Here's my custom Battle of Scarif scenario.

The terrain is made from fabric and plastic grass. I wanted it to be inexpensive and practical yet still thematic. I don't like my terrain getting in the way of gameplay so I use a lot of 2D and 2.5D stuff in my games. The trees are just there for aesthetics and can be moved out of the way if needed.

The objective is for the Rebel U-Wings to deploy troops at any of the black landing pads, survive long enough for them to infiltrate the base and capture the Death Star plans, then return to pick them up and escape the play area.

Imperials get a 100pt squad consisting of Tie-Reapers and Tie-Strikers (or era appropriate ships). They also get 11 Stormtroopers and two AT-ATs that can attack Rebel ships and troops infiltrating the bases. The Stormtroopers (represented by 6-sided dice) are divided among the three bases.

Rebels get a 120pt squad consisting of U-Wings and X-Wings (or era appropriate ships). They also get 8 troops that are divided among the U-Wings.

A U-Wing that performs a 0 speed maneuver while in Landing position at a landing pad can deploy any number of troops. At the end of the Combat phase the Rebel player can roll a number of attack dice equal to the number of troops at the base. The Imperial player rolls a number of defense dice equal to the number of Stormtroopers at the base. Red focus results are changed to hits. Green focus results are changed to either evades or hits. Evades cancel red hits. Red crits cannot be canceled. Any remaining hits or crits reduce the number of Troops/Stormtroopers at the base. When there are no remaining Stormtroopers, the Rebels have captured the Death Star plans. When there are no remaining Rebel troops, well... Game over.

A U-Wing that performs a 0 speed maneuver while in Landing position at a landing pad can pickup troops that have captured the plans and must then escape any edge of the play area chosen by the Imperial player. If all U-Wings are destroyed, well... Game over.

AT-ATs move very slowly, less than 1 speed maneuver. During it's activation it may place a Target Lock on the play area at range 2-3. At the end of the Combat phase it may move the lock to any Rebel ship within rage 1 of where it was placed, then make a 2 dice attack against that ship at range 2-3. Instead it may choose to attack Rebel troopers at a base at range 2-3. In this case, the Stormtroopers simply get 1 extra green die added to its pool. AT-ATs have 4 Hull, 0 Shields, 0 Evade and take 1 damage for every 2 hits or 1 crit.

I had intended to give the Imperial player unlimited generic Tie-Striker reinforcements, but it was not needed. The Rebels lost. I may have to try balancing this a little more.

Any suggestions?

Maybe as a balance. Have 1 less At-AT..

3 hours ago, dwaynedauzat said:

Here's my custom Battle of Scarif scenario.
I had intended to give the Imperial player unlimited generic Tie-Striker reinforcements, but it was not needed. The Rebels lost. I may have to try balancing this a little more.

Any suggestions?

Well, generically, the player that has "something to do" is typically at a disadvantage. Although the Rebels have more list points, the Imps still have AT-ATs.

Why did the Rebels lose, and by how much?? Having the U-Wings function as drop ships means they are more-or-less non-combatants with predictable movement needs, and maybe should not be part of the Rebel's point total, just like the AT-ATs are not assessed into the Imp's lists. . .

Also, if Dead U-Wings = Game Over, the Imps know exactly that to do--and killing 2 U-Wings who are busy trying to do something else won't be hard. Maybe the Rebels need a 3rd U-Wing.

I really, really like the idea and set up. Also, I think the basic idea is pretty solid. . .you just need to work the kinks out. And you might need to play it 3-4 times to do so.

One last idea: until we get a Zeta-class, maybe let one of the drop ships be "Rogue One," (sub in a Lambda?) and it can't be attacked until it deploys troops.

Nice! I like the terrain. I did a space-only version of The Battle of Scarif but I'm working on a land/air "Strike on Imperial Base Felucia" scenario.

Scarif:

https://fridaynightxwing.wordpress.com/2018/08/06/the-battle-of-scarif-in-x-wing-miniatures-scale-a-3-part-scenario/

Felucia preview:

https://imgur.com/a/k4bgv

1 hour ago, Darth Meanie said:

Well, generically, the player that has "something to do" is typically at a disadvantage. Although the Rebels have more list points, the Imps still have AT-ATs.

