"Star Wars Armada: First Play AAR" Topic

I stripped out most of my purple prose and all the photos, but this should give you the gist of taking SWA out of the box and trying it out…and -- fair warning -- probably playing something wrong in our first go around…

AAR: Star Wars Armada

The trumpeted fanfare dialed up in my head as Mike came over last Wednesday evening bringing the new $100 USD Star Wars Armada game.

Out came the components -- very nice models of the plastic ships…all three of them. Wait, there's more: nine stands of tiny fighters, six TIE (three fighters each) and three X-Wing (three fighters each).

If you thought $40 USD list price for three fighters in the X-Wing game was steep, $100 USD for three ships (one Imperial Star Destroyer, one Rebel Corvette, and one Rebel Frigate) and 27 little fighters seems ludicrously expensive. Don't get me wrong -- nicely painted capital ships, but only one-color fighters (a sharpie could probably do wonders). Plastic has never been so expensive.

Let me put it another way. You can pay list price and NJ state tax for the box ($107.00), or, buy a share of Disney stock ($106.69 as of April 17) -- and that's after the share price increase in the wake of the second Star Wars movie trailer. You can always find this stuff at a discount, but Star Wars Armada (hereafter SWA) carries a $100 USD list price.

Of course, there's no accounting for a hobby purchase. I bought a Dr. Who Risk game for $39 USD and tax because I liked the little plastic Daleks. How did it play? Like Risk with little plastic Daleks. They're nice little Daleks. Really. Listen. You can hear them saying "Exterminate." Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun -- ooo, eee, ohhhh.

Ahem, wrong theme song for this AAR.

Anyway, the SWA box also contains plastic bases, cards, a segmented gizmo ruler, and a variety of other tokens.

Of nuisance, FFG cut corners. Really, a $100 USD game only includes ONE cardboard firing range ruler? ONE segmented movement ruler? No, I don't care about licensing costs. I care about what's in the box. More later.

My usual disclaimers apply -- playing a game for the first time probably means we screwed up something (and we did, but corrected as we went on) and probably missed other things.

We did NOT play with any cards attached to the ships, or the special characters attached to fighters. Like X-Wing, the cards will let you customize ships. Like X-Wing, if you run multiple ships with multiple cards, it will slow the game down.

From now on, I'll abbreviate Imperial Star Destroyer as ISD, the Rebel Corvette as RCV, and the Rebel Frigate as RFR. In case you want to buy them separately: ISD: $39.99 USD, RCV $19.95 USD, and RFR $19.95 USD.

Capital Punishment

All ships are on stands, with three fighters per 1" stand, and the capital ships on their own stands. The rectangular capital ship bases have disks embedded on all four sides to represent shield strength -- nice touch that, except the rotation is not as slick as possible and Mike and I ended up picking the ships up to turn the dials -- sort of defeating the purpose in a game of inches. Er, game of segments. With use, the shield wheels will probably turn easier -- they still have that new game stiffness feel.

Ships can fire out all four sides, the arcs marked with the usual "X" on the base, with each arc allowing a certain number of eight-sided To Hit dice -- the front arc more than sides, which offer more than rear. Little diamonds represent what color and how many 8-sided dice to toss when firing from an arc.

Alas, SWA capital ships suffer from the Battletech heat syndrome -- can't fire everything. You'd think a umpteenth-century Star Destroyer with all those massive engines would be able to generate enough power to fire out all four sides. You'd think any such limitation would have been solved in a galaxy that has hyperspace-capable ships. You'd think… Er, sorry, lost in rant.

Only two sides can fire. We guess the two-shot limit does NOT apply to firing at fighters during a turn. We may be wrong.

The firing dice are clever -- three colors (red, blue, and black -- based on range. Like a bad Games Workshop joke, red dice shoot farther (although with more blank faces), blue shoot medium range, and black dice shoot short range but are the most lethal. Here's where a big company with an expensive game excels -- including a clever rules mechanism because it can make custom dice to support that mechanism. Good show on the firing dice.

