Well, I was going to wait until wave 2 when the freighters and imperial small ship get here, but I could try to expedite the creativity process.
Feel free to bounce ideas off me. And if you need help laying out cards or whatnot, I have plenty of spare time
Well, I was going to wait until wave 2 when the freighters and imperial small ship get here, but I could try to expedite the creativity process.
Feel free to bounce ideas off me. And if you need help laying out cards or whatnot, I have plenty of spare time
Thanks friend, bouncing ideas of of people is a favorite past-time of mine.
Unfortunately I need to write up two (relatively short) essays for my international politics class (it is really interesting for a Gen Ed course) and complete some other tasks at hand. However later tonight I will pour over your system and see if I can brainstorm some rudimentary systems to include event cards into something like your campaign that my friends and I could participate in.
If not tonight, then tomorrow.
I'm loving and following all of the stuff in this thread. The idea of incorporating an assortment of mini-games into the sector command's big board is especially enthralling. Have any of you ever played the deck building card game Dominion? I keep thinking that style of resource generation, combined with action and purchasing choices, would work extremely well with sector logistics in some way.
I've never heard of Twilight Struggle. What kind of game is that, and how is it being incorporated into this style of campaign?
I'm loving and following all of the stuff in this thread. The idea of incorporating an assortment of mini-games into the sector command's big board is especially enthralling. Have any of you ever played the deck building card game Dominion? I keep thinking that style of resource generation, combined with action and purchasing choices, would work extremely well with sector logistics in some way.
I've never heard of Twilight Struggle. What kind of game is that, and how is it being incorporated into this style of campaign?
I've added in a new logistics system that uses a card driven mechanic, a bit different from dominion, but card driven none the less. Deckbuilding could work, but i'm going for a more "4X" game model, like a civilization game.
Twilight struggle is the number one ranked boardgame on boardgamegeek. It is a brilliantly designed depiction of the cold war from 1945-90 where two players play the USA and Soviet Union.
That game was mentioned as Corellian Corvette is designing his own campaign, and was thinking of using some of the mechanics from that game in his campaign. I am not using those concepts in the Talathen sector campaign.
The core mechanic of twilight struggle are cards that are either neutral, Soviet or USA. Each player draws from the same deck. On Neutral or your own cards, you can play them for the points on the card to do actions (Operations points), or you can play them for the special event. For cards from the other faction, you play them for action points AND the event goes off. And you must play all but 2 cards in a turn. (1 you can keep, and 1 can be put on the "space race" and it's effects don't go off)
So there is real tension when you have a hand full of cards, that you must play, but that can give your opponent an advantage. You have to mitigate the damage your own card play will do to your cause.
Take this card
If you are the Soviet player and you get this, your best option is to play it last in the turn. So that when you reveal your hand, you have no cards left (asides fromt he one you are holding for next turn). Playing it first as the soviets would let your opponent see your hand for the whole turn, playing it late means you get the 1 op point (top left) and the US gets 1 op point. But that's so much better than if you had played it earlier.
This core mechanic is brilliant, and it makes for some really hard decisions when you get a handful of opponents cards. The funny thing is, if you are playing their cards, they probably have a handful of your cards and are in a similar predicament.
Hope that clears that up.
PS. Twilight struggle is getting a digital version soon, they had a sucessful kickstarter. I am really looking forward to it
Edited by ithkrallLiterally woke up after a dream. Its 3am right now.
Concept: some big cards (call them mission cards) are chosen by rebel and imperial players.
Say, each person plays one (lets say 3 players per side) facedown so the opponents can't see it. The teammates can check though.
Operation points are instead SQUAD POINTS! Mind = blown!
You spend the round (multiple turns) playing down operation point cards and event cards. At the end of the round (when hands are depleted) you resolve battles! Or something!
But make it where you can only realistlcy "fund" half the operation cards, and each player wants their op to go though.
Then, teammates must decide between good policy and good politics.
Event effects would be fun, you could involve them in everything.
The "Like" button just isn't large enough for this thread...