Why did the Rebels lose, and by how much?? Having the U-Wings function as drop ships means they are more-or-less non-combatants with predictable movement needs, and maybe should not be part of the Rebel's point total, just like the AT-ATs are not assessed into the Imp's lists. . .

Also, if Dead U-Wings = Game Over, the Imps know exactly that to do--and killing 2 U-Wings who are busy trying to do something else won't be hard. Maybe the Rebels need a 3rd U-Wing.

This. The rebel player is far too predictable. And has also only 20pts more (not even a Tie worth of points)(and points partly tied up in troop transports, while Empire can freely take a squads of pure attack ships), while Empire has 2 AT-ATs and 3 troopers more. What if the Rebel player (and only the rebel player) can do strafing runs on the ground, eliminating stormtroopers and/or the AT-AT:s? This way the Imperal player has to do something against the Rebel non-Uwing fighters, (otherwise free way for the Rebel commandos), and cannot just concentrate all fire on the U-wings. As per background, the Empire troops on the ground have no idea what the Rebel assault is for (covering the retrieval of the DS plans), and thus do not know that the U-wings are the most important target.

Have you listened to Shuttle Tydiriums pod about suicide run?

https://shuttletydirium.podbean.com/e/episode-102-suicide-run-syndrome/

Btw, the setup looks gorgeous. Which AT-AT model?

3 hours ago, Managarmr said:

Btw, the setup looks gorgeous. Which AT-AT model?

I'm going to guess micro-machines. . .

Quote

This way the Imperal player has to do something against the Rebel non-Uwing fighters, (otherwise free way for the Rebel commandos), and cannot just concentrate all fire on the U-wings.

This is a good idea, both for what you said, but also because it gives the Rebels an alternate path to victory--eliminate ground forces via air support.

Also, I might simplify the soldier fighting to something just like Risk. You're already grabbing d6s; don't let the ground battle detract from XWM.

These are all some great suggestions! Thanks for all the feedback.

6 hours ago, LTuser said:

Maybe as a balance. Have 1 less At-AT..

Well, I had originally thought of using three but it was just too much. The AT-ATs are actually not that much of a threat. They're not that mobile and the Rebels didn't take much damage from their 2 dice attack, which was mostly at range three, thus providing the defense bonus.

5 hours ago, Darth Meanie said:

Why did the Rebels lose, and by how much?? Having the U-Wings function as drop ships means they are more-or-less non-combatants with predictable movement needs, and maybe should not be part of the Rebel's point total, just like the AT-ATs are not assessed into the Imp's lists. . .

Also, if Dead U-Wings = Game Over, the Imps know exactly that to do--and killing 2 U-Wings who are busy trying to do something else won't be hard. Maybe the Rebels need a 3rd U-Wing.

I really, really like the idea and set up. Also, I think the basic idea is pretty solid. . .you just need to work the kinks out. And you might need to play it 3-4 times to do so.

One last idea: until we get a Zeta-class, maybe let one of the drop ships be "Rogue One," (sub in a Lambda?) and it can't be attacked until it deploys troops.

So, both AT-ATs, the Reaper and one Striker had been destroyed. Two Strikers remained. No X-Wings were lost, but both U-Wings were destroyed. There was still a few more rounds before the Rebel Troops could obtain the plans.

As you stated, I could try building a 100pt Rebel squad plus two generic U-Wings (without any upgrades). If that still isn't enough I could allow one U-Wing reinforcement carrying 4 more troops. I also like the "Rogue One" ship idea.

5 hours ago, weisguy119 said:

Nice! I like the terrain. I did a space-only version of The Battle of Scarif but I'm working on a land/air "Strike on Imperial Base Felucia" scenario.

Scarif:

https://fridaynightxwing.wordpress.com/2018/08/06/the-battle-of-scarif-in-x-wing-miniatures-scale-a-3-part-scenario/

Felucia preview:

https://imgur.com/a/k4bgv

I love your Felucia scenario! I've seen your Battle of Scarif. I actually studied it when I was trying to come up with my own idea. I had originally thought of the space battle involving the shield gate which would transition to the atmospheric battle over the base but it was a bit too much for me. I've tried these long epic scaled scenarios before and find them to be quite exhausting. You did a nice job on yours though.

