If Biggs is out then I am too.

I volunteered primarily because I didn't want anyone to get left out because of an odd number, definitely didn't want to cause any issues. There will be another, I'm sure of that. Plus that means you guys get to work out all the bugs.

Then I think we're ready to go on the simple 3 v 3 with Skycake shifting to Rebels.

I suggest we all carefully re-read the Campaign rules before going ahead and having the first Rebel council meeting in our super-secret war-room.

We should discuss the clarifications / errata before starting.

One obvious erratum to my mind is to have Dodonna only working on crits inflicted by his own fleet in case an all-out engagement happens instead of every crit in the sky. I think it was the only unfair card we've identified when testing the 'epic' armada tournaments with FFG.

Ya, Dodonna... On one had, FFG has left him "as is" (affecting both enemy fleets) for team Armada events. On the other, All Out Offensive can be six players rather than four.

Well then, our rosters are:

Empire

JJs Juggernaut
Rekkon
deDios

Rebel

Fanfan
emfrank72
SkyCake

Commence primary planning.

Keep Dodonna as is and force the Imperial players to wipe his fleet into the dust so he is forced to retire and some other Admiral can pop out and play with a new 400 pointer list.

Thanks Broba and BIRL for giving us a good send off. Hopefully catch you at another table sometime. Now I have to figure out how to hide all this fur in an imperial officer's uniform... perhaps blue paint like that chiss fellow.

Rekkon and JJ, I'll PM you so we can set up the imperial communications protocol and figure out which angry triangles are left for the new guy.

So when we starting??

So when we starting??

Imperial planning is already well underway. Primary ignition in a few days I would estimate? Just enough time to get some team discussion on fleets and build them, as well as setup the initial base locations. We just need to have a location to keep the Vassal save file located.

I do not think we need a shared Vassal save. The actual campaign map (while cool) is superfluous since everything is tracked on the team roster sheets.

I assume we will use the same unofficial FAQ as the Armada World Cup?

My copy of Corellian Conflict should arrive tomorrow so I am a little behind on all of the rules. But I will read it the moment it arrives to be up to speed.

Brainstorming:

Do we need a way of tracking stuff like spy net?

Other features that are a must have/nice to have?

I think we should be fine for strategic effects. The number of Diplomats/Spynets/Spacers that each team has should be apparent from planet control, and for the latter two we would just have the tokens on the board as reminders. Diplomat tokens only see use on the campaign map.

Have you added the range rulers as pieces recently? I keep wishing I had them for setup, and with the two new "long way" objectives allowing setup within two range ruler lengths, they would be a handy thing to have.

I would also like to have "nudges" like those in the X-wing module to do fine ship adjustment without click-and-drag.

Should we set a time for the GA's to meet (and anyone else who can) for the first strategy phase?

Or do we want to post our moves on the forums here and the two GA's can reply with official base placements and battle declarations.

>>I assume we will use the same unofficial FAQ as the Armada World Cup?

That would probably be easiest, though I am not "up" on current FAQ issues.

Another campaign question I have seen raised is "what is the fighter limit after Turn 1?" I am with the camp that thinks "one-third of 500," so 167 points. It it theoretically possible to jump almost the whole way to a 500 point fleet in one turn.

Should we set a time for the GA's to meet (and anyone else who can) for the first strategy phase?

Or do we want to post our moves on the forums here and the two GA's can reply with official base placements and battle declarations.

The Grand Admirals setting a time would probably be the best way to go. They discuss things with their teammates in advance to come up with a strategy but exercise final control/assignment at the assault table. That seems like the most efficient way to handle playing things online. We definitely do not want a process that requires response from everyone on each team after each assault is declared.

I also did my preliminary planning using the 167 point squadron cap after the first round because it worked best on Armada Warlords.

The 3rd Imperial Fleet is patrolling the Corellia sector. There are rumors of a rebellion brewing, and one uncomfortably hairy Bothan in an officer suit trying to find the thermostat on the bridge of his newly assigned star destroyer. I need some action to take my mind off of this scratchy drab green shirt.

