So it's not a huge amount of new information, but the role of the U-wing and some more details on how it functions have been released today. It's full name is the Incom UT-60D, it is a troop transport and gunship, and those two prongs can fold back as extended wings.

http://www.starwarsunderworld.com/2016/08/new-rogue-one-still-reveals-u-wing.html

This of course re-opens the question of whether we'll see U-wings feature in future Armada releases, and what role they might play if they do so. I would be surprised if we didn't see some kind of tie-in from Rogue One, the ships currently available to Armada spanning the full period of the Galactic Civil War; certainly I think it's more likely than seeing anything from episode VII any time soon.

I wonder if we could see the U-wing alongside the Imperial shuttle as a future squadron type, and, given that they both serve in a transport role, this might also bring some kind of boarding action to the game. Given that it's something a lot of us have been interested in for a while, there's certainly an appetite for it, and the newest waves prove that FFG aren't afraid to expand the mechanics of the game to diversify our options.

What do we reckon?

looks interesting but have not idea how boarding or capturing enemy ships would work per the rules

A boarding action would be a heck of a new but exciting direction for the game...

Admirals escaping in shuttles next?

I DO NOT want boarding actions in the regular game. There would not be a satisfying way to implement them. And the idea of allowing other players to gain direct control of my ships outside of a wild campaign scenario is so maddening I would likely pick up my ships and leave.

I dunno, depends on counterplay doesn't it?

Maybe it could be used like this:

Boarding Party: When this squadron is distance 1 of an enemy ship you may remove this ship from the board to remove 1 upgrade, aside from a Commander, from that ship.

Transport: When this squadron is distance 1 of a friendly ship you may place a Commander upgrade on it. When this squadron is distance 1 of a friendly ship you may attach a Commander upgrade from this squadron to it.

In fact they could probably just have the unique version of the shuttle have the transport ability, that way there is no confusion on which of your shuttles has a commander on it.

I DO NOT want boarding actions in the regular game. There would not be a satisfying way to implement them. And the idea of allowing other players to gain direct control of my ships outside of a wild campaign scenario is so maddening I would likely pick up my ships and leave.

You think boarding actions are for taking over a ship in the middle of a battle? What? An assault team takes over a ship crewed by thousands?

Boarding actions are for blowing up stuff to cripple a ship.

any boarding actions would likely be some kind of deplete upgrade card used at close range to inflict a face up damage

I DO NOT want boarding actions in the regular game. There would not be a satisfying way to implement them. And the idea of allowing other players to gain direct control of my ships outside of a wild campaign scenario is so maddening I would likely pick up my ships and leave.

You think boarding actions are for taking over a ship in the middle of a battle? What? An assault team takes over a ship crewed by thousands?

Boarding actions are for blowing up stuff to cripple a ship.

Agree with this. It could be a cool mechanic so long as the ship isn't taken over, but more of like inflicting a free face-up or removing a non-unique upgrade card or something along those lines.

I could also see them straight up doing damage

Boarding actions could be cool, yeah, could even be as simple as a crit effect type mechanic but on a non-bomber ship.

E.g. you have a blue die ant-ship squadron that can resolve a crit on an unshielded hull zone for a unique effect like exhausting an upgrade card (whether it naturally exhausts or not), reducing a ships speed, exhausting a def token of your choice or some other shenanigans.

Imagine having some boarding action capable squadron in with your regular bombers and you score a crit with it to exhaust the ECM card on a ship before you unload an ISD front arc!

It would make having at least a token squadron force to prevent something like that much more attractive.

ISDs have how many stormtroopers?

ISDs have how many stormtroopers?

9000 give or take.

If you want boarding, go play BFG.

I could also see if (big IF) they made it so that you could take a ship over (thinking more campaign here), that during the battle the best you would be able to do is take it out of the fight. The crew would lock out all weapons, maybe all movement and you will not have the time to fix that tell after the fight is over.

Here is what we use for boarding craft. Nothing to do with totally taking over a ship vs disrupting its crew.

Board: When attacking a ship, you may spend a die with a critical result to flip a random face down damage card face up and resolve the effect immediately. In addition, for each die result of a damage spent, force the defender to discard a command token.

I DO NOT want boarding actions in the regular game. There would not be a satisfying way to implement them. And the idea of allowing other players to gain direct control of my ships outside of a wild campaign scenario is so maddening I would likely pick up my ships and leave.

You think boarding actions are for taking over a ship in the middle of a battle? What? An assault team takes over a ship crewed by thousands?

Boarding actions are for blowing up stuff to cripple a ship.

Agree with this. It could be a cool mechanic so long as the ship isn't taken over, but more of like inflicting a free face-up or removing a non-unique upgrade card or something along those lines.

Given that A New Hope starts with a boarding action, I think it's entirely within the conceivable realm, though I guess we'll have to see if the U-wing is designed for space-to-space boarding, rather than a space/air-to-ground troop lander. However, Star Wars (EU) has long had assault shuttles intended for just that task, which FFG has implicitly acknowledged in their artwork. Note the art on Dodonna's Pride, where you can see the assault shuttle.

