I was inspired from playing Imperial Assault's campaign that maybe a cool off topic use for Armada could be to undertake a RPG style game based on the story of a capital ship commander.

I have made it very modular, with a range of "missions" being created that the player can draw, their opponent then takes the role of the opposition for that game. Players could then swap over and play one of their mates missions with their crew.

The missions posted in this thread are intended to be winnable, but a challenge for the player - rather then life or death outcomes otherwise the player would never be able to "level up" if they constantly had to rebuild their fleet from scratch each game.

If people are interested, please let me know and I can look at forming them together into some sort of pack and associated character sheets etc that people could download to use?

History: (original post)

I always enjoyed playing the PC versions of Starfleet Command, and getting reward points for completing missions and upgrading or trading in my ship for a better one, but then having to outfit it all over again and wondered if this could be a cool idea for Armada. You could do this idea with just one Imperial (or rebel) player, but could potentially have more players working cooperatively if you had sufficient opposing forces to continue to keep it challenging. That might even work better for more casual members of a gaming group who only take part occasionally - they take the part of the "supporting cast" of the story who get assigned to assist on certain missions.

Basically you could start as an Imperial Lieutenant in charge of a small vessel - Imperial raider perhaps if it comes out reasonably soon - tasked with intercepting smuggler convoys and other such missions.

The GM player as such would compile missions that would challenge the Imperial player and could feature multiple stages or waves. Upon successful completion the Imperial player would get a number of points, to spend on repairing damage but also purchasing ship crew, upgrades and fighters. Once a player gets fairly well kitted out in a ship they might have enough to trade in their blinged out corvette for a clapped out frigate. Later on the player would have to choose between upgrading a single large capital ship (how badly do you really want that Imperial Class Star Destroyer gig?) or using the same amount of points to own and deploy a squadron of smaller ships - which might provide more flexibility, but also more risk of being destroyed in battle. Eventually working their way up to the rank of Grand Admiral and controlling an entire task force of the Empires finest warships

EDITED - clarified ideas and intro based on thread evolution.

This is a very interesting concept.

Good bump. I love the idea, it just seemed so complete already that lost track of the thread while thinking about it

Thanks for the support guys I had another idea that could be a bit nifty - the player starts out in an Imperial CR90, as part of the Imperial Navy, (then can get up to an Imperial Nebulon B), but then the Rebellion happens and they have to decide in an epic mission, which side they want to side with that will change the entire storyline!

... then the Rebellion happens and they have to decide in an epic mission, which side they want to side with that will change the entire storyline!

This sounds Epic.

I really like that idea.

I was working on something similar-esque for X-Wing over the summer, but there just didn't seem to be much interest from the community, and I got busy with work and all.

I just fear that tournament-style play is going to be the default style of play that is hard to break out of. Almost like a Nash equilibrium .

So one of the mechanics I have in mind is that the player has "Imperial" and "Rebellion" alignment points.

They start the game with something like 5-6 Imperial points and 2-3 Rebellion points. This is representing the Imperial Navy's opinion of them, and the fact that the Rebellion is desperate to take pretty much anyone who wants to join.

For the player to 'defect' to the rebellion at some point in the campaign, they need more than 5 Rebellion alignment points. If a player's Imperial alignment points drop below 1 then they are courtmarshalled and lose the game. (if they are still in the Imperial Navy that is, vice versa for Rebellion once they join, however once a player has defected to the Rebellion they will never gain influence with the Imperial Navy as they are seen as a traitor to the Empire.)

An example early mission might see the player tasked to uncover a group of pirates who have been raiding Imperial shipping routes with Z-95 fighters. The pirates attacks have been traced to an asteroid field and the commanders job is to infiltrate the field, find the pirates and eliminate them.

The player gets attacked by small waves of pirates flying Z-95 Headhunters (represented with X-Wing squads but only using 4 HP and doing less damage).

Because of interferance from the asteroids, the players ship can only "see" a base in the asteroids when they get within range 3 of it - at this point the station is placed on the map, it has 6 hull points and no weapons and does not respond to communications.

After the first point of damage is dealt to the station a distress transmission starts broadcasting, begging for mercy, stating that there are only women and children left on the station.

The player faces a choice, they blew up the Pirate Z-95's so technically accomplished the mission, - whilst the orders never said anything specifically about a station, Imperial command wouldn't likely approve of leaving possible terrorists alive. On the other hand, killing civilians wasn't part of the orders either. What do you do?

