I was trying to come up with an interesting twist for CC, and something dawned on me. Neither side of this war should have total control over what is available to them. Both the Empire and the Rebels are dealing with logistical issues. And this sets you up for some interesting scenarios and fleet builds.

The Rebels are scraping together whatever ships and fighters they can find. They are raiding boneyards to steal and resurrect old Y-Wings. Rebel supporters in the Empire are sneaking supplies to Rebel forces. Whatever funds they can put together are being spent on whatever ship or fighter they can find that is still spaceworthy. Hoping Rebel command could pull together a couple X-wings to fill out your fleet, but the only available stuff they could find was a scurgg and a Z95.

The Empire on the other hand has a much bigger supply of materials to select from, but with a large administration system, things don't run like a well oiled machine. You may put in a request for 4 TIE Defenders and get 8 TIE fighters instead. You may think you need an ISD, but central command believes that a Gladiator is good enough. You may really need a pair of Raiders, but due to heavy fighting in another part of the galaxy, the supplies of Raiders are all taken and instead they are going to give you a Victory instead.

All this variability forces the players to really have to adapt their build to the available ships/squadrons. And it would end in some interesting scenarios.

There is some flexibility in how you could do it also.

Shuffle the available ships, fighters, upgrades, etc into separate decks. If you want a small ship and have enough points for one, draw from the small ship pile. Want a turbolaser upgrade? Draw.

Another way would just be mix all the upgrades together, and all the ships together. Need a ship, draw until the first one you can afford. Same for upgrades. Want a turbolaser upgrade? Maybe you get a weapons team...better find a place to put that. Want an ISD, well you got a raider, but you have more points so draw again.

I see a lot of interesting drama unfolding. "I could really use an MC30 to add some punch to this fleet, but if I got a CR90, I could make that work. Heck, even a Hammerhead wouldn't be bad. Assault Pelta?! How am I going to make this work? Well, if I get AFF, I can make all these Scurggs a little quicker, or with EF I can add some flexibility to my ships. StM?! Come on!" Then he ends up winning the battle due to shield regen and the pelta becomes his fleet's mascot.

Yes, it would be VERY chaotic. And yes, it could be easily imbalanced if one side just pulls junk and never achieves any synergy of units while the other side is lucking out. But it would be fun and different.

LOVE it!!! Definitely gonna try this idea for the next cc we start.

1 hour ago, kmanweiss said:

I was trying to come up with an interesting twist for CC, and something dawned on me. Neither side of this war should have total control over what is available to them. Both the Empire and the Rebels are dealing with logistical issues. And this sets you up for some interesting scenarios and fleet builds.

The Rebels are scraping together whatever ships and fighters they can find. They are raiding boneyards to steal and resurrect old Y-Wings. Rebel supporters in the Empire are sneaking supplies to Rebel forces. Whatever funds they can put together are being spent on whatever ship or fighter they can find that is still spaceworthy. Hoping Rebel command could pull together a couple X-wings to fill out your fleet, but the only available stuff they could find was a scurgg and a Z95.

The Empire on the other hand has a much bigger supply of materials to select from, but with a large administration system, things don't run like a well oiled machine. You may put in a request for 4 TIE Defenders and get 8 TIE fighters instead. You may think you need an ISD, but central command believes that a Gladiator is good enough. You may really need a pair of Raiders, but due to heavy fighting in another part of the galaxy, the supplies of Raiders are all taken and instead they are going to give you a Victory instead.

All this variability forces the players to really have to adapt their build to the available ships/squadrons. And it would end in some interesting scenarios.

There is some flexibility in how you could do it also.

Shuffle the available ships, fighters, upgrades, etc into separate decks. If you want a small ship and have enough points for one, draw from the small ship pile. Want a turbolaser upgrade? Draw.

Another way would just be mix all the upgrades together, and all the ships together. Need a ship, draw until the first one you can afford. Same for upgrades. Want a turbolaser upgrade? Maybe you get a weapons team...better find a place to put that. Want an ISD, well you got a raider, but you have more points so draw again.

