Who has finished the Campaign and how did you like it? I had a group that tried to play it making to round 2 and the group just fell apart. I think our organizer got bore of it and tired of making reminders for everyone to post fleets. Ive thought and asked about starting a new game since wave 6 just released. One of my thoughts I had to maybe help keep the interest going is setting better times to play. Maybe try having little skrimmishes(matching up a few ships from each fleet without a commander) between games to help earn resources for players(small amounts). So essentially creating missions that the fleet commander would send a small group of their fleet to complete. For those that have played the campaign what did you end up doing with your groups? any houserules that helped make the game more fun?

My posse is in the midst of our second CC. The first had a bit of a lull, but came back with the Big Bang finish (12 hours, only finished round 5).

Even with shared spreadsheets, it's a bit of a challenge to keep everyone on task. There's always one member who is dragging their heels.

But for that, it's great fun. We're going to try some house rules after this campaign.

Played once CC before, beginning last january, going to start playing a new one at the end of this month.

Being a relativ small armada gaming community in Denmark, one major obstacle is gamer attendence, as most of us has a job family etc, it is very difficult to run CC on a week to week basis, so each round gets stretch into two weeks, and if CC stretches into 6 rounds, thats 12 weeks, so people can loose interest over time, espeicially when one side is so far ahead in campaign points, but is just one or two points short to be able to trigger the All out Assault mission, makes CC a heavy drag. And it ended with that the campaign slowly slept in

This is why I suggested the following, for the new CC we are about to start and which was well received by all players.

1: Both sides has 4 players, which will have a 400pts fleet each.

2: Three games per round will still be played.

3: Only in the Management phase of the first round will the Resource points the team gains, be divided in four.

The above means you will have a better likelyhood of having three players from each team attending for each round.

The fourth player who sits out a round will get some resource points in the first round, so that he is not entirely behind in the upgrade build up, but as his three team mates, will make full use of Refit points and he can't, that should more or less level the playingfield for all players, from the second round and onwards.

From the second round and onwards the fourth player who sits out a round can only get the benifit of Refit points, meaning he can repair his scared units with the Refit points at his disposal, but he can't build up his fleet to 500pts for free.

Hope this houserule is usefull, for all you other CC gamers

I've played in two and am currently playing in a third. I think the most important thing is to make sure the factions are balanced with each other with regard to player experience. If your faction has two very experienced players and the other side has none, it won't be very fun for anyone. I would also make sure both sides understand the rules and how everything works before playing for real, as there are certain rule interactions that have been updated in the recent FAQ (yes, you do get both the campaign point for winning and the planetary bonus if you win at a planet with a base OR an outpost). This may be difficult as not everyone has their faction preferences, but balancing the sides and making sure the rules are understood is important. The grand admirals should probably be liaisons with each other to make sure everyone's on the same page and be there to help mentor newer players.

I also think you should be careful to help guide new players with their admiral choices. For instance, Madine and Sato are better for more experienced players, while Rieekan and Ackbar are friendlier to newer players. If a new player insists on using a "harder-to-use" commander, just help coach them on how best to use them. CC is great for attracting new players, so fun should be emphasized over everything else. If someone isn't having fun, try to work with both sides to find a fair solution to help that player have fun.

46 minutes ago, Caldias said:

I've played in two and am currently playing in a third. I think the most important thing is to make sure the factions are balanced with each other with regard to player experience. If your faction has two very experienced players and the other side has none, it won't be very fun for anyone. I would also make sure both sides understand the rules and how everything works before playing for real, as there are certain rule interactions that have been updated in the recent FAQ (yes, you do get both the campaign point for winning and the planetary bonus if you win at a planet with a base OR an outpost). This may be difficult as not everyone has their faction preferences, but balancing the sides and making sure the rules are understood is important. The grand admirals should probably be liaisons with each other to make sure everyone's on the same page and be there to help mentor newer players.

I also think you should be careful to help guide new players with their admiral choices. For instance, Madine and Sato are better for more experienced players, while Rieekan and Ackbar are friendlier to newer players. If a new player insists on using a "harder-to-use" commander, just help coach them on how best to use them. CC is great for attracting new players, so fun should be emphasized over everything else. If someone isn't having fun, try to work with both sides to find a fair solution to help that player have fun.

I can only agree with this.

One of the things that made the Rebels over all winner, in the CC I played, with a big margin, was because the Imps had one newbie, who played a list, with what he had bought second hand, so there was no real synergy in his list, so in the end the Rebs could plan their strategy, knowing fully that at least one game per round would be a walk over for them.

3 hours ago, Caldias said:

I've played in two and am currently playing in a third. I think the most important thing is to make sure the factions are balanced with each other with regard to player experience. If your faction has two very experienced players and the other side has none, it won't be very fun for anyone. I would also make sure both sides understand the rules and how everything works before playing for real, as there are certain rule interactions that have been updated in the recent FAQ (yes, you do get both the campaign point for winning and the planetary bonus if you win at a planet with a base OR an outpost). This may be difficult as not everyone has their faction preferences, but balancing the sides and making sure the rules are understood is important. The grand admirals should probably be liaisons with each other to make sure everyone's on the same page and be there to help mentor newer players.

