That is 1 choice. I have been looking at a chaff card, you use it in the missile or torp slot and add 1 or 2 to your agility depending on what we think is appropriate and then discard the chaff card.

Scum already have these, and there's 2 types to choose from - active and passive - they're called:

Z-95 with Feedback Array; and

Z-95 with Dead Man's Switch

See also Prototype Pilot with Cruise Missile.

20 hours ago, Hannes Solo said:

The question is how is its movement determined? You can give it normal manoevers but there should be a mechanism that ensures that the player moves it towards it's target and not just steers it into the next enemy.

Simple. Make it only be able to shoot the ship that it has a target lock on.

Well, that would also kill the possibility for friendly fire, which would be so much fun.

Here's a relatively "simple" mecanic:

1 - Put the missile on a small base.

2 - The missile moves at PS 12 (giving everyone a chance to dodge it). No dial is assigned to it: each move is forced.

3 - Movements include: 4 straight, 3 bank, 2 turn.

4 - Each turn, it must pick the move that would bring it the closest to its intended target (it cannot switch targets).

5 - If the movement template overlaps another ship, nothing happens.

6 - If the missile ends its movement on a friendly or enemy ship, it explodes, causing damage (so you could lead an enemy missile back on its sender).

7 - If the missile ends its movement on an asteroid or its template overlaps an asteroid, it explodes, causing no damage (again, clever manoeuvers to get rid of a missile).

8 - If the movement template or base overlaps the intended target, it explodes, causing damage.

9 - The missile can be shot. It has an agility of 5 (due to its small size), 1 hull and cannot perform any action per round.

10 - A missile can last a maximum of 4 rounds.

Ok, so its rather verbose, but I think it could work.

21 minutes ago, dotswarlock said:

Here's a relatively "simple" mecanic:

1 - Put the missile on a small base.

2 - The missile moves at PS 12 (giving everyone a chance to dodge it). No dial is assigned to it: each move is forced.

3 - Movements include: 4 straight, 3 bank, 2 turn.

4 - Each turn, it must pick the move that would bring it the closest to its intended target (it cannot switch targets).

5 - If the movement template overlaps another ship, nothing happens.

6 - If the missile ends its movement on a friendly or enemy ship, it explodes, causing damage (so you could lead an enemy missile back on its sender).

7 - If the missile ends its movement on an asteroid or its template overlaps an asteroid, it explodes, causing no damage (again, clever manoeuvers to get rid of a missile).

8 - If the movement template or base overlaps the intended target, it explodes, causing damage.

9 - The missile can be shot. It has an agility of 5 (due to its small size), 1 hull and cannot perform any action per round.

10 - A missile can last a maximum of 4 rounds.

Ok, so its rather verbose, but I think it could work.

Cute and fluffy, but it would never be used in a tournament setting, so FFG would never go for it.

If the missile itself were a token similar to a seismic charge but with rear and forward guides it would be pretty straightforward to design it so that you deploy the misile from for forward guides then at the start of the activation phase move it using a maneuver template. If it overlaps a ship or obstacle it detonates. If there are more than one on the board the player with initiative moves all of their first in any order they choose than the other player moves all of their in any order they choose.

If you want to get fancy, you could have the missile deploy with a blue target lock it inherited from the firing ship. (so you need to get a lock somehow, probably with long range sensors, or something like tracers), and if it loses the lock it's removed, and it only detonates if it overlaps the ship with the red partner to it's blue token, or an obstacle. Ypou could also rule that it has to choose a maneuver that ends with it closer to the target (making it easier to run i into rocks as the player can't move it further away from the target to avoid them).

Balancing it would come down to deciding it's detonation effect, and what maneuvers it's allowed (I'd suggest something like speed 1 K-turn, both 45 deg turns at speed 4, and speed 5 straight. That way it will close distance fast, and can reverse sharply to keep it in play, but has a wide turn radius allowing it to be out-maneuvered).

For detention effects it'd depend on what the point of the missile is, but assuming it's an answer to high hull targets perhaps something like this: "Resolve an attack with a number of hits equal to the target's hull value." That way ships with more hull than agility get hit hard, and availability of tokens is pretty limited. The best defense against it is having more shields than hull.

Something less devastating might be: "Assign a face up damage card to the target and resolve it's effect. If the target is a large ship assign an additional 2 face down damage cards".

In the Rebel Transport token there are two sets of tokens one pair for a single ion blast (from Echo base) and one pair for a dual turbolaser blasts (from the Star Destroyer blockade) each with their own firing arcs. You can place a token and in the next turn their firing arc range 1-3 is their attack.