I see a lot of interesting drama unfolding. "I could really use an MC30 to add some punch to this fleet, but if I got a CR90, I could make that work. Heck, even a Hammerhead wouldn't be bad. Assault Pelta?! How am I going to make this work? Well, if I get AFF, I can make all these Scurggs a little quicker, or with EF I can add some flexibility to my ships. StM?! Come on!" Then he ends up winning the battle due to shield regen and the pelta becomes his fleet's mascot.

Yes, it would be VERY chaotic. And yes, it could be easily imbalanced if one side just pulls junk and never achieves any synergy of units while the other side is lucking out. But it would be fun and different.

Yeah. I'm thinking of doing this for campaign fun and CC. I love the idea of having to make do with the cards you're dealt. Instead of the ones you want.

I wanted Intel Officers, got Cluster Bombs instead. ... Okay.

Does anyone have a Java or Python program for generating random numbers?

Like, say I know I have 23 upgrades as possible, and I want a random number.

Then, choose between 7 ships.

And then 20 squadrons?

Something to run in command line?

Going to use Armada warlords for matching to numbers.

1 minute ago, Blail Blerg said:

Does anyone have a Java or Python program for generating random numbers?

Like, say I know I have 23 upgrades as possible, and I want a random number.

Then, choose between 7 ships.

And then 20 squadrons?

Something to run in command line?

Just google "random number generator"

I am hesitant to do something that depends primarily on random draw. Random draw might be nice as an additional benefit (such as: congratulations! You just conquered a new system. Draw a random card to represent the loot you acquired), but not as a primary means of disseminating upgrades.

I would like to see (and have occasionally been working on) a way where the available upgrades & ships for your fleet depend on the planetary systems you have control over. I am also trying to integrate it with a more dynamic and interactive economics system. Let's say your fleet in the one system has two ISD IIs, and inside that fleet itself you have the upgrades Redundant Shields, Advanced Projectors, and Electronic Countermeasures (obviously, only two of which are currently upgrading your two ISD IIs, the third one is sitting in a cargo hold somewhere). If you want Reinforced Blast Doors, you'll need to trade one of your excess defensive retrofits and have access to a system (like Kuat) that can produce Reinforced Blast Doors. Or, instead of trading, you could spend any excess fleet points you did not spend on that fleet.

I suspect these extra layers of dynamics would do several things:

• Create a variety of different priorities of targets for players to choose to attack. Now YOU determine your overall campaign mission objectives and parameters: you perceive that you need to take over Kuat so you can reinforce your blast doors and have access to another tier of Star Destroyer. OR you may choose to stage an invasion of Bespin so you can acquire some XI7 Turbolasers. Will your opponent predict that you need those locations to reinforce your fleets, and head you off with their own fleets? Or will you feint your opponent and make them think you were going to Sluis Van?
• Hoard supplies when you can get them. You may have only two defensive retrofit slots in one of your fleets, so you may want to buy and transport extra Advanced Projectors in your possession to another friendly fleet that needs them. Then, having all the Advanced Projectors you need, you may strategically abandon that system so you can strike unexpectedly at a nearby enemy base.
• Give the underdog a chance to catch back up. Random distribution will not provide any means for an underdog (like the Alliance) to catch up with their foe. Instead, this allows you to outthink your opponent in a new way; you can take your primary strike force and rob them their ability to create ISD IIs, then attack the one fleet which you know has their last ISD II, and then rest assured with the knowledge that their bullies are gone and your fleets can manage their remaining ships.

Of course, the start of the game would not be set up with randomly generated fleets. You and your opponent would still get to design your ideal fleets. But as the war drags on, resupply and refitting your battered fleets becomes more difficult, and in addition to politically-driven goals (i.e. you need to take Coruscant) you can develop your own strategic goals as the game unfolds.

Coupled with this idea is the thought I've had that really every ship should be named. If ships are going to be transferring themselves between friendly fleets, it would be easier to manage them by giving them all names (that way if you have allies, you just have to say to the ally: "I'm transferring the Night Caller to the Third Fleet" and then if you need to you can explain what upgrades Night Caller has, but presumably you ought'nt need to). Obviously there are only 1-3 titles per ship, so I have been developing my own titles so that I have a minimum of 10 (new) titles per ship (i.e. Night Caller [8 pts] CR90 title: Gain +1 Squadron value & auto-equip Rapid Launch Bays).