Without further explanation, thecactusman17's reaction seems excessively hostile. I agree that gaining control of a ship to the point where it can be used against its previous owner is a bit extreme, especially if that ship is larger than a small-base vessel. But having crew killed, and thereby disabling the ship seems perfectly feasible to me.

Here is what we use for boarding craft. Nothing to do with totally taking over a ship vs disrupting its crew.

Board: When attacking a ship, you may spend a die with a critical result to flip a random face down damage card face up and resolve the effect immediately. In addition, for each die result of a damage spent, force the defender to discard a command token.

It was this kind of thing that I had in mind - I didn't think that we'd see whole ships being taken over, simply effects resolved against them. Since they've just invented a grav well token, they could introduce some kind of Boarding Party token, that would indicate that effects might be resolved over a series of turns. It's these longer term impacts that I envisaged, which would make a difference to the mechanics of how squadrons were used; rather than the individual shots of a bomber doing direct damage, this might resolve less serious effects but over a longer period.

Seems like people's attitudes have changed. Previously, I was seeing nearly every suggestion for Boarding involving taking a ship over eventually.

My complaint is that there is no reason to take a boarding action in the game of you don't intend to take the ship over.

I think the new campaign objectives hint at a smart way of representing it. Players are taking over the stations and are attacking or defending operations already in progress.

My complaint is that there is no reason to take a boarding action in the game of you don't intend to take the ship over.

I think, as ceejlekabeejle said, having boarding actions do sustained damage rather than a crit would be a good way to differentiate them from bombers. I like the idea of them targeting upgrades... maybe something like:

Boarding 3: Roll 3 black dice. If the number of crits is equal to the size of the ship (1 for small, 2 for medium, 3 for large), turn one of the target ship's upgrades face down; it may not be used for the remainder of the game.

Seems like people's attitudes have changed. Previously, I was seeing nearly every suggestion for Boarding involving taking a ship over eventually.

My complaint is that there is no reason to take a boarding action in the game of you don't intend to take the ship over.

I think the new campaign objectives hint at a smart way of representing it. Players are taking over the stations and are attacking or defending operations already in progress.

Surely there are advantages to crippling a ship from the inside rather than the outside? If we have turbolasers and ion cannons pounding from the outside, then the most efficient way to facilitate their doing damage might be to send in a team of commandos to strategically disable certain functions.

Furthermore, taking over the ship need not necessarily mean taking control of that ship and then using it against your opponent. It seems unlikely that a small boarding party would be able to entirely subdue the crew of the ship and then man it sufficiently to turn it round on the enemy. If they wanted to go all the way with boarding, they could create some kind of mechanism that doesn't destroy that ship, but merely renders it inactive for the rest of the game, so that you don't get the points for it but it is at least prevented from attacking you.

That would be a high risk, high reward approach to it, but I don't think they need to go that far. Simply having a team on board that can weaken the ship from within would add an interesting dynamic to the game without completely changing it.

My complaint is that there is no reason to take a boarding action in the game of you don't intend to take the ship over.

I think, as ceejlekabeejle said, having boarding actions do sustained damage rather than a crit would be a good way to differentiate them from bombers. I like the idea of them targeting upgrades... maybe something like:

Boarding 3: Roll 3 black dice. If the number of crits is equal to the size of the ship (1 for small, 2 for medium, 3 for large), turn one of the target ship's upgrades face down; it may not be used for the remainder of the game.

I can see the squadron itself having a key word of "Boarding action", that means you can declare a boarding action before rolling against a ship. You then place a Boarding Party token on the ship if you get a crit. If you don't roll a crit, the squadron takes one damage, to reflect the idea that the attack's been repulsed. No result other than a crit takes effect. You can thus choose to use the squadron to bomb or to board.

I then can see a separate Boarding Party card (similar to the Flotillas card) with boarding action rules, according to which, at the start of the round, the opponent is allowed to choose a different coloured die to roll to try to achieve a particular effect. If you roll a blank, the Boarding Party token is removed, reflecting the idea that it has been nutralised.

Red crit: You may select and exhaust one upgrade card attached to that ship.

Blue crit: The defending player must select and discard one command token attached that ship.

Black crit: You may select and exhaust one defence token attached to that ship.

The idea is that, with blue, you won't roll a blank, so it's the safest action, but it also has the lesser effect on the ship itself. By comparison, black and red dice would be more risky, but would give a higher reward were you to choose to use them.

Just thoughts.

ISDs have how many stormtroopers?

9000 give or take.

They must have a heckovalot of transports to make use of those Stormtroopers. Maybe that's why they only have room for 70s TIEs (which struck me as a very small number).

ISDs have how many stormtroopers?

9000 give or take.

They must have a heckovalot of transports to make use of those Stormtroopers. Maybe that's why they only have room for 70s TIEs (which struck me as a very small number).

ISDs have how many stormtroopers?

9000 give or take.

They must have a heckovalot of transports to make use of those Stormtroopers. Maybe that's why they only have room for 70s TIEs (which struck me as a very small number).

Don't forget the AT ATs, other walkers, and other combat vehicles.

Indeed, they'll all take up a lot of room too, but won't individually hold many Storm Troopers, so they'll still need a huge number of drop ships, unless the plan is just to land the ISD and drop them off that way?