The Battle for Talathen Sector - Strategy phase continued

Continuing on from the last blog post, I'll talk more about the other strategic roles. Now we've already begun making changes based on the first rounds play through, which is great. I want every player to feel their decisions make an impact. I also want every strategic role to feel important in it's own way, not equal, but important. 

Fleet Command Overview

The key to winning the title of "hero of Talathen sector" is to win glory. The easiest way to win glory is to lead and participate in military engagements. Needless to say, the commander of the rebel fleet has a good chance to earn a lot of glory. 

This job board is pretty straight forward. Each character is assigned to a spot on the board, and the space underneath is the type of ship they command. 

Fighter command is where you mark down what squadrons fleet command has available. Each space represents 4 stands of a type of fighter. At game start they only have 2 full squadrons of Z-95s, which i have "home made" rules for. 

Now, the squadrons in the fleet are not the same as the one's at squadron command. I figured it would be terrible for the squadron commander to have built up several elite squadrons of pilots, only to lose them all in one armada battle. So the squads here are separate. Think of squadron command being the "rogue squadron elites" of the sector, special forces pilots who can do multiple roles, while the fleet guys are more "blue collar military pilots". 

Another thing to note is "rebel fleet favour". This can be earned by diplomatic missions or sending the Talathen sector ships out of sector to help out the wider rebellion cause. I brought this in because I didn't necessarily want major fleet battles every week in the sector, and I wanted to keep the sector fleet quite small. But I also wanted the option of being able to bring in Mon Cal cruisers and the like for special occasions. Each fleet favour point can be spent to "borrow" 10 points worth of ships from the rebellion, so it will take a while for them to save up to deploy a mon cal squadron. 

Actions for fleet command

• Plan an attack. Pick a mission on the board or create one. Make a tactics roll and generate tactical points equal to 5 for a triumph, 2 per success, 1 per advantage - 1 per disadvantage. I'll explain how those points are spent later on
• Support the rebel fleet. Generate fleet favor points equal to the class of the ship sent to support the fleet. 1 point for small base, 2 for medium based, 3 for huge base. 
• Drydock/service. All ships consume 1 supply point per size class when used. Putting the ship into drydock means you don't spend supply points on them. 
• Patrol/reconnaissance. Make a tactics roll, each success adds to the intelligence pool. 
• Coordinate fleet (Admiral only). Make a hard leadership roll, each success adds an advantage dice to each subsequent roll in fleet command that turn. 

Spending tactics points in Fleet battles

• Seize the initiative for the battle (3 points)
• Deploy 2nd (1 point)
• Pick flanking deployment zones (2 points)
• Enemy ships start stationery (2 points)
• No enemy reinforcements (3 points)
• Enemy strength reduced (any number of points)

Fleet Command phase as it happened

At this stage, Rebel fleet command consists of two Corellian Corvettes and a couple of squadrons of Z-95's. Certainly not enough to take on a star destroyer squadron just yet. 

The fleet commander took two actions, the first of which was to plan an attack on Nimbala Prime to attack czerka shipping and seize cargo. Two successes on this role mean't that the attacking force had superior numbers. However, it's worth noting that this battle was fought using X-wing instead of Armada as the deployed force was only 1 corvette. 

The second action was to loan his second corvette to the rebel high command for 1 rebel fleet favour. 

Squadron command overview

Like Fleet command, Squadron command is a great place to earn glory. Possibly the busiest strategy board, this may take a little explaining. 

There are four squadrons, each with up to 12 fighters in them. The class of fighter gets marked in the top row. Z for z-95, X for X-wing and so on.

The bottom row is the pilot skill. Now i'm using a simple version of this where pilots have 3 classes. Rookie, veteran and elite. A rookie is the lowest generic pilot skill card for that fighter. For example, rookie pilot for X-wings or gold squadron for Y-wings. A Veteran uses the 2nd highest generic card for the same ship. So red squadron for X-wings and Grey for Y-wings. Yes, this means a pilot in an a-wing will drop skill from when they piloted an X-wing, but it's way easier to keep track of. 

An elite has either a 3rd generic card if one exists, or if not they have a "pilot" skill upgrade slot for free. If they have no pilot skill cards available, they automatically get +2 pilot skill. 

Aces can exist outside of squadrons, and are characters who have the "Ace" character trait that aren't squadron leaders. Aces can deploy on any mission the squadron commander approves and fly the fighter they are an ace in. This means they may have 1 ace in a fighter class that they have no generic fighters in. 

