Hunters of the Aturi Cluster- Imperial mission playtesting and design

By Rakaydos, in X-Wing

Ill have to go through the vlog when I get the chance. Been going through the maneuver ai withva fine comb, well have to ser if theres any Iincrease in hazard.

How did the ps2 intercepter get ptl?

According to Final Exam one option is a TIE interceptor with 8 XP. The imperial character cards you linked to give the TIE Interceptor an EPT, Missile/Mod and a Mod slot. So PTL is 6 pts. Autothrusters is 2. Total 8

Linked to?

Ive got characrer cards in the first post, and Final Exam should be pointing there for all that stuff.

Is this an older version of Final Exam?

Linked to?

Ive got characrer cards in the first post, and Final Exam should be pointing there for all that stuff.

Is this an older version of Final Exam?

Yes they must be, you've changed the links on the first post since I first looked at them 3 days ago. I'll adjust my builds for future playtests and use the new Final Exam scenario.

Looking over the new Final Exam. Have you considered a more "historically accurate" Y-wing build with BTL-4A's and R5 units? It seems to be what the rebels are flying in the movies.

I'm making some progress on the hunting the rebels story arc missions, and I'm wondering if we have cards for elite/basic AI ships?

Rakaydos, the low image quality of the current AI cards is so poor that it's almost illegible on screen and actually illegible when printed unless your Very careful. You need to step up the image size that your posting. or change the filter method your using.

Rakaydos, the low image quality of the current AI cards is so poor that it's almost illegible on screen and actually illegible when printed unless your Very careful. You need to step up the image size that your posting. or change the filter method your using.

If you print them at 5.06 inches like the hotac AI cards they are quite ledgible..

The problem is that the only editing software i have is MS paint, and those cards are on their 4th or 5th revision, losing quality each time. I need to dig out the originals that salted diamond posted, and do all the updates in 1 shot.

I'm making some progress on the hunting the rebels story arc missions, and I'm wondering if we have cards for elite/basic AI ships?

There were some posted in the Villians thread, but I wasnt happy with their quality. Any particular ships you want?

I'm making some progress on the hunting the rebels story arc missions, and I'm wondering if we have cards for elite/basic AI ships?

There were some posted in the Villians thread, but I wasnt happy with their quality. Any particular ships you want?

I guess X wings and y wings to start, then As and Bs

I'm making some progress on the hunting the rebels story arc missions, and I'm wondering if we have cards for elite/basic AI ships?

There were some posted in the Villians thread, but I wasnt happy with their quality. Any particular ships you want?

I guess X wings and y wings to start, then As and Bs

I guess the place to start is the good HotAC low PS builds:

Xwing:

Targeting Astro, (EPT), Hobbie

R7, Tarn, Shara Bey,

R2D2 (triggering on any speed 1-2 maneuver), PTL, Ezra, Lone Wolf,

BB8 (speed 1-2 maneuvers), PTL,

Ywing: (new Ywing AI has pre maneuver bomb drops on it's maneuver options)

(infinite or 4x) Thermal detonators, R3A2, BTLA4 TLT, Eaton Vrill, Istaban,

(infinite or 4x) Connor net/expirimental interface Ion turret Sabine

(infinite or 4x) Proton Bomb, Dorsal Turret, R5 Astromech, Deturmination, Leebo,

Ran Mission 0 Playtest two today. I carried on from where I'd left off with the last playtest, Correcting the Hunter squad ships for the new rules. They are.

Hunter Leader - PS 3 TIE Advanced w/Advanced Targeting Computers and Squad Leader from the HotAC rules now that he's highest PS

Hunter 2 - PS 2 TIE Interceptor w/Stealth Device and Autothrusters (Got rid of the EPT)

Hunter 3 - PS 2 TIE Bomber w/Proton Torpedos, Cluster missiles, Extra Munitions

As before, I have the .vlog file stored on my Drive here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B13Bfbd-pPp0THkzamFEVzl4Sms

This was a smoother game all around in terms of Vassal. Under the new rules the rebels consisted of:

Red-1 - PS2 X-wing with Proton Torps. Deployed at start

Green-1 - PS2 X-wing with Proton Torps. Deployed at start

Blue-1 - PS 2 B-wing with Proton torps x2 Arrived turn 7 at 4.

I think I misread the X-wing AI and kept Red and Green attacking the shuttle to the exclusion of all else for too long. To their credit they did manage to do the shuttle about 3 damage this time. But it was easy for the Hunters to stay out from in front of them and cut them to ribbons. Neither X-wing escaped and both where dead by turn 5.

