not sending much in the way of resources to the system the players are operating in, helping to create that feeling of an overwhelming opposition. Maybe all XP could go to a group fund, or certain mission objectives could add to such a pool when accomplished. (Also, would it be too much work to write in secondary objectives when a primary objective is failed?)

I also agree with the change of setting. How about somewhere close to Hutt Space for maximum Scummery and Villainry? And a snappy title, like "Enforcers of the Iotran Expanse"

I still think the idea of this campaign should preclude wingmen. Really, you are playing the empire. The TIE pilot that lives to upgrade to a better craft was rare. The standard TIE was disposable. This campaign should also focus more on TEAMWORK than on individual glory. You want a pilot to live long? Trust your wingman, and by that I mean another player.

A couple of other things, if you watch any media with TIEs, it is very rare that one flies by itself. They are usually a group of 3-4. Tbis is why I suggested a squad experience mechanic earlier, because pilots WILL die.

Finally, who is to say that TIEs don't have ejection systems? While the only canon occurance is the TIE/sf from The Force Awakens, this game could include it.

If the TIEs get an elite talent everytime they make ACE status (5 kills) they will be quite formidable.

I would also change the AI for the enemies a bit in this game. In the Heroes of the Aturi Cluster, the TIEs get free actions all the time. Eliminate this somehow, and TIEs may be balanced. But the focus of the game should be cooperation, and tactics and numbers versus a single (or few foes). Perhaps the AI will always fire on the closest ship? This means you may have to fall back if you are really wounded, and let an ally take a shot.

I'm not sure how far you've all gone in planning this expansion to Aturi, but I think this a really good point and an opportunity to approach the Aturi campaign system from the other side of the equation.

Given that all indications are that thematically Imperials favor fielding large numbers of expendable ships, it makes sense to reflect this in your campaign design. Heroes of Aturi is geared towards emphasizing individual pilot progression; maybe Villains should focus on groups of ships instead. Unit-level progression.

Some possible ways to model this with players controlling groups of ships instead of individual ships:

1:Players gain access to and control of progressively better groups of generic pilots. For example, a player may start with access to Academy Pilots, and on victory gain access to Obsidian, Black squadron, etc., pilots.

2: Players have direct, permanent control of one pilot, which is treated much like a classic 'Heroes' pilot, leveling up, etc., while also having access to a pair of replaceable wingmates, which could be upgraded to progressively higher PS generics. Think Vader's wingmates during the trench run.

3. Players have limited control of a group of ships, using the mechanics of the AI system. You could accomplish this by allowing players to alter the dice programming of the AI cards on the fly, or allowing players to pick which ship the AI treats as its target. Players would be playing as flight controllers of squads of ships. (This could be combined with players having direct control of one ship)

Of course the trouble with players controlling multiple ships is a tendency to clutter the field. You may be able to adjust for this problem by using larger play areas and multi-objective missions.

Can also spend exp points to upgrade your ride.

I think a support ship pool would be good anyway.

The squadron can pick a support ship, say Lambda, Gozer or Deci.

Support ships role is to S&R downed pilots, which is relevant in easing the sting off of fact imps will be shot up more often.

Provide Fire support, a launch platform, and landing/repair between missions.

Addendum: Should be some harsh penalties if you let your support ship die.

I posted the idea in the other Aturi thread as well, but what could really work thematically here is a Carrier ship (Gonzanti) as home base that you take with you. You'd level it up like your own ship (e.g. every player has to pay the cost of a Gonzanti card) and it would be actually on the board in some missions. It would make for a nice mechanism that if you lose missions, the rebels attack your carrier and you have to defend it, for example. B-Wing squads with Strike AI might be pretty harsh...

As for the wingman idea, why not give [number of players] TIE Fighters that are controlled by AI, mimicking player moves until formation is broken and then acting simply like the AI would until players realign with them or something? That would give you a whole other feeling in planning your maneuvers without simply resorting to "you control two ships".

I could see taking the ideas from this and tacking on an Imperial Assault component. Knock the shields off a Raider (or Corvette) and bump a ship with crew and then have a raiding party to obtain (or defend) and objective

So, what's the current status on this? If I see this right, we have player cards and basic Rebel AI. How would actual missions look like?

Right now there are a couple of missions put togeather earlier in this thread. The current disscusion is how an Imperial campaign should work. ie Hero ship like in HotAC or more gernaric swam as that's how the empire works.

I'm building towards a semi combo of the two. You can field a squad of basic ships, or a single advanced design. The "broken" ships will be restricted to higher PS, prob 7. With basic ships, you will be able to have a support craft of a Lambda, Deci, or Gonzi. They will be able to be upgraded, but will not accumulate exp, nor have multiple upgrades the way a player can.

