Hi all, I had a GREAT time with Armada's Corellian Conflict which added a campaign/progression system to the normal game. It was designed for 2 or more players to build fleets and duke it out for systems with various resource benefits, and rewarded your troops as veterans for contributing to victory and scarred them for being defeated.

Inspired by a post on the FB Legion group, I want to work on a similar system for Legion. It would still be 90% the base rules of Legion, but with an opportunity to build up those squads that act heroically and cause you to reconsider going all in to win a battle if it meant total destruction of your troops.

I'm thinking something like starting with a list of 600 points and no unit upgrades, then escalating to a maximum of 800 possible points (with actual points available based on your success in games and resources captured on a strategic map). Then, a separate currency for Veteran Perks such as rerolls, keyword purchases, and even dice color upgrades (probably the most expensive). You would have a ton of customization options as you decide what specializations you want each squad to have. And of course, if they are defeated in a game then they would have a "scarred" penalty such as starting the next game with a suppression token. Then if defeated again they are lost permanently, with the option to replace them with fresh recruits.

Please post any thoughts or ideas you have here, I will be working on a formal draft of this idea in the coming days and weeks. I think it will play best with the same group of opponents (2 or more) that play a series of games together over time, or even a league.

Thank you so much for doing this, I absolutely suck at making rules but really enjoyed the version that was made for star wars x-wing!

Ideally, FFG would have more commanders to make this work. Here’s a spitball idea with 0 real thought put into it that might be something:

Each team/player develops a list of a larger army (2000 points). That list is divided into three 600 point divisions, with building restrictions (say, 0-1 commanders, 3-6 corps, 0-2 Support, 0-2 Special Forces, 0-1 Heavy, 0-1 Operative) The remaining 200 points is a commander-free reinforcement list, you can call in by discarding a command card (it has no effect) and playing Standing Orders, within range 1 of your commander or original command zone, but not within range 2 of an enemy unit, only playable on odd numbered rounds.

One division participates in each of the first three engagements. If reinforced, surviving units may not reinforce again until after three engagements. Play with three objectives from the core, “Intercept the Transmissions”, “Recover the Supplies”, and “Key Positions”. Thematically, in that order, or just remove the objective each time it is selected, so those objectives aren’t played twice. Also consider doing 4 rounds instead of 6 to prevent getting tabled. 4 ^th engagement, combine the remaining units from the previous three engagements, play “Breakthrough.” After the fourth engagement, combine units, purchase upgrades, etc.

To combine units, begin with corps, making full, legal units. If there are points left over, double them and add them to your pool of points. Let’s say it’s a rebel trooper, which a base unit has four troops in it. You have two units remaining, each with a leader, a trooper, and a Z-6, no upgrades. Combine those two units into a full 4+Z6 unit. Since the extra Z-6 would not be legal, either take 44 points, trade it for another rebel trooper and add the two times the 12 points, or add it to another surviving squad. Once units are combined, raise their courage value one and buy upgrades, etc.

Then buy new units.

Move on to the next planet.

I imagine engagements could be tweaked so one or two are played on a single system, systems you control generate points.

Scarring seems difficult to do for anything besides commanders. Maybe scars could affect the command hand? Particularly if a division gets wiped. As commanders are a hot commodity in this game.

I agree the commanders scarcity makes it so they would pretty much be safe from permanent removal. I think that fits the idea well though, as ideally this should be about upgrading and customizing your stock army rather than making "super characters." Only thing is your upgraded basic units could come close in power to your commanders, but that's not such a bad thing and commanders always have command cards.

Thanks for your ideas, very helpful!

This can work well when you have a series of interconnected nodes on a map representing different sites and geographies. Some will confer advantages to the owner (maybe the factory sector gives a 20% discount to vehicles). The dessert could give nothing, but get you closer to the opponent's base. The ammo depot gives free grenades to two units per battle.

The challenge you'll have to overcome is that this by nature creates unbalanced battles. The trick is balancing giving real advantages to the winner in a given round without allowing early victories to just steamroll over the weaker player with fewer upgrades.

One way to do this is to have a standard "garrison" force at all locations or in all battles. Maybe both sides get 650 points guaranteed with standard gear and then can bring in up to 225 of veterans or commanders (to allow Vader or an AT-ST to be one of the things brought in). If you commit a lot of forces in one place you could catch your opponent with 650 to your 875, but you could be short in another battle elsewhere. And having a limited pool of character units with the grunts could be fun.

