All the talk about Sequel era ships in Armada over the last weeks got me thinking- when X-Wing introduced this time frame into the game, every ship shared the "tech" upgrade slot to represent technology advancing.

Given how the tech slot rather uniquely interacted with the game's design space (i.e. altering how tokens are spent or how your forces are placed on the board), I wonder how a possible equivalent for Armada might look like.

Should it be a completely new slot? Should it just be new Experimental Tech? Or do we not need a new slot, but just upgrades for the slots we already have?

a thorough weakness to bombs and hyperspace speed objects? oh wait.

(for the record I loved a lot of the Last Jedi, but I hated ep7, and I'll be frank, watching everything blow up in Last Jedi was not believable. )

37 minutes ago, Blail Blerg said:

a thorough weakness to bombs and hyperspace speed objects? oh wait.

(for the record I loved a lot of the Last Jedi, but I hated ep7, and I'll be frank, watching everything blow up in Last Jedi was not believable. )

I think the way the developers brought the First Order and Resistance into X-Wing has been pretty good and we’re now getting more specific cards (Krennic, for example) which is really opening the design space.

4 hours ago, DampfGecko said:

All the talk about Sequel era ships in Armada over the last weeks got me thinking- when X-Wing introduced this time frame into the game, every ship shared the "tech" upgrade slot to represent technology advancing.

Given how the tech slot rather uniquely interacted with the game's design space (i.e. altering how tokens are spent or how your forces are placed on the board), I wonder how a possible equivalent for Armada might look like.

Should it be a completely new slot? Should it just be new Experimental Tech? Or do we not need a new slot, but just upgrades for the slots we already have?

I don't know that this would be the way to go. The upgrade slot would have to feature things that have both positive and negative qualities I think.

Resistance ships were not high tech. They were salvaged war relics. Even the Raddus, which could be considered an advancement, ran on fuel... a major weakness. Considering the state of the republic, and their opinion of the resistance, there may not be too many helpful upgrades. What the resistance did have was experienced fighters and elder leadership.

On the opposite side of this coin, the FO was very well funded, and lacked governmental interference in weapons and tech development. They could have quite a few advancements in tech. Of course, the big weakness for the FO is the lack of experience in their troops and leadership.

The big idea that comes to mind for me:

Tech:

Umbrella shield (unique)

Large (or extra large if thats what the raddus is) base only

When a friendly small or medium based ship at distance 1-2 is defending, if the attacker is a ship, you may exhaust this card, the defender may spend your defense tokens as if they were their own. Before damage is applied you may reduce a number of shields to cancel an equal number of damage.

15 points

41 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

I don't know that this would be the way to go. The upgrade slot would have to feature things that have both positive and negative qualities I think.

Resistance ships were not high tech. They were salvaged war relics. Even the Raddus, which could be considered an advancement, ran on fuel... a major weakness. Considering the state of the republic, and their opinion of the resistance, there may not be too many helpful upgrades. What the resistance did have was experienced fighters and elder leadership.

On the opposite side of this coin, the FO was very well funded, and lacked governmental interference in weapons and tech development. They could have quite a few advancements in tech. Of course, the big weakness for the FO is the lack of experience in their troops and leadership.

Well, every ship we've seen so far has at least been an improved version of GCW-era tech- to get back to the X-Wing analogy, the sequel era fighters are mostly pricier versions of what we know with that one specific slot only they share.

I'm not sure if this is the way to go either. Otherwise, I would not have created the topic. The only thing I am sure of is that I'd like potential sequel ships to differentiate themselves enough from what we have to be distinct without distorting the game too far. The tech slot came to mind, and going by the above, albeit broad definition, X-Wing handled that rather well, I'd say.

Of course, Armada is a different beast, and the Experimental Retrofit is an immediate analogy here. The Problem, of course, would be that we don't need grav wells on Bunker Busters- we just need a way to show that their computers are "just" 10-20 years old, not 30.

I am still of the opinion that we require more context on the era in several areas, and translating on-screen implications to tangible game mechanics is something FFG has done very well with so far.

I have a few ideas:

• Active Tracking (inspired by the Hyperspace Tracker, first mentioned in the data vault in Rogue One, then used in TLJ.)

Imperial Only “After the Deploy Ships step, if the opponent has any ships or squadrons that did not deploy, you may place a Tracking Token on 1 ship or squadron. When a ship or squadron with a tracking token is placed in the play area, it must discard 1 of its Defense tokens.”

