Alright....the forums are a little slow and I think I'll be playing this mission again this week. I was thinking....if I were running Rebels...what would I do? I came up with:

I think Outmaneuver really shines in this mission for Rebels because the imperial player is forced to focus on the shuttle. I would be interested in flying this:

Wedge: BB8, Outmaneuver, IA (34)

Biggs R4D6, IA (26)

3x Tala (39)

99 points. Biggs and the Zs walk the shuttle down the board as Wedge comes around to flank.

Has anyone tried running this with Scum against Rebels (destroyed Scum ships come back as Binayre pirates).

I've been playing around with ideas to get as many different ships on the table as I can and I think running this mission with different lists could be fun - initially solo and then vs friends. Also a way of getting me used to the game. I've played a few TIE vs X-Wing solo games and a game with 3 X's and a Y against a Raider and 2 TIE Adv (a mission from the Raider expansion I believe).

Current plan is for Scum to run Guri (AT and Predator) plus 2 Binayre pirates and 2 Cartel marauders.

I have 2 thrown together rebel lists, both with Biggs - one with a Y with TLT and a Y with ion turret and a rookie X-Wing (with IA); the other with a Bandit Z's and 2 Blue Sqn T-70 with proton torpedoes.

I'll hopefully solo game one of these over the weekend.

I'm tempted to put together an Empire list with a Decimator and Academy TIEs for this mission for entertainment value.

Regards

Edward

Has anyone tried running this with Scum against Rebels (destroyed Scum ships come back as Binayre pirates).

Yes, I have. I was going to go with the cheap Z-95's, as well. The list I used was:

By the way, I found a 3D printed model on Shapeways: https://www.shapeways.com/product/NK9CJLWTA/senate-starship-with-base?optionId=7874521

Edit: Wondering if this would make for an interesting tournament -- 100/6 as normal, but every game is a Political Escort mission with the attacker/defender determined randomly and defender assigned the shuttle. In hindsight, what changes would you make to better balance the mission for play?

Make an U-wing, Lambda-class shuttle or create a new ship like the Naboo Royal Starship (From EP1) Into a Diplomatic Shuttle with unique stats and dials as well as abilities in line with the mission, so your not just escorting a "box" with absolutely zero use. I mean, if it was a cargo box, sure, boring movement and no real use outside of capture or destroy. No problem, but ZERO diplomats would fly inside a poor maneuvering, weak and highly vulnerable shuttle, especially with Rebellions, Galactic Empires, and all sorts of scum flying around throughout space. They would modify typical civilian shuttles or custom build ones to suit there feel of protection.

Even though the Naboo were highly outclassed by the droid control ship that they fled from, it still managed to hold up its shields, with the help of droids, long enough to escape recapture, so even that ship wasn't a brick.

Also, modifiy the mission to make the Empire have to escort someone as well, same theory.

2 hours ago, Zeoinx said:

Make an U-wing, Lambda-class shuttle or create a new ship like the Naboo Royal Starship (From EP1) Into a Diplomatic Shuttle with unique stats and dials as well as abilities in line with the mission, so your not just escorting a "box" with absolutely zero use. I mean, if it was a cargo box, sure, boring movement and no real use outside of capture or destroy. No problem, but ZERO diplomats would fly inside a poor maneuvering, weak and highly vulnerable shuttle, especially with Rebellions, Galactic Empires, and all sorts of scum flying around throughout space. They would modify typical civilian shuttles or custom build ones to suit there feel of protection.

Even though the Naboo were highly outclassed by the droid control ship that they fled from, it still managed to hold up its shields, with the help of droids, long enough to escape recapture, so even that ship wasn't a brick.

Also, modifiy the mission to make the Empire have to escort someone as well, same theory.

Remember, the Senator's Shuttle was damaged in a previous attack. That's why it can't move very well. Personally, I think it works best when you have some lame duck ship that you have to escort instead of turning it into a Lambda or U-wing. It should be a ship with no guns and a terrible dial.

It is real easy to just swap the roles, as well. Throw in Scum, as well. It doesn't matter too much who is attack and who is defense, but Rebels do have better defensive mechanics than the others.

hope to have this finished soon, to give something more appropriately sized to escort, :

...although not sure how well the Epic movement will translate into the "1"s the token is allowed

38 minutes ago, ianmiddy said:

hope to have this finished soon, to give something more appropriately sized to escort, :

...although not sure how well the Epic movement will translate into the "1"s the token is allowed

Looks like it'll fit fine on a small base to me FFG. If the K-Wing, ARC-170, and Scurrg can do it...

43 minutes ago, ObiWonka said:

Looks like it'll fit fine on a small base to me FFG. If the K-Wing, ARC-170, and Scurrg can do it...

Just fit it on the cardboard piece they say to use. It's larger than a small based ship, so you just put it on that token as a base.

4 hours ago, Zeoinx said:

Make an U-wing, Lambda-class shuttle or create a new ship like the Naboo Royal Starship (From EP1) Into a Diplomatic Shuttle with unique stats and dials as well as abilities in line with the mission, so your not just escorting a "box" with absolutely zero use. I mean, if it was a cargo box, sure, boring movement and no real use outside of capture or destroy. No problem, but ZERO diplomats would fly inside a poor maneuvering, weak and highly vulnerable shuttle, especially with Rebellions, Galactic Empires, and all sorts of scum flying around throughout space. They would modify typical civilian shuttles or custom build ones to suit there feel of protection.

Even though the Naboo were highly outclassed by the droid control ship that they fled from, it still managed to hold up its shields, with the help of droids, long enough to escape recapture, so even that ship wasn't a brick.

Also, modifiy the mission to make the Empire have to escort someone as well, same theory.

