So I've been GMing a campaign in EotE where the players are part of Karrade's crew looking to get the Katana fleet to the republic before Thrawn and the Empire could capture it. I've been reading how slave circuits work through the various places it appears in the old EU, and it has me thinking about the Turbolaser upgrade in Armada.

The whole idea of slaving something through a communication circuit was to allow a singular vessel to control the rest in a fleet. For hyperdrive travel and basic fleet navigation it allowed skeleton crews to manage large ships. For turrets, it not only reduced the need for manned guns but also combined firepower to make a few medium size volleys from several ships into one full size bombardment.

Looking at the card, I feel like it should be modified or have an alternate (more expensive?) sister card to give the option to actually slave turrets. As it seems the card itself only refers to turrets on the same ship (which should still increase for more than 1 if you ask me lol)

A few ideas I was considering:

10 points

Turbolaser upgrade

"Fleet slaved turrets"

Modification

You may only attack once per activation. While attacking a ship gain 1 red die. You may add an additional red die for every friendly ship with "Fleet slaved turrets" equipped that has attacked the defender this round.








20 points

Turbolaser upgrade

"Flagship slaved turrets"

Modification

During your activation you may not attack unless you are the flagship. You may only attack once per activation. While attacking, after modifying dice, add and roll the battery armament of every friendly ship with "Flagship slaved turrets" equipped. Dice added this way must be from hull zones that are in arc, have LoS, and must obey range restrictions.



Anyways, I'd like to hear your thoughts.

46 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

"Fleet slaved turrets"

Modification

You may only attack once per activation. While attacking a ship gain 1 red die. You may add an additional red die for every friendly ship with "Fleet slaved turrets" equipped that has attacked the defender this round.

CR90A swarm kills you. Run it with Ackbar for all the lols.

46 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

"Flagship slaved turrets"

Modification

During your activation you may not attack unless you are the flagship. You may only attack once per activation. While attacking, after modifying dice, add and roll the battery armament of every friendly ship with "Flagship slaved turrets" equipped. Dice added this way must be from hull zones that are in arc, have LoS, and must obey range restrictions.

This benefits Rebels more than Imps. CR90A can take this and run around at 64 points. Slave it to an Ackbar80. The smallest ship for Imps is a Vic, and that puts it over 100 points. You opponent can simply run away from your flagship and deny it any shots. Long range lists will rip you apart.

Both of them are way overpriced. You can't even run Flagship Slaved Turrets since you must spend 40 points to get any benefit. I'd rather take a CR90B and chase flots.

Try this:

Slaved Turrets: 5 points. Turbolaser upgrade.
"Before you perform an attack, you may exhaust Slaved Turrets on friendly ship and it may immediately perform an attack. It may only perform an attack against a target you can legally attack. While this upgrade is exhausted, you may not perform an attack."

Same concept you have, but with less restrictions. It does allow you to trigger 3 attacks in a single activation, but it also limits your fleet a bit. The only abuse I see with it is Ackbar and CR90s.

1 minute ago, Undeadguy said:

The smallest ship for Imps is a Vic, and that puts it over 100 points.

Light cruiser? the kitten takes turbos right? so an ISD flagship with a few kittens could still work.

Still some valid points

9 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

Light cruiser? the kitten takes turbos right? so an ISD flagship with a few kittens could still work.

Still some valid points

Oh right forgot about that one.

38 minutes ago, Undeadguy said:

CR90A swarm kills you. Run it with Ackbar for all the lols.

Geez 45 dice per round.... plus most wanted or opening salvo.... ouch... yeah... never mind

Slaved turrets are such a let down for how big of a deal they are in the EU for sure. I'm just finishing the Thrawn trilogy for the first time. Such good stuff. Can't wait til we get to see some Dreadnaughts.

I'm going to point out that the idea works on a single ship, too.

In this context, I'm reading as multiple turrets on the ship slaved to a single gun crew, as opposed to normal operations, where each turret has a gun crew. This would offer either greater accuracy, or more guns on target, depending on how your ship is set up, but a single shooter can only fire on a single target, instead of splitting fire.

Slaved Turrets should be at least 2 red dies to be relevant!!!

Another idea:

Slaved Turrets: While attacking, you may exhaust this card and any number of slaved turret cards on other ships. If you do you may increase your attack pool by all ships with an by this (effect exhausted) Slaved Turret, by the number of attack dice within range of the target ship (not counting the attack pool of the ship arc that is doing the attack). Ships that have exhausted a slaved turret by this effect cannot start an attack this round.

For example : You have 4 Nebulon B in long range to an ISD. One with the Front, 3 with front and side arc. All with Slaved Turrets. Now you can start an attack with the front from the Nebulon and exhaust all 4 slaved Turret. Your Attack pool is now: 3 red (attacking ship) + 3 red (front from Neb1) + 3 red (front from Neb2) + 3 red (front from Neb3) + 1 red (side from Neb1) + 1 red (side from Neb2) + 1red (side from Neb3).
15 red dice in a one attack roll instead of 7 attacks.
Usefull when you are not sure if all your ships will be able to attack at all. it could be even be used to combine the attack dice from two hull zones into one attack. A Nebulon B has the ISD in front and side arc on short range. It can exhaust the slaved turrets to add the dice from the side to an attack from the front. for 4 red and 1 blue dice. Or it could do the normal two attacks like always.
As last bonus: You can attack with all ships normally, and the last one is using the slaved Turrets for a bit finish (your own fault, when you are letting the ships alive, or are not flying out ).

