Here's my take on something that will likely appear only later in the Endor Engagement Campaign or something. Obviously can't put "Death Star" on a neutral objective so here we go:

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Defense Objective: Experimental Superlaser

Setup: Place obstacles as normal, removing the station and asteroids and adding 2 dust fields and 2 debris fields. After placing obstacles, the second player places 1 objective token in the play area beyond distance 5 of both players' edges.

Special Rule: At the end of the Command Phase, the second player may choose 1 enemy ship at distance 1 of the objective token to perform an attack against that ship. The attacker is treated as if it is a ship with a battery armament of 2 red dice, but is not friendly to any ship or squadron. The attack is treated as being at medium range, can be obstructed, and can target any of the defender's hull zones. If the enemy ship receives any damage from this attack, it is destroyed. After performing this attack, the second player takes victory tokens depending on the ship class attacked. This attack cannot be performed on the first round and on consecutive rounds.

At the end of the Command Phase, instead of performing the above attack, you may move the objective token up to distance 1.

Large ship: take 3 victory tokens

Medium ship: take 2 victory tokens

Small ship: take 1 victory token

Victory tokens = -20 for end of game scoring

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encourages first player MSU, but hey, mc80s were the ones being blown up and not the nimbler cr90s right?

Lando would be so useful on a large ship for first player now.

Admo with mm probably can probably sit and laugh with the token for a while, but I have no current idea to make them less vulnerable without making it more dangerous for generic ships.

Flotillas would just scatter you anyway. Leave them for your ships to eat.

(yes, your braces and redirects are useless. Useless)

You only place one token, and that token is removed to fire the laser... At which point, there is no token on the field to allow it to fire again. So it only ever fires once, right ?

4 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

You only place one token, and that token is removed to fire the laser... At which point, there is no token on the field to allow it to fire again. So it only ever fires once, right ?

sorry my bad. I edited the rules from the planetary ion cannon. Thanks for the correction!

I have re-edited the OP now

Alternatively, if it really were a one-time shot, I would probably increase the number of red dice so as to increase the chances of a kill-shot at whatever the second player shoots.

Okay, and now, Critique, which, of course, I apologise for always seeming to be unduly harsh, and yet, rambling:

Do you intend any damage or any damage cards ?

Because I think any damage is a deal-breaker for me in the terms given...

Yes, there is supposed to be an advantage to Player 1. Yes, that advantage is to be offset to player 2 via the objectives, but I just think on how much this is an advantage to Second Player... It would have to be a mandated objective, because as its stated, there is only specific rather than generic things you can do to mitigate it.

Mon Mothma let's you reroll with evade at medium - so hope there's only one hit showing on three reds ... Or in a best case, two reds .

Cracken will let you, if you're small or medium, only take two red dice, but again, if either of those are a hit or a crit, you're done.

Lando - a specific unique upgrade for one ship, will protect that one ship once . If you're lucky with Rerolls (on what, a 3/8 chance? One Acc, two Blanks, right?)

Admonition - a Title upgrade for one specific ship, will protect that ship if one hit is rolled. But not two.

And shooting a naked flotilla still nets you an advance in points. Not much, but an advance nonetheless.

Yes, it should be an advantage, but not a WHY NOT PEW PEW PEW THIS IS AWESOME NEVER AGAIN WILL I PLAY ANYTHING ELSE BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!

The Firing of the Death Star Laser should be a Big Swing or Nothing. If you're going to keep it as is , then make it -100VP to fire the Laser. Make that shot count or lose the Game. Giving up 100VPs to take out a clinch carrier (even if its not a large ship - for exmaple, if it was gallant haven, or a FC/FCT Pelta...) can still be worthwhile.

And remember, you can also be crazy without being "Automatically destroyed".... Have it do Hits-On-Dice worth of Damage Cards. If there is a Crit, its all face up. Through Shields... That way it can be crippling without being PA-CHEW PA-CHEW I WIN.

Because in the end, it needs to be a game .

And a Game can be asymetrical, , but both sides need to feel like they have a chance , or why play?

