Corellian Conflict Cards

This variant adds campaign cards that each side draws every campaign round and plays during battles or other campaign phases. These cards are intended to add to the theme of the conflict while giving new ways to gain and use resource points and campaign points. The Empire might take a bounty out on a Rebel squadron (or unique officer upgrade!), giving bounty hunters a bonus to target them. A Rebel victory might result in Emperor Palpatine eliminating the defeated Imperial commander and forcing the player to pick a replacement. Use the Force to mess with a die roll, or inflict supply problems on your opponent to reduce the resources they gain! Have an ace squadron that gains you resource points whenever they make a kill! While these cards let you break rules and do some crazy stuff, each can only be played once during the course of the campaign.

Setup: Imperials start the campaign with Bounty/Captive, Rebels start with Major Offensive/Imperial War Machine. Each side gets one copy of their cards, plus a copy of the neutral cards, shuffled together.

[I’ll be making commentary and explanations in italics. To use this variant, you’d need to make a copy of the Imperial and Rebel cards, plus TWO copies of the Neutral cards (one for each team). Originally, I’d planned to shuffle and split the Neutral deck between teams, but a bad deal could really hose one side.]

Before the first campaign turn, each Grand Admiral draws two cards for each player on their team. They select half of those cards to place in their hand and remove the others from the game, without revealing them. (In a game of 3 vs 3, each Grand Admiral would draw six cards, choosing 3 to keep and 3 to discard.)

At the beginning of each Strategy Phase, each Grand Admiral draws a number of cards equal to the number of people on his team. (Continuing the above example, each Grand Admiral would draw 3 cards at the start of the Strategy Phase.) During the Strategy Phase, the Grand Admiral may give any number of cards to his other team members.

Playing cards: Each team may only play one card per campaign phase. Battles are an exception to this, during which each admiral may play one card, which effects their battle only.

Changes to existing rules: Special Assaults may only be played once during the campaign.

Cards:

Imperial Ace (Imperial) - Play this on one of your unique TIEs. Whenever it scores a kill, gain 2 resource points, +3 more resource points if the kill was a unique Rebel squadron. Keep this card with this squadron for future battles, until discarded. Discard this card when this squadron is destroyed, or discard it when this squadron activates to refresh its defense tokens and reset its hit points to maximum value.

Crushing Victory (Imperial) - If you win a battle where all Rebel non-flotilla ships were destroyed, play this card to gain 50 resource points.

Tarkin Doctrine (Imperial) - Play this card during the management phase if you destroyed a Rebel base this campaign turn and did not place a base of your own there. Gain 25 resource points.

Redouble Our Efforts (Imperial) - Play at the beginning of the Management Phase if all Imperial fleets are worth fewer points than each Rebel fleet. The Imperial Grand Admiral may lose 1 Campaign Point to gain 100 resource points.

Bounty/Captive (Imperial)

Bounty - If your fleet includes a bounty hunter (Boba Fett, IG88, Dengar, or Bossk), you may pay 5 resource points to play this card at the end of the Deployment phase. Target a unique Rebel squadron or unique officer. During each Command Phase, you may chose to raise the bounty by paying resource points. Whenever a bounty hunter attacks this target, they may add 1 red die per 5 resource points spent to raise the bounty. If that squadron or officer’s ship is destroyed and a bounty hunter survived the battle, the target is captured and you may flip this card over. Otherwise, return this card to your hand at the end of the battle.

Captive - Gain 1 Campaign Point. At the start of the campaign turn, designate a base or outpost to imprison the Captive squadron or officer on (this is public knowledge and may change each turn). The Captive may not be deployed in a battle but still counts towards the owner’s fleet’s total points. If the Rebels win a battle at the Captive’s location, the Captive is freed (in a scarred condition); discard this card.