I'm working with the same concept, but with a lower bar. The broken craft like Tie D and Phantom are unavailable, the lambada, Intercepter, Bomber, and Advance are "hero craft", and the inquisitor and LN are paired swarmcraft. Missions include either a friendly Hanger Bay, Gozanti, or escape edge because imps cant hyper.

Why do you thin the Inquisitor's Tie needs to be a paired swarm craft and not an elite hero one? It certainly can do as well as the X1 and the non-upgraded/titled Defenders.

Currently working on the Gozanti campaign (see threat: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/219787-hotac-battlestar-gozanti/page-2#entry2226380), my second mission involves the players flying captured TIE against Imperial forces. Those **** TIE simply don't stand a chance on their own. So porting over the HotAC system 1:1 won't work, definitey, but we knew that. I will be able to report about the upgrade system for the Gozanti itself, since that's more or less decoupled from the Imperial squad. I still think that, thematically, that's the way to go. Docking to the Gozanti and letting it jump is difficult and will likely require an additional two turns mentally added to every mission turn limit. +

I'm not entirely sold on the idea of squad building yet, simply for the reasons that it seems incredibly difficult to manage the balancing aspect (so many more variables!) and because I feel it will cluster (heh) the field with quite a lot of ships and considerably slow down gameplay. What seems the best approach yet is the wingman, and it would be easy to incoporate this with the stronger ships, I feel: crafts such as the Phantom and the Defender (the single ugliest ship ever devised) aren't usually flown as jousters, so they don't require wingmen, right? So that would create two tiers of player crafts:

TIE, Interceptor, Bomber, Advanced, Inquisitor, TIE/fo with Wingmen

Defender, Phantom, Punisher without Wingmen

I'm not sure about where the Advanced falls in this. I'm also unsure as to incorporate the TIE/fo. It might work as a balancing element for the added action bar, the one shield and the Segnor's loop simply to make player's TIE more competitive. You don't need to call them TIE/fo to keep in with the theme; it might be worth thinking about using them as standard player craft, though.

Another thing to think about might be that you need to "pay" the privilege of using better ships in form of a mission-based upkeep. For example, if you want to fly Interceptor, you lose 1XP every mission. Flying Defender, it's 2XP. Something like that.

As to the function of the wingman, it seems to me that this should be the same ship you're flying. Question is, do you upgrade it as well, which means you're basically flying two pilots? I'd say the wingman performs formation maneuvers (same straight maneuvers, +1/-1 banks, +2/-2 turns where able) and behaves in its actions according to AI. You may order him to break loose at any point, from which on you simply control him with the AI, and you may order him back in formation (somehow).

How does this sound?

Very similar to what I'm aiming for. My group for the Imp campaign is a couple of buddies (we've been friends for over 20 years) where we are all into thematic and the old legends. So we are going a bit more into it them most people would care to.

Plan is to break ships down into Tiers.

• Tier 1 = TIE/ln
• PS 4 unlocks Tier 2 = Adv. X1, Interceptor, Bomber, Adv. Proto
• PS 7 unlocks Tier 3 = Defender, Phantom, etc...

Tier 1 can have 1 (maybe up to 3 as you go up in PS) wingmen of same type. They will be genaric PS1 acadamy pilots, but you can pay to upgrade them to Obsidian/Black squadron. They get the normal allowed upgrades for such ships. If they get shot down, they are gone, and everything must be repurchesed. Wingmen will follow your manuvers as if in formation, but will still swerve. I'm thinking a "Flight Leader" type EPT thing where you can give orders. You can order them to break formation or target a particular ship (change to strike AI vs target).

I feel this allows both play styles, you can command a mini swarm, or go hero ace.

This sounds good. I'd still think about unlocking more upgrades than usually allowed for the TIE, though. But heck, miniswarm might be the way to go. Would've to check mock battles how it compares to one Defender.

This sounds good. I'd still think about unlocking more upgrades than usually allowed for the TIE, though. But heck, miniswarm might be the way to go. Would've to check mock battles how it compares to one Defender.

Your TIE/ln could unlock the extras, but you are the flight leader. You have some more rank to pull to get the better gear then the lower cogs.

I was thinking of giving the standard TIE an elite upgradespot more, like the A-Wing.

I was thinking of giving the standard TIE an elite upgradespot more, like the A-Wing.

The one I did on the last page (up with the others) comes with 2, are you wanting 3? The solo pilot card with only a single EPT was made for Rakaydos.

No sorry, I didn't realize it was updated, or either I never saw the second slot. Perhaps we'd want to do special "Squad Leader" cards that help mitigate unfortunate AI decisions or something.