Watching SW:ESB the other day, Han mentions losing the rear deflector shield... and I wondered if this could be a new mechanic in the game?

Ships with shields don't seem to care where they were hit, so perhaps they should allocate some of their shields to the front of the ship, and the rest to the rear? i.e. a ship has 5 shields, 3 get allocated to the front, and 2 to the rear.

It would require an action to re-arrange or move shields (new action abilities)

So if a player had all their forward shields destroyed, they could do an action to move any remaining rear shields to the front (or just a couple if they have lots on the rear)

Any ship with shields would get the action ability, and perhaps some special characters can do a shield change without the need for an action

This then adds attacking a player from a certain facing more important too

It would be simple to show which shields are where, just put forward shields at the top of the ship card, the rest on the bottom to represent rear shields

Of course this is mainly a downside for the Rebels, and would make the Falcon more challanging to play

Sounds like an interesting mechanic. Maybe for a C-3P0 or R2-D2 crew member card, but not for something across the board.

For anyone who remembers the old computer games TIE Fighter or X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, shifting shields forward or backwards was a very important strategy. I can see this being a much bigger benefit to Rebel Players. Besides the fact that many of their craft if not all of them have shields, the best strategy I currently employ is to get behind the slower craft with TIEs or Interceptors and just keep shooting them until they're dead. It's very hard to shake them. If a player could somehow increase the effectiveness of rear shields, this would help in that situation. Though i suppose you could also try to bait the player into doing that and then having someone else surprise break from formation to attack from the front…. hmm. Maybe it's just too much to keep track of.

Also, in regards to your movie quote, several times during the Battle of Yavin pilots can be heard talking about shields and directions. For instance when they start the trench run you hear "switch deflector screens to double front!" and then later "Stabilize your rear deflectors… watch for enemy fighters."

Maybe for the Larger Ships coming out... From what I recall reading about them the Large Ships have a special Damage Deck for Capital Ships and that it would be split into sections Fore and Aft. can't remember if there's a "Mid-section"

But IF the ship had a 2 Tier Shield system or "section" shields I can see a "Shift Shield" ability being of use.

by 2 Tier Shield I mean IF a ship had 12 Shields 6/12 covers all sections of the ship and the remaining Shields would be assigned to sections allowing for transfers.

Also didn't Most Space-Flight Sims have a Transfer Shield Strength ability? I know Wing Commander had one... It also had a Transfer Power to "engines, guns, shields" ...Made those CAP-Ship Torpedo runs all the more bearable..

This topic comes up once in a while, and I think it always reaches the same conclusion: It adds more complexity than it's worth.

Yes Ivlerlin more games did have that feature, but since we're talking about star wars canon also i decided to keep my game references 'in-universe'.

Wing Commander really was awesome though, and so was Descent: Free Space.

I think it sounds like a good idea.

"switch all power to front deflector shields"

Could be an interesting mechanic. I suspect it would be done more as an elite ability or something, rather than a whole new game mechanic. Give a pilot the ability to redirect shields so that they gain one in a particular arc but lose one from every other arc. Mainly hard to do because nothing but the front fire arc is very well defined in the game. What counts as 'rear' - everything outside your primary firing arc?

Thing is, how do you determine which you hit when shooting from the side?

I would rather see it as an upgrade or action discard card to regain 1 shield or some such. That let's in the cool flavor of angering deflectors to get more out of them without mucking around with new rules and regatta for every rebel ship, and the poor tie advanced.

Yes Ivlerlin more games did have that feature, but since we're talking about star wars canon also i decided to keep my game references 'in-universe'.

Wing Commander really was awesome though, and so was Descent: Free Space.

Makes sense.. I've got them both (Wing Commander, Star Wars) linked together in my mind because 'Blair' is 'Luke'... lol.

If "Angle the Deflector Shields" was an Upgrade card I would probably have it look like this:

7pts - ACTION: for the remainder of the round turn all {Critical Hits} into {Hits} from outside the Forward Arc.

I would also ADD either Requires Shields or Large Base Only. Essentially your Hull becomes Shields.

That is something that has bothered me about the game mechanic. The adjustment of shields in one form or another is mentioned enough times in the original saga that it really needs to be a function within the game, even in a very simplified forward or aft shield kind of way. I was suroprised that it wasnt represented in some way

A 2pt modification-

"Angle Deflector Sheilds!"- When attacked by a ship outside of your primary firing arc you may discard this card and gain 1 evade token.

I can easily see this working for bigger ships. Smaller, 1-man crafts, probably not simply because they're so small and it doesn't seem practical for them, since they're dogfighters and fly around in crazy furballs. Shield manipulation would be too much to focus on in such a situation

I like the idea for campaigns where the player is not using a large number of ships.

no!

just. no!

My idea on it is that it could be a Modification card!

Select Deflector Shields (3) (Name needs work)

After performing a action in the Activation Phase declare ether frontal or rear shields. That Combat Phase you have a extra shield of declared side. If shield is not hit by declared side repeat same actions next Activation Phase. (If your ship is damaged in determined side in the combat phase discard this card)

(Note which side you are hit by is determined by which side the attacking ship is to you)

It might be a little over complicated but i like it!

I'd make it an elite pilot talent, not a modification - 'angle the deflector shields' or 'switch power to front deflectors' or whatever, seems to be something every ship can do, but managing them mid-dogfight is an art form, especially in a one-man fighter.

Modifications are too easy to slap on everything; I like them, but feel they should be a last choice for an upgrade type.

