As the title suggests, I'm wondering how people would deal with enemies in space battles that are the size of planets, or at least planetoids. I know that the rules state that any one ship/combatant takes up a tile irrespective of individual size.
I'm not really thinking of something like a Death Star either, but a living entity that's just massive in size (ignoring the issue of gravity wells, ofc).
I'm not really thinking of something like a Death Star either, but a living entity that's just massive in size (ignoring the issue of gravity wells, ofc).
So... Galactus or Unicron?
Neither, actually.
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Anything that large, I'd just assume ship based weapons would be ineffective. Instead it sounds like a scenario where you have to manage to land on the planet-thing and use the McGuffin to destroy it and escape the collapse afterwards.
Having a macguffin weapon/thing was pretty much my intent, although I didn't really want to do the "land on the thing and blow it up" scenario. Think of it more as a Mass Effect-esque combined effort thing.
So let's assume there's a plot macguffin that can be used while in space combat, and the enemy is larger than one tile permits (which is a lot).
Maybe, if each tile of the thing can be targeted and attacked. Then the fight could be about weakening all of the tiles enough to then use the macguffin.
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I wouldn't represent it as taking up tiles in space combat - instead the space combat would be set entirely in low orbit of this entity (the map is essentially a small part of the creature).
A few hexes might represent targetable weak spots or locations where you have to fire special munitions, and a few hexes might be defensive emplacements of some kind (using the stats for a ship with no engine).
On top of that would be environmental hazards that act as defended for the creature, and the creature itself launching large, powerful attacks at random targets.
and the battle map the player ship inhabits is a tiny fraction of the larger battle, with thousands of ships engaging this planetoid off screen - to make what the players do more relevant, they are making an attack run on a key weakpoint with a nuke, while most of the ships off-screen are just engaging the planetoids many defenses to keep it distracted.
That is how I would run it.
What about using or constructing a super weapon, like the death star, or helping allies as they prepare to use one by distracting the enemy?
My answer may sound boring to some people, but I would run it as a 7 hex sized, very high tier starship, like 19-20. It's not like you need to vaporize it to kill it, and I imagine constant weapon attacks from the most powerful starship weapons (coming from the most powerful starships) could work.
I like the idea of Tender Tendrils.
I did smething similar with my group, not planet sized, but definitely bigger then the normal "super-starship".
Fr this I prepared several hex maps with obstacles, figthers, turrets etc. and gave the players objectives to fullfill.
I even added some "out-of ship" passages, where they have to land and enter the superstructure to destroy some areas from within.
What was planned as a one-evening encounter, became a multi-session adventure which climaxed in an epic escape run through some tunnels, while enemy figthers attack them and the mega-structure explodes step by step (set up some "mines" at the map which blow of in specific rounds).