CC: Need clarification on Place Bases sequence

By WarrenLocke, in Star Wars: Armada Rules Questions

Having read through the rules on Base Placement on the start of the campaign several times now, I feel like there are some clarifications needed. The Imperials start out by placing a base on Corellia and then one other location. Then the Rebels place, but here is where my first question comes up - it says one Rebel player places one Presence sticker, but later says each rebel should be secretly placing one base and one outpost. Is the intent that they place both once? In other words, should the sequence be:

A) Corellia - imp base - 2x rebel presence - imp base - 2x rebel presence - imp base - 2x rebel presence

Or

B) Corellia - IB - RP - IB - RP - IB - 4x RP

Second, if using RAW each rebel player will place their own two stickers, so if the Imperials are paying attention they will have some idea about narrowing down where the bases are; if they attack a sticker placed by one player and reveal an outpost then they know the other sticker that player placed must be a base. Is this intentional? Seems like it would make more sense to have the Rebel grand admiral place all the stickers after conferring with his team, in whatever order of bases and outposts they want.

Last, near the end of the section it says when all is done the Imperials should have placed a number of stickers equal to the number of players plus Corellia and the rebels should have placed 2x number of players. I'm pretty sure this should say "number of imperial players" and "2x number of rebel players" or the numbers don't match with the initial instructions.

Your reading is correct, it would be possible to deduce the identity of the other presence sticker by remembering which player placed them. It's similar how you can determine if the Rebels built a base or an outpost by looking at their total point expenditures.

I suspect the intention was that the campaign would be more casual and players wouldn't bother to meticulously record all these clues.

For your first question......

THANK YOU FOR ASKING THIS!!!

I had the exact same confusion myself reading through the rules. I am leaning towards A, but this is mostly based on inferences from the wording of the text. I'd like a FAQ but won't count my chances.

On your third question, you'd be right. It really should read "number of imperial players" and "2x number of rebel players" as you say.

On your second, I'd go with Hedgehobbit. It probably didn't even occur to the play testers to do this or if it did they didn't think it significant enough to change. After all, the Imps won't generally be looking for Rebel bases in the first turn (Ion Cannons are nasty ​) so will generally avoid Rebel presence early on. Hopefully by the time they are seriously considering attacking the presence stickers there will be a few more and a little more difficult to remember who placed what.

Option B is the way that we did it.

Option B is the way that we did it.

Option B.

The rules specifically state 1 rebel player places 1 sticker, so there is that.

Then sides alternate until they've placed all available stickers.

Played option A here.

Option B.

The rules limit each player to a single sticker before alternating sides again.

I did it as Option A, in other words, 3 Players, each player gets 1 opportunity to place bases/stickers.

We did B and had one rebel represenative place all of their stickers so there would be no issue with "sticker counting"

On 1/11/2017 at 8:18 AM, Green Knight said:

Option B.

The rules specifically state 1 rebel player places 1 sticker, so there is that.

Then sides alternate until they've placed all available stickers.

Having re-read the rules - and played the CC - I go back on my previous interpretation.

Read the WHOLE Place bases section on p. 6, then the meaning becomes clear IMO.

Yes, it says IMP place ONE STICKER. Then REB place ONE STICKER.

HOWEVER

It then IMMEDIATELY details how each rebel places TWO stickers, in any order.

So yes, the REB places one sticker...notes down outpost or base, then places his 2nd sticker.

THEN

The section continues to explain that teams alternate.

That's the important bit: rules show how each REB places TWO stickers, one bae, one outpost, in any order BEFORE it goes on to explain how teams alternate.

Also, based on my strategic analysis (separate post) and play experience, this is the order that makes actual sense - i.e. doesn't give the Empire A) really only 1 way to set up and B) an unfair early advantage.