When the B-wing arrived on Turn 7 Hunter squad was waiting for it and blasted it. It went down on Turn 10 having failed to even cross 25% of the table. It had the potential to get a good hit on Hunter 3 when she jousted it, but flubbed the attack.

At the end Hunter Leader gained 10 xp, two X-wing and a B-wing kill and the scenario bonuses. Hunter 2 got 4xp for two damage rolls plus the scenario bonuses, Hunter 3 got 5 xp for damage dealt plus scenario bonuses.

The Rebel ships got two laser shots off on the shuttle, which hit; and two shots off at Hunter 3 which both missed.

Thoughts:

The B-wing AI logic has virtually no way to TL anything other than the strike target. The only time it will TL anything other than the strike target is when it is not in any enemy's arc and it has an enemy in it's arc. This is a very narrow window of opportunity.

Having all the rebel ships on strike AI until they have successfully launched their torpedoes on the shuttle, or been badly damaged, means that they almost always ignore all the Imp pilots and fly straight for the shuttle, This gives the Imp pilots all the time in the world to shoot them down and makes them very predictable in their actions. You never have to worry about the rebel ships diverting from their attack to shoot at one of the players, unless the player deliberately flies right in front of their guns.

Edit: the above may have been my misconception of when the Rebels will abandon the strike and start dogfighting. See below.

Dictating the starting AI type shouldn't be in the AI card logic. It should be a scenario setting. It would make sense to have most scenarios have the rebels start in Strike AI, then switch to attack AI once they've launched on their target, or perhaps after they've taken a preset amount of damage determined by the scenario, like hit for the first time, or when shields are down (Though by then it's normally too late).

Having the Rebels switch to Flee AI when damaged should IMHO be in the AI card logic so good there. Though I'm finding that by the time the Rebels decide to bug out, they are almost certain to be killed on the next attack. Though I will admit my sample size for that bit of comparison is very very small.

Is the Ywing spawn still hidden by the seam? at 2 players there should be a Ywing in Gold squadron coming in at turn 4, but the 2 player spawn is right at the end of a column and half covered by the footer. Thought I fixed that, but if you didnt catch that I guess it's still a problem.

Badly damaged? The assault ships should drop out of strike AI once they take their first point of damage. Any idea how I can make that more clear?

Bwings and Xwings not taking TLs normally is intended- I didnt want PRoton Torp spam dropping players at range 3 in the opening exchange. If you want, you can run a priority on TLing at long range, see how lethal that is with guidane chips- If I'm wrong some data would be good.

Yes. the Gold squad 2 player spawn is hidden in the document. Move the whole gold squad section to the top of column 3 and that should fix it.

For the strike AI problem: construct the AI cards with the standard Attack logic. Then in the scenario state that Red, Green, Gold and Blue squad start out with Strike AI against the shuttle. Then state that they will abandon Strike AI for the standard attack AI as soon as they take any damage. Then switch to Flee AI as soon as they loose 1/3 of their Hull points.

That will require a modification to Flee AI from HotAC to include the new rules for rebel ships hypering out. You'll also need to indicate which are the rebel retreat edges and which are the Imp retreat edges.

If you think Guidance Chips are too powerful for the AI ships, don't give them any. I certainly intend to equip my bomber with them as soon as I get to PS 4. Keep in mind that the window to engage the imp ships with missiles/warheads is very small, Imp ships can go from out of range to range 1 in a single turn in some cases. But I'll do some experimenting with rebel torp spam tomorrow if I get time.

That sounds good, but Im right at the scenerio length limit- anything I add to the mission document, something else has to go.

That is a layout management problem to be dealt with at a later stage. If you're squeezed for words, reduce the amount of fluff.

The AI adjustments need to be done in the Rebel AI section anyway. In the scenario all you need to do is note which AI each rebel squad is using when deployed, and under what conditions they switch to Flee AI.

Unless there are overall word count restrictions I'm not aware of.

That is a layout management problem to be dealt with at a later stage. If you're squeezed for words, reduce the amount of fluff.

The AI adjustments need to be done in the Rebel AI section anyway. In the scenario all you need to do is note which AI each rebel squad is using when deployed, and under what conditions they switch to Flee AI.

Unless there are overall word count restrictions I'm not aware of.

The main reason I went for "full shields" on the AI card is Rebel Regen potentially changing the target priority back to strike.

They always hyperspace at the same level of damage- 1 health for 3 agility, 2 health for 2 agility, 3 health for 1 agility. That should stay on the AI card.

