I love the idea of EVENT cards.

I first saw this idea in a post called Celestial Phenomenon by Rodent Mastermind

He was creating alternate obstacles/asteroids

I.e. Ion clouds, Mine fields etc

Don't know if he ever made the event cards as the post fell into obscurity like many others.

I think he postulated a Solar Flare effect where ships could only fire at range 1 that turn.

With Chris' enlightenment on what a Blue Falcon is....

Blue Falcon - Friendly ships may not complete the same action chosen by this pilot.

(might be better to put a range limiter on it, such as range 2)

Some interesting things could occur here...

1. You could forget to reserve an action for this pilot and thus have no action even without a collision.

2. You could forget that you want to reserve an action for an ally and screw your own gameplan.

With Chris' enlightenment on what a Blue Falcon is....

Blue Falcon - Friendly ships may not complete the same action chosen by this pilot.

(might be better to put a range limiter on it, such as range 2)

Some interesting things could occur here...

1. You could forget to reserve an action for this pilot and thus have no action even without a collision.

2. You could forget that you want to reserve an action for an ally and screw your own gameplan.

I'm not sure about how such a drawback would workout.

Are you saying that while everyone is a squad could use the Focus action if this one ship uses it then no one acting later would be able to do the same? Or maybe you're saying that if this ship chooses to Focus then no other ship acting after it will be able to take a Focus action. A third possibility is that no one could take/use the same action as this ship.

Yes, I see how the language I used is weird.

The idea is that whatever action he takes, no other friendlies could use or have used. Sometimes that means he will dictate the action his teammates cannot use by choosing his own before they do (most likely due to difference in PS).........and sometimes his action choices will be limited based on what others are choosing before him and preventing him from using the same action they picked.

Craziness, totally forgot where I was going with this on the benefit side.....

As additional food for thought, how about an EPS (or pilot ability) along these lines....

Bloodthirsty (PS 7 or higher) - You may perform a second attack with a primary weapon and no attack dice modifications. For the rest of this combat phase, no other friendly ships may attack.

What about cards you can place on opponents ships?

Double Agent

You may not attack enemy ships or use bombs or use skills on enemy ships unless you are either within range 3 and within the firing arc of a friendly ship or in range 1 of a friendly ship. (This includes crew skills such as Vader/Saboteur)

This is showing you won't attack an enemy ship (i.e. the side you are a double agent of) unless you can be seen by a friendly.

And negative skills:

Bad Gunner (-2)

When attacking at range 1 reduce attack by 1

Damaged Gunsight (-2)

When attacking at range 3 reduce attack by 1

Badly Aligned Guns (-1)

Reduce attack by 1 at range 1 and 2 and increase attack by 1 at range 3

Pilot is reading the newspaper (-3)

On collision with an asteroid roll 3 dice.

Pilot suffers from diarrhea (-2.5)

At the start of each attack phase roll an attack die. On [eye] you can't attack this round.

Bad Luck Magnet (-4, shielded craft only)

Your shields ignore critical hits.

Dodgy Power Coupling (-3)

When attacking, roll 1 attack die. On <crit>, receive 1 shield damage, if no shields remain then receive a stress token. On <hit>, reduce agility by 1 for the remainder of the round.

Ion Buffer Failure (-1)

Only available on ships with Ion Cannon or Ion cannon turret fitted.

When you fire the Ion weapon. Roll 1 attack dice, on <crit>/<hit> take one Ion token.

Electronics Short (-3)

When you perform a red manoeuvre. Roll 1 attack dice, on <crit>/<hit> take one Ion token.

Bad Luck Magnet (-4, shielded craft only)

Your shields ignore critical hits.

I really like this one. There could also be a weaker version of it where there is a die roll involved to determine what the effect is or perhaps 2 shields are removed for each hit.

Chris

So you dislike pilots who read newspapers or taking a ****?

Ill Pilot (-4)

The craft is unable to use Focus or Barrel Roll actions.

