So I’m thinking about how to get the younglings into Armada. The whole fleet building side of it is awesome, but it is way too complex for my kids and CC is quite competitive. Has anyone developed something along the line of Heroes of the Aturi Cluster for Armada, except instead of the AI, which wouldn’t work for Armada style maneuvers, a DM to run the game/play the bad guys. Starting the rebels in Hammerheads with a fighter squadron each and allowing them to work their way up might be fun. I’d need to come up with an engaging story arc and reward system for victory.

Has anyone tried anything like this and met with success?

I have not, but would be interested to hear how it goes for you. Theoretically, if you wanted to do a RPG campaign, put them in a HH at the battle of Scarif or Endor or something, let them control their ship's course and/or firing abilities.

....now I've interested myself in this project, haha.

I've been working on one recently inspired by HotAC. I posted a little write up under to battle reports sub forum labled as "It's a trap". I've had one test run with only one player so far(hope to get more interested) and we both had fun. I could make a new thread with my rules so far if anyone wants to try it.

I don’t have the time to write up my own campaign, but I could see pulling from HotAC heavily.

Let me know what you’ve got for rules, I’d be interested in taking a look to see what you’ve come up with.

Maybe the Age of Rebellion RPG is a better way to go? With Armada as a system to do some of the ship battles?

If you want to stick to Armada, I’d come up with the larger fleet they are part of, then assign each player and ship and/or squadrons from that fleet. Then give them briefings or set the context for a battle — rip off Rebels heavily for how to do this. Make getting upgrades for their ships a story event, like leveling up in D&D. Add other ships from the fleet every now and then as they are tasked with supporting a larger mission. Of they seem to be getting the hang of it, give them more and bigger ships.

if you wanted to power the squadrons up and make it easier and more interesting for kids you could give them rogue and/or grit by default

Hera's ability is like the perfect thing to scale up for a "squadron commander".

How many kids will be playing? What all do you have, Armada-wise?

15 minutes ago, Tayloraj100 said:

How many kids will be playing? What all do you have, Armada-wise?

Two to start, with two more when they’re a bit older. I’ve got a growing collection, 1 of many of the expansions, plus some extra fighters and MC30s.

I like the idea of giving all fighters rogue. I also like the idea of at least occasionally making them a part of a larger fleet battle, but mostly restricting them to smaller skirmishes and the like. I also want the appearance of an ISD to be like a boss fight, or even something they have to get past, blockade run style. Thematic, a little scary.

This thread inspires me to make some campaign too! I got some plans for some scenarios.

So I'm still working on this, but I have a basic idea of a start to my campaign. Unless I make more changes, players start with a single small ship each(Hammerhead, Nebulon-b, CR90, or GR-75) with 1-2 upgrades and squadrons all being non-unique (chance of getting uniques later). The DM/GM is the the Imperial player. Rebel players are a growing rebel cell fighting the Empire. They can search debris clouds for salvage(upgrades), mine astroyeds for materials to build their cell(ships/squadrons), and steel stuff from the Empire. I have tokens from the X-wing missions I've thought about using too and thought of using the ordnance ones as a way to limit the use off ordnances like APTs by spending a token per use. Maybe this could help you get started. I could add more on here later after work if you want.

Blast you, CommanderDave, this has grabbed my brain. Here's what I would do.

First, give them three choices to pick from:

1) A Hammerhead Scout Corvette with a single 7-95.

2) A Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette with a single X-wing.

3) A Medium Transport with an X-wing and two Y-wings (you may need to point out that though it lacks guns, it "attacks" by commanding the squadrons).

The initial task force they are assigned to includes their picks, plus the third choice they didn't take. If you have another Hammerhead, add a second Torpedo one and an extra X-wing to their side. (If you don't have more Hammerheads, instead add a CR90B and a Z-95.) To this last ship, add a Veteran Captain. This guy is the commander of their task force. Let's call him Captain Fletcher. He was a young naval officer in the Clone Wars, was in the Republic Navy when it became the Empire and he decided to join the Rebel Alliance. The whole purpose of his ship, and the other Rebel ship your kids do not control, is to give the Empire something to blow up other than your sons' ships. Shoot at your kids, yeah, but not with anything that can take them out with one volley -- at least, not until they have the hang of the game.

