So my local community hasn't had any competitive play for a while. I got to thinking of doing something with the CC map. Here's my basic thought on possibly fun and competitive set of games. I'm looking at this like a game of Risk. At the moment everyone starts as Imperials without any unique cards. You're warlords essentially. I have one person in my local group that's interested so far once I can put a few scenarios together and play test. I also thought about asking everyone on here for any thoughts and/or suggestions. If I get something put together it might turn out fun. What do you guys think so far? :-)

Here's a break down of my thoughts so far hoping to clear things up.

1- A free-for-all multiplayer game using the Corellian Conflict map and some rules from it

2- Players start with an outside shipyard along with an X number of resources

3- Players build an Imperial (might add in rebel ships/squadrons to mix) list with X number of points. No uniques (chances of getting some in game)

4- Players divide their fleet and deploy them to their claimed planets. Attack other to expand your territory.

5- Hyperspace retreat is the same in the CC

6- Shipyards. Scarred ships can be repaired, build new ships. Ships sent to there could be vulnerable to attack(inspired by Fondor in bf2 2017)

7- Players would need to control a planet in a hyperlane to gain access to the Corellian system

8- Using a format similar to Take the Station, up to 4 players can attack a location

9- Raids, Intel could pop up about an old abandoned base, mine, pirate hideout, etc. Gain resources, salvage ships/squadrons or possible upgrades

10- I like the idea of buying base defense objective cards for players to place on claimed planets

Any thoughts or suggestions? I'd like to get some feed back. Please :-)

Custom scenarios are cool, but im not sure this is fleshed out enough to really give a thumbs up or thumbs down to.

Why does everyone have to start as imperial for starters?

2 hours ago, BrobaFett said:

Custom scenarios are cool, but im not sure this is fleshed out enough to really give a thumbs up or thumbs down to.

Why does everyone have to start as imperial for starters?

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough. I know it's still in the works. I was up late last night when I wrote this out... My thinking was toward the old EU where there were Imperial warlords after the empire started to collapse. Plus it would feel weird to have rebel on rebel. Imperials have tended to compete or fight with one another. I posted on here to help get some ideas on this concept. I thought it would be interesting to play a form of the game of Risk with Armada battles. Make sense?

I did some editing. Hope I cleared somethings up. I tend to ramble...

I get the “warlords carving up the remains of the empire feel.” Maybe allow Rebel ships anyway, even mixed fleets, as some of those types would be available to the warlords once there was no chain of command saying they had to use Imperial-only ships.

Love this! Do the players need to divide their forces equally? Or, can the stick a massive fleet on their shipyard, and have smaller fleets at other locations?

This looks quite similar as an idea to @Undeadguy's Galactic Civil War campaign, but scaled down and free-for-all imperials, he may be able to give some good thoughts on balance

On 1/15/2018 at 5:34 AM, EagleScoutof007 said:

1- A free-for-all multiplayer game using the Corellian Conflict map

2- Players take turns claiming planets outside of the Corellian system starting with a shipyard

3- Players build an Imperial (might add in rebels) list with X number of points. No uniques (chances of getting some in game)

4- Players divide their fleet and deploy them to their claimed planets. Attack other to expand your territory.

5- Hyperspace retreat is the same in the CC (This may be more prominent since I'm thinking of where you lose a ship, it's gone)

6- Shipyards. Damaged ships can be repaired, build new ones. They would be vulnerable to attack though.

7- Players would need to control a hyperlane to gain access to the Corellian system

How many players? The map is not terribly big, so I think 6 players will be very cramped.

How is fleet movements handled? Is it adjacent planets or anything on the map?

Hyperlanes will be hotly contested if it's the only way into the system. This could be an issue if someone were to grab a planet, and next turn move into the system and then lose their hyperlane planet.

How large are fleets?

How does attacking a station work?

What if more than 1 player attacks a planet? How do you handle 3+ players fighting each other?

How do you earn RP to buy ships?

Need to consider the economics, too. With no special assaults, and not much of an initial economy, resource points might be few and far between at first. How many planets would you expect players to have at the end of the first turn or two? How many resources points would they be pulling in? Would someone who lost a battle on the first turn be at a significant disadvantage?

3 hours ago, Undeadguy said:

How many players? The map is not terribly big, so I think 6 players will be very cramped.

How is fleet movements handled? Is it adjacent planets or anything on the map?

Hyperlanes will be hotly contested if it's the only way into the system. This could be an issue if someone were to grab a planet, and next turn move into the system and then lose their hyperlane planet.

How large are fleets?

How does attacking a station work?

What if more than 1 player attacks a planet? How do you handle 3+ players fighting each other?

How do you earn RP to buy ships?