Firing takes out shields, then hull, with requisite critical hit cards used when that die result surfaces and no shields are left. The ISD had 3 shields on three arcs and only 1 or 2 (forget which) on the back arc plus 8 hull. If I recall, the RFR had 4 hull and 1 or 2 shields, the RCV had 6 hull and 2 or 3 shields.

Fighters roll more dice against fighters than against capital ships -- something we failed to notice during the first half of play until it didn't make sense that squadrons packed more firepower than most capital ship arcs. In the actual rules, fighters only roll 1 die against a capital ship -- at least the factory-fresh squadrons, although cards can probably change this and who knows what will happen when they release more fighter types. Likewise, capital ships only roll a specific number of anti-fighter dice, usually one.

Slipped Disc

The Command rules mechanic baffled us for most of the game. The ISD got three of these stacking, rotating discs, each with four commands to choose one from, while the RCV got two, and the RFR got one. Hence, three on three. Even stevens. So, each turn, we used all three, alternating use by ship. At the end of a turn, all three per side were used.

But they started to conflict with the printed sequence of play. The longer we played, the more confused we became. So, back to the rules…

We *think* we should only use one per turn, meaning the STD must think three turns ahead (not unlike WWI maneuver cards from Wings of War). Yet the commands only seem to usurp the order, not the restrictions, of the sequence of play.

For example, one of the commands is to activate fighter squadrons (up to three in the case of the ISD). So, I put that first and launched three TIE squadrons, which can move and fire, or, fire and move.

Later in the turn sequence, all squadrons activate. Since each squadron base has this sliding marker that shows whether it's been activated or not, we did not activate them again.

In any case, once we went with one disc per turn, things flowed better, but these command functions don't seem to make a whole lotta sense. I suppose there's a "right time" to do something -- certainly activating damage control function when you have no shields and are down to your last hull box makes a lot of sense rather than waiting around until the end of a turn when you'll probably be turned into space dust. And yet, if you don't choose the move function, you still move. If you don't choose the concentrated fire function, you still fire.

The rules contain a section on holding the command. We pondered and pondered what that meant and its effects. Best we can figure, you can substitute a saved command for a disc command. That must be what FFG marketing calls "planning ahead."

Speaking of firing, the concentrated fire option (I think) adds a die to your firing. Why? No reason. You can't fire a die out of a third arc, but you can fire an extra die out of an arc that is firing. If you're firing at one ship anyway, why wouldn't you use concentrated fire all the time as a standard Imperial process? Logic stumble, there.

Flew a Crooked Mile

I am not sure what to make of this jointed gizmo of a ruler. On the one hand, a five-segment ruler that allows you to turn a certain number of clicks per segment struck me as quite cool. It's like Hornblower in space -- two points off the larboard, Mr. Bush, and don't hit the asteroid.

On the other hand, actually laying this gizmo on the table in the middle of ships has all the grace of Jar-Jar Binks. We only had minimal forces (the stuff in the box) on the table and were clunking this thing around. Imagine if we had the battle scene in Return of the Jedi.

The ISD only moves two segments, maximum, with only one click maximum. But the other three segments are attached -- it's not like you pick up the correct-length turn ruler in X-Wing and move.

The five-segment marvel is clumsy, although its advantage over X-Wing turn rulers is you don't spend time searching for the "right" length and turn ruler.

FFG only included one of these segmented rulers -- it's like opening up a box of Monopoly and finding only one die. No worries, they'll sell you a second one ($7.95).
Note that FFG's marketing says: "The Star Wars™: Armada Maneuver Tool accessory pack provides you an easy way to add a second maneuver tool to your games. Alternatively, you can use its components to build a shorter maneuver tool to accompany your full-size maneuver tool for use with slower fleets or to navigate your ships more easily through tighter spaces."

Yes, indeed, buying something that should be in the box is indeed an "easy way" to add another ruler.

Rebels, Rebels, Right Ahead

The rules say this is a six-turn game. It's I-go-You-go, so step on it. Full speed ahead.