The rebellion has had it's first real tragedy on the conflict, with one the of heroes of the rebellion falling in battle. There was much wailing and sorrow, and glasses raised in honour of their fallen comrade.
Round 3 - Planning Phase
No major changes occurred in the "job review phase" and the command team looked the same as it did on turn one. I suspect this will change in the near future.
Logistics Phase
We tested the new logistics system, and it seemed to work pretty well. Even though i forgot a couple of the rules. A few more tweaks will be made and I'll publish the full rules and card set for it shortly.
Logistics managed a good haul of resources, enough to easily power the planned operations this turn. Here is the new board that includes manufacturing.
At the end of the round, the rebellion now has 1 production in all resources asides from Covert Networks and Safe Transports, and income is 8. I made some tweaks and gave them additional resources to make the system work.
Smuggling was a mixed bag. Roark managed to make a safe run to Naboo for supplies, Gran Dravis failed in his mission and was wounded (after losing some fighter escorts) and Oledeshu failed as well, before rolling the "steal victory from defeat result" on the fail dice.
So with enough resources to plan out our attacks, we moved onto the next phase
Intelligence Phase
A concerted effort was made by intelligence command to get as many intelligence points as possible for this turn to support combat actions. Both Nibb Nibb and Sly rolled well, generating a whopping 16 intelligence points.
Ged'Ruh was sent on a sabotage mission at Korvas, which was a trap. Resulting in a failure. Intelligence spent intel points to reroll the failure dice, and he ended up escaping unscathed.
Diplomacy Phase
The diplomatic core tripled in size due to new postings, meaning Lianna isn't working alone anymore. She successfully established ties with Solitude X and Gidd Lonn did the same for Cahn. The results of these new diplomatic ties will be mentioned in the end phase.
Our friendly Ithorian hippy force user, Jah, was sent to meet with a mysterious contact who had hacked into Alliance communications networks. He successfully met with this individual, who has maintained absolute secrecy, speaking through droids only. He has arranged a "conference call" with the leaders of the rebellion so that this mysterious source can explain why he wishes to ally himself with the republic, and why he is being so secretive.
Fleet Command
Hearing of Ged's failure to knock out the Drydock at Korvas, Fleet Command decided to go with the backup plan. Hit the Imperial fleet facilities with everything they have, and some borrowed ships. 5 points of fleet favour were spent to obtain the services of an Assault frigate, and 8 stands of Z-95's and 3 Corvettes sent in.
The rebellion threw intelligence points, and additional resources from logistics to make this work. And the planning roll was...... barely a success. For their efforts, they get to deploy 2nd.
Squadron Command
Full of Blountism's, fighter command decided to do a very dangerous mission. Blast through the blockade on luxon, hit some imperial ground targets, buzz by the cities to show the flag, and escape.
A reasonable roll on the planning made this very dangerous mission potential winnable. With Initiative, deploying 2nd, and enemy reinforcements cut off. Still, with no less than 6 victory Star Destroyers in system, this was going to be tough.
Ground Command
Del Kern decided to personally plan this mission after the People's Movement voted to remove him from command and replace him with their man, Hallarn Yarn.
The mission, hit a storage facility on Zenith that is holding old-republic era fighters, rumored to be an entire squadron of Y-wings. The plan requires them to infiltrate the facility, eliminate the guards, and get the pilots to the fighters for them to escape. Another reasonable planning roll see's the rebels with initiative, deploying 2nd and flanking, and the enemy with no reinforcements.
Other
Recruitment gained three successes, and wants to recruit Pilots, Smugglers and Fleet Officers.
Training got 12 points to spend on training skills
R&D got 8 points to spend on Fleet research.
Intelligence also wants to research other temple sites on Axamar.
X-wing - The raid on Luxon
This mission was a tricky one, and gave the Rebels some hard decisions to make. While they did their flyby of Luxon easily enough, as they were leaving a group of civilian ships, attempting to flee the bloackade, followed them.