You make a point about AI needing to be looked up anyway, though, at least at this point. When I finish doing the Ywing Bomber AI, I'll edit Final Exam and the OP to move the Combined AI description to the link.

Playtest Number 3 on Vassal. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B13Bfbd-pPp0ZjhsX1NmYmljY0U

Continuing with the skill increases from previous games. Hunter Squad now consists of:

Hunter Leader - PS 3 TIE Advanced w/ Predator, Adv. Targeting Comp, Engine Upgrade

Hunter 2 - PS 3 TIE Interceptor w/ Stealth Device and Autothrusters

Hunter 3 - PS 3 TIE Bomber w/ Cluster Missiles, Proton Torps and Extra Munitions.

The Rebels consisted of:

Red-1 PS 2 X-wing w/ Proton Torps. Deployed at start at 3

Green-1 PS 2 X-wing w/ Proton Torps. Deployed at start at 4

Gold-1 PS 2 Y-wing w/ Ion turret, Proton torps x2. Start on turn 4 at 2

Blue-1 PS 2 B-wing w/ Proton Torps x2. Start on turn 7 at 3.

Finally got all the AI working as intended. Red actually managed to launch his horps at the shuttle for 3 damage. Green got gang-banged by Hunter squad and died on turn 2.

Gold arrived just as Red was getting shot down by Hunter Leader, but never got to fire on the shuttle as he took a hit from Hunter 2 first. He managed to ionize Hunter 2 near to death before hypering out with 1 hull remaining.

Blue arrived the turn before Gold hypered out and never got near the shuttle, He did manage to shoot down Hunter 2 as well as locking and firing a torp at Hunter 3 that took off half her hull and two crits. But that was on turn 10 so in the end it had no effect on the game.

Hunter Leader got 7 xp for killing both X-wings plus scenario win bonus.

Hunter 2 got 4 xp for damaged dealt, but was shot down and rolled a Focus on the eject roll so looses 2xp.

Hunter 3 got 4 xp for damage dealt and scenario bonus, but rolled poorly all game with her proton torpedoes.

Thoughts:

The Y-wing AI needs a way to determine which weapons it will attack with. Something like "largest number of dice, primaries if equal" since there will be cases where it will have a choice between primaries, turret, warhead one and warhead two.

The Y-wing movement chart needs a K-turn in it's directly ahead/close range box. As an example, every other ship capable of a K-turn has one in that position.

I've got something a little different planned for Ywings... Seismic charges.

XK8pwiA.png

That pulls the torps out of the equation. As for turret/main gun decision, It should probably be "Turret if possible, except at range 1 in arc". (Any ace who takes autoblaster turret will have an override written into the turret)

Also Xwing:

Jm0kbDR.png

Edited by Rakaydos

I would think a bomb version of the Ywing and a torp version of a Ywing would both be good. I really like seeing bombs used, but I dont see that as the only reason to have Ywings in the campaign. And maybe one that just primarily goes with fighting with its turret.

aAso I came up with a good idea for how to mark on the enemy graph what kind of enemy ships (if bomb equipped, or attack xwing, or dogfight xwing, etc )would be used for each squadron, or each fighter- either a color or a symbol- a symbol might actually be easier than a color- since we'd already have black and red, like in the Heroes ones.

Thanks!

So I've got this layout...

UXbIBqX.jpg

Any ideas on missions to try with it?

Defend the starbase/space dock from Rebel scum that are trying to damage capital ships docked at it.

They are off map,or something (...or even could make a capital ship silhouette/top down image - I've actually gt plenty of them on my computer that could be used by scaling them up to large scale).

If going wih the capital ships off map, then the Rebels have to damage the fuel/shields and avoid the turbolasers and defenders while doing so, and then proceed off map to strike the "real target".

Defend the starbase/space dock from Rebel scum that are trying to damage capital ships docked at it.

They are off map,or something (...or even could make a capital ship silhouette/top down image - I've actually gt plenty of them on my computer that could be used by scaling them up to large scale).

If going wih the capital ships off map, then the Rebels have to damage the fuel/shields and avoid the turbolasers and defenders while doing so, and then proceed off map to strike the "real target".

I agree, I like the idea of defending a base and having the turbo lasers on your side..

possibly also include a local tie patrol returning that you are in control of.. say, turn 5 two ties show up at position 1d6..

give the rebels an additional Y-wing to make up for the additional imperial units. players equally distribute any XP earned by Tie patrol.