The group I GM will be doing our fight major space combat. They recently acquired a Ywing and a Xwing from helping out the Rebels and have a large freighter (Ferrallis from Lords of Nal Hutta). I have it set up that they will be running from Kanjaklub through an asteroid field to make a hyperspace jump on the other side. Most of the group can fly, help navigate or fire a gunnery weapon except our Guardian Peacekeeper. She (it's my enthusiastic girlfriend) has minimal skills to do any of that (2 INT, 2 Agility, no ranks on any of those skills) and I want her to feel like she helping out. She rarely fights, stopping most fights the rest of the group starts. She has great leadership and likes to use Field Commander to help her friends, and tell them to use stun shots and protect innocents because they boarderline refuse to otherwise. Can she use Field Commander in space combat? What would that even do? What other high presence actions could she do to help?

I'm AFB, but if the detailed Field Commander description doesn't say anything about being engaged with your allies, then she can sure use it over the comms.

It does what it always does. Gives a free maneuver to allies for 1 strain. If the pilot uses it for a pilot-only maneuver, it might cause some system strain though.

She can also try to charm, coerce, negotiate with, etc. the enemy over the comms (use open frequencies or ask the Computer expert in the group to hack slice the enemies' comms). At least before they or their leader kill the open comms or switch to a new secure channel.

Edit: You might also want to look at the squadron rules in the AoR GM Kit, if they team up with a minion group of rebel pilots at any point. Leadership will be very usefull then.

If she's in the freighter she can also coordinate fire in addition to the above. A good talent tree here is Inspiring Rhetoric, granting a bunch of your team boost dice for several rounds is very effective. My Diplomat player uses it a lot in these situations. Also, having Supreme Inspiring Rhetoric lets you do it as a maneuver.

And there's no reason she can't do that while begin on a gun...every little bit helps, especially if aiming and taking the occasional DP. The game is skewed towards offence, so the odds of hitting something are pretty decent.

I'm AFB, but if the detailed Field Commander description doesn't say anything about being engaged with your allies, then she can sure use it over the comms.

It does what it always does. Gives a free maneuver to allies for 1 strain. If the pilot uses it for a pilot-only maneuver, it might cause some system strain though.

She can also try to charm, coerce, negotiate with, etc. the enemy over the comms (use open frequencies or ask the Computer expert in the group to hack slice the enemies' comms). At least before they or their leader kill the open comms or switch to a new secure channel.

Edit: You might also want to look at the squadron rules in the AoR GM Kit, if they team up with a minion group of rebel pilots at any point. Leadership will be very usefull then.

No NPC allies in this encounter. Field Commander doesn't have a range, just limited to allies equal to presence who could hear her commands, (6 in her case because of double via improved field Commander). I guess that was my question, can it be used to do ship maneuvers? What would be the pilot only maneuvers that someone could take?

If she's in the freighter she can also coordinate fire in addition to the above. A good talent tree here is Inspiring Rhetoric, granting a bunch of your team boost dice for several rounds is very effective. My Diplomat player uses it a lot in these situations. Also, having Supreme Inspiring Rhetoric lets you do it as a maneuver.

And there's no reason she can't do that while begin on a gun...every little bit helps, especially if aiming and taking the occasional DP. The game is skewed towards offence, so the odds of hitting something are pretty decent.

I think all of the guns would be full, two on freighter and gunner seat in ywing, with the two pilots of the fighters and an NPC flying the freighter fills everyone but her. What do you mean coordinate fire? Assist maneuvers to the Gunners? She would feel left out with everyone rolling dice but her. Unfortunately she won't have xp to get a new ability/tree before this happens.

Foresee is great to create a good initiative slot for the group. Battle meditation would be even more awesome. Enhance can boost agility and piloting.

Sense unfortunately does nothing in vehicle combat.

Improved field commander in combination with enhanced leader is awesome to hand out an extra actions or create opportunities using the battlefield. Refer here to the "Spending advantages and triumph in space combat", especially those tables for battlefields or asteroid fields.

Fire Discipline is the most useful action from the "Additional starship and vehicle action" table (F-CRB, p. 241), A successful hard leadership check grants the next firing crew member a boost die, adding another ally per 2 success and adding 1 system strain damage per hit from shipboard weapons. If said ship is part of a squadron, personally I would include fire from said squadron. (this happens anyway just when the squadron leader scores a triumph on his check … which naturally could be said fire discipline leadership check or the improved field commander check, depending on the situation.

I'm AFB, but if the detailed Field Commander description doesn't say anything about being engaged with your allies, then she can sure use it over the comms.

BTW Engaged is the thing for vehicles in formation as well. It is even a necessary for the squadron rules.

Pilot only maneuvers are:

Accessible or all ships

Accelerate / Decelerate

If she's in the freighter she can also coordinate fire in addition to the above. A good talent tree here is Inspiring Rhetoric, granting a bunch of your team boost dice for several rounds is very effective. My Diplomat player uses it a lot in these situations. Also, having Supreme Inspiring Rhetoric lets you do it as a maneuver.

