- Tyber Zann, Forces of Corruption
Alright folks. I'm back and I must say it is good to be back. Essentially I'd been on a gaming hiatus for much of May, but now I need to get back at it. To quote the infamous Joker (THE Joker...), "now I'm tanned, I'm rested, and I'm ready to give this old town a wedgie again!"
I'm adding yet another new segment to Dropship Inbound - Skunkworks. Long story short, I'm an engineer and I love to design and develop new, well, anything. It goes without saying that I currently have about 4 or more gaming "projects" squirreled away on various thumb drives and graph pads at the current time that I hope I can bring to the light of day. I figured I'd share those and see what you folks thought.
First up is an idea I had been toying around with ever since Fantasy Flight announced the "epic scale" playstyle when they released the Tantive IV Blockade Runner miniature (aka the Corellian CR90 corvette). Course, when you say miniature, it was more like an excuse to have a pre-painted Star Wars prop reproduction, but it was so damn cool looking it inspired three additional big ships to be added to the game.
With the introduction of the Scum & Villainy faction to X-Wing, my thoughts immediately went back to one of my favorite PC games from my college years, Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption. I was a huge fan of the story they crafted with Tyber Zann and the Zann Consortium and the way the writers did a pretty fair job in the campaign of weaving him into the overall Star Wars movie and extended universes. Plus I loved the way they built the Zann's touman of available units from whatever he could coerce, corrupt, or enslave into his service - especially the fine folks over at Mandal Hypernautics.
Even produced a stat card and template for the ship.
Fast forward a couple years and I thought its time to return to the Crusader. From the start, I scrapped everything I had done before except for a few ideas. I wanted to design a ship that followed the "hot-rodding" mentality of the Scum faction and represented what a big ship for a non-military focused faction would be. They'd want something for intimidation against those weaker than them and speed to evade the much bigger Alliance and Imperial ships. Finally, I'd need to add in an element of "anything goes" that the Scum value as well.
Hence, here it is. The new stats for the Crusader. It's been changed to a two-card ship on-par with the Raider and CR90.
- Crusader-class Corvette (S&V)
- Stat Cards
- Fore Section Card (50 pts)
- Pilot Skill: 4
- ATK: 3 (180° Arc), Range 1-4
- Energy: -
- EVADE: 0
- HULL: 8
- SHIELDS: 6
- Action Bar: Target Lock
- Special Ability Card Text: "Whenever this ship would be dealt multiple damage cards, either face up or face down, ignore the first damage card dealt."
- Upgrade Bar:
- Title, Cargo, Team, Hardpoint, Hardpoint, Crew, Illicit, Modification
- Aft Section Card (40 pts)
- Pilot Skill: 4
- ATK: - (Secondary Arc 120°)
- Energy: 6
- EVADE: 0
- HULL: 10
- SHIELDS: 4
- Action Bar:
- Reinforce, Recover, Overrun*
- Special Ability Card Text: -
- Upgrades:
- Crew, Crew, Hardpoint, Cargo, Cargo, Illicit, Modification
- Maneuver Dial (energy gained in "( )" )
- Speed 1: Bank L (3), Bank R (3)
- Speed 2: Bank L (2), Straight (3), Bank R (2)
- Speed 3: Straight (3)
- Speed 4: Straight (2)
- *NEW ACTION*
- Overrun - At the end of this ship's movement, it may perform an additional speed 2 straight maneuver or a speed 1 bank. If this ship performs this action, it gains -1 energy for the turn. It will not gain any additional energy from the selected Overrun maneuver. If this ship overlaps any ship(s) or obstacles(s), it must resolve them as per normal rules.
So a couple things. First, the intent of the special ability was to mimic the fact that a ship of "Mandalorian" design is going to be robust and able to shrug off damage. Its the way most of their ships have been represented in games and loosely mirrors ablative armor. Second, the Overrun action was an idea I had to give an epic scale ship the "Boost" action, but also convey the more overtly treacherous and offensive nature of S&V. I can just imagine a Zann Consortium captain plowing his ship through friend and foe alike to either escape a trap or claim an prize for himself.
Also, since I was in a brainstorming mood, I started fleshing out upgrade cards as well!
- New Cards (unique cards are in italics)
- Titles
- Ordo [5 pts] - +2 Energy. This ship's aft section loses 1 crew slot and gains 1 cargo slot.
- Basilisk [4 pts] - +1 Energy. You may spend 2 energy to add 1 additional attack die to a primary weapon attack.
- Scythe [2 pts] - +0 Energy. When this ship performs a Reinforce Action, it may assign a reinforce token to both the Fore and Aft Sections.