So, our little 200-point task force -- let's call it Task Force Antilles -- looks like this: Hammerhead Scout, Hammerhead Torpedo, Hammerhead Torpedo (Veteran Captain), Medium Transport, a z-95, two X-Wings, and two Y-Wings. Maybe not what you'd design for a normal Armada game, but this is to give them room to grow. By the way, I would NOT choose to give their squads Rogue for free. That takes away the "power" of a carrier, like the Medium Transport, that attacks through squadron commands. Also, it'll make the real Rogues seem cooler when they show up later. By the way, I would play at least the first several games in the 3 x 3 "Task Force format" and only go full-sized Armada for the big battles.

FIRST MISSION: (Briefing delivered by Captain Fletcher.) Station Bist was an independent spaceport in the [Whatever] sector until the Empire took it over. There is strong support for the Rebellion there, but they cannot defy the Imperial garrison, consisting of two Arquitens light cruisers, an assault transport, and a compliment of TIE fighters. Rebel sympathizers on the station, however, have given us word that one of the light cruisers has left the station to patrol for pirates, and they were able to get us its patrol route. Our mission is to ambush the cruiser and destroy it. [Set up a 3 x 3 mat with a few obstacles -- no station, just rocks and such. The Empire has a Light Cruiser and 2 TIE Fighters. The point of this game is really just to teach them the basics of Armada, like how to use the maneuver tool and what the commands do. Try to keep Fletcher's ship alive for now, but not at the expense of your kids.]

SECOND MISSION: Having weakened the Imperial garrison, we are now to finish it off and free Station Bist. [Imperial forces are a Light Cruiser, a Gozanti transport, and 4 TIE Fighters. Put the station near their side of the map. Replace any Rebel losses from the previous mission, but maybe start replacement ships with a damage card, and squadrons with 1 damage to show that they weren't totally destroyed but took a beating.] During the battle, maybe around Turn 2, tell them one of the Imperial ships transmitted a message -- it was encoded, but surely was about the attack.

THIRD MISSION (assuming the Rebels won the previous battle): Station Bist has been liberated! But nearby Imperial forces are on the way to take it back before we can reinforce it. We'll just have to hold out on our own. (Describe the station inhabitants frantically repairing the Rebel ships and adding hasty upgrades, A-Team style. Give the Torpedo Hammerheads Expanded Racks. Give the Scout Hammerhead Slaved Turrets. If one of your kids is commanding the Medium Transport, tell them one of their Y-Wing pilots is now an ace and let them pick Dutch or Norra to replace a generic Y. Otherwise, just add a YT-1300 and say it was someone from Station Bist joining the fight.) [The Imperials have a Gladiator-II, a Gozanti, and 4 TIE Fighters. Put the station near the Rebels and let them know it can take away damage if they touch it. As an option, you might play the Contested Outpost objective and let your kids know that they don't have to destroy all the Imperial ships to win -- they can also win on points.]

If they win this mission, Station Bist now becomes their base of operations for the first stage of this campaign. Describe the rest of the Rebel fleet arriving, and have them praised by whoever the Commander is (maybe someone like Cracken so you can save recognizable ones like Leia or Ackbar for later one). Upgrade the Hammerheads with the Task Force Antilles title and give the Medium Transport a Bomber Command Center. (I would probably devise another 3-mission sequence to follow this one that had more sparring with Imperial forces that didn't have to lead to outright destruction. Maybe start with an Intel Sweep mission against a Raider and a Command Cruiser (with a handful of TIEs), and don't be afraid to let them lose on points.)

If during any of the above battles Captain Fletcher's ship is destroyed, turn to your oldest kid (or the one who can handle this the best) and say, "Everyone on the bridge turns to look at you. Your first officer says, 'Sir... with Captain Fletcher gone, you're in command of the Task Force. What are your orders?"

