I ran into this situation twice. The first time, no benefit was offered to either party, so we began, but never finished, tailoring a house rule.

Here's my question: If ship a hits ship b, their bases are touching, and ship b has chosen a maneuver that doesn't clear it of ship a, they remain in contact. Now, on the next turn, can the ships continue deliberately choosing maneuvers that result in no motion? As I said, the first time I encountered this, we decided that on a second turn in contact, if there was a clear move that would result in your ship breaking contact, you should take it, even if it wasn't ideal for you.

Second time this happened, my friend was flying Oicunn in his Deci. He posited that he could stay there, choosing failing maneuvers and hitting the one damage per maneuver. His logic was I could move my ship at any point if I chose to. I, thinking back to my previous experience had already chosen a move that ruined my previous movement plans, but got me free of contact.

I have looked at the rules, and nothing really concretely deals with these situations. I know this game has to depart from the rules of a physical dogfight at some points, but in my opinion, the idea of two ships somehow locking together at a dead stop, or bouncing off each other repeatedly isn't a pleasing image for me.

I am contemplating a house rule: After a collision, if the opposing ship has chosen a maneuver that results in another collision, on the next turn, both ships must attempt to choose maneuvers that clear them from contact.

Or even as simple as: If ship a collides with ship b, then b with a, any subsequent moves that result in the ships remaining stationary (other than the lambda speed zero) will result in the ships being considered to be no longer touching.

Or, on advent of a collision, move the ships to a new position, maintaining orientation, where their trajectories will carry them away from each other, as if they glanced off each other.

The only other exceptions to this I can think of are if the move would result in the ship fleeing the battlefield, taking damage on an asteroid, or the cluster of ships is too large and it simply cannot move. These cases make me lean toward the 'one collision each, then you're not touching' rule.

Anyone else run into this? If the deci had a speed 0 maneuver, I'd be fine, but I always assumed Oicunn's ability was for blocking, or ramming, not sitting still and trying to farm damage deliberately.

It's perfectly legal to bump again and again, and as you've noticed, certain builds want to do this (Chopper, Zeb crew, Ion Projectors, and Anti-pursuit Laser, etc.) so making a rule that prevents it weakens these builds. However, House rules are just that, and you can play however you want in your own house (just make sure that anyone you play with knows the house rules, and knows that they're house rules so that they don't get caught off guard when they play someone else).

Welcome to the forums!

You absolutely can choose a move which keeps you bumped. And it's often the most sensible choice.

You're always welcome to house rule if you want, but the game's fine the way he is, and repeated tactical bumping adds not only to game elements that trigger off it (e.g. Oicunn, Chopper) but also to options around how not to get shot at. If you think that you can guarantee staying bumped, you might be able to guarantee not getting shot.

I would strongly advise against such a house rule. The whole point of pilots like Oicunn or Arvel Crynyd is to bump your opponent as often as possible. By applying that rule, you take away every incentive for choosing these pilots. Also, in most cases, if you are engaged by such a "melee" ship, you can simply choose a 4- or 5- speed maneuver to get away from it. The real trick is to avoid being bumped in the first place. It's not like you don't know what your opponent is up to, right?