Today's new ship pack is Padmé Amidala's ship of choice, the J-Type Star Skiff.
This ship was designed for the Queen Apailana of Naboo, however she gave it away to Padmé as thanks for her service as Queen. With a much duller finish to the previous Naboo starships and the addition of weapons and superior engines, this ship showed the signs of the more turbulent times of the Clone Wars.
The Overall Design:
This ship is not a fighter! Although it had weapon systems installed, they were only light, so they could deter or distract opponents while they made their getaway. I feel this ship would fit being more of a support ship and crew carrier. To support this is the fact that like the J-Type Diplomatic Barge before it, the Star Skiff could refuel a pair of N-1 Starfighters on the go so they could travel long-distances with it to act as a fighter escort.
The Stats:
Even though its a third of the width of the Diplomatic Barge it's still 15 meters wider than the Ghost, the biggest large base ship in the game so far, so it would definitely fit a large base.
For its attack value I decided on 2 attack dice in a front arc to show its light weapon systems.
For the agility value I decided on 2 defence, as this ship was purpose-built to run away from danger when it could.
For the hull and shield values, I decided on 10 hull and 3 shields, as this ship was massive and built of some of the strongest materials in the galaxy, making a hard nut to crack.
The Actions:
As normal the first and easiest action to give this ship is the focus action to show the pilot in the ship.
The next action I decided on was an evade action as this ship is again very defensive, manurable and agile, so it disserves access to this defensive action.
Next is the coordinate and jam actions, as the ship is a senators ship of choice, it would need a superior and sophisticated comm array to let them communicate across the galaxy at a moments notice. This means in the heat of battle these senators could use the comm to inspire and coordinate their allies or jam and confuse their enemies.
Next is the boost action to again show this ships superior speed compared to most ships its size.
The Ability:
As I mentioned earlier, the Star Skiff could refuel a pair of N-1 Starfighter allowing it to bring and resupply its escort on long-distance missions. I decided to show this ability to resupply a pair of N-1's by letting you recover their shields twice a game when they are docked. This allows your starfighter escort to run off ahead to do some damage then come back and recover their shields, then deploy to take on any surviving enemies.
The Dial:
To show this ship's speed, I've gone with a similar dial to the Shadow Caster's, letting it perform well at higher speeds while having slightly worse manoeuvres the slower you are going.
The Modifications:
As an effective transport for senators, I decided to go with a heavy crew complement, letting you carry 3 crew into battle to show its purpose and size. I also gave it a sensor slot as I feel it would be necessary for a senators sip to have a good sensor array, to detect incoming threats. And like most ships, it has access to the modification slot to customise it to your liking.
The Pilots:
Gregar Typho:
Padmé's head of security and nephew of the Naboo security captain Quarsh Panaka. Gregar was a loyal servant to Padmé, protecting her throughout the clone wars from all manner of threats. Because of this I felt it was fitting to give him a place as a pilot on her ship to keep her safe. Due to his role as a protector I made his ability around him letting his allies use their evade tokens as a way to increase their attack or defence value, making ships more capable at warning off opponents or surviving the hail of incoming fire, so if you desperately need 3 evades to survive or 3 hits to kill that ship, he can get it for you.
Padmé Amidala:
It would be mad for me to make this ship without including its main pilot. I decided to give her an ability to show her strengths as a leader, especially one who leads from the front (a rarity for senators during the Clone Wars), inspiring her allies to keep going against the enemy, even when they are tired and stressed.
This ability pairs really well with your ability to coordinate, allowing ships that have performed red actions to still gain their focus token. I love the idea of a wedge formation of N-1's led by Padmé, with the ships being able to K-turn and still be able to perform their focus action.
C3-PO:
Poor C3-PO, he's just made to suffer. I feel its fitting for him to have a place piloting this ship as we see him do it, even if begrudgingly, in episode 3. I decided to make his ability based around his constant fear and worrying, hating to fly at all. Whenever a shot hits his ship, 3-PO immediately panics and gets worried, gaining a strain or stress to show this. This combined with his low initiative and calculate instead of focus, would make him very cheap points-wise, letting him be a budget version of this ship. He would also be the only pilot to be without a talent slot as well.