[I’ll admit that this card is more about theme and flavor than gameplay. One thing that’s not obvious in the card text is that the target of the Bounty DOES NOT CHANGE. If I ever actually make cards for this variant, this one will have a place to write the Bounty’s name on it, and track how many resource points have been spent to raise bounty. The bonus red dice against the target carries over from battle to battle until the target is captured. However, this card still must be PLAYED during the battle for that to be in effect. (Maybe I should change that last bit.)]

Target for Assassination (Imperial) - Play this card to target one unique squadron just destroyed or a unique officer or Commander on a ship just destroyed. Pay resource points equal to the target’s cost to remove it from the campaign.

Bring in for Questioning (Imperial) - At the beginning of the Deployment Phase, play this card to choose one Rebel squadron with the Rogue keyword to remove from this battle. If the Rebel player loses this battle, the targeted squadron is scarred.

[Of all the Imperial and Rebel cards, this seems the weakest, and I have struggled with whether to keep it or replace it. When I first thought up this variant, my mind was more on uniques, particularly the personalities in the Rogues and Villains set. What has kept it from being replaced so far is that several Rebel squads with rogue have key abilities that can be the lynchpin of the squadron build, and yanking one out of a battle might really screw with your opponent’s list.] [On second thought, scratch it.]

The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise (Imperial) - When your opponent plays a Neutral conflict card, pay 10 resource points to take it into your hand (the card still takes effect).

Supply Problems (Imperial) - Play at the start of the management phase if your opponent lost an outpost this Campaign Turn. Your opponent(s) bases and outposts produce half their usual resource points (round down).

It’s a Trap (Imperial) - The Imperial Grand Admiral may play this card at the end of the strategy phase to cancel one Imperial attack and move that fleet to respond to a Rebel attack. The moved Imperial fleet will join the other defender for a 1 vs 2 battle. No objectives will be used for this battle. The players will rotate who is first player each turn, starting with the Rebel player and then moving clockwise. (The Rebel fleet assigned to defend against the cancelled attack does not battle this turn.)

[Writing this in rules-speak got tricky, especially when I realized how the resulting battle would play out. Basically, this lets the Imperials cancel an attack in order to have two fleets participate in a defending battle. That does mean that one Rebel player basically sits out this campaign round, which sucks. I suppose it’s a good card to play if someone doesn’t show up for the game!]

Secret Weapons Lab (Imperial) - Spend 10 resource points to play this during the Determine Objectives step in a battle at an non-base location where you are the defender. This battle must be played with a base defense objective of your choice. (This does not effect subsequent battles at this location — the Secret Lab relocates to a more secure sector of the galaxy after this.)

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Rebel Ace (Rebel) - Play this on one of your unique squadrons. Whenever it scores a kill, gain 2 resource points, +8 resource points if the target was an Imperial ship. Keep this card with this squadron for future battles, until discarded. Discard this card when this squadron is destroyed, or discard it when this squadron activates to toggle the activation slider of any squadron within range 1 of it.

The Emperor’s Displeasure (Rebel) - If you just won a battle against an Imperial fleet worth more points than yours, play this card to eliminate the Imperial Commander. Your opponent must immediately pick a new Commander for his fleet.

Major Victory (Rebel) - If you win a battle against an enemy fleet worth 30 or more points than yours, play this card to gain 1 campaign point.

Misdirection (Rebel) - At the end of the strategy phase, after fleets have been assigned to their respective battles, play this card to swap two Rebel fleets.

Sacrifice (Rebel) - Play this card to eliminate one of your unique squadrons. Choose one enemy ship within range 1 of it when it is removed from the board; it takes 1 face up damage card.

Our Most Desperate Hour (Rebel) - Play at the beginning of the Management Phase if all Rebel fleets are worth fewer points than each Imperial fleet. The Rebel Grand Admiral may lose 1 Campaign Point to gain 100 resource points.

Salvage (Rebel) - Play at the end of a battle you won to gain resource points equal to the total amount of hull points on all enemy ships and squadrons destroyed during the battle.