On 9/4/2017 at 5:38 PM, PhantomFO said:

What if you roll an attack die for each point of agility after executing a maneuver. On a crit result, you can either discard the Missile Tracking token or assign it to another ship at range 1. The latter part would represent the classic, "I've tricked your missile into following the wrong target" maneuver.

We could call the card Iron Hand after the tactic used by pilots to avoid SAMS

On 9/4/2017 at 5:38 PM, PhantomFO said:

The latter part would represent the classic, "I've tricked your missile into following the wrong target" maneuver.

Which doesn't happen in Star Wars because missiles in SW aren't heat seekers. They lock specific targets and don't just randomly acquire new targets if they lose the first one.

Whether they are heat seekers is not important, there are multiple ways to distract missiles, jamming, by radar, by electronic chaff or just plan chaff to block the tracking signal. All missiles to a certain extent can also be dodged, by violent maneuvers. Chaff can also represent a physical target that will cause a missile to explode when it is in range of detection.

I like the concept of a Long Range Homing Missile - which could be implemented as follows:

1) You must have a target lock on the target, but you may only fire if the ship is outside R3. The missile can be fired outside arc (so no need for determining arc without a tool). When attacking, spend the target lock to assign the "Long Range Homing Missile" condition to the target, along side the "Long Range Homing Missile" token - and flip the "long Range Homing Missile" over.

2) In the end-phase, a ship assigned the "Long Range Homing Missile" condition, rolls an defence die, on an evade result, remove the condition.

3) At the start of the combat phase, carry out an attack against each ship assigned the "Long Range Homing Missile" condition (as explained on the condition), the attack is 4 attack dice (unmodied, as the missile is selfguided) and the defender defends normally as from an attack from a secondary weapon, and out of arc so autothrusters kicks in. If the attack hits, deal the corresponding damage to the defender and remove the condition.

On ‎05‎/‎09‎/‎2017 at 7:45 PM, Marinealver said:

In the Rebel Transport token there are two sets of tokens one pair for a single ion blast (from Echo base) and one pair for a dual turbolaser blasts (from the Star Destroyer blockade) each with their own firing arcs. You can place a token and in the next turn their firing arc range 1-3 is their attack.

Well remembered. That would work well - place the token with a firing arc anywhere in your firing arc at range 1-3. Next turn it attacks from its firing arc at range 1-3. Theoretically you can place the token at an angle to "shoot around a 90' corner" or you can place them slap bang on the spot a ship currently occupies (with the whole 'you can't get out of your own arc without boost or barrel roll' logic)

If you wanted them to be a little less 'smart' you could specify that the token has to be placed at range 2-3 (or even range 3) in your arc, whilst to give a true 'LRM' feel you could have a 'just fired' side and if you don't attack that turn, you can move again but now flip to the 'exhausted' side, and next turn remove the missile.

So turn 1 you fire them instead of shooting, placing a token at range 3 in your arc, and possibly apply a 'lock on' condition to the target (because it won't be a target lock, and you should be designating your target somehow)

Turn 2 at the start of the combat phase (so your opponent has one movement phase to go "oh, bugger, missiles" and run away) you trigger the missiles - if the target was in range and arc they would have attacked, but their target is not in range 1-3 in arc, so they move again, and are placed anywhere at range 3 in their arc, showing the other side of the token (actually, thinking about it, a different token - because you need to be able to leave the initial token there to adjudicate positioning if needs be; you can't remove it until the final positioning is agreed)

Turn 3 at the start of the combat phase, you again see if the missiles have a target at range 1-3 in arc. If so, they attack, if not, they are removed.

Being able to transfer a target lock to the missiles would be nice, because it would reward LRS armed ships (it's generally a pretty weak upgrade at the moment) and make ST-321/Jendon maybe worth a thought again.

16 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Well remembered. That would work well - place the token with a firing arc anywhere in your firing arc at range 1-3. Next turn it attacks from its firing arc at range 1-3. Theoretically you can place the token at an angle to "shoot around a 90' corner" or you can place them slap bang on the spot a ship currently occupies (with the whole 'you can't get out of your own arc without boost or barrel roll' logic)

If you wanted them to be a little less 'smart' you could specify that the token has to be placed at range 2-3 (or even range 3) in your arc, whilst to give a true 'LRM' feel you could have a 'just fired' side and if you don't attack that turn, you can move again but now flip to the 'exhausted' side, and next turn remove the missile.

So turn 1 you fire them instead of shooting, placing a token at range 3 in your arc, and possibly apply a 'lock on' condition to the target (because it won't be a target lock, and you should be designating your target somehow)

Turn 2 at the start of the combat phase (so your opponent has one movement phase to go "oh, bugger, missiles" and run away) you trigger the missiles - if the target was in range and arc they would have attacked, but their target is not in range 1-3 in arc, so they move again, and are placed anywhere at range 3 in their arc, showing the other side of the token (actually, thinking about it, a different token - because you need to be able to leave the initial token there to adjudicate positioning if needs be; you can't remove it until the final positioning is agreed)

Turn 3 at the start of the combat phase, you again see if the missiles have a target at range 1-3 in arc. If so, they attack, if not, they are removed.

