Marauders Alternate Play Format AAR

By Marauder1983, in Star Wars: Armada

Posted at

SO this weekend we tried a variation of the rules I had posted here several weeks ago and I wanted to update the community on the results of our event.

I will post the finalized version of the rules below so if anyone would like to try it in your local community please feel free to.

Sustains -

Intel and damage repair - There was a lot of resistance to the idea of using the D10 method for determining intel and damage repair. The in game experience was very positive the intel roll work as expected and allowed each of us to gleen the information from each others lists that we needed to make a fleet choice. In both instances the first player had the advantage due to the intel to pick the list that would best combat his opponent, while the second player retained the advantage of having the objectives tailored to their lists. Damage repair worked great, in each case the fleets were able to repair almost all of the damage they sustained, it added a great level of suspense to the game when it came to follow on fleets

Initiative - As with the comment above about the Intel, the initiative coin toss allowed the players to maximize the 400 points in their fleet. It was cool to utilize to points we would have normally reserved for bids to play the lower point cards like Needa, skilled first officer, admiral titus, medical teams, and any of the other sub 5 point cards that would be left off for bid reasons. It really added a new dynamic to the play when you were encouraged to fill out that 400 points.

Fleet builds - It was very interesting to see how the games played out and how we were able to turn losses into subtle victories. In the first game I lost all of my capitol ships without taking any of his down. However I was able to eliminate Wedge and Dutch while protecting 9 Tie bombers and Rhymer. Having to pick and chose the ships that you field in order to maximize your fleet while not concentrating to many unique ships into a single list. It allowed me to turn an epic tournament defeat into a psudo victory because I was able preserve a squadron as important as Rhymer while taking away two very important squadrons from his list.

Improves -

Format is too long for a single day tournament - We discovered that the 4 game format is just too long for a single day event. I underestimated the amount of time it takes to swap lists. However, we did start a local discussion about breaking it up into a league style of play where the players build their lists and keep them at the league location for safe keeping. the length was definitely a factor in driving down participation in the event.

All games should be played to 6 turns - One thing I noticed was that I was able to preserve a named squadron by the game ending on turn 5 after my capitol ships were destroyed and only my fighters remained. Had the game continued my opponent could have possibly killed a few more of my bombers and possibly my unique squadron. The flip side is that I would have had the opportunity to unload 9 bombers into the unprotected nose of a liberty, so its a toss up that benefits the player that was defeated to win back some points before the game ends.

Find a more user friendly way to present the modified rules to players - There were no issues with the rules but I was a little wordy with them and I had to explain the calculation of damage/repair after our first game.

Final Thoughts -

This format lends itself to a league format rather than a tournament format. It was a lot of fun and added a little bit of excitement to the game and we were able to think outside of the box to long term strategy rather than the single battle strategy. We discovered that the random number generation was not an impairment, in fact each of us only rolled a 3 on the repair roll and we were able to repair all damage. It was just a cool way to depict effects of sustained combat. We will be looking at the possibility of starting a league around this format with the premise of a campaign esque format of taking territory and such (this might change based on the FFG Campaign release). But overall it was a lot of fun and I cant wait to see where it goes from here. I hope some of you will try out the format and have as much fun a we did. Maybe even start your own leagues in your local communities.

Side note - we discussed the league option after the event finished and we came up with dropping the player matching in order to promote league play and allow players to choose opponents from a pool rather than specifically identify who your next opponent would be. This way players can find matches more easily among the league participants rather than trying to coordinate matches each week. but more to come on that.

Until then.

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Finalized Rules that we played under

