I mean if it can decrease agility why couldn't it be used to Increase agility. would make for some interesting possibilities...

But the whole point is a tractor beam holds a ship in place, are you suggesting someone reverse the polarity to maybe force a boost or barrel roll to a targeted craft? (potentially into an asteroid or huge).

you cannot target your own ship with an attack.

you cannot target your own ship with an attack.

Why not?

It would be nice to give the game the ability to freeze a ship in place for a round instead of lowering its agility. The affected ship can still take action and fire its weapons. It would be a great new mechanic for the game and enable all kinds of new creative uses. For instance, beaming your own friendly ship, whose being closely chase down, forcing the enemy ship to over shoot you & the chaser become the one being chased.

you cannot target your own ship with an attack.

Why not?

It would be nice to give the game the ability to freeze a ship in place for a round instead of lowering its agility. The affected ship can still take action and fire its weapons. It would be a great new mechanic for the game and enable all kinds of new creative uses. For instance, beaming your own ship, whose being closely chase down, forcing the enemy ship to over shoot you & the chaser become the one being chased.

"Q: Can a ship choose to attack a friendly ship? A: No."

Pg. 14 of the FAQ

FFG can rescind the rule. They made it so they can also change it – in order to introduce a new mechanic into the game.

I just believe that a mechanic for freezing a ship in place would be a great addition.

Maybe tractoring a ship makes it easier to shoot at, so you gain some kind of attack benefit? An extra die seems like too much, but maybe add a hit result? Then again, it's already being penalized the agility, this just seems like too much of a double-whammy.

Not attacking friendlies keeps Miranda honest.

Not attacking friendlies keeps Miranda honest.

Yeah, but the friendly ship can possibly take damage due to the bad "green dice" roll or waste a token. It adds so much more to the strategy of the game.

Not attacking friendlies keeps Miranda honest.

Yeah, but the friendly ship can possibly take damage due to the bad "green dice" roll or waste a token. It adds so much more to the strategy of the game.

It really doesn't, though.

Note that this isn't the same kind of tractor beam that pulled the Falcon into the Death Star (well, it probably is, but its MUCH smaller). In TIE Fighter all it did was drain energy from your ship to slow a ship in your sights down to make them easier to hit. The Agility reduction fits that description pretty well, though for not /D ships its a little lame to not be able to shoot your primary at the same time.

It was also good at triggering target locks and preventing evasion from missiles, so maybe there will be an extra bonus there.

Maybe tractoring a ship makes it easier to shoot at, so you gain some kind of attack benefit? An extra die seems like too much, but maybe add a hit result? Then again, it's already being penalized the agility, this just seems like too much of a double-whammy.

Hit result is stronger than an extra die - 1 hit for sure vs 50% chance of a hit/crit.

FFG can modify the rule to allow for tractor beam on friendly ships. They are good at making exceptions to basic rules anyway.

But the whole point is a tractor beam holds a ship in place, are you suggesting someone reverse the polarity to maybe force a boost or barrel roll to a targeted craft? (potentially into an asteroid or huge).

That will require us to get a "Deflector Dish" system upgrade first, to create a quantum singularity.

They should* allow you to forgo your attack to use it on a friendly to allow them to do a barrel roll in your direction, then lose an agility.

*n't

in the books some of the VET pilots frequently use tractor beams to decrease turning radius. Others use them to steer munitions. Just saying tractor beams do have other uses and it would be cool to have that potential mechanic in the game as well..

Technically there is a defensive use. If the target adversary is carrying Proton Rockets, reducing their agility also reduces the number of dice rolled with the rockets. Good to know if you see someone homing in on your Gozanti or Raider in Epic (which is where I imagine PRs see the most play). You can make them easier to take out, and reduce the effectiveness of the rockets if they still manage to get them off.

pushing a ship into an asteroid would be cool.!!

pushing a ship into an asteroid would be cool.!!

What you have there is a "reverse tractor beam" , which pushes ships away. Generally, tractor beam is use to stop a ship's forward movement and pull it toward you.

FFG can rescind the rule. They made it so they can also change it – in order to introduce a new mechanic into the game.

I just believe that a mechanic for freezing a ship in place would be a great addition.

That'd be nice, if they would.

Dead Man's Switch would become a bunch of suicide bombers.

Uh, tractor beams already have a defensive use

you use it with Defenders

Uh, tractor beams already have a defensive use

you use it with Defenders

OUT

JUST GET OUT

Uh, tractor beams already have a defensive use

you use it with Defenders

How come so many abilities work against the defender?

Well it does have some defensive use. Boost those stress hogs the wrong way, so their arc is pointed away from you. Then fly your fleet around the other side, good luck having them try to get arc on you again.

I'm betting your going to see this on IG's, Sycks, and Defenders. IG's don't want to be double stressed and this lets them point the enemy away avoid stress.

You cannot boost with a bank template with tractor beam. But it might help get out of arc still.