Offensive retrofit slot upgrade card: "Boarding Party"

"When this ship is at distance 1-2 of an enemy ship, discard this card to choose one crew card from your opponent's damage deck. That card is dealt to the enemy ship face up."

Of course, the damage deck is reshuffled following this effect.

I think it's a perfect design with a Dodonna-like effect.

I need some community aid on what the cost of the card should be. As you all know, there are some pretty nasty crew cards out there.

Questions, comments or concerns welcome.

That would pretty powerful on transports. It would need to be expensive for that reason. Maybe 8 points. Also I think it should the first crew from the top of the deck. With dodonna its the first 4 from the top of the deck. Maybe even change it from a Offensive retrofit to a support team since most of the non-flotilla ships have that and it would make a little more sense. Either way this is a nice idea for the boarding party.

That would pretty powerful on transports. It would need to be expensive for that reason. Maybe 8 points. Also I think it should the first crew from the top of the deck. With dodonna its the first 4 from the top of the deck. Maybe even change it from a Offensive retrofit to a support team since most of the non-flotilla ships have that and it would make a little more sense. Either way this is a nice idea for the boarding party.

Thanks and I agree it would be powerful on transports.

That power would be balanced by the necessity of being close to an enemy ship.

I think support slot would work too. I was just thinking thematically when I assigned it to the offensive slot, but you are correct it would work either way. I'd still like to be able to have one on my ISD is all.

Very cool idea.

I would say if you have a choice of what crew damage card: expensive upgrade.

If you can do something like "deal out damage cards until the first Crew card is revealed, then shuffle the damage deck:" That could be cheaper because it is more random.

A few amendments or things to consider.

1. Search the damage deck for the first crew card from your opponent's deck rather than letting you sift through 40+ cards.

2. Make it a random effect like roll 1 red die. On a hit apply a face up crew card as above. On an accuracy remove an officer upgrade from the target ship. any other result equals no effect (the boarding shuttles were shot down in flight or the defending troops won the battle in the corridors).

3. Make it only playable at the start of a move rather than after your ship moves. Possibly in place of takeing one of your ships ranged shots or in place of using a command that turn.

A few amendments or things to consider.

1. Search the damage deck for the first crew card from your opponent's deck rather than letting you sift through 40+ cards.

2. Make it a random effect like roll 1 red die. On a hit apply a face up crew card as above. On an accuracy remove an officer upgrade from the target ship. any other result equals no effect (the boarding shuttles were shot down in flight or the defending troops won the battle in the corridors).

3. Make it only playable at the start of a move rather than after your ship moves. Possibly in place of takeing one of your ships ranged shots or in place of using a command that turn.

Good ideas here too. But it doesn't seem practical to fit all of that on a card.

1) I'm not a fan of 'active' boarding options.

2) 16 out of the 52 cards in the damage deck are Crew. Its split this way because they are the most devastating, it should take, at the very least, a critical effect to get to use. Getting a face up card, just because you are in the right place and the right time should have some serious investment, when its through shields, to be guaranteed to do one of the more devastating critical effects.

3) Medical Teams would completely invalidate this card. Cards with direct-hard-counters are.... not always the best choice.

Upset this thread didn't contain any artwork!

I agree that it should be the first crew card. Some element of randomness is required else it could get too situationally powerful.

Upset this thread didn't contain any artwork!

I agree that it should be the first crew card. Some element of randomness is required else it could get too situationally powerful.

My apologies. I suppose the title is a tad misleading. If I had the ability, I'd be more than happy to accommodate.

Maybe another in the community can help!

This is guaranteed damage, so what about an offensive slot that says:

Black Crit: If you are at range 1-2 of an enemy ship, you may reveal your opponents damage deck until you reveal the first one with the Crew trait. The defending ship suffers this effect.

This negates the flotilla play, can be used multiple times, and your opponent cans till react to it.

Edit: This also means ISD Is can finally have a black crit effect, and use FCT to deal a standard crit effect as well. It doesn't quite make sense with Sato, since you can also get black dice and an offensive slot on some ships.

This is guaranteed damage, so what about an offensive slot that says:

Black Crit: If you are at range 1-2 of an enemy ship, you may reveal your opponents damage deck until you reveal the first one with the Crew trait. The defending ship suffers this effect.