We are a bit late setting up on our side, as Emfrank is only receiving today his CC expansion (and we are not aware of a version being available online)

I have not made my mind about the squadron limit. Is 167 really much more convenient than one third of the fleet - whatever the total fleet cost is ? (And thus a damaged fleet already exceeding 1/3 it can't build new squadrons.)

Otherwise I am a bit worried that we could have bloated squadron components to most fleets after a couple turns (and squadrons already have a huge role at 134). What are you guys feeling ?

With starter fleet you can only field 134 right?

We've been assuming 134 in the initial build.

We are currently debating when we show each other our fleets (obviously our first builds should be simultaneously 'shown').

Is setting up the first games the first time you see your opponents list? Is setting up the second game the first time we see each others upgrades to our lists?

The other option is having them shared in a central location before each round of play. This allows more planning, but seems less thematic.

I personally would prefer the more mysterious, thematic route; but am ok with either option.

We are a bit late setting up on our side, as Emfrank is only receiving today his CC expansion (and we are not aware of a version being available online)

I have not made my mind about the squadron limit. Is 167 really much more convenient than one third of the fleet - whatever the total fleet cost is ? (And thus a damaged fleet already exceeding 1/3 it can't build new squadrons.)

Otherwise I am a bit worried that we could have bloated squadron components to most fleets after a couple turns (and squadrons already have a huge role at 134). What are you guys feeling ?

Typical Rebel sloppiness.

Frankly I do not have a strong opinion on the 167 cap. You just run into problems stemming from ship losses if you force adherence to the 1/3 limit at all times. JJ and I will be at FFG this weekend and see if we cannot find an Armada dev to question.

With starter fleet you can only field 134 right?

Correct.

Another question that has arisen from Imperial discussion: at what point are fleet builds public knowledge? JJ is playing in another campaign where all the builds are public knowledge via a shared Google doc. I was operating under the assumption that we only get the information gleaned from facing the enemy in battle. I.e. all initial builds are completely unknown until we sit down to play Turn 1, and after that changes to fleets are only known the next time we fight. I prefer the thematic-ness of the hidden info approach. It also avoids any recursive nonsense of Player A waiting to change his fleet until he sees what Player B does who is waiting to see what Player A does, etc.

I agree with you that total secrecy until the game gets started sounds better !

The only information would then be the selected assault type (and the player in charge I guess ?)

The only constraint of the 1/3 is that you don't buy new squadrons if you are already above the limit, which sounds perfectly manageable.

Otherwise I can imagine a strange situation where a crippled fleet survives (and might do OK) with one evasive corvette and tons of rogue squadrons for example, and would not ever have any ship-to-ship battle. Unless I am missing something the 'you don't build more squadrons if our fleet would exceed the 1/3 limit' looks simple enough to implement and more in the right spirit.

I also vote for hidden fleets.

I think 1/3 of 500 will be fine. Less math, especially since you could get caught wanting say a 60 point ship round 2, but only have 59 resource points. At that point if you were mad squads at start you would either have to add nothing to your fleet, or get a ship other than the one you want. It's only an extra 30 points in squads afterall, which is 2-3 generics or 1.5 uniques. I don't see it being an issue.

Also, I don't see I corvettes and 167 points of rogues being an issue. Even a light squadron force can tear it apart with ship support, since the ships won't have anything else to do. I'd take and ISD, raider and 3-4 defenders vs 10 YT-2400s anyday.

I was just saying that such a list would be abnormally competitive for a half-point fleet. A conventional 200 point vs. 400 point should be much more of a slaughter.

But I agree that 167 vs. 133 is not a huge difference. If there is any preference to set the squadron limit to 167 after the 1st round, I am fine with it.

I think 167 after ther first round is fine. I also like the approach of not knowing what the fleet is until the beginning of battle.

Just to keep you posted, I think Emfrank got his CC expansion, and so we are finalizing our fleets. We should be ready to kick things off soon !