As the campaign goes on, introduce elements one at a time. New ship or squadron types are a feature to add in gradually. The first enemy ace squadron or named officer should be a big deal to the campaign and (probably) a recurring villain for your kids. Whenever they add upgrades or graduate up to a new ship, it should feel like a level-up in D&D. Adding ace squadrons or officers should be character-driven events. Every now and then, if they can handle it, throw in an objective so it's not all just a straight shooting match. If a kid gets their ship blown up, make sure they know their "character" survived. Maybe let him have a YT-2400 in the next fight while he's awaiting a new ship. Or let them capture Imperial ships every now and then. Sky's the limit!

5 hours ago, Tayloraj100 said:

I would NOT choose to give their squads Rogue for free. That takes away the "power" of a carrier,

the way you want to do it you shouldn't I was thinking to give the kids more free range and to prevent the squadron game from getting bogged down by them engaging not shooting untill next round and then being stuck untill one side dies.

I played with my 10-year-old daughter following more or less the rules from Funk Fu Master. She wanted to be Imperial and I let her decide which ships she wanted to take. She had an ISD, a Gladiator, a Raider (ISD's baby), a Gozanti, and some TIEs for 200-something points. I took a H1, 2 Hammerheads, a CR90 B, and some A-wings and X-wings for the same. We played with alternating initiative.

I learned two things.

1) I should have given her more points than I had. (Maybe 30-50 pts more.) If you do a campaign make it easy and when it seems better to make things tough during the battle bring some Imperial reinforcements.

2) Giving all squadrons Rogue was too easy (for me). My alpha-strike was to strong. It would have been better to let squadrons move and shoot, but only in this order. A Rogue squadron could do it in any order.

Where does the fun of the game come from? Blowing things up.

When teaching games, people seem to default to the idea of "Each player gets a ship and they all fight one huge threat controlled by the GM!" This has several problems:

1. Not enough things go BOOM! to reward the players.
2. Player elimination (ship blown up).
3. Difficulty of new players coordinating against a really nasty target.

Instead, giving all of the players good-sized ships and having them stopping a swarm gives much more positive feedback.

You want the kids to start with something durable, so that they can get into danger, but have time to get out of it. They should have enough firepower to make little things "pop!" and to let them put damage into big(ger) things.

Start them with Assault Frigates! They are, after all, the best all-around ships in the game, which is why they aren't seen so much in competitive play.

The opposition should start out with Raiders (no upgrades!) and Gozantis, although you'll need to either drop the Scatters from the Gozantis or start them red and leave them that way until they're used and discarded.

Next battle, step up to TIEs to give them a feel for fighting squadrons (but ones that die easily), and then TIE bomber (but not too many!). The TIE bombers should be just enough to give them a real scare. That leads into a mission to get squadrons as a reward--A-Wings might be the best choice because they're interceptor-oriented, but X-Wings are so iconic ...

Now they can play with their own squadrons, and see just how useful squadrons are at locking up and destroying enemy bombers. After that, they can choose whether to pick up some Y-Wings for bombers or their own, or add a small ship (corvette or flotilla).

Always remember--give them the opportunity to make things go BOOM!

A "boss battle" at the end is fine because they'll be experienced enough that they won't need the immediate reinforcement and satisfaction of enemy ships exploding everywhere. It also holds that scary and dramatic "will it die in time?" element.

Have fun!

I don't know if this will help but I ran a Age of rebellion/Armada mix game that was very successful.

Players were tasked with sabotage and theft of imperial plans on a hidden base. They went in, pretended to be "undercover boss" , and then to escape the soon to be destroyed base, stole a ship.

Once into the Armada realm of play, I , the GM, controlled all the ships except their own (Each player had their own ship). There was a patrol of interdictors they has to by-pass, and after the destruction of the base they had to avoid ISD reinforcements until they could escape. One player led the group into a bad spot where all their ships were likely to be destroyed, so I had the rebel fleet jump in to finish off the game.
It played well and all the players were raving about it for weeks.

Not sure how well it would play with kids though.

34 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

Players were tasked with sabotage and theft of imperial plans on a hidden base. They went in, pretended to be "undercover boss" , and then to escape the soon to be destroyed base, stole a ship.

Just now, elbmc1969 said:

Oh you have no idea....

The party made the CO of the station they were on nearly soil his britches.

