i wrote this in another thread.............

Asteroids are getting boring, can we get some other type of space terrain?

how about a capitol ship wreckage, meteor swarms, nebulas, any thing that will change things up a bit.

or how about a deck of battlefeild effect cards.

example:

1- meteor shower passes through combat area, all craft roll 1 attack die for damage

2- electro magnetic interference, must roll 1 attack die when using a target lock. you must roll a hit for it to work.

3- nearby gravity field, all craft treat all white turns as red, and all green turns as white.

4- capitol ship battle, the area of the table is between 2 capitol ships exchanging broadsides. during the end phase of every turn, each player chooses 1 enemy ship and rolls 2 attack die. the ship can roll to evade as normal.

and so on and so forth.

just to add new dimensions to play.

I like the idea of a big chunk of Magnetic rock, in the middle of the battle field. Any turns towards it go down one difficulty, any away from it go up one difficulty. Colliding with it destroys the ship.. IT'S a really big chunk not a small asteroid you can avoid.

I always use number 4 as the reason if you go off the board the capital ship blows you up.

I have to have some kind of sense to the rules of its not fun. Imagination is where its at.

I kinda just want to see turret emplacements. Which can be used for many types of scenarios including Death Star runs.

I almost think you have something against squads that use a lot of ships. They can already have issues with asteroids breaking up their formations but your "option 1" really hoses them as they can potentially take a lot more damage. A reason for running a swarm is damage mitigation/distribution by having a target rich environment but there you're talking about getting everyone "shot at" regardless what you do.

Option 2 may not hit swarms as hard but can be tougher on anyone who needs target locks to do something. Part of me also wonders how this will work. If my X-Wing attacks something and I want to use TL on my rolls to I expend my TL and then roll to see if it can actually do something or does a failed roll simply mean I can't use the TL? How about if I want to fire ordinance instead which requires a TL?

With option 3 a "nearby gravity field" would already be accounted for with the maneuvers. Perhaps if you say "variable gravity field" it may make more sense as some random event. I quiver to think of the amount of stress such an event would cause.

Option 4 could be seen as the most balanced as it is essentially a free "shot from home base" although it does penalize low defense ships more as they are far less likely to evade even two attack dice.

One thing I wonder about those "cards" would be "how are they supposed to be used?" Are you pulling them at the start of the game and then keeping them active the entire time or are they something that would just happen periodically?

We sometimes place an upside-down pasta strainer on the table, not quite in the middle, and call it a tibanna gas refinery. We can run a scenario where the refinery is a target, or just let it sit as this big piece of terrain that makes everyone avoid it -- one great big asteroid. It's different from lots of little ones, for sure.

I almost think you have something against squads that use a lot of ships. They can already have issues with asteroids breaking up their formations but your "option 1" really hoses them as they can potentially take a lot more damage. A reason for running a swarm is damage mitigation/distribution by having a target rich environment but there you're talking about getting everyone "shot at" regardless what you do.

Option 2 may not hit swarms as hard but can be tougher on anyone who needs target locks to do something. Part of me also wonders how this will work. If my X-Wing attacks something and I want to use TL on my rolls to I expend my TL and then roll to see if it can actually do something or does a failed roll simply mean I can't use the TL? How about if I want to fire ordinance instead which requires a TL?

With option 3 a "nearby gravity field" would already be accounted for with the maneuvers. Perhaps if you say "variable gravity field" it may make more sense as some random event. I quiver to think of the amount of stress such an event would cause.

Option 4 could be seen as the most balanced as it is essentially a free "shot from home base" although it does penalize low defense ships more as they are far less likely to evade even two attack dice.

One thing I wonder about those "cards" would be "how are they supposed to be used?" Are you pulling them at the start of the game and then keeping them active the entire time or are they something that would just happen periodically?

these are not ideas i have tried yet, just came up with them on the spot when i wrote them.

they were ment as examples,

i was thinking of a deck that is shuffled at the start of the game, and 1 card drawn.

also, i was thinking of support cards you can purchase as with squad points for things that are not on your ships.

1- ground based ion cannon (you can get a 4 attack die shot every x-number of turns)

2- tractor beam (roll 4 attack die, if you hit, no damage is inflicted, but the ship counts as manuever 0 next turn)

again just examples to get your minds working