From a reading of the ion turret card, I didn't see a restriction on losing shields to have the ion token work.  In essence you could fire on an otherwise undamaged ship (like another Y-wing) and still leave it with 5 hull and 2 shields and yet its stunned/drifting.  I just wanted to make sure that this is the actual reading of the rules as it frankly seems counterintuitive to be able to stun a ship with its shields still up.  Maybe that's just left over from the old TIE fighter games…

Sanguinary Priest said:

Consider the ion cannon fired at the Star Destroyers from Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back.  Those blasts disabled those ISDs seemingly without needing to penetrate shields.

Sanguinary Priest said:

That's mostly true.  You actually deal one damage to the hull even through the shields.  It seems powerful, but you're sacrificing a few things.  1) range, it's restricted to range 1-2.  2) close range modifier, since it's not a primary weapon you don't get the +1 die for being in range 1. 3) other hits, it doesn't matter how many hits you roll, even if it's 3 criticals, the ship only takes 1 normal damage then does a 1 straight next turn.

 I'm not sure that's quite true. The card says to deal 1 damage, it doesn't say anything about ignoring the shields.

dbmeboy said:

You're right.  I've read that card a dozen times, not sure why it was sticking in my head that it read "deal 1 damage card" instead of "suffer 1 damage".  "Suffer" is the key word there because that's the rule on page 16, "Suffering Damage", that tells you to reduce shields before dealing damage cards.

 Which makes it slightly less useful, but the firing arc still is huge when fighting more maneuverable fighters. Combine with R2-D2 to soak up a ton of damage while flying around slowly and recharging shields.

dbmeboy said:

It doesn't need to as it simply says deal one damage and add an ion token with no other qualifiers.   Read as is, you simply ignore anything else and add the ion token (even against larger ships like the Mill Falc which will presumably have more shields and hull).  I do realize there are other limiting factors to its power as Karrde said but it just seems a bit wierd that the ion effect goes on despite the shields.  It gets even wierder if the larger upcoming ships are affected by this as well with a single shot. 

Aahzmandius_Karrde said:

It doesn't make a difference.  Pg.13, #7.  Suffering/dealing damage happens whether you add a card or remove a shield.  You can still have all your hull and multiple shields and get the ion token.  You simply deal one damage and add the ion effect.

 I meant that it doesn't deal hull damage to a target that still has shields, as the previous post had suggested.

If it makes you feel better, I remember the effects being described often in TEU books, specifically and often in Zahn's Heir to the Empire series, due to the Katana fleet playing  large role. Even then it was stated that ion cannons/weapons ignore shields and disable the ships. Just think of the one damage being suffered as some of the electronics going kaplowie.

In the old D6 WEG RPG Ion Cannons always ignored shields.  It worked sort of like an EMP weapon.  It fries electronics but does little physical damage.  And from the movies, either the ground based cannon in Empire was powerful enough to punch right through the destroyer's shields or it bypassed them. 

From reading the card, I was wondering about how the damage was handled in X-Wing. It doesn't say it ignores shields, just that if it hit at all the target takes one damage and a stun token.  If the hit is taken on any existing shields, that at least gives shielded ships something of a defense, but the stun effect would be universally applied to all targets.

The part that surprised me the most is that the target still gets to fire.  I would have assumed that the weapon systems would be fried too.  Perhaps that turned out as too powerful in play-testing.

My take on how the Ion cannon is meant to be used:

Defensive Deterrent - Keeps opponents from getting into and/or staying in optimal range.  An attack 2 TIE is going to have trouble getting multiple hits on you from range band 3 forcing it to enter your Ion cannon's effective range regardless of angle of attack.  The Y-Wing can then zap them and hopefully escape and/or set the attacker up for a counter attack by it's wingmen.

Offensive De-fang - Spearhead your attack run with a Y-Wing to neutralize a potent enemy ship, ionizing it thus allowing your fellows an easier time maneuvering in and taking it down the next turn with your X's.  Hitting someone like Vader with an ion cannon would greatly diminish his effectiveness (no double actions or maneuvers the next round).

-DavicusPrime

The Ion Cannon is really great, but it doesn't prevent all that much.  Affected ships can still make agility rolls, attacks, and actions as normal, you just dictate what their movement is next turn in exchange for any excess damage rolled.  That may not sound like much (especially given how long ships were down and out when hit by Ions in other games,) but realize that knowing that ship will only be going 1 up next round is huge, as it allows you to plan a turn where you can garauntee a target's placement, and plan accordingly.

I didn't realize the target still got to perform actions.  It makes the usefulness seem a bit weaker than i was hoping.  Still good, especially for keeping TIEs from getting away, but it doesn't really shutdown the ship's capabilities.

-DavicusPrime

DavicusPrime said:

Especially when you consider that the action they take could be a barrel roll that takes them out of your firing arc. Gotta compensate for that when positioning your fighter.

 Wouldn't it be kind of hard to barrel roll out of an arc unless the X-Wing was at Range 1?

Manchu said:

Exactly.  A barrel roll will only really be useful if you only need to get a 1" nudge to get someone into the edge of your firing arc or to get outside of an arc you're barely in.  Odds are it won't save you, but when you need it, its nice to have.

-DavicusPrime