4 hours ago, Managarmr said:

This. The rebel player is far too predictable. And has also only 20pts more (not even a Tie worth of points)(and points partly tied up in troop transports, while Empire can freely take a squads of pure attack ships), while Empire has 2 AT-ATs and 3 troopers more. What if the Rebel player (and only the rebel player) can do strafing runs on the ground, eliminating stormtroopers and/or the AT-AT:s? This way the Imperal player has to do something against the Rebel non-Uwing fighters, (otherwise free way for the Rebel commandos), and cannot just concentrate all fire on the U-wings. As per background, the Empire troops on the ground have no idea what the Rebel assault is for (covering the retrieval of the DS plans), and thus do not know that the U-wings are the most important target.

Have you listened to Shuttle Tydiriums pod about suicide run?

https://shuttletydirium.podbean.com/e/episode-102-suicide-run-syndrome/

Btw, the setup looks gorgeous. Which AT-AT model?

You're right. I need to make both squads an equal 100pts while the AT-ATs and U-Wings are just extra.

The Imperial player has 11 Stormtroopers divided by 3 bases equaling an average of 3.7 at each base. The Rebels have 8 Troopers divided by 2 ships equaling 4 at each base. While both players can adjust the numbers between each base/ship, I feel that part is pretty balanced.

Strafing runs? Humm... Perhaps Y-Wings dropping bombs? The AT-ATs actually were eliminated by the X-Wings in my test run. Eliminating Stormtroopers by having the X-Wings attack the bases might be a good way to draw attention away from the U-Wings.

I haven't listened to the Shuttle Tydirium podcast yet but I'll check it out.

4 hours ago, Darth Meanie said:

I'm going to guess micro-machines. . .

I'm glad they look that good, but as I stated in my original post, I like the inexpensive route. The AT-ATs are actually card stock paper models that I printed out.

An idea for the AT-AT. 4 hull, 1

Blasters are not strong enough: hits cannot remove shield. Only critical hits remove shields.

1 hit =1 damage.

Other than that, I lime the idea

I think simply erasing the "U-Wings die, you lose" rule would make it really close to balanced. The Rebs just have to kill off the enemy troops to "capture the plans", then instead of physically escaping with your U-Wings, just start a two round timer until automatic Rebel victory due to plans being transmitted (unless the imps can kill literally all of your troops and ships before then).

After testing that, you may have to tweak the number of ground troops for each side ever so slightly, but that will be far easier than balancing multiple loss-conditions with the U-Wings needing to fly away.

Just some thoughts... But it looks awesome so far! Thanks for sharing.

7 hours ago, Bucknife said:

I think simply erasing the "U-Wings die, you lose" rule would make it really close to balanced. The Rebs just have to kill off the enemy troops to "capture the plans", then instead of physically escaping with your U-Wings, just start a two round timer until automatic Rebel victory due to plans being transmitted (unless the imps can kill literally all of your troops and ships before then).

After testing that, you may have to tweak the number of ground troops for each side ever so slightly, but that will be far easier than balancing multiple loss-conditions with the U-Wings needing to fly away.

Just some thoughts... But it looks awesome so far! Thanks for sharing.

This is a cool idea that gives the scenario a much closer "Rogue One: They All Die" feeling. I worry it might make it too easy for the Rebels, however, and make the whole scenario a simple Suicide Run to get a U-Wing to a pad, because now dogfighting doesn't matter so much.

8 hours ago, Bucknife said:

I think simply erasing the "U-Wings die, you lose" rule would make it really close to balanced. The Rebs just have to kill off the enemy troops to "capture the plans", then instead of physically escaping with your U-Wings, just start a two round timer until automatic Rebel victory due to plans being transmitted (unless the imps can kill literally all of your troops and ships before then).

After testing that, you may have to tweak the number of ground troops for each side ever so slightly, but that will be far easier than balancing multiple loss-conditions with the U-Wings needing to fly away.

