It has been a long time since I posted these there, but a couple people were asking after them, so here you go, all freshly updated. Difficult to believe I started this project way back when the B-wing was the exciting thing on the horizon.

Galactic Civil War Campaign Rules 6.2.0

GCW is a campaign system patterned after Babylon 5 A Call to Arms. Heavy emphasis is placed on the strategic aspects, and there is a lot of obsessive detail. The presentation is not slick, and it may be too involved for most players, but those of comparable crazy-level may find it enjoyable.

This is awesome. Reading through it now and trying to convince my group to run it. I'd give you a good token if I could...

Ok, I plan to make one more editorial/update pass to the rules, but I want to try running another iteration of this on Vassal, so registration is officially open. Previously we aimed for roughly one campaign turn per week, amounting to 1-2 games per player. Target is six players per side, and we can try the "Scum as a third faction" rules if there is enough interest. If you have any questions, post here or e-mail me directly.

i'll have a shifty at this when i get home, might be a good replacement for HotAC within my group when we finish our first run through

Really nice work !

I want to play!

I want to play!

Include your faction preference.

This sounds super cool - I'd like to play! (faction preference: Rebel)

Cheers!

Hey all - this looks amazing, and I'd love to play (sign me up for the Rebels please).

Question - if I understand the rules correctly, any pilot with sufficient experience can get an Elite Talent at PS3 plus a pilot ability at PS4 (which can be any generic EPT or generic Crew ability). The idea and mechanic is really cool and thematic, but I can't help wonder if this opens up a pandora's box in terms of game balance.

For example, let's imagine a PS-4 K-wing with Deadeye and Crack Shot taking a Homing Missile + EM. Add RecSpec/WeaponsEng and LRS/GC to taste. Not a pleasant sight for any imperial ship for sure.

I mean, I LOVE that K-wings and Punishers can now get an EPT, but getting two (!!) could be a bit too much

Also, I dread of seeing what builds imperials can do with double-EPT Defenders, Interceptors and Phantoms.

Do I have the above correctly? Did any of this appear to be problematic so far?

I already answered vladamex's questions via PM, but for the benefit of everyone else:

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The short answer is yes, there are some hideous combinations possible, though I tend to think the most problematic ones comes from unique pilots. It is also worth noting that the last time I ran this campaign, we were only up to wave 4.

The long answer is that while there are hideous combinations available to your faction, the same is also true for everyone else. It is expected everyone will be looking for the best ways to improve their ships. Figuring out how to make the most effective use of what you have and how to counter what the enemy is doing is part of the campaign. The GCW rules are very much not meant to be a regular tournament or league with a bunch of standard 100-point matches. That said, if something truly destabilizing arises, I will address it within the rules. For example, I originally had additional restrictions on TIE Phantoms so Imperial players could not start the game by spamming PS5 generics everywhere. I stand ready to re-instate those rules if necessary, and Glaives may very well represent an even bigger incarnation of that problem. When I run an iteration of the campaign, I tell all the players in advance that rule adjustments should be expected. There is no way I can spot all the abuse cases these days.

Another factor is that any and all improvements take XP, which takes time to earn and exposes your pilots to the dangers of combat. This dilutes the effect of "hideous" combos on the campaign as a whole. They will take a few turns to appear, and once they do (and the opponents recognize them), you can bet the enemy will be gunning for those improved pilots. It is expected and intended, that players might accept losing a battle in exchange for eliminating a problematic pilot. And unless you convince every player in your faction to play the same way, your particular "hideous" combos are only going to be affecting 1-2 battles per turn. Even if you win everywhere you go, you cannot be everywhere at once. Even if you did play every battle (why have a team then?), regular attrition is going to rapidly wear down your squadron roster.

Now it is entirely possible you could establish a pattern that lets you crank out a problem generic faster than you lose them to attrition. Assuming that I, as the campaign organizer, did not "call foul" on it, I would expect your opponents to deploy counters. In your K-wing example, perhaps they start start spamming 0-agility ships or Countermeasures or Draw Their Fire or high-PS tractor beams to throw you out of arc/range. The play/counterplay arms race is one of the things I like seeing happen in GCW. Everyone has to consider things never before encountered in normal competitive play.

