Version 1.3

1.2 Amended ISD info

1.3 Removed contain from shield gate

Intro....

This game does not have a specified round or time limit although there are plenty of opportunities for the Imperials to bring this game to a close early. The Rebels always have the initiative.

Preparation

Place the Shield Gate template in the centre of the 6x3 board. The space station token can be used for this if there is not a specific replacement.

The Imperials have will have an ISD2 with the Devastator title card, Boarding Parties and Darth Vader aboard. This starts off the board and will arrive later in the game. None of this is included in the overall cost of the Imperial Fleet later. Further upgrades can be added but are added to the overall cost of the fleet.

The Rebels start have a CR90A with the Tantive IV title, Engine Techs and Princess Leia aboard. This also starts off the board. None of this is included in the overall cost of the Rebel Fleet later. Further upgrades can be added but are added to the overall cost of the fleet.

Both Rebels and Imperials then build fleets of 300 points each with the following restrictions:

Imperials can only have TIE Fighters (including unique) in squadron selections.

Imperials cannot have an Interdictor.

Rebels must have a single large ship – this must be Profundity (if available) including Admiral Raddus and the Profundity title. The Admiral and Title’s effects are not in use this game but also both cost 0 although the cost of the ship and any other upgrades are included in the overall fleet cost. This deliberately restricts the MC75 and Admiral and is thematic.

The rebels can only include X-Wing and Y-Wing (generic only) and Hera Syndulla or single generic VCX100 as squadron selections.

The Imperials deploy all their ships and squadrons first anywhere on the board but at least range 3 away from the rebel board edge and range 1 away from the shield gate.

The rebels must deploy their forces within range 1 of their table edge.

Phase 1 – Disable the shield gate

The Rebels must disable (destroy) the shield gate to allow the transmission to be received from the planet below. It has 10 shields, 8 hull, 2 Brace tokens. There is only a single hull zone for this template. It is treat as an immobile ship for collision purposes but can still use defence tokens.

The Death Star will fire upon the planet at the end of round 4. If the shield gate has not been destroyed by this time, the plans are lost and the Imperials claim victory.

Rules note: It's a bit of a clunky rules mechanic, but the plans could be in 'transit' after round 4 but not yet received by the large rebel ship. This way, it adds a bit of urgency for the rebels to destroy the shield gate instead of focussing on destroying the Imp fleet without a time limit. This rule could cover both phase 1 and 2, but that might make it too tight a timescale to meet. Try it, it might work.

Phase 2 – Vader arrives and the plans are transmitted

Once the shield gate is disabled (destroyed), do not remove it from the board, but mark it as disabled in an appropriate manner.

The Avenger enters play as soon as the shield gate is destroyed (even mid way through a round) and is deployed within range 1 of the Imperial edge and at least range 1 of the side edges. It is immediately available for the Imperials to command. Initial command dials are set during this deployment.

The large ship that the Rebels included in their fleet must now spend a single entire round within range 1 of the disabled shield gate, must be at speed 1 or less and not fire any weapons. This can occur during the same turn that the gate is disabled/destroyed. Timing is critical.

If the large rebel ship is destroyed at any point before they have received the plans, the imperials win.

Phase 3 – Escape with the plans

Once the large rebel ship has achieved phase 2, place a token on the large rebel ship to indicate that the plans have been received.

The Imperials must either completely destroy the large rebel ship or the Tantive IV if it is launched in order to win the scenario, depending on which currently has the Death Star plans.

The rebels must either get the large rebel ship or the Tantive IV off the rebel board edge.

At the end of any turn, if the large rebel ship has LESS than half its hull remaining or boarding parties has been used on it during the round and the large rebel ship is not fully destroyed, the Tantive IV is launched and deployed anywhere within Distance 1 of the large rebel ship. Place the token from the large rebel ship onto the Tantive IV. The Tantive IV is now the objective to escape/destroy, not the large rebel ship. The Tantive IV cannot be launched before this point.

Great idea...

Wonder if there might be an additional mechanic to stretch out the death star deployment by sacrificing fighters - to simulate (whichever flight it was) getting through the shields to back up the ground forces. i.e once the shields are down, the rebels can sacrifice 'x' amount of X-wings fighters (say 3 squads) to delay Death Star deployment by an extra round.