Spoiler:

The player blew up the Z-95's so technically accomplished the mission, but if they dont blow up the station they will get a grilliing from Imperial Command and lose 1 Imperial alignment point, but word would get to the rebellion of their mercy and they gain 1 Rebellion point. If they chose to blow up the station they lose 1 rebellion alignment point but gain 1 Imperial alignment point .

Being a good little Imperial, do we have the option to send in assault shuttles full of BucketHeads to confirm the station is populated by non-combatants?

That would make for an easy resolution to the moral dilemma: 1) if they shoot down the assault shuttles, Blast 'em! 2) if they let the shuttles land, & 2a) no viable threat is detected, fly away or 2b) they are hiding combatants, let the Stormies blast the combatants...

Unfortunately the players little corvette wouldnt have assault shuttles (just to spoil that plan and make sure it stays a moral decision) But that could certainly be an objective in later games - capturing stations and ships whilst keeping the region secure incase of unexpected incoming threats.

You know, back in the day, Battlefleet Gothic (from GamesWorkshop) had a campaign system. It was pretty good, from memory. Think I still have the old 'bible' rulebook hiding on a bookshelf somewhere...

IIRC, the campaign was based on sub-sector maps within the main Gothic Sector -with each of these sub-sector maps in turn holding a varying number of inter-linked planetary systems.

Each player had to 'fight' for each planetary system -with a list of scenarios to choose from...all I can remember are:

Convoy Run

Exterminatus

Escalating Engagement -these were damned fun!

...there were a lot more though.

Anyway, getting back on topic -keep the ideas flowing guys. This community is sure to make an awesome game even more awesome.

I have a rudimentary, similiar idea I'm calling 'the 12 Grand Admirals'.

Basically you get one ISD (Stats TBD), and a few hundred points to outfit your 'fleet'. That fleet will be split for various missions to gather unusual resources, similiar to 12 different tabletop versions of a Thrawn campaign.

Along the way, the admirals may gain reputation with other warlords/imperial remnant/mercs, leading to increased resources.

tl;dr creating a giant mordheim-style Armada campaign with every player in place of a grand admiral

As soon as I saw Armada and Imperial assault, along with X-Wing I have always wanted to run a campaign/tourny/mission. where you start on the ground in Imperial Assault. Then once your mission is complete or failed you move to X-Wing as you try and escape. Then as you get into deep space for pick up BOOM! Star Destroyers jump in and ambush your pick-up ship witch in turn has to hold out until reinforcements arrive to help drive off the Imperial's attack so you can escape.

Oh yes it will be a mighty adventure and depending on how good your side is at completing the mission tasks reflects on the follow up missions. Fail the ground op your running in a couple X-Wings and a stolen shuttle full of wounded. Survive the run and make it to deep space and your pickup ship is a Neb-B with a couple Corvettes

Haha...Brigoon, you must have a lot of money or time or both!

Think I'll only have enough of the Minister for War and Finance's good graces if I just stuck to Armada. Hehe.

But, heck, that sounds so awesome - a multi-tiered campaign spanning three different platforms.

Edited to include:

Forgot to link us to R22's new topic " Surprise & Assymmetrical Matches " that has cropped up -might definitely be able to lend a hand with this topic.

Implementing a set of scenario types to progress a campaign game type.

Haha...Brigoon, you must have a lot of money or time or both!

Think I'll only have enough of the Minister for War and Finance's good graces if I just stuck to Armada. Hehe.

But, heck, that sounds so awesome - a multi-tiered campaign spanning three different platforms.

Edited to include:

Forgot to link us to R22's new topic " Surprise & Assymmetrical Matches " that has cropped up -might definitely be able to lend a hand with this topic.

Implementing a set of scenario types to progress a campaign game type.

Well it is just a dream. If I ever win the lotto I can probably make it a reality but tell then it shale sit on the shelf with some of my other dreams lol

As it is I already had to redirect my German Panzer Divisions funding and about 50% of the X-Wing maintenance funds so I can get Armada going

Haha.

It's all about sacrifices, my friend.

Sigh.

I have a rudimentary, similiar idea I'm calling 'the 12 Grand Admirals'.

Basically you get one ISD (Stats TBD), and a few hundred points to outfit your 'fleet'. That fleet will be split for various missions to gather unusual resources, similiar to 12 different tabletop versions of a Thrawn campaign.

