My thought for a multi game campaign would be to copy the campaign system from Imperial Assault. This would result in more than 2 players needing to play as teams, but I think it would be relatively easy to implement.

If you aren’t familiar with IA, it’s basically a GMed dungeon crawl, one player plays the Imperials, all the others play a party of rebel heroes who work through a branching tree campaign ala a choose your own adventure story, but the choices are made by winning or loosing missions. At any given time the rebels will have a story mission to do and possibly a few side quests as options. The imperial player may also be able add missions to the players mission deck, and if they choose not to do that mission next, the Imp player gets a bonus for future games.

The key is that, while all this governs what mission the players engage in next, the missions themselves are basically stand alone games. There are mechanics in place to scale the imperials power level up as the heroes gain better equipment and level up, so the campaign system doesn’t need to worry about that so much, it happens automatically within the rules. This means that the actual missions could be resolved in other ways than playing IA. Some missions could be an x-wing game, some a legion game, some an Armada game, and so on. You write a branching story line that includes scenarios using the different games and they fold in naturally.

What would need to be done is to create a set of heroes each of which has at least some skills and upgrades that are applicable to each game in the campaign, and the create gear and rewards that that also effect each game.

So, perhaps, the rebels raid a fighter base as a legion battle. If they succeed, they have stolen some fighters and can upgrade their z-95s to x-wings in future x-wing games. A successful x-wing battle to rescue an escape pod means a bothan spy got out with data about the exact location of the empires new battle station, leading to an Armada, legion, and x-wing trilogy of scenarios, each of which have to be won for the rebels to win the campaign. Wait, that sounds familiar....

1 hour ago, TallGiraffe said:

If you do setup a campaign. Try to limit your rebels to only a few ships. Nothing too crazy for their ships. Maybe have allies show up in a mission once to help if you want to have a larger battle setting. Giving Rebels a big toy to use on a single mission is pretty fun. Also allows you to bring something big to counter it too. Win win in my opinion.

I was thinking that the Rebels would have to accomplish missions to earn ships, I.e. maybe they could steal a quasar carrier (that sounds original I bet no one thought of that) or perhaps there could be a mission which would win the favor of some Mon-cal and earn them an mc-80 or 2. Etc.

So they start off with simple fighters and small ships and have to fight to get better stuff, perhaps through raiding missions or strategic infiltrations (bonus possibilities with legion)

And the Empire would initially do little except send police forces untill the Rebels are clearly causing problems, then after a few games the Empire would send out Hunting fleets consisting of ISD's and other big stuff. After these fleets go out whenever the Rebels raid something there would be distress signals (and maybe a way for the Rebels to turn of the distress signal I.e. destroy the comms array or something) and after the distress signal goes off one of the Hunting fleets hyperspace jumps in (maybe after a turn delay or something) putting tons of Pressure on the Rebels and probably forcing them to retreat to hyperspace etc.

I started some kind of narrative campaign that would allow "unbalanced" matches.

It had some narrative "A,B,C options" for players that would shape the battle conditions.

I dunno where I had it ?

I'm no designer but one thing you could do is start with a CC style map and fleet resupply system (so you need to own system to resupply your fleet).

Rebels start with X owned system. Imperials starts with the rest.

Rebels have 2 fleets. Imperials have 3. Fleets positions are linked to a system (i.e. imperial fleet #1 is on system XYZ.).

You attack a system by moving a fleet into it. If there is only one fleet in the system, there is no battle and it goes to the player owning the fleet. Each fleet moves by 1 system a turn.

Imperials move first, then rebels.

You can only attack a system that is controlled by the other player and adjacent to one of your own system.

Rebels win by winning Y games. Imperials win by owning Z systems.

Rebels commanders, ships titles and unique squadron that were lost returns after turn XX. And they are not limited to 1 upgrade per ship).

So:

- You are still playing balanced game (400 vs 400).

- You don't have the same objective.

- Imperials have the endless aspect.

- Rebels have the hero aspect.

- Rules put the Rebels on a defensive positions

- The more times go by, the harder it gets for Rebels to hold (they have less means of resupplying their fleet). But the more battles happen the closer they get to a win.