I see what you are going for, but I'd suggest some changes. The rebel capital ship reducing to speed 0 and not firing weapons for a round. I'm sorry but this is a death sentence. Speed 0 in the middle of the battlefield and having your biggest guns silenced for a round is suicide. No defense tokens, no attacks, and a minimum of 1/4 of your points tied up this way? As the Imperial player I'd just be biding my time until this happened, then I'd pounce and wipe it out. Speed 0 ships are cannon fodder.

Taking away the attack restriction and restricting it to a speed 1 maneuver onto the gate would be enough. You still have a lot of planning to have the ship in position and with the proper command to land in the correct spot. Plus you'd want the proper positioning so when you get up to speed to escape you aren't flying right at the new ISD that just entered the field.

As for the fleet makeups, I'd do something more like this:

Imps: 2 ISD (no title), and only non-unique TIE fighters. Vader as the commander, but not actually in the battle till his ship arrives (his effect doesn't apply till he shows up).

Rebels: Must have the MC75. I wouldn't enforce Profundity title or Raddus though as their abilities are somewhat stunted in this scenario. If someone wanted to though, they could certainly play it that way. Must also have at least 1 of each CR90, Neb B, Hammerhead, and GR75 (no titles). These are also the only ships they can choose from. A VCX100 is required, but not necessarily Hera (can be if you want to use her though). Other fighters are X or Y only (at least 1 of each required). Vander, Gold, and Rogue are the only unique squads allowed (other than Hera). Raddus, Dodonna, Mothma all potential commanders.

No unique officers for either side. Trying to keep the characters in the match limited to what you see in the movie. Wave 7 might introduce a few extra characters that we can add into either side. You could enforce a no ship upgrades (or only officer upgrades) to get more fighters in play.

The goal being to recreate the battle. So you want 2 ISDs and a SWARM of TIE fighters. The Rebels need to have a smattering of various ships that appeared in the movie and are more of a swarm type fleet with lots of smaller ships and a smattering of fighters. I wouldn't want some super squad of fighters that can dominate the battle or the Rebel forces being all heavy ships as that isn't how Scarrif went down. I'd take the engine techs off the Tantive. I'd restrict it's first turn speed to 1 also. You could play around with the TIE fighters being all or partially deployed by the gate instead of the deployed by the ISDs (or force squad value of TIEs by the ISDs and the rest by the gate). Or you could allow the Imps to not deploy X amount of fighters and allow them to deploy Y per round from the shield gate to simulate the movie. That would make for some interesting combat as the Rebels approach.

Obviously some playtesting would need to be done to make sure things work out or if certain rules need to be adjusted.

26 minutes ago, kmanweiss said:

I see what you are going for, but I'd suggest some changes. The rebel capital ship reducing to speed 0 and not firing weapons for a round. I'm sorry but this is a death sentence. Speed 0 in the middle of the battlefield and having your biggest guns silenced for a round is suicide. No defense tokens, no attacks, and a minimum of 1/4 of your points tied up this way? As the Imperial player I'd just be biding my time until this happened, then I'd pounce and wipe it out. Speed 0 ships are cannon fodder.

Taking away the attack restriction and restricting it to a speed 1 maneuver onto the gate would be enough. You still have a lot of planning to have the ship in position and with the proper command to land in the correct spot. Plus you'd want the proper positioning so when you get up to speed to escape you aren't flying right at the new ISD that just entered the field.

As for the fleet makeups, I'd do something more like this:

Imps: 2 ISD (no title), and only non-unique TIE fighters. Vader as the commander, but not actually in the battle till his ship arrives (his effect doesn't apply till he shows up).

Rebels: Must have the MC75. I wouldn't enforce Profundity title or Raddus though as their abilities are somewhat stunted in this scenario. If someone wanted to though, they could certainly play it that way. Must also have at least 1 of each CR90, Neb B, Hammerhead, and GR75 (no titles). These are also the only ships they can choose from. A VCX100 is required, but not necessarily Hera (can be if you want to use her though). Other fighters are X or Y only (at least 1 of each required). Vander, Gold, and Rogue are the only unique squads allowed (other than Hera). Raddus, Dodonna, Mothma all potential commanders.

No unique officers for either side. Trying to keep the characters in the match limited to what you see in the movie. Wave 7 might introduce a few extra characters that we can add into either side. You could enforce a no ship upgrades (or only officer upgrades) to get more fighters in play.

