It has been ages since I had access to a ship with an Ion gun. Never read the rules online so did not know what they did. So before I finally got my ship, I was surprised that they didn't ignore shields or ignore a persons turn.

For me, I always thought Ion guns or at least the Ion Cannon from Hoth when the Rebel fleet was escaping, it bypassed or ignored the Imperial Destroyers shields, or make the Destroyers not be able to fire back, which led the ships to escape.

I guess I am mistaken, but I wonder what other people thought when they first found out there will be an Ion gun.

The "science" of the movies is not logical or consistent, and despite multiple references to ships having shields the actual battles and hit effects show little to no evidence to support their existence. The functionality of shields, and ion weapons, has been more developed in the EU than in the films themselves.

The fact that ion weapons are actually capable of inflicting hull damage in X-wing is unusual, but they have been shown to damage shields before striking the hull and disabling systems in some other appearances.

There is also the consideration of game balance. The ion effect is fairly powerful as it is, for the targeted ship to lose anything more could make it a little ridiculous. As it stands, FFG have increased the ion cannon's ability to inflict actual hull damage, from more "canon" sources, but reduced its effectiveness at disabling ship systems

Thanks for the explanations. I am not familiar with the EU universe anymore. I stopped reading after they killed of Chewie by dropping a moon on him for one page only.

It makes sense now. Still I think it would be need having it disable ships systems instead of doing hull damage.

So what would people like, hull damage or system disabled? Curious to what others think.

I have always understood ion weapons to be more effective against shields, and when striking armour would disable and short out systems rather than destroy them aiding in the capture of ships over destruction. So as Capitol ships fired, and their victims shields began to fail, they would faze out laser weapons to avoid destroying the ship.

For more fluff logic, you can also change the way you think about damage cards.

Normally, it is logical to assume that a damage card represents a physically damaging hit to the ship's hull from a laser or explosive attack. Rack up enough "hits" on a single target, and they are out of the fight (destroyed)

However, destroying a ship is not the only way to take it out of the fight. Disabling the ship's systems to the point where it can no longer move or attack is another way of destroying it. Therefore, you can think of a hull damage card taken from an ion blast to be electronic damage to minor systems or partial damage to vital systems. A combination of disabling ion blasts and actual physical hull damage can render a ship unable to fight, even if it is not technically "destroyed." in the context of the X-wing miniatures game, a ship that is disabled is "out of play" just as much as a ship that is physically destroyed. They cannot fight, and are removed from the board.

For more fluff logic, you can also change the way you think about damage cards.

Normally, it is logical to assume that a damage card represents a physically damaging hit to the ship's hull from a laser or explosive attack. Rack up enough "hits" on a single target, and they are out of the fight (destroyed)

However, destroying a ship is not the only way to take it out of the fight. Disabling the ship's systems to the point where it can no longer move or attack is another way of destroying it. Therefore, you can think of a hull damage card taken from an ion blast to be electronic damage to minor systems or partial damage to vital systems. A combination of disabling ion blasts and actual physical hull damage can render a ship unable to fight, even if it is not technically "destroyed." in the context of the X-wing miniatures game, a ship that is disabled is "out of play" just as much as a ship that is physically destroyed. They cannot fight, and are removed from the board.

I really like this idea. What I will do when I have time and money to do it, is make some damage cards, that are blueish colour explosions, this way it will look like it has Ion damage to it. Thank you very much for that.

For more fluff logic, you can also change the way you think about damage cards.

Normally, it is logical to assume that a damage card represents a physically damaging hit to the ship's hull from a laser or explosive attack. Rack up enough "hits" on a single target, and they are out of the fight (destroyed)

However, destroying a ship is not the only way to take it out of the fight. Disabling the ship's systems to the point where it can no longer move or attack is another way of destroying it. Therefore, you can think of a hull damage card taken from an ion blast to be electronic damage to minor systems or partial damage to vital systems. A combination of disabling ion blasts and actual physical hull damage can render a ship unable to fight, even if it is not technically "destroyed." in the context of the X-wing miniatures game, a ship that is disabled is "out of play" just as much as a ship that is physically destroyed. They cannot fight, and are removed from the board.

