Hi guys, new to the forums and am relatively new to the game itself, I've been playing for about a month so far. I'm a huge fan of Star Wars Rebels, and the Ghost Expansion was my first purchase after the original Core Set (hell of a way to jump in the deep end but I'm making it work). I really enjoyed playing the 'Sabotage' mission that came with the Ghost Expansion, and it reminded me a lot of the Rebels season one episode, 'Out of Darkness'. With that in mind I set about trying to create a mission that used the same lists as the original, but within the scenario of an alternative ending to that episode. I hope you enjoy. C&C appreciated.

Mission 15b - 'Out of Darkness Alternate Ending':

Hera and Sabine have become stranded upon a creature-infested asteroid whilst attempting a pick-up, and the Phantom is in need of repairs. The Ghost is on its way to assist, but the Grand Inquisitor and his pack of TIEs suddenly appear and attack. The Ghost must defend itself against the Imperials long enough for the Phantom to make repairs and dock in order for the Lothal Rebels to make their escape.

MISSION SETUP

Rebel:

Kanan Jarrus (VCX-100; Ezra Bridger, "Chopper", Reinforced Deflectors, Dorsal Turret, Ghost), Hera Syndulla (Attack Shuttle; Predator, Sabine Wren, Phantom).

Imperial:

The Inquistor (Deadeye, Homing Missiles, Guidance Chips, TIE v/1), 4 Obsidian Squadron Pilots.

The Imperial player places 6 asteroids, at range 1-2 from the edges of the board, and at least range 1 from each other. The Rebel player then places the Phantom on top of the largest asteroid token, where it is considered to be inactive and unable to be attacked.

The Rebel player then positions the Ghost anywhere within range 1 along his set-up edge. The Imperial player then does so with his TIEs. The Rebel player has initiative.

SPECIAL RULES

• Repairs Completed: Should the Ghost survive 5 rounds against the Inquisitor and his TIEs, the Phantom is considered repaired and now enters active play. Upon conclusion of the fifth round the Phantom may be assigned and perform one maneuver (in the same manner as deploying from the Ghost, this does not count as revealing a dial) to clear itself of the asteroid it was stranded on, and perform one action (unless stressed or overlapping another ship or obstacle).• Reinforcements: When the Phantom has been repaired and has entered active play, the Imperial player may regain 1 Obsidian Squadron Pilot should his current count be less than 4. • In the Pocket: Once the Phantom has entered active play it may attempt to dock with the Ghost. This must be performed by maneuvering close enough to the Ghost so that the Phantom may perform the "Dock" action, where a 1-speed template may be placed between the front guides of the Phantom base and the rear guides of the Ghost base. If this action is successful the Phantom is removed from the board and is considered to be docked with the Ghost, and all standard benefits afforded by the equipped title cards now apply as per normal rules. 

MISSION OBJECTIVES

• Rebel Victory: The Phantom successfully docks with the Ghost, the Ghost then flees the board.• Imperial Victory: Prevent the Ghost from surviving 5 rounds. If unsuccessful, eliminate all Rebel forces.

Hey, that's pretty cool! Have you tried it out yet? Is it balanced? Do you have a suggested build for the Ghost? Or points limit for building on it? I like it as I also thought that mission was fun.

Babaganoosh should comment, though, as he's the best at tweaking scenarios.

I'm a little unclear about how the dock action works. Do you need to line up the guides (which is probably practically impossible), or do you need to be in a 1-straight template range of the guides to dock?

In terms of balance I'd say it's probably playable, but with a significant imperial advantage as-is. In my experience with the original mission, the Ghost has a tough time surviving against the normal imperial list, and starting without the phantom is going to make things tougher, plus the imperials might get reinforcements.

In terms of changes from the original scenario, the Imperials gain a reinforcement TIE, and the Rebels lose the advantage of detonating the explosives, and having the phantom docked (for extra attack bonuses) at the start of the game. The rebel ghost build, while thematic, is not very good. They do gain a significant advantage in that they only need to escape after docking to win, though.

