Good morning all.

Several of the folks I play with were getting a bit, shall we say, "tired"` of the normal game missions. So I decided to whip up a few "off the wall" thematic missions.

Mission #1 - The Attack on Veneb VIII. (three player game)

The Imperial Player received some intel of a Rebel attack on one of their shipyards at Veneb VIII!

Rebel player received the full 400 points.

The Imperial fleet was only allowed 300 points (as the other 100 would be coming their way in the form of the bases)

The third player played the Imperial Bases and some generic TIE fighters. I statted up Imperial bases (and their victory point worth) , as some of the bases had their own defenses (more points, but better guns and shields), and left some of the bases defenseless (no armament and low shields). They were at the bottom of the initiative order.

The star bases were scattered about the Imperial side of the game board. The bases could not be within 8 inches of each other. ( It was really neat to see what bases players decided to sacrifice or go after. It made for some VERY interesting strategy.)

The victory conditions were : Imperial --> Destroyed Rebel ship point total plus bonus points to surviving bases. Rebels -->Destroyed Imperial ship point total plus cause as much damage to the bases as they can (extra VP).

After the game, all three players agreed that the bases would benefit from some ability to upgrade, and next time, include some upgrade slots on some of the bases, but not all of them.

I bought the Dropfleet Commander Starbase set and painted it up for the Imperials to defend! (not my pic -- just the one from the box - but that is a really great and highly customizable kit! And they scale pretty well with Armada)

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Mission #2 The Yavin 4 Escape!

After the destruction of the Death Star, the Rebels had to escape Yavin 4 before more Imperials arrived, but too late! The Imperials were already in system! But the Rebels knew something the Imperials did not know; reinforcements were on their way, but when??? Would they show up in time?? Dun dun daaaannnnnn... (insert epic music here)

Both Imperial and Rebel sides to create a normal 400 pt force, but there was a twist!

When placing the Rebel fleet on their side of the board, the Rebels were only allowed 200-ish pts to be on the board at the start of the game (reflecting the depleted Rebel fleet after the attack on the Death Star). I bought some extra 'odd ball' ships from other sources (Shapeways, Thingverse, Destiny Aurora: Spacecraft Expansion, etc...) and used them as the transports the Rebels had to defend, and gave the ships various victory point value (but these ships did not count towards the Rebel player's point total).

On the start of each turn (excluding the first), the rebel player rolled a d6. If the Rebel player rolled the turn number or lower, they were allowed to bring in the rest of their fleet from ANY side of the table. Which could mean the Imperials could be ambushed on Turn two ( 🙂 ), or a possibility for the Rebel fleet to show up late in the game, and to late to help their evacuees ( 😞 ).

Mission Objectives : Imperials --> Crush the Rebel fleet and destroy as many of the transports as possible (extra VP). Rebels--> To damage the Imperials to allow the transports to escape off the far side of the board (extra VP).

Both players really liked the "variable turn reinforcement rule". The felt it brought a lot of tension to the game (" C'mon fleet... show up NOW! Darn it... rolled high.... UGH....").

While these games took a bit longer to play, my players really seemed to enjoy the thematic missions and new variants.. There was a load of hootin' and hollerin', and a ton of laughs. I have been asked to run these again soon. They enjoyed the break in the normal game missions and setup.

Does your group create 'thematic" games vs. the normal missions?

If so, what were they? (I'm looking for inspiration for the next wacky game)

These are great, I really like the idea of that first mission and may use it as inspiration for my own. If you haven't already, you should check out Master of the Fleets custom thematic missions on their youtube channel. They put in a lot of work into designing theirs and might give you some ideas. I try and get some inspiration out of books and games as well. In particular I've been working on a mission based on the Ison Corridor ambush from Rogue Squadron II.