Broken Booster (-2)

The craft cannot use the Boost Action

Faulty Targeting (-3)

Cannot spend Target Lock to re roll dice. Secondary Weapons used with this must change one (hit) result to an (eye) result.

The card that would go to an enemy ship is an interesting idea for a squad point reducer but it should be something that is almost universally useful (so it can be meaningful on any ship) and it should also allow your opponent to place it. As I was mentioning with my latest "Blue Falcon" suggestion the ship it is placed on can make a world of difference.

If you expect a negative point value for something then its effect needs to but purely negative and the bonus would need to be tied to how crippling the effect is. Sorry Bilisknir, but your "Electronics Short" for -3 points which gives the ship an Ion token ONLY half the time after it takes a Red maneuver is asking for too much. Sure, having a stressed ship that is ioned is not good but that is a lot of points to get for something you have complete control over suffering (DON'T take Red maneuvers if you couldn't handle the POSSIBLE consequence) and even then you may avoid it. The Ion Buffer Failure is a much better idea as it is effectively a cost reducer for those upgrade but using those upgrades becomes risky.

So you dislike pilots who read newspapers or taking a ****?

The card that would go to an enemy ship is an interesting idea for a squad point reducer but it should be something that is almost universally useful (so it can be meaningful on any ship) and it should also allow your opponent to place it. As I was mentioning with my latest "Blue Falcon" suggestion the ship it is placed on can make a world of difference.

If you expect a negative point value for something then its effect needs to but purely negative and the bonus would need to be tied to how crippling the effect is. Sorry Bilisknir, but your "Electronics Short" for -3 points which gives the ship an Ion token ONLY half the time after it takes a Red maneuver is asking for too much. Sure, having a stressed ship that is ioned is not good but that is a lot of points to get for something you have complete control over suffering (DON'T take Red maneuvers if you couldn't handle the POSSIBLE consequence) and even then you may avoid it. The Ion Buffer Failure is a much better idea as it is effectively a cost reducer for those upgrade but using those upgrades becomes risky.

You could modify Electronics short as follows:

Electronics Short (-3)

When you perform a red manoeuvre roll an attack die, on a <hit>/<crit> receive an ion token. When you perform a white manoeuvre roll an attack die, on a <crit> take an ion token.

Cold Weapons (-2)

If you did not perform a primary weapon attack the previous round, reduce your attack by 1.

Jury-Rigged Weapons (+1)

When attacking with a primary weapon you may add an extra attack die. If you decide to do this roll a single attack die, on <hit> take 1 face down damage card, on <crit> take 1 face down damage card and end your attack phase. (You may not use any additional abilities e.g. Vader/Gunner)

[Note: not sure about cost of this]

Faulty Engines (-3)

You may not perform any manoeuvres with speed equal to or greater than your fastest straight move.

Targeting Computer Bug (-1)

When attempting to acquire a target lock, roll a defense die, on a roll of <evade> you do not acquire a lock.

Just how would Faulty Engines, "You may not perform any manoeuvres with speed equal to or greater than your fastest straight move." work? To put it another way "how do you move faster than your fastest straight move?" Ok, I guess the T/B has a "maneuver" that is faster than its straight but that's it. Isn't there a critical hit that would basically be in the same style as this is?

I would say the redone "Electronics Short" is very much improved. Not sure about the pricing; the Red part is still just as avoidable but throwing in the chance of getting hit on a white maneuver at least makes it meaningful to most ships. I guess my concern there is that it is still just a 1/8 chance of getting "ioned" when doing a white and also the ships with so many green maneuvers on the dial the effect can nearly be ignored. Pair it on an X or Y with R2 and you've "saved" two points and even if you get hit stressed and ioned you then get to drop both anyway. (Or maybe I'm mixing some things up but at least one of the upgrades can turn the ioned move into a green maneuver allowing it to dump stress.)