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Custom Rules:
Round 1-3: 400 point fleets – 1 Admiral, 1 of each objective cards, max 134 pts of Squadrons.
Round 4: 500 point combination fleet of remaining ships from rounds 1-3 – 1 Admiral from Fleets 1-3, 1 of each objective cards, max 167 pt of squadrons
**Clarification: All 3 lists for each player must be the same faction**
Fleet build requirements: each player will bring 3 400 point lists to the game using the following restrictions.
1. Named ship cards (i.e. Home One), unique named cards (i.e. Captain Needa), and Unique Squadrons (i.e. Han Solo) may only be used once across any of the 3 fleets. For example no 2 fleet lists may contain MC80's with the Home One upgrade. Admirals are restricted by the same rules as unique named cards. An Admiral may only be used on one list, surviving admirals from the first 3 rounds may be used as a choice in round 4.
2. Fleet damage is documented on the fleet build sheet at the end of turn 6 on the round in which the fleet was used. After the end of turn six and damage has been recorded the total hull points of ships will be added up and the total hull points of squadrons will be added up, only remaining ships are counted toward the totals. Each player will roll a D10 twice to receive a percentage point roll from 10-100% for both ships and squadrons. This roll will determine the amount of hull points the fleet repairs before the beginning of the next round of play. The first roll will be the repair percentage of ship hull points and the second will be a value for squadron hull points. The Admiral may allocate the resources as they see fit across the fleet list. Shield damage will repair automatically after the round is finished.
In the event that the admiral is able to fully repair ships and/or squadrons and there is unused repair points available the admiral may not use those repair points are lost. Ship repair points cannot be used to repair squadrons and squadron repair points cannot be used to repair ships.
**Clarification – Fleets may only repair after they have been used in a round, fleets will not repair after subsequent rounds in which they are not used. Remember Admirals that this will be your only opportunity to repair a damaged fleet. Use your resources wisely.**
Example 1: An admiral's fleet has a total hull point value of 20 ship points at the end of turn six. They roll a 3 or 30% repair roll. That admiral is able to repair 6 points (20 X .6 = 6) of damage to his ships after the conclusion of the round. An Admiral then rolls a second D10 for squadrons. The admiral has 30 points of Squadron Hull value. They roll a 9, 90%, equaling 27 points. The admiral has taken only 3 points of damage to his squadrons so as a result all of his squadrons are repaired. (the excess repair value is nullified)
Example 2: on a small scale is a rebel mc 80 suffers 6 cards of damage. The player rolls a 4 on a d10. The ship has 8 hull points in total. A roll of 4 = 40%. 40% of 8 cards is 3.2, rounded up to 4. At the end of turn 6 round 1 the mc 80 can repair up to 4 cards of damage, bringing the total damage of the ship to 2 (6-4=2). After damage is repaired at the end of round 3 the commander builds their 500 point fleet out of the remaining ships and remaining admirals left alive.
Fleets that contain a ships or squadrons that was completely destroyed in the previous round cannot repair. The destroyed ship and/or squadron is considered out of play for the rest of the tournament. For example, the Star Destroyer Avenger is destroyed in round 1 it cannot be used in round 2 or 3 if the admiral plays the list again and the avenger may not be used to build the final 500 point fleet.
3. Damaged fleets do not prevent an admiral from selecting the fleet for the following round of play. If all of the ships in a fleet are destroyed then the fleet is considered destroyed and the entire list is out of play for the remainder of the tournament. Squadrons may only survive if at least one remaining ship survives.
4. Round 4: The final round will be played with a 500 point fleet comprised of the remaining ships and squadrons of the previous rounds. Unrepaired Damage to the ships and squadrons will carry over to the combined fleet.
5. Complete destruction: in the event that a player is not able to field a 500 point fleet in round 4 the player may choose to build the fleet to the maximum possible point value of their available ships. The player who is short on ships and squadrons may reinforce his fleet with ships that were in his previous ships. However the reinforcements are not allowed upgrades and the player’s opponent will receive victory points equal to 1/3rd the points value of the ships used to reinforce their opponents fleet.
Example 1: Player A is only able to muster a fleet consisting of 390 pts. Player A chooses to add a ISD 1 to his fleet to fill the fleet out to 500 pts. Player B will automatically receive 37 victory points (ISD1 110 pts * 1/3 = 37). If the ISD1 is destroyed then Player B still receives the full 110 pts.
No Admiral availible in round 4: In the event the player has no remaining Admirals to field in round 4 the player will incur a 38 pt penalty to his 500 pt fleet and will flied a fleet with no admiral.
Example 1: Player A lost his admirals in round 1-3. In round 4 Player A will incur a 38 pt penalty to their maximum point value, bringing the max fleet point value to 462 pts.
Fleet Selection and Initiative:
Initiative: initiative will be determined by coin toss, the winner of initiative decides if they want first or second player. The second player chooses one of their 3 fleets and the first player rolls the a d10 to get a 10-100% value of "Intel" on his enemy's fleet (i.e. The first player gets to know up to the rolled percentage of his opponents ship classes before they choose their fleet) this is to simulate the attacker vs defender (1st player being the attacker). The second player will be allowed to reveal his choosing of ships to his opponent. (Base class only). Squadrons will not be revealed by intel.
Example 1: Player 1 wins initiative and rolls a D10. The D10 reveals a 4, 40%. Player two has a fleet consisting of 2 Nebulon B’s (Yvaris is one), 2 MC 30’s (abmonition is one), 2 CR90’s, 1 X wing Squadron (wedge), and 1 Y wing Squadron (dutch). Player two has 6 ships, (6x.4=2.4 round up to 3). Player two chooses to reveal that he is fielding 2 cr90’s one A and one B, and a Nebulon B Escort Frigate. Player two is not required to give the fact that the ships are named or what their armaments are.
Player one uses this information to surmise that his opponent has at least 6 ships and chooses one of his lists with that information in mind. Player one chooses to field a list with 5 gladiator star destroyers.
Fleet Selection: Admirals will choose fleets based on the initiative and their own understanding of the tactical situation. Damaged fleets can be played in back to back rounds if the Admiral chooses to do so.
By games: in the event that a player is forced to take a by game they will select one of their fleets and roll a D10 per ship and squadron to determine damage. If a player rolls a 1 or 10% the ship is not damaged, if the player rolls a 0 or 100% the ship or squadron is destroyed. Rolls in between will be damage based on a percentage of hull point value of the ship or squadron.
Objectives:
Objectives will remain unchanged from the standard of play in accordance with tournament rules.
Opponent Selection:
Opponent selection will be unchanged from the standard tournament rules, round 1 will be random and MOV will determine subsequent rounds.