This negates the flotilla play, can be used multiple times, and your opponent cans till react to it.

It's guaranteed damage, but it's one time only because it is a discard.

That is my response to the crit argument.

With an appropriate point investment, I think it should be an auto-one damage.

At 10 points in an offesive retrofit slot, I would easily bring this card, use intiative to hit a big capital ship with my flotilla, and peace out.

Thanks for the input!

This is guaranteed damage, so what about an offensive slot that says:

Black Crit: If you are at range 1-2 of an enemy ship, you may reveal your opponents damage deck until you reveal the first one with the Crew trait. The defending ship suffers this effect.

This negates the flotilla play, can be used multiple times, and your opponent cans till react to it.

and Dodonna lets you search four cards at a time until you find a crew card!

I'm curious as to what the thought process is for it having to be a crew crit. Frankly, I think a boarding party in ship battles of this size is just as likely to be going in with sabotage on their mind, in which case ship damage makes at least as much sense, if not more sense. Lets face it, I think most of us agree that you aren't boarding a Star Destroyer to 'capture' it as that's highly unrealistic, but a little sabotage seems more likely and reasonable. Passing out guaranteed crits just for getting close better be a pretty expensive upgrade, IMHO.

This is guaranteed damage, so what about an offensive slot that says:

Black Crit: If you are at range 1-2 of an enemy ship, you may reveal your opponents damage deck until you reveal the first one with the Crew trait. The defending ship suffers this effect.

This negates the flotilla play, can be used multiple times, and your opponent cans till react to it.

and Dodonna lets you search four cards at a time until you find a crew card!

This is guaranteed damage, so what about an offensive slot that says:

Black Crit: If you are at range 1-2 of an enemy ship, you may reveal your opponents damage deck until you reveal the first one with the Crew trait. The defending ship suffers this effect.

This negates the flotilla play, can be used multiple times, and your opponent cans till react to it.

and Dodonna lets you search four cards at a time until you find a crew card!

I think using both of them would be redundant, and I;m not sure which one would take precedence.

A few amendments or things to consider.

1. Search the damage deck for the first crew card from your opponent's deck rather than letting you sift through 40+ cards.

2. Make it a random effect like roll 1 red die. On a hit apply a face up crew card as above. On an accuracy remove an officer upgrade from the target ship. any other result equals no effect (the boarding shuttles were shot down in flight or the defending troops won the battle in the corridors).

3. Make it only playable at the start of a move rather than after your ship moves. Possibly in place of takeing one of your ships ranged shots or in place of using a command that turn.

Good ideas here too. But it doesn't seem practical to fit all of that on a card.

I certainly don't think you should apply all three. I was just thinking of ways to tone down the initial ideas. Though I do like the principal.

Star Trek Attack Wing is full of examples of cards along these lines, particularly for the Klingons. They are mediocre to ok, add a bit of flavour, but don't dominate the game.

Whenever you introduce a new mechanic to a game ask yourself if you can spam it? If people end up using autocrit boarding party cards instead of playing the game normally it goes too far.

i would make a distinction that it can only board ships equal to or smaller, like the tractor beam

I dont know, the card assumes the boarding party succeeds no matter what when in reality such an action should be incredibly risky.

An ISD with a crew of 30,000 shouldnt be effected if a CR-90 boarded them

I agree, I just don't feel comfortable with a guaranteed success for something like this. Even an ISD trying to board a CR90 in the middle of an open battle is going to have problems. There are limitations of space in whatever boarding shuttles are used. They have to hit their target and lock on in some way, then force their way in. Boarding shuttles wouldn't be ignored by the defending ship, so AA fire would be coming in. I don't think it should get overly complex, but a simple guaranteed crit seems a little over simplified and unrealistic.

In my mind boarding another ship would cause a Slicer-like effect - you wouldn't be able to use any of your commands or tokens for X number of turns perhaps with an added randomized element of losing an upgrade card.

Something like this perhaps?:

Instead of attacking, you may discard this card to:

If the boarding ship is SM, roll one die.

If the boarding ship is MD, roll two die.

If the boarding ship is LG, roll three die.

For every hit rolled, the boarded ship cannot use commands or tokens for that many turns.

If any criticals are rolled, the ship loses it's least expensive upgrade card.

