So I've once again been playing a bit of Empire At War, a game that most armada players should know about, as a one of the ships in Armada come directly from. The Assault Frigate Mark II. And while, I dont personally use this ship in EaW, I can respect it being added in this game as a bit of nod to one of the best Starwars Strategy games ever made. But there are two ships in this game that I feel would create some rather unique gameplay, and those are.....

Marauder-class corvette Broadside-class Cruiser

AND

These two ships are used as long range ships that can easily take out starfighters, but for me, are used for bombarding stations or large captiol ships at range. So how can we bring this into Armada?

Well, first up, a new gameplay mechanic to represent the range, and the fact that is is technically indirect fire. Missile // Torpedo Tokens. These tokens will be shaped about the size of a dime, and travel in a straight line from the front firing arc of the ships, for a "balanced" but long range max distance, where they will detonate, either impacting with enemy ships, or just blowing up in space. What these ships will do besides long range damage, is allow a skilled player to zone enemies into a more predictable flight path, or zone a enemy away from a particular objective, such as a weakened ship so it doesn't get destroyed as it is pulling away to fight another turn.

Each one of these ships can be slightly different, obviously with Officers in command, but the overall feel of these ships should be pretty even to represent the EaW Orgin, In this game though, I feel some turbo lasers or heavy laser cannons will also be fine for more "close range" engagements. as is with their lore, but there over all shields and hull should be low, and thus kept out of direct engagements and heavily screened by other vessels.

Anyone else have any ideas to represent this vessel better?

I was thinking about this yesterday while playing some EaW. Some ability to remain at speed 0 while being able to rotate on its axis to keep the front arc with missiles spweing out on target would be required as being artillary ships they wouldn't want to be moving closer to the enemy after firing. As for firing and dealing damage I think some kind of target lock system would be required to make them not an easy to use auto win and the damage delayed until the start of the next round to impact the intended target to simulate ordnance in flight.

4 minutes ago, Yosh6314 said:

I was thinking about this yesterday while playing some EaW. Some ability to remain at speed 0 while being able to rotate on its axis to keep the front arc with missiles spweing out on target would be required as being artillary ships they wouldn't want to be moving closer to the enemy after firing. As for firing and dealing damage I think some kind of target lock system would be required to make them not an easy to use auto win and the damage delayed until the start of the next round to impact the intended target to simulate ordnance in flight.

Dumb Fire Mechanics, I guess I didn't quite explain that 100% above... so, when the Ships fire a few missiles, the missiles will be sent out as a cardboard tokens the size of a US Dime, and will travel roughly X amount of distance straight each players turn, until they hit something or blow up at max distance. The point is to not make the damage OP by being lock on, and huge range, but to do damage IF the enemy flys into, or zone out enemies to provide more tactical gameplay.

Gods that broadside ship is ugly. Does it actually fire a broadside by the way or front arc?

1 minute ago, ISD Avenger said:

Gods that broadside ship is ugly. Does it actually fire a broadside by the way or front arc?

The term broadside is to more define its role then defining that its missiles are coming out the side of the vessel. The Lore, states that during combat, these ships would do wide flanks, thus hitting a fleet from a different angle then the main engagement points, thus acting on the enemie fleets "side". Its... a weird explanation but It's the best i got.

As far as the looks, Its not too bad, I think it looks miles better then the Tartan Cruiser from EaW as well.

I hope to NEVER see this ship in any future Starwars titles, unless it's either a crashed ship, or part of some poor pirate's fleet where we just destroy them as cannon fodder.

I don't like the broadside, I prefer the Tartan patrol craft.

Got to be honest, while I do want the Marauder in Armada I would like it to be the stock version with turbolasers.

As for the broadside cruiser you could give it a plastic blast template maybe.

I would love to see some ships with special rules. Able to use 1-2 black dice on long range for example. Or a ship with 6+ red dice that can only be used on short range. I would even love some more ships with red anti squadron die/dice.
It would give some really interessting combinations, and will not really hurt the game (as long as the upgrades, these ships can use, are balanced).

You can even give these ships the text that all upgrade cards that refer to red die count as well to black dice (TRC on black die on long range for example).

