Ultralight Starship Wings

Two to four ultralight starships can unite to form a wing. All ships forming the wing must have the same subtype (fighter, for instance) and identical design specs (engines, weapons, and so on). In addition, all starships in the wing formation must be occupying the same 500-foot square to be counted as part of the wing.

In starship combat, a wing is treated as a single vessel, much like a battery of weapons is treated as a single weapon. (See Grapplers and Tractor Beams, below, for the one exception to this rule.) One of the ships forming the wing is declared the wing’s commander. The wing commander decides all of the wing’s actions and resolves all of the wing’s attacks; the other ships forming the wing provide support and follow the commander’s lead.

If the wing commander’s ship is destroyed or grappled, another ship in the wing may assume the role of wing commander on the wing’s next turn.

Movement: All ships in the wing move together, as one ship. The wing commander determines the wing’s movement. The wing’s tactical speed equals the tactical speed of the slowest ship in the wing.

Attacks: Only the wing commander makes attacks. However, every other ship in the wing can aid the wing commander’s attack rolls or Pilot checks using the aid another action; this is the only type of attack action wingmen can take.

Defense: Each wingman provides a +1 cover bonus to the wing commander’s Defense. The wing commander, preoccupied with moving and attacking, does not modify the Defense of any ships in the wing.

Attacks of Opportunity: A wing provokes attacks of opportunity from enemy ships as though it was a single ship. However, damage from a point-defense system is distributed among the ships in the wing as the wing commander sees fit. For example, if a point-defense system deals 180 points of damage to the wing, the wing commander could split the damage evenly among three ships in the wing (each ship would take 60 points of damage), or choose to have one ship take all the damage. A ship’s armor reduces the amount of damage it takes normally; conceivably, the damage could be split into small enough fractions that the wing, as a whole, suffers very little damage.

Grapplers and Tractor Beams: Ships in a wing may be targeted separately by grapplers and tractor beams. (See Grappling Systems for more information on these grappling devices.) A grappled ship immediately drops out of formation and is no longer considered part of the wing.