I'm still digesting the map strategy

I guess one way to thinking of it is as a hybrid of the GC maps Tanaab and ISD Judicator.

OK, let me try to sum them up in one line or two each:

In the first one, the Imperials have Stormtrooper Transports and TIE bombers and are to fight their way on board a station armed with laser turrets, and with several points of entry. The rebels need to communicate and co-ordinate effectively to respond to Imperial boardings, holding on to control points and tactically important choke points and repelling boarding vessels. The interior is Judicator-ish, with twisting and turning corridors but also a good deal of relatively large rooms that'd logically be on a space station (living quarters, armoury, general stores, command centre, etc.).

The second map is an Xtraction map, PR style, taking place entirely outside the platform - only the station's hangar bay is accessible (used to launch fighters and as a "checkpoint" for the freighter). Both sides have cruisers and fighters and the rebels need to get a medical freighter or maybe a corvette or something to the "checkpoint" (to pick up surviving soldiers and personnel from the station) and back to where it started (to hyperspace home).

Thanks. I just wish I had AlliED and X-Wing Alliance installed, so that I could script some nice briefings and record them with FRAPS. I loved those briefings, with the flashing icons and little text tags and what-not. I download AlliEd just to see if it'd work without XWA, but of course it didn't (it needed the graphics file with all the ship icons). Either way, it's just the measly trial version anyways, as opposed to the $10 v1.57 which I used to have, so I don't know how useful it'd be anyway .

As a side note, maybe in the first map the Stormtrooper Transports are spawn points and take a while to re-spawn, so that if the Imperials are driven back to it they either have to un-dock it or lose it, and if a transport is lost, it's rather bad news as it takes time for a replacement to be launched. Would give those scattered laser turrets and as a result the TIE Bombers more importance, too (although I expect space combat outside to quiet down once the Imperials get a foothold on board the platform).

Another question, should all the Imperials' landing sites be blind zones to the turrets, or should one or two require the Imps to take a turret down before docking? And if so, should the turret take a while to re-spawn so that it doesn't just pop right back up and blast the "sitting duck" transport that's sitting there docked? Or would a faster re-spawn be a good thing, so that certain docking locations were more of a hurried "dock, drop the troops, and un-dock quickly" type of thing?

Yup. I don't want the turrets to be too much of a hindrance, more of this "OK, we need to destroy this turret if this transport is to land here" thing.

Like on GC Death Star 1, if you've played it. The laser turrets are an annoyance and sure, you can destroy them, but they'll re-spawn and you can perfectly fine complete your objectives anyhow.

I want 90% of the round to be inside the station.

Sounds nice!

Like on GC Death Star 1, if you've played it. The laser turrets are an annoyance and sure, you can destroy them, but they'll re-spawn and you can perfectly fine complete your objectives anyhow.

I want 90% of the round to be inside the station.

- The mine field is a relatively dense "ball" of mines to keep out larger ships. It has openings to allow smaller ships to get through, but any vessel getting too close to the ball explode (not necessarily with an actual mine exploding).

- The interior of the space station features many narrow ISD Judicator-ish corridors and rooms such storage rooms, living quarters, armouries, control rooms, etc.

   FS Border Station Pavlov
     

An Imperial push has been launched on the Alliance-sympathetic Tind System, aiming to capture the two industrialized dwarf planets in its inner reaches. The first targets of the Imperial onslaught will be the outer border stations: military platforms orbiting the outer, uninhabited worlds. These platforms, which serve as home bases for star fighter squadrons and play host to relatively strong troop garrisons, are designed to repel pirate attacks and act as deterrents for war lords or internal strife among the system's independent worlds. They were, however,  never designed to hold off a full-scale Imperial attack.

Imperial Task Forces led by Imperator Class Star Destroyers quickly overpower the six platforms without opposition – in all but one case. Platform Pavlov, which orbits the ice planet Yakov, although surrounded by Imperial cruisers and about to be boarded by never-ending waves of Imperial stormtroopers, will not fall.

