I've found that, for vehicular battles, I prefer to roll initiative per vehicle (roll for the vehicle's pilot) rather than per character. All relevant characters on the vehicle can still act on its slot, but it's easier to track this way.

It may just be my play group, but we discussed this thread and came to a few conclusions. I mean no insult when i say that from a theory craft (adjudicating mechanics in a game based on theoretical situations, not actually playing out the mechanics) perspective, yes capital ships would be vulnerable to torpedo bombardments, but there are a few things I'd like to bring to the general attention of the thread.

The first is Shields. The basic SD has 3 shields in all but the rear arc, where it has 2. Not cripling, but they can reduce the number of advantage generated to mitigate critical hits.

Second, I believe that while repairing damage is limited to once an engagement, I belive that a crew can repair as many criticals as they choose, or at least reduce them, i'll have to check the rules when I get home.

Third, as with any combat mechanic, put it through a real scenario. Given the size, I believe that SD's have sensors that go out to med/long range, where as x-wings can only get to short/medium. If a pair of wings (6 ships) of X wings jumped into extreme range, that's at least a pair of turns for it to launch it's TIE swarm. If they want to jump in closer, they will need good intel on the exact position of the SD. Assuming the GM isn't trying to micromanage every individual fighter, the SD could easily assign 2 wings (again 6 ships) to each X wing, and that would only commit half of the SD's compliment. Assuming that a person is using the minion rules, each PC would have 6 TIE fighters on them, rolling YYYY vs PP +/- modifiers for shields/manuvers. How many rounds could any given X-wing last against that level of fire?

As for me, I'd treat the Turbo laser barrages as a space hazard for just about all concerned, either Hard or Daunting Piloting rolls to avoid being hit every turn.

I’ve been using the sizes for a bit of clarity for the rule. On one of the recent Order 66 pod casts the devs answered a question about personal weapons being used against a star ship. Like in the escape from tatooine scene of A New Hope, when the storm troopers were opening fire on The Falcon. The answer was something about silhouette differences making any actual damage near impossible. Don’t recall the exact wording, but that was the point.

Despite any rules, I would require some pretty phenomenal rolls for an x-wing to take actually damage an ISD, much less take one out, even with proton torpedoes. The ISD will get hit, might even blow out a compartment, space a zone, etc… but to actually lay one out. Almost impossible!

Now, I don’t make a point of space combat, and use it rather sparingly, because not all my players are able to take an active roll in it. The point is, if you’re playing a space combat heavy campaign this really may be more of an issue for you. For me it’s minimal.

I'm not saying absolutely not, Luke smashed a "Moon base" with one torpedo, but you would have slightly better odds then making it snow on Tattooine.

I'm not saying absolutely not, Luke smashed a "Moon base" with one torpedo, but you would have slightly better odds then making it snow on Tattooine.

Admitedly he was targeting a very small vulnerable area, and he is a dirty cheating force user!

That aside, if my campagin were in a similar situation, I doubt I'd be rolling damage against the death star. Intel leads you to needing to accomplish X. after many a turn in space combat, your character eventually satisfies skill challenge to locate X. Gunnery roll succeeds. congradulations, boom goes the dynamite.