At this point though it's probably clear I'm envisioning something bigger than Corellian Conflict. But maybe some of my ideas will resonate with you guys and you'll want to splash your CC with one or two of them.

Why CC?

Draw three ships, four squads, 5 upgrades and then build a functioning 400 pt fleet. A way of creating new ideas.

My next Corellian Conflict will (hopefully) be using alternate rules. For example, we'd like to set it in Calamari sector, with a different distribution of systems &etc. More ambitiously, we'd like to incorporate Imperial Assault somehow.

For my part, I agree that " you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want" (Rumsfeld, 2004). I like the random availability of hardware, though I'd want an in-universe realism of what's available and where. There should be fewer Interdictors and ISDs available to Imperial commanders on the Outer Rim (Calamari sector) than in the Core Worlds (Corellian sector). For the Rebels, there should be many more Calamari ships available in the Calamari sector (MC-30s and MC80s) than Corellian ships (CR-90s), and vice versa for the Corellian sector.

If you can, check out the game Imperium . The game is essentially an upstart human empire facing a monolithic empire that's been around for ages and strangled by bureaucracy. While the Human forces can build whatever they want- only after building up a progression of units (Dreadnoughts first, then Battleship 1 and then Battleship 2)... the Vilani empire has to request permission from the Emperor to build their cruisers, dreadnoughts, and battleships. They also have to request for increases in income to fight the war, and that permission rating depends on how well they are doing in the war.

There's also a mechanic of random events occuring in the Empire which could range between getting your permissions revoked, being forced to send some ships to fight a civil war in another part of the empire, to the Emperor is sending you aid with exclusive ships you couldn't build on your own... but only for certain turns.

You could use this model at least for the Imperial side. How well they can meet their requests depends on how well they are doing in the cc. Perhaps depending on how many planets they've secured and/or how many victories they've earned, they get access to unique officers and/or bigger ships or more expensive upgrade cards.

For the Rebellion, I don't know. I think the Alliance will always be sort of cash-strapped but more often giving you surprises. Liberated a planet? Congradulations, that cell has hoarded Y-Wings and you get a discount on using them. Or you've come across Clone War surplus and have a bunch of unique ships from Mel's collection. *shrug*

On ‎11‎/‎22‎/‎2017 at 5:24 PM, Ginkapo said:

Why CC?

Draw three ships, four squads, 5 upgrades and then build a functioning 400 pt fleet. A way of creating new ideas.

You could certainly do random type draws for any game type, I just think it works well with CC. It adds a bit of immersion to the campaign. The rebels are scraping by with whatever they can get their hands on. The Imps in the Corellian sector are dealing with the bureaucracy of a central command that may not have the same priorities.

On ‎11‎/‎22‎/‎2017 at 5:20 PM, Ziusdra said:

I am hesitant to do something that depends primarily on random draw. Random draw might be nice as an additional benefit (such as: congratulations! You just conquered a new system. Draw a random card to represent the loot you acquired), but not as a primary means of disseminating upgrades.

I'm not pitching this as a superior way to play CC. Just as alternative rules to give an interesting twist with some new gameplay elements.

On ‎11‎/‎22‎/‎2017 at 5:20 PM, Ziusdra said:

Of course, the start of the game would not be set up with randomly generated fleets. You and your opponent would still get to design your ideal fleets. But as the war drags on, resupply and refitting your battered fleets becomes more difficult, and in addition to politically-driven goals (i.e. you need to take Coruscant) you can develop your own strategic goals as the game unfolds.

It would be interesting to allow you to build your starting fleets, but restrict the ships to earlier waves. Like your starting fleets can only be stuff from just wave 1 (or some other combo like wave 1 and 3, or wave 1, 3, and 6). The Corellian sector isn't a hotbed of activity and is only currently of low interest to the Empire so they are stuck with older model ships and few support vessels. The Rebels on the other hand are just starting a major offensive in the sector and are just starting to pull together some resources to use for the fight.

Again, I'm not trying to craft a better CC, just trying to craft a more narrative CC to make things interesting.