Naboo Security Pilot:
Although a generic pilot, the Naboo Security Pilot would still be better than 3-PO by far with its focus and higher initiative value. I would also give this pilot a talent slot as I feel they would need to be some of the best of the best to keep their VIP's safe during their dangerous travels across the galaxy during these troubling times.
Upgrades:
Padmé Amidala:
Again as the best-known owner of this ship, it's fitting for her to be a crew member on board it. I feel the ability I gave Padmé fits her very well, letting her transfer green tokens between friendly ships to defend them, letting friendly ships use all their allies tokens if necessary to keep them alive.
Obi-Wan Kenobi:
Obi-Wan is another fitting member of this ship's crew, as he stowed away on the trip to Mustafar to confront Anakin. I made his ability around his steadfast defence that he was well known for, again fitting for this ship. This allows him to use the force to increase his agility, letting him use the force only for defence, as all Jedi should.
Jar Jar Binks:
He had to appear eventually! As one of Padmé's friends, it also makes sense for him to come in a ship pack like this. His ability tries to show his clumsy haphazard nature that seems to get him both in and out of trouble. This forces every one you bump into to potentially get strained, stressed or even damaged by your clumsy collision (including yourself).
Onaconda Farr:
Another Padmé's long time friends Onaconda was another Republic senator during the Clone Wars. He did however decided to side with the Separatists for aid to his planet early on during the conflict. However after the republic pledged more support he was loyal again. To reflect this, his ability is about giving support to the enemy to aid his stressed allies.
Diplomatic Group:
This card is designed to show that even during the Clone Wars, some senators like Padmé, Mon Mothma and Bail Organa were still willing to put the anger behind them and try to make things better in the name of peace, even if the opponents didn't care. The ability of this Diplomatic Group gives a massive penalty to the ships that attack first, giving them all deplete token, meaning that this would be best paired with a low initiative swarm.
Sensor Jammers:
This card again plays into this ships roll as a passive support ship, by trying to hide it from enemy attacks. This card lets you do that, having a chance to brake enemy locks as they acquire them, however, if the enemy holds onto those locks they can see through your sensor jammers and all ships can then easily lock you until you retune your jammers.
Chromium Plating:
This shiny metal was iconic to Nubia designs, to both show the wealth of the ship's owners as well as having the benefit of reflecting some laser attacks. I made it have a chance of reflecting some of the damage and even a chance of it damaging your opponents, but then as the ship becomes damaged the chromium becomes tarnished and loses its reflective properties. However, because of its rareness, I decided to have it confined to just Naboo Security Forces, a restriction for the N-1, J-Type and many other ships.
Negotiator:
This upgrade also works towards making the J-Type and even more diplomatic ship, letting you try to work out the dispute between 2 ships in your arc, giving them both a disarm token to try to deescalate the situation. However your influence will dissipate and will not work after a few attempts to stop the fighting.
Slicers Tools:
This card works in a similar way to Engine Upgrade, Expert Handling or Tactical Officer. It upgrades your red jam actions to a white jam action so that your ship can more easily hinder your opponents.
I see it as a you upgrading your communication array to be more effective at causing a distraction to your opponents.
Command Ship:
I designed this upgrade to work as a way to link a carrier ship to their escort as that carrier would normally be solely responsible for those fighters, coordinating them and keeping them safe during the heat of battle. They'd also probably have a constant open comm to tell them what to do so it feels fitting to let you coordinate all of them in one go.
A side note for the last two cards: I decided to make them both require one or another slot type as I felt they could fit into both the slots I showed. I'd like to see an official version of this mechanic added in the future but I feel the design I made works quite nicely.
For other examples of where this could work:
an astromech that could fill both astromech and crew slots or an advanced comm's array upgrade that fills both sensor and tech slots as each slot is of similar design.
Conclusion:
This ship along side its upgrades is the epitome of a support ship, trading most of its aggressive capability to aid other friendly ships or hinder enemy ships in different ways. I like the idea of finding ways to make losing an attack on purpose beneficial as not all ships in Star Wars are capable of fighting. I think setting this ship at around 50 points for its generic (and it would be even less for 3-PO) would keep it cheap enough to have a good pair of N-1 escorts and maybe another ace, along with a handful of upgrades. As normal feel free to use them in friendly games to show the rest of the X-Wing community that there are alternatives to fighting.
Watcher Leader out.
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