In the Corellian Conflict as we currently have it, there are two special assaults: Hyperlane Raid and Show of Force. Has anyone come up with different/custom ones that a team might play?

One that I might think might be useful (for the Empire) would be an exploratory attack. Such a special assault might be carried out on a system with a Rebel presence in order to determine if a base is present without triggering a Base Defence objective.

Perhaps it could be played length-wise to represent the idea that the exploratory fleet is coming in at a long distance from the planet. The Empire would have to get a ship into the Rebels' deployment zone for two turns (without dying) to do the necessary sensor scans to determine if the presence is a base or an outpost. The result of the battle might not be any points, but the Rebels would have to declare the nature of the defensive systems (Fighter Wing, Armed Station, or Ion Cannon), if it was a base. The system would not change hands, but the Empire would know what it would be dealing with once/if it decided to attack that location.

Perhaps the Rebels might have a contrary low-yield special assault. Instead of hyperlane raid (which seems to attack civilian shipping, as the Empire does not lose resources if it loses), the Rebels might engage in privateering. This would target Imperial resource logistics, in which the Rebels get ~10 resource points, while the Empire might lose that same number of points. If the assault fails (ie. the Empire wins the battle) the situation remains status quo.

Any ideas like that?

Come on,

Surely you all have some constructive thoughts for me.

6 minutes ago, Mikael Hasselstein said:

Come on,

Surely you all have some constructive thoughts for me.

Erm. I am no expert by a long shot, but as you insist and nobody else has posted:

In the Imperial scouting mission - do the rebels announce the result (type of mission/is base) regardless of Imperial victory, or only as a result of that? Either way I think just telling the Imps that it's a base is enough. Revealing the mission type allows the Imps to build for it/send in the best fleet for the job, and removes the element of surprise from the Rebs. Besides which, you are forcing the Rebs to commit to a mission which may turn out to harm the eventual Imp attacker less than it benefits the Reb defender, as some other Reb player picked the mission.

It was my thinking that the type of presennce (base/outpost) would be known at the outset, just like normal, but it would not trigger the base defense objective. If the Imperials managed to get the scout to the opposite deployment zone for two turns, they would learn the nature of the defensive systems. Yes, the whole point of the mission would be so that the Imperials could prepare for assaulting the base.

Perhaps if the Rebels win, they may choose to move the base to an existing outpost, downgrading the current base to an outpost.

Thanks for responding!

7 minutes ago, Mikael Hasselstein said:

It was my thinking that the type of presennce (base/outpost) would be known at the outset, just like normal, but it would not trigger the base defense objective. If the Imperials managed to get the scout to the opposite deployment zone for two turns, they would learn the nature of the defensive systems. Yes, the whole point of the mission would be so that the Imperials could prepare for assaulting the base.

Perhaps if the Rebels win, they may choose to move the base to an existing outpost, downgrading the current base to an outpost.

Thanks for responding!

No problem!

It would be thematic to move bases, just look at Hoth. My concern is that it otherwise favors the Imps too much, by allowing them to optimize base assaults whilst the Rebs have to hope for a good match-up.

8 hours ago, GhostofNobodyInParticular said:

No problem!

It would be thematic to move bases, just look at Hoth. My concern is that it otherwise favors the Imps too much, by allowing them to optimize base assaults whilst the Rebs have to hope for a good match-up.

Well, it is an Imperial special assault; it's supposed to favor the Empire, the same way the Rebels' special assault favors them.

On 12/3/2017 at 11:08 PM, Mikael Hasselstein said:

The result of the battle might not be any points, but the Rebels would have to declare the nature of the defensive systems (Fighter Wing, Armed Station, or Ion Cannon), if it was a base. The system would not change hands, but the Empire would know what it would be dealing with once/if it decided to attack that location.

I guess I don't understand this portion. I thought the defender chose at the time of the assault which objective they were doing. Would this force the Rebel player to pick one at that moment to declare for the next time?

Its been awhile though since we've done CC so I might be off.

36 minutes ago, Mikael Hasselstein said:

Well, it is an Imperial special assault; it's supposed to favor the Empire, the same way the Rebels' special assault favors them.

Yeah, but the Rebels gain no such knowledge in their assault, which ties in to the below:

17 minutes ago, draco193 said:

I guess I don't understand this portion. I thought the defender chose at the time of the assault which objective they were doing. Would this force the Rebel player to pick one at that moment to declare for the next time?

Its been awhile though since we've done CC so I might be off.