Security Shield (Inspired by the detection system on the Supremacy )

”Once per round, when a Squadron ends its movement at distance 1 of you, you may perform an attack against that squadron.”

• Experimental Deflectors (Inspired by The Raddus )

Large Ship Only ”When you reveal a command, you may discard your command dial to recover 1 shield on each of your hull zones. When a friendly small or medium ship is at distance 1-2 is defending against a ship, treat the attack as Obstructed.”

Mag Pulse (weapons mentioned by Poe in TFA.)

“[Concentrate Fire] When attacking a ship, add 1 Blue Die with [hit] result to the attack pool for each blue [crit] rolled.”

So.. how I would've done it (and might be how I do it on the FoaS edition, if that ever gets off the ground). Is "Experimental Refit" on the interdictor would've been replaced with "Gravity Well" upgrade slot. I would have then put "Advanced Technology Refit" on First Order and Resistance Ships to signify their advancement.

48 minutes ago, jmswood said:

I have a few ideas:

• Active Tracking (inspired by the Hyperspace Tracker, first mentioned in the data vault in Rogue One, then used in TLJ.)

Imperial Only “After the Deploy Ships step, if the opponent has any ships or squadrons that did not deploy, you may place a Tracking Token on 1 ship or squadron. When a ship or squadron with a tracking token is placed in the play area, it must discard 1 of its Defense tokens.”

Security Shield (Inspired by the detection system on the Supremacy )

”Once per round, when a Squadron ends its movement at distance 1 of you, you may perform an attack against that squadron.”

• Experimental Deflectors (Inspired by The Raddus )

Large Ship Only ”When you reveal a command, you may discard your command dial to recover 1 shield on each of your hull zones. When a friendly small or medium ship is at distance 1-2 is defending against a ship, treat the attack as Obstructed.”

Mag Pulse (weapons mentioned by Poe in TFA.)

“[Concentrate Fire] When attacking a ship, add 1 Blue Die with [hit] result to the attack pool for each blue [crit] rolled.”

Love those ideas. I would have two versions of Active Tracking - the first one exactly like your description but "exhaust one defense token" and cost it at three points, the second card "Advanced Tracking" - that keeps the ability to discard (instead of the exhaust) defensive token for six points. I feel like Fleet Support upgrade slot.

Security Shield: Just need to specify if its an anti-squad armament of the ship or a specific die. 2 points? Unsure about icon.

ED: Love it, no changes. 10 points. Defensive Retrofit slot or if we get a Raddus XL base - title card maybe?

MP: Love it. Six, maybe seven points. Sounds like Ion Cannon or Turbolaser upgrade slot.

Would there be TIE/fo, T70, etc. squadrons?

1 hour ago, eliteone said:

Love those ideas. I would have two versions of Active Tracking - the first one exactly like your description but "exhaust one defense token" and cost it at three points, the second card "Advanced Tracking" - that keeps the ability to discard (instead of the exhaust) defensive token for six points. I feel like Fleet Support upgrade slot.

Security Shield: Just need to specify if its an anti-squad armament of the ship or a specific die. 2 points? Unsure about icon.

ED: Love it, no changes. 10 points. Defensive Retrofit slot or if we get a Raddus XL base - title card maybe?

MP: Love it. Six, maybe seven points. Sounds like Ion Cannon or Turbolaser upgrade slot.

I like your suggestion to split the tracking upgrades.

I was thinking all of these would be a new type of tech upgrade for First Order and Resistance ships.

1 hour ago, Stefan said:

Would there be TIE/fo, T70, etc. squadrons?

Yes. There are enough squadrons for an expansion. I would say that’s a topic for a different thread.

37 minutes ago, jmswood said:

I like your suggestion to split the tracking upgrades.

I was thinking all of these would be a new type of tech upgrade for First Order and Resistance ships.

Ah, that's even better. And the expansions for FO and Resistance ships could come with a a unique officer upgrade card that retrofits a tech icon onto the existing ships.

I just can't wait to see the ability of Poe and Kylo in their Squadrons!!

Poe (T-70 Squadron)
4 Blue Anti-Squad | 2 Black Anti-Ship
Unique * Bomber * Escort * Rogue * Snipe 4
When attacking a ship, you may spend 1 Die with a [Crit icon]. If you do, the hull zone you are attacking may not perform any more attacks for the remainder of the game.
When attacking a squadron, instead of rolling dice, you may instead destroy every enemy squadron at Range 1.


