Sorry for today's spamming

On page 148 of the Beta book, under the Silhoutte and defense zones header, there is this passage:

"In the case of the Y-wing above. if it were being pursued by a TIE fighter, tre pilot could re-route power from the forward defense zone to the aft defense zone, giving the Y-wing two points of defense aft and none forward until the power is reset. While this certainly shores up the fighter's defense aft, the forward defense zone is left unpowered and defenseless, a tenuous situation if another TIE fighter should appear from ahead. In this the V-Wing has two points of defense alt. which adds •• dice to the TIE fighter's attacks, but any attacks made against the forward defense zone would suffer no •."

but later on on page 156, one can read the following:

"When attacking a ship of silhouette 4 or smaller, the defender chooses which defense zone the attack hits. In game terms, smaller ships are more agile and constantly in motion, meaning…"

From this last passage it is clear that when piloting a ship of silhouette of 4 or smaller the best would be to deflect the shields totally to one of the zones, and select that zone as the one attacked by the opponents. It feels totally anti-tactic and anti-fun, and it is contradictory with the previous passage.

Any ideas?

Cheers,

Yepes

This was discussed in one of the episodes of the Order 66 podcast. I can't remember if they discussed it with a representative from FFG or not, but the consensus was that the smaller ships could choose the defense zone.

This does seem to contradict the other text that you pointed out, and I hope they have cleaned up some of those inconsistencies in the core book. I imagine that my group will use homebrew rules in these situations. I prefer to make use of tokens (or ships from X-Wing Miniatures) and common sense: If a ship is attacking from the front, it hits the front, and if it attacks from the side, that's when the defender can choose which zone is hit.

Yea, I would say generally play it by ear. If the pilot is in full control of the situation, and has made good rolls, I would say they could maneuver their starship so that it hits where they want it to. But if they are being swarmed, especially by smaller craft, and they may have rolled threats or despair on their pilot checks, I could totally see one fighter flanking them and getting some potshots on their unguarded side. Without that kind of threat, I feel like there is no point in NOT angling deflectors.

I'm sure that there are actually rules for this SOMEWHERE in the starship section, or there will be in the final book, but for some reason, vehicle combat in RPG systems always makes my head spin and I find those sections a lot harder to comprehend XD.

Check out the Gain the Advantage action on page 155 of the beta book. It allows a ship with the Advantage to choose which defense zone to make attacks against.

And now I know how everyone manages to double post on here all the time…

Masque said:

Yeah, Masque already provided the appropriate counter-point to the OP: the "Gain the Advantage" ('GtA) maneuver

Using the angle deflector shields maneuver is a gamble. As long as your opponent doesn't successfully perform a GtA man, you are harder to hit. If he DOES successfully perform the manuever, you can get caught with your shields/pants down, and he can target your vulnerable facing.

Without the shields angled, you're equally protected everywhere, so you'll always have some protection available.

-WJL

Reading again the Angle Deflector Shields manoeuvre I end up with another question

The text entry says: "Using this starship maneuver, a crewmember with access to the shield controls can reassign up to one point of Defense from one defense zone to another."

Is it this "up to one point" a limit imposed by the ship? or by the manoeuvre? I mean, can two different crewmembers use this manoeuvre to reassign two points of defense (one point for each manoeuvre)? For example from Def: 2/2 to Def: 4/0? Or any ship can only accept a reassign of its shields of maximum one point? From Def: 2/2 to Def: 3/1 or Def: 1/3?

Looks like per maneuver to me.


Buuuuut, that theoretically means that large warships with large crews could move everything at once, so ships like MC 80 can put something like... 14 defense into a single zone?

But I didn't get much sleep last night so I might be forgetting something...

Edit: thanks Grimm, thought that didn't sound right.

Unless I'm reading it wrong, the most any ship or vehicle can have in a defense zone is 4 points. (p.226, first paragraph of "Silhouette and Defense Zones")

I'd rule that if the ships are fighting each other then the target ship gets to pick the zone that gets hit (barring the GtA action). However, if the ships are engaged in a chase then it only makes sense that the chasing ship can only fire at the rear of the ship that's being chased.

I'd rule that if the ships are fighting each other then the target ship gets to pick the zone that gets hit (barring the GtA action). However, if the ships are engaged in a chase then it only makes sense that the chasing ship can only fire at the rear of the ship that's being chased.

Really, all of the arcs make sense in a chase. Cinimatic chases are more than just a drag race. There is bobbing, weaving, and doubling back. Not to mention looking at things in 3D. If you're above or below your target you see the entire top/bottom, which includes the left, right, and front.

True, but if one ship is trying to escape then it makes sense for it to point its rear end towards the enemy ship(s) at all times. Of course there could be exceptions, but as a general rule I'd say the shots would hit its rear arc.

Guys 2 relevant questions,

a. if i have Gain advantage why not attack the ship at the Port or Starboard since most starfighters have 0 defense there.

b. can a ship transfer its Fore or Aft Shield of 1 to its Port or Starboard of 0 to increase it to 1?

On 5/16/2018 at 10:25 AM, topacesteve said:

Guys 2 relevant questions,

a. if i have Gain advantage why not attack the ship at the Port or Starboard since most starfighters have 0 defense there.

b. can a ship transfer its Fore or Aft Shield of 1 to its Port or Starboard of 0 to increase it to 1?

Starfighters are not large enough to have all 4 shield arcs (port and starboard) and are considered to only have 2 arcs to cover (front and rear).

Only ships with silhouette 4 or higher (sorry 5 or higher) have all 4 arcs (If I recall correctly, as I am away from my rule book).

3 hours ago, topacesteve said:

Guys 2 relevant questions,

a. if i have Gain advantage why not attack the ship at the Port or Starboard since most starfighters have 0 defense there.

b. can a ship transfer its Fore or Aft Shield of 1 to its Port or Starboard of 0 to increase it to 1?

A) The side zones aren't "0" they are "-" that is because they only count as having 2 defensive zones, front and back. You can't shoot at a fighter from the side because the system doesn't count them as having sides you can attack.

B) Yes if a vehicle has 0 defenses on the side you can transfer defenses from a different arc to that one.

7 hours ago, SirSaiCo said:

Starfighters are not large enough to have all 4 shield arcs (port and starboard) and are considered to only have 2 arcs to cover (front and rear).

Only ships with silhouette 4 or high have all 4 arcs (If I recall correctly, as I am away from my rule book).

Actually, it's ships silhouette 5 or higher that have 4 shield zones.