The goal being to recreate the battle. So you want 2 ISDs and a SWARM of TIE fighters. The Rebels need to have a smattering of various ships that appeared in the movie and are more of a swarm type fleet with lots of smaller ships and a smattering of fighters. I wouldn't want some super squad of fighters that can dominate the battle or the Rebel forces being all heavy ships as that isn't how Scarrif went down. I'd take the engine techs off the Tantive. I'd restrict it's first turn speed to 1 also. You could play around with the TIE fighters being all or partially deployed by the gate instead of the deployed by the ISDs (or force squad value of TIEs by the ISDs and the rest by the gate). Or you could allow the Imps to not deploy X amount of fighters and allow them to deploy Y per round from the shield gate to simulate the movie. That would make for some interesting combat as the Rebels approach.

Obviously some playtesting would need to be done to make sure things work out or if certain rules need to be adjusted.

All interesting thoughts. I didn't want to be over prescriptive with the fleets to allow a bit of latitude, especially considering new players might not have 2 ISDs and having an ISD already on the field at the start would give the Imps a bigger advantage.

Agree with either VCX100 or Hera.

Agree with speed zero on the large rebel ship and changing to speed 1. Might keep no shooting though, its meant to be tough. Not restricted to MC75 (yet ). Forcing Raddus and title is deliberate so that you can't use any other Admiral or title. As I said, its meant to be tough but not impossible.

Engine techs on Tantive is deliberate. By then all Imps will be focussing on Profundity and will then hammer the CR90 which might suffer a 1 shot. It needs to run like ****. It also ends the game sooner.

Feel free to play it how you like though and help me refine it. At the moment it's a framework.

I've amended the first post on the thread with some of your suggestions. Thanks.

4 hours ago, Rearadmiralsdoitinspace said:

Great idea...

Wonder if there might be an additional mechanic to stretch out the death star deployment by sacrificing fighters - to simulate (whichever flight it was) getting through the shields to back up the ground forces. i.e once the shields are down, the rebels can sacrifice 'x' amount of X-wings fighters (say 3 squads) to delay Death Star deployment by an extra round.

Interesting. I'd suggest playing as is. If it's way too unbalanced for you, your suggestion is an interesting option.

Feel free to suggest anything else.

I think with any kind of scenario like this, you'd want to lay down the base rules (relatively heavy fleet restrictions) if you are going for a specific scenario. And then addressing those issues (such as not having the correct pieces) as optional. We don't have a MC75, so right now sub in either of the Rebel Heavies. Don't have 3 ISDs (****, I don't), sub out 1 for a Glad and a Vic. Suggest alternates.

As for the getaway. I'd be worried that the MC75 could grab the plans, drop the corvette and the corvette make it to the edge before the Imps can even react to it.

It's certainly something I want to play test...but I'm currently building a new table to play on...so I'm out of commission for right now.

I would have 3 ISD 1. The 3rd ISD arrives on turn 5 very similar to hyperspace assault.

Minor change: Darth Vader captains the Devastator with Gunnery Teams. On the Vader turn, at the start of the ship phase, the Imperial player may deploy Devastator at Distance 1 of any friendly ship or the space station. On the first turn it arrives, treat Devastator as though it had discarded all of its Defense Tokens until the end of the status phase. Devastator may not use Dense Tokens on the turn it arrives from hyperspace. Devastator must be the first ship to activate this turn.

2 hours ago, thecactusman17 said:

Minor change: Darth Vader captains the Devastator with Gunnery Teams. On the Vader turn, at the start of the ship phase, the Imperial player may deploy Devastator at Distance 1 of any friendly ship or the space station. On the first turn it arrives, treat Devastator as though it had discarded all of its Defense Tokens until the end of the status phase. Devastator may not use Dense Tokens on the turn it arrives from hyperspace. Devastator must be the first ship to activate this turn.

Yeah, the original scenario was good except for the small problem (which you found) that Vader captained the Devastator at the time.

5 hours ago, ImperialCaptain2017 said:

Yeah, the original scenario was good except for the small problem (which you found) that Vader captained the Devastator at the time.

Yep. Caught me out, doh! I'll amend it. Through popular demand I'll remove the ISD restriction as well.

I like the idea of playing scenarios. With a friend, I started to test the Lothal-Campaign-Concept from here out of the forum. To play a Rogue One-Scenario could be great fun. But I wonder if any of the concepts presented here are playable at all. First of all: How could you possibly destroy a station with 10 shield and 8 hull (18 hull is it) till the end of round 4, when it has 300-points-list-screen AND two Brace Token. (The Contain is absolutly useless, because crits don't matter much against non-movable, non-fighting stations. You could only go for "Structural Damage".)