- Imperials on the other end just look to control space. They win over time, but they'll win faster by attacking rather than defending.

Would need to be designed (the map) and tested, but it's asymetry without giving up too much of the existing game balance.

9 hours ago, clontroper5 said:

I was thinking that the Rebels would have to accomplish missions to earn ships, I.e. maybe they could steal a quasar carrier (that sounds original I bet no one thought of that) or perhaps there could be a mission which would win the favor of some Mon-cal and earn them an mc-80 or 2. Etc.

So they start off with simple fighters and small ships and have to fight to get better stuff, perhaps through raiding missions or strategic infiltrations (bonus possibilities with legion)

Yea I had my rebels have to steal stuff. Don't be afraid to have some nebulons on the Imperial side too. They make excellent additions.

I had my Rebels start with Z-95s and Y-wings eventually earning X-wings and get a few freighters for their fleet.

A few thoughts on this:

1. This might be a great opportunity to write in a pirate faction to take on the role of mythical third faction slash spoiler force. They start with only barebones scummy stuff but can grow by commandeering ships from the Rebels or Empire.

2. An asymmetrical campaign could play off of a game format kind of like Rebellion (itself a multi-hour game). Perhaps the forces arrayed by each side are as large as they are in Rebellion, but you play up the difficulties of moving and deploying those forces much much more than in the Corellian Conflict. That would go a long way towards giving the Rebels a fighting prayer, if they can skate around the galaxy letting the Empire chase them, but knowing that if one of their cells gets caught in a bad engagement it may very well never get a second chance. I'm already thinking of some ideas for replacing traditional objectives with more narrative-based scenarios, with a "branching storyline" like a choose-your-own-adventure more than the CC's "go anywhere and do whatever" style.

3. An asymmetrical campaign could instead play off of Imperial Assault. Instead of classes like the wookiee guardian or the smuggler or the rodian gunslinger, you've got classes like the MC30 torpedo frigate, or the CR90 corvette. Balance them against each other, and let the Rebels fight against waves of soulless Imperial battle engines to achieve story-based objectives.

Ok, I would make sure to include the hyperspace mechanic from CC. You need to give them an out, especially if it is a co-op campaign. You can't have all your players going down because one makes a bad call. It is really easy for the Rebels to be overrun, without a means of escape, in an asymmetrical campaign.

Also @clontroper5 when running scenarios I have found activation advantage to be important in moderating when playing my campaigns. I would have reserves in place in case things got too easy. Empire got to have reinforcements with how big they are. XD

21 minutes ago, TallGiraffe said:

Also @clontroper5 when running scenarios I have found activation advantage to be important in moderating when playing my campaigns. I would have reserves in place in case things got too easy. Empire got to have reinforcements with how big they are. XD

When in doudt [Insert Star Destroyer] Am-i-rite?

31 minutes ago, clontroper5 said:

When in doudt [Insert Star Destroyer] Am-i-rite?

Oh no! The Rebels are about to route my forces! OH LOOK HERE COMES A VSD! WE ARE SAVED!

On ‎9‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 10:18 PM, clontroper5 said:

I really like the Idea of combining with legion, I think x-wing will be harder to work in a way that makes sense. Have anything to share with us so far?

Right now, it's a concept thought. Using X-wing for smaller missions. It's kinda been on hold till 2.0 is released. The idea so far could be a fleet engagement with a side mission to send a squadron or more to a location on the mat or off (station/base) where enemy squadrons (turns to X-wing) and maybe land troops(Legion). May not be in that order either. Play Legion, recover the supplies and then take to a side of the board with transports ready to take off. Once completed may end up with ties chasing a few transports in an X-wing game or maybe a Star Destroyer was close by? Doing something like this sounds quite fun. Involve players from other games to play one Campaign spaning all three. I have been mostly writing out a storyline for Armada with room for Legion and X-wing. At least first bit is typed up under batreps.

A symetrical game experience means that both sides have the same FP and same goal(s) to achieve. To make a game asymetrical but balanced at the same time you have to give something when you take something away for one side. If you would lower the FP for the rebels you would have to give them easier goals than the empire. But I don't know if that's easy to balance.

