Favorite house rules?

By Lord Ashram, in Star Wars: Armada

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I played a game today where we had Squadrons "docked" in the bays of their motherships. Ships could have more than their squadron value aboard if the player wanted. We've toyed with the idea of having squadrons dock with a capital ship mid-game to receive repairs, but most games don't run that long. Anyway, here's a rundown of what we did.

Any docked squadrons were placed on or near the ship card of the mothership at the beginning of the game. Those squadrons could not be attacked.

When a ship revealed a squadron command, it could activate squadrons on the table, or place a number of berthed squadrons in base contact and then activate them.

While I understand that not everyone wants to do this, it was a blast! It made bombing runs a little more effective, and made keeping an effective combat air patrol an essential part of maneuvering. After all, you didn't want to get caught without any interceptors around your Star Destroyer when the Frigate launched three squadrons of B-Wings at you!

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Game design nut here (and actual graduate haha).

Been messing around with some simultaneous play rules to speed up the game and make it more of a broadside exchange rather than piece by piece chess-like activation. Takes away activation order dynamic/shenanigans which adds as much as it detracts.

It's interesting that's for sure, when ships are in range they are going to both exchange fire as opposed to currently where a ship from each side usually gets to slip out of arcs once each round.

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Game design nut here (and actual graduate haha).

Been messing around with some simultaneous play rules to speed up the game and make it more of a broadside exchange rather than piece by piece chess-like activation. Takes away activation order dynamic/shenanigans which adds as much as it detracts.

It's interesting that's for sure, when ships are in range they are going to both exchange fire as opposed to currently where a ship from each side usually gets to slip out of arcs once each round.

Mind going into more detail? Flying a ship into targeting range and thing sitting politely while getting blown apart has always annoyed me.

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Ditto!

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My local group has only talked about point balance when it comes to things like ACM but we have not changed anything and don't intend on changing anything as we feel the rules are Balanced. We had two guys play 1000 points on Friday and they never want to play anything that huge again.

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game really sucks at giant levels.

simult rules might be interesting, but thats gotta change a lot of values.

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My local group has only talked about point balance when it comes to things like ACM but we have not changed anything and don't intend on changing anything as we feel the rules are Balanced. We had two guys play 1000 points on Friday and they never want to play anything that huge again. miniscule like 400pts again.

FTFY.

game really sucks at giant levels.

simult rules might be interesting, but thats gotta change a lot of values.

Teams works really well for large battles for exactly this reason - you can resolve activations on both sides of the board simultaneously.

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My local group has only talked about point balance when it comes to things like ACM but we have not changed anything and don't intend on changing anything as we feel the rules are Balanced. We had two guys play 1000 points on Friday and they never want to play anything that huge again.

Seriously! 1000 points was glorious, even if it takes half the day. To each his ownI guess.

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We run a campaign combining x-wing and Armada. For this we lever run standard obbjectives but use proper scenarios with some other obbjectives such as evacuating the transports from the rebel base, save the crippled ship, assault the enemy supply base etc. We supplement the standard rules with scenario specific special rules as well as some of DiabloAzuls custom ships (with Mel's shapeways GR75 and Gozanti models ).

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Do you have write-ups on your scenarios?

I would love to tryva few out.

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Do you have write-ups on your scenarios?

I would love to try a few out.

I Have a couple of them in PPT.. I can make a dropbox...

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Game design nut here (and actual graduate haha).

Been messing around with some simultaneous play rules to speed up the game and make it more of a broadside exchange rather than piece by piece chess-like activation. Takes away activation order dynamic/shenanigans which adds as much as it detracts.

It's interesting that's for sure, when ships are in range they are going to both exchange fire as opposed to currently where a ship from each side usually gets to slip out of arcs once each round.

Mind going into more detail? Flying a ship into targeting range and thing sitting politely while getting blown apart has always annoyed me.

Yeah that was a big motivator for me.

You just need a couple of extra rules really and everything else can stay the same, but as mentioned by someone else, the 'value' of certain upgrades and ships would change.

You can choose to activate ships simultaneously if you're really after a game speed up or you can continue to take turns moving ships, either works but the idea is that in game terms, everything activates at the same time.

Simultaneous Armada Rules

Activation

Players each nominate one of their ships at a time. These ships activate, revealing their commands and resolving them as usual, then proceeding through the other steps of ship activation the key difference is that ALL ships complete their activation steps separately and completely, before the next step is undertaken. For example, you can't shoot until all ships have resolved commands, you can't manoeuvre until all ships have resolved shots. Simple and elegant.