Armada had a key mechanic to correspond to the threat of your prized units getting destroyed--hyperspace jump. Beginning round 4 and continuing into round 5 (not round 6), when a unit activated you could use its activation to remove it from battle. It would suffer no lasting harm from this, but obviously it greatly hampered your ability to win the game. I think this mechanic (reskinned as a combat evac) would slot nicely into this ruleset.

I think that due to the lack of commanders to choose from, the rules could allow for commanders to be repeated in each of the three divisions if necessary.

Here is a running list of potential upgrades. I need to work out costs, which is tricky because these have huge potential to throw the game out of whack.

Rerolls and Tokens

• Single use reroll tokens
• Automatic Aim tokens
• Automatic Dodge tokens
• Defensive rerolls
• Offensive rerolls

Speed Increases

• Single use 1-speed boost
• Unit speed upgrade

Attack Range Increase

• Range 2 max to Range 3 max

Command Sphere Range Increases

• Range 3 max to Range 4 max (permanent Commanding Presence)

Command Effectiveness Increases

• Remove 1 Suppression to any unit receiving an order
• Issue 1 additional order in range

Keyword Purchases to apply to a unit

• Suppressive
• Precise
• Nimble
• Sharpshooter

Cover Upgrades

• Cover 1 bonus
• Auto upgrade to heavy cover when in light cover (does not apply to cover granted from suppression)

Armor Upgrades (for speeder bikes)

• Adds Armor keyword, reduces max speed to 2

Surge Purchases

• Add Offense: Surge to hit
• Add Offense: Surge to crit
• Add Defense: Surge to block

Dice Upgrades

• Royal/Imperial Guard (upgrades guardian die to Red)
• Upgrade Attack die color
• Upgrade Defense die color

10 minutes ago, Brightguy said:

This can work well when you have a series of interconnected nodes on a map representing different sites and geographies. Some will confer advantages to the owner (maybe the factory sector gives a 20% discount to vehicles). The dessert could give nothing, but get you closer to the opponent's base. The ammo depot gives free grenades to two units per battle.

The challenge you'll have to overcome is that this by nature creates unbalanced battles. The trick is balancing giving real advantages to the winner in a given round without allowing early victories to just steamroll over the weaker player with fewer upgrades.

One way to do this is to have a standard "garrison" force at all locations or in all battles. Maybe both sides get 650 points guaranteed with standard gear and then can bring in up to 225 of veterans or commanders (to allow Vader or an AT-ST to be one of the things brought in). If you commit a lot of forces in one place you could catch your opponent with 650 to your 875, but you could be short in another battle elsewhere. And having a limited pool of character units with the grunts could be fun.

Great points. Armada handled this by having a "Base" node that automatically got a bonus in defending. So even if you get rolled from unbalanced armies, you'd eventually get a good chance to repel an attack with that boost. Also, since this sort of game is designed to end eventually, a steamroll may end up being just that. But even if you lose all your upgrades and upgrade points, each side would have a maximum point ceiling and a minimum "allowance" to rebuild their squad with, so you're never just fighting as 2 trooper units and a commander with no hope of winning.

Another thing Corellian Conflict had was the ability for an all-out battle, winner take all. All 3 divisions would participate in that, which is why they required no overlap in named characters when building lists. That might have to be put on hold for now until more commanders come out.

EDIT: I will be making this into a separate post titled "Corellian Conflict campaign/unit RPG re-skin for Legion"

There will be one Rebel side and one Imperial side. Every effort should be made to stay consistent with factions, but there is no mechanical problem to having "training exercises" if this is not possible. A side can be a single player playing with 2 divisions, two players playing with a division each, or three players each with a division.

Each Division will field a list of 600 points to start. Each unit can have no more than one upgrade card to start.

Each Rebel Division secretly chooses two locations on the map--one to house a secret shield generator that is helping to protect the planet from destruction from the Star Destroyers orbiting above, and another location to serve as a field outpost (if playing as a team, discuss these locations together). Each Rebel division names two locations on the map that is either a shield generator location or a field outpost location, but the Imperial team will not know which is which.

The Imperials choose one location to serve as their Forward Operating Base (FOB) , and their other base is automatically located at the Capital City of the planet (flavor as you like based on your terrain and theme). Thanks to Rebel reconnaissance, the location of the Imperial FOB is public knowledge. If playing with a third Imperial division, publicly place a second Imperial FOB.

