Any veterans of the Star Wars: TIE Fighter game may remember the (probably much less often used) jamming beam, a beam weapon that would utterly disrupt the fire control systems of any craft caught in it. It was powerful enough even to be levied successfully against capital ships, preventing them from firing their weapons at the starfighter bearing down on them and allowing the user to attack without fear of reprisal. Now that the precedent has been set for using beam weapons from TIE Fighter, and in doing so introduced what appears to be a very potent mechanic (forced movement), surely the simple ability to confer a Weapons Disabled token on a target is nothing to disregard as impossible.

"Not if we jam 'em!" - Lonestar

Hmmm. Assigning a Weapons Disabled token is an interesting thought. My original thought was to just remove a blue target lock token from the target, but that seems much more situational.

I could also imagine a blue beam token for jamming that reduces attack instead of agility, representing decreased accuracy because of the jamming beam.

Disabling weapons completely seems awfully powerful to me.

EDIT: But then, you are in essence giving up one shot from one of your ships in order to prevent a shot from an enemy ship, so it's almost like a fair trade.

Weapons Disabled, and/or discarding target locks, even if there's no damage in the process? Interesting idea.

Helps weight-of-numbers overwhelm individual aces, which is an interesting thought if they're trying to bring jousting back into the game.

With the Weapons Disabled chit being a thing, I mean, that would be fantastic and all, but I don't know if that would be overpowered or not. I feel that would be discouraging upgrades too aggressively; a two- or three-ship list would be inordinately impacted by that option.

Would it be a guaranteed thing, à la TIE Fighter? Or would it be a TBeam thing where you have to roll as an attack in order to successfully confer the token? Even the more conservative attacking method still really disfavours most Large ships...hm.

Perhaps a Jamming token could be closer to the Damaged Sensor Array critical card in that it strips the target of Action potential until they spend an Action to remove the token (one token per Small ship, up to two tokens on Large and Huge ships maybe? Or perhaps Huge ships could receive up to two tokens per ship card...). I feel like still being able to attack (and utilise upgrades such as FCS or the x7 title) would make it less outright overpowered while really rewarding to a Stress/Jam combo.

The only issue is we've already got a Jam action in the game, and 100 point play doesn't really need another double-stress mechanic, so it probably shouldn't be an outright import of the Huge Jam action.

Edit: words words words

Maybe too late now but I always thought that Ion should work thusly:

(all bonuses stack)

Small ships:

1 Ion token - Must move one forward

2 Ion token - May not perform boost or barrel roll actions

3 Ion token - May not fire in the shooting phase

Large Ships:

2 Ion token - Must move one forward

3 Ion token - May not perform boost or barrel roll actions

4 Ion token - May not fire in the shooting phase

I feel this would more represent someone getting their ship electronic rear ended and wouldn't happen that often because, well who takes more than two Ion inducing ships in a list these days, and hits?

(OK, you could connor net and Ion cannon I guess but that's a lot of work.)

If we are going to get a weapon that, for instance, assigns a weapon disabled token, it will likely be the mag-pulse warheads that were mentioned im The Force Awakens.

If we are going to get a weapon that, for instance, assigns a weapon disabled token, it will likely be the mag-pulse warheads that were mentioned im The Force Awakens.

That's not a bad call actually; mag pulse would have to do something different to ion pulse after all.

The GR-75 and Gozanti both have the Jam action (Or the ability to upgrade to it). I'd think a Jamming Beam might be confused with the Jam Action if they were to use that same name.

Also a weapon that disables another ship like that would just result in even fiercer PS battles in lists.

If we get a way aggressively and deliberately reduce or remove attacks (other than weapons failure, which is drawn by chance), I think it will come in the form of a Mag Pulse Missile/Torpedo. And hey, the TIE/sf apparently has Mag Pulses in The Force Awakens, so that could be where we see it and it may come sooner rather than later. I don't think we'll ever get a way to remove an entire attack from a ship, but I think something like this is possible:

Mag Pulse Missile

4 Attack Dice

If this attack hits, the defender suffers one damage and receives one EMP Token. Then, cancel all damage cards.

EMP Token Rules:

A ship with an EMP Token assigned to it follows special rules in these phases:

-Combat Phase: The attack values of the primary weapon and any (cannon) or (turret) upgrades equipped to this ship is reduced by 1 for each EMP Token, to minimum zero. After this ship performs an attack, remove ALL EMP tokens from the ship.

-End Phase: Remove one EMP Token from the ship.

I wish the Chopper crew card was a discard that let you assign a weapons disabled chip to someone. I feel like that is an extremely powerful thing to do to your opponent.

If you still wanted something that disrupted your enemies weapons, why not just have it reduce their attack value by 1? or is that not consistent with the fluff, in which case i understand the need for the weapons disabled token instead.

another reason I think it's not likely that we'll see things that take away attacks is that slows down the game.