The ISD raced forward and closed the distance with those two Rebel scum ships. I popped out three TIE squadrons, and so did the Rebels, and then I sent out three more. TIEs toss three attack dice, X-Wings four, with TIEs taking three hits before the squadron becomes debris while the X-Wings take five. You rotate a little dial to track losses per squadron base.

The fighters, off by themselves, tangled -- the rules say that once engaged, they stay engaged until death do they part. The rules do not say whether you have to assign them equally or can gang up on tail end Charlie. Incremental losses do not decrease the number of dice tossed.

The TIEs struck first, oppa gangnam style. A couple of turns and many dice later, three TIE squadrons flew off to attack the Frigate, leaving three TIE and one X-Wing squadron as floating debris fields. When I tossed nine attack dice at the RFR, that's when we started to re-read the rules…again.

Nope, it's really just one die per squadron when attacking capital ships. Much better sense than our multi-dice fest.

That left an opening for the ISD to fire at the X-Wings (figured out that was only 1 die, too).

Meanwhile, the capital ships pounded away at each other at decreasing ranges, until by the end of the game, we were starting to pass each other so side and rear shots began to get into play.

After about four turns, the RFR blew up, followed on the next turn by the RCV. The ISD was intact, although damage control spent all its time repairing shields.

Arcs and Sparks

Arcs in a spaceship game strike me as unnecessary. A little thrust and you can roll a ship, interposing "untouched" shields and bringing new guns to bear. The game has a mechanism to pass a hit to an undamaged shield and another mechanism to halve the total number of hits (from only one attack, not all of them in a firing phase) coming in against you. Not exactly sure of the logic with halving hit results -- you'd think the naval architects would include whatever that is meant to represent as a permanent feature on every ship. Some ships have 'em, some don't, but if you use the marker a second time, it's gone from the rest of the game. Now I really don't know what that's supposed to represent.

Some of the attack dice offer a face that takes away that option: it's a nice balancing touch that extends ship life -- great when you only have one or two ships per person, not so much, I imagine, when you have four or five.

Thick as a Post

Actually, I believe the phrase is 'dumb as a post,' but thick is a synonym for dumb, so I can use it. One of the cruisers came out of the box detached from the post -- the top had snapped off. This was just from carrying the box around. Did FFG fail to increase the post thickness as the model weight increased? Was it fine in engineering but when some bean counter wanted to shave 1/100 of a penny of plastic, the post thinned? Don't know, but you might want to think about storing your models off the base.

Play Again?

Absolutely. Seriously, just about any game is worth a second playing and often a third -- change of strategy, learning the rules, etc.

Buy a copy? Not as such, now. I play X-Wing, generally enjoy it, and purchased some ships, but I do have reservations about card overload slowing the game down as players search for and read the effects and the entire Pilot rating thing.

So far, I am passing on SWA, but again, may pick up the odd ship because the miniatures, while pricey, look good.

May the Fourth Be With You

Universal public service announcement: May 4th is Star Wars Day…

Russ

The rules were a bit confusing at first. I had the same problem with the command dials. Later is was understood that bigger ships need more time to react and that the greater the dials the lower the reaction time. Arcs are huge and make a big difference. The game will be clunky for really big battles though unless faster or simpler rules are made. Maybe upgrade limitations to ship.

Here is our Armada FB group.
link

The rules say this is a six-turn game. It's I-go-You-go, so step on it. Full speed ahead.

Actually, it's no. It's an alternating activations system. IGO-UGO means that one side moves all of its units, then the other side moves all of its units.

Only two sides can fire. We guess the two-shot limit does NOT apply to firing at fighters during a turn. We may be wrong.

Wrong. "Attacking a squadron follows all the same rules for
attacking a ship with the exceptions described below." Attacking a squadron counts as one of your two attacks, and you can only fire at one squadron through a given hull zone.

The rules do not say whether you have to assign them equally or can gang up on tail end Charlie.

You can gang up. That's why the rules don't have a restriction.