Firing

During an activation, if one ship or squadron is destroyed during this step it's not immediately removed, it still gets to return fire during it's activation and perform its steps as normal, it is then removed at the end of the round if it is at or below 0 hull value. This works well, creating those 'broadside' moments but creates the problem of General Reikan being redundant haha, he would need a change.

Manoeuvring

Simultaneous maneuver' rule. Laymans explanation would be: You move ships one notch at a time up to their speed, each player does this simultaneously and can plan the YAW of the next notch when he/she reaches the previous notch. When executing 'notches' where ships could possibly collide, players secretly choose and simultaneously reveal their planned "notch". All other normal movement rules apply.

These rules obviously take away the intricacies of the activation order, takes away squadron and ship (looks at demolisher) alpha strikes, and makes it a little more of a broadside slugfest, which as I said has it's pros and cons. If you thought manoeuvring was important then wait lit you try these rules, there's no 'saving the wounded ship' it's all about focus firing, mitigating damage and fleet formations. The beauty of it is that it only really bends activation and manoeuvring order, nothing else is changed and it remains the armada we know and love (apart from Reikan haha)

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Much as I love the default game...

...one of these days I'll let squadrons shoot and move (in any order) during the squad phase - and have rogues gain the option of activating in the ship phase.

Why?

Just because. And because (although it works) the squadron stuff is the least intuitive part of the game.

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If you are losing terribly, you may shank your opponent with your dead Imperial Star Destroyer.

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I have to say I'm also not keen on house rules that alter the game mechanics .

However, I'm (obviously) all for custom content that fits within the official rules framework. That means I'm happy to use fan-made ships, squadrons, upgrades and even objectives as long as they don't require any new rules . Some others have suggested creating special rules for ships like the GR-75 or Gozanti, which are too tiny for a small ship base but too big for a squadron stand. Others have advocated complex special rules for Interdictors, affecting things like setup and deployment by their mere presence. I have refused to do either of those things: all the content on Armada Shipyards will always be playable as-is with the standard FFG rules, even if the "lists" in the rulebook are no longer exhaustive (e.g. we might add new squadron keywords and upgrade types).

I'd also be all for one-off scenarios with specific rules or victory conditions, as an expanded super-objective card of sorts. Even for a campaign in the vein of Heroes of the Aturi Cluster.

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Im probably the one advocating for smaller bases for Auxillary ships like the Gozanti and GR-75 as they do not fit well with the exisiting ship sizes.. The rules scale badly for ships of this size...

We have made custom auxillary bases sized down the same ratio as the size increments already used in the game-

Some issues:

- Footprint of bases: A GSD and a Gozanti have a HUGE size difference and should have different sized bases

- A lot of small auxillary ships would give a huge activation advantage

- The tokens are too powerfull - they scale badly... A concentrate fire gives 100% bonus effect from 1 blue die to 2 blues...

- 10 GR75s would cost 200 points and be a great suicide squad, blocking everything and causing a lot of collision damage.

So we use the following rules:

Auxillary ships :

Auxillary ships move after all normal ships have moved in a new step between the Ship step and the Squadron step.

Auxillary ships and overlapping: If an auxillary ship overlaps a regular ship the Auxillary ship is dealt one face-down damage card as per normal rules while the regular ship takes one damage. If an Auxillary ship overlaps another auxillary ship both ships are dealt one face-down damage card.

A larger ship causing an overlap on a auxillary ship: The player owning the auxillary ship may move the ship to the closest possible position in relation to the original position touching the ship that caused the overlap and keeping the same facing.

Auxillary ships use maneuver dials as normal but can not store command tokens. They can only use the command dials directly .

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(for the record, I did not mean to imply that those rules were bad in any way - simply that they go beyond the scope of the Shipyards project, which aims to provide "plug-and-play" content)

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If you are losing terribly, you may shank your opponent with your dead Imperial Star Destroyer.

Impossible, that requires an ISD to actually explode.