You won't be able to fire at the station in round 1, so you need to make 6 damage in the following 3 rounds. When this damage is braced, it's up to 12 damage every round!

A 300 pts. list consisting of 2 ISD and a TIE swarm? That's 2 ISD I (220 pts.) and 10 TIEs (80 pts.). The reinforcement is Vader ISD-1 with Devastator and Boarding Troopers adds another 159 pts. Together 459 pts for Imps.

A 300 pts. list with at least 1 GR-75 (18), Hammerhead (36), CR90 A (44) and Neb-B Support (51) consumes already 149 pts. With Hera Syndulla you add another 28 (!) but let's say, its a generic VCX-100 (which is pretty useless) for 15. So we got 164 pts. We don't know yet the cost of the MC 75 , but it will be more than for an AF II, let's say 90 pts. Now it's 254 pts. and we still need Squadrons: For 46 pts. we'll get 2x X-wing and 2 Y-wing .

Reinforcement for the Rebels is the Tantive IV with Leia as Officer and Engine Techs for 58 pts. meaning, they got 358 against 459 pts .

I will bet, that Rebels need 100 FP more and the shield gate should be nothing else, than a Unarmed Station , without Defense Token. That the Imperials start with 100 pts. less should be okay, because the rebels must split fire between the ISDs and the gate. When Vader arrives, it evens out and the Imps got a Commander Effect!

Otherwise I don't see any chance for a fair and funny game.

9 minutes ago, Triangular said:

(The Contain is absolutly useless, because crits don't matter much against non-movable, non-fighting stations. You could only go for "Structural Damage".)

To be precise. 16 Crits don't work with a station. Shield Failure could be handled but doesn't fit well. Injured Crew, Compartement Fire, Faulty Countermeasures, work together with Structural Damage and ...:

"Projector Misaligned " which would be cool against 10 shields. The only problem is you need to fire away the shields before you get your crit through and the it's useless. Only help could be APTs at the Hammerhead or Dodonna's Pride. But you don't have enough points at all to equip anything.

And if the gate has a Contain, so you would need an Accuracy as well...

51 minutes ago, Triangular said:

I like the idea of playing scenarios. With a friend, I started to test the Lothal-Campaign-Concept from here out of the forum. To play a Rogue One-Scenario could be great fun. But I wonder if any of the concepts presented here are playable at all. First of all: How could you possibly destroy a station with 10 shield and 8 hull (18 hull is it) till the end of round 4, when it has 300-points-list-screen AND two Brace Token. (The Contain is absolutly useless, because crits don't matter much against non-movable, non-fighting stations. You could only go for "Structural Damage".)

You won't be able to fire at the station in round 1, so you need to make 6 damage in the following 3 rounds. When this damage is braced, it's up to 12 damage every round!

A 300 pts. list consisting of 2 ISD and a TIE swarm? That's 2 ISD I (220 pts.) and 10 TIEs (80 pts.). The reinforcement is Vader ISD-1 with Devastator and Boarding Troopers adds another 159 pts. Together 459 pts for Imps.

A 300 pts. list with at least 1 GR-75 (18), Hammerhead (36), CR90 A (44) and Neb-B Support (51) consumes already 149 pts. With Hera Syndulla you add another 28 (!) but let's say, its a generic VCX-100 (which is pretty useless) for 15. So we got 164 pts. We don't know yet the cost of the MC 75 , but it will be more than for an AF II, let's say 90 pts. Now it's 254 pts. and we still need Squadrons: For 46 pts. we'll get 2x X-wing and 2 Y-wing .

Reinforcement for the Rebels is the Tantive IV with Leia as Officer and Engine Techs for 58 pts. meaning, they got 358 against 459 pts .

I will bet, that Rebels need 100 FP more and the shield gate should be nothing else, than a Unarmed Station , without Defense Token. That the Imperials start with 100 pts. less should be okay, because the rebels must split fire between the ISDs and the gate. When Vader arrives, it evens out and the Imps got a Commander Effect!

Otherwise I don't see any chance for a fair and funny game.

Remember, this is a pure objective based scenario. If the rebels throw everything at the shield gate, ignoring all the imperial ships, the gate *should* be disabled before the end of turn 4. Yes, some rebels may have to sacrifice themselves in the process.

If the rebels time phase 2 correctly, phase 3 might only last 2 turns to get either profundity or Tantive IV off the board. It doesn't matter if that is the only rebel ship left, they still win.

However, I take your point about the contain on the gate and will remove it.