Along the way, the admirals may gain reputation with other warlords/imperial remnant/mercs, leading to increased resources.

tl;dr creating a giant mordheim-style Armada campaign with every player in place of a grand admiral

I was in a group that tried something kind of like that as a sidestory to an RPG campaign once. The main campaign was focused on the New Republic Jedi and a few Indies during the Vong War. In the Side Campaign Pallaeon was assassinated on the way ack to Imperial space from Ithor and each player was an Imperial Moff competing with the others to become the next Imperial head of state. We didn't start out the same though. We rolled to determine how many planets and forces we started with and rolled to determine what facilities the planets had (Things like shipyards, mines, academies, repair yards,and such) though each player got one capital, one mine and one shipyard to deploy for free plus we had skill points we could spend to give our character bonuses (My character only had a small fleet of capital ships but tons of shipyards, repair docks and TIE Defenders which it him perfectly IMO since he was a former TIE pilot turned naval officer with high levels of engineering and R&D training before he became a Moff and had always been in favor of equipping he Empire with the most advanced fighters it could find.) It didn't last long though before most of the players got bored so the Empire joined the main war along with most of the characters after a new Head of state had been elected. (My character became one of the heads of the Empire's ship and fighter R&D division in a deal made shortly before the election.)

I have a rudimentary, similiar idea I'm calling 'the 12 Grand Admirals'.

Basically you get one ISD (Stats TBD), and a few hundred points to outfit your 'fleet'. That fleet will be split for various missions to gather unusual resources, similiar to 12 different tabletop versions of a Thrawn campaign.

Along the way, the admirals may gain reputation with other warlords/imperial remnant/mercs, leading to increased resources.

tl;dr creating a giant mordheim-style Armada campaign with every player in place of a grand admiral

I was in a group that tried something kind of like that as a sidestory to an RPG campaign once. The main campaign was focused on the New Republic Jedi and a few Indies during the Vong War. In the Side Campaign Pallaeon was assassinated on the way ack to Imperial space from Ithor and each player was an Imperial Moff competing with the others to become the next Imperial head of state. We didn't start out the same though. We rolled to determine how many planets and forces we started with and rolled to determine what facilities the planets had (Things like shipyards, mines, academies, repair yards,and such) though each player got one capital, one mine and one shipyard to deploy for free plus we had skill points we could spend to give our character bonuses (My character only had a small fleet of capital ships but tons of shipyards, repair docks and TIE Defenders which it him perfectly IMO since he was a former TIE pilot turned naval officer with high levels of engineering and R&D training before he became a Moff and had always been in favor of equipping he Empire with the most advanced fighters it could find.) It didn't last long though before most of the players got bored so the Empire joined the main war along with most of the characters after a new Head of state had been elected. (My character became one of the heads of the Empire's ship and fighter R&D division in a deal made shortly before the election.)

Yeah, something like that is what I had in mind. The whole concept is very much a WIP, and I won't have anything solid until the game comes out, but I'll tinker with some ideas (I like R&D!) to make it as in-depth as possible.

So here is my latest line of thinking, after looking back at ideas for a grand campaign that I started thinking about for Armada (and were based on my X-Wing campaign system that I played with a group of friends).

Basically I don't think that a grand campaign will be satisfactory without taking up massive amounts of time, unless you aggregate results from many gamer groups - which I have no interest in because it loses the personal investment then to me)

What I would like to try and develop instead is an RPG campaign system where players draw pre-determined missions (like in Imperial Assault) which they then resolve, with one taking the role of their custom forces that level up and evolve over time, and the other taking the place of the GM who follows the mission setup and plays the "enemy" for that battle.

After the battle results are recorded, losses repaired, XP/points spent, and then the roles are swapped so that the second player can be "dispatched" on his mission.

Playing this way you could have one player being Imperial, with the other Rebel, or both being on the same side, just in different "sectors". If you had extra players over, they could jump in as "supporting craft" with an extra points allowance under the "command" of the main player.

You could also have Imperial only missions, Rebel only missions and neutral missions.

I outlined an idea for a mission several posts ago - about having to search for a pirate base, this could be turned into a mission card which states something like.

Pirate hunt (Imperial Only)

Mission Briefing: Pirates have been raiding Imperial shipping convoys from a local asteroid field. Your mission is to investigate and neutralise any pirate presence, particularly any base of operations that are supporting the attacks.

Setup: Deploy 6 asteroid tokens on the board at more than range 1 from any edge and any other asteroid.

Place 3 objective tokens in any location on the board more than range 2 from any other objective token.

Without sharing with the player, select one of those tokens to be the location of the pirate station.