The game is played with the following phases repeated until one faction achieves 9 Campaign Points (or 12 Campaign points if playing with 3-man teams):

1. Deployment Phase : Teams discuss their strategy and determine their battle pairings
2. Battle Phase : each battle is played according to the pairings
3. Logistics Phase: earn and spend resources based on the battle and resulting situation on the planetary map

Deployment Phase

Starting with the Rebel team in Round 1 (or the team with fewer campaign points afterwards), teams alternate declaring a location for an assault and a division that will be making the assault. The opposing player then commits a division to defend that assault, thereby creating a game pairing. If the location was a secret Rebel generator or outpost, this is revealed to the Imperial team when the location is chosen. Repeat until all divisions have been committed to a location. The team that declared the assault always chooses whether they are the red or blue player for that match.

Special Assaults: Either team may declare at the time of naming an assault location that the attack is a Special Assault. The only difference between this and a regular assault is that the winner of this match will receive a Supply bonus for upgrades rather than campaign points.

• Supply Line Raid: Rebels can declare that one of their deployments for assault is a Supply Line Raid. The location of a Supply Line Raid must be in the Capital Sector or along one of the Supply Routes on the planetary map. The objective card used is always "Recover the Supplies," the Deployment is always "Disarray," and the condition card is chosen by the Rebel Player.
• Show of Force: Imperials can declare that one of their deployments for assault is a Show of Force. The location of a Show of Force must be outside the Capital Sector and cannot be along any of the Supply Routes on the planetary map. The Imperial Player selects ALL setup cards (Objective, Deployment, and Condition).

Battle Phase

• Command Hand: each division's command hand is free to change as desired between battles, within limits specified in the Legion RRG.
• Campaign Points: Battles are played normally according to Legion RRG and Forum FAQs. Win conditions are determined by the objective card used for that battle, and the winning side receives 1 campaign point.
• Tracking Unit Condition: If a unit was destroyed during the battle, that unit is depleted . If a unit destroyed another unit (killing blow) and survived through the end of the battle, it becomes a veteran unit .

Depleted units start the next battle with one fewer health (-1 mini for multiple mini units or 1 fewer health for single mini units).

Veteran units gain a Veteran token at the beginning of each game. The unit can use the Veteran token up to two times in a game (flip, then discard) to EITHER gain a dodge token as a free action OR reroll any number of their dice in a single attack OR defense roll.

Furthermore, if a non-commander depleted unit is defeated in a battle, that unit is destroyed and is permanently removed from the division along with any equipped upgrade cards . Commanders suffer no penalty for being defeated beyond being depleted.

Logistics Phase

• Battle Effects: In addition to the campaign point earned for winning a battle (except for Special Assaults), if the location was an Imperial FOB, Rebel outpost, or shield generator there may be additional Campaign Points awarded as noted on the planetary map. The FOB/outpost/generator is destroyed if the assaulting side wins the battle on that location.

• Gain Supplies: Every location controlled by a team (base, outpost, or generator) has a Supply Value associated with it. The team gains this many supply points that can be used to resupply and upgrade its units. Each Imperial FOB or Rebel Generator location provides 50 points of supply PLUS the supply value associated with that location, and each Rebel Outpost provides 10 points of supply PLUS the supply value associated with that location. Teams must divide supply points as evenly as possible among their divisions, with any remainder going to the division with the fewest list points/most depleted units.

• Construct New Fortifications: Players who won a battle in the battle phase have an opportunity to build a new FOB (Imperials) or Shield Generator/Outpost (Rebels). FOB or Generator costs 30 supply points, and there is no cost to establish a Rebel Outpost. If the Rebel team establishes a new Generator or Outpost, the Imperials are simply notified that there is a "Rebel presence" at that location and will not know if it is a new generator or outpost. Base limits: Imperials can only have a total number of Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) equal to the number of Imperial divisions +1. Rebels can only have a number of Shield Generators equal to the number of Rebel divisions +1. They can only have a number of outposts equal to the number of Rebel divisions x2.

• Resupply, Upgrade, and Recruit Units: Both teams can use supply points to resupply depleted units, upgrade existing units, or recruit new units to add to the division within a new 900-point cap after the first round. Divisions are still limited by the RRG-defined unit type limit, however. Depleted units can be resupplied by paying supply points equal to half of the unit's base cost (do not include the cost of upgrade cards). Existing units (whether depleted or not) can be upgraded from a list of available upgrades. Finally, new units and upgrade cards can be added within the point and unit-type limits. You may also shuffle upgrade cards around any of your units as desired (unless they were part of a unit that was permanently destroyed in the previous battle), but only within a single division. You may also completely remove any upgrade cards, but you do not get the points refunded to you (useful for remaining under division point caps). If you remove any upgrade cards, they remain available to that division for a later game round at no cost. You may bank any unused supply points for a specific division (the points do not go back into a general pool).