Being able to transfer a target lock to the missiles would be nice, because it would reward LRS armed ships (it's generally a pretty weak upgrade at the moment) and make ST-321/Jendon maybe worth a thought again.

Well at 90 it would be guided but it wouldn't be exactly 90 degrees. You do have to put it at range 3 so there is a way to get outside of its firing arc. It is the standard missile evasion tactic, you turn into the missile then turn away before it hits you forcing it to pass you and turn around.

On 9/4/2017 at 6:59 AM, jmswood said:

"After the target ship executes a maneuver, this missile executes a white 3-speed (straight, bank or turn) maneuver in the direction of the target ship, then the missile receives 1 stress token. When there are 3 stress token on this missile, remove it from play."

This is brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Simple, effective, and easy to track.

The only change I'd recommend is to allow the target ship to take their full activation before the missile activates. That way an interceptor type ship is harder to catch with a missile, while a boat like the Ghost is much easier to hit. Forcing it to use 3 speed maneuvers makes it fast, but also predictable; getting inside its turning radius would be dangerous, but possibly the best way to dodge it.

1 hour ago, Marinealver said:

Well at 90 it would be guided but it wouldn't be exactly 90 degrees. You do have to put it at range 3 so there is a way to get outside of its firing arc. It is the standard missile evasion tactic, you turn into the missile then turn away before it hits you forcing it to pass you and turn around.

Not necessarily; if the positioning rule is "place at range 3", you can control accuratly where it is placed, but nothing stops you placing the token at range 3 facing left or right, or even backwards.

"Smart missiles" in the Star Wars universe (see revenge of the sith) are clever enough to 'come around for another go', so that's not unreasonable.

Reminds me a lot of how torpedoes in Battlefleet Gothic are supposed to work. Translated to X-Wing, this would mean something along the lines of a bomb token that moves at Speed 5 after everything has activated.

Which would be pretty awesome for Epic, as a kind of cruise missile (an actual one, not the kinetic accelerator warhead we have) against huge ships. Think assault ProTorps from Armada. So think big direct hit, moderate splash damage, easy to avoid.

Which means that while I would love to see this in Epic (make it laughably expensive if you have to), this should never be incorporated into the Standard game. We don't need any more auto-damage, and our fighters fight and die over less distance than a torpedo of this size would normally travel (I've always pictured two capital ships hanging just off screen during a standard game).

10 minutes ago, DampfGecko said:

(I've always pictured two capital ships hanging just off screen during a standard game).

That is one of my favourite scenarios from Starlancer/Freespace games - dogfight between two brawling capital ships. With the comment about random 'turbolaser fire' tokens, I may have an attempt to model that as a game scenario, where the board edge is a target you can shoot at for points...

1 minute ago, Magnus Grendel said:

That is one of my favourite scenarios from Starlancer/Freespace games - dogfight between two brawling capital ships. With the comment about random 'turbolaser fire' tokens, I may have an attempt to model that as a game scenario, where the board edge is a target you can shoot at for points...

Yes! But make sure it can shoot back if you get too Close (AA)!

7 minutes ago, DampfGecko said:

Yes! But make sure it can shoot back if you get too Close (AA)!

Probably Range 1-2. That's the range of a Quad Laser Battery, after all.

Alternatively, some sort of "defensive barrage" where the shot gets riskier as you get closer might make sense; so you get shot at after making your attack, and the level of the shot is dependent on how close you are.

What about like a missile that explodes when it gets within a certain range but only stays on the board for a certain amount of time? It can perform certain maneuvers (2 speed shenanigans) but maybe moves first and only explodes if an enemy ship is at range 1 at the end of the activation/combat phase.

Middle token deployed with a three straight. Then it makes a 3spd maneuver every turn without a dial at ps 0 no k turns , but possibly talons

Long Range Homing Missile (Missile Upgrade, 3-4 points?)

range 3-5 or 3+?

Att 4

attack[target lock]: discard this card and spend your TL to perform this attack. The Defender may not use evade tokens during this attack. If this attack hits the defender does not suffer damage until the beginning of the End phase.

I figured we needed a delayed damage warhead that didn’t use clunky mechanics and an extra token flying around the board. And LRS needs a reason to exist.

Putting anything using an epic range ruler in the standard game is almost certainly not going to happen.

I could see doing a range 3+ attack, but it would be tough to balance.