Disposable Capacitors were the right idea for this. They could do way more like this. But you have to be carefull with this kind of upgrades. You could open Pandoras Box with it .

I think treating the missiles as sort of 'ship flak' might work. I like the delayed damage until next turn.

Turn 1 fire and mark a small area. Turn 2 all ships that ended up in that small area take 1 damage.

4 hours ago, ISD Avenger said:

Gods that broadside ship is ugly. Does it actually fire a broadside by the way or front arc?

You do realize the broadside is just a smaller gladiator right?

9 minutes ago, chr335 said:

You do realize the broadside is just a smaller gladiator right?

Originally the design team was going to have the Gladiator in EaW, but it didn't fit with the long range mechanic like they wanted. The Tartan Patrol Cruiser was originally going to be a Carrack light cruiser as well.

1 hour ago, chieftom22 said:

I think treating the missiles as sort of 'ship flak' might work. I like the delayed damage until next turn.

Turn 1 fire and mark a small area. Turn 2 all ships that ended up in that small area take 1 damage.

Or like this:

concentrate fire command: place a blast token at distance X

blast token: after 1 round roll Y dice against all ships within distance Z and remove blast token

???

7 minutes ago, Geressen said:

Or like this:

concentrate fire command: place a blast token at distance X

blast token: after 1 round roll Y dice against all ships within distance Z and remove blast token

???

So normal shooting rules unless it is using a Concentrate Fire command, in which case it becomes a blast attack instead?

That would be interesting if that's what you meant.

1 hour ago, Piratical Moustache said:

So normal shooting rules unless it is using a Concentrate Fire command, in which case it becomes a blast attack instead?

That would be interesting if that's what you meant.

well concentrate fire would allow you to use the blast attack yeah, no obligatory blasts.

I like that. Gives you the area control that was mentioned and doesn't seem tooooooo broken.

"Ships I hope never come to Armada"

is how I would name this thread, nice you also got that hideous Tartan.

If you want long range ships use the kitty or potato

1 hour ago, DScipio said:

"Ships I hope never come to Armada"

is how I would name this thread, nice you also got that hideous Tartan.

Hey the Marauder is cool at least, can't really defend the other ships though...

Mel made some detailed versions that don't look half bad.

2 hours ago, DScipio said:

"Ships I hope never come to Armada"

is how I would name this thread, nice you also got that hideous Tartan.

it's not that bad compared to your face.

sorry that was rude of me.

I don't think either ship loos that bad, but the Marauder has a more Star Trek feel to it IMO.

The ideas I came up with was;

Diamond boron missiles: during your attack, for each black dice in arc you may place 1 "Barrage" token at medium/long range. At the beginning of the status phase, each "Barrage" token rolls 1 black dice against ship or squadron at distance 1. Then remove the token.

You could design the token double sided; the second side indicates it takes 2 turns to detonate. During the status phase flip these tokens to the 'one turn to detonate side'. Therefore make it harder to land long range shots.

The barrage token mechanic lets you spread them out, for a weaker attack but zone a wider area, or cluster together for maximum damage.

Cruise missiles: Deploy a cruise missile "squadron" token in base contact with the attacking arc. Set the 'health" of the squadron equal to that arc's number of black dice. Place a 'target' anywhere on the board within your arc. At the beginning of each status phase you may move the 'target token' distance 1-2, then move the Cruise missile "squadron" distance 3 directly towards the target. If it crosses paths with a ship or reaches the target it detonates, rolling black dice equal to its 'health' all ships at distance 1. If it crosses paths with an obstacle, reduce its 'health' by 2.

Long range dumb-fire missiles. A circular barrage token is place at the designated target location. A rectangular volley token smaller than a small base ship is then placed in contact with the the firing ships base attack arc so that it is aimed directly at the barrage token. A number of smaller barrage tokens are placed upon the volley token. Upon firing ship's movement, the missile barrage is moved at a set rate of speed in the direction of the barrage. Each ship that comes into contact with the volley token, or any ship that the volley token comes into contact with takes 1 red die of damage and 1 small barrage token is removed from the volley token. Each squadron that comes in contact with the volley token, or any squadron that the volley token comes into contact with takes 1 red die of damage (no barrage token removed from volley). If all smaller barrage tokens are removed, the volley, and larger barrage token are removed from play. If the volley reaches the larger barrage token, any ships or squadrons in contact with the barrage token takes 1 black die of damage per smaller barrage token. Add some minimal distance for the larger barrage token so you can't just slap it down right next to your ship to hit a bunch of ships and squads at the same time.