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When you choose a pilot a pilot ability for a generic it is permanent. Same as the pilot ability for a unique. The only thing you can change every turn is the Elite upgrade in your Elite slot. There is no way to stack pilot abilities on a single pilot. One and done. Same for Elite slots. The only way to get more than one is with the A-wing title.

Rekkon, even when playing, is very fair when he's evaluating broken combos and fixes. When you go into this, just go in walking the line between "I want to find some hilariously abusive combo and have fun with it" and "if my abusive combo is horribly un-fun for everybody else, it will probably get changed."

Do that, and you'll have a good time.

On that note, the ideal situation is having enough players that I can sit out and manage the campaign. If I have to fill in, I will not be leadership or participate in my faction's strategy discussion.

Thanks Rekkon for the answers, all makes sense.

The campaign sounds really interesting and fun - I'm really looking forward to playing it!

Hopefully we will soon have more players will join in

Just the sheer amount of Information here is amazing, and... well... kind of overwhelming.

I know its almost an idiotic question, but could a very vague outline of this be given in a post?

*You start with 300 points to purchase starting ships, pilots and upgrades. Anything destroyed/killed in battle is lost, and you have to buy replacements with points earned every turn. You only get one unique pilot as "squadron commander."

*Pilots earn XP in battle which they can use to buy improvements.

*Teams fight over locations within a randomly generated system, each of which provides certain benefits and can have different "terrain."

*Battles use a variety of scenarios based on the FFG missions.

*You win the campaign by finding, attacking and destroyed enemy capital (epic) ships.

That seems pretty legit! I guess you can sign me up as Imperials. All Hail the Emperor.

So another Im just not quite gasping is how is this all going to play out? Do I build a squad now with whatever I want in it and we all meet up on VASSAL in a giant 18 Person room and start building maps?

Thanks in advance.

Players build a 300 point Squad ron in advance, though there has to be coordination over which players get which unique pilots. From that Squadron you build squads for individual battles as they happen. The rules were designed for the asynchronicity of online coordination, so the only time players have to be online at the same time is when they actually play battles on Vassal. The rest can be accomplished via e-mail or posting board. The campaign organizer (me) handles building the campaign map, which is less a map and more a laundry list of targets you can attack since their relative locations do not matter.

I'm still looking through a lot of these rules, but I'm a little worried about the use of FFG missions as standard scenarios. My experience with these missions is that they're built for a very casual play style. That is to say they do not hold up well under intense analysis and high-stakes games. I understand that you've modified the missions; how have they held up under campaign-condition playtests?

-edit: That goes double for the CR90 missons. Playing through that campaign and analyzing those missions for the podcast has really shown me that they are badly unbalanced. I suggest taking a good hard look at those missions before kicking off this campaign. If you're interested in hearing me yak about missions 1-3a for about an hour, I can refer you to relevant podcast episodes.

Oh, we found out just how bad some of the FFG scenarios are for campaign purposes in the first iteration. That is why the intel gathering mission is used as a catch up mechanic. Additionally, the table on which you roll to determine the battle scenario is not uniformly distributed. The "whackier" an FFG scenario is, the lower its representation. The majority of battles are regular dogfights or other fairer scenarios. That said, I am sure problems remain to be found. Part of playing this campaign is accepting that things will not always be fair, and that I will do my best to rectify them as necessary while we play.

I initially tried to include the CR90 and other epic ship scenarios. After the Raider came out, it was especially apparent I could not manipulate those into anything workable since the campaign's endgame is to destroy the enemy's epic ships, so they got replaced with more normal/balanced options.

Players build a 300 point Squad ron in advance,

Do we include epic ships in this? or will we be assigned huge ships, or what?

No, epic ships belong to the faction, and you just get them for battles that use them. Individual players cannot purchase or own huge ships.

Im down to play would prefer Scum if we get enough for Scum if not just toss me on Imps or Rebels to balance out sides

Double Post!

Starting our GCW campaign tomorrow! Six players, two of each faction. I'll let you know how it turned out.

BTW, I originally thought it would be a breeze to put a 300 squadron together. WRONG! With only one unique pilot and the rest generics, it was much more difficult than anticipated. It became a juggling act of ps vs quantity vs ordnance all vs reality.

Where do we meet? Will you post a new reply or are we all meeting on vassal or something?

And it's my birthday tomorrow... Plus with time zones and crap that might be slightly problematic...