In the Combat phase, craft can now fire their weapons at one another. Since all Squadrons are considered to be firing simultaneously, every pilot will be able to get his shots out before suffering any damage.

Combat Summary

The following six quick steps are used to perform Fire Combat, and are described in greater detail later in the chapter:

1. Targeting: Determine which fighters in a Squadron have craft from the target Squadron within the Fire Arc of the weapon being used.
2. Range Determination: Figure out the average distance, in hexes, between the attacking and target Squadrons. 
3. Final Difficulty of the Shot: Any modifiers that may apply are added to the base difficulty.
4. Make Gunnery Tests for the Firing Craft: Successful skill checks indicate hit targets!
5. Hit Determination: Random selection determines which enemy craft are hit.
6. Damage Determination: For each hit, an opposed roll is made between the attacker and defender. Players take note if any craft are damaged or destroyed, but the effect is not applied until the Combat phase ends.

Fire Arcs

Fighters are limited to firing their weapons in the forward arc (illustrated in the accompanying diagram), for as long as the weapon's range will allow. Note that the hex a craft occupies is not considered to be within a pilot's fire arc. If two enemy craft occupy the same hex, they are not eligible targets to each other.

An exception to the facing restriction is any turret-mounted weapon, which can be fired in all directions (though only one direction per turn). Additionally, ships armed with turrets may fire at craft in their own hex, as they could be considered to be firing straight 'up' or 'down'. Needless to say, craft armed with turret weapons (and capable gunners) can have a devastating effect in a dogfight.

Line of Sight/3 Dimensional Combat

There have been many different approaches to 3D tabletop space combat in the past, many of them so complicated as to be distinctly un-fun. To simulate the effect of a 3D environment, I have chosen to tie this element into the Line of Sight rules: If a target is within the attacker's Fire Arc, he is eligible to be shot at, no matter what may be in the way. If a Squadron of X-wings wants to fire on a Squadron of TIE bombers, and there's a Super Star Destroyer between them, they may fire at will, as though the Capital Ship weren't even there, and the TIEs may return fire in kind. The fighters are simply considered to be 'above' or 'below' the SSD. It's simplistic, but it's trouble free - and since both sides of the conflict gain this advantage, balance is maintained.

The same holds true for friendly fighters, and pilots may fire through their comrades without any penalty whatsoever.

Range

The range to a target determines the base difficulty for the shot, and falls into one of three ranges: short, medium, and long. Depending on the weapon being fired, these ranges will change. For instance, the average starfighter laser cannon has ranges of 1-3/12/25. This means that targets 1-3 hexes away are at short range, targets up to 12 hexes away are at medium range, and targets up to 25 hexes away are at long range. Weapons may not fire beyond long range. Since ranges change from weapon to weapon, deciding which weapon system a Squadron should employ in a given combat phase can be a major tactical decision - particularly since all fighters in the Squadron must use the same weapon in each combat phase. 

Measuring Range

An average range must be found from attackers to targets, so that all fighters in a squadron can roll against the same difficulty. If one of your fighters is perfectly placed behind an enemy at short range, that will gain your Squadron no advantage if mostly everyone else is at medium range from their targets. An average of the distance will give your attacking pilots an overall difficulty to roll against.

This needn't be a tedious mathematical exercise - since the targets will fall into either short, medium, or long range, just have a glance and take a guess. If your opponent differs, then you can get down to the nitty gritty of counting hexes and figuring averages. But remember, all visible craft in a target squad are eligible targets - you don't necessarily know who in the target Squadron your pilots will be shooting at!

Determining Base Difficulty

Compare the range to the table below. This will give you the base difficulty. It's worth memorizing these numbers, since you'll be rolling against them every round.

Determining Final Difficulty for the Shot

The base difficulty can be modified by other factors, all of which are listed below. All of these modifiers are cumulative.

Firer Conditions

Most firer conditions are applied to the whole Squadron. For instance, if one ship moved at Attack Speed, all craft in the Squadron are considered to have moved at Attack Speed. The only exception to this is separated craft - the penalty incurred from the craft being separated is not shared by the rest of the Squadron. 

Gunnery Tests

Now's the time when all the craft in a Squadron with eligible targets get to try and hit. A die is rolled for each ship, and the weapon's Fire Code is added to the roll.