• Disband: If a division has suffered losses that are too heavy to compete, it may disband and a new 700 point division can be formed with fresh recruits and upgrades. The commander must remain the same, though all commander upgrades are discarded. The new 700 point division receives its share of supply points, but must immediately discard them and build the 700 point division from scratch.

Strategic Retreats

In any battle, only during rounds 4 or 5, a non-commander unit can choose to retreat from the battlefield at the start of its activation. This does not trigger any game effects, nor is any action allowed such as "at the start of your activation." The decision to retreat must be made at the beginning of the activation, so there is no chance to rally or take any other action before retreating. Then the activation is complete and it is the opponent's turn to activate. That unit must drop any objectives it is carrying. The unit remains on the battlefield until the End Phase , when it is removed from play (it cannot score points for objectives during that round). Panicked units cannot perform a strategic retreat.

Base Assaults/Generator Assaults

When an assault on an Enemy-controlled location is determined to be an Imperial FOB or Rebel Shield Generator, special rules apply to the battle. The defender always has initiative (chooses red or blue). The Objective is always Breakthrough, the deployment is always Long March, and the condition card is always Clear Conditions. The defender then chooses from three special Condition Cards: Ion Defense Bombardment, Fortified Stronghold, or Partisan Defense.

Ion Defense Bombardment : if this card is selected, the defender deploys all units before the attacker. Then the defender places 3 objective tokens anywhere in the play area (outside of deployment zones). At the beginning of the Activation Phase, the defender may select 1 enemy unit at range 1-3 of an objective token and perform an attack against that unit. The attack rolls 2 red attack dice with Impact 2 and Ion 1 .

Fortified Stronghold : if this card is selected, the defender places a terrain piece to serve as a base cannon (use appropriate terrain for a weapon turret if possible). The turret must be placed beyond range 4 of the attacker's edge, and at least range 1 from any other terrain. Once per round during the Activation phase, the defender can choose to activate the turret instead of a unit. The turret attacks with range 1-4 and draws Line of Sight from the center of the terrain piece at a point that is exactly Height 2. This attack rolls 4 black and 6 white dice with Impact 1 and Suppressive 1 . The turret can be attacked, it rolls no defense dice and has a hull value of 8 as well as the Armor keyword.

Partisan Defense: If this card is selected, before deploying units the defender may choose up to 80 points of Corps units to add to the division, ignoring the 6-unit cap on corps units. These units can receive upgrades as normal, as long as the total of the added units and upgrades does not exceed 80 points. During play, if all Partisan units are completely defeated, the attackers receive an additional victory point.

Location Bonuses

There are four location bonus types available on the planetary map: Supply Cache , High Value Prisoner, Spynet, and Skilled Tacticians. These benefit players in a given game round, and tokens generated cannot be carried over to a future round (though supply points from a Supply Cache may be banked for a future round).

• High Value Prisoner: At this location, forces have captured a high-value prisoner that can be held hostage, dissuading the enemy from forcing an attack. If a team controls a location with this icon (meaning a base/generator/outpost is present), that team receives a prisoner token for each of these locations controlled. Then, during the Deployment Phase , teams that have a prisoner token (starting with the team with initiative) alternate placing these tokens on the planetary map. These locations cannot be declared as locations for assaults that round .

• Supply Cache: Around the planet, there are a limited number of supply caches placed by the Empire and by local partisans. During the Logistics Phase , if a team controls a location with a supply cache icon (meaning a base/generator/outpost is present), that team gains an additional 10 supply points for each location controlled with a supply cache.

• Spynet: Each faction employs a number of spies to keep HQ abreast of movements around the planet--sometimes the same individuals! During a battle , after both sides have deployed their units, a player may spend a Spynet token to redeploy any deployed unit to a new location within the legal deployment zone. Players must alternate spending these tokens, but can spend as many as are available. The Blue player has first opportunity to spend tokens, but has the ability to pass and spend the token after the red player, or to not spend the token at all.

• Skilled Tacticians: Certain locations allow for the recruitment of locals sympathetic to your cause. These individuals can provide key intel about the battle ahead. At the beginning of the Battle Phase, each team gains a number of Skilled Tactician tokens equal to the number of locations with a Skilled Tactician icon under their control (meaning a base/generator/outpost is present). These tokens can be distributed among that faction's divisions in any fashion. During the battle phase, after the Deployment, Objective, and Condition cards are drawn, a division with a Skilled Tactician token can spend that token to rearrange the drawn Deployment, Objective, and Condition cards in any order, then remove one from the game . Only the Red player may spend a Skilled Tactician token.