I wanted to write up a capture a ship mission using this game because I thought the ion rules would be like the PC game where the ship would be disabled for a time and then recover. While the current rules reflect ion damage well for small ships in their effects if they take only one token, they're crap for larger ships where it takes multiple tokens before ion damage affects them or if you just take multiple tokens on your small ship but it isn't destroyed.

I propose these revisions to the ion rules.

1. Ion cannon and ion cannon turret cards should read: "if attack hits, defender's shields absorb hits as normal but is not issued tokens until shields are down, once unshielded damage occurs until the ship becomes disabled (1 for small ships, 2 for large ships) and tokens are issued for total number of hits. Subsequent ion hit this round only incur ion tokens on defender.

2. If ion damage is incurred against shielded ships the shields eat the damage as normal but ion tokens cannot be issued until the shields are gone.

3. During the combat phase, if a ship receives enough ion tokens to suffer their effects (1 for small ships, 2 for large ships) before it can activate, then that ship may not perform attacks or evade attacks until ion effects are resolved.

4. If multiple ion hits are incurred in a single round against an unshielded ship, ion tokens are issued for each hit but damage is only incurred until ion effects begin to affect the ship (1 for small ships, 2 for large ships). When a ship receives additional ion hits in that round, only ion tokens are issued. If ion hits are incurred in subsequent rounds, ion tokens and damage cards are issued as normal.

5. Disabled ships are considered disabled for a number of rounds equal to the number of ion tokens it has received by the end phase of the current round.

6. Ion Token Reference Card should read in effects these changes:

Activation Phase: The owner moves the ship as if it were assigned a white {^1} maneuver for the first round and the last round that it has ion tokens but does not move otherwise. After executing this maneuver, remove one ion token from the ship. If no ion token remain on the ship, it may perform actions as normal.

Combat Phase: If ion tokens remain on the ship, the ship may not attack and ion effects remain on the ship for a number of rounds equal to the number of ion tokens. If no tokens remain, the ship may attack as normal.

Example: Chewbacca (PlS:5) in a YT-1300 is facing Kath Scarlet (PlS:7) in a Firespray at range 1 with one shield and no damage and Captain Yorr (PlS:4) in a Lambda is at range 2 with two shields and no damage. Both Kath and Yorr are armed with ion cannons. Chewie's ship is undamaged but only has one shield. Kath fires first with his ion cannon and achieves three hits on Chewie. Chewie has no defense rolls as Kath is at range one so his ship loses its last shield and receives two damage cards and two ion tokens. Chewie's ship is disabled.

Chewie's combat phase activates but as his ship has received two ion tokens it is disabled and cannot perform attacks until the tokens are gone. Chewie roars in anger and frustration as his ship will be disabled for two rounds.

Captain Yorr's combat phase activates and he decides to also fire his ion cannons into Chewie's ship. Yorr rolls two hits at range two. As Chewie''s ship was disabled by Kath, he has no defense dice so cannot evade Yorr's fire but as this is the same round that he took ion damage from Kath he only receives ion tokens from Yorr's hits. Chewie ends the round with two damage cards and four ion tokens resulting in the ship being disabled for four rounds. Chewie roars and shakes his fists in rage

In the next round, Yorr decides to make a bank one maneuver toward Chewie and is now at range one on Chewie. Chewie gives a sigh as his ship does a straight one maneuver and comes to a halt as the engines shut down he then removes one ion token. Chewie now has two damage cards and three ion tokens. Kath decides to move away from Chewie and concentrate on supporting Imperial attacks on other rebel ships. Combat phase begins but as Chewie still has three ion tokens his ship is still disabled and can make no attacks or evasions so he is a sitting duck. Kath decides to attack someone else, but Yorr decides to make another ion attack on Chewie. Yorr rolls two hits and Chewie receives two more ion tokens for a total of five and as Yorr made the first successful ion attack in a new round, Chewie also receives two damage cards. Chewie now has five ion tokens and four damage cards. Chiewie screams and clutches his head in an almost berserker rage.

In round three, Yorr moves away from Chewie to support other Imperial ships. Chewie, as he has already moved while disabled in the previous round does not move and removes one ion token for a total of four ion tokens.