Arcs in a spaceship game strike me as unnecessary. A little thrust and you can roll a ship, interposing "untouched" shields and bringing new guns to bear.

That's only if the damage is to your port side and you want to bring your starboard side to bear. How fast do you imagine that a Star Destroyer rolls? As for forward and aft arcs, look at how long it takes to bring an ISD about …

Also, lack of firing arcs makes maneuver far less important, which makes the game less interesting.

For example, one of the commands is to activate fighter squadrons (up to three in the case of the ISD). So, I put that first and launched three TIE squadrons, which can move and fire, or, fire and move.

You don't launch squadrons during the game--they start on the board.

Later in the turn sequence, all squadrons activate. Since each squadron base has this sliding marker that shows whether it's been activated or not, we did not activate them again.

That's correct.

I suppose there's a "right time" to do something -- certainly activating damage control function when you have no shields and are down to your last hull box makes a lot of sense rather than waiting around until the end of a turn when you'll probably be turned into space dust.

I don't get what you're saying here. You don't get to do repairs unless you have a repair token or a repair command on the disk. What "end of the turn" are you talking about?

The rules contain a section on holding the command. We pondered and pondered what that meant and its effects. Best we can figure, you can substitute a saved command for a disc command. That must be what FFG marketing calls "planning ahead."

You can play tokens in addition to the command on your disk. However, tokens have lesser effects than playing a command directly from the disk. See the Additional Rules: Commands section on p. 12.

you can only fire at one squadron through a given hull zone

Of course, I got that completely wrong. The relevant rule is:

Attacking Squadrons with a Ship
When a ship attacks a squadron, it can perform one attack against each squadron inside the firing arc and at attack range of the attacking hull zone. Each attack is resolved separately.

So far, I am passing on SWA,…

Already bought, but haven't played. This is ALL great, even the backup and correct.

Seriously, printing this out for when I do put ships on the table!

Doug

Ah. Thanks for the answers. That helps clear up some questions. We played a second game on Wednesday.

To clarify, yes, we were activating one capital ship and then an opposing capital ship (or two Rebels if the Imperials went first -- we only had what was in the box).

One thing we discovered was that the capital ships fired first and then moved -- not sure why you can't move and then fire.

Another was that unless you use the squadron command, squadrons move OR fire. This makes even less sense to us…

Didn't know that squadrons deployed on table -- we just launched 'em.

We guessed for the second playing that capital ships shooting at squadrons counted as one of the two allowed firings. We did not know that you fired at EACH squadron within arc.

Looking through some of the cards post game, we saw one that allowed two shots through the same arc.

You don't get to do repairs unless you have a repair token or a repair command on the disk.

There's a repair phase at the end of the turn. You mean you don't get a repair phase unless you have a command? That doesn't seem right. What are the damage control parties doing while the ship is falling apart? :)

How fast do you imagine that a Star Destroyer rolls?

<chuckle> I don't know the time frame of a turn, but you've got hyperspace, inertial dampeners, artificial gravity, artificial intelligence, and so on in a 3D vacuum. I figure the relative maneuverability between the ships would still allow some sort of rolling.

If it's a six-turn game, how long does it take to blow up a ISD? In our second game, it took all six turns.

I admit that rules mechanics and logic (well, my logic anyway) don't always combine in games. And I certainly admit that playing a game for the first time always means we play some mechanic wrong…second times, too. :)

But we keep trying.

Thanks for your help. We'll probably try it again in another week or two.

What are the damage control parties doing while the ship is falling apart? :)

Struggling to become coordinated in the chaos and get TO the scene?

Honestly, I've seen several documentaries on training of sub crews for damage control, and I STILL can't believe it's possible.

Nope, all an illusion, for which I'm most grateful to those magicians.

Doug

There's a repair phase at the end of the turn.

Where are you seeing that? There's a Status Phase, but that's sort of a clean-up phase where you reset abilities that you used (things that you can only use once a turn).