My son and I discussed this last night and made a home rule regarding it since I am in the Option A camp and he is in the Option B camp:

We decided to go with Option B, but to even things back up, let the Rebels make ALL the original placements presence tokens and THEN decide which ones to turn into bases. It helps make the Rebel bases more secret as they should be and create more doubt about where they actually are. If you choose Option A, it just turns into a 50/50 option.

1 hour ago, Green Knight said:

Having re-read the rules - and played the CC - I go back on my previous interpretation.

Read the WHOLE Place bases section on p. 6, then the meaning becomes clear IMO.

Yes, it says IMP place ONE STICKER. Then REB place ONE STICKER.

HOWEVER

It then IMMEDIATELY details how each rebel places TWO stickers, in any order.

So yes, the REB places one sticker...notes down outpost or base, then places his 2nd sticker.

THEN

The section continues to explain that teams alternate.

That's the important bit: rules show how each REB places TWO stickers, one bae, one outpost, in any order BEFORE it goes on to explain how teams alternate.

Also, based on my strategic analysis (separate post) and play experience, this is the order that makes actual sense - i.e. doesn't give the Empire A) really only 1 way to set up and B) an unfair early advantage.

I always thought that B was the one that makes more sense (in fact is how I play it), although option A was the one that I thought more probable for the way I was reading it in the CC Rulebook.

But after reading your comment, I re-read again this section in the Rulebook and I think that option B is more possible with this interpretation and I like it :)

The rebel player places one sticker at a time.

However, he can place either a BASE or an OUTPOST in any order. Hence the wording about "any order".

My interpretation, of course.

Edited by Democratus
4 minutes ago, Democratus said:

The rebel player places one sticker at a time.

However, he can place either a BASE or an OUTPOST in any order. Hence the wording about "any order".

My interpretation, of course.

Yes, it says exactly that.

But the rule doesn't stop there.

Continue reading the rest.

Taking out the "both team records bla bla bla", it looks like this (which I think is easier to understand or analyze):

"To begin, the Imperial team places an additional Imperial Base sticker on Corellia.
Then, one Imperial player places his Imperial Base sticker on one of the locations on the campaign map.
Then, one Rebel player places one of his Rebel Presence stickers on one of the locations on the campaign map.
Each Rebel player must place one outpost and one base but may do so in whichever order they choose.
The teams takes turns placing Imperial Base or Rebel Presence stickers until each Imperial player has placed one Imperial Base sticker, and each Rebel player has placed two Rebel Presence stickers."

Edited by Lemmiwinks86

Indeed. The word "Then," shows the ordering of things.

Initial base for Imps.

Then, Imp player places one sticker.

Then, Rebel player places one sticker.

This is followed by a reminder that each rebel player must place one outpost and one base - needed so that the Imperial record keepers can know where each pair of base/outpost should go. Otherwise one Rebel player could place only bases and another Rebel player could place only outposts, making it much more difficult to tell the difference.

But the "Each player..." sentence doesn't change the restriction on one sticker per player.

At least this is how I see it.

Edited by Democratus

I get where you're coming from, I was there, but I think it's wrong now. I also think the rules CAN be interpreted both ways.

I've tried to restructure the relevant text to show my POV.

Text in italics is not important.

PLACE BASES
Bases are represented by stickers that are applied next to planets and mark each team's control over the Corellian Sector. The location of a base on the campaign map determines the amount of resources each team earns at the end of each campaign turn that can be spent on their fleets (see "Management Phase" on page 10). A base also affects the outcome of a battle fought at its location.

Base locations are marked on the map using stickers (allowing the map to be put up in a public location or taken down and transported without losing the base locations) and are also recorded on each team's Corellian Conflict Team Roster.

Before placing bases, each player should take the appropriate base or presence stickers for his faction. Each Imperial player takes one lmperial Base sticker, and each Rebel player takes two Rebel Presence stickers. No more than one sticker can be placed on each location.

1. To begin:

- the lmperial team places an additional lmperial Base sticker on Corellia.

- Both teams record the presence of an lmperial base on their Team Roster.

