Opening Crawl:

STAR WARS
GALAXY AT WAR: BEFORE ENDOR

On one hand, the Rebellion looks to be in good shape. They have had a series of successful assaults on Imperial targets, but more importantly, Yoda has discovered and contacted several Jedi who survived the Jedi Purge. Jax Pavan, Dass Jennir, Ferus Olin, Master Kota, Shaak Ti, and Kazdan Paratus have joined him on Dagobah, along with Galen Marek, Vader’s former apprentice who turned to the light side. Yoda and Ben Kenobi introduce them to a new Jedi: Luke Skywalker. The Rebels did suffer a setback at Hoth, but the Rebellion is as popular as ever. Things look good. On the other hand, the Empire still ruthlessly tries to hunt them down. Despite the successes, the war is taking its toll on the Rebellion’s resources. The military strength of the Rebellion is diminishing and supplies are running short. To make matters worse, the Rebels have just learned of a superweapon called a 'Death Star' that is being built. They hope to survive long enough to do something about it... if that is even possible. The availability of ten Force users will certainly help. But there are rumors that the Emperor has at his disposal a near infinite supply of Force users - not just his public right hand man, Darth Vader. And the Rebels haven't even heard about the clone Darth Vader made of Galen Marek...

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You as a Star Wars Miniatures player are entering into a war between the Rebels and the Empire in the time before the Battle at Endor. All Imperial and Rebel pieces are available, which means we are in an alternate history: Galen Marek didn't kill the Jedi during the Jedi Purge. Instead, he turned to the light side. Also, Darth Vader has a clone of him, so both sides can use Galen Marek. Ben Kenobi isn't dead yet. Neither is Tarkin, Biggs, etc. There was no "first Death Star", so Alderaan still exists. Characters from the future (e.g. Moff Nyna Calixte, Jagged Fel) are also available. In those cases, just pretend they have different names (but are still unique). The Empire is hunting down Rebel cells to exterminate them. The Rebels are trying to cause chaos and take out key Imperial targets where possible, but mainly they want to survive. If the Rebels survive as a movement until the Battle of Endor, then the movie script plays out and the Rebels win. If the Empire successfully crushes the Rebellion beforehand, hope for the galaxy is lost...

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What is this?

This is the massive campaign inspired by HeroClix that shmi15 brought up a few days ago. This is a campaign that will take place all over Earth (and all over the Star Wars galaxy). You will join the Rebellion or the Empire and play against people on the other side. All across the world (and galaxy), other battles will take place as well. Each battle represents the key battle on a particular planet – determining whether the Rebellion there survives or is wiped out. When you win, you earn points for your side. At the end, if the Rebels have more points, they survive to destroy the Death Star at Endor. (The actual Endor battle is not part of this campaign.) If the Imperials have more points, the Rebels' morale is broken and the Rebellion disbands. The campaign will be 6 skirmishes per player. Each round will be 1-2 weeks, so the total campaign will last 6-12 weeks.


How do I sign up?

In order to keep the sides even, we ask that you find an opponent – one person to be with the Rebels and one with the Empire. Then reply in this thread to sign up together. (Only one person from the pair has to post here, but if possible, a confirmation from the second person would be appreciated.) If you have a larger playgroup, you should still sign up in pairs. You can trade opponents during the war if you like – it’s not necessary that you play the same opponent for every battle, but we do want to keep the two sides even. Note that battles can be played either in person or on VASSAL, so even if you have no local opponent, you can still participate if you can find someone who will play on VASSAL with you. Also, please briefly state which maps you have access to. Don't list them all individually, but say something like "most WotC maps" or "All WotC plus Map Pack 4". Something like that. If you're playing on VASSAL you have access to almost all of the maps.


What will I do?

Your Supreme Commander (more on that later) will send you a message each round to say something like, “You are going to fight on the Ravaged Base map. You get to build a squad using Yoda, Jax Pavan, General Crix Madine, Elite Rebel Commandos, plus any unrestricted pieces you want to use.” You will build your squad and play your opponent on the given map. Then post your results. By default, you will play the opponent you signed up with. However, if two pairs want to swap opponents for variety's sake, that's fine too. Just let both Supreme Commanders know beforehand.


What are the rules?

We’ll post the full rules later in another thread, but here is the basic idea. Every legal map in SWM will be a planet (there are around 80 now). One battle will be fought on each map somewhere in the world. So if someone plays on Cantina Map in New Zealand, nobody else will play on that map during the war - unless so many people sign up that we have to re-use a few maps. You will know your map before you have to build a squad, so that will help take care of any imbalance of the non-Restricted maps. (Just be sure to bring shooters if you’re on a wide open map!) Some maps will carry bonuses with them. For example, if you win on Felucia, your side will be able to use Felucians and Felucians on Rancors in future rounds.