They could flee at any time, but that would leave the civilians at the mercy of the Empire's fighters, mines and Star Destroyers.
The civilian ships were simply tokens with hitpoints on them. They could only move 2 ahead, or bank 2. Until the Commander gave the "all clear" order, in which case they could move ahead 4 or bank 2.
Victory points would be awarded if the civilian ships got within range one of the markers past the imperials and escaped. 3 for the GR-75, 2 for the YT's and 1 for the smaller ships. The Imperials only got VP's for killing freighters.
The mines in the picture were heavy duty anti shipping mines, that would only explode if a large base ship came within range 2 of them. Doing 2 dice damage per range band. What I didn't tell them, is that the Decimator could detonate them if it was within range 3 of them as an action.
The rebel fighters raced ahead and punched a hole in the minefield, but the decimator detonated one they didn't kill, taking out a headhunter and badly damaging another. At this point, the star destroyers began closing on the escapoe channel, represented by a pair of "targeting icons" from one of the large ship expansions. They started from the board edge, and moved in one range band each turn. (3 dice attack against anything in range)
The Rebels "broke and attacked" in an attempt to direct fire onto themselves and break up the tie formations.
In previous battles, the decider had been the concussion missiles on the headhunters, but in this battle, they were a non factor.
It was at this point that Blount was shot down by Imperial fire.
With the rebels slightly scattered, the right Tie squadron focussed on the YT-2400 and destroyed it.
From here on in, the rebels were outnumbered, and the focus became clearing lanes for the freighters.
It's worth noting that in this scenario, the Imperial's couldn't block the freighters movement, we used "Armada" style rules that allowed the player touched to move out of the way. We figured it was better than just "blocking" and it made the Empire have to focus fire.
It all came down to last round, as the Empire fired relentless on the GR-75 as it tried to escape. It limped accross the line with 2 damage boxes of its 13 left.
And while the rebels won 6-3 in victory points, they paid a heavy cost. 5 Z-95's shot down. And when we made the casualty rolls for those pilots, Blount rolled last.
Blount rolled a despair, which results in final character death. Blount was a real character in the campaign, a reckless foolhardy squadron leader who would shout "**** the torpedoes, full speed ahead". I guess this means in our game reality, he won't be the door gunner on the Falcon at Endor.
Holy crap he looks remarkably like me! Except for no glasses and a darker stubble.
Great Write up. This campaign seems like a lot of fun.
Holy crap he looks remarkably like me! Except for no glasses and a darker stubble.
Well, if you cosplay, you've got a ready made character. Heck, even for next Halloween 
The last few weeks have gone a bit slower than expected due to my players being ill, so it's been a while between updates. However, here are all three battle reports from the last two weeks.
Korvas shipyard raid - Fleet action
The empire has been converting a civilian dry-dock into a military drydock. The implications for the rebellion were quite dire, as it would mean faster turn around time for Imperial ships, and therefore, more patrols in the sector.
The drydock was also big enough to handle Imperial Class Star Destroyers, and Fleet Command wanted it blown up at all costs. The first attempt, a sabotage run was blown almost immediately as the empire were waiting for them and the operative was nearly captured. Throwing all caution to the wind, Fleet command threw everything they had, and everything they could borrow at the problem.
As our sector fleet is quite small, everything was a Borrowed Assault Frigate from Fleet Command, 3 Cr-90's and 8 stands of Z-95's.
The objective was represented by the space station with 6 shields. That could take any amount of damage after that point, but would be destroyed on a single critical hit.
Opposing them was one Victory Star destroyer, and 6 stands of tie fighters.
Sounds like a horrible mismatch right? The rebels were deeply suspicious of the table deployment, of the fact they had initiative when they didn't buy it, and the fact i'd asked one of them to bring his spare gladiator.
The rebels came in fast, faster than I initially anticipated, and went straight for the objective. Then i revealed the hyperspace markers under the debris fields and deployed my gladiators behind them using hyperspace assault.
A classic tactic, with one massive flaw. I brought them in too slow, so they got one round of shooting before the rebels darted away from them.