Kath moves into range of other rebel ships. Kath loses his last shield and receives two damage cards from rebel fire.

Chewie is still disabled and can make no attacks or evasions. Chewie has four ion tokens and four damage cards. Chewie starts assessing his damge.

In round four, Yorr moves into range of other rebel ships. Chewie is still disabled so he does not move and removes on ion token for a total of three ion tokens. Kath moves closer to the rebel ships. Kath makes an attack and kills an A-wing. Kath then receives an attack that gives him two hits. Kath's ship explodes around him. Chewie is still disabled and can make no attacks or evasions. Yorr suffers an attack and receives two hits which drops his shields. Yorr makes an attack and misses. Yorr then receives another attack and gets two damage cards. Chewie has three ion tokens and four damage cards. Chewie starts emergency repairs.

In round five, Yorr moves away from the other rebel ships and back toward Chewie. Chewie does not move and removes one ion token for a total of two ion tokens. Chewie is still disabled and can make no attacks or evasions. Yorr makes an attack and misses his attack. Yorr is then attacked and receives two damage cards for a total of four. Yorr is in trouble. Chewie has two ion tokens and four damage cards. Chewie continues to do emergency repairs.

In round six, Yorr continue to move toward Chewie to finish him off but is not in range yet. Chewie does not move and removes one ion token for a total of one ion token. Chewie is still disabled and can make no attacks or evasions. Chewie has one ion token and four damage cards. The other Rebel ships finish off the rest of the Imperial forces. Chewie finishes his repairs and goes back to the cockpit to restart his engines.

In round seven Yorr does his move toward Chewie and enters range two. Chewie restarts his engines, he now moves forward in a straight one maneuver and removes his last ion token. Chewie then places a focus token as his action. Other Rebel forces begin moves toward Yorr. Chewie is no longer disabled and conducts an attack on Yorr who is at range one and rolls two hits and a focus which is turned into a hit for three hits. Yorr has no evasions at range one. Yorr watches his Lambda disintegrate around him.

Rebels win!

I think these rules would more accurately reflect what Ion weapons do than what the game has them do. After all I don't think there effects should disappear after only one round if the target has multiple ion hits.

Ion cannons in this way became too powerful, and turrets ridiculously powerful.

Basically, each side would carry as much ion-armed ships as they could, and the match would be decided on who can ionize his opponents faster, with a strong bias toward the rebel fighters, since they have more shield-equipped ships, able to absorb some ion hits while their imperial counterparts get disabled on the first pass.

Once your opponents are ionized, game over baby, you'll never be able to recover. Since ion tokens are so easy to stack, you can ionize your target for 2 or 3 consecutive turns, then, take all the time you need turn around, fire one or two shots without any defensive maneuvers or actions from your target to avoid it and keep ionizing it to prevent his recover.

Thanks for the explanations. I am not familiar with the EU universe anymore. I stopped reading after they killed of Chewie by dropping a moon on him for one page only.

It makes sense now. Still I think it would be need having it disable ships systems instead of doing hull damage.

So what would people like, hull damage or system disabled? Curious to what others think.

Technically the Ion Cannon does indeed disable ships in this game already. When a ship receives an Ion Token that Ship skips choosing a Maneuver on the next round and is forced instead to drift slightly forwards (1 speed straight). The Ship then "restarts" so to speak and you can perform actions and attack/defend as normal. I would consider that a form of disabling a ship, the effect just doesn't last a large amount of time in the game. That can be chalked up to balance. If the Ion token stayed on longer or had any other effects it would be pretty ridiculous. Plus, if you want to think of it thematically, the Ion Cannons used on the ships in the game are most likely smaller/less powerful versions than that giant ground-to-space cannon from The Empire Strikes Back.

As it stands, the Ion Cannon Turret is my absolute favorite Secondary Weapon in this game and it is the reason I love flying Y-Wings.

I agree, if the Ion Cannon worked the same as it does in the game and The Empire Strikes Back, it would be ridiculously overpowered. I remember fearing the ion cannon in the X-wing computer games because if I happened to lose shields in the presence of fighters equipped with one, I would be dead meat. It always took only a couple of grouped blasts to completely disable my ship, and then the lasers would finish me off.