Sink the Demolisher! (Rebel) - If an enemy ship is destroyed during this battle, you may immediately pay resource points equal to its value plus all upgrade cards on it to remove that ship from the campaign, then discard this card.

[This is a nasty card. It’s similar to the Empire’s “Target for Assassination” but is much more expensive to play — and that expense is a good balance for it, I believe.]

Sabotage (Rebel) - When attacking an enemy base, spend 10 resource points to alter the base defense objective. Ion Cannon: only place two tokens instead of 3. Fighter Wing: the defender gets only 30 points worth of squadrons. Armed Station: after the station is deployed it receives 3 face-down damage cards.

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Major Offensive/Imperial War Machine (Rebel/Imperial) - Special: the Rebel Grand Admiral starts the game with this card.

Major Offensive (Rebel) - Play this at the beginning of a Campaign Turn. All Rebel fleets may make attacks. No Special Assaults can be played. If all attacks fail, discard this card. Otherwise, flip this card over and give it to the Imperial Grand Admiral.

Imperial War Machine (Imperial) - Play this at the beginning of the Repair and Refit phase. All Imperial planets produce twice as many resource points this turn. If your total resources gained this turn do not exceed what the rebels gained, keep this card. Otherwise, flip this card over and give it to the Rebel Grand Admiral.

[This was inspired by the China Card from the game Twilight Struggle. I liked the idea of a card that was very powerful, but then went to your opponent when you played it. The best way to use such a card might very well be to just hold on to it and never use it at all. I wanted it to be a different card effect for the different sides to emphasize the campaign’s theme — that this game is about a Rebel attack into an Imperial system.]

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Infiltrate Secret Agents (Neutral) - Play during the management phase. For every 5 resource points you spend, you may shut down 1 repair yard under your opponents’ control. Those repair yards produce no refit points this turn.

Rapid Repairs (Neutral) - Spend 2 Skilled Spacers tokens during the Deployment phase to unscar a single squadron or small ship.

Broken Encryption (Neutral) - Spend 2 Spynet tokens during a battle to pass on one of your activations, causing your opponent to activate twice in a row.

Peace Talks (Neutral) - Spend 2 Diplomat tokens during the Strategy phase when your opponent declares an attack on one of your bases or outposts. They must choose a different target.

Reinforcements (Neutral) - Play when scrapping a fleet. Resource points may be spent on the replacement fleet immediately, and these points may be used to give ships upgrades beyond the initial 1 per ship rule.

[You still build the replacement fleet with 400 points and only one upgrade per ship, then this card takes effect and lets you spend further points and add additional upgrades.]

High-Value Target (Neutral) - At the end of the Deployment Phase, play this card to target one enemy ship with a title upgrade. If it is destroyed, gain 1 campaign point.

Use the Force (Neutral) - Play this card after a die roll to change one die to any face you choose.

Jedi/Sith Mind Trick (Neutral) - Play this immediately after an opponent plays a card. The opponent’s card is canceled — it has no effect and is discarded.

Reassigned (Neutral) - During the Repair and Refit phase, you may remove one unique squadron or ship from your fleet. That squadron or title card may be immediately bought at full price by another fleet. A unique title card bought this way must be placed on a ship also bought this turn (it does not need to be the same version as the previous ship to use it). No ship upgrades carry over, and the unit enters service in the new fleet unscarred and non-veteran.

[Again, this one is a lot simpler in concept than the rules-speak makes it sound. The idea is that you can move a unique ship or squad from one list to another.]

Logistics are a Pain (Neutral) - During the Management Phase, target an enemy base or outpost that is beyond Medium Range of any other enemy base or outpost, it generates no resource points this turn, nor may your opponent(s) use its Repair Yard, Spynet, Skilled Spacers, or Diplomats.

Jewel of the Sector (Neutral) - If you win a battle at Corellia, you may play this card. You gain no victory points for this battle; instead gain 100 resource points.