- Hardpoints
- Point Defense System [4 pts] - Whenever an ordinance (torpedo or missile) attack is made against this ship, this ship counts as having 3 additional evade dice, regardless if the attack is made against the Fore or Aft section. Discard any energy on this card at the end of the turn. {Req's 1 energy} Crusader Only
- Heavy "Mangler" Battery [6 pts] - Attack[Energy]. Spend 2 energy from this card to perform this attack. You may change 1 of your hit results to a critical result. ATK: 4, Range 2-4. {Req's 2 energy} Scum Only
- Crew (note: I had some fun with this one...)
- Tyber Zann [8 pts] - During the activation phase, you may choose an enemy ship within range 2.When that ship reveals its maneuver dial, you may change its maneuver to one of your choice. After this maneuver, the controlling player may make its "Perform Action" step as allowed in normal activation. Scum, Huge Ship Only
- Urai Fen [6 pts] - During the combat phase, friendly ships within range 2 of this ship count as having +1 pilot skill. Scum, Huge Ship Only
- Jabba the Hutt [14 pts] - Counts as taking up two Crew Slots. At the beginning of the game, name one ship on the opposing side. If the named ship is destroyed before the ship with Jabba assigned to it is removed from play, double the point value listed on that ship's card when determining victory conditions. Scum Only
- Bib Fortuna [2 pts] - Once per game, during the Activation Phase and prior to any ships revealing maneuver dials, you may see the maneuver dial of any opposing ship. Then you may change the maneuver dial of the selected ship to any legal maneuver and return it to the opposing player. The new maneuver cannot cause the ship to leave the play area. Discard this card afterwards. Scum & Imperial Only
- Zann Consortium Captain [2 pts] - At the beginning of the combat phase, if this ship has no opposing ships within range 1, it gains 1 free focus token. Scum, Huge Ship only
- Black Sun Captain [2 pts] - At the end of the activation phase, you may assign 1 Evade token to a friendly ship at range 2-3. Scum, Huge Ship Only
- High Value Bounty [3 pts] - Whenever a non-Scum ship declares this ship the target of an attack, that ship must roll one attack die. On a critical hit or hit result, that ship receives 1 stress token. Scum Only
- Teams
- Enslaved Verpine Techs [4 pts] - Whenever this ship performs a maneuver that gains 3 energy, it may recover 2 shields. Limit One. Scum Only
- Bothan Hackers [2 pts] - This ship gains the Jam action in its action bar for this section. Scum Only
- Flight Control Team [2 pts] - This ship gains the Coordinate action in its action bar for this section.
- Cargo (note: another fun section)
- Sacrificial Cargo [3 pts] - During the Activation phase, you may discard this card. If you do, deploy up to 3 seismic charge tokens from the rear of the ship using any speed 2 maneuver. These tokens activate like seismic charges and may not be within range 1 of each other. Scum only (note: picture a card with ewoks & jawas floating away from an airlock strapped to bombs ^_^ )
- Backup Generator [5 pts] - During the Activation phase, this ship gains one additional energy, regardless of the maneuver chosen. If this ship has damage cards assigned to it, discard this card.
- Ion Shunt Capacitor [2 pts] - If this ship would be assigned an Ion token, cancel any damage from the attack and assign that token to this card instead of the ship. When this card has 3 ion tokens, discard this card, assign 2 ion tokens to this ship, and assign 1 damage card to this ship based on the section this upgrade is assigned to.
- Illicits (note: as with all S&V ships, we need Illicits. The Crusader can have 2!)
- "Bright Halo" Direct Interface [3 pts] - Whenever this ship performs a primary attack or rolls defense dice, it may change 1 focus result to a hit or 1 evade respectively. Discard any energy on this card at the end of the turn. {Req's 1 energy}
- Overlord ECM/ECCM Suite [14 pts] - Crusader Only. Choose one option below at the beginning of the Combat Phase. Unless "Nothing" is selected, all friendly ships at range 1 cannot perform actions in their action bar. All friendly small and large ships within range 2 of this ship counts as having the chosen option below:
- 1 additional evade die when defending.
- Enemy ships cannot assign red target lock tokens to them.
- Enemy abilities cannot assign stress tokens to them.
- Nothing
- Modifications
- Overcharged Capacitors [6 pts] - You may assign an additional energy token during the allocate energy step to any upgrade card that requires energy above the maximum energy limit listed on the card. If you do, roll 1 attack die. On a critical result, suffer 1 face-up damage card based on the section this modification is applied to. Huge Ship Only
I have yet to play test any of this, but I figured I'd put it out on the street for folks to try. I'm eager to hear what people think, so either drop me an email or leave a comment below! This is a fan-made creation and in no way legal for any FFG event. Really it was all just a fun exercise into trying to make a Scum big ship. I hope to try it out soon with my gaming group and I'll let you know how it goes.
Until next time, "everyone has a price"....
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