X-Wings vs Star Destroyers: Scale questions

[Kytross]

I'm just starting an X-Wing campaign with new pilots and mostly new players. I have a few questions.

When you factor in scale do you add the bonus to cap ships' shields? It's a 6D difference between starfighters and Capital ships, which means the Cap ships roll +6D to resist damage. It makes sense to me that their shields would get the bonus too. The way I see it happening is the Cap ship adds 6D to their shields before they allocate them to the four different arcs by use of the shields skill.

I remember reading that starfighters are deployed more to get the Cap ships to keep their shields even then to actually destroy the ships. A 9D Proton torpedo still has the chance to do a little damage against a bare hull, even with the scale difference, but if the Cap ship has shields up it shouldn't do much of anything.

I've read and reread the rules on combined actions and a squadron of fighters working together can give one of their pilots a chance to do an additional 4D damage. I see this as the other fighters are 'clearing the path,' coordinating to let their best pilot get the best possible shot. Does that sound right?

Finally, in the X-Wing books one pilot can send his targetting data to another pilot or the entire squadron to do a barrage attack against a capital ship. I see this as something different then a combined action, rather, it is a specific, advanced tactic. One fighter targets the capital ship, flying in close and feeding their telemetry to the other squadron pilots who are roughly equidistant from the cap ship, they fire simultaneously and feed the first pilot's telemetry to their torpedos through their astromechs. If everything goes right 8-12 proton torpedoes will hit the capital ship in the same place in the same round. I think this should cause massive damage, and I'd like some suggestions on how to calculate that damage roll.

The only circumstance in which 'the barrage' could be used is if there were no fighters harrassing the squadron, so the enemy fighters whould have to be eliminated or otherwise occupied. Consequently it won't be a common tactic, but two of my players have read the x-wing novels and are looking forward to using the tactic in a cap ship battle.

Thank you in advance.

[Hellcat]

Ok, looking at the GM R&E screen:

[Kytross]

Ok, I need to clarify my initial question.

On attacking something of a higher scale do you add the bonus once to the shields and once to the hull, or do you add the bonus once to the combined shield and hull.

For instance, an imperial star destroyer has 3D sheilds and 7D hull. So do you think I should roll:

3D shields (+6D bonus) plus 7D hull (+6D bonus) for a total of 22D damage resist
or

3D shields plus 7D hull plus 6D bonus for a total of 16D damage resist

It makes more sense to me for the shields to get the bonus as well. They are significantly stronger shields then the 1D shields on the X-wing and I think the scaling system should reflect that. I haven't seen anything in the official literature that comments on it. Is there anything or should I homebrew up my own rules?



Any thoughts on what I should do for damage on a 'barrage' attack?

[Gry Sarth]

No, you only add the scale dice once. The scale dice are added to the roll to resist damage, it doesn't matter how many elements combine into the final amount (hull, shield, armor), you add those up and then add the scale dice.

So, in the example you gave, you'd be rolling just 16D to resist damage.
_________________
"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Hellcat]

I'd say combined because the shields are combined with the hull in order to resist damage regulary. At 16D you're talking a 95 as the best possible roll to resist damage without getting a 6 on the WD. What's the best possible on a 9D damage roll? 53. There's little chance of doing damage there. Of course that if you get all sixes on eight or 15 dice and a five on the WD, there's always the chance of a really bad or really good roll.

The rules on higher scale resisting lower scale damage just say to add the bonus difference to the higher scales attempts to resist damage, not that it's added once to shields and a second time to hull and then the two are combined. So I'd say you first combine the two and add the bonus in before rolling.
_________________
FLUFFY for President!!!!

Wanted Poster

[Grimace]

Actually, Gry, that's incorrect. Here's the official answer from Star Wars Adventure Journal #15, page 80:

Q: When a larger vessel is hit by a smaller one, does the scale die modifier of the larger vessel apply to both the shield roll and the hull roll? For example, against a starfighter scale proton torpedo (9D damage) would a Star Destroyer resist at 22D (7D hull + 6D capital scale hull modifier + shields 3D + 6D capital scale shields modifier)?

A: Yes, which gives you a fairly accurate idea of how difficult a Star Destroyer is to defeat. Bear in mind that it usually takes a squadron of X-wings or other starfighters (all targetting the same spot on the Star Destroyer's shields) to penetrate the capital ship's defenses. <snip>


So the scale does add to both the hull and the shields.

[Kytross]

I'll do some test rolling but I came to these forums because you guys have more experience then I do. Most of the games I've been in or run we've had a poorly running ship to fly and that was it. Cap ships generally were an indication to give the ole hyperdrive a test run.

I'll move the barrage question to the house rules forum

[atgxtg]

One option, if you want to cut down a bit on the number of dice you are rolling is to simply replace some of the dice with a fixed value. For example, if every +2D from scaling was replaced with a flat +7, you could avoid rolling a dozen or more dice at a time, and get about the same results.

[Kytross]

Nah, I love rolling dice. So does my group. I've got a guy in my group who's a horrible roleplayer, so he alway plays a wookiee, but he does basic arithmetic in his head faster then anyone short of an idiot savant. Good at tactics too. And starting bar brawls.

This time around he's playing a recovered spice addict wookiee who got addicted to glitterstim while imprisoned on Kessel. Now he's a rebel pilot.

Anyway one of my other players is a 13 year old girl who keeps racing him to see who can add up the die roll first. The game within the game. She's playing one of the astromechs.

[atgxtg]

On of my players is an engineer, who loves to add up his totals and almost always gets them wrong.

And I bought a bunch of small dice to make rolling larger numbers of dice easier. But...

...I personally feel that rolling and adding up large quantities of dice is one of the drawbacks to SW D6. I think that Legend System D6 is much faster because of this.

[Gry Sarth]

[cheshire]

I think that's why WEG tended to put armor on larger droids very sparingly.
_________________
__________________________________
Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[Grimace]

[atgxtg]

[ZzaphodD]