Unit Specialization Upgrades

In addition to resupplying depleted units, purchasing upgrade cards, and adding new units to a division, players have the opportunity to purchase unit-specific improvements during the Logistics Phase to simulate the combat specialization of certain units. These specializations will be very powerful in combat and have the potential to turn the tide of any battle. However, they are also a significant risk as the points spent can be lost if a unit is depleted and then subsequently destroyed in later battles. Very fun and mandatory flavor rule: when you purchase a specialization for a unit, you must give a name to that unit (e.g., "Krayt Squad," "Vader's Fist Squad," etc).

Rerolls and Tokens

• Single use reroll tokens (any of your dice pool rolls, once per game) = 20 points
• Automatic Aim tokens = 40 points
• Automatic Dodge tokens = 40 points
• Defensive rerolls (once per game) = 15 points
• Offensive rerolls (once per game) = 15 points

Speed Increases

• Single use 1-speed boost (once per game) = 20 points
• Unit speed upgrade = 40 points

Attack Range Increase

• Range 2 max to Range 3 max = 40 points

Command Sphere Range Increases

• Range 3 max to Range 4 max (permanent Commanding Presence) = 30 points

Command Effectiveness Increases

• Remove 1 Suppression to any unit receiving an order = 40 points
• Issue 1 additional order in range = 40 points

Keyword Purchases to apply to a unit

• Suppressive = 40 points each rank
• Precise = 30 points
• Nimble = 25 points
• Sharpshooter = 40 points each rank

Cover Upgrades

• Cover 1 bonus = 40 points
• Auto upgrade to heavy cover when in light cover (does not apply to cover granted from suppression) = 20 points

Armor Upgrades (for speeder bikes)

• Adds Armor keyword, reduces max speed to 2 = 50 points

Surge Purchases

• Add Offense: Surge to hit = 40 points
• Add Offense: Surge to crit = 60 points
• Add Defense: Surge to block = 40 points

Dice Upgrades

• Royal/Imperial Guard (upgrades guardian die to Red) = 40 points
• Upgrade Attack die color = 75 points
• Upgrade Defense die color = 75 points

For an ongoing campaign, I beleive a progression system to be interesting, however I have a small suggestion to make that's very inspired by bloodbowl.

If there is a points difference between both players, the "underdog" gets a choice of advantages to compensate the value difference between the legions.

For example:
Mortar Strike: 50 points; Replace Standing orders with this card: 4 pips. 1 trooper. When a friendly unit is issued an order, it gains this weapon: Mortar Strike: 3 white dice, suppressive, range 4-infinite. At the end of the command phase, put standing orders in your hand instead.
Lucky: 50 points; Designate a non force user commander from your army. While defending, this commander may reroll up to one defense die.
Bothan Spies: 100 points. You may decide to return an opponent's token back to the stack before the create order pool step from the command phase starts once per game.
Hold the Line: 125 points. One of your core units gets +1 courage for the whole battle.

Etc...

These are abilities that are by themselves overpriced, but that may prevent a sweeping victory from a 200 points difference between players. They should be fun but not break the game itself.

I kinda like this thread

17 hours ago, Big Easy said:

Great points. Armada handled this by having a "Base" node that automatically got a bonus in defending. So even if you get rolled from unbalanced armies, you'd eventually get a good chance to repel an attack with that boost. Also, since this sort of game is designed to end eventually, a steamroll may end up being just that. But even if you lose all your upgrades and upgrade points, each side would have a maximum point ceiling and a minimum "allowance" to rebuild their squad with, so you're never just fighting as 2 trooper units and a commander with no hope of winning.

From a design standpoint, this is definitely a consideration. Thematically though, imagine a scenario, where your two troopers squads are simply trying to buy time. How many rounds can they go without getting destroyed? How differently will your decisions be when playing the troopers? While balance is crucial, short-term asymmetry lends itself to a much more compelling experience and harder/different decisions. Give those two trooper units some sort of "last stand" keyword, that makes them immune to panic. They're going to be defeated, but maybe there's a bigger payoff, when they buy time for another division to resupply, do an important thing, get a bonus that helps in the next battle. I would draw inspiration not just from Corellian Conflict, but Rebellion, too. You don't have to reinvent the wheel, but you can make it pretty **** cool.

Anyway great stuff, I look forward to playing Legion this way.