Since i think this topic was a good idea, but the thread got hijacked by bashing of this game and that i started a new thread. (for the love of god keep your other game crap out of this one - i don't care about the sand in your panties - i only play armada)

the goal is to make an off balance play scenario that would replicate an occurrence of an ambush or unexpected skirmish of some sort.

My idea is similar to a sabotage game. the station is given a hull value and shields and rebels are tasked with destroying it with x number of points. the imperials would get to defend it with Y number of points and X<Y

i think for this to work the rebels wouldn't be held to the 1/3 squadron: ship rule. however i think at least one ship needs to be present (even if its a corvette)

Scenario:

imps have 300 points to spend on whatever they want, and are tasked with defending a station with 4 shields (on each side) and 10 hull (its a big station) rebs get 100 points and they have to bring a ship.

rebs get to deploy at range 5 of the station, imps must deploy in their main engagement zone (caught off guard)

another idea is to have mounting odds the longer you stay in battle.

ex as rebs you start with 200 points, and Imps start off with 200 points, but every turn the imps can bring 50 more points worth to their deployment zone. this could be saved up for multiple turns to bring out bigger ships or better upgrade cards. ( i would think that once a ship is on the fied it would not be able to add upgrades)

other ideas or embellishments are welcome

Glad to see it, Centerpoint. I've always been a fan of scenarios as they vary the average game and there is a lot of stuff we can do with ideas like this.

I like the Sabotage Station idea quite a bit. Interesting to have only 100 points compared to, say, 150 and keeping the Squadron ratio attuned to 300 (thus 100 points of rebel fighters + something like a corvette would be workable). I can't think of too much else to add. The escalation, starting at even 150 points of imperials and adding 50 points per turn from turn 2 on would work (thus a total points value of 400, what Wave 2's limit is and thus what most peoples' fleets will consist of for a minimum).

We could also do a whole 'Assault' scenario: 150-200 points and the station for rebels (but let them keep their 300 point limit for fighters and make the station count as a ship, it might even get a free squadron order/token), and the Imperials get their usual 300 fleet limit. It's a capture operation, so the Imperials need to be within distance 1 to claim points.

We also get into the 'alternate ships' category. I still like the idea of Rhymer-like stationary platforms to represent defensive emplacements. (I tried it in one instance, using Tie bomber stats with a Rhymer-style range and it was fun.) You can always use objective tokens for them, those things are wonderfully utilitarian.

Speaking of utilitarian uses for the objective tokens, perhaps transports or shuttles? It can easily fit into the notion of both an 'Assault' mission and '****** and Grab' as well.. Shuttles would be easy to work with: you get one per 100 points in the attackers fleet. They count as squadrons with 2 brace, 3 speed, 5 HP, their only purpose is that they, or ships, must get within distance 1 of a defender objective (station or ship) to score points. So in that respect, they're just an extension of ships to ferry over assault troops.

You could honestly scale it either way, with the assaulting force being larger, or even smaller but making the defender set up à la Ambush to give the attacker a positional advantage.

I might try to make up a station like that, I've got a spare pair of Firestorm Armada bases that are carved into 4 quadrants that would be perfect.

Currently play testing a similar scenario. Station has 10 HP and is immune to critical effects (face up damage for example). Has 1 360 hull zone, can fire twice at different targets. 2 die of each color, 2 blue AA. Defenders have 300 points, attackers 350. 6 turns, all ships lost = loss, station destroyed = loss.

First game imperial defenders wiped the rebel attackers on turn 6, but we played on to see if the remaining rebel fighters could kill the station, they did. Next attempt will be an imperial attack, then we will make modifications or not depends.

Also, check out https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/182047-forces-of-the-ceknell-subsector/ awesome painting and background... But also starting pg3 start discussing secondary missions, and other modifications to objectives.

There I suggested:

Another idea, I've had good results from modifications to each sides points totals, the trick is to not get to unbalanced. This simulates the natural unbalance that generally occurs in combat but not make it insurmountable. Choose 1 player roll a red die:

Blank (25%) - No modifications

Double hit (12.5%) - Gain 15% extra points round up

Hit (25%) - Gain 10% extra points

Crit (25%) - Lose 10% points

Accuracy (12.5%) - Lose 15% points

i like both the golan defense platform idea, and the station shooting back idea. reminds me of Empire at War. Gonna have to go see if i can find a model for it somewhere.

i also think im gonna work on a true scenario (more like a sit-rep) me and my buddy can play. ill post it when i type it all out

So I mixed a few ideas together and this is what I came up with. let me know what you think or if I could improve anything.

Mission: The Bilbringi Shipyards are a major military production facility controlled by the Galactic Empire. Located in orbit with the asteroid Bilbringi VII, the shipyards are a mass of dockyard platforms, partially built starships, and construction vehicles. Bilbringi and its shipyards are a major component of Grand Admiral Thrawn's war machine. He is turning the facility, almost exclusively to the production of new Star Destroyers. They are turning them out at an incredible speed, and if they are allowed to continue they will have one star destroyer for every inhabited system in the galaxy, and 10 in every one they think the Rebel alliance is hiding in. Obviously we are here to do something about that today. Currently the shipyards have 10 Star Destroyers under construction, and three of them are near completion. Our goal is to infiltrate the system and destroy the station before the destroyers can be brought online. This will be an all or nothing battle gentlebeings. If we can capture some of those Star Destroyers and destroy the rest along with that space station of theirs, we may just give the Rebellion the kick it needs to win this war.