Actions for Squadron Command

• Plan an attack. Pick a mission on the board or create one. Make a tactics roll and generate tactical points equal to 5 for a triumph, 2 per success, 1 per advantage - 1 per disadvantage. I'll explain how those points are spent later on
• Escort logistics command. Already mentioned under logistics command, but supplying even 1 fighter to this action means the squadron is "used" for the turn
• Service. All squadrons consume 1 supply point a turn. Putting them on standby means they do not consume a supply point. 
• Patrol/reconnaissance. Make a tactics roll, each success adds to the intelligence pool. 
• Conducting training. Make a leadership roll, generate training points equal to 5 for a triumph, 2 per success, 1 per advantage - 1 per disadvantage. Results of training are outlined in the training section. 
• Coordinate Squadron operations (Director only). Make a hard leadership roll, each success adds an advantage dice to each subsequent roll in fleet command that turn.

Spending tactics points in X-wing battles

• Seize the initiative for the battle (1 points)
• Deploy 2nd (2 point)
• Pick flanking deployment zones (3 points)
• Enemy ships start scattered (3 points)
• No enemy reinforcements (3 points)
• Enemy strength reduced (any number of points)

Squadron command as it happened.

Lt Blout is a fine pilot, but he's a pretty rubbish commander as his first mission roll demonstrated. Multiple failures made for an extremely difficult mission where the rebels would be scattered and facing tougher forces than they initially expected. 

The mission was to assassinate a ranking imperial officer on his way to Primm Station on Talathen VII. 

The Rebels were headed into a tough fight, although we have a new word in our vocabulary now. "Blouting", to rush headlong into battle with no planning and care for risk or casualties. 

Ground Command overview

Ground Command is the final of the "glory positions". You may also notice that we have four players and three positions that generate the most glory. This is by design :)

Special forces are set in two squads of five personnel. These are groups for imperial assault. There are six imperial assault skills in the game and they align with each of the six characters currently in Imperial assault. Only one NPC with a relevant skill can be assigned to each squad.

When a squad deploys to a mission, each NPC uses their associated Imperial Assault character class and gains XP to spend on skills equal to their characters "fight" rating. 

Additional XP gained is added to the little box to the right of their character name on the sheet. 

For example, Keel is a sniper, which means he gets the Bothan sniper character card and skill deck. He has a fight rating of 4, so he can spend 4 xp on imperial assault skills. 

He also gets the starting "sniper rifle", additional equipment is unlocked through R&D, not through the normal process of earning credits. 

Actions for Ground Command

• Plan an attack. Pick a mission on the board or create one. Make a tactics roll and generate tactical points equal to 5 for a triumph, 2 per success, 1 per advantage - 1 per disadvantage. I'll explain how those points are spent later on
• Conducting training. Make a leadership roll, generate training points equal to 5 for a triumph, 2 per success, 1 per advantage - 1 per disadvantage. Results of training are outlined in the training section. 
• Coordinate Ground operations (Director only). Make a hard leadership roll, each success adds an advantage dice to each subsequent roll in fleet command that turn.
• Patrol/reconnaissance (Generals, Base commanders and Guerrilla leaders only) Make a tactics roll, each success adds to the intelligence pool. 
• Bolster/ Undermine support. (Generals, Base commanders and Guerrilla leaders only). As per the diplomacy rules, but only for the planet that the officer is deployed on. In addition, the difficulty is increased by one. 

Spending tactics points in Imperial Assault battles

• Seize the initiative for the battle (1 points)
• Deploy 2nd (1 point)
• Pick flanking deployment zones (2 points)
• Infiltrators, can reveal inside enemy position (4 points)
• Enemy forces passive at game start (3 points)
• No enemy reinforcements (3 points)
• Enemy strength reduced (any number of points)
• Additional squad support (1 per squad)
• Utility supplies (1 per supply card)

Ground command as it happened.

Ground command is in a sad state, like many of the rebellions current forces. Special forces only has three soldiers of reasonable skill, and one of them is a foul mouthed rodian gunslinger. 

Not deterred by this, the amazingly uninspiring General Kern decided to pull off a daring raid on a Imperial base that was under strength due to the Imperial day celebrations. Despite boring his troops to death with a 237 slide PowerPoint  presentation on the operation, he managed to plan the attack well. Rebel forces had ideal position to catch the Imperial personnel napping while they placed demolitions charges. 

Recruitment overview

Recruitment is a very straight forward role with a lot of hidden potential in it. You see, while there isn't much glory to be had at the recruitment stands, you do have potential to influence the kind of people who join the rebellion, and have more "clout" to hire them when they become available. 