However, in that one round I annihilated one Cr-90 and badly damaged the Assault Frigate. The Captain of the CR-90, Anto Salamon, went down with the ship and was presumed dead.
Although recent information suggests he was captured alive. Poor Imperials, Anto is known for being a pompous arrogant jerk and will no doubt regale them with stories of how the Rebellion will be diminished with his loss, as in his mind he "Was the best of us".
Things look grim for the rebellion until turn 3, when the whole mission changed on a single dice roll. Taking his pile of red dice, Airen Cracken commanded the damaged assault Frigate to open up on the drydock. And in one volley of fire, all 6 shields went down. The Imperials were very concerned, until his second volley failed to produce the kill shot.
However, two CR-90's were rapidly moving into range, and a volley of turbolaser fire from those two ships produced the critical result needed for victory.
Slow to respond and turn, the Imperial fleet could do nothing to stop the high speed rebel force from disengaging victoriously.
This was probably the best mission of the campaign, as it felt like the rebels were doomed when the Gladiators appeared and ripped into them, but they stuck to the plan, kept on moving, and punched a whole through the defences, killed the target and fled with the loss of only one ship.
Stealing Fighters - Ground command assault on Zenith Storage facility
This mission took place at a hidden hangar facility near the polar icecap of Zenith.
The Alliance received intelligence that a small number of Republic era fighters and other contraband was being stored in this hangar.
The plan was to infiltrate a special forces team into the base, clear the way of resistance and escort pilots to the fighters and have them escape with them.
This was our very first "two-part mission", as we also played out the escape from the planet using X-wing.
The same special forces team participated in this attack as the last Special forces report.
It's worth noting that the picture above is at turn 4 (I forgot to take pics earlier). By this time the rebels had got very busy and had gunnerd down a rather high number of Stormtroopers.
Yep, 13 models taken out in the first 3 turns. That's some busy killing going on.
The Special forces team split into two groups. Hallarn (Commander), Keel (Sniper) and Fenn (Himself) acted as a firebase, coming in from the north entrance on turn 1.
Gooda (Gunfighter) and Gaxx (Wookie) come in through the side entrance on turn 2, with the pilots following behind them on turn 3.
Virtually every shot was a kill by the rebels, it was uncanny. I expected the sheer number of troopers to slow them down, but it really didn't. And while I managed to wound two characters, this mission never looked like it was going to be anything other than a rebel victory after turn 2.
I cam quite close to killing/badly wounding Fenn When he didn't take into account my officers moving the E-Webs and their double shots. But ended up 2 points short (The amount his new armour protected him by.....)
The conclusion from this battle is a minor rules change. Due to Rebel characters being able to heal themselves easily when the pressure is off, I am changing the "no reinforcement" option to "delayed reinforcements" for Imperial Assault.
The Rebels got all their pilots to their ships, picking up 9 Y-wings (including a couple of the version with locked forward turrets) and a surprising 3 X-wings. In Addition, the astromech droids assigned to the ships had been left installed and had all developed unusual personality quirks. (Each of the unique R droids for X-wing was unlocked as a unique card)
Stealing Fighters - Space Combat with new fighter squadron
This mission wasn't for high stakes, it was like a "bonus round" for the first 3 rounds of the campaign (the first quarter if you would as the campaign will last 12 rounds............ oh wow...... John Cena reference).
The Rebels massively outgunned the Imperials, and the idea was a mini-competition to see who could kill the most Tie-fighters.
Each player got 2 identical ships from the following options, once one option was gone, a player had to pick another, and they picked in "reverse glory" order
I preplanned the Tie Fighter squadrons moves before the game. Fly forward on turn 1, turn in on turn 2, and cross on turn 3, k -turn back on turn 4.
Very tidy formation playing if i do say so myself.
Still, the idea was to give the guys a final "hit-out" for this section of the campaign, let them experience the new fighters (and cheer for making the Z-95's obsolete).
