Larger scale Star Wars ground combat rules

Still under consideration

• Damage/Disruption. -2/-3? As it goes to attack AND defence, and -1 to speed, -2 MIGHT be enough.
  

  General idea

  System to play larger scale ground combats than is good with Star Wars miniatures, with use of fighters and possibly orbital bombardment.

  Inspiration

  • Axis & Allies miniatures. This game is the main inspiration for the game when looking to the game system
  • Star Wars miniatures.
  • Star Wars miniatures Spaceship battles. The whole idea started to run after I saw that the fighters are about same size than A&A fighters.
  • Mechwarrior. You can easily obtain lots of cheap Mechwarrior miniatures, to be used as they are or with slight modification and repainting. Scale allows a lot more details than A&A, and troops are actually presented by several soldiers!
  • Force Commander (PC Game). Well, this can be thought of as tabletop -version of Force commander. While I don't yet know if I'm going to incorporate ordering extra troops & buildings to the game at all, commanding force of loads of stormtroopers, walkers, hovertanks, fighters and bombers, turret defences etc. etc. is just what I'm looking for.
  • Rebellion (PC Game). While this is pretty different scale than this Ground Combat game, I've had also thoughts of incorporating this into my Galactic campaign -rules, which would be a connection.
  • And... Star Wars movies, series, comics, books... everything ;)

  Scenarios

  • Contested ground - normal skirmish; build armies & roll for initiative.
  • Game with resource element, à la Force Commander
  • Ground assault scenario
  • Contested world - fleets engage at the orbit while landing craft hit the ground - battle on both levels. Need planet on long side of the map.
  • World assault - A fleet attacks a defended planet. Attacker must eliminate opposing fleet and conquer opponent. In this scenario, landing pad is available (and needed) for fighter launch from planet.

  Things to be thought through

  • How to prevent one ship from bombarding the whole ground force below? Is recon(spotter, scout) required for bombing? Or any ground unit with LoS?
  • Recurring tie fighters might give a problem... Unless ground scenario is timed like AAM.
  • How to combine and balance Starship combat and Ground combat? SW ship battles turn sequense should be same so one player can move ships at the same time than the other moves units on ground - hopefully this works.
  • Balancing costs. SW fighters cost 3 points at cheapest while cheapest AAM fighters are 12 points, which makes it difficult.
    • Suggestion: Both parties should have minimum amount (40%?) of space craft and ground assault vehicles. Another options? Rulings needed that encourage opponent from going all-fighter or all-ground.
    • Final objective is on ground, and there may be places with total air cover. Maybe even shield generator prevents fighter use near it?
    • Landing (combined game only): Capital ships can launch a landing craft instead of fighter. Landing crafts 'disappear' when landed and are infinite like tie fighters. In addition, transport-ships (rebel transport, maybe Imp shuttle?) can transport units (special rulings)

  Ideas currently going to final version

  • In case of combined ground/space combat, there's 3 layers in the two-level combat. Space combat, ground combat and atmosphere. A fighter must move to the atmosphere and stay there for a round to change location. Question: Will fighters work AAM -way, as fast regular units or something between (doing sweeps)
  • 1 damage against soldier = disruption, unless already disrupted. Roll of 19 or 20 does +1 damage instead starship rule of 20. So, 1-damage unit can only disrupt soldier except when rolling 19 or 20. Also, a unit can stay disrupted only by making cover rolls and therefore avoiding defeat. If the damage is equal to target's total body in one hit, vehicle is destroyed instead of getting disruption and damage.
  • Vehicles have hitpoints(body) (heroes may have something similar too). They are marked 2/2, as with starships.
  • THE BIG QUESTION I'M STILL THINKING OF: Is starship -like body points way to go with 2-sided stat cards (=more work), or should it be all about disrupted/damaged/destroyed counters?
  • Cover and random hex -effects are rolled with D6, other rolls with D20.

  Buildings

• Command center. Static source of command points.
• Orbital shield. Prevents orbital bombardment.
• Ion cannon. Allows to shoot orbiting class 1 or 2 ships (disable 1 turn only?).
• Generic terrain buildings Cover, LoS

Command options

• Counters
• Counter types: Normal and last resort. Last resort effects are stronger, but can only be used in selected situations, where situation is desperate (enemy has upper hand/is about to win).
• Faction-specific counters
• Commander-specific counters (commander cards? must be careful to not make overpowered)
• Examples:
  • Rally (Desperate) Ignore last hit and unit returns to normal -status.
  • Desperate charge (Desperate) Remove disruption, do extra move & attack at +4. If this attack would have disrupted or damaged the target normally, disrupt the target immediately instead.
• Definitions:
• Desperate. Use only if opponent has 50% more units or is about to destroy critical element. Critical elements: Shield generator only? Retreating transport too.