How about instantly killing the target if X uncanceled damage symbols are shown on the dice? Say, 3. Roll your dice, defender spends Evades. If 3 uncanceled damage remain, dead. If 1-2 uncanceled damage remain, apply damage directly to hull as the laser vaporizes a few decks and burns straight through without initiating a fatal chain reaction.

Great ideas! lemme edit the OP again.

Welcome to all critiques and criticism! That's how we all improve!

@dras, MM allows you to cancel a die at med range, so if an mc30 is obstructed by an obstacle it only has to worry if all 3 dice show hits.

I was of the idea that if the laser so much as touches you, you go poof.

I have to argue against anything but straight destruction of ship. It's the superlaser; it either blows up the ship, or it is somehow deflected, or misses. Partial damage seems entirely wrong.

It might make things more complicated, but having it soll, say, 2 dice on a small ship, 4 on a medium, and 6 on a large might be interesting. Harder to hit small ships.

And Dras is right; if you get to delete an enemy ship, 20 points is not a penalty. 100 points is getting there. Limit your shots to either large ships, or particularly irritating mediums.

A consideration: make three Death-Star themed objectives, one each red, blue and yellow. If you take one, you have to take all. Each one requires the player to only field, say, 300 points. This player will obviously win the bid, so he doesn't have to play 300 points against an enemy fleet without the bonus from his objective. (I mean, unless he wants to) Thematically, maybe make one set each for Rebel FLeet, and one for Imperial Fleet.

For the Imperial side, Red Objective, described above, "Superlaser Online."

Imperial Yellow Objective, "We only have to keep them from escaping" let the imperial side of the board shoot at the rebels who come near, and the rebels get an "escape" area.

Imperial Blue Objective, play something with the DS2 Shield. Block off part of the map that the Rebels can't enter.

I'm gonna have to think on this, somewhat.....

23 minutes ago, JgzMan said:

I have to argue against anything but straight destruction of ship. It's the superlaser; it either blows up the ship, or it is somehow deflected, or misses. Partial damage seems entirely wrong.

It might make things more complicated, but having it soll, say, 2 dice on a small ship, 4 on a medium, and 6 on a large might be interesting. Harder to hit small ships.

And Dras is right; if you get to delete an enemy ship, 20 points is not a penalty. 100 points is getting there. Limit your shots to either large ships, or particularly irritating mediums.

A consideration: make three Death-Star themed objectives, one each red, blue and yellow. If you take one, you have to take all. Each one requires the player to only field, say, 300 points. This player will obviously win the bid, so he doesn't have to play 300 points against an enemy fleet without the bonus from his objective. (I mean, unless he wants to) Thematically, maybe make one set each for Rebel FLeet, and one for Imperial Fleet.

For the Imperial side, Red Objective, described above, "Superlaser Online."

Imperial Yellow Objective, "We only have to keep them from escaping" let the imperial side of the board shoot at the rebels who come near, and the rebels get an "escape" area.

Imperial Blue Objective, play something with the DS2 Shield. Block off part of the map that the Rebels can't enter.

I'm gonna have to think on this, somewhat.....

I reset it to -40, so anything raider and below is not tasty enough.

dicewise, I think there is no need to place more dice for ship sizes. the large ships already have such a high chance to receive a hit and die(since you also agree the superlaser should outright kill stuff), while mediums usually have one evade. I may consider even reducing to 2 red dice.

I also narrowed the firing range to distance 1 to make the coverage smaller and thus less overpowered. It would have to be playtested though. I will ask my casual play buddies when we next gather.

Don't forget that the token is affected by strategic so both first and second player should bring their lambdas and vcxs along for the fun.

That should be a Green Objective.

4 hours ago, Marinealver said:

That should be a Green Objective.

Base defense? yup sounds good. Or maybe even a special assault objective that can only be played when engaging on a spot with a death star marker or something.

I thought up this objective as being a tournament legal piece though, so may have to adjust the rules for a green objective.