The scenario needs to give the Imps a chance to win it in another way than just destroying the large rebel ship. Destroying/disabling the gate should be right to the wire before the Death Star fires and the Imps may try to defend the gate more.

How about allowing bombers to fire on the gate even if engaged? The pilots have a single purpose in mind after all. That might make it too easy though.

On 9/12/2017 at 6:18 AM, Gallanteer said:

Version 1.3

1.2 Amended ISD info

1.3 Removed contain from shield gate

Intro....

This game does not have a specified round or time limit although there are plenty of opportunities for the Imperials to bring this game to a close early. The Rebels always have the initiative.

Preparation

Place the Shield Gate template in the centre of the 6x3 board. The space station token can be used for this if there is not a specific replacement.

The Imperials have will have an ISD2 with the Devastator title card, Boarding Parties and Darth Vader aboard. This starts off the board and will arrive later in the game. None of this is included in the overall cost of the Imperial Fleet later. Further upgrades can be added but are added to the overall cost of the fleet.

The Rebels start have a CR90A with the Tantive IV title, Engine Techs and Princess Leia aboard. This also starts off the board. None of this is included in the overall cost of the Rebel Fleet later. Further upgrades can be added but are added to the overall cost of the fleet.

Both Rebels and Imperials then build fleets of 300 points each with the following restrictions:

Imperials can only have TIE Fighters (including unique) in squadron selections.

Imperials cannot have an Interdictor.

Rebels must have a single large ship – this must be Profundity (if available) including Admiral Raddus and the Profundity title. The Admiral and Title’s effects are not in use this game but also both cost 0 although the cost of the ship and any other upgrades are included in the overall fleet cost. This deliberately restricts the MC75 and Admiral and is thematic.

The rebels can only include X-Wing and Y-Wing (generic only) and Hera Syndulla or single generic VCX100 as squadron selections.

The Imperials deploy all their ships and squadrons first anywhere on the board but at least range 3 away from the rebel board edge and range 1 away from the shield gate.

The rebels must deploy their forces within range 1 of their table edge.

Phase 1 – Disable the shield gate

The Rebels must disable (destroy) the shield gate to allow the transmission to be received from the planet below. It has 10 shields, 8 hull, 2 Brace tokens. There is only a single hull zone for this template. It is treat as an immobile ship for collision purposes but can still use defence tokens.

The Death Star will fire upon the planet at the end of round 4. If the shield gate has not been destroyed by this time, the plans are lost and the Imperials claim victory.

Rules note: It's a bit of a clunky rules mechanic, but the plans could be in 'transit' after round 4 but not yet received by the large rebel ship. This way, it adds a bit of urgency for the rebels to destroy the shield gate instead of focussing on destroying the Imp fleet without a time limit. This rule could cover both phase 1 and 2, but that might make it too tight a timescale to meet. Try it, it might work.

Phase 2 – Vader arrives and the plans are transmitted

Once the shield gate is disabled (destroyed), do not remove it from the board, but mark it as disabled in an appropriate manner.

The Avenger enters play as soon as the shield gate is destroyed (even mid way through a round) and is deployed within range 1 of the Imperial edge and at least range 1 of the side edges. It is immediately available for the Imperials to command. Initial command dials are set during this deployment.

The large ship that the Rebels included in their fleet must now spend a single entire round within range 1 of the disabled shield gate, must be at speed 1 or less and not fire any weapons. This can occur during the same turn that the gate is disabled/destroyed. Timing is critical.

If the large rebel ship is destroyed at any point before they have received the plans, the imperials win.

Phase 3 – Escape with the plans

Once the large rebel ship has achieved phase 2, place a token on the large rebel ship to indicate that the plans have been received.

The Imperials must either completely destroy the large rebel ship or the Tantive IV if it is launched in order to win the scenario, depending on which currently has the Death Star plans.

The rebels must either get the large rebel ship or the Tantive IV off the rebel board edge.

At the end of any turn, if the large rebel ship has LESS than half its hull remaining or boarding parties has been used on it during the round and the large rebel ship is not fully destroyed, the Tantive IV is launched and deployed anywhere within Distance 1 of the large rebel ship. Place the token from the large rebel ship onto the Tantive IV. The Tantive IV is now the objective to escape/destroy, not the large rebel ship. The Tantive IV cannot be launched before this point.

May I suggest contain tokens instead of brace, for the space station. Seems more thematic. I get you're trying to make it hard to kill, maybe a high engineering value to compensate?

