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Ultimate Mission Campaign Replacements Options
FlyingArrow
Posted: Wednesday, November 23, 2011 6:44:05 AM
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Joined: 5/26/2009
Posts: 8,428
Hi - another player and I would like to start something like the campaign edition for Rebel Storm Ultimate Missions. I have the book, but there seem to be some issues:

* It's old. There are new maps for most of the battles.
* Plain victory points. Other than lost units, winning or losing battles doesn't seem to have any effect on future skirmishes.
* Handling different versions of characters. We'd probably add in something regarding the main personas so that you have to (for example) start with Luke, Rebel then progress to other Lukes from later in the storyline.

Before we start tweaking things, I thought I'd see if anyone has done anything similar already. No sense in reinventing the wheel. We're doing this without a GM (just 2 of us), so that takes a number of options out.


kezzamachine
Posted: Wednesday, November 23, 2011 7:18:27 AM
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Joined: 9/23/2008
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Location: Lower the Hutt, New Zealand
You might want to try something like this (taken from a post I made in June-ish 2010):

"...Sharron and I are engaged in a WAR which is a large scenario thingee. Lemme explain for your enjoyment.

We began by drawing up a list of 2000 points worth of characters, Faction and Fringe, with the limit of only 500 points unique. That's not entirely true as Sharron doesn't have as many folk as I do so I said that he could pick a faction, then bring in other factions at a quarter extra the cost (20pt piece actually costs 25pts now) as per the Ultimate Missions ruling. (That, by the way, has led to him being able to field a coupl'a killer squads with multiple factions and cheapas awesome commanders...) [NB: this is Pre-Vset] A smarter way to have done it would have been to say 'yes, once you have used your faction and fringe, you can bring in extra characters from those factions that you don't have and we'll pretend you do' (a'la virtual sets).

Check this out though, we have it so that you can choose a unique character in your squad and you get access to all the lower costing variants of that unique! Example: I chose Lord Vader (71pts) and I can use any Vader I chose dependent on what I want for a particular skirmish, as long as he costs less than 71. So, whats happening is I am running a Vader around the country-side, not a Lord Vader. Understand-o?

Armies sorted, we then took 30 maps and arranged them in a pattern, much like two 'playoff trees' next to each other. At either end we selected a 'home' map and then continued to branch out. The widest region of maps is at the centre. We then drew 'roads' between them so they looked much like a great map with different locations where skirmishes would take place. The roads were quite artistically laid out, not just simply this map leads to these two etc. and one location could be quite remote or a hub that led to several others. The only provisor was that we had the same number of maps in our third with the same number of roadways. A central third was one we agreed upon the layout of.

The two ways to win are to wipe out all the gunga... all your opponents characters, or to take their home map.

Once you're ready to start, you move all your pieces into your home map. Then we rolled to start - Sharron won. At this stage, the first player to go moves all his pieces at once, from one map to another. Pieces can stay behind (kinda like activating them without movement) and once all their pieces are moved, it is the opponents turn.

This is where the guessing and the strategy begins. You must always tell your opponent the ammount of pieces moving and the sizes, but you never have to tell them who's moving. I figure its kinda like you are able to scan lifeforms and know that somethings coming but you don't now what. It could be GMLS or it could be a rodian trader... you only know that 1 piece has moved.

The rounds continue like this until someone moves an army into a map where another army is located. It then goes like this. Fellow A has 15 pieces on Death Star, Fellow B moves 20 pieces into Death Star. 'A' is defending so chooses side. Both A and B then declare how many points they have; A has 220pts with his 15 characters, B has 300pts. The skirmish is then set at 220pts - the lower value - and B then can choose 220pts out of his 300pts available. The skirmish then takes place and the winner is the winner. If B loses, he still has another 80pts left so he can (on his next turn) run away if he likes, although A may wish to reengage him on his turn to move all his troops.

You move all your troops but the skirmishes can happen within those movements. B may move his 300pts into Death Star, lose, and then decide to move another 300pts from somewhere else into Death Star and re-engage. You can't move to separate lots from one map into another map though... that's a bit stinkguy. If two armies still occupy a map (after a skirmish) an enemy can't move forward past their opponent closer to their goal, you can only move back (unless, I guess, you were charging forward towards the home map or your enemy, you were attacked from behind from your opponent, and then you, after the skirmish, chose to move your army out of the map continuing towards the home map... maybe).

The one extra rule to this is the Escape rule. You can, at any time, have once character escape a skirmish by leaving the outside of the board. They take no further part in the skirmish but can't be killed!

You carry on in this fashion until victory is had!

We have some extra rules about reinforcements/holograms/force ghosts. We say that a Force Ghost or a Hologram can be brought in to a squad for a skirmish regardless of where he is on the whole selection of maps. Example; GMLS is at the Home Base, but 4 or five maps away the NR are entering a skirmish against whoever so the NR can have Luke's Force Ghost appear at that skirmish! And, the cool bit is, if he gets defeated, he is still not dead in terms of the overall picture - he's still at the home base. Yes? Understand? As for reinforcements/reserves, we say that you can bring in extra characters from the map next to you - they don't have to be on the same map as you when you wander into a skirmish. Although, when they die, they stay dead. If you don't have them either on your map or next to your map, you can't bring them in.