Just some thoughts... But it looks awesome so far! Thanks for sharing.

This certainly would make it more like the movie. I feel, however, that a Rebel victory would simply be a dice game of luck. You drop the troops off and then just keep rolling dice until you win or lose. It's fairly easy to get a U-Wing to a landing pad.

4 hours ago, dwaynedauzat said:

This certainly would make it more like the movie. I feel, however, that a Rebel victory would simply be a dice game of luck. You drop the troops off and then just keep rolling dice until you win or lose. It's fairly easy to get a U-Wing to a landing pad.

Are the Strikers able to strafe the rebel troops on the ground?

______edit______

"Strafe": Action, roll one D6 dice for each enemy troop type at range 1 of you. Destroy a number of troops equal to half of your die roll, rounded down.

(Rolling a 6 destroys 3, rolling a 3 destroys 1, etc.)

This could be done by the T65s as well. Maybe not the Reaper or U's...

4 hours ago, Bucknife said:

Are the Strikers able to strafe the rebel troops on the ground?

______edit______

"Strafe": Action, roll one D6 dice for each enemy troop type at range 1 of you. Destroy a number of troops equal to half of your die roll, rounded down.

(Rolling a 6 destroys 3, rolling a 3 destroys 1, etc.)

This could be done by the T65s as well. Maybe not the Reaper or U's...

I suppose this could work. I don't want to make the trooper concept too complicated. They're not even physical components in the game. Their presence is just represented by 6-sided dice and their location is simply at the landing pads. Neither Rebel nor Imperial troopers directly affect any other ship or component in the game. I suppose they just represent a time element that the U-Wing must endure. Each round the troopers battle each other until the Imperial side is reduced to zero, then the U-Wing may proceed with its mission of escaping. So, first phase the U-Wing deploys troops at any landing pad. Second phase, the U-Wing must survive until the trooper battle time element is done. Third phase, the U-Wing returns to the landing pad then escapes the play area.

The main issue is giving the Imperials something other to focus on than just attacking the U-Wing (which is easy for them to do). This is where it was suggested that the Rebels could also attack the imaginary Stormtroopers, I suppose by attacking the landing pads. This would accomplish two things. (1.) It would decrease the time element that the U-Wing had to endure during Phase 2. (2.) It would provide another option for the Imperials to focus on. (ie. Do they directly attack the U-Wing? Or, do they stop the X-Wings from attacking the stormtroopers?)

So, incorporating some of the ideas that were presented, here is what I'm thinking. Both teams build 100pt squads. Imperials get two AT-ATs and a number of Stormtroopers at the landing pads. Rebels get one "Rogue One" U-Wing, meaning that it can not be attacked until it deploys troops at a landing pad. This will allow the Rebel ships the option to attack Imperial ships, attack AT-ATs and/or attack Stormtroopers at the land pads. The U-Wing may chose to land and deploy troops whenever it wishes, preferably after Stormtroopers and AT-ATs have been reduced by some factor. Then Imperials may turn their attention to attacking the U-Wing. Hopefully it won't have to wait very long and can hightail it outta there. To help balance, I could adjust the trooper numbers and/or increase the U-Wing's hull/shield value.

Another idea would be to gradually introduce the Imperial ships, as they begin to realize Scarif is under attack. The entire Rebel squad, except the U-Wing, would be deployed at the start. The decision to make would be, at what point do you deploy the U-Wing? When the Imperial ships are few, but the Stormtroopers are many? Or, after the Stormtroopers are reduced, but the Imperial ships are increasing?

I still like the idea of the U-Wing having to escape with the plans as opposed to the movie version of transmitting the data. This is what was done in Battlefront and I also have a feeling it's what was originally intended for the movie, as indicated in the trailers, before the re-shoots were done. But will we ever know for sure?...

Looks great. I’m intrigued to work on something similar.

In looking for walkers, I just ordered two of the Hot Wheels AT-ACT from Amazon (only $6.25 each). They look like they might be in the ballpark of the right size. Here’s what they look like:

https://play.hotwheels.com/en-us/shop/productdetail?id=10012987&ProductName=Hot-Wheels-Star-Wars-Imperial-At-Act-Cargo-Walker-&Category=collection&SubCategory=collection&SeoName=Star-Wars

I’ll post my findings when I get them next week.