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R2req's squadron rules from http://dockingbay416.com/ideas-to-fix-the-squadron-problem-in-star-wars-armada/

and our own collision rules, below

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Alternative Collision Damage Calculations
TL;DR Version: Instead of one damage card each colliding ships take damage equal to the other ships hull value, times the speed of the collision, divided by ten. Instead of rounding fractions up or down, a long, medium, or short range die is rolled, potentially adding an element of randomness to collisions.
Long Version:
These house rules modify the Rules for Overlapping found on page 8 of the Rules Reference guide. Instead of suffering and inflicting one face down damage card to each ship when a ship move would overlap another ship, these alternative rules take into account ship speeds, hull value, the direction from which the "stationary" ship is being struck, and potentially a die roll.
Speed of Collision depends upon Directions of Collisions
There are four collision directions: Head-on, T-bone (or Side-swipe), and Rear-ended. Directions of collisions are defined by the firing arcs of the colliding ships. Use the firing arcs of the ship being struck to draw a line toward the center of the moving ship, to see whether that line falls within the "stationary" ships's forward firing arc (resulting in a head-on collision), within one of the side arcs (resulting in a T-bone or side-swipe collision), or within its rear arc (resulting in a rear-end collision. If the line between ship centers passes though both ship's side arcs, the Direction of Collision is Side-swipe.
Whether a collision is head-on, T-bone, or rear-end, it can be DIRECT or GLANCING (Side-swipes are always glancing collisions.) The moving ship draws two lines from the sides of its base forward. If the zone within those lines includes the center of the ship being struck, the collision is a DIRECT collision, which suffers the full calculated damage, detailed below, instead of half damage, for glancing collisions. If the center of the ship being struck is either to the left or right of the zone drawn straight forward from the base sides of the moving ship, the collision is only GLANCING, so that the damage calculation below is halved. All Side-swipe collisions are glancing, halving the calculation below.
The Speed of Collisions
The speed of the collision equals the speeds of the moving ship, with the speed of the ship being struck either adding to the collision speed (for head-on collisions), having no effect (for T-bone collisions), or subtracting from the speed of the collision (for rear-end and side-swipe collisions). Negative results yield no collision damage, i.e. a slow moving ship rear-ending a ship that is "stationary" because it it not that ship's turn, but has an indicated speed higher than the currently moving ship, causes no collision damage to either ship. The slower rear-ending ship's movement is merely cut short as a result of such a collision.
For example, when one ship, traveling at speed 3 would complete its move overlapping another ship, traveling at speed 2, the speed of the collision is 5 (3+2) if the "stationary" ship is struck in its front firing arc. If struck from the side, T-boned, the speed of the collision would be 3, equal to the moving ship's speed. If rear-ended or side-swiped, the speed of the collision is 1.
Damage
The amount of damage inflicted on each ship depends upon the speed of the collision, described above, and the hull value of the other ship. Each ship suffers the other ship's hull value times the speed of the collision, divided by 10.
Example:
A head-on collision between a CR90 (Hull Value 4) travelling at speed 3, and a Victory Star Destroyer (Hull Value 8) travelling at speed 2, results in a collision speed of 5. The CR90 inflicts 2 face down damage cards (its 4 hull * 5 collision speed /10 = 2 damage) on the VSD. The VSD inflicts 4 damage (8 hull * 5 collision speed /10 = 4 damage) on the CR90.
The front shields of the moving ship take damage before its hull. The Shields of the ship being struck take damage before damage cards are dealt to its hull, in the appropriate arc for the direction of the collision. However, if the collision is only glancing, the damage is halved and may be divided between two shield arcs, chosen by the smaller ship in the collision. If both ships are the same size, the moving ship may chose which shield arcs of the "stationary" ship are damaged. Side-swiping ships take damage on the side closest to the other ship.
FRACTIONAL damage results:
Fractional damage is inflicted by die rolls rather than rounding up or down. Roll an appropriate range die, for the bottom, middle, and top thirds of the fraction range, in other words:
roll a long range red die for fractional values from 0 to .333
roll a medium range blue die for fractional values from .334 to .666 or
roll a close range black die for values from .667 to .999.
For example, if a CR90 at speed 2 directly rear-ends a VSD at speed 0, the collision speed is 2. The VSD inflicts 1.6 damage to the front shield arc or hull of the CR90. The CR90 inflicts .8 damage to the rear shield arc or hull of the VSD.
Accordingly the collision damage for the CR90 in the above collision would be 1 face down damage card, plus the result of a single blue die roll, while the collision damage for the VSD would be a single black die roll, for a direct collision. If the above CR90 rear-ending a VSD were only a glancing collision, the damage calculation would be halved, .8 on the CR90 (a black die roll), and .4 on the VSD (a blue die roll). If the VSD took damage, and the glancing collision were to the left its center, the CR90 pilot could choose to inflict any portion of that damage on the VSD's left shields or rear shields, if available. If the CR90 pilot were unable to avoid colliding with a heavier friendly ship, he might manage a glancing collision with the maneuver tool and spread the damage between shield arcs to minimize the harm, as opposed to chosing the weakest shield arc, or the hull arc without shields, of a heavier enemy ship.
Additional optional collision rule, Intentional RAMMING and AVOIDING collisions:
A moving ship may increase or decrease its own speed for the purpose of the damage calculation, if it is smaller than or equal to the size of the ship it is ramming or avoiding. From the above example, the CR90 pilot directly rear-ending the VSD can calculate damage as though he were moving at speed 3, if he wanted to ram to inflict more damage, or as though he were moving at speed 1, if he wanted to minimize the damage of the collision. If their positions were reversed, (the VSD pilot ramming the CR90), the VSD pilot would not get this choice, as a larger less nimble ship can not ram or avoid the smaller "stationary" CR90 any more precisely than allowed by the maneuvering tool's yaw increments allow a direct collision, glancing collision, or no collision. Only Engine Techs give a larger ship the option of calculating damage when colliding with a smaller ship, to calculate damage as though the speed of the collision were one higher. ( Engine Techs no longer give a moving ship the opportunity to collide twice . A smaller or equal size ship, choosing to ram, AND with Engine Techs, could add TWO to its speed for the purpose of calculating the collision speed and resulting damage. A ship may spend an evasion defense token to reduce the speed of a collision by one, before a damage die is rolled (die results don't take away the "stationary" ship's option to spend an evasion defense token this way.)
Additional optional collision rule, for SQUADRON collisions or Squadron SUICIDE RAMMING:
Squadrons may suicide by ramming ships. Their damage is equal to their current hull value, divided by ten, and using the above fractional damage rule instead of rounding up to one or down to zero. An undamaged YT-1300, rolls a black die (7/10=.7) against a ship it rams, and the YT-1300 is destroyed by the collision. If the YT-1300 had already taken 4 damage, with only 3 remaining, it would inflict a red die (3/10=.3) A ramming squadron is destroyed by its move whether or not its die roll hits or misses. A rogue squadron may roll its attack, then move to ram. A ship may spend an evasion defense token to reroll a squadron's ram damage die, unless the squadron rolls a precise hit. A squadron ram die that misses still results in the destruction of the squadron (they just didn't smash into anything important enough to cause damage to the ships shields or hull).
Edited by TomShaftoe
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While I find it kind of complex, I do appreciate how well balanced it seems. Very thematic.

