Purpose:

Provide AI control of one or more ships for the Heroes of the Aturi Cluster (HotAC) Rebel Cooperative Campaign and Flight Group Alpha (FGA) Imperial Cooperative Campaign for the X-Wing Miniatures Game, using HotAC 2nd edition Version 2.07.05, Flight Group Alpha 2nd Edition Version 207_beta_1 (with AI Pack 7.3) and FFG's 2nd Edition ruleset.

Materials Needed to Play:

  1. To Play the Heroes of the Aturi Cluster Rebel Cooperative Campaign, you will need to download the HotAC Campaign book, mission pack and all printable materials from Heroes of the Aturi Cluster 2.0 Conversion by Shaun Tiernan. You can also download the Ground Assault Expansion materials from the same Google Drive link.
  2. To play Flight Group Alpha - An Imperial Cooperative Campaign, you will need to download the FGA Campaign and Mission Books (Ver 207_beta_1) and AI Cards (Ver 7.3) from Flight Group Alpha - An Imperial Co-Operative Campaign on boardgamegeek.com
  3. Then you will need to print off and cut out the various new terrain materials, reference cards, mission cards, Pilot Cards etc...
  4. You will also need a sufficient number of X-WIng 2nd Edition Miniatures models, cards, tokens etc. between all the players to play each mission in your chosen campaign.
  5. You will need to access this HotAC+FGA AI program, either online using the x-wing-ai.com website or using the offline version, which you can download from the x-wing-ai.com website. The program contains all the AI ships for both campaigns (HotAC or FGA) and the Ground Assault Expansion.
This web-based application, HotAC 2nd Edition Artificial Intelligence (AI), and FGA AI Ver 7.3, faithfully recreates the HotAC and FGA 2.0 AI developed by Claes Sorennson and Flight Group Alpha for both cooperative campaigns.
This program mirrors the "FGA Imperial AI Cards V7.3" for all Empire ships (11) used in HotAC, all Rebel (8), Scum (9) and First Order (2) ships used in the FGA campaign, AI for 5 additional Imperial ships by Dovi Anderson, the Rebel E-wing, and Imperial AT-AT and AT-ST Walkers and Rebel T-47 Airspeeder to support the Ground Assault Expansion. x-wing-ai.com app does the "dice rolling" for you for AI maneuvers, and provides a prioritized "walkthrough" of activities, maneuvers and actions for each phase and step for the AI that you will use for decision-making for the AI ships in either campaign, in an easy to see and use form during each turn.

Setup:

Read the HotAC/FGA Campaign book, and set up the campaign with 2 to 5 of your star-pilot friends as you take on the Empire in the Aturi Cluster or start your Imperial Pilot careers fresh out of the Academy in Flight Group Alpha! Setup each mission per the Campaign directions using standard X-Wing 2nd Edition rules.

Usage Overview:

The Hotlist

XWing AI now contains a user Hotlist in 2/2.5Ed and HotAC/FGA Pages. You can select any number of ships to put in the hotlist, irrespective of their factions.

To use the Hotlist, go to any faction list and select any ship. Double-click or long-press (for touch devices) on the large ship icon in the center of the Target location picture and the ship will be added to the Hotlist. A short message will appear for ~2 seconds to inform you that the ship has been saved to your hotlist. To view your Hotlist, click on the Hotlist "Sun" Icon in the Factions area, and the Hotlist will display the ship(s) you selected. This is a convenience so you don't have to keep going from Faction to Faction searching for your AI ships - they can now be conveniently located in your Hotlist and operated from there.

To remove a ship from the Hotlist, double-click or long-press (for touch devices) on its large ship picture in the Target Location area again. A short 2-second message will appear above the Target Location area informing you that the ship has been removed from your hotlist.

Hotlist information is saved during your play session. It will remain as long as you remain on the Browser Tab that is running x-wing-ai.com. The Hotlist will be deleted if you close the Tab or close your browser. It would be wise to set up your Hotlist as soon as you open up x-wing-ai.com to play your solo game.

Using x-wing-ai.com To Play For the AI in a Solo Game

On the AI main page, for each AI controlled ship, during each round, you will:
  1. Click on the Faction (or Hotlist) and ship picture on the left side of the page for the AI ship you are controlling.
  2. The page will update to show the selected ship"s icon in the middle of an "aiming reticle" field, the ship's stats, abilities and all prioritized activities the ship can perform in each phase.
  3. Each sector of the "aiming reticle" corresponds to the location where the Target Ship is in relation to the AI ship, and is a "live" (clickable) area.
  4. When you are ready to select the AI ship's maneuver, you will click on the appropriate sector, and the app will "roll the dice" and update the potential maneuvers.

The Game Round:

  1. Planning Phase: Most AI ships do nothing during the Planning Phase. For those that do have some activity during this phase, note(s) will appear here informing you of the AI's requirements.

  2. System Phase: AI ships carry out any actions listed under the System Phase header on the app.

    HOTAC Optional AI Rules for Devices:

    The HotAC/FGA page now includes "HOTAC Optional AI Rules for Devices" by Dovi Anderson. Bombers (and some Scum ships with Illicit Payloads) who are capable of dropping or launching Payloads (Bombs, Mines, Remotes etc.) now have a dropdown menu to allow you to select a payload. Hover your mouse over the "Payload Selection" button and the dropdown list will appear. Click on a payload and a "Logic Diagram" will appear.