Maybe have it be an upgrade that just lets you flip a face-down damage card on an enemy ship to face-up (regardless of type)?

Maybe an upgrade that requires discarding it for the effect?

Maybe have it let you look at a small selection of critical damage effects (three cards? pick one from all of its face-down damage cards?), and choose one?

1) I'm not a fan of 'active' boarding options.

2) 16 out of the 52 cards in the damage deck are Crew. Its split this way because they are the most devastating, it should take, at the very least, a critical effect to get to use. Getting a face up card, just because you are in the right place and the right time should have some serious investment, when its through shields, to be guaranteed to do one of the more devastating critical effects.

3) Medical Teams would completely invalidate this card. Cards with direct-hard-counters are.... not always the best choice.

i would make a distinction that it can only board ships equal to or smaller, like the tractor beam

I dont know, the card assumes the boarding party succeeds no matter what when in reality such an action should be incredibly risky.

An ISD with a crew of 30,000 shouldnt be effected if a CR-90 boarded them

Not much to add as others have said most of my thoughts, but just combining them into one post. As Drasnighta said this can be stopped by a 1 point card, now I do not know if people use that card much right now. But if they feared the boarding party it is a cheap card to add on to a ship with the slot for it. I also think that it should be like the tractor beam only ships of equal or smaller, maybe I am using to much logic or what ever, but I can not picture the entire crew and all passengers from a transport being able to do much to a ISD.

1) I'm not a fan of 'active' boarding options.

2) 16 out of the 52 cards in the damage deck are Crew. Its split this way because they are the most devastating, it should take, at the very least, a critical effect to get to use. Getting a face up card, just because you are in the right place and the right time should have some serious investment, when its through shields, to be guaranteed to do one of the more devastating critical effects.

3) Medical Teams would completely invalidate this card. Cards with direct-hard-counters are.... not always the best choice.

You're not just being in the right place at the right time.

You're positioning your ship in a specific location, in harms way, to deal one face up crew card.

There is a serious investment because it is a high point discard upgrade, and your ship has to be in the fray of things to use it. These are exactly the reasons that it shouldn't require a crit roll.

Look, even more of a reason to use medical teams.

Edit:

and Dras I would address the issue of the powerful nature of crew cards by introducing as others have suggested, an element of randomness.

Simply pick the first crew trait, and I could easily see this card being a part of the game.

1) I'm not a fan of 'active' boarding options.

2) 16 out of the 52 cards in the damage deck are Crew. Its split this way because they are the most devastating, it should take, at the very least, a critical effect to get to use. Getting a face up card, just because you are in the right place and the right time should have some serious investment, when its through shields, to be guaranteed to do one of the more devastating critical effects.

3) Medical Teams would completely invalidate this card. Cards with direct-hard-counters are.... not always the best choice.

i would make a distinction that it can only board ships equal to or smaller, like the tractor beam

I dont know, the card assumes the boarding party succeeds no matter what when in reality such an action should be incredibly risky.

An ISD with a crew of 30,000 shouldnt be effected if a CR-90 boarded them

Not much to add as others have said most of my thoughts, but just combining them into one post. As Drasnighta said this can be stopped by a 1 point card, now I do not know if people use that card much right now. But if they feared the boarding party it is a cheap card to add on to a ship with the slot for it. I also think that it should be like the tractor beam only ships of equal or smaller, maybe I am using to much logic or what ever, but I can not picture the entire crew and all passengers from a transport being able to do much to a ISD.

After seeing Rogue One, I can easily see a transport crew disabling taking out a key crew member(s) of an ISD.

Thematically, you can think of it as a suicide mission, especially in light of the fact that you are discarding the upgrade. You send the boarding party on once, but they may never come back...

From a thematic perspective, wouldn't RBD straight up counter a boarding party? Just slam all the doors shut and then open doors to launch them into space.

Unless it's Storm Troopers trying to catch the someone, then it works against them.

This is guaranteed damage, so what about an offensive slot that says:

Black Crit: If you are at range 1-2 of an enemy ship, you may reveal your opponents damage deck until you reveal the first one with the Crew trait. The defending ship suffers this effect.

This negates the flotilla play, can be used multiple times, and your opponent cans till react to it.

and Dodonna lets you search four cards at a time until you find a crew card!

Or just pick from the first four crew cards