Gameplay: When a player ship comes within range 3 of an objective token, remove it from the board. If the token was the one you selected to be the location of the pirate station, replace the token with the space station cutout. when the Pirate base is placed on the board, remove any remaining objective tokens.

Enemy forces: Points equal to the players forces, divided into two or more equal groups. (+/- 10%)

Deployment: At the beginning of each round, the enemy player may deploy one of his group of forces with range one of any unexplored objective token location. If the Pirate base is "discoved" then he may deploy fighter squadrons within range 1 of the pirate base, all other ships must be deployed within range 1 of the players edge of the board.

The pirate base has 6 hull points and no weapons.

The Imperial player wins a minor victory if they destroy the pirate base.

The Imperial player wins a major victory if they destroy the pirate base and all pirate forces.

The Imperial player suffers a minor loss if all their ships are destroyed or withdrawn after the base is destroyed.

The Imperial player suffers a major loss if all their ships are destroyed or withdrawn before the base is destroyed.

One note here is that I would generally introduce a hyperspace mechanic that ships could use - might be something like plotting a navigate command and forgoing shooting to jump out instead of moving - so small ships could easily flee, but larger ships would have to wait several turns to jump out as the command comes up the stack.

Also, any fighters that did not have a hyperdrive (ie TIE fighters), would need to get within range 1 of the ship where they would automatically dock before the ship jumps out or they would have to be counted as "losses" at the end of the mission.

What do you guys think? Anyone else keen to write some missions for me to look at including?

Here is another mission idea:

Customs Duty (Imperial Only)

Mission Briefing: You have been assigned to intercept a merchant convoy suspected of smuggling stolen Imperial weapons and supplies to the rebellion. You are to detain, with force if need be, any ships resisting inspection and secure any contraband cargo for delivery to Imperial Intelligence to track its origins.

Mission setup. For every 50 points of forces, deploy one asteroid to the play area greater than range 2 from any edge, or range 1 of any other asteroid.

For 100 points of player forces, place 1 cargo ship tokens within range 1 of the centre of the play area. For every additional 50 points of tokens, add an additional cargo ship token to a maximum of four tokens.

The Imperial player may deploy their forces within range 1 of their edge of the board.

Gameplay:

Each cargo ship is treated as having hull 4 and no shields. Each round a cargo ship may move speed 2 in a forward or diagonally forward direction (changing its heading by 45 degrees).

If after a cargo ship is fired upon it has half or less of its hull points remaining, it is disabled or surrendered and does not move further that turn.

If a cargo ship manages to reach the border of the game area, it is deemed "escaped".

When the Imperial player chooses to shoot at a cargo ship, they may choose to not roll any number of dice normally part of that attack pool. Any dice chosen to not be rolled cannot be rolled after the attack roll has taken place.

All transports disabled - Major Imperial Victory

All transports disabled or destroyed - Minor Imperial Victory

More transports destroyed and disabled than escaped - Minor Imperial Victory

More transports escaped or destroyed than disabled - Minor Imperial Defeat

More transports escaped than disabled and destroyed - Major Imperial Defeat

Here is another mission idea: Ally defense.

Mission Briefing: An allied vessel has suffered heavy damage from an enemy attack and has managed to limp to the nearest station for urgent repairs. Intelligence reports show it has inbound hostile forces and it is in no condition to defend itself. You are urgently directed to rendevous with the crippled ship and defend it until it is able to repair or leave the sector.

Mission setup: The station is set up in the centre of the play area and one ship of the players faction type is placed on the station to be the damaged ship. The damaged ship should be equal or less, but as close as possible, to the base cost of the players most expensive ship. The damage ship starts with full shields, but with two less facedown damage cards than its hull value and only one defense token. The damaged ship also starts with zero dice in each of its battery armaments.

The damaged ship starts at speed zero and has a maximum speed limit of 1.

The player gains the ship card and command dials for the damaged ship and commands it during the game as one of his own ships - however at the end of the battle (if not destroyed) the damaged ship is removed from the players fleet.

At the start of the second round and every round after that. If the damaged ship is within range 1 of the station it may discard one damage card, recover a defense token (upto its maximum) and regain one attack dice in each of its battery armaments (upto its normal dice pool). The damaged ship's maximum speed is also increased by 1 (up to its maximum).

If the damaged ship is not within range 1 of the station it does not apply any of these effects but retains it's limitations from the previous round.

Attacking forces: Equal to the combined cost of the players fleet and the damaged ship, but must be divided into four equal waves (+/- 10%). At the beginning of the second round and each round after that, one of the enemy waves may be deployed within range 1 of the opposing players edge.

