Tractor Missle

By USCGrad90, in X-Wing

In the vein of Seismic Torpedoes, I think FFG needs to introduce a Tractor Missle:

ACTION: Discard this card to choose an obstacle at Range 1-2 and Inside your primary firing arc.

Each ship at Range 1 of the obstacle rolls 1 Attack Die. On a Damage or Critical Damage Result, the ship receives a tractor beam token.

Agility of that ship is reduced by one for this round and (if a small base ship) the opposing player uses the 1 straight template to boost or barrel roll the ship toward the obstacle.

The obstacle remains in play.

Thoughts?

No. Not in the way you described it. First, consider the name... you want a Tractor Beam Missile.... Beam =/= missile. But disregarding fluff for a moment, I could see a missile of sorts that could work as an action... "Action: Discard this card to choose an enemy at R1-2 and inside your primary firing arc. On a hit/crit, the ship receives a tractor beam token. Then, if the ship is a small base, use the 1 straight template to bst/br the ship." 2pts.

I would start with 2 points and play test it at that, but it might end up being 1 point. It does 0 damage, and almost requires pairing with Munitions Failure for a 2nd point and a mod slot, costs an action, but can completely screw over your opponent. If we take the scenario against everyone's favorite target, Fel, then you have a 50/50 shot of changing his starting location before he even moves. Perhaps you BR onto a rock, he rolls for that damage, and then has to roll a second time when he moves, and ends up without an action because he ran over the rock... That's seriously powerful. Or perhaps you have it on a PS10 inquisitor, and Fel just BR'd out of arc of your crack swarm... the Inquisitor can barrel roll him BACK into R1 of the swarm, again, that's a very powerful reposition. But it's situational, and being a 50/50 isn't something you can rely upon. And against Ghosts/Decimators, it does absolutely nothing.

Alas, there isn't anything in the Star Wars lore that would even equate. Tractor beams need a gravitic point source to act from, and therefore are guns, not missiles.

Miniature Grav-Well Bomb-On-A-Rocket ?

the only tractor effect that would make sense in starwars universe would be a gravity-well type bomb. Which wouldnt even be tractor effects, it would just be -1 agi because your ship is being dragged to a point and this game has 0 rules for "towards" or "away" so determining direction would be impossible.

Maybe a new Action bomb called Gravitic Mine that works sorta like Conner Net but with Tractor Beam tokens instead of Ion tokens.

Miniature Grav-Well Bomb-On-A-Rocket ?

Gravity mine, dial bomb.

Ships within range 1 of this token must reduce the speed of their manoeuvre by 1 when it is revealed. When this detonates, each ship within range 1 receives 1 tractor token.

Or something.

Miniature Grav-Well Bomb-On-A-Rocket ?

In the SW universe, I suspect a weapon like this would be used to pull ships from hyperspace by creating a realspace hazard. Alas, no use for hyperspace effects in this game.

Gravity mine, dial bomb.

Ships within range 1 of this token must reduce the speed of their manoeuvre by 1 when it is revealed. When this detonates, each ship within range 1 receives 1 tractor token.

Or something.

I like this, but again, I think a better pseudo-science explanation is some sort of radiation flux that effects engine output rather than a gravity-based effect that is physically pulling on the ship.

get rid of the dice dependent results so it isn't utterly worthless 50% of the time

and then you have yourself a hilarious troll as hell upgrade worth including in anything with a spare torpslot

Edited by ficklegreendice

Miniature Grav-Well Bomb-On-A-Rocket ?

In the SW universe, I suspect a weapon like this would be used to pull ships from hyperspace by creating a realspace hazard. Alas, no use for hyperspace effects in this game.

Hence the miniature.

Creating a very large gravitic shadow would likely require a large generator and a lot of power...

A Very quick, small, localised "burst" could be very useful for knocking around a small, lighter craft with less inertia than a large brute with a lot of power.

john-deere-4620.jpg

Yup, I think it fits in the game.

Edited by YwingAce

Grav well bomb FTW. All ships in range 2 get a tractor beam token and all small ships must boost or barrel roll in the direction of the token.

to keep theme with t-beam game mechanics, you'd have more of a concussion or turbulence (IN SPAAAAAAAAACE!!!) bomb that just shockwaves ships everywhere, making evasion far more difficult and throwing smaller ships willy nilly

so you wouldn't have to specify roll/boost towards the token, which can be a bit vague mechanically speaking

or something

Edited by ficklegreendice

john-deere-4620.jpg

Yup, I think it fits in the game.

That's a short-range tractor. There's no way it could get out this far.

to keep theme with t-beam game mechanics, you'd have more of a concussion or turbulence (IN SPAAAAAAAAACE!!!) bomb that just shockwaves ships everywhere, making evasion far more difficult and throwing smaller ships willy nilly

so you wouldn't have to specify roll/boost towards the token, which can be a bit vague mechanically speaking

or something

This was what I was going for. It sucks in (slows the manoeuvres) then explodes out (tractor tokens).

I don't understand how a Tractor Beam missile would work. Where will the fulcrum for the Tractor beam come from? Does it create a small satellite that then generates an incident grav well to pull the targeted ship towards it? Why wouldn't this well affect all ships (Newton's law of universal gravitation states that a particle will attract every other particle in space) so it should pull all ships at range 1 towards it, resolve collisions and laugh at opponent.

Citing Newton in a game about space wizards firing pew pew lasers.

That'll work.

That's a short-range tractor. There's no way it could get out this far.

Sorry, this better? I'm not well versed in tractorology:

fendt-trisix-tractor-1.jpg

Edited by YwingAce

I don't understand how a Tractor Beam missile would work. Where will the fulcrum for the Tractor beam come from? Does it create a small satellite that then generates an incident grav well to pull the targeted ship towards it? Why wouldn't this well affect all ships (Newton's law of universal gravitation states that a particle will attract every other particle in space) so it should pull all ships at range 1 towards it, resolve collisions and laugh at opponent.

Citing Newton in a game about space wizards firing pew pew lasers.

That'll work.

Plausible pseudo-science allows for the suspension of disbelief. And for the record, I'm with spacelion on this one. In the SW universe, tractor beams act like a grav rope, and need an anchor point.

Edited by Darth Meanie

The game really needs a hardpoint tractor beam - one that is more powerful and can boost and barrel roll large ships too, and pull ships in to squash them. Maybe it would give ion tokens too?

The game really needs a hardpoint tractor beam - one that is more powerful and can boost and barrel roll large ships too, and pull ships in to squash them. Maybe it would give ion tokens too?

Agreed. I think the idea would be best as a heavy tractor beam for Huge ships only, that the more TB tokens you pile on (via spending Energy), the more you can affect the ship. Perhaps rather than throwing them around, the number of TB token is a negative to the movement dial, and if the resulting movement number is negative, the target ship moves towards the source ship. If it moves back into (overlaps) the source ship, it is removed from play (destroyed/captured in a hangar bay).

Also, this would be a lot more like the movies. Tractor beams are used to catch ships, not toss them.

Edited by Darth Meanie

Since we have a precedence (Rigged Cargo Chute) we can use an Illicit to drop a Grav Mine with 1 shield, 1 hull and 0 agility. End of turn it pulses and all small base ships within 1 range have to barrel roll towards the Grav Mine.

The game really needs a hardpoint tractor beam - one that is more powerful and can boost and barrel roll large ships too, and pull ships in to squash them. Maybe it would give ion tokens too?

Star Destroyer Only and it can stop a huge ship from moving.

Okay who wan't to bring up the Star Destroyer for Epic thread again? 6x6 play area! :D