Kylo (TIE Silencer Squadron)
3 Blue / 3 Black Anti-Squad | 2 Black Anti-Ship
Unique * Bomber * Intel * Counter 4 * Rogue
When attacking a ship, you may spend any of your dice with a [Hit icon]. If you do, for each die you spent you may discard one upgrade of your choice from the defending ship, including Commander cards.



People complain about squadrons being powerful now... just wait until we get them new trilogy "hero squadrons," which are capable of killing 12 TIEs in 8 seconds (TFA), destroying every single cannon on a massive and still-shielded dreadnought (TLJ), or can destroy the hanger bay and bridge of a monstrous still shielded warship (TLJ). Then we'll really be complaining about squadrons...

The New Trilogy : the worst thing to happen to Star Wars space combat since the Suncrusher bulldozed its way through a few fleets...

11 minutes ago, AllWingsStandyingBy said:

I just can't wait to see the ability of Poe and Kylo in their Squadrons!!

Poe (T-70 Squadron)
4 Blue Anti-Squad | 2 Black Anti-Ship
Unique * Bomber * Escort * Rogue * Snipe 4
When attacking a ship, you may spend 1 Die with a [Crit icon]. If you do, the hull zone you are attacking may not perform any more attacks for the remainder of the game.
When attacking a squadron, instead of rolling dice, you may instead destroy every enemy squadron at Range 1.


Kylo (TIE Silencer Squadron)
3 Blue / 3 Black Anti-Squad | 2 Black Anti-Ship
Unique * Bomber * Intel * Counter 4 * Rogue
When attacking a ship, you may spend any of your dice with a [Hit icon]. If you do, for each die you spent you may discard one upgrade of your choice from the defending ship, including Commander cards.



People complain about squadrons being powerful now... just wait until we get them new trilogy "hero squadrons," which are capable of killing 12 TIEs in 8 seconds (TFA), destroying every single cannon on a massive and still-shielded dreadnought (TLJ), or can destroy the hanger bay and bridge of a monstrous still shielded warship (TLJ). Then we'll really be complaining about squadrons...

The New Trilogy : the worst thing to happen to Star Wars space combat since the Suncrusher bulldozed its way through a few fleets...

1 hour ago, AllWingsStandyingBy said:

I just can't wait to see the ability of Poe and Kylo in their Squadrons!!

Poe (T-70 Squadron)
4 Blue Anti-Squad | 2 Black Anti-Ship
Unique * Bomber * Escort * Rogue * Snipe 4
When attacking a ship, you may spend 1 Die with a [Crit icon]. If you do, the hull zone you are attacking may not perform any more attacks for the remainder of the game.
When attacking a squadron, instead of rolling dice, you may instead destroy every enemy squadron at Range 1.


Kylo (TIE Silencer Squadron)
3 Blue / 3 Black Anti-Squad | 2 Black Anti-Ship
Unique * Bomber * Intel * Counter 4 * Rogue
When attacking a ship, you may spend any of your dice with a [Hit icon]. If you do, for each die you spent you may discard one upgrade of your choice from the defending ship, including Commander cards.



People complain about squadrons being powerful now... just wait until we get them new trilogy "hero squadrons," which are capable of killing 12 TIEs in 8 seconds (TFA), destroying every single cannon on a massive and still-shielded dreadnought (TLJ), or can destroy the hanger bay and bridge of a monstrous still shielded warship (TLJ). Then we'll really be complaining about squadrons...

The New Trilogy : the worst thing to happen to Star Wars space combat since the Suncrusher bulldozed its way through a few fleets...

Did you need to post this in two different threads? We get it, you didn't like the new stuff.

7 hours ago, Stefan said:

Would there be TIE/fo, T70, etc. squadrons?

There had to be, right?

7 hours ago, FoaS said:

So.. how I would've done it (and might be how I do it on the FoaS edition, if that ever gets off the ground). Is "Experimental Refit" on the interdictor would've been replaced with "Gravity Well" upgrade slot. I would have then put "Advanced Technology Refit" on First Order and Resistance Ships to signify their advancement.

That's exactly how I would've pictured it. Especially if the ships themselves are designed around a more specialized role, which this particular upgrade would help diversify.

18 hours ago, geek19 said:

Did you need to post this in two different threads? We get it, you didn't like the new stuff.

To be fair, I posted it here first before @Stefan started the off-shoot from here about New Trilogy squadrons. At which point, I figured it should be relocated to that thread.