I'm still in the process of figuring these out. I have thought about using the Take the Station scenario for multiplayer matches. I'm thinking movement would be to the closet planet. Some of what you asked I haven't even thought of. Thanks. This is just a concept idea. If you have any input it's more than welcome. :-)

50 minutes ago, Tayloraj100 said:

Need to consider the economics, too. With no special assaults, and not much of an initial economy, resource points might be few and far between at first. How many planets would you expect players to have at the end of the first turn or two? How many resources points would they be pulling in? Would someone who lost a battle on the first turn be at a significant disadvantage?

I haven't thought about this too much yet... So a work in progress. Nothing is set in stone yet. Just ideas so far.

Let's consider victory conditions first.

Play to a certain number of Victory Points? Makes sense. Each planet is worth 1 Victory Point (plus more for those that have a VP bonus). Presumably, these can be taken away if you lose the planet to an attack. Probably the best way to go.

Other ideas, though: 1) Hold Corellia for X number of consecutive turns. Three, maybe? 2) All worlds within the Corellian Sector are worth more. Maybe you need to hold all of them to win, or you're still collecting Victory Points, but the ones actually in the Corellian Sector give you more, or give you VP every turn you control one. These have the benefit of concentrating the fighting so you don't have turns of most players just capturing neutral planets without playing any actual games of Armada. The drawback is that they make the rest of the map worth less, therefore less likely to even see play. Also makes it likely you'll have more battles with 3+ combatants.

Personally, I like the original idea best. It makes every planet worth something, and a few worth more than others. But, then, other planets will have Repair Yards, or give more resources, so you have lots of things to consider when planning where to attack.

Now, you'd mentioned everyone picking a starting planet. I think perhaps a good way to go is just let all players have, say, 25 resource points per turn, plus 15 refit points each turn. Say they each have a good world with repair yards somewhere off the map. That way, someone couldn't be knocked right out of the game on turn 1 by an assault on his starting location (and failing to capture any other goods ones). I would also let each player pick one location on the map, outside the Corellian Sector itself, to have at the outset. Probably the best way to handle that is to bid for the order you pick in. All players begin with X points to construct their initial fleet(s) -- 400 is a good starting number for one fleet, or easily divided into a couple of smaller ones for grabbing more territory at the outset -- but starting with less than X points might let you pick the planet you want. Another good thing about this is that players aren't locked in to going for a repair yard at the outset if they value other qualities more, like pure resources.

I do think it's worth pointing out that with most locations being neutral at the beginning, having Diplomats is possibly more useful than in a standard CC game. It should probably block *everyone* from attacking a neutral world for that turn, or else you'd have uncontested conquests.

Which brings me to the "strategy phase" where attacks are declared. I think the way to go here is to have each player write out orders for their fleet(s). A Fleet can be sent to attack a location, or it can be left in reserve to respond to an opponent's attack -- to your own world, or perhaps elsewhere if you just want to keep someone from expanding. Orders are revealed simultaneously. If players have fleets in reserve, they can respond to attacks -- handle this in order of lowest total Victory Points (or Resource Points) to largest.

You'll need good rules for battles with multiple players. Probably deploying in corners? No objectives, unless one player is defending their location. Play order determined by the fleets' point totals. Maybe at locations that have those extra objectives like "Independent Station" or "Nebula Outskirts" or whatever they are, leave those in effect (picked randomly if there are more than one possible) and apply the negative effect to all players (Independent Station shoots at whoever's closest, etc). Or... say a battle can only take place between 2 players, and when a location is attacked by more than two fleets, decided who actually fights for it based on the Victory Point totals of the players involved, or the Resource Point totals of the fleets involved, giving precedence to those with the least. I think multiple player fights are probably going to be cooler, though.

You're likely to have turns where some people have battles to fight and others don't. So, be prepared for that.

I'd keep CC's rules for ships being scarred and needing repairs. I think resource points will be tight, so you may see more ships going into battle scarred and risking destruction.

Maybe base defense objectives shouldn't be automatic. Assume a successful assault captures a location without having to pay resources to claim it -- heck, if no one else shows up when you "attack" a neutral planet, you don't even need to fight. But putting base defenses there does cost points. If your group seems to favor one base defense objective strongly (cough, Ion Cannons, cough), have them cost different amounts and keep a record of what defenses each place has. [Alternative idea: each base defense structure costs the same -- 10 points, maybe -- but you can buy all of them for a location, allowing you to defend with Ion Cannons, an Armed Station, and a Fighter Wing. Why? Well, if you get attacked there and don't have a fleet to defend it, you can fight a battle using just your base defenses and hope to drive off a weak fleet or punish a strong one.]

Personally, I'd do away with requiring a location on the hyperspace route to get to the Corellian Sector. I'd just declare it off limits for the first turn.

On ‎1‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 2:24 PM, cynanbloodbane said:

Love this! Do the players need to divide their forces equally? Or, can the stick a massive fleet on their shipyard, and have smaller fleets at other locations?

So far my thought was divide how you want

2 hours ago, Tayloraj100 said:

Let's consider victory conditions first.

Play to a certain number of Victory Points? Makes sense. Each planet is worth 1 Victory Point (plus more for those that have a VP bonus). Presumably, these can be taken away if you lose the planet to an attack. Probably the best way to go.

Other ideas, though: 1) Hold Corellia for X number of consecutive turns. Three, maybe? 2) All worlds within the Corellian Sector are worth more. Maybe you need to hold all of them to win, or you're still collecting Victory Points, but the ones actually in the Corellian Sector give you more, or give you VP every turn you control one. These have the benefit of concentrating the fighting so you don't have turns of most players just capturing neutral planets without playing any actual games of Armada. The drawback is that they make the rest of the map worth less, therefore less likely to even see play. Also makes it likely you'll have more battles with 3+ combatants.

Personally, I like the original idea best. It makes every planet worth something, and a few worth more than others. But, then, other planets will have Repair Yards, or give more resources, so you have lots of things to consider when planning where to attack.

Now, you'd mentioned everyone picking a starting planet. I think perhaps a good way to go is just let all players have, say, 25 resource points per turn, plus 15 refit points each turn. Say they each have a good world with repair yards somewhere off the map. That way, someone couldn't be knocked right out of the game on turn 1 by an assault on his starting location (and failing to capture any other goods ones). I would also let each player pick one location on the map, outside the Corellian Sector itself, to have at the outset. Probably the best way to handle that is to bid for the order you pick in. All players begin with X points to construct their initial fleet(s) -- 400 is a good starting number for one fleet, or easily divided into a couple of smaller ones for grabbing more territory at the outset -- but starting with less than X points might let you pick the planet you want. Another good thing about this is that players aren't locked in to going for a repair yard at the outset if they value other qualities more, like pure resources.

I do think it's worth pointing out that with most locations being neutral at the beginning, having Diplomats is possibly more useful than in a standard CC game. It should probably block *everyone* from attacking a neutral world for that turn, or else you'd have uncontested conquests.

Which brings me to the "strategy phase" where attacks are declared. I think the way to go here is to have each player write out orders for their fleet(s). A Fleet can be sent to attack a location, or it can be left in reserve to respond to an opponent's attack -- to your own world, or perhaps elsewhere if you just want to keep someone from expanding. Orders are revealed simultaneously. If players have fleets in reserve, they can respond to attacks -- handle this in order of lowest total Victory Points (or Resource Points) to largest.

You'll need good rules for battles with multiple players. Probably deploying in corners? No objectives, unless one player is defending their location. Play order determined by the fleets' point totals. Maybe at locations that have those extra objectives like "Independent Station" or "Nebula Outskirts" or whatever they are, leave those in effect (picked randomly if there are more than one possible) and apply the negative effect to all players (Independent Station shoots at whoever's closest, etc). Or... say a battle can only take place between 2 players, and when a location is attacked by more than two fleets, decided who actually fights for it based on the Victory Point totals of the players involved, or the Resource Point totals of the fleets involved, giving precedence to those with the least. I think multiple player fights are probably going to be cooler, though.

You're likely to have turns where some people have battles to fight and others don't. So, be prepared for that.

I'd keep CC's rules for ships being scarred and needing repairs. I think resource points will be tight, so you may see more ships going into battle scarred and risking destruction.

Maybe base defense objectives shouldn't be automatic. Assume a successful assault captures a location without having to pay resources to claim it -- heck, if no one else shows up when you "attack" a neutral planet, you don't even need to fight. But putting base defenses there does cost points. If your group seems to favor one base defense objective strongly (cough, Ion Cannons, cough), have them cost different amounts and keep a record of what defenses each place has. [Alternative idea: each base defense structure costs the same -- 10 points, maybe -- but you can buy all of them for a location, allowing you to defend with Ion Cannons, an Armed Station, and a Fighter Wing. Why? Well, if you get attacked there and don't have a fleet to defend it, you can fight a battle using just your base defenses and hope to drive off a weak fleet or punish a strong one.]

Personally, I'd do away with requiring a location on the hyperspace route to get to the Corellian Sector. I'd just declare it off limits for the first turn.

Thanks a lot for your imput! I think I'll add some of these in. Now that I'm off work for a few days I can start writing up some scenerios to test out. Now thinking about it, your idea on mixed fleets sound fun which help newer players that dont have many ships. Another thought I had on fleet movement might be something similar to the galaxy conquest on the old battlefront 2 video game... I might just dig out my xbox 360 tomorrow and pop in bf2 to look into that idea.

Mixing fleets got me thinking of ways to implement this idea. An abandoned base scenario with a chance of finding squadrons/ships docked to a station and capturing them?

Updated OP

You could also have one player actually be the rebels, trying to secure the area against the Imperial warlords. I guess the only upshot to that is letting someone use Rebel commanders.

How many players for this are you anticipating?

16 hours ago, Tayloraj100 said:

You could also have one player actually be the rebels, trying to secure the area against the Imperial warlords. I guess the only upshot to that is letting someone use Rebel commanders.

How many players for this are you anticipating?

I've actually thought of adding a rebel player. As for the number of players, I was thinking of was 2-6 at least.

I've been thinking on an idea brought up about assigning orders to fleets. It would be interesting as hidden information and keep people guessing as to where an opponet's fleets end up.

15 hours ago, EagleScoutof007 said:

I've been thinking on an idea brought up about assigning orders to fleets. It would be interesting as hidden information and keep people guessing as to where an opponet's fleets end up.

I think this could work, and I may have mentioned something similar above. I’d allow players to order some fleets to stay in reserve. Once assault orders are revealed, reserve fleets can be used to defend at a location. That way, you have more real battles and player interaction.

1 hour ago, Tayloraj100 said:

I think this could work, and I may have mentioned something similar above. I’d allow players to order some fleets to stay in reserve. Once assault orders are revealed, reserve fleets can be used to defend at a location. That way, you have more real battles and player interaction.

Yeah, looking back did meantion it. Now a thought comes to mind, when a fleet goes to a location that's unoccupied and no one contests for I think that fleet can chose to claim it. If a claimed location is under attack by a 150 pt fleet I would think the fleet closest to would go defend maybe by sending a detachment of that fleet. If I do something like this, fleet points might end up being common knowledge. Say you have a 600 pt fleet that you split into two groups to defend two locations. Group 1 has 400 pts, group 2 has 200 pts. Group 1 is the closest, you could send send half that group to defend. Maybe the same on flip side when attacking. I wanting to bring more strategy to moving fleet on the map with a risk of possibly leaving a location with weakened defense by drawing out your oppent or spread them out thin.

3 hours ago, EagleScoutof007 said:

Yeah, looking back did meantion it. Now a thought comes to mind, when a fleet goes to a location that's unoccupied and no one contests for I think that fleet can chose to claim it. If a claimed location is under attack by a 150 pt fleet I would think the fleet closest to would go defend maybe by sending a detachment of that fleet. If I do something like this, fleet points might end up being common knowledge. Say you have a 600 pt fleet that you split into two groups to defend two locations. Group 1 has 400 pts, group 2 has 200 pts. Group 1 is the closest, you could send send half that group to defend. Maybe the same on flip side when attacking. I wanting to bring more strategy to moving fleet on the map with a risk of possibly leaving a location with weakened defense by drawing out your oppent or spread them out thin.

I think letting people decide when planning their orders whether to commit a fleet to an attack or hold it back for defense makes for sone compelling choices. If you go attack with everything, you gamble that you’ll gain more than you’ll lose — which may be true if you don’t have good worlds. On the other hand, if you worry about defense, you aren’t attacking to gain new locations — and if you’re sitting in first place or on a lot of good planets, just spending a turn with more fleets defending might save what you have or let others overtake you. If “reserve” fleets can defend anywhere (or anywhere within a large area) then they can at least be used to block other players if you aren’t being attacked directly. But I wouldn’t let such fleets claim a location even if they won the battle there.

I think I see where you're getting at. Having a strike force and have a defending force? Say we have a defending force, on the CC map it's posted at Xyquine 2 (repair yard) it defends the planets closest to it, but not claim them if it won the battle? Interesting, another idea to try out. I still need to do some playtesting. I just got a 4x3 table for my apartment should be easier to play a small game.

12 hours ago, EagleScoutof007 said:

I think I see where you're getting at. Having a strike force and have a defending force? Say we have a defending force, on the CC map it's posted at Xyquine 2 (repair yard) it defends the planets closest to it, but not claim them if it won the battle? Interesting, another idea to try out. I still need to do some playtesting. I just got a 4x3 table for my apartment should be easier to play a small game.

4 x 3 table... Using Task Force format? (Maybe use it in campaign battles if both/all fleets under 300 pts?)

Are you worrying about restricting unique stuff? Or letting each player have their own Demolisher?

29 minutes ago, Tayloraj100 said:

Are you worrying about restricting unique stuff? Or letting each player have their own Demolisher?

I'm looking at players using their skills and not to rely on special abilities. Though I think throwing some uniques as a prize to claim. Something like this: An Interdictor was spotted near X, if you want it, go to X and contest for it.... ooo! A take the station like scenario! That make things interesting