And this makes Motti a bulldozer!

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Let the Wookie win.

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I don't play with house rules. If there was one is like to try, it is to give players 100 free points of squadrons at 400 points, but only 134 points as the squadron cap. Would make squadrons a lot more desirable and efficient for both sides.

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I use several house rules to get the flavour of game I like but my favourite one for solo-play is SHIP FIRING RANGES DOUBLED. Yes, fear those Red-diced turbolasers!!! I find it scales better (range v movement v ship-size). This rule also incidentally helps declutters the board, with very few accidental collisions as most ships don't need to manoeuvre so close.

To be precise, I have red-dice = twice game-ruler length, blue dice = game-ruler; black dice = half-game ruler. I often wonder was the range-ruler dictated by the size of the box? Anyway, its just for my own games and no tournaments were injured in making this house rule :D

Oh and all fighters have speed 5, bar bombers (TIE/Bomber, B-Wing, Y-Wing) which have speed 4. No waaaay capital ships are faster than fighters in my sector of the SW universe! :) I think I will try out the various suggested house rules for fighters being able to move & fire in the squardron phase, to see does it add more cinematic sizzle to my games. I also had a thought the other day that I will test out allowing fighters that do criticals being able to draw 2 critical cards (like Dodonna) and pick best, to reflect targetted pin-point strikes.

Plenty of other little mods that I have tried (e.g. all ships can move/fire or fire/move = devastating) but thats enough eye-brow raising rules for one post!

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We've come up with a kind of complicated house rule for the number of fighters. It's based on the idea that the capital ships have organic fighter compliments. Small ships get 1 squadron, mediums get 3, and large ships get 6. The point value of the organic fighter compliment can't exceed 1/2 of its base ship's value. Only large ships can base single ship squadrons (VT-49, YT-1300 etc.) and only one of those. Only mediums and larges can base aces, and only one per ship. Squadrons remain docked until a squadron command is revealed. They can move or attack during the squadron phase of the turn they are launched.

These organic squadrons are in addition to the use of rapid launch bays.