As to what it does? Obviously it requires shields, but you can make the mechanic require it by default, by somehow preventing you from losing a shield token. I would say front arc (deflectors double front!), and would make it an action (it does, after all require you to actively do something); if you have the ability to reinforce deflectors in any direction, it just becomes "I have more shields" - which makes the shield upgrade redundant. Reinforcing shields to your front, to win a head-on pass, makes sense in dogfighting terms, and also isn't strategically overpowering, because fighters with shields are, broadly speaking, less manouvrable and outnumbered, so there is a meaningful risk of being shot from outside your shielded frontal arc.

The simplest way to do it is to literally double up for the turn, I guess.

So bundling all that waffling up:

Elite Pilot Talent: Angle Deflectors

ACTION: Gain a number of shield tokens equal to your current number of shield tokens. At the end of the combat phase, remove this many shield tokens. You may not remove shield tokens to prevent damage originating from outside your forward arc this turn.

No idea as to the cost...

I feel that adding this sort of mechanic into the game would actually be a bad move. It adds more realism at the expense of game play speed. If you wanted more realism, you would have a game that allowed for ship heights so that they move in three dimensions instead of two etc, but this of course slows down the game as you have to record changes etc. Having to work out whether an enemy ship is in your front or rear arc adds time if they are attacking from the side, and then tracking two sets of shields instead of just one adds further. Heaven forbid if you bumped your card and lost track of which shields remained on the front and which on the rear.

No for the sake of game enjoyment, I'm happy for this to remain as an abstract.

Like I posted, just being able to trade it in for an evade token should keep it simple and straight forward. Also keeps it from being automatic, might not even come into play, but for that turn you were extra protected.

Firing arc, bad. Some cool flavor plus a reasonable but not absurd defensive buff good. I like the idea of an EPT that offers an evade. That would offer a benifit similar to chewie or shield upgrade and it should be priced to match. 3 if you declare it as an action, 4 if used reactivity.

It really all depends on when you have to declare it. An evade token isn't garunteed to be useful like adding a sheild orregaining a shield since it goes away at the end of the turn. With that in mind, having an arc restriction, and the opportunity cost of either the EPT or Mod slot it should be less than 4... Again, I say 2 but you have to declare its use and discard it either at the beginning of the combat phase or when attacked.

If you want to represent it in game, without it being too hard to manage, I would go for an EPT like:

Action: Angle shields

The first hit you take this turn does not remove a shield token. This action may only be taken whilst you have shield tokens on your ship.

You'd probably be looking at 3-4 points and you'd have to be wary about it's use with Biggs, shield upgrade, R2D2.

(Like and evade token but it doesn't get bypassed like evade can be with some special abilities.)

Firing arc, bad. Some cool flavor plus a reasonable but not absurd defensive buff good. I like the idea of an EPT that offers an evade. That would offer a benifit similar to chewie or shield upgrade and it should be priced to match. 3 if you declare it as an action, 4 if used reactivity.

Why? I agree that we don't want arc-specific shields as part of core rules, because simplicity is one of the game's great virtues, but for a special rule or elite talent, it's fair enough (there is precedent in "Backstabber").

Adding an evade token seems like it has several problems - most critically, that it's redundant for shielded fighters which do have evade on their action bar - Firespray-31, Millenium Falcon, TIE advanced, A-Wing, and probably quite a few others now there's a "shield upgrade" modification.

Equally, any action which involves throwing all your deflector energy forwards (or wherever) seems like it should inherently leave you unshielded somewhere else.I suggested forward arc because it's clearly marked on the base of any ship which might be using the action.

I was designing it as a one shot myself so I was trying to keep it cheap and simple. It also didn't cost an action so shielded ships with evade could still evade if they know they are taking heavy fire or take a different action because they have a one time evade token. Since evade can get bypassed or go unused that keeps it cheap. With more evade interactions coming its just another nice tool to have. I kept it cheap, simple, doesnt require tracking,and fit the flavor with an underused game mechanic.

Firing arc, bad. Some cool flavor plus a reasonable but not absurd defensive buff good. I like the idea of an EPT that offers an evade. That would offer a benifit similar to chewie or shield upgrade and it should be priced to match. 3 if you declare it as an action, 4 if used reactivity.

Why? I agree that we don't want arc-specific shields as part of core rules, because simplicity is one of the game's great virtues, but for a special rule or elite talent, it's fair enough (there is precedent in "Backstabber").

Adding an evade token seems like it has several problems - most critically, that it's redundant for shielded fighters which do have evade on their action bar - Firespray-31, Millenium Falcon, TIE advanced, A-Wing, and probably quite a few others now there's a "shield upgrade" modification.

Equally, any action which involves throwing all your deflector energy forwards (or wherever) seems like it should inherently leave you unshielded somewhere else.I suggested forward arc because it's clearly marked on the base of any ship which might be using the action.

This is why I think it should be discarded after use. Then you don't need to burn your action or penalize ships that can already evade. That keeps it distinct from Chewie and Shield upgrade as well. Though a Shielded, chewied Han with this ability would be very hard to kill.

As to firing arcs, while I like the idea of stronger on one, weaker on the other, it violates the KISS principle. It's not simple. The two arcs are very different areas and I don't see a good way to make a simple rule for which arc the person is in.

So I favor an abstraction of the idea. Something that gives a reasonable defensive boost. The cost is the points you have to sink into it for a 1 shot, as opposed to Shield Upgrade which pairs with R2 D2 for evilness.

It could be that angle the deflectors makes an evade token not disappear at the end of a turn. Similar to how the Crow saves focus.