The more you mess with people's defense, the faster and more brutal the game will be. Mess with people's offense, and the game could slow down quite a bit. There's a pacing and fun factor issue involved here.

With the Weapons Disabled chit being a thing, I mean, that would be fantastic and all, but I don't know if that would be overpowered or not. I feel that would be discouraging upgrades too aggressively; a two- or three-ship list would be inordinately impacted by that option.

Would it be a guaranteed thing, à la TIE Fighter? Or would it be a TBeam thing where you have to roll as an attack in order to successfully confer the token? Even the more conservative attacking method still really disfavours most Large ships...hm.

Perhaps a Jamming token could be closer to the Damaged Sensor Array critical card in that it strips the target of Action potential until they spend an Action to remove the token (one token per Small ship, up to two tokens on Large and Huge ships maybe? Or perhaps Huge ships could receive up to two tokens per ship card...). I feel like still being able to attack (and utilise upgrades such as FCS or the x7 title) would make it less outright overpowered while really rewarding to a Stress/Jam combo.

The only issue is we've already got a Jam action in the game, and 100 point play doesn't really need another double-stress mechanic, so it probably shouldn't be an outright import of the Huge Jam action.

Edit: words words words

Yeah, I was thinking it would work just like the Tractor Beam, where you roll dice and if you hit, you assign a weapons disabled token.

As for the game going into high PS bid? I don't think so, because an effect like this would not be game breaking. You're trading damage for safety, and it's no guarantee you'll hit. If anything, it would make lists of generics as miniswarm viable against hyper aces, if you have a ship with the beam that can stop Poe or Soontir for a turn from destroying your low PS guys so they can shoot back.

another reason I think it's not likely that we'll see things that take away attacks is that slows down the game.

The more you mess with people's defense, the faster and more brutal the game will be. Mess with people's offense, and the game could slow down quite a bit. There's a pacing and fun factor issue involved here.

Yes that was one thing I'd considered.

With the Weapons Disabled chit being a thing, I mean, that would be fantastic and all, but I don't know if that would be overpowered or not. I feel that would be discouraging upgrades too aggressively; a two- or three-ship list would be inordinately impacted by that option.

Would it be a guaranteed thing, à la TIE Fighter? Or would it be a TBeam thing where you have to roll as an attack in order to successfully confer the token? Even the more conservative attacking method still really disfavours most Large ships...hm.

Perhaps a Jamming token could be closer to the Damaged Sensor Array critical card in that it strips the target of Action potential until they spend an Action to remove the token (one token per Small ship, up to two tokens on Large and Huge ships maybe? Or perhaps Huge ships could receive up to two tokens per ship card...). I feel like still being able to attack (and utilise upgrades such as FCS or the x7 title) would make it less outright overpowered while really rewarding to a Stress/Jam combo.

The only issue is we've already got a Jam action in the game, and 100 point play doesn't really need another double-stress mechanic, so it probably shouldn't be an outright import of the Huge Jam action.

Edit: words words words

Yeah, I was thinking it would work just like the Tractor Beam, where you roll dice and if you hit, you assign a weapons disabled token.

As for the game going into high PS bid? I don't think so, because an effect like this would not be game breaking. You're trading damage for safety, and it's no guarantee you'll hit. If anything, it would make lists of generics as miniswarm viable against hyper aces, if you have a ship with the beam that can stop Poe or Soontir for a turn from destroying your low PS guys so they can shoot back.

By the time they shoot though the ace would already have shot. Presumably the token wouldn't stick around into the next round as then it would be really broken.

I don't think we'll ever get a way to remove an entire attack from a ship

Tractor it onto a rock.

That just sounds like a supremely negative gameplay experience; I'm not sure what I'd cost that kind of card, though it would be high enough to not put on the Defender. The game just doesn't field enough ships that completely disabling one wouldn't be hugely problematic once other ships have been destroyed.

"Not if we jam 'em!" - Lonestar

"Raspberry...... only one person would give me raspberry.... " *helmet falls* *deep voice* "LONESTAR"

Jamming missile seems more likely.

I don't think we'll ever get a way to remove an entire attack from a ship

Tractor it onto a rock.

"Yep, just hitch that sonuvabitch onta that there Deere and I'll a-tow it for ya wherever whenever, Ah'm easy like Sundee mornin'."

I had thought this would be about a beam weapon that uses the Huge ship jamming mechanics. That could be... interesting.

I had thought this would be about a beam weapon that uses the Huge ship jamming mechanics. That could be... interesting.

Nope. I was extrapolating from TIE Fighter. That's where the Tractor Beam comes from for the most part.

OK, for jamming beam - weapons disabled sounds good (and matches the effect in the PC game), but is it too powerful?

How about "remove all focus, evade and target lock tokens from the affected ship, then dance all dice results"?

The jamming beam could prevent using Primary weapons. This adds a little importance to having a secondary weapon. Prevent acquiring new Target Locks also makes sense, though such a mechanic could be cumbersome for game-play.

RogueMorgan