Final kill totals
Luxon Militia (X-wings) - 3
Basra Consortion (Y-wing variant) - 3
People's movement (Y-wing gold) - 2
Republicans (Y Wing Grey) - 0
A 2 to 1 points differential in a game makes for a really funny and quite different experience.
Round 3 will conclude with one and a half roleplaying session, followed by the end phase. Then the campaign will take a break for a month or so.
It looks really nice, and it seems hard work is behind it. I like it.
I'm doing something similar but only for armada, and pretty much more simple, just using photoshop to modify the campaing and which plannets are controlled by. For all other things i'm using just Excell, to calculate the fleet numbers, repairing cost of each ships (proportional), fleet upkeeping, space stations and improvements with some little rules to make it work, and more. I've got it done until wave 1, and prepared to fill the wave 2 data, It is not yet finished but once i arrive home i will share it so maybe i could get feedback and ideas
Round Three end phase - Talathen Sector Campaign
The Empire slaps back - Planning phase round 4.
Deals were made for this position involving a trading of clout from the People’s movement to the Luxon militia in exchange for an unopposed run at the Squadron Leader position.
X-3PO, a free protocol droid turned assassin was surprisingly promoted to the new “Head of Strategic Alliances” position, giving the Luxon Militia control over interactions with allied partners.
This left the Luxon militia in a position to gain two positions this round, but in a surprise move they back out of their unopposed run at the Squadron Leader job and instead gave it to Torryn Farr of the Republicans.
All alliance partners’ actions score half glory.
The 2nd snag emerges as that is where the first imperial trap is waiting. So the Wookies walk right into an ambush laid by General Paulus of the Imperial Army. Not a good start and the wookies are rolling more negative dice than positives. The Rebel commanders spend a fate point, a big call.
Logistics command improves manufacturing, now the alliance has one of each core resource available to purchase from in-house suppliers. A good start.
The rest of the management phase does not go well and the long term investments do not increase the overall income stream for the rebellion.
Smuggling goes smoothly, and for the first time the squadron escorting the smugglers does not suffer any casualties.
Intelligence Phase
A difficult task, but Nibb Nibb is an expert hacker, 6 points of successes later and the Rebellion briefly seizes the airwaves to tell the truth of the Korvas raid and Salamon’s death.
Diplomacy Phase
The Diplomatic core has been on a roll and that did not stop this turn.
Jah Dooza, Ithorian hippy and force sensitive was dispatched to Nimbala, to get to the bottom of the crisis. Rolling 11 points worth of successes the force just happened to drop him right where he needed to be. He encountered the Twi’Lek force user that had been sighted by him and Aurek team in the jungles of Axamar only a few months ago. A full report to command will be coming soon.
Lianna Tell responded to a request to our new embassy on Cahn to help them with a problem. With 6 points of successes, it was quickly revealed that the “Devourer Cult” is not as malicious as the name sounds, but does have dissident elements within their faith they are having problems with. The cult has offered, that if the Rebellion helps them with their dissents, that they will help the Rebellion in turn.
This was another good round for the diplomatic team.
Fleet Command
After last turns stunning raid on Korvas, Fleet command opted for a more conservative option. A Victory Star Destroyer had been sighted near Samoth, in the process of deploying probe droids to scan the planet. As the Rebellion has few forces on Samoth, the plan was to hit this Star Destroyer hard and destroy it, in order to convince the Empire that Samoth was important to them.
Unfortunately, supplies of Starship fuel are low, so only 4 class sizes worth of ships are available for the mission. Due to “The Beast” bringing over his fleet, the Rebellion now has 4 CR-90 Corvettes and has sent them to do the job.
An excellent planning roll by Admiral Cracken sees the Empire losing initiative, unable to reinforce and without the majority of it’s fighter screen.
This should be a slam-dunk for the Rebel fleet, but this attack is occurring while Luxon is being bombed and Nadir and Zenith are blockaded.
Squadron Command
The post Blount era begins in fighter command with Torryn Farr taking over the planning duties for Squadron Command. I guess this means she won’t be getting to Echo base to say “Stand by ion control, fire” in our timeline.