An easy way to balance this for tournament play is to make the mission symmetrical; give both sides a ship functionally equivalent to the senator's shuttle and make them fly it off the enemy table edge.

My only real problem with that setup is that it is very weird thematically. Why are there two forces ostensibly each trying to protect one ship, yet flying directly at an opposing force? And why are they headed in exactly opposite directions at the same exact time? You really have to stretch the imagination to thematically justify that. It's harder but perhaps more fulfilling to balance the mission asymmetrically.

14 minutes ago, Babaganoosh said:

An easy way to balance this for tournament play is to make the mission symmetrical; give both sides a ship functionally equivalent to the senator's shuttle and make them fly it off the enemy table edge.

My only real problem with that setup is that it is very weird thematically. Why are there two forces ostensibly each trying to protect one ship, yet flying directly at an opposing force? And why are they headed in exactly opposite directions at the same exact time? You really have to stretch the imagination to thematically justify that. It's harder but perhaps more fulfilling to balance the mission asymmetrically.

It should be no problem to just randomly determine who is the defender or attacker. Just make it random.

10 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

It should be no problem to just randomly determine who is the defender or attacker. Just make it random.

Yeah, that could work

1 hour ago, heychadwick said:

Just fit it on the cardboard piece they say to use. It's larger than a small based ship, so you just put it on that token as a base.

Obviously. But he mentioned using Epic movement, implying an Epic base.

16 hours ago, Hawkstrike said:

By the way, I found a 3D printed model on Shapeways: https://www.shapeways.com/product/NK9CJLWTA/senate-starship-with-base?optionId=7874521

I've had the Shapeways model a while, and whilst it fits the token-sized base ok, it somewhat lacks presence on the table ...so I printed mine about 1/2" shorter than the Rebel Transport [80m vs 90m] ...it is also shorter than the Goz [and shouldn't be], but I figured it would still look ok, and that was as big as I could fit the front section on my print-bed - but not yet got around to finishing painting & putting the epic mount points on it:

I think I prefer the smaller model -- shuttle, not cruiser.

So, randomly determine attacker/defender, boost hull & shields to 6/6 ... what else to balance the game? Does the defender need modified actions?

13 hours ago, Babaganoosh said:

An easy way to balance this for tournament play is to make the mission symmetrical; give both sides a ship functionally equivalent to the senator's shuttle and make them fly it off the enemy table edge.

My only real problem with that setup is that it is very weird thematically.

Prisoner exchange gone wrong.

13 hours ago, Hawkstrike said:

I think I prefer the smaller model -- shuttle, not cruiser.

So, randomly determine attacker/defender, boost hull & shields to 6/6 ... what else to balance the game? Does the defender need modified actions?

I don't think you need to boost the shield and hull. What you really want is more cheap generics to offer up Evade tokens.

9 hours ago, DagobahDave said:

Prisoner exchange gone wrong.

maaayyybe. I'm not sure the Imps were really into that sort of thing. I don't think they'd be in a huge rush to trade captured rebels for their own captured troops; I think they'd be more ruthless toward their own. But yeah you could get away with something like that scenario.

-I actually do remember something like a prisoner exchange happening on Rebels, though

On 3/27/2017 at 4:28 PM, Babaganoosh said:

An easy way to balance this for tournament play is to make the mission symmetrical; give both sides a ship functionally equivalent to the senator's shuttle and make them fly it off the enemy table edge.

My only real problem with that setup is that it is very weird thematically. Why are there two forces ostensibly each trying to protect one ship, yet flying directly at an opposing force? And why are they headed in exactly opposite directions at the same exact time? You really have to stretch the imagination to thematically justify that. It's harder but perhaps more fulfilling to balance the mission asymmetrically.

Not quite symmetrical, but leveling the objectives a little - how about an approach whereby the attackers reinforcements cease when their most valuable ship is destroyed ?

...so, you still get the list variety that has been shown previously, but the attacker maybe can't afford to concentrate on the shuttle exclusively if there's the chance their "heavy-hitter" could be taken down early.

Thoughts ?

There are only 6 turns before the shuttle is off the board. You can't change things too much. I still say it's great as it is.

32 minutes ago, ianmiddy said:

Not quite symmetrical, but leveling the objectives a little - how about an approach whereby the attackers reinforcements cease when their most valuable ship is destroyed ?

...so, you still get the list variety that has been shown previously, but the attacker maybe can't afford to concentrate on the shuttle exclusively if there's the chance their "heavy-hitter" could be taken down early.

Thoughts ?

That could be interesting; I think that the reinforcements rules in this are one of the main problems in this scenario.

13 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

There are only 6 turns before the shuttle is off the board. You can't change things too much. I still say it's great as it is.

I thought it was usually more than this, depending on how the attacker setup obstacles...unless you drop the "shuttle in the centre" requirement ?

EDIT: - sorry, my bad...think I played some recently with obstacles to try variations, but not in the original mission

For a tournament game, what do you think the effects of these changes would be:

(1) Attacker/defender determined randomly.

(2) 100 point squads (and thus shuttle is 0/2/6/6).

(3) Obstacles included (3 per player).

(4) No reinforcements for the attacker.

I'm thinking dropping reinforcements reduces some of the attacker's advantage, while adding the obstacle has the potential to extend the game slightly as it will require more maneuvering by the shuttle. Maybe even force the shuttle to be placed first, before obstacles.

-----

Alternately: if reinforcements are retained, it's at the lowest PS alternative (Lose Howlrunner, get an Academy) and the shuttle gets an Ion Cannon turret.

Maybe randomly select from the 3 core missions, since they seem to be the most 'generic' and everyone should be familiar