    Which diagram you see depends on if the device is activated via "Timing" (e.g., at the end of the Activation Phase) or "Movement" (e.g., mines, where any ship that overlaps or crosses it will cause it to activate). See Dovi's Device Rules for full details. Using the Logic Diagram, determine if the AI will drop or launch a device (if it can do so) referencing the Attack Die Roll shown below the table. When the AI chooses to drop or launch a device, it will always try to place the best device it can in the place where it will do the most potential damage to as many enemies as possible.

    3. AI Interactions with Friendly Devices

    AI will usually not detonate friendly munitions.

    1. AI ships do not swerve away from friendly devices, except for those that are obstacles.
    2. AI ships do not detonate or suffer effects of non-obstacle friendly Motion-Triggered ( Class B "Movement") Devices.
    3. Before a friendly End of Activation (Class A "Timing") Device detonates that would only affect friendly AI ships, remove the device from the board without effect.
    4. When a friendly End of Activation Device detonates that affects MORE friendly AI ships than enemy ships, reduce the number of AI ships affected until the same number of ships are affected on both sides. AI ships furthest from the device are spared.

    NOTE: No XP is earned by players for damage caused to enemy ships by enemy bombs.

    AI Avoidance of Enemy Devices (not dependent on AI Device Dropping/Launching)

    If an AI ship's maneuver or reposition action (such as barrel rolling to get a shot) would cause it to suffer the effects of 1 or more enemy devices this round, determine if it attempts to avoid them:

    1. If the ship would be destroyed by direct damage from enemy devices (damage not determined by dice), it will always attempt to avoid enemy devices. Include seismic charges that could effect the ship as doing direct damage for this calculation.
    2. Otherwise, the ship rolls 1 defense die for every enemy device it is threatened by (including seismic charges): If 1 or more Evade results are rolled, the ship attempts to avoid enemy devices. Device avoiding ships that entered threat via repositioning simply cancel the action and select another.

    Device avoiding ships that entered threat via its maneuver will attempt to:

    1. Swerve to avoid enemy Motion Triggered Devices unless this would cause it to move through or overlap an obstacle, suffer the effects of enemy devices its original move would avoid, or fee.
    2. Use reposition actions to avoid the effects of enemy End of Activation Devices as follows:
      • Avoid the most enemy devices possible (include all obstacle threats via seismic charges).
      • Then, in priority order: avoid target's arc and get a shot / get a shot / avoid target's arc.

    NOTE: Interceptors that use 1 reposition may focus first if they pick up a shot, as normal.

  3. Activation Phase:
    1. Pick a Target (human-controlled) ship for the AI ship using the priorities shown under Select Target.
    2. Click on the location on the "aiming reticle" that matches the location of the Target ship (relative to the AI ship).
      The app will update the four possible maneuvers the AI ship can perform, depending on the range and aspect (opening or closing) of the Target ship from the AI ship and whether the AI is "Stressed".
    3. Move the AI Ship using the displayed maneuver:
      • Choose the "Tgt R1/R2(Closing)" maneuver if the Target ship is in Range 1 or is in Range 2 and facing towards the the AI ship ("Closing" aspect).
        The HotAC/FGA Campaign books provide more details on how to determine the Target's aspect.
      • Choose the "R2(Fleeing)/R3" maneuver if the Target ship is in Range 2 and facing away from the AI ship ("Opening" aspect) or is in Range 3.
      • Choose the "R4+" maneuver if the Target ship is further than Range 3 from the AI ship.
      • Choose the "AI Stressed" maneuver if the AI ship has a Stress token.
      Remember that AI ships do NOT gain a Stress token as a result of conducting a "Difficult" (Red) maneuver.
      However, they may not take an action in the Action portion of the Activation Phase if they conducted a "Difficult" (Red) maneuver.
      AI ships CAN gain a Stress token as a result of other game mechanics, such as collisions with obstacles, executing an action, card direction, etc.
      See the appropriate HotAC/FGA Campaign Book for details.


    OPTIONAL RULE: The "Not-Quite-As-Stupid AI Pilot Rule". If the AI maneuver would cause the AI ship to overlap an obstacle (as defined in the 2.0/2.5 rules) or move away from a scenario objective (in HotAC/FGA), you may reroll the AI's maneuver ONCE (click on the appropriate target location sector again to reroll). Then you may select the most helpful or least harmful maneuver of the two for the AI to execute. If the reroll comes up the same as the first roll, oh well! This rule does NOT apply if the original AI move would cause it to overlap another ship (i.e. a partial maneuver). If you choose to use the "Not-Quite-As-Stupid AI Pilot Rule", you should use it consistently throughout your game.

  4. In the Action portion of the Activation Phase, if the AI is allowed an action, choose the Action for the AI ship using the Action Selection priorities listed on the app.
    Don't forget to take any other additional allowed actions resulting from ship/pilot abilities, card direction, etc. Many ships have reminders about using their ship abilities when favorable for the AI to do so.


  5. Engagement Phase: Select the Attack Target for the AI ship using the priorities listed on the app under Attack Priorities.
    Note that the Attack Target might not be the same target that was used for maneuver selection! That is perfectly fine.
    Conduct engagement using X-Wing 2nd edition rules.


  6. End Phase: Remove all circular tokens. AI ships carry out any actions listed under the End Phase header on the app.

Notes: