No, i am itching for a fight

Sure thing I'm around.

Lord Vader has dealt a crippling blow to the Rebel fleet, inflicting heavy losses and forcing a full retreat of all surviving ships. Vader's Fist, along with the contingent of Gladiators on loan from Admiral Thrawn, destroyed two hammerheads, a cr90, a bomber command center flotilla, three X-wings, and one Y-wing. Dominator proved a fearsome artillery piece, eliminating 3 ships on its own, while Vader's flagship swatted the flotilla at long range. Imperial casualties were minor, losing only two interceptors and two tie fighters. The gladiators and surviving fighters (3 of each) will be returned to the command of Thrawn immediately.

Were we the only game that needed to be played and now we should be onto the next turn? Or are people still figuring out what to build and where to go?

Mostly lookin' at you Imps cause I think Rebs have been good to go.

@Undeadguy

1 hour ago, BrobaFett said:

Were we the only game that needed to be played and now we should be onto the next turn? Or are people still figuring out what to build and where to go?

Mostly lookin' at you Imps cause I think Rebs have been good to go.

@Undeadguy

I've been busy so I haven't entered any info yet.

2 hours ago, Undeadguy said:

I've been busy so I haven't entered any info yet.

All good man, i know its a lot of work for you, i just feel like if we keep the downtime in between turns to an absolute minimum it helps us keep momentum.

7 hours ago, BrobaFett said:

All good man, i know its a lot of work for you, i just feel like if we keep the downtime in between turns to an absolute minimum it helps us keep momentum.

And I want to emphasize that the only reason Broba said anything at all is because we're spoiled rotten already. You're doing a heck of a job.

3 hours ago, rasproteus said:

And I want to emphasize that the only reason Broba said anything at all is because we're spoiled rotten already. You're doing a heck of a job.

Yeah I'm sorry if that wasn't clear, I did NOT mean to insinuate you aren't doing incredible. You are balancing a ton of stuff here and I can't tell you how much we appreciate it.

If you need time, you can take time, but one thing I have noticed is that when you have a round where 2 people plays and 4 people sit, and it takes a week to schedule, then another week to figure movements and purchases, the momentum can drag.

If anything, it should be on us the players to have our next rounds movements and purchases in to you within like 24hrs of the end of the last of that rounds games so you at least have the information to compile when you get the time.

So now there are small fleets on both sides, I'm going to let you guys decide how to play those games. In the interest of time, you can decide to not play a game if the point difference is huge. You would just exchange fleet lists and the retreater goes to a friendly shipyard. The winner gets 2 XP, and the loser gets 1 XP. I know it's kinda gamey and unthematic, but I don't want us to wait while you guys try to schedule a game, set up, and then retreat right away.

Both players would have to agree to pass on the game, and if one player wants to play, you will have to. But that is decided after you reveal fleets. If a player wants to play the game, you could also just concede the fleet and have it destroyed or captured if the fleet is capable of doing so. The winner gets XP equal to the ships/squads in fleet and distributes them, on top of the 2 XP for winning.

Fleet sizes are a minimum of 100 points, so this might be an option you guys want to take. If 2 small fleets engage each other, I would like if you played that game. But when you 400/500/600 point fleets on 100, it's really a waste of time.

I'll leave it up to you guys if you want to do this this round or not.

I hope this seems fair to both sides on those fights and we can proceed smoothly as new fleets start to be constructed.

That sounds good to me.

In a fight between 2 small fleets where both fleets agree to re treat from each other, how is it decided who gets 2xp and who gets 1?

Sounds good, better than the previous "If a fleet is 4x bigger it automatically destroys the other unless players decide to play the match"

4 hours ago, BrobaFett said:

That sounds good to me.

In a fight between 2 small fleets where both fleets agree to re treat from each other, how is it decided who gets 2xp and who gets 1?

I encourage you to play those games, despite the small size to avoid this issue. Those games would go much quicker. There is also the strategic element where you can hold planets to build mines or destroy them.

If you don't want to play, leave it up to the dice. One player has blue hits, the other has crits n acc. Winner gets to keep the planet.

Is my game one of the lopsided ones?

@MandalorianMoose @rasproteus @CaribbeanNinja @Visovics @BrobaFett @GhostofNobodyInParticular

Hey guys, I think we can call the campaign. I believe the Rebels have surrendered after some devastating losses from this round. It actually comes at a nice time, because I'm going to be busy buying a house and moving, so I won't have much free time to manage a campaign.

I'm really happy with how the rules have evolved and I thank you for your valuable input. It's been a lot of fun doing this with you guys. I still have more ideas to incorporate, such as planet resources. I've been playing Stellaris, so I'm getting a feel of what I want to add.

Let me know what you guys thought and what can be improved.

I really liked it. I definitely think, though, that something is needed to differentiate the planets, as the game is more a game of cat and mouse than strategy at the moment. Choosing what planets to fight for and why adds some depth to the game, and replaces the generic mine in terms of decisions to be made (in that, presumably, mines will no longer be able to be built everywhere).

I think that is the major issue that needs addressing, as that will add the needed bit of terrain strategy to go along with hyperlane, shipyard, and fleet usage/hunting/choices already in play.

I loved the EXP gain mechanic. Absolutely fantastic. Also liked the general flow.

I think my most major thought that I have to be perfectly honest about was that while there were absolutely things I liked, I struggled to have fun after losing my first battle in the overarching campaign. This could primarily be on me and my expectations. I didn't play this as a gritty reality war simulation, which is what it is. I wanted casual armada with fun whimsical fleets in a continuous universe. I took heavy losses early, and spent the rest of the campaign building back up, and now that my large ships- which I have been waiting the entire game to build- are coming off the line and I finally am at a point where 2 turns from now I can stand toe to toe with an enemy again, the campaign is over because now my teammates have taken a heavy loss and wisely realized there is no way we can bounce back from it. Period. No way. It would be turn 15 minimum, assuming we somehow took no more loses, before our fleets would be combat ready again.

Because I was crippled rd 2 and the game essentially turned into 2 v 3, I couldn't shake the feeling that it the campaign was decided round 2 when Mando wrecked my fleet, killed my large ship, and sent me into hiding and rebuilding for the next 5 rounds while he was so bolstered by the XP and resources that he became for all intents and purposes unstoppable. There was also a balance issue. Even with him at a 150pt deficit our combined fleets could not beat him. Part of that is on us, and part of it is on the campaign for making vader long range a completely unequaled and unapproachable fleet archetype (see dominator errata). HOWEVER, I still hold to the opinion that if Mando and I's first-first game had been saved, and I had wrecked his fleet and captured his ISD, then the campaign would have been equally miserable and unfun and impossible to come back from for the Imperials. They would simply be throwing in the towel right now instead of us. I do not like the feeling that our first game of the campaign had such a far ranging an irreversible effect on the overall turnout.

I am not entirely convinced you see this as an issue Undeadguy, which is fine. This is your campaign, and if I came into it with incorrect expectations that is on me and I don't fault you for it. My team and my opponents could not have been better, so I thank them for being incredible humans throughout the process.

Couple of generic notes that aren't necessarily positive or negative, just some mechanical observations:

• Destroyed ships are too easy to destroy-destroy. Rarely did we have an opportunity for ships to get repaired, which played a large part in what the campaign so hard to bounce back in. Think this could do for some re-balancing. Would love to see ships always at risk of being permenantly destroyed, but also for the effort taken to do this take a commitment to strategy, and not just a byproduct of a couple side shots as an afterthought. Husk rules were also hard. The movement and ramming rules were both really not fun and effected the game in incredibly adverse ways. Destroying a ship and then boxing other ships in a kill zone with the corpses of their comrades with no recourse was not fun.
• It was equally hard to get a fight when you wanted one and avoid a fight when you didn't. I don't think anyone that wants a battle should not get one, and if someone absolutely needs to run an hide they should be able to without risk of getting dumped on by a lucky move. I honestly don't know how to tweak this, but I think external events and narrative elements could help.
• Related to this, the reinforcement and fleet rules could use an overhaul. I still wasn't really satisfied with how the reinforcement system worked. If felt like all it did was imabalnce things even worse.
• Some errata's seemed off. When you reduce costs of enhanced armament what role does slaved turrets have for the same cost, for instance? Dominator was definitely broken at long range with access to DCAPS. I think they need to be individually reviewed for what role they did or didn't play in the campaign and rebalanced again.
• Theme from the start felt a little strained. With no real difference between Rebel and Imperial in game approach, starting size, resource gen etc, other than the ships this could easily have been not star wars. I wouldn't mind something crazy, like each planet gets a random imperial planet force of (1 Arquitens, 1 gozanti, 4 ties or 1 Nebulon-B, 1 raider, 3 ties or 1 Quasar, 1 Gozanti, 4 bombers, 2 ties all with basic upgrades so they equal about 125-150pts). Imperial Admirals get a 150pt fleet to start out to reinforce one of these planets, while Rebels get a 300pt fleet. They can destroy the planet force and doing so gives them resources and other random rewards and capturable ships and "liberates" the planet which provides a very small bonus to rebels each turn automatically. Imperials can recapture any non-defended planet by simpley returning to the planet. When they leave, a random planet force is placed there for no resource cost. Also, Imperial admirals can run supply convoys by moving their fleets from one occupied system to another for a bonus, but have to declare the move publicly meaning the rebels can raid the convoy if they choose for their own bonus'. Rebels cannot build mines and only have 1 shipyard in their home zone. They still need to destroy the imperial shipyards in the contested zone to access the Imp home sector. Imperials must have a different goal in the constested zone, such as building a death star, to access the rebel home zone. Imperial fleets start smaller, but they have the benefit of having reinforcements on every planet to balance it out, and the fact they can build mines and get more resources per turn means their build arc is faster, while rebels are more about capturing ships, completing objectives, and liberating planets. If rebels fall behind, they can capture ships from the planet defense forces or get reinforcements from the outer rim, while if Imperials fall behind they find new ways to motivate their shipyard workers to build faster. If you superimpose this thematic structure on top of your rules, I think it remedies a bit of the issues.