(One of the things I noticed about the SW universe is that security, for the most part is seriously lacking. The party took full advantage of the lack of security protocols to berate the crew members into letting them pass unchecked... One player in particular, the face of the group was an IT specialist, when he saw that most computer terminals don't even have login codes he blew a gasket.... the game was getting hilarious by the end).

4 hours ago, elbmc1969 said:

Where does the fun of the game come from? Blowing things up.

When teaching games, people seem to default to the idea of "Each player gets a ship and they all fight one huge threat controlled by the GM!" This has several problems:

1. Not enough things go BOOM! to reward the players.
2. Player elimination (ship blown up).
3. Difficulty of new players coordinating against a really nasty target.

Instead, giving all of the players good-sized ships and having them stopping a swarm gives much more positive feedback.

You want the kids to start with something durable, so that they can get into danger, but have time to get out of it. They should have enough firepower to make little things "pop!" and to let them put damage into big(ger) things.

Start them with Assault Frigates! They are, after all, the best all-around ships in the game, which is why they aren't seen so much in competitive play.

The opposition should start out with Raiders (no upgrades!) and Gozantis, although you'll need to either drop the Scatters from the Gozantis or start them red and leave them that way until they're used and discarded.

Next battle, step up to TIEs to give them a feel for fighting squadrons (but ones that die easily), and then TIE bomber (but not too many!). The TIE bombers should be just enough to give them a real scare. That leads into a mission to get squadrons as a reward--A-Wings might be the best choice because they're interceptor-oriented, but X-Wings are so iconic ...

Now they can play with their own squadrons, and see just how useful squadrons are at locking up and destroying enemy bombers. After that, they can choose whether to pick up some Y-Wings for bombers or their own, or add a small ship (corvette or flotilla).

Always remember--give them the opportunity to make things go BOOM!

A "boss battle" at the end is fine because they'll be experienced enough that they won't need the immediate reinforcement and satisfaction of enemy ships exploding everywhere. It also holds that scary and dramatic "will it die in time?" element.

Have fun!

My scenario that I GMed had one other player. I told him he could disable the interdictor by taking down the side shields and roll for a critical to damage the gravity well generators as he was flying around in a CR90.

So I just got back from my session with some people. I initially had 2 players, but one more showed up for a game and was interested in the campaign I was running.

The Rules for the Rebel players is that each player has the option to bring a single ship (Either a CR-90 or Hammerhead Corvette.) along with their squadron value of squads. (Limited to Z-95s and Y-wings.) Along with these ships, they each had 5 points to outfit their ships. The Scout Hammerhead corvette took Expanded Hangar Bays to take 2 Z-95s while we had a CR-90A player take Engineering Teams and a Y-wing. The first scenario was simple. The Rebels were tasked in raiding a convoy a hyperspace jump from a nearby system as to lure away defending cruisers from a star fighter shipyard with Rebel Sympathizers. Accompanying the the Rebels was General Cracken in his own Scout Hammerhead with Boarding Troopers and Dual Turbolaser turrets along with an unarmed transport provided another Z-95 and Y-wing to the group. (The third player took command of these assets.)

The Imperial Convoy consisted of 2 Gozanti flotillas, a Support Nebulon with Dual Turbolaser turrets and Jamming Fields, (This was to make the Nebulon interesting and it was funny with the rebels dealing with it.) and the big boss of the group Commander Ozzel in a Raider I corvette equipped with Ordnance Experts and Rapid Reload. Ozzel sorta became the big bad yet cowardly villain of the next two scenarios. Each Gozanti had a token of supplies for the rebels to obtain on destruction providing 5 points to spend, and the boarding troopers could be used to steal the Nebulon. Ozzel proved to be quite devastating to the band of Rebels nearly taking out the CR-90 though the Rebels were able to both provoke an Imperial Command Cruiser to appear and steal the enemy Nebulon with the all important Jamming Fields! The mission was successful and they Rebels were able to salvage 10 points of upgrades from the Nebulon stored on board.