Example 1: A Squadron of six A-wings are shooting at a Squadron of TIE fighters which is roughly 10 hexes away. Since they're firing their laser cannons, this is a medium range shot. The base difficulty of the shot is 8, but of course all the A-wings moved at Attack Speed this round, making the final difficulty 9. The Rebel player grabs 6 dice, one for each A-wing, and rolls them, resulting in a 1, 1, 2, 4, 4, and 5. This Squadron's laser cannon Fire Code is 6, so a six is added to each roll. The ones rolled are bomb-outs, and are ignored, but the other rolls result in an 8, 10, 10, and 11. Three hits!

Example 2: Now it's the TIE's turns. Since any damage the A-wings might have done is not determined until after all shots are taken, the TIEs are still at full strength. There are five TIEs, whose laser cannon Fire Code is 5. The Imperial player throws five dice, getting a 2, 2, 3, 6, and 6. The two sixes are re-rolled, getting a 2, and another 6! This 6 is rolled again, getting a 1. So the final totals for the rolls are 2, 2, 3, 8, and 13. Adding the Fire Code of 5 to these results yields a 7, 7, 8, 13, and 18 - two hits.

Example 3: A little later in the game, the players are familiar with the rules for combat, and have found a convenient shortcut to rolling gunnery tests. The Rebel player, with four A-wings remaining, sizes up the situation:

"Okay, your TIEs are at long range, difficulty 10, and I moved at Attack Speed, making it difficulty 11. My guys' laser cannons have a Fire Code of 6, so I need fives all around... (grabs four dice and rolls them) Let's see, I got a 1, 2, 5, and 6. The six is enough, I don't need to re-roll it. Two hits, not bad!" 

Hot Shots and Damaged Fighters

Any Hot Shots in the Squadron have higher starship gunnery skills (and, consequently, Fire Codes) than the others, so their shots must be rolled separately. Along these same lines, damaged, ionized, jammed or separated fighters will suffer penalties to their Fire Codes, and so will have to be rolled apart from the others, as well.

A great way to handle this is to have lots of different coloured and sized dice around.  This way, different dice can represent different members of the Squadron, like this:

"Okay, my eight X-wings are opening up on your bombers. Sixteen hexes away, that's long range for our laser cannons. As usual, add the penalty for moving at Attack Speed, and the final difficulty is eleven. We have a Fire Code of 7, so only fours are gonna cut it. Two of my craft are damaged, so they only have Fire Code 6, but my Hot Shot has a starship gunnery skill that's two better than the others, so his Fire Code is 9. So while the regular guys need fours, my Hot Shot needs a two, and the two damaged ships need fives. I'll use these two green dice for the damaged ships, and this big purple one will represent my Hot Shot...

(Grabs the eight dice and rolls them all at once) "Oh, great... my five regular X-wings got a 1, 1, 2, 2, and a 4... one whole hit. The damaged ships got a 3 and a 4, so that's a bust. But look - my Hot Shot got a 2, and that's all he needed. Three hits! Now, let's see which of those bombers I managed to hit..."

Assigning Hits

Hits are determined randomly (rolling d8s, d10s, or d12s, makes this step very easy). Remember - it is possible for only one of the target craft to get hit by every single shot. Even if only one of the attacking craft had him in his fire arc... the craft is simply assumed to be hit multiple times by the same fighter.

Damage Determination

At this point, an opposed roll is made between the weapons the attacking fighters were using, and the target crafts' Damage Resistance. For each hit, the attacking player rolls a die, adding his weapon's Damage. The defending player also rolls a die, adding his craft's Damage Resistance. In the case of warding off lasers, missiles, and torpedoes, the shielded Damage Resistance number is used. In the case of ion weapons, use the unshielded number. Then compare the results to the Damage Table, printed below:

Examples: One of the TIE fighters from the example above, whose laser cannons have a damage of 5, hits one of the A-wings, whose Damage Resistance is 3.

1. The Imperial craft rolls a one, bombing out. The A-wing gets a 2, for a final total of 5. Since the A-wing rolled higher, the TIE's shot has no effect.

2. The A-wing rolls a 3, and the TIE gets a 3 also. The final totals are 6 and 8, in the Imperial's favour. The A-wing is Damaged.