I had another thought, that you could manipulate FP over game rounds to give a feeling for asymetrical game experience. In real life guerilla tactics for outnumbered combatants mean to hide and attempt surprise attacks. The stronger troops have to spread out to protect all valuable resources/places/persons. For that rebels could start with a higher number in FP in round 1. Then allow the imperials to bring in reinforcements. This simulates, that the Empire is spread out when rebels attack and has to bring its troops in to fight back. Maybe this would be a relatively easy way to balance asymetrical gameplay.

If the rebel strike force starts and ends after 6 rounds with 300 FP that would be 1.800 FP total (or 300 FP/round). If the empire starts with 200 FP and is allowed to bring in 50 FP every start of ship phase from round 2 up to round 5, that would be: 200 FP + 250 FP + 300 FP + 350 FP + 400 FP + 400 FP = 1900 FP. (I think it's okay to give the Empire a little bonus in FP total because of the disadvantage to be outnumbered the first two rounds and having a delay in deployment if they want to field a unit with more than 50 FP. It's also thematically correct.)

I didn't try this out yet. One would have to make up rules for the deployment of reinforcements that keep the balance (not letting the reinforcements too far away from the battle, but also no permanent Raddus effect). But I think it could be a completely new game experience. Imperials would have to avoid the confrontation the first three rounds and then strike hard. Rebels would have to strike fast and overwhelming the first three rounds and then try to avoid the revenge. Imperials would have to think in a complete new way in fleet building, because they have to ponder which package of 50 FP could they send to the battle field at which time.

In a campaign you could use the rule, that a ship can jump to hyperspace from round 4 on. That would mean rebels go normally as soon as the attacked forces grow to a level higher as their own. Needs some testing, but I think, that could feel like some real guerilla war fare.

You could give the imperials twice (or more!) as many points and give each rebel ship some (3?) extra shields and re-rolls (or maybe even a limited number “choose which dice face” powers to represent their role as the heroes/use of the force), and they score a points multiplier for each kill and/or have a specific target(s) they need to destroy and then bug out, maybe the Imps could have a power that lets them delay the rebels jumping away, possibly one they have to roll for.

Have you thought about not using a system? A system is naturally limiting.

If you've got a small group of players and at least a couple of you have a good grasp of the Star Wars universe it may be simpler to collaboratively come up with the next stage of the story. That gives you scope to deal with capturing ships, personnel, running out of fuel etc.

E.g. Game 1 - salvage run- (capturing fighters)

Rebels win and can use up 50 points of Empire fighters in place of rebel equivalents, no aces, until they're destroyed

Random event- Leia's flagship is destroyed

Game 2 Capture the ViP (Leia's escape pod)

Empire win and begin to interrogate the princess

Random event- boarding parties cripple a star destroyer. Rebels start stripping its weapons. Can use those upgrades for half price next game.

Game 3 capture the station- Rebels attempt to free her

Conditions at end of game- Tarkin parks his SD on the station and wins. Leia is to be publically executed. Game of Legion for rescue attempt.

4 hours ago, Katarn said:

Have you thought about not using a system? A system is naturally limiting.

If you've got a small group of players and at least a couple of you have a good grasp of the Star Wars universe it may be simpler to collaboratively come up with the next stage of the story. That gives you scope to deal with capturing ships, personnel, running out of fuel etc.

E.g. Game 1 - salvage run- (capturing fighters)

Rebels win and can use up 50 points of Empire fighters in place of rebel equivalents, no aces, until they're destroyed

Random event- Leia's flagship is destroyed

Game 2 Capture the ViP (Leia's escape pod)

Empire win and begin to interrogate the princess

Random event- boarding parties cripple a star destroyer. Rebels start stripping its weapons. Can use those upgrades for half price next game.

Game 3 capture the station- Rebels attempt to free her

Conditions at end of game- Tarkin parks his SD on the station and wins. Leia is to be publically executed. Game of Legion for rescue attempt.

Good point,keep it simple stupid haha

Not a bad idea

6 minutes ago, clontroper5 said:

Good point,keep it simple stupid haha

Not a bad idea

I just made my own scenarios and let it play out. If you want to hear some, I could type up something real quick in google drive

18 minutes ago, TallGiraffe said:

I just made my own scenarios and let it play out. If you want to hear some, I could type up something real quick in google drive

If you Type, I will read!