Following the Acquisition of the Nebulon, the Rebels equipped the CR-90 with TRCs, moved the DTT to the Light Carrier Hammerhead, and placed Engineering Teams and Defense Liaison on the Nebulon. Cracken had departed for the next mission leading to Madine taking command of the band of Rebels. Now was the time to take over the light shipyard station with it being defended by 4 groups of TIE Fighters, another Command Arquitens with DTT, and Ozzel in his modified Raider. The Station itself was providing squadron commands to the TIE from distance 1-5. The 3 Rebel ships aimed for targeting the cruiser first with the addition of a Y-wing Squad and A-wing squad from Madine who commanded from the Nebulon. 2 turns followed with the ships trading blows and squadrons doing their things (5 damage Z-95 hits HURT!) when suddenly Cracken returned to aid the band! His Scout Corvette and Transports with the addition of 2 Z-95s. Ozzel was giving them trouble tapping the side of the Nebulon on one side while the Arquitens from another. However concentrated fire saw Ozzel's ship ruined and escape pods jettisoned. Victory was almost in sight for the Rebels however reinforcements arrived in the form of a Gladiator II Star Destroyer with Wide Area Barrage along with a Gozanti deploying a group of Interceptors and the elusive Captain Jonus! Needless to say Jonus was focused down with combined Z-95 fire. The Rebels had to clear out the rest of the enemies to win the scenario and trade in their Z-95s for A-wings. Unfortunately disaster struck as the CR-90 captain made an error in destroying the Gozanti that they needed to ram resulting in a double arc with the Gladiator. The CR-90 was badly damaged and had to retreat along with the Rest of the rebel fleet. While a failure, the rebels were able to capture some supplies to aid in their fleet for the next mission.

SO yea that is basically what happened with my gaming session. Each player was pretty experienced and we all had a good time as we were playing pretty casual. Ships weren't being destroyed as fast as I thought and I house ruled here or there. I plan on having the next scenario at a small rebel outpost that is attacked by Ozzel as revenge! Cracken will have outfitted his Gr-75s with Repair crews to help repair the scarred CR-90. They just have to repair it to jump and they will have that scenario done. We all had a blast and feel like we are hitting a good amount of fun and dynamic with multiple players vs one IA style.

That is beautiful! I love how you went with the tech tree approach to available ships and squadrons!

If anyone has some Scenario ideas to run I would love to collab on designing some.

23 minutes ago, TallGiraffe said:

If anyone has some Scenario ideas to run I would love to collab on designing some.

1) An independant Gozanti is being attacked by Imperial forces and is already damaged when the Rebels arrive. An escape pod is launched as it is destroyed and this becomes essentially a “Capture the VIP” objective.

If the Rebels get the VIP, it turns out to be everyone’s friend, Hondo! The Imperials were after him because he knows about a “missing” mining station. When the Empire came to secure it, the station had relocated itself using tugs further into an asteroid belt. It’s been trading ore with smugglers and pirates. If the Rebels did not rescue Hondo, they have heard rumors of this station through smuggler contacts. It wants protection from the Empire.

2) Use the Intel Sweep objective. Without Hondo, the Empire is trying to gather intel about the station’s whereabouts while the Rebellion must grab it before the Empire can. Flip this if the Rebels did not rescue Hondo.

3) Play a Contested Outpost mission modified as follows:

If the Rebellion won both of the above missions, they make contact with the station and can arm it before the Empire arrives. The contested outpost is also an armed station from CC. Empire is first player.

If each side won one of the previous games, the side who captured Hondo is second player.

If the Empire won both previous games, it is ALSO a Salvage Run mission as station inhabitants flee via escape pods hoping to be picked up by the Rebel ships. The Empire is second player. Combine points from both objectives.

(Whoever rescued Hondo gets him for the next two missions.)

I would highly recommend using KDY to create custom officer cards to represent the player's in game personas, and don't take up a slot. The card doesn't even need an ability if you don't want, just fill the text with the character's background info.

http://kdyards.com/index.php

@CommanderDave if you do dm a campaign for them. Maybe institute a house rule where you have to make all you decisions first on what you going to do (general, like what ship to shoot ect), then let your kids confir together to make up their minds. Thus giving them a little more fleet cohesion, and not the feel your hearing in on their stategy. It's just a thought.