Namely: Mara Jade, Chewbacca, 16 Hoth Echo Base troopers and an AT-AT. As you can see - it's a pretty random lot, but I guess I could pitch Han and Chewie against some of my different 'scoundrel' minis (GZG Ravagers etc.) or do minor conversions on Rebel Minis Titan Marines, getting some snowtroopers for Hoth games. Yes, I really need to get away from my undead and Bretonnia for a while ;-)
Nevertheless, a problem arised: what ruleset should I choose for Star Wars gaming?
Both WEG "Star Wars Miniatures Battles" and WOTC "Star Wars Miniatures" always seemed too generic for me - not mentioning other create-your-own-army rulesets (like Defiance or Flying Lead), which (as much as I love them, especially the latter) just don't capture the feel of the movies in my opinion. I began to toy with some ideas - none of them being an actual rule, but I hope that some of you may find these interesting:
- defences. There are four ways one can defend against a blaster shot: absorb it with an energy shield (see: Destroyer droids), deflect with a lightsaber (Jedi only), duck for cover or make a serious wound into a scratch by using a mechanism similar to GW LotR Fate points (see: Leia during the battle of Endor), available only to Hero characters. And that leads us to...
- armor. Have you ever seen a stormtrooper not being killed by a blaster shot? In a Star Wars ruleset the armor shouldn't give any bonuses against ranged weapons. It should be helpful when attacked with some primitive melee weapons (Ewoks, anyone?) or hit with fragmentation charge (as seen in the new trilogy) - but that's not the sole purpose for it. When you take a look at the imperial stormtroopers, Boba Fett or Lord Vader himself, it's obvious that the armor - even if it's barely effective - makes for an intimidating appearance. A rule for that? If a character in armor is present in a certain radius from the miniature being activated/reacting to the opponent's action - make the activation a bit more difficult.
- Heroes vs. grunts. When you take a look at the Imperial and Rebel forces in the old trilogy, the differences are obvious: while the former rely on large number of anonymous troopers, the latter depend mainly on a small group of named characters possessing extraordinary skills. The difference is not really about how each force is organized (army list choices), but which part of a given force can be activated at a time. I'm thinking about using some kind of action/command points, the amount of which would depend on a different factor (e.g. Empire gets x APs for each squad or vehicle, Rebels get the same amount for each Hero), and which could be spent a bit differently (e.g. the max amount of APs that can be assigned to a single miniature depends on its 'level' or 'ability'). I have to take a look at Ambush Alley and Infinity, from what I've seen there are some pretty clever ideas on that type of mechanics there.
