Can someone explain to me how this thing works exactly? I understand that i can attack a ship at range 1-2 even if its outside my firing range but what i dont get is the bottom half of the card. The way i read it is that you get to attack with the weapon and if you roll a hit die the ship your targeting immediately gets 1 damage and receives the ion token without getting a chance to defend. Please tell me im wrong here cuz if im not then this weapons crazy good.

Boose30 said:

Almost. The defender does get to roll his defense dice. But he will never take more than 1 damage from one ion gun attack. Even if he rolls blanks on all of his rolls and you roll hits on all of yours, he will only take 1 damage.

Roy

In addition, you never get the range bonus due to it being a secondary weapon.

More reasons it's balanced (and not as wicked good as you might think):

It costs 5 points! FIVE!

IF you don't score at least a single hit AFTER the defender cancels your dice with his evade roll, then it doesn't go off.

As was mentioned above, you could score 3 critical hits that are not cancelled and you still only get to count 1 (plus you get the ion effect which is groovy).

Above all else it goes on a ship that has low firepower and crummy maneuvers and costs quite a few points. Granted Y-Wings have AMAZING hull and shields and lots of upgrade slots.

Ion cannon is clutch vs Advanced Ties.

It's also great for ramming tie's through asteroids.

I also assume that if an Advanced TIE is hit by the ION that it drops a shield and not auto takes a damage right? Still has ION token with it though.

bullyboy said:

Yes. Ion Cannon's text says: "…takes one damage…" it doesn't specify hull damage, therefore if the target has shields, it loses those first as usual.

gonF00L said:

I played with asteroids for the first time last night and this very thing occurred to me. It was my first time playing with asteroids and nobody of us crashed into one. Too bad I don't have a Y-wing yet.

Even if you don't hit the asteroids, they still change your available maneuvers and they create shooting modifiers. I love the asteroid rules.

Last night I purposefully crashed right through an asteroid to get one last shot on Luke. It was epic.

Daveydavedave said:

You know what's creepy? I JUST talked to Budgernaut and he said he did the exact same thing. I'd almost think you were his twin instead of me.

Parakitor said:

I woud say "great minds think alike" but I think in this case it's "devious minds think alike"

Does the ion token stay on the entire game, or removed with the clean up phase?

Actually it's removed in the activation phase, after the forward 1 drift. Then the ship can take an action. It's maneuvering that is impaired for the round.

magadizer said:

thanks for that, totally missed that line on the card

It's a cool thing about this game that the rules are very simple from one perspective, and complex from another, so that if you miss a rule or break it, it doesn't end up breaking the gameplay.

I know this from experience already that's for sure.

I tell you, it does make you think twice about getting too close to a Y-Wing though. It may only do 1 damage, but when you can only take 3 hits AND it can hit you from any angle, that can get ugly quick. And that's not counting its special ability.

Zoso said:

yeah, the limited speed and maneuverability along with the resilience, I sped mine ahead towards my opponents Vader and other Tie. They broke off, but with it being 360 targeting, I kept speeding through, disabled Vader and followed up with an Xwing taking his shields away and punching another hit. Ywing is a beast.

Stupid question here (because I am going to be playing against a couple of rules lawyers next weekend!):

Say I have a Y-wing with pilot skill of 6 9for sake of argument) and I Ion cannon a Tie with Pilot skill 2, that tie immediately gets rid of the assigned movement dial right? It doesnt have to wait until the next turn for the effect to happen?

I ask because the card for Ion effect starts wih saying that you dont assign a movement dial, howeve rin my example this has already been done!

Im pretty sure that the effect is immediate, but wanted to check if this is the generally accepted view before I insist on it…

You don't get to remove an already assigned movement dial because you are currently in the Combat phase.

You only get to assign a maneuver dial during the Planning phase, which the owner of the ship with the ion token does not get to do.

Check the Ion token card again to see the special rules it follows during which phases.

ArcticSnake said:

So you are saying that even though this is not a simultaneous move, in which everyitng is taken to resolve simultaneously, a pilot skill 1 ship which has just been blasted with an Ion cannon by a pilot skill 8 (for example) ship still gets to move as it was designated?

surely this makes no sense, as the ship has not moved yet?

For example, my Y wing moves in and attacks a tie which hasnt moved yet.

That Tie's movement dial would take it way out of range for my Ion cannon.

So you are saying that (to visualise) my Ion cannon is actually shooting at something which is out of its range? If it's not doing this, then surely it implies that the ion cannon has a delayed effect? Im not sure this makes much logical sense.

The way I see it; Y wing shoots Tie. Tie's engines fry (or whatever). Tie cannot excuste manouvre it was assigned, because its engines were fried before it got the chance to move!

If this were a 'same pilot skill' issue, I would agree totally (as the Tie has already begun to manouvre as it gets hit) but as it's not… I dont see how it makes sense…

Wait. Im an idiot.

Forget my question.

I somehow neglected to note that if the Ion cannon is being fired, all ships have alreayd moved!

Something is clouding my judgement… a presence I havent felt in a long time…

R2D2 said:

Ah, you are right. I did not think of that as well. Haha

Yep, the ION effect gets placed in the Combat phase, after movement has already happened. The ION restriction then applies to the following turn's movement for the affected TIE.