This would give you some flexibility in changing barrage target size, number of barrage tokens, volley speed, etc....different ships or classes of ships would have more destructive barrages.

This would make for some interesting play also. Area denial tactics. The volley becomes a moving obstacle that you will want to avoid possibly cutting off access to something at a critical moment in time. The barrage target becomes a way to scare ships away from a certain area and corral them into a more opportune position either away from an objective, or into a heavy fire area.

The concept is that the long range dumb-fire missiles are set to a specific range. Anything unlucky enough to get hit by the moving volley, or to move into the volley are going to get hit by some of the missiles which detonate and do damage. But if the missiles make it to the target area, they all explode doing increased damage. The loss of barrage tokens by intercepting ships is the loss of missiles from the volley.

To that end, what about minelayers? Dropping minefields would be interesting tactical play also. Send small fast ships to drop mines in front of larger, slower ships. Mine the areas on one side of an objective while leaving your side with clear access. Create some sort of rule to attack and clear minefields that would sacrifice an attack and you have some interesting decisions to make.

Both would need to be limited use functions of the ship using the ability. Both could give us a reason to introduce some new ships that don't just feel like reskinned ships we already have.

Disclaimer: I'm not defending these ideas or saying they are good. These are just honest brainstormed ideas. Without a doubt they need heavy fine-tuning/balance. They quite possibly just suck and should be dismissed entirely.

On 10/4/2018 at 11:44 AM, Zeoinx said:

Dumb Fire Mechanics, I guess I didn't quite explain that 100% above... so, when the Ships fire a few missiles, the missiles will be sent out as a cardboard tokens the size of a US Dime, and will travel roughly X amount of distance straight each players turn, until they hit something or blow up at max distance. The point is to not make the damage OP by being lock on, and huge range, but to do damage IF the enemy flys into, or zone out enemies to provide more tactical gameplay.

You want Battlefleet Gothic torpedoes, essentially. I think it would be a nice mechanic in Armada. The problem would be the ships. The Broadside & Marauder were used in a computer game this way, but it has no basis in any star war movies or even books afaik. The Marauder especially does not have the size and looks of a super heavy bombardment ship, and the Broadside I personally just don't like the design of.

The Dreadnought from the last SW movie would be a good candidate for sure, would be a nice way to represent those cannons without making them overpowered.

edit: Perhaps better would just be an ordnance upgrade card i.e. "Diamond Boron Missiles" that has these torpedo mechanics.

26 minutes ago, Lord Tareq said:

The Marauder especially does not have the size and looks of a super heavy bombardment ship

EaW made a backstory about the Rebels removing the turbolasers from their Marauders and replaced with missile launchers. The stock version has 8 double turbolasers and 3 tractor beam projectors.

44 minutes ago, Lord Tareq said:

The Marauder especially does not have the size and looks of a super heavy bombardment ship, and the Broadside I personally just don't like the design of.

Its not a Super Heavy Bombardment ship, its a medium cruiser (roughly the size of the Nebulon B) and isnt for "heavy bombardment" considering the way star wars combat is 2D not 3D, thus, its a zoneing tool, nothing more, nothing less. And as far as appearance, yea, the Broadside isn't the sexiest ship but if anything, it is unique,, and fits the role it was designed for.

The problem with other ugly ships, such as the Tartan, is it has multiple better looking ships that fit the same role, like the Victory II frigate, Raider Corvette, Imperial Vigil-class corvette, and Im sure the list goes on.

32 minutes ago, Zeoinx said:

And as far as appearance, yea, the Broadside isn't the sexiest ship but if anything, it is unique,, and fits the role it was designed for.

Honestly it doesn't look that bad when someone like @melminiaturesadds detail to it.