Lt Telsji commanded his squadron of Headhunters to Luxon to interfere in troop landings of the invasion. A close roll, but they will have the initiative and will deploy 2nd during this raid.
Ground Command
Del Kern has been demoted and is now a squad leader. Hallarn Yarn promised a new decisive era of tactics, but so far has failed to deliver.
Other
Recruitment gained three successes, and wants to recruit Operatives, Ground Commanders and Aces.
Training got 10 points to spend on training skills
R&D got 12 points to spend on Fighter research.
Intelligence spent 5 points to find out exactly what was going on with a series of shipments going through Axamar’s Tane station recently. This was revealed to be dozens of self-contained survival pods, miniature bases that can be dropped from low orbit and act as hidden supply caches in hostile terrain. They were destined for Nimbala, and records show that hundreds have been deployed over the last few months.
Well, its been a while since we updated for numerous reasons. A few people have been away on business trips or personal holidays, and our one of our players is also a new dad since the last update! So a heap happening in "real life" and that's more important than the fate of Talathen sector
Things will be getting back to normal in the next few weeks, so I thought I would write up the battle reports that have been sitting around idle for a few months.
I'll do some very short write ups for the first 3 missions, and a lengthier one for the finale. (I didn't have my camera for some of these, so less photos than normal)
Bombing Runs on Luxon
With Luxon now under invasion, the Rebels made some efforts to slow the attack down. A unit of wookies were deployed to support the resistance, and one of the Headhunter squadrons was assigned to interdict bombing runs made on Luxon positions.
This scenario was as follows. Each bomber had a total of 3 bombs/missiles. Each unused bomb or missile that made it off the board was a VP for the Empire, each bomb/missile used by the Empire or unused when the bomber was killed was a VP for the Rebellion.
This was a great little battle, with the Headhunters dueling with the Tie Fighter screen while the Bombers tried to push through.
One pair of bombers were annihilated in short order after using their missiles once ganged up on, giving the Rebels 6 VPs. But the second pair flanked right and went full speed for the edge, covered by a pair of ties. While the Headhunters pursued and landed some hits on them, it wasn't quite enough to stop them. 6VP's to the Empire and a tied scenario. A nice close game.
Harassing the blockade of Zenith
With Zenith under blockade, the X/Y wing squadron was deployed to hamper it's effectiveness. To this end, they targeted a group of deep space "hyperjump scanners" that would notify the Imperials of incoming ships from Hyperspace.
The Rebels were over matched in this fight, 3 Y's and an X vs 4 interceptors and Snattercat, the local Tie Advanced Ace (A fully kitted out ace with vaders card).
In a smart move, the Rebels ignored the Ties and focused on their objectives. Going full speed for the transmitters, they destroyed them easily, although after exposing their flanks to the Ties they did suffer some causalities. 2 Y-wings shot down, but 100% mission goals completed.
One of the things with scenario play is that you can have overwhelming odds if the objectives are finite enough and it's still winnable.
Distraction of Samoth
One thing that concerned the rebels during this rounds planning was the actions of a Victory Star Destroyer in Samoth. It was launching probe droids in the area and appeared to be searching for a hidden rebel base.
Instead of just letting this happen, the rebels decided that if they attacked the Star Destroyer, it might intensify search efforts on a planet where the rebels have no bases or major support.
The plan was to hit the Victory with 4 correlian corvettes in a drive by attack. Unfortunately, I forgot I only have 3 Corvette models and forgot to ask my players to bring a 4th, so we subbed in a Neb-B from the fleet for the other 2 corvettes.
This battle was quite interesting, with the rebels harassing the Victory but staying clear of it for the 1st half of the battle. That changed when the Victory surprised the Rebels by quickly turning and accelerating to escape.
Of course, it wasn't fast enough to escape the engagement zone before taking too much damage, and in a final effort turned back to engage the corvettes with a broadside.
And yet again, a Victory destroyer is rammed to death by Corvettes.