Actions for recruitment

• Recruit NPC's. Make a leadership roll to recruit NPCs. For each success rolled you can choose one characteristic that you want in the recruit pool. For example, Smugglers, which will mean at least one of the recruit pool will be a smuggler. A triumph allows for a powerful NPC with the requisite traits to be recruited. Advantages rolled add to your clout for next round. 
• Bolster support, As per the diplomacy rules, but the difficulty is increased by one. 

In addition the head of recruitment decides on how bidding for new recruits will occur. Whether all the characters are revealed before the first bid, or one at a time. Also, whether it is an incremental or blind bid for the round.

It's a subtle power but one that might end up being quite influential.

Recruitment as it happened.

Pol Trall, the head of recruitment decided that special forces should be the focus on recruitment. And while he managed only one success on his recruitment roll, that ensures that at least one new solider will be available in the next round of recruitment. Something ground command sorely needs right now. 

Training overview

Again, training is a very simple strategy roll with a tight focus. Also, like recruitment it generates a lout of clout as the people who train new recruits have an ability to influence them. 

In and of itself, training doesn't do much. What it does is bolster the skills and abilities of other forces. Training is the only way to unlock elite pilot skill cards for X-wing and Crew Skills for Armada. 

Trainers have only one option. To train people. They generate training points with a leadership roll points equal to 5 for a triumph, 2 per success, 1 per advantage - 1 per disadvantage. 

A trainer may train a squad that has already committed to a training action. In that case, the points for training are combined.

Trainers other than the Director are limited to training units in their respective field. 

Training points are spent as follows, an individual may be upgraded only once per turn. 

• Train civilian to be a rookie pilot (1 point)
• Upgrade rookie pilot to veteran (2 point)
• Upgrade veteran pilot to elite (4 points)
• Increase special ops bonus XP by 1 (equals cost of new XP number)
• Develop elite pilot skill card (2 points)
• Develop crew skill for X-wing (3 points)
• Develop crew skill for Armada (3 points)

Advantage's in these rolls add to your clout next turn. Unspent points also become clout. 

Note that gaining a card only grants 1 copy of that card. To get 4 copies of "push the limit" you would need to spend 8 training points. 

Training as it happened. 

Evo Tras talked a big game during his pitch to become head of recruitment about needing a modern military force that used guile and cunning rather than brute force. His first action was to train starfighter command, resulting in 4 pilots becoming veterans.  

Research and Development overview

R&D is the final strategy board we will look at, and its another relatively simple job. New tech can only be researched from here, so if R&D doesn't do it's job, then everyone will be using blaster pistols and concussion missiles until the end of time. 

There are four topics to research, Fleet, Ground, Starfighter and Special. 

The first three relate to the cards used in Armada, Imperial Assault and X-Wing respectively. The special category is for the roleplaying game and any other random technologies I want to spring during the campaign. 

The progress number is the total number of points rolled to date on that category. While I have no hard and fast rules written on exactly what techs open up at each level, it will be a guide. For example, proton torpedoes will be available for research before Advanced Proton torpedoes, and tier 1 imperial assault cards will be available before tier 3. 

As before research points are generated as  5 for a triumph, 2 per success, 1 per advantage - 1 per disadvantage. Point unspent on a round stay available to be used later. 

Also, if a scientist wishes to change topic. That information is swapped over on the sheet and progress is maintained. 

All research rolls are intelligence rolls and require supply to be conducted. 

• New card for X-wing (cost equal to points cost of card, minimum 1)
• New card for Armada (cost equal to points cost of card, miniumum 1)
• New card for Imperial Assault (cost equals credits cost /100)

All costs are rounded in the players favor. 

Note that gaining a card only grants 1 copy of that card. To get 4 copies of "ion turret" you would need to spend 8 research points.

Results from the "special" category will be decided on by the group, but should represent hard to get and costly gear in the role-playing game. Or, if for specific story related matters

Research and Development as it happened

Num Diem decided that ship technologies were going to be his focus and put a mammoth effort into the task generating 5 successes. During the resolution phase he will be able to pick out some shiny new toys for Fleet command. 

His assistant Ghartoka (whom he hates as Num is a racist, and Ghartoka is a wookie), set to work on the "special" category, gaining two successes. When the A-team gets back from their first mission, he will have new toys for them. 

Conclusion

Another mammoth post, but that's a lot of the core rules out on the table for people to look at. You will note that everything is designed to make progress gradual and each decision important. Spending all your research on Ion turrets and then never using turreted air-craft might not be a winning strategy for example. 

Next week, ill have updates on the first three battles that took place. A fighter attack on an imperial dignitary, a corvette raid on czerka shipping and a daring raid into an imperial facility on Korvas. 

Cheers!