I also think you should be careful to help guide new players with their admiral choices. For instance, Madine and Sato are better for more experienced players, while Rieekan and Ackbar are friendlier to newer players. If a new player insists on using a "harder-to-use" commander, just help coach them on how best to use them. CC is great for attracting new players, so fun should be emphasized over everything else. If someone isn't having fun, try to work with both sides to find a fair solution to help that player have fun.

I like this and was considering a very similar idea where either 1) the 4th, unused fleet can repair for free (and more fleets can sit out if they want, but you risk not stopping opponent's assaults or foregoing assaults of your own) or 2) you can only add units or upgrades if your fleet is sitting out.

I'm playing at the same venue as @Mikael Hasselstein (Red Castle Games in Portland, OR). I ran a separate CC Campaign that was for beginners (his group is a lot more experienced than ours). Four of our players bought into Armada specifically to play the Corellian Conflict. They had no prior experience with Armada so I was anxious to see if they would want to stick with the game after completing their first campaign.

Well... everyone had a blast! Immediately upon finishing our campaign we are set to launch our second, mixing up the teams and adding a new player who has been patiently waiting to join.

Furthermore, our campaign has generated interest from other friends/passersby at the store who have watched us play, so I am hosting yet another beginner campaign with all new players. Due solely to the Corellian Conflict, my pool of Armada opponents in Portland has gone from 1 other person to 8! What's more impressive is that none of them were Armada players before signing on to play in 1 of my campaigns.

I'm going to take a slightly different approach to my recommendations for running a successful campaign. I find it's less about tinkering with the rules — though that's important — and more about managing the people involved. Over the years, I've run a lot of tournaments and organized several gaming communities. If you're serious about launching your own campaign, this is what I've learned:

1. It's a job.

You're the host of the party, not the birthday boy. Hosting any type of event where there are more than 2 people involved is work, so treat it as such. It takes time, stamina, likely some of your own money and no one else is gonna help you. But that's okay because watching 5 other players have a ton of fun playing a game you love — playing a campaign you've built! — is its own reward.

If you've ever done any roleplaying, it's similar to being the Game Master. You don't get to experience the surprises, solve the mysteries or be the hero like a player, but you do get to be the one who makes all the magic happen. Without you, there is no campaign, and in the end your fellow players will love you for it. Just don't expect anyone else to help you out along the way!

2. Build bonds.

Scheduling is the hardest part of running a campaign. Everyone's busy, people forget or they drop out halfway through and it wrecks the whole campaign. To help prevent your hard work from going to waste, treat the campaign as a special event where you've brought a group of players together to experience something unique. How do you do that?

I've found it's useful to have a pre-campaign kickoff event. Get everyone together for beers and some light icebreaker games at your favorite pub (and buy the first round). Go bowling with the Rebels vs the Empire and have everyone use a Star Wars character as their bowling name. Invite everyone over for pizza and to watch Rogue One to get the whole gang jazzed up about Armada. To link it back to the campaign, you can set aside some time after the event for each team to huddle up in a corner and discuss strategies. Whatever you do, put together a day/evening for your group to build those bonds that you can then call upon as the organizer to keep people coming back later on.

3. Have a hook.

Besides building bonds and treating the campaign as something special your players have been invited to attend, there's another way to keep people coming back for more — free goodies.

Get some Armada promo cards and tokens, buy or make campaign medals, buy $5 gift certificates for the venue where you play. Then award these as prizes at the start of next turn's assault phase. Let people know that if they don't show up, they don't get the swag.

I went on eBay and found cheap promos to hand out to everyone, then I had a few special awards to give out to players who did something great for their team. It doesn't have to be about winning. It can be Most Improved Player, Most Thematic Fleet, Best Use of a Star Wars Quote During a Game, Best Costume if someone shows up in character, that kind of thing. Just plan ahead so that each player walks away with at least 1 prize.

Organizing any kind of gaming community costs money. It doesn't have to be a lot, but you're gonna have to invest some of your own dollars into the campaign to make it work.

4. Keep Records and Stay Persistent.

Finally, not only do you have to be a good host, facilitate scheduling all the games and provide the prize support, but you need to be an accountant. Use Armada Warlords or your favorite fleet builder to keep a record of every players' fleet from turn-to-turn (so you have an archived record of how it's grown). Keep a spreadsheet of all the planets that each team has under their control for each turn (e.g. so you can go back and double check turn 2 vs turn 4), how many resources/refit points they are making and spending each turn, and what units are scarred/veteran.

So yeah, it's a lot of work. And sure, sometimes it can feel like a hassle herding players to play with their toys. But don't give up. If you love Armada you'll do just about anything to play it, right? Plus, once your successful campaign is over, you can look back and feel proud at what you built. Trust me, that's a pretty amazing feeling.

P.S. And then comes the good part, where one of your players says they had so much fun they want to be the host for the next campaign.