Mission successful, although the Victory did put a fair amount of damage onto the attacking ships in the process. This will certainly get the Empires attention.
Conclusion
Good to be back typing this up, next time, the dramatic assault on the Imperial Asteroid base orbiting Selano, and the amazing climax to the best battle of the campaign to date.
Excellent write up. I enjoy reading these reports on the status of the epic campaign. Is the new dad bringing up a valiant fighter for the Alliance, or cowardly imperial to hide behind force and fear? 
Excellent write up. I enjoy reading these reports on the status of the epic campaign. Is the new dad bringing up a valiant fighter for the Alliance, or cowardly imperial to hide behind force and fear?
Dude is a rebel through and through. He's also a massive Autobots and Ultramarines fan, so take that for what you will
I also enjoy these immensely. Please keep them coming
Did you ever post the full rules? I'm wanting to do something similar locally.
Some games are good, some games are bad. And rarely, you play an amazing session where everything works and people will talk about it for years to come.
This battle was one of those sessions, a genuine nail biting fight that came down to the wire and had every player nervous about which way it would go.
The objective was the seize control of the asteroid bases engineering command centre, set the reactor to overload, and get out in time.
The mission rules were as follows.
Things started off hot for the Rebels, as they dealt with the initial outlying guards easily and the Alarm was not raised until they made it into the control room.
The first console hacked locked the security doors and allowed the Rebels to control access. They then killed the 3 officers in the control room to ensure they couldn't override the controls. This left 2 officers in the complex, one of which was near the shuttle, the other behind multiple security doors.
The alarm was shut off, and then the team set the self destruct for 5 turns.
Gaxx (Brawler) and Gooda (Gunsligner) briefly engaged the advacing stormtroopers, allowing Hallarn (Commander), Keel (Sniper) and Fenn (Commando) to try to secure the ship.
The officer near the shuttle was cut down, and the other one never did make it past the security doors in time to shut off the self destruct. The Imperials fought a rear guard action, blocking access to the shuttle.
Here is the board position with 1 turns to go. Storm Troopers have secured the ship access, Finn, Keel and Hallarn have enough movement to get to the shuttle ramp and use an action, but stormtroopers are blocking their access. They do not have enough actions to take a shot this turn, and Gooda had already boarded.
The only option, that allowed the maximum number of Rebels to escape was for Gaxx to take both his actions as attacks, deal "cleave" damage to as many imperials as he could, and then use his last endurance to occupy a spot by the ramp so the Rebels couldn't be blocked leaving.
This mean't that Gaxx chose to stay behind until the last possible moment to allow the rest of the team to escape, knowing full well he would likely die as a result.
Hallarn "Gaxx, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
Gaxx "I'm making a choice"
Gaxx turns, force pike in hand and engages the stormtroopers in brutal melee combat, the ramp of the shuttle closing behind him as he is finally pulled down by sheer weight of numbers.
As shown here, we rolled the "red dice of despair" to determine Gaxx's fate, this result is a "captured" one. Being captured on a space station that is going nuclear is not ideal, so sadly, Gaxx is dead.
We've lost characters before in the campaign, due to misadventure and the happenings of war. But this was the first really "cinematic" death, where a grumpy anti-social weequey thug, who no one really knew or understood why he was fighting for the rebellion, nobly laid down his life to cover his teams escape.
That's the wonder of narrative games and playing stories. You not only get a good game out of it, but you get some really defining moments like this.
Overall, the tension of the count down timer, the imperial reinforcements and the constant pressure in this scenario made for a great experience. Good times.
One more mission for this turn and then the end phase.
Did you ever post the full rules? I'm wanting to do something similar locally.
Fullish, All the material is here https://www.dropbox.com/sh/92tkvr28s682rul/AABHa_-S2gFwk6RjJOy0R50Ha?dl=0 but it's written for me, and not necessarily in a way that you can just pick up and use. The rules for the strategy phase are pretty well defined in there though as they were made as player hand outs.
There are some gaps, like how to calculate glory, but I mostly just fudge a lot of that.