And there's no reason she can't do that while begin on a gun...every little bit helps, especially if aiming and taking the occasional DP. The game is skewed towards offence, so the odds of hitting something are pretty decent.

I think all of the guns would be full, two on freighter and gunner seat in ywing, with the two pilots of the fighters and an NPC flying the freighter fills everyone but her. What do you mean coordinate fire? Assist maneuvers to the Gunners? She would feel left out with everyone rolling dice but her. Unfortunately she won't have xp to get a new ability/tree before this happens.

Sounds like the freighter needs another gun Just curious, why is an NPC taking up a useful slot?

F&D p241: Fire Discipline, requires a Hard Leadership or Discipline check. Adds boost to one or more crew, plus Advantages can be used to impose Strain on a target.

If she's in the freighter she can also coordinate fire in addition to the above. A good talent tree here is Inspiring Rhetoric, granting a bunch of your team boost dice for several rounds is very effective. My Diplomat player uses it a lot in these situations. Also, having Supreme Inspiring Rhetoric lets you do it as a maneuver.

And there's no reason she can't do that while begin on a gun...every little bit helps, especially if aiming and taking the occasional DP. The game is skewed towards offence, so the odds of hitting something are pretty decent.

I think all of the guns would be full, two on freighter and gunner seat in ywing, with the two pilots of the fighters and an NPC flying the freighter fills everyone but her. What do you mean coordinate fire? Assist maneuvers to the Gunners? She would feel left out with everyone rolling dice but her. Unfortunately she won't have xp to get a new ability/tree before this happens.

Sounds like the freighter needs another gun Just curious, why is an NPC taking up a useful slot?

F&D p241: Fire Discipline, requires a Hard Leadership or Discipline check. Adds boost to one or more crew, plus Advantages can be used to impose Strain on a target.

My guess is that the Peacekeeper is not a fan of violence.

The freighter is/was owned by a pirate named Gideon. They captured him some time after stealing his ship. After more or less dismantling his whole operation he joined them. Claiming they were better pirates than he ever was. Hes the best pilot of the whole group.

I didn't even realize there was fire discipline! Good call! She wasn't in the last chase scene when they were all flying the freighter.

Captain Gideon can be replaced by a autopilot droid brain with two successful mods, in that case the peacekeeper becomes the better pilot based on Piloting 4 and her agility. Admittedly Gideon would be with the droid brain still be one upgrade better.

Another alternative would be to simply add another quad-laser turret on the freighter, add a gunner brain and let everyone on the ship ignore their awesome fire-support system in form a droid who assists them with gunnery 2 to 4. Might encourage your peacekeeper to finally dump xp into enhanced to increase her agility values for those moments.

Battle meditation is next on her xp list she been pushing towards the force rating, which I think she got last session.

I guess that was my question, can it be used to do ship maneuvers?

Field Commander is also on the Squadron Leader (Commander spec from Age of Rebellion) talent tree. I doubt that it would appear there if it wasn't meant to be usable in space combat.

I guess that was my question, can it be used to do ship maneuvers?

Field Commander is also on the Squadron Leader (Commander spec from Age of Rebellion) talent tree. I doubt that it would appear there if it wasn't meant to be usable in space combat.

You only have to remember that it counts towards the limit of 2 pilot-only maneuvers for the ship and the second costs 2 System Strain even if the maneuver is free for the pilot.

I guess that was my question, can it be used to do ship maneuvers?

Field Commander is also on the Squadron Leader (Commander spec from Age of Rebellion) talent tree. I doubt that it would appear there if it wasn't meant to be usable in space combat.

You only have to remember that it counts towards the limit of 2 pilot-only maneuvers for the ship and the second costs 2 System Strain even if the maneuver is free for the pilot.

That is btw debatable as the talent itself can grant you a 3rd maneuver. You are most likely correct, but it is at least open to interpretation. GM call.

It's possible for the additional maneuver for the pilot to not be one for the ship - in an X-wing or Y-wing, aim for the pilot-operated weapons, for example.

I guess that was my question, can it be used to do ship maneuvers?

Field Commander is also on the Squadron Leader (Commander spec from Age of Rebellion) talent tree. I doubt that it would appear there if it wasn't meant to be usable in space combat.

You only have to remember that it counts towards the limit of 2 pilot-only maneuvers for the ship and the second costs 2 System Strain even if the maneuver is free for the pilot.

That is btw debatable as the talent itself can grant you a 3rd maneuver. You are most likely correct, but it is at least open to interpretation. GM call.

IMO the rules are pretty clear. While characters have a limit of two maneuvers per turn and therefore the out-of-turn maneuver granted by the Field Commander doesn't count towards that limit, starships (sil 1-4) can only benefit from 2 Pilot Only Maneuver per round, where the second Pilot Only Maneuver always costs two System Strain. They explicitly state that even for ships with two pilots (which they still haven't released, I think) the second Pilot Only Maneuver will cost two System Strain.

The only way to get a second Pilot Only Maneuver in one round without causing System Strain is when the pilot rolls 3 Advantage or 1 Triumph and chooses the "one free Pilot Only Maneuver" option.

Ships sil 5 or bigger can only benefit from one Pilot Only Maneuver per round, no matter what.