Set up: Setup the station on the map at a point determined by the Imperial player. Three Star Destroyers (any class or model) are placed within distance 5 of the station, but not within distance 3 of each other. Turn all of the shields on these ships to “0”. These ships are to be classified as “Unoccupied” and may not be moved by either player until they are captured.

Each player will compile a 300 point list of ships for their faction

The station will be worth 50 points of the imperial list and will have the following stats:

Shields: 4 Hull: 10 Armament: 2 black 2 blue 2 red Anti-Squadron Value: 1 blue

Command Value: 2 Squadron Value: 3 Engineering Value: 2 Critical Hits will have no added effect on the station and will simply be counted as 1 damage (Squadrons can only effect 1 damage on a Critical Hit if they possess the Bomber Keyword)

For determination of overlapping and line of sight, treat the Station as if it were a Ship.

The Station can fire at Two targets for a total of two attacks.

Set up on the board normally with obstacles (you may use 2 sets of Asteroid and Debris obstacles but only one Station obstacle may be placed)

Special Rules: For this mission you are allowed to capture “Unoccupied” ships. Capture can be done in one of the following 2 ways:

1^st – To capture a Ship, you must bring one of your Ships within distance one of an “unoccupied” Ship and remain there until the end of Squadron Phase.

2^nd – At the end of every 2^nd round, the Imperial player may choose one Ship to “come online”. This Ship is then under the control of the Imperial player.

All captured ships will have their shields remain at “0” unless modified by a repair command. After a ship is captured the controller may set all of that Ship’s Command Dials. Captured ships start at speed “0”.

Victory Conditions: Victory by one faction will be decided if:

· One Faction Destroys all opposing Ships

· The Rebels destroy the Station and have at least 1 remaining Ship

I like it, it rewards a lot of aggression but it still has the dual nature of its victory conditions and the value of capturing some star destroyers.

I'd have more to say buuut it's not the right time of day for me. -laughs- I'll see if I can construct something to put up, too. I like the write up, scenarios need the narrative as far as I'm concerned (even if it's just an exemple text with a few lines to set the stage and present ideas. They can often work well as a sort of 'in universe' behind the scenes look for people to understand what the designer intended it to represent, rather than just being a set of conditions).

So, over the weekend I had the opportunity to play test my scenario a bit.

We had to make a few changes based on the logistics of the board and spacing however:

First - The Imperial player needs to place the station within distance 5 of the edge of his map - this allowed it to be far enough from the Rebel player that they can't start attacking it on the first turn

Second - The "offline" ships need to be placed within distance 4 of the station, and outside of distance 3 of the Imperial player's edge - this allowed everyone a chance at claiming the ships, and they weren't auto claimed by the Rebs' speed 4 corvettes.

Third - When you claim a ship, you can turn it 90 degrees in either direction - this was to prevent flying straight off the board within one turn of capture. It also allowed it to be pointed at the station right away for the Rebs.

Lastly - During the setup - the Imperial player deploys all of his squadrons around the station at distance 3. This was to simulate the station launching squadrons. All Imperial ships were placed off the board, and he was allowed to bring one on every turn until they were all on the mat.

We tried 2 games with an identical setup except for the first game was played Rebs 350 pts/ Imp 300 points, and the second was played Rebs 350 points/ Imps 350 points

In the first game I played as rebs and brought 2 AFMII, 2 CR90's and 3 A wings. I positioned a corvette to haul out at speed 4 to capture the far 2 star destroyers on the second turn, and I flew both AFMII to straddle the closest one. turn one he brought in his Demolisher and parked it directly in front of the paragon contesting the ship (didn't belong to anyone at the end of the turn) and chucking a ton of black dice at the front of my ship. With both AFMII hitting it, I managed to kill the Demolisher and capture the Star Destroyer. The second turn he brought in his VSD and killed off my CR90 to take control of one of the other VSD's. my last CR90 took the remaining star destroyer and I managed to kill off the station by turn 4

The first game went a little too quick so we decided to make the point count even to see what effect that had on the game. The Imperial player would still be staggering his deployment at one ship per turn so it remained more of a race. As it turns out the my buddy playing Imps just brought more fighters so he could have a larger presence on the field in turn 1. This strategy worked well for him as he had 2 Tie Advance, 3 Tie Interceptors, 3 Tie Bombers, Soontir, Howl runner, and Rhymer. His mass of fighters quickly killed off my 3 A wings and were a real threat to my ships.

The second game I kept both of my CR90's together flying at a single VSD at speed 4, and my AFMII's flew together headed between the other two VSD's. Turn one again saw the Demolisher rolling way to many black dice at the Paragon, and killing it off by turn two along with help from his bombers. This left the star destroyer closest to me uncontested and in his hands. the second turn also saw the death of one of my CR90's as he brought his VSD in almost on top of them to grab at the other VSD. Because of the huge speed differential he was able to stick around and stay in range 1 of the contested VSD capturing it as the CR90 sped away helplessly. The second AFMII managed to grab the last Star Destroyer, and I had it fly directly into the station. I wasn't able to kill it fast enough, and my VSD was soon destroyed. The rest of the game was spent trying to get back into position, but it wasn't possible.

All in all it was a lot of fun to have a "Real Objective" as part of the game, and the magic point balance is within 50 points. We also toyed with the idea of having 2 stations (to simulate one huge one with multiple parts) but we never play tested it.

The mechanic of capturing ships also added an interesting twist as it rewarded reckless flying, and a lot of trading (especially 39 point CR90 B's for 81 point VSDII's) occurred in the first few turns. this mechanic is what allowed for the "Off Balance Feel to be truly appreciated.