Heroes of the Aturi Cluster - Unity Squadron - The Rules

If you are unaware of what Heroes of the Aturi Cluster is, then check out the link to the right first. Don't worry, I'll still be here when you get back. (If you already know, don't spoil it :)).

OK, what I'm working on is a variant to HotAC. I ran a campaign earlier this year, and it ended up being a huge success and a lot of fun. But the one thing that I did hear a lot of is that players would have liked to have been able to run their favorite ships in the campaign, rather than be stuck with the small selection from the standard rules. And why not? I love the B-Wing, so I was happy, but what if your favorite ship is the E-Wing, or even a TIE/Advanced or a StarViper?

So, to answer that I came up with HotAC: Unity Squadron.

Check out my first post for the back story
http://unitysquadron.blogspot.com/2016/08/welcome-to-unity-squadron.html


In games terms, it works like this:

• First, Players choose a faction: New Republic (Rebel Alliance), Imperial Remnant(Galactic Empire), or Mercenaries/Militia (Scum and Villainy). Once their faction is chosen, they cannot change factions without starting a new pilot
• Next, players choose a starting ship. This can be any small-based ship that is normally available to their faction. The EO can set a base point limit (26-30 works best), and players can choose ships on point scale based on the standard skirmish game. I've come up with some costs, and still tinkering some, but I'll link it once it's ready. Any points left over are used for upgrades, just like normal. Just for reference, standard HotAC uses about 26 points to start.
• Players can spend XP for upgrades and pilot abilities that are available to their faction and ship choice only. Sorry, no X-Wings with Darth Vader's ability, and etc.
• Players can switch to a new ship once they reach PS 4 (just like the standard rules). However, they can switch to any ship available to their faction for 5 points. This is so if new ships come out, a player can jump in them and play without having to start over.

That's pretty much it on the players side. The down side of this is that some ships might make the game a bit too easy. So to compensate, I'm tweaking the AI ships a bit. I'm going to try swapping out all standard TIE Fighters with TIE/FO's. Kinda makes sense thematically, and makes the standard cannon fodder just a bit tougher. This is not set in stone, though. As I have to find the right balance of movement and action AI for the FO's. I may just say all TIE's (not just TIE Fighters, even Intercepters, TIE/Adv, etc) gain a free Shield Upgrade.

I also want to toy with the idea of allowing large ships, and/or allowing pilots to keep their old ship when switching to a new one, essentially allowing them to go back in forth between them as needed. But that will come later. For now, I'll be running series of test in a mono-campaign at home (that's a campaign with me controlling all pilots).