Just how would Faulty Engines, "You may not perform any manoeuvres with speed equal to or greater than your fastest straight move." work? To put it another way "how do you move faster than your fastest straight move?" Ok, I guess the T/B has a "maneuver" that is faster than its straight but that's it. Isn't there a critical hit that would basically be in the same style as this is?

I would say the redone "Electronics Short" is very much improved. Not sure about the pricing; the Red part is still just as avoidable but throwing in the chance of getting hit on a white maneuver at least makes it meaningful to most ships. I guess my concern there is that it is still just a 1/8 chance of getting "ioned" when doing a white and also the ships with so many green maneuvers on the dial the effect can nearly be ignored. Pair it on an X or Y with R2 and you've "saved" two points and even if you get hit stressed and ioned you then get to drop both anyway. (Or maybe I'm mixing some things up but at least one of the upgrades can turn the ioned move into a green maneuver allowing it to dump stress.)

Yeah the rider on Faulty Engines was to catch the TIE Bomber's red 5 koiogran turn.

Not sure if there is a critical that mimics Electronics short. But as to getting taking the ion, remember that taking the Ion means next turn your move is fixed, your opponent knows where you will be. Which is quite a disadvantage, even if you guarantee the removal of the stress token with the green 1 move you do next. I should probably add that for large ships they should take 2 ion tokens. Otherwise vs many squads it is just a make me cheaper card.for large ships.

I suppose you could also stop it being an ion effect and just say if you try a move then fail the roll you do an immediate 1 forward white move and skip your perform action step.

The rider on Faulty Engines may catch the T/B but what's the drawback otherwise? If a ship has a 4 straight then almost everything else is going to be slower than that. I haven't looked at the dials recently but is there anything where the three "fastest" maneuvers are 3 straight and bank?

I do somewhat like the idea of an "anti-upgrade" which would basically remove a system for less that it would cost to install. I'm specifically looking at the "Broken Booster" which would give back two points when a ship gives up its Boost Action potential; adding that potential costs 4 points with the Engine Upgrade so losing it could easily save half that much and you may even try arguing for more with some justification.

Yeah looking at more dials I realise it doesn't really cause much of an issue for most ships.

If "Faulty Engines" limited a ships dial selections significantly then it may be seen as a drawback. Have it remove K-Turns, limit the ship to a maximum 3 straight and banks at speed 1 and 2 while only allowing red turns at speed 1 and 2. The terrible thing about such a dial change is that it still "misses" on a few ships which already have horrible dials.

I have another idea for Faulty engines. Call this broken throttle...

Broken Throttle (-4)

When performing any manoeuvre with a speed greater than half the maximum speed (so for speed 3 ships 3, speed 4 3/4, speed 5 3/4/5). Roll an attack die, on a roll of <crit> or <focus>, roll 1 defence die. On a roll of evade replace manoeuvre with the fastest left bank on the dial, on a focus the fastest forward manoeuvre, on a miss the fastest right bank. Then if you have the boost action perform a speed 1 manoeuvre using the same direction template as the main manoeuvre. You lose your action.

I'll just mention that "greater than half the maximum speed" on a Speed 3 ship is 2 or 3. Half of 3 is 1.5 which is less than 2.

Indeed... maths fail. (Though mostly this is because i changed my idea half way through writing it)

I love the idea of EVENT cards.

I first saw this idea in a post called Celestial Phenomenon by Rodent Mastermind

He was creating alternate obstacles/asteroids

I.e. Ion clouds, Mine fields etc

Don't know if he ever made the event cards as the post fell into obscurity like many others.

I think he postulated a Solar Flare effect where ships could only fire at range 1 that turn.

Well I did a full set of Cards, Templates and an online Card dealer.

So it was more or less a finished project.

Though I was going to revisit it and do booster sets of Large Scale Battle Phenomenon, and Extreme Hazards, which you could add to your decks if you were playing much bigger games, or wanted things that did more damage or were a bit more complex.