An agile, fragile small base vessel capable of laying a certain number of mine tokens on the battlefield. Black dice only.

We have two canonical ships of unknown purpose that could perfectly fit this role.

Imperial :

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_Support_Vessel

Or

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Carrack-class_light_cruiser

Batteries better against ships.

Rebel :

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Braha'tok-class_gunship

Batteries better against starfighters.

-

Each ship could drop three mines, four with upgrade.

Damage could be upgraded to be higher with an upgrade.

Perhaps Mine layers could act as sweepers and pick up enemy mines?

I think the idea of a fast mine layer capable of altering the battlefield would shake things up.

What do you guys think?

3 minutes ago, Forresto said:

An agile, fragile small base vessel capable of laying a certain number of mine tokens on the battlefield. Black dice only.

We have two canonical ships of unknown purpose that could perfectly fit this role.

Imperial :

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_Support_Vessel

Or

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Carrack-class_light_cruiser

Batteries better against ships.

Rebel :

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Braha'tok-class_gunship

Batteries better against starfighters.

-

I think the idea of a fast mine layer capable of altering the battlefield would be an intestine game play change.

What do you guys think?

I'm sure FFG could come up with something interesting if they really wanted, but the issue as I see it is action economy versus balance. In order for the minelayers to be effective, they have to be fast enough to reach where they expect the enemy ship to be before they get there, lay the mines, and get out. This is the issue with the proton charge equipped commandos in Legion; it's very challenging to move fast enough to guarantee getting the explosives to do anything. They certainly have defensive uses, but that is a very different approach and playstyle (though one Armada might be more suited to adopting). I'm not opposed, but I think it would be a large challenge.

I agree mine layers could be of use, but also agree that you're not going to be laying a minefield in the middle of a fur-ball. Mine fields are done BEFORE battle, in preparation, not in the middle of it as a tactic.
Myself, I see two possible ways of bringing this to Armada. Firstly: Players who have a mine-layer vessel as part of their task force may place the mines (within reason) before ship deployment of either player. This would bring the "pre-placement" aspect into the game, while still requiring the ship to be present in order to use it.
Secondly: Make the mines "self deploying;" launched like torpedoes/missiles from the ship during play, and then either continuing across the battlefield speed 1 or 2 every turn in a straight line till they hit something/leave the edge, or directed navigation to where you want them to hang out until someone hits them (though myself, I think the "dummy" mines should do more damage than directed -- more room for explosives).

You could also do various types of mines. You could do traditional "hit me and I explode," or you could do remotely operated combat platforms. The "mine layer" would serve as a C&C vessel, trying to avoid contact with enemy ships, while remotely controlling the combat platforms. If the ship is destroyed, all platforms cease to function.
I would do something like maybe 6 mines, or 3 combat platforms?
Just some thoughts.

how about a FASCAM torpedo upgrade?

text will be something like "discard to put 3 objective tokens into play at distance 3-5 of firing ship, each one not closer than 2 from another".

and the same effect that the minefield objective "If a ship ends its movement at distance 1 of an objective token, remove that objective token from the play area and roll 2 blue dice. That ship is dealt 1 facedown damage card for each [hit] or [crit] icon rolled. If there is at least 1 [crit] icon, deal the first damage card faceup."

that will not need a new dedicated ship...

1 hour ago, gounour said:

how about a FASCAM torpedo upgrade?

text will be something like "discard to put 3 objective tokens into play at distance 3-5 of firing ship, each one not closer than 2 from another".

and the same effect that the minefield objective "If a ship ends its movement at distance 1 of an objective token, remove that objective token from the play area and roll 2 blue dice. That ship is dealt 1 facedown damage card for each [hit] or [crit] icon rolled. If there is at least 1 [crit] icon, deal the first damage card faceup."

that will not need a new dedicated ship...

I like it.

11 hours ago, gounour said:

that will not need a new dedicated ship...

Except I think the point was to come up with a new type of ship that could be added.

Putting those on an existing upgrade will risk one ship or another becoming broken.... maybe a fleet support upgrade (flotillas) might work with it.. A new ship that uses mines would be best, if for no other reason than NEW SHIP.

Upgrade slot could have options like place 1 or 2 before deployment, or drop one at range 1 after moving, acting like the mines from minefield, with some special upgraded ones for things like raid tokens, clearing command tokens, maybe an ion (cannot change speed or use yaw clicks for a turn) or scrambler (cannot shoot past close range for a turn)…

Armada being a forward-thinking movement based system like armada has much more potential with these than Legion, where you on the fly move wherever you want within a distance, and has a much smaller playing field relative to the units on the board.

I have spent some time mulling over how to do mines. Have it take the Offensive Retrofit slot an so give you X tokens on the card. More if your base is larger. These mines would trigger after a maneuver and deal not too much damage.

Follow up with one that bypasses shields taking an Ordnance/Offensive dual slot.

And another for Ion/Offensive that slows ships.

We could also have reference cards for them like X-wings bombs.

18 hours ago, gounour said:

that will not need a new dedicated ship...

Well the point was we're going to get another small base rebel ship in the Brahatok and possibly another small base Imperial Ship in the Imperial Support Vessel or Carrack.

A minelayer/sweeper would be markedly different then any small base ship so far.

On 8/23/2018 at 12:55 PM, GiledPallaeon said:

I'm sure FFG could come up with something interesting if they really wanted, but the issue as I see it is action economy versus balance. In order for the minelayers to be effective, they have to be fast enough to reach where they expect the enemy ship to be before they get there, lay the mines, and get out. This is the issue with the proton charge equipped commandos in Legion; it's very challenging to move fast enough to guarantee getting the explosives to do anything. They certainly have defensive uses, but that is a very different approach and playstyle (though one Armada might be more suited to adopting). I'm not opposed, but I think it would be a large challenge.

How about this. I don't write rules well so it's just the concept.

For each minelayer in a fleet a player can deploy two mines on the playfield before the first round. A minelayer can also drop one final additional mine anywhere in close range after making a movement.

Minelayers aren't effected by enemy mines and can sweep them/deactivate them at close range after making a movement.

There could be different types of mines available on the upgrade card that would alter each ships three mine to what the upgrade indicates.

You would have:

Token : Anti-Ship activated if in close range at end of movement.

Field : Anti-Starfighter obstacle tiles like asteroids, but cause dice to be rolled against starfighters that move through them.

The standard would always be a token and any ship that ends a movment in close range of it has to roll a red, two blue, and black die.

Token Upgrades Could Include :

Ion burst: 4 blue dice.

Seismic Charge: 4 red dice.

Cluster Bomb: 2 black dice, 2 red dice

Homing: Two defense tokens are exhausted.