So, that's our WAR. Its really driven around recreating a full scale offensive on multiple fronts. Masses of house rules may apply and you kinda work it out as you go along. Its basically a large-scale framework for fitting lots of little legitimate skirmishes into. Basically, we don't mess around too much with proper rules, but how you form the squads and select the maps is what we do mess wi'.

6 Rounds of Army movement and two skirmishes into it, Sharron and I are enjoying our War... although, he's slightly in the lead... "
FlyingArrow
Posted: Wednesday, November 23, 2011 1:00:58 PM
Rank: Moderator
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Joined: 5/26/2009
Posts: 8,428
I like the sound of that... really neat ideas. We played a scenario today, and I think we'd like to incorporate scenarios as much as possible. Your ruleset uses all straight skirmishes.

One quick way to turn things into scenarios is to make several maps key strategic locations that need to be infiltrated, something stolen, something destroyed. Also... prisoners. Non-uniques die when defeated. Uniques are captured when defeated. Opportunities to free captured characters. (Somehow.)

Brainstorming here into how your framework could be made into an Episode IV campaign.

* Build the galaxy "map" like you described - interconnected maps and skirmishes take place when forces meet.
* Empire puts "secret plans" on 3 maps on their side. Rebels have intelligence about where the plans are but need to retrieve them. Rebels have a "secret base" in one of the maps on their side. (Rebel player secretly designates one of the maps to be the secret base.)
* Rebels win if they capture one of the secret plans and take them back to the secret base. Need rules for how to capture and transport the plans.
* Empire wins if they destroy the secret base. (Destroy all characters at the base or move the death star to the base. Death Star starts at the back of the Imperial side of the map and moves only once after each skirmish.)
* Need some special rules for captured characters and how to rescue them - not sure about that yet.
* Han, Chewie, Luke, and Obi-Wan need to get dragged into the Rebellion from Tatooine. Special scenarios would be needed for that - or else we start the campaign with them blasting out of Mos Eisley with one of the 3 sets of plans.


sharron
Posted: Wednesday, November 23, 2011 5:54:28 PM
Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
Groups: Member

Joined: 1/11/2009
Posts: 460
kezzamachine wrote:
You might want to try something like this (taken from a post I made in June-ish 2010):

"...Sharron and I are engaged in a WAR which is a large scenario thingee. Lemme explain for your enjoyment.

We began by drawing up a list of 2000 points worth of characters, Faction and Fringe, with the limit of only 500 points unique. That's not entirely true as Sharron doesn't have as many folk as I do so I said that he could pick a faction, then bring in other factions at a quarter extra the cost (20pt piece actually costs 25pts now) as per the Ultimate Missions ruling. (That, by the way, has led to him being able to field a coupl'a killer squads with multiple factions and cheapas awesome commanders...) [NB: this is Pre-Vset] A smarter way to have done it would have been to say 'yes, once you have used your faction and fringe, you can bring in extra characters from those factions that you don't have and we'll pretend you do' (a'la virtual sets).

Check this out though, we have it so that you can choose a unique character in your squad and you get access to all the lower costing variants of that unique! Example: I chose Lord Vader (71pts) and I can use any Vader I chose dependent on what I want for a particular skirmish, as long as he costs less than 71. So, whats happening is I am running a Vader around the country-side, not a Lord Vader. Understand-o?

Armies sorted, we then took 30 maps and arranged them in a pattern, much like two 'playoff trees' next to each other. At either end we selected a 'home' map and then continued to branch out. The widest region of maps is at the centre. We then drew 'roads' between them so they looked much like a great map with different locations where skirmishes would take place. The roads were quite artistically laid out, not just simply this map leads to these two etc. and one location could be quite remote or a hub that led to several others. The only provisor was that we had the same number of maps in our third with the same number of roadways. A central third was one we agreed upon the layout of.

The two ways to win are to wipe out all the gunga... all your opponents characters, or to take their home map.

Once you're ready to start, you move all your pieces into your home map. Then we rolled to start - Sharron won. At this stage, the first player to go moves all his pieces at once, from one map to another. Pieces can stay behind (kinda like activating them without movement) and once all their pieces are moved, it is the opponents turn.

This is where the guessing and the strategy begins. You must always tell your opponent the ammount of pieces moving and the sizes, but you never have to tell them who's moving. I figure its kinda like you are able to scan lifeforms and know that somethings coming but you don't now what. It could be GMLS or it could be a rodian trader... you only know that 1 piece has moved.

The rounds continue like this until someone moves an army into a map where another army is located. It then goes like this. Fellow A has 15 pieces on Death Star, Fellow B moves 20 pieces into Death Star. 'A' is defending so chooses side. Both A and B then declare how many points they have; A has 220pts with his 15 characters, B has 300pts. The skirmish is then set at 220pts - the lower value - and B then can choose 220pts out of his 300pts available. The skirmish then takes place and the winner is the winner. If B loses, he still has another 80pts left so he can (on his next turn) run away if he likes, although A may wish to reengage him on his turn to move all his troops.