You might want to give the first episode of our podcast a listen for the segment where we discuss mission 15 (52:20 mark); that will give a good overview of what we think about it and might give you ideas on how to tweak it fairly.

In general also if one sides purpose is to simply kill everything it's usually not that interesting.

It'd probably work better as an alternate Gathering Forces ending. Come to think of it, the Phantom didn't have a hyperdrive then.

Hi, thanks for all the feedback! I'm going to reply to some of your suggestions below:

I'm a little unclear about how the dock action works. Do you need to line up the guides (which is probably practically impossible), or do you need to be in a 1-straight template range of the guides to dock?

In terms of balance I'd say it's probably playable, but with a significant imperial advantage as-is. In my experience with the original mission, the Ghost has a tough time surviving against the normal imperial list, and starting without the phantom is going to make things tougher, plus the imperials might get reinforcements.

In terms of changes from the original scenario, the Imperials gain a reinforcement TIE, and the Rebels lose the advantage of detonating the explosives, and having the phantom docked (for extra attack bonuses) at the start of the game. The rebel ghost build, while thematic, is not very good. They do gain a significant advantage in that they only need to escape after docking to win, though.

You might want to give the first episode of our podcast a listen for the segment where we discuss mission 15 (52:20 mark); that will give a good overview of what we think about it and might give you ideas on how to tweak it fairly.

Hi, I've listened to your podcast and I agree with what was said - the lists provided are, on reflection, kind of weird and don't make much sense despite being thematic. I'm definitely going to have to revise the suggested lists for this mission.

Regarding the docking action, you're right that it is quite tricky to pull off. I wanted it to have some sort of skill gap in terms of maneuvering ability, but having only successfully managed it a few times myself I agree that it needs to be looked at again. The current action is basically a reverse of the undocking action, but of course that maneuver is a lot easier to perform than this one as the Phantom is not already on the board and out of alignment with the Ghost's guides. I have come up with a couple of other ideas for a docking action, and would appreciate any feedback:

• The Phantom must get inside of Range 1 of the Ghost's auxiliary firing arc, and be facing towards the rear of the Ghost.
• The same as above, but instead of being inside of Range 1, the Phantom must be able to place a 1-speed straight maneuver template between it and the Ghost and have it either touch both ship bases or overlap the Ghost's base.

The first option is a bit easier but still requires the Phantom to be correctly oriented with the docking bay of the Ghost. The second option is the same but at a more precise distance, thus requiring an additional level of skill in terms of judging maneuvers. If the Phantom comes up short, it does not dock with the Ghost and as such is still in active play and at risk of being fired upon.

To address the difficulty of the mission for the Rebel player I am thinking of reducing the number of round that the Ghost must survive from 5 rounds to 3. This means the Ghost may be able to, if the player wishes, simply run away from attacks instead of getting caught in a drawn out shooting fest with the TIEs. I'm not sure yet whether or not to ditch the Reinforcements special rule for the Imperial player as TIEs do have a good chance of being obliterated if the Ghost plays aggressive and keeps within Range 1 in order to roll 5 dice, which with Kanan's ability can prove deadly. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this in particular.

In general also if one sides purpose is to simply kill everything it's usually not that interesting.

This is also true. I'm not really sure how to address this though, as generally its what the Imperials tend to do best in missions that primarily concern the Rebel player having to complete some kind of objective. If you have any suggestions as to other victory conditions for the Imperials in the mission I'd be interested as I'm rather stumped.

Thank you for your feedback, and please leave more if you have more, I'm looking forward to revising this mission and balancing it as well as making it more fun for both players

I think that it'll be hard for the Ghost to clear out those TIEs, but you should run some test games to see how well it does. Specifically, I think the Ghost will struggle from being limited to the front arc or turret (instead of front/back+turret shot when the phantom is docked).

About the docking action, I think tying it to the orientation of the two ships is fine, but you definitely need a little wiggle room. Maybe you could use the front arc of the phantom as a measure for the action. Or you could have something like: "Place a 1-straight template in the front guides of the phantom. If any part of the template overlaps the Ghost's base in-between the rear movement guides, the phantom docks."