These are some rules my local group are running with and playtesting. We are currently using the "expanded rules" and plan to add the alternate campaign system and skirmish battles in our next one, and are still finalizing ideas there, but I wanted to throw it out here for extra thoughts/critiques. Doing a cut and paste as well as attaching the file. File is better formatted I had to muddle with the cut and paste to make it more readable since it muddled with the format.
Curious what the community thinks and has for additional ideas.
Armada CC Expanded Rules
Campaign can support 4 vs 4 or 5 vs 5. 8 fleet games have a final victory score of 16, 10 fleet games have final victory of 20 if using standard campaign.
Strategy Phase: Before declaring battles Imperials may spend diplomat, spynet, or skilled spacer tokens to scout rebel controlled systems to see if it is a base or outpost. When setting up a turn's battles, the Grand Admirals each take the upgrade cards for each Admiral being played in their faction. When declaring an attack, the Grand Admiral names the system and places the Admiral attacking face down. Then the other GA places the defending Admiral face down. Grand Admirals may spend diplomat, spynet, or skilled spacer tokens to flip cards face up at any time (1 token per card). After all battles are set, flip all the cards face up to assign matchups.
Refit and Expand Fleets: Admirals may trade in unscarred ships or squadrons (not upgrades) for their base cost in resource points. Uniques that get traded in are lost for the rest of the campaign. Instead of one upgrade per ship on turn 1, a ship can only equip one upgrade on it's first battle. Non title upgrades on ships may be moved or put in reserve before trading in.
Diplomats: May be used on any system when an attack or scout is declared. The attacker or scout cannot make any kind of attack or scout on that system this turn. Attackers choose another target, scouts may choose to cancel the action and save the spent token.
Skilled Spacers: Rebels can spend a skilled spacer to replace Hyperlane Raid special assault with a Base Raid. Attack an imperial base, instead of playing a base defense scenario, treat it like an unoccupied square. If the Imperial wins, they gain 1 cp. If Rebels win, the Imperials cannot gain resource points from that system (including the base).
Hyperlane Raid: Any tokens on Imperials who are not completly out of their deployment zone on turn 6 give the rebel player 20 resource points and a victory token.
Victory Tokens: A squadron can discard an unspent (green) victory token when activating in the squadron phase to gain the rogue skill for that round.
Hyperlane Raid: Any tokens on Imperials who are not completly out of their deployment zone on turn 6 give the rebel player 20 resource points and a victory token.
Victory Tokens: A squadron can discard an unspent (green) victory token when activating in the squadron phase to gain the rogue skill for that round.
Anti-snowballing inducement: In a battle that is not a base defense, if there is a handicap in points the lower-point fleet may purchase for this battle only up to 1 ship, 1 flotilla and/or 2 squadrons up to the handicap points. Only Z-95 or X-wing (rebel) and Tie Fighters or Tie Advanced (imps) are allowed. No uniques or upgrade cards may be purchased. These are friendly, but ships do not benefit from Admiral abilities.
Alternate Campaign System
This is an alternate victory condition system intended to provide a longer, more narrative play, and avoid issues having to schedule 4-10 player mega-games. It includes additional optional rules to play xwing/imperial assault skirmishes, and assumes you use the CC expanded rules above.
Campaign Points: Instead of building to a set campaign point total for a final assault, CP are now used as a form of currency to set up special assaults and base attacks. Both factions gain a bonus 1 cp every round in addition to any they earn from battles. CP are earned as normal except as noted.
Setup: Setup occurs as normal except rebels cannot claim territory within the correlian system itself, due to the new victory conditions.
CP costs:
Special assault (hyperlane/show of force) = 1cp. In addition you do earn 1cp for winning the battle.
Special assault (hyperlane/show of force) = 1cp. In addition you do earn 1cp for winning the battle.
Xwing/IA skirmish assault = 1cp. See details below
Base assault = 1cp or the system bonus, whichever is higher. Winner gains 1cp. Unscouted rebel systems are treated as bases, even if the imperials know a system is an outpost via listchecking, they must reveal the system to be an outpost either from scouting or a previous attack to attack it at no cp cost.
Base Raid = 1cp may be spend instead of a skilled spacer. defender gets 1cp if he wins the battle.
Victory Conditions:
Imperials: Victory when you have destroyed a number of rebel bases equal to rebel players +2 or there are no rebel bases left on the map.
Rebels: Victory when you control Corellia and 2 additional correlian systems for 1 complete game turn (Imps get 1 round to take stuff back).
Skirmish Battles:
An attacker can spend 1cp to declare an attack as an xwing or IA skirmish. This attack can hit anywhere on the map (including bases), and cannot be blocked by diplomats.
These can be played either at standard points (100 xwing/40 IA) or with varying points based on the fleet total. (1/10 fleet value for IA, and 100 + 1/2 fleet total over 400 for xwing).. choose which at the start of the campaign.
These can be played either at standard points (100 xwing/40 IA) or with varying points based on the fleet total. (1/10 fleet value for IA, and 100 + 1/2 fleet total over 400 for xwing).. choose which at the start of the campaign.
These lists can be changed from round to round, but for the campaign decide either for fully open lists, Armada Uniques only available if in the fleet with other named open, or ONLY named that exist in the armada fleet.
Play either game as standard (IA can draw scenarios randomly, either from full decks or for available mats).
When playing a skirmish battle, both admirals forfeit their share of resource points for the round, but still retain repair points.
The winner of the game can choose either 1cp or 20 resource points as a reward.
If the attacker wins a skirmish game at an opponent's base, he instead can choose to weaken the base defenses for the next turn. For the next campaign turn, the base cannot be protected by diplomats, and the following penalties apply to base defense scenarios:
Fighter wing: 30 points of fighters instead of 40
Armed Station: station has 10hp instead of 13
Ion Cannon: defender only places 2 ion tokens instead of 3
Armed Station: station has 10hp instead of 13
Ion Cannon: defender only places 2 ion tokens instead of 3
These bonuses are only for the turn following the skirmish.