21 hours ago, Gallanteer said:

Remember, this is a pure objective based scenario. If the rebels throw everything at the shield gate, ignoring all the imperial ships, the gate *should* be disabled before the end of turn 4. Yes, some rebels may have to sacrifice themselves in the process.

If the rebels time phase 2 correctly, phase 3 might only last 2 turns to get either profundity or Tantive IV off the board. It doesn't matter if that is the only rebel ship left, they still win.

However, I take your point about the contain on the gate and will remove it.

The scenario needs to give the Imps a chance to win it in another way than just destroying the large rebel ship. Destroying/disabling the gate should be right to the wire before the Death Star fires and the Imps may try to defend the gate more.

How about allowing bombers to fire on the gate even if engaged? The pilots have a single purpose in mind after all. That might make it too easy though.

Just test it. I have many doubts, that it works. I saw a game in a Corellian Conflict Battle with "Show of Force" Objective, where a ISD went straight against a station protected by a MC80 Battlecruiser. The station went down in round three and so did the ISD. He could have beaten up the Battlecruiser but not both at the same time. Empire did succeed to bring down the second station in about round six. Imps lost nonetheless, but it doesn't mind, because you win this scenario by fulfilling two objectives. Bring down the station AND protect your objective ship.

So let's look closer at these two conditions compared to "Show of Force": The two unarmed station have together 20 hull points to bring down in six rounds and no Defense Tokens. You suggest 18 hull with double brace to bring down in 4 rounds. AND you have to protect your best attackship (single large ship) as an objective ship. I doubt anyone could fullfill these two conditions together. Even more so, when you play with a fleet composition as suggested by kmanweiss. (But I think he's right. Fleet should be as near to the movie as possible. Only the 300 pts. per side don't match. Rebels with 400 pts. should work. Or better 350 against 450 so you can add some Upgrade Cards. When Vader shows up, he evens the gap.)

I would love to play a battle over Scariff and I would like it to be as near as possible to the battle I saw on sreen. (No MC30c thoug *sigh*) And if you watch it carfully, you can see that the Empire was taken by surprise. They had no fighters launched till the first bombing runs of the rebels. Rebels jumped right to the gate and overwhelmed the defenders. They weren't able to destroy the gate, but they succeded to kill both Star Destroyers which rammed into the gate. Since you don't give a rule, that a destroyed ISD (or other imperial ship) gives a bonus by fighting the gate, you give the battle another twist.

So please test your scenario. See, if it works, if it is fun to play. And then give us a record, what you learned and if you would make some changes. Maybe I'm completely wrong and it's already the best scenario ever.

Honestly, I glossed over the points. Tri has a point, the matchups won't work this way. 2 bare ISDs with 10 TIES is a pretty good complement. I'd suggest 2 ties each placed by the ISDs. The rest can be launched 2 per turn from the gate during the squad phase. They have 300 points that way. Give the rebels 400 points but restrict it as I stated above. They have to take on ISDs and TIEs, while blowing up the gate, and trying to get the position and timing correct while protecting important ships. You're MC 75 can't even really get in and rumble as he needs to remain protected which restricts him to single arc long range attacks while the rest of your forces basically charge head long into ISD.

Sure, the rebels have a much bigger force to start with, but it evens out once Vader hits the board. Beyond that, the rebels have a goal. They HAVE to hit the shield gate, and they want to do it fast. This splits their attention and attacks between enemy units and the gate. On top of that, the Imps know exactly where they need to be and what they need to do. They have two hulking ships that will be able to roll in and start wiping ships off the board fast. I'd be restricting the forces to base ships and head to head a couple CR90s and Neb Bs aren't going to last long against ISDs. The ability to launch TIEs from the shield gate also gives the Imps a way to harass fighters or finish off wounded ships trying to retreat.

As far as I'm concerned about the gate, it's not moving, so it gets no defense. I'd prefer it to have multiple shield zones. I'd probably print up some crappy template and slice it in 4ths. Give each zone 5 shield and 5 hull. Require two sections down to bring down the gate. Crits are counted as regular hits. This part requires the most testing though. What's reasonable? As for the time limit, I wouldn't limit the win based on the gate.

Vader could trigger either when the gate is down, or by a certain turn (lets say turn 4). This gives the rebels an incentive to hit fast and get in position to get the plans and scoot before Vader crashes the table. If they slow play it, then their mostly little ships are going to be in a shooting gallery with 3 ISDs.