2 hours ago, dwaynedauzat said:

I still like the idea of the U-Wing having to escape with the plans as opposed to the movie version of transmitting the data.

And I think this is a good way to do it. It means dogfighting is necessary for the whole scenario, because the Rebels want that ship outta there.

In a certain way, the ground battle really is just a "fuzzy game-round timer" that makes it uncertain what everyone's priorities should be at any given moment. Strafing really just allows the players to "advanced the clock" (although, for the Imperials, they can advance the clock to "time's up, game over."}.

Also, as a player who might fly the Rebels, I would wonder if attacking the AT-ATs is a waste of time. How much can the affect me? BUT, those are the elements that make the scenario cool (and repeatable!!}. "Oh man, I wasted too much time killing walkers. Next time we play, I'm just going to avoid them. . ."

17 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

Also, as a player who might fly the Rebels, I would wonder if attacking the AT-ATs is a waste of time. How much can the affect me? BUT, those are the elements that make the scenario cool (and repeatable!!}. "Oh man, I wasted too much time killing walkers. Next time we play, I'm just going to avoid them. . ."

Nice feedback! The AT-ATs are only a slight threat against Rebel ships and a slight advantage to the Stormtroopers by boosting their dice pool.

13 hours ago, dadocollin said:

Looks great. I’m intrigued to work on something similar.

In looking for walkers, I just ordered two of the Hot Wheels AT-ACT from Amazon (only $6.25 each). They look like they might be in the ballpark of the right size. Here’s what they look like:

https://play.hotwheels.com/en-us/shop/productdetail?id=10012987&ProductName=Hot-Wheels-Star-Wars-Imperial-At-Act-Cargo-Walker-&Category=collection&SubCategory=collection&SeoName=Star-Wars

I’ll post my findings when I get them next week.

Those AT-ACTs look pretty good for the price. I wonder what scale they are in. Let us know when you get yours.

Adorable. Can't comment on the balancing but I like the looks and the idea!

5 hours ago, dwaynedauzat said:

Those AT-ACTs look pretty good for the price. I wonder what scale they are in. Let us know when you get yours.

Should be here Tuesday I think. I just learned the AT-ACT is bigger than the AT-AT. There are entire discussions about why the X-wings are able to blow them up in Rogue One and not in ESB. Who knew!

On 4/21/2019 at 2:42 PM, dadocollin said:

Should be here Tuesday I think. I just learned the AT-ACT is bigger than the AT-AT. There are entire discussions about why the X-wings are able to blow them up in Rogue One and not in ESB. Who knew!

Awesome! I knew they were bigger than the well known AT-ATs. I just assumed X-Wing and U-Wing blasters were a lot stronger than the snow speeder.

A lot of people, as well as myself, are fairly surprised to find how small the AT-AT is compared to an X-Wing. I believe it's because we are so used to seeing them beside snow speeders in ESB, which are very small.

46 minutes ago, dwaynedauzat said:

Awesome! I knew they were bigger than the well known AT-ATs. I just assumed X-Wing and U-Wing blasters were a lot stronger than the snow speeder.

A lot of people, as well as myself, are fairly surprised to find how small the AT-AT is compared to an X-Wing. I believe it's because we are so used to seeing them beside snow speeders in ESP, which are very small.

Interesting. I was looking for a pic like the second one you posted here. I was worried the walkers would still be too small, but now I’m thinking they might be about right.

Having the imperials achieve victory by destroying the u-wings is an issue, as others have stated it's pretty easy to burn two of them down. But it is a neccesary factor to create tension in the scenario. Obviously it needs to stay as a wincon, but we need some way of buffing the durability of those u-wings which doesn't break the scenario.

What I would do is allow the x-wings a "covering fire" action. To be taken when appropriate instead of their regular action. This action would say "when an enemy ship inside your firing arc at range 1-3 attacks an objective ship it rolls one fewer attack dice". This effect would not be cumulative (it could be really abusive if all the x-wings were doing it at once).