Each side will have one player serve as the Supreme Commander. Some pieces will be designated as ‘unrestricted’. All players can use those pieces. Other pieces (the better non-uniques) will be designated as ‘restricted’. Each round, the Supreme Commander for each side will decide who gets which restricted pieces. For example, there just aren’t enough Elite Rebel Commandos to cover every battle in the galaxy… the Supreme Commander decides where they will be available. Finally, the Unique characters can only be used by one player per round. The Supreme Commander also decides where the Unique characters go. If you’re assigned a Unique character, you can use any version of that character. If a Unique character is defeated, that VERSION of the Unique can no longer be used. So if there’s only one version (e.g. Jax Pavan) that character is dead. If there are multiple versions (e.g. Luke), then he was injured, retrieved, and spent time in a bacta tank. Other versions of the character can be used in future rounds.

Rounds will last 1-2 weeks. So you’ll have time to schedule your game and get it in.


What if I want to be a Supreme Commander?

When signing up, state that you’re willing to serve in that capacity. If you don't want to be Supreme Commander, then when signing up please voice your support for who you think could serve well as Supreme Commander. It could potentially be pretty time consuming to decide which pieces go where and to communicate with all of your team members, so voice support for someone you know will stick with it and put in the required work. Shmi15 and I will decide on who the Supreme Commanders are, but most likely we’ll go with whoever gets the most support from others, with the tiebreaker being people who sign up earlier and/or show more enthusiasm for the game. Basically, you need to convince us that you won’t leave your team hanging.

Also, players are allowed to talk to their Supreme Commander... if you are a huge fan of a particular piece you can ask him to give it to you. Supreme Commanders can take into consideration the maps, the players, the opponents, and player preferences as they decide who gets what each round. It's up to the Supreme Commanders how they want to communicate the assignments to the teams, but a spreadsheet on Google Docs might be the easiest way.

FlyingArrow/AndyHatton

Since shmi15 and I are going to finalize the rules details, I asked AndyHatton to pick a side after the rules are finished so I'm not subconsciously favoring one side or the other.

We have pretty much all of the maps except for a couple of the rare WotC ones.

I will tentatively sign up, I have vassal just need to learn how to play on it
Failing that myself and my lady can play each other, -I'll have to be the Rebels then -

Love the idea!
So we have basic Imps & Rebel squads.
If you win on a planet, you can then add characters and indiginous species from that planet to your squad?
Do you then become the defender of that planet and people challenge you for it? And vice versa?

I'll put down CerousMutor and shmi15 as opponents, but which one of you will be the Rebels?

If you win on a map (planet), that map will not be used again during the war. Each skirmish represents the most important battle on that planet. Think of it as the one skirmish that would show up in the movie. Note that the Rebels often wouldn't hold an entire planet. They had some planets, but an many planets they were an underground organization. In those cases, the battle just represents the Rebels' fight for survival, not a fight to take over the planet.

What are the specific requirements you have to have to be a Emperor Palpatine or Mon Mothma(Supreme Commander)?

When will we get the full list of unrestricted characters

* What if I don't have a piece that I am assigned? What about Republic Yoda?

If your opponent accepts proxies, then we don't have a problem with it. If you don't want to play with proxies and you don't have certain pieces, you can let your Supreme Commander know and ask him not to assign them to you. For the most part, Uniques will be faction specific pieces. There may be a few additions, but not many. We don't plan to put Republic Yoda on the list.

Requirements to be a Supreme Commander?

You'll have a list of 50-80 pieces (Unique characters and restricted pieces). Each round, you'll decide which of the players on your side will get access to which pieces. At times, you'll also be deciding which maps will be played on. The only requirement is a desire to do it and a commitment to communicate to your teammates clearly and in a timely manner.

Aren't there multiple maps for some planets?

Yes. We'll either assign names of other planets to some of the maps, or we'll just say there are multiple key battles on the same planet. Either way, the battles will be worth the same in terms of scoring, so it won't affect the outcome of the war.

When will the full lists of uniques/restricted/unrestricted be available?

Probably not until we know how big each side is. You can probably guess at most of them yourself, though. Uniques are, well, unique. Most pieces that you'd consider playable in the current meta would be restricted. Vanilla trooper pieces and the less competitive pieces are unrestricted. We do have a complete draft list, but we'll wait until it's final to publish it. If you have strong suggestions on any piece, please Bloomail me or shmi15.

Isn't communication in this important?

Yes.

Which ones are u missing?

Good to see more people jumping on this with us!

Knappskirata, have you ever tried to d/l Vassal? Its such a great tool to play other people you normally wouldn't get a chance to... Its free, and SWMGAMERS.com has a great step by step instructions including pictures to make it very very easy to d/l. Not sure what the exact Forum it is under, but I'm sure someone on here has a way to tell you.

Coolness dictates I should ask to be Imps, but I am nice guy really so it should be Rebels.

Coin toss says...

Rebels. Cant argue with that.

Unless shmi has already chosen them.