3. The Rebel craft rolls a 5, for a total of 8. The TIE fighter rolls a 6, and then a one on the roll-over, for a final total of 12. The damage is equal to the A-wing's Damage Resistance roll +4 - the Rebel craft is destroyed.

Effects of Damage

There are three possible damage types (when it comes to lasers and missiles and the like). These are no effect, damaged, and destroyed. When a ship is damaged, grab a damage marker and drop it into the appropriate box in the Squadron Status area of the Squadron record sheet (pictured above). If a fighter is destroyed, simply draw an 'X' through its box. Although damage is recorded immediately, none of the effects take place until the Combat phase is over.

Damaged: A damaged fighter suffers a penalty of -1 from its # of Turns (never dropping below 1), Dodge (advanced game only), and all weapon Fire Codes, as well as a penalty of +1 to its Turn Distance. In addition to this, damaged fighters may no longer move at Full Throttle.

Destroyed: When a fighter is destroyed, it is removed from the battle at the conclusion of the Combat phase.

Multiple Shots Against One Target

When more than one shot hits the same craft, the defending player makes one Damage Resistance roll, while the attacking player makes a separate Damage roll for every hit.

Example: One of the TIE fighters (Damage Resistance: 2) is hit by two separate A-wings, and rolls a 5, for a final Damage Resistance of 7. The Rebel player rolls two dice and adds his laser's damage of 5 to each of them, for a final total of 0 (thanks to a bomb out), and 13 (thanks to a rollover). Only one shot deals any damage, but it is sufficient to destroy the TIE.

Specialized Weapons

Although laser and blaster cannons are generally the most useful starship weapons, there are other options available which can make all the difference in a battle, depending on a Squadron's mission profile. In the Basic Game, there are three such weapons (a fourth, the tractor beam, will be detailed in the Advanced Game, although its counters are included in this edition for simplicity's sake):

Ion Cannons

Although ion cannons do no physical damage, their ability to disrupt a spacecraft's systems can be very useful in certain situations. Also, spacecraft shields do not protect a craft from ionization damage. When a fighter is hit by an ion weapon, it adds it unshielded Damage Resistance value to its die roll. 

When an ion cannon wins a Damage roll, drop an 'ionized' counter onto the target ship's square on the Squadron record sheet. If the ion cannon beats the defender's roll by 4 or more, drop two. For every ionized counter a ship has on it, that ship suffers a penalty of -1 from its # of Turns, Dodge (Advanced Game only), Damage Resistance (the shielded number  - never dropping below the value of the unshielded number), and all weapon Fire Codes. Also, a penalty of +1 is added to the craft's Turn Distance.

If a fighter has as many (or more) ionized counters on it as it has # of Turns, its controls are frozen and it can take no actions whatsoever, except continue to move in a straight line, at the same speed it moved in the last round. 

Ionization damage is not permanent, however. In the Special Actions phase of the round following the round in which an ionization counter is given, that counter is removed. So in effect, a fighter will suffer ionization damage for one complete round.

Missiles, Bombs, and Proton Torpedoes

These weapons can deliver an awesome punch, but with a price. A craft's particle shields must be dropped to allow these physical weapons to pass through, which can leave the firing ship vulnerable at a crucial moment. To reflect this, a ship's Damage Resistance (both numbers, shielded and unshielded) are reduced by 2 in the round in which these weapons are fired.

In addition to this, these weapons are much harder to target. When firing a missile or torpedo, add the number by which the target Squadron moved (either Attack Speed or Full Throttle) to the difficulty to hit. As you can see, these weapons are of limited effectiveness against starfighters...

Targeting Jammers

A weapon used by Alliance A-wings, the targeting jammer muddles the accuracy of starship targeting computers. Jammers are different in that their 'damage' is suffered before anyone else gets to fire. The Rebel player must announce the use of jammers at the beginning of the Combat phase, before any shots are taken. No 'attack roll' is required, and every craft (enemy or ally) within the weapon's long range of 15 hexes suffers a penalty of -2 to its weapon's Fire Control, which will affect its Fire Code. If the affected ship weapon has a Fire Control of 1, just subtract 1 from its Fire Code. If the weapon has no Fire Control, the Fire Code is unaffected.