I like the concept for the ground battle, but it concerns me that the rebels could potentially lose that battle with the players at the table not really having much agency to affect the outcome. A system where the stormtroopers don't kill rebel troops but which still allows for a battle of variable length might be better. You could always use the AT-AT's as a method of threatening to destroy the ground forces... the ships could interact with that by destroying the AT-AT's then.

Another thing that would create some extra tension would be to allow for imperial reinforcements, which should create a sense of urgency for the rebels & offset the points disparity a bit.

I would suggest that during the planning phase if a tie striker (Not the reaper) is absent from the table then the rebel player must nominate a table edge; a marker is placed at that table edge, and the striker is deployed during the end phase of that turn.

Looks like a fun scenario (and some really good terrain)

A really cruel alternative that occurred to me (if you wanted to ramp up the difficulty) would be to make it into a kind of shell game. Put a suitable marker (like a playing card) on each landing pad... two duds and one hit. If the rebel player raids a landing pad and they flip over a dud... bad luck, it looks like your death star plans are at another facility.

Like I said; that one is a bit cruel

4 hours ago, namdoolb said:

Having the imperials achieve victory by destroying the u-wings is an issue, as others have stated it's pretty easy to burn two of them down. But it is a neccesary factor to create tension in the scenario. Obviously it needs to stay as a wincon, but we need some way of buffing the durability of those u-wings which doesn't break the scenario.

What I would do is allow the x-wings a "covering fire" action. To be taken when appropriate instead of their regular action. This action would say "when an enemy ship inside your firing arc at range 1-3 attacks an objective ship it rolls one fewer attack dice". This effect would not be cumulative (it could be really abusive if all the x-wings were doing it at once).

I like the concept for the ground battle, but it concerns me that the rebels could potentially lose that battle with the players at the table not really having much agency to affect the outcome. A system where the stormtroopers don't kill rebel troops but which still allows for a battle of variable length might be better. You could always use the AT-AT's as a method of threatening to destroy the ground forces... the ships could interact with that by destroying the AT-AT's then.

Another thing that would create some extra tension would be to allow for imperial reinforcements, which should create a sense of urgency for the rebels & offset the points disparity a bit.

I would suggest that during the planning phase if a tie striker (Not the reaper) is absent from the table then the rebel player must nominate a table edge; a marker is placed at that table edge, and the striker is deployed during the end phase of that turn.

Looks like a fun scenario (and some really good terrain)

A really cruel alternative that occurred to me (if you wanted to ramp up the difficulty) would be to make it into a kind of shell game. Put a suitable marker (like a playing card) on each landing pad... two duds and one hit. If the rebel player raids a landing pad and they flip over a dud... bad luck, it looks like your death star plans are at another facility.

Like I said; that one is a bit cruel

I really like your ideas. All except the "cruel" one.

The X-Wings buffing the U-Wing could be a very simple solution to the problem. Focusing solely on the U-Wing could spell disaster for the Imperials unless they first take out some of those supporting X-Wings.

You're also right about the Rebels loosing the trooper battle. While the odds are against the Imperials, there is still a good chance they could defeat the Rebels and would cut the game short, possibly making for a poor experience.

Imperial reinforcements is a good idea. Without it, the Rebels would have an alternate win condition where they could simply destroy all Imperial ships and that might be a bit anticlimactic.

Good stuff to think about. Thanks!

I haven't mentioned it yet, and it may or may not be obvious, but the island/land pieces are separate from the water piece. They can be placed in various configurations almost like you would with the obstacle tokens. Just thought I'd point that out.

5 hours ago, namdoolb said:

A really cruel alternative that occurred to me (if you wanted to ramp up the difficulty) would be to make it into a kind of shell game. Put a suitable marker (like a playing card) on each landing pad... two duds and one hit. If the rebel player raids a landing pad and they flip over a dud... bad luck, it looks like your death star plans are at another facility.

Like I said; that one is a bit cruel

While I'm not saying the scenario should be completely unbalanced, I think that allowing the Rebels a slightly better than 50% chance of winning is better than the other way around.

If the Rebels win, I think that both players will walk away feeling like "that's the way it's supposed to be," and there will be less satisfaction the other way around, just psychological speaking.