What are the damage control parties doing while the ship is falling apart? :)

Keeping the damage from getting worse? IRL, that's 99% of DC. Actually returning strength to the hull, getting a damaged missile launcher back into action, etc., aren't things that crew aboard can usually accomplish in the duration of a shoot-out battle.

I understand that you have an aesthetic objection, but the point of the command dials is to force the players to make difficult decisions with their ships every turn. And to make life tougher for Star Destroyers, having to plot so far in advance.

I don't know the time frame of a turn, but you've got hyperspace, inertial dampeners, artificial gravity, artificial intelligence, and so on in a 3D vacuum. I figure the relative maneuverability between the ships would still allow some sort of rolling.

"Some sort," yes, but your argument was that the ships could roll so fast that arcs are unnecessary (presumably because they're unrealistic). The Victories are essentially triangles, so they should be able to pitch/roll/yaw at roughly the same rate. If you give an SD a Maneuver order, it can yaw just 45 degrees. Benefit of the doubt, it can roll 60 degrees in the same time. That's three turns to roll completely over.

If you really want to do this, you need to play Squadron Strike so that you can see what a real (playable) 3D system is like and the limits of rolls.

Besides, what if you have enemies on both sides? That downed shield has to go somewhere.

Some of the attack dice offer a face that takes away that option: it's a nice balancing touch that extends ship life -- great when you only have one or two ships per person, not so much, I imagine, when you have four or five.

What's the nice balancing touch? The defense tokens or the Accuracy results on the blue dice? (BTW, the blue dice apparently represent ion cannons, which is why the Accuracy results prevent you from dodging, etc. Breathe deeply and repeat, "This is all abstract. It is not a simulation.")

One thing we discovered was that the capital ships fired first and then moved -- not sure why you can't move and then fire.

Do you mean, "why can't you choose whether to move first or fire first" or do you mean, "why would you make a game where you shoot before moving?"

There's no inherent reason for a move-then-shoot sequence. Squadron Strike actually has a move-then-shoot sequence, but it uses simple plotted movement with simultaneous execution. I think that "feels" a little better to most people.

Apparently, the Armada development team went back and forth on whether to do move-then-shoot or shoot-then-move. I don't know all of their reasoning, but the seem to have concluded that shooting first made for a better game. Not being able to leap forward and shoot up your target before it can react maybe gives more of a feeling of stately capital ships, and makes more of a contrast to X-Wing.

Another was that unless you use the squadron command, squadrons move OR fire. This makes even less sense to us

I agree, this feels very weird. Read some of the tactics articles on BoardGameGeek, though. They showed me how vastly the game would change if fighters could always move and shoot in the same turn. The rules open up some very interesting tactics.

Oh, and make sure that you read the effects of the Squadron dial/token orders. They let squadrons move and then shoot, or shoot and then move. Very, very powerful. Expanded Hangars, anyone?

If you haven't, everyone in your group should take the time to read the Rules Reference. It is the actual rule book: "This Rules Reference booklet is the definitive source of rules information for Star Wars: Armada. If something in this booklet contradicts the Learn to Play booklet, the Rules Reference booklet is correct."

Interesting.

There's a Status Phase, but that's sort of a clean-up phase

Aha. We obviously just assumed there was a damage control phase because both of us felt there should be. Told you we play rules incorrectly. Does change, er, shorten, the game, I imagine since we kept repairing shields, which kept damage at bay a little bit longer.

Not exactly sure of the logic with halving hit results

We figured this Brace for Impact benefit out in our second game -- the ship is equipped with seat belts. Sorry, that's a Star Trek reference… :)

Breathe deeply and repeat, "This is all abstract. It is not a simulation.

<chuckle> How designers choose to simulate something via rules mechanics always fascinates me. I worry less about simulation of super-duper sci-fi tech than the logical consistency of how it fits together.

That's why I question why capital ships can't fire out all four sides, or why a special action all of a sudden allows extra firepower, or a card all of a sudden allows a ship to fire twice out the same side, or that somehow squadron pilots forget where the fire button is while flying unless the CAG reminds them where the button is, or that the captain of a ISD has to plot three turns in advance that the damage control teams must be sent to fix the shields, and so on.

