An Armada AI System - in Development

Star Wars: Armada

AI system for Imperials

v1.02

To promote solo and cooperative play

Overriding Rule – if the AI does something obviously dumb (ie, something no human would ever do) then override and make it do the obvious sensible action.

Obvious Target Rule – AI love rolling dice – to determine valid targets, the AI will always try to roll the maximum number of dice. If choosing between firing 3 red dice at a ship, or 4 dice at squadrons, the squadrons will be chosen. If there is a tied option, roll a die to determine target.

Double Arc Rule – When determining the Obvious Target rule, add all the dice that could be fired at the same target as one result.

For Example:

A Victory II has an enemy ship at long range in the front arc (3 dice), 3 squadrons in blue range to the side (3 dice), and a corvette double at long range in the side and rear (2 dice and 2 dice = 4). The AI will choose to shoot at the corvette with 2 shots of 2 red dice.

Weakest Arc – The AI will always choose to shoot the enemy arc with the fewest shields, as long as it can maximise dice.

Example:

The Victory II will shoot the Corvette with 6 dice (3 red, 3 blue).

It will choose to shoot the Corvette in the front arc even though it has shields, since shooting it in the side arc would mean losing 3 blue dice.

Defence Tokens – The AI will use any defence tokens it can to minimise damage.
It will not BRACE if there is an unactivated enemy in range with more dice to be rolled than the current attack.
AI will only use exhausted defence tokens if it would otherwise take damage cards, or in the case of BRACE, if it would otherwise be destroyed.

Example:

The Victory is being fired upon by the Corvette with 2 red and 1 blue. The Victory will not use its brace, as it is also in range of the MC80 Assault cruiser, which has not yet activated. The MC80 Assault has 4 red dice potentially on the victory. If the MC80 were a Command Variant (only 3 red from the side arc) the Victory would BRACE against the Corvette.

Squadrons –

When activated with an order, Squadrons will move towards and engage the nearest enemy squadron with the closest squadron activating and moving first.

If there are no enemy squadrons in range, squadrons will attack the nearest enemy ship.

In general, squadrons that are unengaged in the Squadron phase will move to maintain their position in the formation.

Engaged squadrons will shoot at enemies in the following order – Escorts, non-counter, Counter. If there are multiple targets, Squadrons will fire on the enemy with the fewest hit points remaining. If there is a tie, roll a die to determine the appropriate target.

Example: Tie Fighter A is engaged with X-Wings, so must shoot them first (Escort).

Tie Fighter B is engaged with the Z-95 and the A-Wing. “B” will shoot at the Z-95, as it does not have COUNTER, even though the A-Wing is only on 1 health.

Playing the Game

Choose Imperial Commander style

Roll a blue – crit = aggressive, accuracy = cautious, hit = normal

Standard mission – deploy all player forces first. Place Imperial marker as Focal Point.

Focal Point (FP) is placed midway between Player’s ships (if two ships, halfway between – if three ships, on the middle ship, etc). Pull the FP back to the edge of the board (use an Imperial Victory Token to indicate FP.

Roll blue for FP adjustment.

Crit – move FP distance 3 to West (left of Player’s side). Roll blue again – if crit, move FP distance 3 West, otherwise ignore result. 

Accuracy – move FP distance 3 to East (right of player’s side). Roll blue again – if accuracy, move FP distance 3 East, otherwise ignore result.

            

Hit – leave FP in place

Roll blue for AI deployment.

Hit – deploy forces in centre of North zone (far side to Player), facing FP.

Crit – deploy forces on Western side of North Zone facing FP

Accuracy – deploy forces on Eastern side of North Zone facing FP.

Standard formations will be developed for different scenarios / commanders, but in general – flagship in the centre – fastest ships on the outside flank – slowest ships on the inside flank.

Cautious deploy at speed 1, Normal at speed 2, Aggressive at speed 3 if possible.

Cautious commanders deploy squadrons in contact with ships, Aggressive and Normal at out to range 2 of ships.

Activate ships in the following order:

1^st – Ships with the most dice on enemy target – if tie, choose ships with a single enemy double arc’d – if still tie, roll die to determine which ship activates

2^nd – Ships with Squad value and squads in range to be activated

3^rd – Ships that can move without entering enemy range

4^th – All others – roll die to choose if multiples

Command Dials

AI ships do not have a stack of command dials. As each ship activates, roll a blue to determine action.

For each ship as it activates:

1^st – Measure to see if there is an enemy ship in range. If Yes, roll on the “IN” table. Otherwise, roll on the “OUT” table.

2^nd – Roll a blue roll a blue die to determine its order (there is no command dial stack for AI ships)

Place a command dial set to the correct order by the ship to remind you of its order and that it has activated.

3^rd – If the command chosen cannot be used this round (Squadron order taken but no squadrons in range to attack, repair but no shields or damage to repair) then take a token. If the ship already has a token of that kind, reroll blue die until a different result is generated.

4^th – Ships will use Manoeuvre dials and tokens to maintain their position in the formation as much as possible – ships on the inside edge of a wheel will slow, those on the outside will speed up. Otherwise they will simply take the appropriate token.

The exception being if a ship can Manoeuvre in such a way as to bring about a double arc on an enemy ship – in this case it will break formation and make the appropriate manoeuvre.

CAUTIOUS COMMANDER TABLE

OUT – Hit=Repair, Crit=Squadron, ACC = Manoeuvre

IN – Hit = Repair, Crit – Squadron/Concentrate Fire, ACC= Manoeuvre

NORMAL COMMANDER TABLE

OUT – Hit=Manoeuvre, Crit = Squadron, Acc = Concentrate Fire

IN – Hit – Squadron / Concentrate Fire, Crit = Manoeuvre, Acc = Repair

AGGRESSIVE COMMANDER TABLE

OUT – Hit = Manoeuvre, Crit = Squadron, Accuracy = Concentrate Fire

IN – Hit = Concentrate Fire, Crit = Squadron / Repair, Acc = Manoeuvre

If the result is Squadron / Concentrate Fire, the ship will choose Squadron if there are squadrons in range to command – otherwise it will choose Concentrate Fire.

{These are the rules that I have used so far - if you try them, let me know. If you think there are changes that could / should / need to be made, let me know}

{EDIT: Some time ago a forum member made a nicely formatted version of these rules... Thanks Kezzamachine... they can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4jv0dijeg320j83/Star%20Wars%20Armada%20AI.pdf?dl=0}

{EDIT: Here are some additions to these rules for maneuver, etc https://daveswargames.blogspot.com/2019/08/defenders-of-gelron-sector-ai-rules.html}