Ion cannons in this way became too powerful, and turrets ridiculously powerful.

Basically, each side would carry as much ion-armed ships as they could, and the match would be decided on who can ionize his opponents faster, with a strong bias toward the rebel fighters, since they have more shield-equipped ships, able to absorb some ion hits while their imperial counterparts get disabled on the first pass.

Once your opponents are ionized, game over baby, you'll never be able to recover. Since ion tokens are so easy to stack, you can ionize your target for 2 or 3 consecutive turns, then, take all the time you need turn around, fire one or two shots without any defensive maneuvers or actions from your target to avoid it and keep ionizing it to prevent his recover.

Well I only thought of these rules because I wanted to write up a mission where the Imperials had to do a board and storm of a Rebel ship using a couple of Lambdas armed with ion cannons and I didn't think the current rules would disable the target long enough for the lambdas to dock. To me, ion cannons are only useful if you intend to disable a ship for a board and storm. Otherwise, using regular laser cannons are more efficient.

Ion cannons in this way became too powerful, and turrets ridiculously powerful.

Basically, each side would carry as much ion-armed ships as they could, and the match would be decided on who can ionize his opponents faster, with a strong bias toward the rebel fighters, since they have more shield-equipped ships, able to absorb some ion hits while their imperial counterparts get disabled on the first pass.

Once your opponents are ionized, game over baby, you'll never be able to recover. Since ion tokens are so easy to stack, you can ionize your target for 2 or 3 consecutive turns, then, take all the time you need turn around, fire one or two shots without any defensive maneuvers or actions from your target to avoid it and keep ionizing it to prevent his recover.

Well I only thought of these rules because I wanted to write up a mission where the Imperials had to do a board and storm of a Rebel ship using a couple of Lambdas armed with ion cannons and I didn't think the current rules would disable the target long enough for the lambdas to dock. To me, ion cannons are only useful if you intend to disable a ship for a board and storm. Otherwise, using regular laser cannons are more efficient.

Thematically, there are many uses for Blasting things with Ion Cannons (getting past the Super Star Destroyers in Ep 5, taking over a ship as you mentioned, gaining a tactical advantage, forcing your enemy to either surrender or die in a hail of laser fire, etc). If you are looking at it from a gameplay standpoint, Ions are pretty clearly there to aid you in outmaneuvering your opponent.

Considering there are special rules made up for the included Missions in this game, I see no reason why you couldn't just change how the Ion Tokens work for your scenario. Sounds like fun actually. I can imagine Imperials disabling a YT-1300 to capture a certain Smuggler for instance, all while his buddies attempt to defend his sitting-duck ship.

Ion cannons in this way became too powerful, and turrets ridiculously powerful.

Basically, each side would carry as much ion-armed ships as they could, and the match would be decided on who can ionize his opponents faster, with a strong bias toward the rebel fighters, since they have more shield-equipped ships, able to absorb some ion hits while their imperial counterparts get disabled on the first pass.

Once your opponents are ionized, game over baby, you'll never be able to recover. Since ion tokens are so easy to stack, you can ionize your target for 2 or 3 consecutive turns, then, take all the time you need turn around, fire one or two shots without any defensive maneuvers or actions from your target to avoid it and keep ionizing it to prevent his recover.

This is pretty much what I was going to say. I can almost guarantee you that at some point in development Ions did, at the very least, cost you your action phase, and I can equally say with near certainty that it was really easy to abuse. I'd even make a side wager that originally it only took 1 token to Ion a medium-base ship.

But with those rules in place, Ions would have been the dominant meta-weapon, and one that would have been very hard to counter. So I agree Ions feel a little underwhelming but my guess is, it was a very short hop from slightly underwhelming to grossly overpowered.

But with those rules in place, Ions would have been the dominant meta-weapon, and one that would have been very hard to counter. So I agree Ions feel a little underwhelming but my guess is, it was a very short hop from slightly underwhelming to grossly overpowered.

I like that the "dominant meta-weapon" is just straight laser fire. Builds vary with secondary weapons but the primary weapons are where it's at!