If the damaged ship manages to leave the players edge of the board it is deemed "escaped".

If the damaged ship survives or escapes and all enemy ships are destroyed - Major player victory

If the damaged ship escapes and the player ship "withdraws" - Minor player victory

If the damaged ship is destroyed and all enemy ships are destryoed - Minor player defeat

If the damaged ship is destroyed and the player ship withdraws - Major player defeat.

MaverickNZ my friend.

Loving your ideas! Maybe we could put together a 'Scenario Board' as a sticky of some sort where forum goers could contribute some scenarios for fellow readers to add to their homebrew games?

Edit:

Just re-read your Customs Duty scenario! Just thought of a terrific idea! We could implement mechanics for Hyperspace/Interdictor duty here.

Would need to include, some sort of penalty if your Interdictor gets damaged or gets blown up. Might even require X amount of 'Matches/turns' to repair before you can field it again in your next campaign battle.

...getting way too excited about this!!!

Here is another mission idea.

Blockade runner (rebel only)

Mission Briefing: We have a critical convoy of medical surplies that need to reach a forward outpost. Fortunately the Imperials do not currently know the location of the outpost, unfortunately however, they have managed to blockade every route that our convoys could take to reach the outpost. We have no choice left but to send an escort force to help the convoy past the blockade. You will lead that escort. Good luck and may the force be with you.

Mission setup.

Allocate one cargo ship marker for every capital ship in the rebel players fleet.

Allocate a value of points equal to the player's forces to create an Imperial force that can be split into 3 equal groups where possible (+/- 10%)

The enemy player must deploy the Imperial forces at 3 locations at range 2 from his edge and greater than range 2 from any other imperial force.

The rebel player may then deploy both his forces and the cargo ship markers within range 1 of his edge.

Gameplay:

The aim of the mission is for the Rebel player to move the cargo vessels off the Imperial players side of the board.

Each cargo ship can move upto speed 2 in a forward or forward diagonal direction (changing its heading by upto 45 degrees). Each cargo ship has 4 hull points and no sheilds.

Special rule: Close cover. If a Rebel ship is within range 1 of a cargo ship and would obstruct the shot measured against that ship, then the cargo ship cannot be targeted.

If all the cargo ships escape off the Imperial side of the board - Major Rebel Victory

If more than a third of the cargo ships escape off the Imperial side of the board - Minor Rebel Victory

If less than a third, but at least one cargo ship escapes off the Imperial side of the board - Minor Rebel defeat.

If all the cargo ships are destroyed before leaving the board - Major Rebel defeat.

Hehe. Great ideas as always!

At some point we need to work out how reinforcements can come into play.

Maybe reserve 50 - 100 points per side?

To factor in the unforeseen 'fortunes' of war:

Turn 1, each player rolls a D6, on a result of 6, they receive their reinforcements.

If players do not successfully roll on the first turn, they roll again on Turn 2 where a result of 4+ reinforcements arrive.

If players were not successful in Turn 2, reinforcements will arrive in Turn 3 automatically.

Any contributions or refinement would be welcome.

Alpha just gave me an idea for another mission.

Hold the line. (either faction)

Mission briefing:

An enemy invasion force has been detected heading to a supply sector near you. Unfortunately you are the only force in the region and we cannot afford to have that supply line compromised.

Your orders are to engage the enemy force and hold them off until reinforcements can arrive!

Mission setup:

The player may choose one additional capital ship equal in points or greater then the base cost of their most expensive ship.

This ship is the reinforcements that will come to assist them.

An opposing force equal to the cost of the players fleet, plus HALF the cost of the additional ship is created by the enemy player.

The player deploys his original force and any asteroids (within their usual restrictions). The opposing player then deploys the "attack" force in full.

At the end of every round, the player may roll a red dice. On a critical hit result, he may place his reinforcing ship within range 1 of any edge that is not the opposing players own edge. If he rolls any other dice result the reinforcements may not be placed this turn. For every turn that the reinforcements have not arrived, add one additional red dice to the pool the player rolls.

Player destroys all the enemy forces whilst more than half of his forces remain - major player victory

Player destroys all enemy forces with less than half his forces remaining - minor player victory

Player withdraws or is destroyed with more than half the enemy fleet destroyed - minor player defeat

Player withdraws or is destroyed with less than half the enemy fleet destroyed - major player defeat

what do you guys think sofar? any other mission ideas?

Updated original post to reflect the direction the thread has taken