This objective discourages large ship fleets and so be prepped to counter MSU when an opponent selects this. The obstacles also gives places for no-evade ships to hide obstructed though. With obstruction the shot only has 5/8 chance to hit(without evade), and second player wastes 40 victory on a miss. Opponents that carry no-evade ships will probably choose ur other objectives so choose assault and navi with that in mind.

Maybe if the objective token is forced to be placed in the centre of the playfield at the start?

EDIT: changed the victory tokens to scale to the ship size being shot at. Doesn't feel as thematic though, since one should be using the same resources to fire the laser at any type of ship..

So ISDs, mc80s and interdictors are not viable for first player against this? Thats obscene

2 hours ago, Ginkapo said:

So ISDs, mc80s and interdictors are not viable for first player against this? Thats obscene

fits the theme!

But actually, not really. Imps can make use of the much needed needa for one their ships. Also jerry to dodge. Also, large ships can and should play all sneaky-like with using the obstacles for obstruction(or rush and use enemy ships for obstruction ackbar style). Better to suffer damage from obstacles than lose the whole ship. When obstructed, second player may not want to take the chance to shoot as it is 3/8 chance to miss and it is a loss of 60 points if it misses a large ship(Also dust fields block attacks). Also if flying large ships it is good to fly strategic squads to help shift the token away from ur large ship. Note the hit range of the token is now distance 1 so it boils down to positioning. If my setup procedure serves me right, the token is placed before ships, so there is still a way to avoid the big laser of doom. Anyhow, after I scaled the victory token loss I think small ships are now also in danger since it is also worth taking a shot at smaller ships.

If it seems to encourage smaller ships, should I also write it such that the evade becomes useless? maybe close range or something.

I'd prefer this, considering the flavor of how the Rebels fought that battle.

Perform an attack against all ships at range 1-2 of the objective token. The attacker is treated as if it is a ship with a battery armament of 6 blue dice, but is not friendly to any ship or squadron. The attack is treated as being at long range, cannot be obstructed, and can target any of the defender's hull zones. After all attacks have been made, remove the token.

Crit Icon: All damage cards from this attack are face up.

Lando and Ackbar dove into the enemy fleet with the notion that the Death Star would take out some ISDs during the fight. This is a more thematic and drastic interpretation of how it could work, and it does not present a complete advantage to the second player.

14 hours ago, Undeadguy said:

I'd prefer this, considering the flavor of how the Rebels fought that battle.

Perform an attack against all ships at range 1-2 of the objective token. The attacker is treated as if it is a ship with a battery armament of 6 blue dice, but is not friendly to any ship or squadron. The attack is treated as being at long range, cannot be obstructed, and can target any of the defender's hull zones. After all attacks have been made, remove the token.

Crit Icon: All damage cards from this attack are face up.

Lando and Ackbar dove into the enemy fleet with the notion that the Death Star would take out some ISDs during the fight. This is a more thematic and drastic interpretation of how it could work, and it does not present a complete advantage to the second player.

In terms of theme, I politely disagree. The superlaser was not seen taking out multiple ships at one go. Though in theory, the laser can hit multiple ships in the line of fire in 3d space. The rebels dove into the isds, but the superlaser crewmen were not seen blasting through the battle like some ruthless strategists and thus we don't see isds shot up by the superlaser. I would suppose that an isd is worth much more than some ties than for the laser to just waste thousands of lives and dollars to get at their targets. Probably the isd commanders would have turned tail and shied from the mc80s knowing that they would be cooked as well. The rebels took a calculated risk to use the isds as shields and it worked.

On the part about the range of the cannon/token to distance 1-2, i will playtest to see if the range should be 1 or 2. I think this ruling is vital to how balanced the game will be for first and second player. Anyhow the use of the token will basically deny the enemy as a no-go zone more than actually destroying ships and first player should be trying to go round it, or run the gauntlet with fast ships. The use of blue dice and the dealing of damage though just feels like a variation of planetary ion cannon, imo.

Not to put down ur idea though. You can try your variation if you like, lemme know how it goes/balances!:)