On 9/11/2018 at 10:41 PM, clontroper5 said:

Has anyone homebrewed an Assymetrical campaign system for armada?

[...] Kinda like how Rebellion plays

The OP asked for a campaign SYSTEM. Like Rebellion, means two players (or teams) against each other.

6 hours ago, Katarn said:

Have you thought about not using a system? A system is naturally limiting.

You suggest a non-system system? I think you need some sort of game system, or you will have to play ImpAssault-style campaigns. (And even that has rules for the GM.) But that's more like a role playing game, than a Rebellion style asymetrical Armada campaign.

45 minutes ago, Triangular said:

Like   Rebellion, means two  players (or teams) aga  inst each other.  

Not necessarily, since Rebellion has frequently been likened to a SW Twilight Imperium.

Its the SW universe itself that kinda pushes something like this to 2 teams.

38 minutes ago, Forgottenlore said:

Not necessarily, since Rebellion has frequently been likened to a SW Twilight Imperium.

Its the SW universe itself that kinda pushes something like this to 2 teams.

I don't get this. The Rebellion board game is a two player asymetric game and OP was asking for something like it. My point is, that a DMed campaign (though it's cool) is a totally other idea of gaming. What do I miss?

Just that “like Rebellion” can mean many different things. Rebellion has been called “like Twilight Imperium” because they are both big map based strategy games, even though rebellion only has 2 sides and Twilight Imperium can have up to 6 (or 8, with some work).

I was just pointing out that him saying “like rebellion” did not necessarily mean only 2 sides.

My main goal is fulfilling asymmetrical battles, so anything that contributes to that is good. I was originally thinking about a head to head campaign but a DMed story campaign would also be cool. Maybe a hybrid of several things

Well, I'm working on a way to incorporate imperial assault, legion, x-wing, and armada into a campaign. Each stage of the campaign will be a battle for a world, moon, star base, or whatever. Not every game will be represented in every location, due to dispersion of assets throughout the galaxy. The first test on arriving at the mission area is will there be a space battle? What scale? To determine this, we will use a battle mat with hex spaces and arrange the map to represent the star system the objective area is in. Using markers for each fleet the players have an opportunity to maneuver to either form a blockade or otherwise engage the enemy (Inspiration from the Battletech system-wide engagement rules). Will probably use Star Wars Rebellion markers. So once a space battle occurs or not, the players determine the forces on the ground to see if a battle occurs at the objective area (Legion), or if a strike team is needed for a specific objective (imperial assault). Legion is used to simulate either large scale ground operations zoomed in or skirmishes of a size larger than a strike team. A flow chart for the path to victory is drawn up for each side. This flowchart is different for each world or whatever the objective is. An example of what I'm talking about is:

Scenario: Subjugation of Ryloth

Imperial Victory: Seize control of 6 of the 9 objectives. One must be the Capital City.

Rebel Victory: Maintain control of 4 of the 9 objectives. One must be Secret Rebel Hideout.

It will be like a chess game with the players deciding what forces are where in the system based on a point system. No one side will be able to overpower the enemy in all areas due to limited points for both sides. The empire for example could be fleet heavy to secure the space objectives. The rebels could be starfighter heavy to secure the atmosphere. When one side wins a majority of objectives in an area that team gets a 1 time use boost. Space superiority allows orbital bombardment of a target making seizing that objective easier. Atmospheric superiority allows starfighters to provide ground support to troops with a slightly less powerful bombing run. Those details will have to be worked out though.

Space, 2 objectives ---> Atmosphere, 2 objectives ---> Power Station, 1 objective ---> Capital City, 1 objective ---> Industrial Site, 2 objectives ---> Secret Rebel Hideout, 1 objective

The map will be drawn to show how each connects to eachother so it will be somewhat like risk in that you can't just attack what you want, it has to be connected.

I know it sounds complicated but I don't really think it's that bad. Anyway, just an idea of what I was thinking of doing.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/159b1oJZRaVUYjhxYXA1XDjv4lD9F0pJTCektLxSxyRw/edit?usp=sharing