TacSit: Pavlov's perimeter is defended by mine fields and gun platforms, while the station itself is armed by several turrets. The Imperials have Storm trooper transports and TIE Bombers launching from stationary cruisers – the Rebels have their infantry only.

Imperial cruisers cannot close to firing range due to dense mine fields surrounding station. They are therefore stationary.

Objectives: This is a Conquest/Assault map. The station's security forces must hold their positions until Imperial tickets run out, at which point friendly reinforcements arrive from inside the system.

   Border Repulse
     

Forty-five minutes after the fall of Pavlov's sister platforms, wave after wave of Imperial marines still disembark on the station, fighting an enemy that refuses to be defeated. All of her external defenses have been wiped out and her troops have taken severe casualties, but System Command's promise of rescue gives hope to the exhausted men. And at last, help arrives.

A hurriedly organized task force formed around the Nebulan B Frigates Steadfast and Iron Crescent has arrived and is preparing to attack the Imperial fleet. Their objective is to open a hole in the Imperial blockade, allowing the defenders of the base to be evacuated by the task force's freighters.

With battle again erupting outside the station, the exhausted defenders of Pavlov from their positions and force their way to the hangar bay, from where they await pick-up by Steadfast's forces.

TacSit: All station defenses (surrounding gun platforms and mines and on-board laser turrets) have been neutralized. However, with reinforcements finally arriving, fighters that have not been destroyed can now lift off from the station's hangar without suffering a certain death.

Imperial Star Destroyer is stationary but heavily armed. All other cruisers are now mobile.

The interior of the platform is no longer accessible to the defenders, only the hangar bay.

Objectives: This is an Extraction map. At least one medical ship must land in the platform's hangar bay to take on survivors, for then to return to its starting position, from where it can enter hyperspace. If it is stopped, its crew will abandon it and return to the station with escape pods [not modeled in-game], and a new freighter will be dispatched.

     Original Announcement
Features some more info. From before I decided to go into more detail and wrote the above.

I had a "Pavlov's House"-ish idea of the same nature. It features a "border"platform under siege by an Imperial task force led by a Star Destroyer. The Empire's fighters have achieved total space superiority around the platform (all fighters in the hangar are statics as they'd have been blasted apart if daring to take-off) and the Imperials are preparing to board the facility and capture it. The facility has many laser turrets to defend itself, and possible mines and gun platforms around it. Entrances are one hangar, several docking platforms/landing pads (on the "arm" seen in the screenshot), as well as several air locks spread throughout the structure.

The Imperials have Strom trooper Transports or Assault Transports for boarding the station (either through the hangar or the docking platforms) and TIE Bombers or some other attack light ship for suppressing the turrets. It's up to them to plan an attack strategy, either spreading out and hitting the air locks or landing pads, or concentrating their attacks on one spot such as the main hangar. The interior engagements play out like "GC ISD Judicator" battles for several control points throughout the station.

Maybe the control points could have different functions, such as one or two being armouries and the source of special pick-up kits not found in your spawn inventory, another being some sort of power generator from where the occupying force could shut down or active power to the turrets defending the outside of the space station, or to blast doors,  elevators, or other "infrastructure" features, and so on. Could be interesting if it's not overdone. Either way, I'd want a "command centre" to be in one of the tower, which'd cause ticket bleed for the side not controlling it.

Since I base it on "Pavlov's House", I'd like for it to have an air of desperation to it, with the Rebels having to cling on to their platform until reinforcements arrive to drive the Imperials off (which could be the setting of another map - a cruiser-vs-cruiser battle around the station). The challenge would be to give it an air of desperation and challenge without making it unbalanced.

Oh, and I suppose that in the first map, there'll have to be at least one uncappable control point, perhaps the Command Centre. This is so that even if the Imperials win, continuity will not be breached as there will still be some people alive to evacuate in the second map.

Oh, and here are more platforms, all from X-Wing Alliance.