You move all your troops but the skirmishes can happen within those movements. B may move his 300pts into Death Star, lose, and then decide to move another 300pts from somewhere else into Death Star and re-engage. You can't move to separate lots from one map into another map though... that's a bit stinkguy. If two armies still occupy a map (after a skirmish) an enemy can't move forward past their opponent closer to their goal, you can only move back (unless, I guess, you were charging forward towards the home map or your enemy, you were attacked from behind from your opponent, and then you, after the skirmish, chose to move your army out of the map continuing towards the home map... maybe).

The one extra rule to this is the Escape rule. You can, at any time, have once character escape a skirmish by leaving the outside of the board. They take no further part in the skirmish but can't be killed!

You carry on in this fashion until victory is had!

We have some extra rules about reinforcements/holograms/force ghosts. We say that a Force Ghost or a Hologram can be brought in to a squad for a skirmish regardless of where he is on the whole selection of maps. Example; GMLS is at the Home Base, but 4 or five maps away the NR are entering a skirmish against whoever so the NR can have Luke's Force Ghost appear at that skirmish! And, the cool bit is, if he gets defeated, he is still not dead in terms of the overall picture - he's still at the home base. Yes? Understand? As for reinforcements/reserves, we say that you can bring in extra characters from the map next to you - they don't have to be on the same map as you when you wander into a skirmish. Although, when they die, they stay dead. If you don't have them either on your map or next to your map, you can't bring them in.

So, that's our WAR. Its really driven around recreating a full scale offensive on multiple fronts. Masses of house rules may apply and you kinda work it out as you go along. Its basically a large-scale framework for fitting lots of little legitimate skirmishes into. Basically, we don't mess around too much with proper rules, but how you form the squads and select the maps is what we do mess wi'.

6 Rounds of Army movement and two skirmishes into it, Sharron and I are enjoying our War... although, he's slightly in the lead... "


i enjoyed our battle, for the 2 games it lasted ;)
kezzamachine
Posted: Thursday, November 24, 2011 9:28:51 AM
Rank: Moderator
Groups: Member , Moderator

Joined: 9/23/2008
Posts: 1,487
Location: Lower the Hutt, New Zealand
Three... then you conceeded.
FlyingArrow
Posted: Thursday, November 24, 2011 1:24:07 PM
Rank: Moderator
Groups: Member , Moderator

Joined: 5/26/2009
Posts: 8,428
Okay - another idea. Simplified considerably, and based on using the random scenarios from the back of Ultimate Missions.

Approximately 6 linked scenarios (since that's about as much as I feel comfortable committing to).
600 points worth of figures per side. Build a 200-point squad from your 600 each skirmish. Lost figures are permanently lost.

1. Capture the plans. Rebels must capture the plans. This is like a Rescue operation but the figure to be rescued is just the plans. (Must use a Spy character to capture and transport the plans.) Imperials choose 3 maps where secret plans are located. Rebels choose which of the 3 to try to infiltrate.

2. Escape with the plans. Imperials catch up to the Rebels. An Escape scenario to break through the Imperial forces with the plans. Random number determines map.

3. Capture the Princess. (Or some other figure.) Imperials capture someone for possible interrogation. A Capture scenario. Rebels choose 3 maps. Imperials choose which map to attack on.

4. Rescue the Princess. (Or whoever was captured.) Rescue the captive before interrogation breaks them and the secret Rebel base is disclosed. This is another Rescue mission. Imperials choose the map, but must change maps for each new skirmish if the Rebels initially fail.

Play these 4 scenarios in order. If the attacker fails, re-play the scenario until the attacker wins. (Keep trying to get the plans, escape with a copy of the plans, capture a high-value Rebel, and break that Rebel out of prison.)

At the end, whoever won the most skirmishes wins the war. If both sides won the same number of skirmishes, Rebels win.
FlyingArrow
Posted: Monday, December 12, 2011 7:35:42 AM
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Joined: 5/26/2009
Posts: 8,428
Campaign done.

The 'attacker' won each scenario, although whenever we ran into any rules ambiguity or anything like that we erred on the side of the attacker. In retrospect, a few major problems...

* Not quite balanced. Favors the rebels as it's written above.
* I don't want to re-play a scenario if the defender wins. We never had to do that since the attacker won each time, but that's a flaw in the campaign design.
* Possible that it never ends. I guess eventually one side would completely run out of pieces, but if scenarios are re-played when the attacker fails, then the plot never moves forward.

Overall, though, it was fun. I think I like goal-based skirmishes with a story better than the standard competitive format.

I've written up 3 of the skirmishes and the 4th is forthcoming:
http://www.bloomilk.com/Forums/default.aspx?g=posts&t=10336
http://www.bloomilk.com/Forums/default.aspx?g=posts&t=10344
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/736399/the-capture-of-general-dodonna
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