Unfortunately I don't get to play games often as I've moved, and only when I go back to see family/friends. I haven't managed to find a casual group up here

My father once told me of old Neapolionic Wargames players who would organize massive double blind games that would take up a whole week of play during the summer. Ive been thinking of trying to do something similar, with less time commitment, maybe a day max. Each player would have a standard force size, and be split into pairs or (only three per side alone), then there would be an Admiral or Group Commander. He is the man who recieves the orders, because there is a Field Marshal, who cannot directly see what is going on, he only has information being run to him by a messenge, and has to direct the commanders via the messenger.

I think this could work if you had a video feed that the field marshal can watch. There would still be the messenger running commands and a command staff to help the marshal, but it would be interesting to watch. Could give each side special mission objectives.

5 hours ago, Ling27 said:

My father once told me of old Neapolionic Wargames players who would organize massive double blind games that would take up a whole week of play during the summer. Ive been thinking of trying to do something similar, with less time commitment, maybe a day max. Each player would have a standard force size, and be split into pairs or (only three per side alone), then there would be an Admiral or Group Commander. He is the man who recieves the orders, because there is a Field Marshal, who cannot directly see what is going on, he only has information being run to him by a messenge, and has to direct the commanders via the messenger.

I think this could work if you had a video feed that the field marshal can watch. There would still be the messenger running commands and a command staff to help the marshal, but it would be interesting to watch. Could give each side special mission objectives.

These types of games are alive and well - I play them regularly. They work best in two scenarios:

The Supreme Commander has his own fleet/army/section as well so he’s not getting board in down time, or

The battle mechanics are shaved down to 15ish minutes and he has planning he needs to do while the proms are at the war table rolling dice.

The first example would be something like Command and Colours or Memoir 44 Overlord, the second would be more like a Megagame.

5 hours ago, Ling27 said:

My father once told me of old Neapolionic Wargames players who would organize massive double blind games that would take up a whole week of play during the summer. Ive been thinking of trying to do something similar, with less time commitment, maybe a day max. Each player would have a standard force size, and be split into pairs or (only three per side alone), then there would be an Admiral or Group Commander. He is the man who recieves the orders, because there is a Field Marshal, who cannot directly see what is going on, he only has information being run to him by a messenge, and has to direct the commanders via the messenger.

I think this could work if you had a video feed that the field marshal can watch. There would still be the messenger running commands and a command staff to help the marshal, but it would be interesting to watch. Could give each side special mission objectives.

I got to join as a junior commander in a battle just like this once, back when I was still just a kid.

I don't know if there is an international community for it, but those games were some of the most elaborate I've ever seen.

9vs9 player game the one I joined on one table.

1 minute ago, Bakura83 said:

These types of games are alive and well - I play them regularly. They work best in two scenarios:

The Supreme Commander has his own fleet/army/section as well so he’s not getting board in down time, or

The battle mechanics are shaved down to 15ish minutes and he has planning he needs to do while the proms are at the war table rolling dice.

The first example would be something like Command and Colours or Memoir 44 Overlord, the second would be more like a Megagame.

I like Command & Colors, but neither it nor memoir 44 (I'd prefer ToI in that case) has anything near the complexity or miniature game feel as these Napoleonic games.

We're talking Warhammer: Fantasy Battles level of miniatures.

3 hours ago, Cpt. Caine said:

I like Command & Colors, but neither it nor memoir 44 (I'd prefer ToI in that case) has anything near the complexity or miniature game feel as these Napoleonic games.

We're talking Warhammer: Fantasy Battles level of miniatures.

I recently did one about Operation Barbossa, that was about 70 people per team spread over 4 theatres, everything from people moving 1-5 clusters of units to grand commanders trying to coordinate the whole thing on a strategic level. Great fun.

I think we should organize a massive battle at an event sometime. I think it would be a fun way to show off Armada as a whole, with various fleet set ups, everyone gathered around do to something, various objectives.

On 12/7/2018 at 11:53 AM, Bakura83 said:

I recently did one about Operation Barbossa, that was about 70 people per team spread over 4 theatres, everything from people moving 1-5 clusters of units to grand commanders trying to coordinate the whole thing on a strategic level. Great fun.

I can equally appreciate that, but C&C isn't a miniature game after all.