10 minutes ago, Tokra said:

Another idea:

Slaved Turrets: While attacking, you may exhaust this card and any number of slaved turret cards on other ships. If you do you may increase your attack pool by all ships with an by this (effect exhausted) Slaved Turret, by the number of attack dice within range of the target ship (not counting the attack pool of the ship arc that is doing the attack). Ships that have exhausted a slaved turret by this effect cannot start an attack this round.

For example : You have 4 Nebulon B in long range to an ISD. One with the Front, 3 with front and side arc. All with Slaved Turrets. Now you can start an attack with the front from the Nebulon and exhaust all 4 slaved Turret. Your Attack pool is now: 3 red (attacking ship) + 3 red (front from Neb1) + 3 red (front from Neb2) + 3 red (front from Neb3) + 1 red (side from Neb1) + 1 red (side from Neb2) + 1red (side from Neb3).
15 red dice in a one attack roll instead of 7 attacks.
Usefull when you are not sure if all your ships will be able to attack at all. it could be even be used to combine the attack dice from two hull zones into one attack. A Nebulon B has the ISD in front and side arc on short range. It can exhaust the slaved turrets to add the dice from the side to an attack from the front. for 4 red and 1 blue dice. Or it could do the normal two attacks like always.
As last bonus: You can attack with all ships normally, and the last one is using the slaved Turrets for a bit finish (your own fault, when you are letting the ships alive, or are not flying out ).

I like this but could you imagine that on salvation? imma roll it... say 5 times?

1.) 20 damage 2 accuracy
2.) 8 damage 3 accuracy
3.) 18 damage 1 accuracy
4.) 7 damage 3 accuracy
5.) 14 damage 3 accuracy


so it's kinda hit or miss? I'd be pretty steamed to spend all my ship attacks and get 7 damage lol

But 7 damage with 3 acc. Normaly you need the accuracy for each attack. Here you need them only once.

Use it with Vader. Or with Veteran Gunners.
Or a nice 3x ISD II in medium range, for 12 red and 12 blue dice. Add a SW-7 for the extra punsh or a Leading Shots for the evil reroll.

It would be really overpowered, if the opponent does nothing against it. Bring your ships in position, and FIRE!

You could even add the sentense: "exhaust slaved turrents only if the ships have not attacked this round". Just to prevent a abuse with normal attack and slaved attack.

1 minute ago, Tokra said:

But 7 damage with 3 acc. Normaly you need the accuracy for each attack. Here you need them only once.

Use it with Vader. Or with Veteran Gunners.
Or a nice 3x ISD II in medium range, for 12 red and 12 blue dice. Add a SW-7 for the extra punsh or a Leading Shots for the evil reroll.

It would be really overpowered, if the opponent does nothing against it. Bring your ships in position, and FIRE!

You could even add the sentense: "exhaust slaved turrents only if the ships have not attacked this round". Just to prevent a abuse with normal attack and slaved attack.

I dunno, I may be biased as hell my ISD Avenger hits for a minimum of 7 damage every shot.

1 minute ago, Darth Sanguis said:

I dunno, I may be biased as hell my ISD Avenger hits for a minimum of 7 damage every shot.

Only with preperation to exhaust all of the defenders defense tokens first. Means you need at least another ship who can do this (or lots of squadrons with Sloane).
And only in the front .

13 minutes ago, Tokra said:

Only with preperation to exhaust all of the defenders defense tokens first. Means you need at least another ship who can do this (or lots of squadrons with Sloane).
And only in the front .

Nothing to do with the defense tokens.

It's 4 damage from the blue dice ( SW7 ), one double-hit ( TRC ) and one crit ( Screed ) - minimum.

9 minutes ago, Democratus said:

Nothing to do with the defense tokens.

It's 4 damage from the blue dice ( SW7 ), one double-hit ( TRC ) and one crit ( Screed ) - minimum.

He said : ISD Avenger. This lead to the impression that he mean to "use" the titel at least. And this means the defense tokens have to be exhausted. And to exhaust them, you need another ship.

And 7 damage without enough accuracy are not 7 damage anymore after the defense tokens are spend .
7 Damage and 3 accuracy are, most of the time, true 7 damage (... ecm ..., i know...).

4 minutes ago, Tokra said:

He said : ISD Avenger. This lead to the impression that he mean to "use" the titel at least. And this means the defense tokens have to be exhausted. And to exhaust them, you need another ship.

And 7 damage without enough accuracy are not 7 damage anymore after the defense tokens are spend .
7 Damage and 3 accuracy are, most of the time, true 7 damage (... ecm ..., i know...).

lol. Yeah he said "my ISD Avenger" - which is a very particular build.

I know the build so I thought I'd help you out by explaining why it "hits for a minimum 7 damage" as originally claimed.

What the target does with that 7 damage (brace/dodge/scatter/etc.) doesn't change that this Avenger build hit for 7.

I really do like this ISD build. It is mean! Even before the Avenger title kicks in.