"The big problem with Star Destroyers is that they're SO BIG!" Topic

As a teenager I spent a good part of a particular Christmas playing that old PC game x-wing simulator and my favourite missions were always taking out the big boys…one shield deflector tower at a time…

Does anyone think its possible that FFG might release some of larger star ships: Corellian Corvette's, Nebulon frigates, Star Destroyers (smaller cruiser class?)

With obvious (and quite massive ) problems with scale is it actually possible? How would you imagine FFG managing it? Changing scale? Suppling unpainted "make it yourself models" with additional rules and cards? Or will they leave this potential aspect of the game to the naturally born tweekers/modellers amongst us? Have anyone tried anything like this yet…if so what are you using?

Anyway I'm still waiting for Christmas for my first game so I don't know if this type of combat would translate well to the games rules but my imagination is already busy recreating those set pieces of a certain Christmas spent taking down that seemingly indestructible Star Destroyer….ahhh Christmas memories are made of these…amongst others of course

I think of those ships as more terrain than units.

I could see them maybe making playmats that had larger ships on them. Here's a link to a cardboard star destroyer one guy made that includes plans on how to make one for yourself.
link

I think of those ships as more terrain than units.

Yeah considering the size I guess that makes more sense!

I especially like Jeremy's idea of the playmate. Great link too! I do love the idea of actually having something 3d in the game and that might be the only option

So, what you're saying is you don't have space to fit a 20 foot long vessel in your gaming room?

Sounds like you either need to change scales, reduce the overall scale of the larger vessel, or get a bigger home.

Personally, I've been thinking about going with a 5' – 6' model, or playmat, myself.

I've see the excellent cardboard model, as well as a portion of a Star Destroyer for a 2-D playmat.

Personally, I'd prefer a full length S.D., but haven't been able to find a suitable top-down photo of a full one, in very high resolution, so it could be blown up into a 6' long poster at the local copy center.

Sounds like you either need to change scales, reduce the overall scale of the larger vessel, or get a bigger home.

Bigger home is surly the only reasonable solution to the dilemma…or a little readjustment of the living space in the house …always thought having a kitchen and a living room in the one house was always a bit excessive…

Sounds like you have a plan there Mako11…I'd like to see any result of your endeavours

Imperial Class Star Destroyers are definitely out of the question for normal games

Even smaller ones like the Victory Class or Acalmators are still quite huge

While they have a WOW factor I find the whole concept of ships that large to be ridiculous. Suspension of belief will only go so far. The star destroyers in my Star Wars fleet are considerably smaller.

As others have suggested, I'd do a playmat, maybe with 3D or semi-3D weapons emplacements, shield generators, bridge, etc.

Sadly, I no longer have a space big enough to set up a full sized one, but used to.

I think the cardboard model, or one made of posterboard, is the way forward.

I read somewhere on the net that FFG were hinting at releasing big ships in their own standalone game (im guessing that the ships will be small models).

Nice cardboard terrain.

They've already told stores (at least) that the Corellian corvette is getting an LE model for direct-to-stores-only sales. It will probably be prohibitively expensive, triple digits or worse.

I've been toying with the idea of building a section of an SD or a Super SD. So maybe the command structure of the Super SD and have a "destroy the bridge" A La Return Of the Jedi. I'm thinking of using Styrofoam Insulation, and build in big sections. The only real snag is having a flat surface able to support the bases of the Starfightes on the Super SD Command structure.

Rich I was getting majorly excited until you mentioned: "triple digits or worse…"

Ouch!

I'm thinking of using Styrofoam Insulation, and build in big sections

Werwulf I was considering that route myself…I've used various forms of styrofoam for particularly every form of WW2 terrain and some LotR stuff…I find it easy to work with

Styrofoam would definitely work, be lightweight, and relatively easy to make.

Coat with either poster board, and/or sheet styrene to protect it.

You can make it fairly flat, with just a little camber to the hull and bridge plating, so it shouldn't be too hard to keep the fighters level.

I'd go with the extruded polystyrene foam, for added durability.

Personally, if you want battleship sized ships, change rules, to something like Full Thrust, X wing is really just a skirmsh type game, where as battleship combat is more on a grand scale, as others have mentioned battleships are just terrain at this scale, and to be honest, in reality, the speed these fighters would travel would make the idea of these as terrain redundant.

Of course you are correct, but this IS Sci-Fi, so why not really push the limit and have one nearby as a backdrop.

Makes perfect sense for space opera to me, especially as one person was contemplating a scenario where he planned to crash into the bridge of a certain Star Destroyer…..

Not to mention a bumper sticker that says "We brake for nobody".

JeremyR, that is brilliant!

What about fighters from the 3 Phantom Menace movies?

The VICTORY-class Star Destroyer figures out around 3' long in scale the the fighters. The Corellian corvette about 13" and the Nebulon-frigate around 17"

Given that the playing surface for X-wing is 3'x3', then a Victory class SD is still a majority of the playing area.

It's bigger than that anyway – it's about 900 metres in the background fluff, which is, umm, about 11 feet at 1/270. The Nebulon B is 300 metres, which makes it about 3' 7" – really the Corellian Corvette (150 metres / nearly 22") is at the absolute top end of doable, but even that's getting quite silly.

Hopefully FFG will adapt their game engine for, dare I say it…..a Star Wars big ship game?

With prepainted assembled mini's?

The starter game could have an Imperial Star Destroyer vs a Mon Calamari cruiser….the expansion kits would be single ships, of course, except for stuff like Corellian Gunships/Corvettes….I could see 2-3 per pack, given their small size….

And all to scale…..

The piece de resistance, of course, would be the Executor Super Star Destroyer.

Instead of pilot cards, have commander/crew cards…yes…it could work……

Page 18 of the rulebook: "If playing with more than 100 squad points per player, players may wish to expand the size of their play area beyond 3' x 3'. Players are free to use any play area size that they agree on."

So contrary to what some would have you believe, X-Wing can be played on tables larger than 3' x 3'. Do a scenario on an 8' x 4' table and you could put some of the larger ships on the table at the proper scale. For ships too large for a table that size you could make posterboard cutouts of certain portions of the ships to use.

Right now I am working on a scenario for a 12 by 6 foot table, (Yavin). The game will scale up as well as I am working on the Revelle series and the Galoob ships for various games.

VR
James Mattes

Yep, 12' x 6' seems about the way to go, for a fun Deathstar scenario, and in order to give trench runs the length needed to perform them properly.

Otherwise, Vader is going to have a tough time taking out all those Rebel fighters by himself, before they can launch their torpedoes.