Okay I love the bombard concept: (generalized attack, all weapons, effectively interdicting the grid space (nothing comes in, nothing gets out), and -1 UCR to any ground based units (troops/GAVs). Perfect, and fun use of it (you can trap enemy forces in parts of the grid while attacking other parts).
This should just be deleted though (sorry!):
Atmospheric Bombardment & Surface-to-Air Combat
Ships that can enter the atmosphere can fire on ground targets in the related Ground Grid. All energy-based weapon attacks become UCR 1 because of parallax targeting errors and weapon arc alignment difficulties. Warheads take no penalty. While ships are in the atmosphere, ground units can attack them normally. Damage is dealt as if the capital ships were vehicles.
I get confused reading that - so can X-Wings in Atmosphere fire PTs at ground targets, and be immune to fire from surface, for example?
PLEASE let us get rid of "atmosphere" and just use space and the 4 ground grids. having the atmosphere zone makes its more complicated and less straightforward - we already saw how each of us interrpreted what "atmosphere" and "surface" consisted of. Its always been a problem.
Without atmosphere it is really simple:
1) Battles in space using UCR and firing weapons.
2) Battles on surface that can include space craft capable of atmospheric flight (with penalties to UCR) using UCR and firing weapons.
No questions about where one thing ends and the other begins, where the unit is if its just 'hovering' and not landed, etc, there is no gray area whatsoever.
Very very simple. And really no different in actual gameplay, you're just removing 1 grid space and possible confusion/debate area.
Please remove atmosphere grid space! CAP is for Ground_Grid space (G1, G2), and works just like in space but the ships protected are facilities, troops, and GAVs on surface (so SFS on CAP prevent SFs from engaging those units until occupied or destroyed).