My suspicion is that the designers stuck things in SWA just to be different from X-Wing. No proof, just a feeling. Granted, it *should* be different because you're talking about a capital ship system with um, hundreds of starmen and droids per ship, not a fighter system with one pilot (sometimes two) and maybe a droid card.

Again, thanks for pointing out our errors in play. Maybe the third time's a charm…

First of all, assume a rant over the price after each paragraph. However, that said I would note 2 things: 1) its the same price in the UK (£70), rather than the transatlantic markup we often get, and 2) I wonder what the start up costs were – the 2nd Star Destroyer may only cost a dollar, but the making of the mold, the original sculpts etc would probably push the cost of the first one way over $10,000. USD

As to the game – I like it: I think there are some very clever mechanisms.

Command- I think as you have now realised, its one dial per turn.
First turn Command phase; Stack all disks you are allowed for the ship, (ISD = 3).
Take top dial – enact it
2nd and subsequent turns – take the dial used last turn, put a command on it, put it at the BOTTOM of the stack.
Take the TOP dial
and so on.

I find this a really good idea, makes the huge SD difficult to manage.

If you don't enact the dial when you use it, you can save it by using the tokens. The point of these are that they are not as effective, so good planning is rewarded. You can only have one of each kind, and no more than the command value (ie number of dials). You can spend a couple of turns building up stuff you will need later.

Why is there only two arcs per turn- the perennial problem of weapon platform designers!

From 'History of the Imperial Navy'
The Imperial Senate Defence sub-committee spent months arguing over the design of ships. The Engineers pointed out that every arc you added progressively doubled the size of the generators needed, which had a further knock on to the size of the ship, the number of crew, and the support around all that, as well as the speed and manoeuvrability of what the simulations showed the ship would do. Additionally with every addition the number of star-docks that could handle the monsters were reduced

Why are tokens lost for good if you use them twice in a turn?

From lecture given at Imperial Naval College, qualification for Defensive Warfare Officer.
As a Dee-woh, your most important job will be to watch 8 meters – 2 per side. One gives the current shield load, the other is the state of the shunt system to reroute shielding. The shunt fuses are the size of escape pods- it takes a couple of hours to replace them, and you'll know when that has happened because the head of engineering will let you know. Forcibly.

The coolant tanks on the other hand are the size of AT-ATs, and they don't get replaced outside of dock. And you'll know when you've blown one of them because the whole ship will shake.

Gentlemen, the most important choice you will make in your career is not whether to shunt the loading, it is whether to shunt a second time."

Funny, I actually had them same idea as a justification for the mechanic. :) Is that actually quoted from somewhere, or do you make it up? If so, it's great!

And an excellent point about energy weapons--and perfectly realistic. The whole problem with energy weapons is that they take energy. Your description is exactly the problem that tanks face when you want more armor, or more speed, or a bigger gun, or more ammunition. You either have to give up something else, or increase the total mass and volume of the vehicle. Increasing volume means that you need a longer suspension, and hull structure, and there's more surface that needs to be armored, and …

Prices are prices, based on a variety of costs. It's a $100 USD game -- some folks bought it for $65 USD, others $70 USD, others $100 USD, and it may end up in a discount bin for $20 USD, but retail price is the only consistent price for a product. Like X-Wing, FFG'll sell lots.

As for the game mechanics, some I find clever (the range dice), others not so much (the command discs), depending on how long it takes to actually use in a game and whether it carries a consistent logic to it. Some we can rationalize away, others not, and others poke fun at.

Like the comments about fuses and coolant tanks -- exactly the sort of imagination a game should induce. "Tech" is, to me, cool to try and figure out.

By the way, in our second game, we figured out that brace for impact meant the Star Wars crew, unlike the Star Trek crew, put on their seat belts… Pa-dum-pum.

I found X-Wing to be a clean design and fairly consistent, although stuffing every ship with cards slows down play. SWA strikes me as less consistent, or at least it raises all kind of questions for me (and I guess "me" is the operative word). But we keep trying and learning how the rules interact each time. It always takes multiple playings of a game to get it running the way the designer intended (or at least really close). :)

Just watched RotJ with the kid for the first time. Did nothing to cool my ardor for Armada … or X-Wing.

First of all, assume a rant over the price after each paragraph. However, that said I would note 2 things: 1) its the same price in the UK (£70), rather than the transatlantic markup we often get, and 2) I wonder what the start up costs were – the 2nd Star Destroyer may only cost a dollar, but the making of the mold, the original sculpts etc would probably push the cost of the first one way over $10,000. USD

You have to figure that you're paying $3.50 USD per ship in royalties.

And let's face it, even if assembling and painting the ships is cheap, there are a lot of other high-quality bits and pieces with each ship that aren't particularly cheap. That weight of cardboard, the "cloth" finish, the quality of printing, and so on, all add up a lot. I'd be happy with much simpler components and cheaper ships (or being able to by the ship models bare), but you have to at least acknowledge that there are real costs there.

If we don't like the price, we can play something else! :) Plenty of great games out there that are actually cheaper, even if you have to paint all of your own miniatures.

emckinney – I am actually quite good at writing stuff like that: if anybody wants to hire me to write fluff, drop me a line!

Did you calculate the $3.50 USD based on anything? (by cost a dollar, I meant the actual cost per model once the production line is in full swing, so excluding royalties.)

One figure manufacturer once said on their forum that GW may have the right model with charging extra for 'personalities', and it was a pity it couldn't be done for historicals. He wasn't being greedy, but his point was a Napoleon mould was the same cost as a line infantry mould, yet how many Napoleons are you going to sell?

Russ – I take Brace for Impact as preparing the ship for damage, imparing its offensive abilities – even putting on seatbelts (or at least not moving so you don't fall over, thus stopping you from working)

As for the extra turns for repair crews – as you increase the size of a ship, even if you increase the damage repair parties proportionately, they are still likely to be in the wrong place, or take longer to assess the damage and get the correct spares up, plus there is likely to be so much more that can go wrong.

Regards the royalties, in my day job, I did a short article on merchandise royalties. The simple rule of thumb is they run about "10%" -- I put that in quotes because Disney products command a premium (if I recall, Cars merchandise was at 12% at the time I wrote it) and I expect Star Wars to go even a little higher, maybe 15%, maybe more. The rate also likely depends on product category (say, toys more than Underoos more than a plastic cup at a fast food restaurant). Pardon the hedging, but every deal is different.

Without getting into contract minutae, and being whatever two sides agree to, the percentage is likely off the manufacturer's revenues (wholesale price) not retail price, minus other costs (like returns) and with minimum performance guarantees, and so on. The bigger the deal, the more complex the details.

Re: Repair and Command Disc: The disconnect for me is what makes the command mechanic do something repair-ish while doing nothing repairs, well, nothing. They seem to have enough crew available for damage control -- so what does the command disc mechanic represent that would *NOT* be done normally?

According to here:

link

The crew is 37,000.

From here:

link

The crew is 37,085 (Crew 36,810 + Gunners 275 -- Officers 4,520 + Enlisted 32,565)

I also saw a reference to a smaller version with only about 10,000 crew.

That's why we (erroneously) assumed there was a damage repair phase at the end of every turn.

There are damage control parties, they are keeping the ship from further breaking. The Repair token is the big repairs it can take off a damage card, which is fairly major, or repair a shield: these are actually quite major repairs.

I quite like the repair rules. They are very simple. I think they don't let you just repair ever turn for 2 reasons:

1) Would slow the game down by taking the time to figure out what each ship is doing

2) Would slow the game down even more because it would take longer to blow ships up

I quite often do engineering on turn 1 with my ships so I have that token ready to do some repairs once I get damaged.

-Tim