2. Then:

- one lmperial player places his lmperial Base sticker on one of the locations on the campaign map.

- Both teams record the presence of an lmperial base on their Team Roster.

3. Then:

- one Rebel player places one of his Rebel Presence stickers on one of the locations on the campaign map.

- The lmperial team records the Rebel presence at that location on their Team Roster. The Rebel team, however,
records whether this location is a Rebel outpost or a Rebel base.

- Each Rebel player must place one outpost and one base but may do so in whichever order they choose. Whether the
Rebel Presence sticker denotes the location of an outpost or a base is only recorded on the Rebel Team Roster and kept secret
from the lmperial team.

4. The teams take turns placing lmperial Base or Rebel Presence stickers until each lmperial player has placed one lmperial Base sticker, and each Rebel player has placed two Rebel Presence stickers.

Once all stickers have been placed, the Empire should have placed a number of lmperial Base stickers equal to the number of players plus the lmperial Base sticker on Corellia. The Rebel Alliance should have placed a number of Rebel Presence stickers equal to twice the number of players. Half of these should represent outposts and half bases.

Final note: doesn't really prove anything, but it clearly highlights option "B" as viable at the very least.

Yeah. I see that it can be read either way.

Be interesting to see how it plays out once we have data from several CC games. Maybe we will see some statistical difference in how they play. Then we can decide on the interpretation that makes for the best game.

Or an FAQ could also happen. :ph34r:

Cheers!

19 hours ago, Democratus said:

Yeah. I see that it can be read either way.

Be interesting to see how it plays out once we have data from several CC games. Maybe we will see some statistical difference in how they play. Then we can decide on the interpretation that makes for the best game.

Or an FAQ could also happen. :ph34r:

Cheers!

Yeah. That's why I didn't include it in my original strategy advice - I haven't actually playtested version A .

Edited by Green Knight

In both of our campaigns we went with option B.

  • Because it seems to be what the rules mean based on our interpretation.
  • It thematically seems to make sense. The Empire controls the sector and therefore is already established there. The Rebels are just now attempting to wrest control of the sector from the Empire and so have to move in and place bases and outposts in the areas that the Empire is not already established in.
Edited by Edsel62

You will probably find option B unbalanced given the Empire has Corellia and first pick, and as a result will have far more of the juicer systems

1 hour ago, Jambo75 said:

You will probably find option B unbalanced given the Empire has Corellia and first pick, and as a result will have far more of the juicer systems

That's what my analysis shows.

On 2/2/2017 at 9:53 AM, Green Knight said:

That's what my analysis shows.

Even though Rebels have more base/outposts? We are starting our campaign today and while to me option A seems like the right way I think the rest are going with option B.

23 hours ago, Gokuja04 said:

Even though Rebels have more base/outposts? We are starting our campaign today and while to me option A seems like the right way I think the rest are going with option B.

Read earlier posts, but to recap:

Imp: Corellia +20, yards

Imp: Nubia, +16, yards

Reb: Outpost

Reb: Base

Imp

Etc.

As show in my math, Rebs/Imps break even, with approximately equal resources (and 3/3 yards) IF the rebel goes for max resources. If the rebs go for some specials, like spynet, they'll be some points short.

Also: rebs get 1 base/1 outpost each, so if they grab the choice bits first, one is going the be poorly protected.

I've had this exact same question about the deployment of the bases as well. The most interesting thing is we have two campaigns running at my LSG now four player per game running six man games. (more on that in a sec) Campaign 1 is using option A, Campaign 2 is using option B. We hadn't seen this posting when we started our games last week, but this shows the inherent ease in which this can be interpreted. So I guess as our games play out we'll see if the placements make as much difference.

Now on the issue of players, the two campaigns are 6 man games being run by four people. Each team running a Shadow Fleet for the Missing 3rd person. This was put forth by the organizer, as they felt that the four man version would lead to a "rock, paper, scissors" pairing of fleets and wouldn't be fun. Only time will tell.