Yes, normally the defender chooses the objective when the base is attacked. This would have the rebels commit to one card from the moment the scouting mission is played, and remain with that card throughout the whole campaign - at least, that is how I understand it.

My issue is that if this happens, the Imps can then build fleets set to optimally take on the chosen objective, and be able to predict the likely defender based on fleets that go best with that objective. At the same time, the rebels will be attacking all bases in the dark, and so will not benefit from optimized fleets, nor will they be able to build both for an objective or a mission. This creates an unfair state of affairs where the Imps know ahead of time the objectives they will face, and can predict the likely fleet, and build for both, choosing which bases to attack, whereas the rebels are blind on both accounts - likely enemy fleet, defense mission - and thus will not experience the same optimal performance.
It can be argued that the Rebel mission of stealing resources partially balances out this knowledge-lead by limiting the ability of the Imps to fund its exploitation, but I think that for that to be the case, the income derived from the raids should be significant - i.e. roughly proportional to the expected Imperials gains of a successful base assault. Therefore, I think a minimum of 20 resources gained (or perhaps 10 per Imperial player) would be a recommended starter awarded for emerging victorious, with additional bonus points for the completion of sub-objectives.

Well, I revel in the accusation that I favor the Empire. ( @Megatronrex )

While, yes, the fleets could tweak themselves to be able to be a bit more robust against the particular base defense, but in CC it's not really possible to completely reset a fleet without ditching it completely and starting over from 400. The rebels would also know what the Empire would know, and they could figure on what sort of fleet the Empire might bring, and tweak their own fleet to counter that sort of fleet. Let's not make mountain of molehills. (Or Star Destroyers out of Raiders.)

Besides, if one wanted to talk about imbalance, let's just look at the setup to begin with. The Empire gets 4 bases, while the Rebels get 3 bases and 3 outposts. However, those outposts get to use all of the special features of all of their presence systems (6), including the resource bonuses, while the Empire gets that for only their 4 bases. While the Empire does get Corellia, the Rebels get to choose more locations and can therefore choose more of the plum locations. Furthermore, when both teams have equal campaign points, the Rebels get much more control over the matchups, a benefit they can maintain, while they build up their fleets faster with hyperlane raids.

But, the objectives I mention as examples above are just hastily-made ideas as examples. I was looking to solicit other ideas more than publish my own.

31 minutes ago, Mikael Hasselstein said:

Rebels get much more control over the matchups, a benefit they can maintain, while they build up their fleets faster with hyperlane raids.

It has been my experience that the Imps tended to get the most benefit out of the two SAs, often getting 80 to 120 of the points, whereas the Rebels tend to only get 40-80. This actually allows the Imps to have an advantage in fleet-building.

As do all who wish to prosper and thrive in this galaxy. I'm sure this will be of great comfort to our Emperor.

Rebel Special Assault:

Hit & Fade,

6 rounds (turns)

Imperial Ships start at speed 0, deploy in a 6" strip on the short edge. One picket ship (small or flottila only) gets a speed 1 manover before turn 1 and choices starting speed as normal. sqns deploy after this manoveur.

rebels deploy as normal,...

Are the Rebels entering from the other short edge, or from one of the long edges?

Short edge, as normal is on the opposite side of the table

We are playing special assaults as a random mission (out of 5) for each side.. the standard 2 plus variants of Capture the VIP, Contested Outpost, and Salvage run. 40 resources to the winner and up to 80 more for the attacker.. half the VP of any tokens in general and

Capture the VIP: 40pts to the attacker if VIP is unclaimed, 80pts if attacker has the VIP at the end of round 6.

Contested Outpost: Attacker gets 20 resources per round they control the station, to a max of 80

Salvage Run: attacker gets 20 resources per cargo, when placed cargo tokens have to be distance 2 from each other

Some are easier than others to get 120 in but with random draw from both sides its' much fairer than Rebels get a very hard one to get 120 and kind of requires a certain fleet build, vs Empire getting a very easy 80-120 resource run.

On December 6, 2017 at 3:21 PM, Mikael Hasselstein said:

Well, it is an Imperial special assault; it's supposed to favor the Empire, the same way the Rebels' special assault favors them.

Um.....the Rebel special assault is so unbalanced, it doesn't favor the rebels. I just played it last night, and I can guarantee as the Imperial player ID be incredibly unlucky to lose.

1 hour ago, Darth Lupine said:

Um.....the Rebel special assault is so unbalanced, it doesn't favor the rebels. I just played it last night, and I can guarantee as the Imperial player ID be incredibly unlucky to lose.

Good.

2 hours ago, Mikael Hasselstein said:

Good.