Custom Corellian Conflict, part 1 (intro)

Stuff in the box

By now I guess everyone who's into SW: Armada knows about the Corellian Conflict campaign expansion (CC for short). It would be very strange if you don't, since the CC box is where you find all the "new"objectives and extra unique squadrons, some of which see a LOT of use in regular/competitive play.

But I'm not going to be talking much about those components. Instead I'll be looking at the actual campaign, and more specifically what can be done to A) enhance it and B) add more options. Your milegage on house rules may vary, but you're free to use any, all or none at all - no one is forcing you to do anything.

Out of the box the CC does 3 things:

1. It gives an incentive to build a fleet and then stick with it over the course of several games, usually expanding it to a 500 fleet point limit
2. It adds a very shallow strategic minigame, where players fight over planets and their resources, using those resources to refit and expand their fleets
3. It (usually, unless silly ppl decide to win on points instead) culminates in a 7 round mega-battle of 6 players, each running a 500 pt fleet, on a 9x3 foot table

This is all very good, but my experience is that things feel a little samey from the get go: 

• Fleets are a little larger, but the same stuff is effective in CC as in competitive play, so if you don't enjoy losing, you kind of have to build a competitive fleet.
• Fleets usually cap at 500 pts VERY quickly (sometimes in r2, often no later than r3), after which fleetbuilding is kind of dead.
• The strategic minigame is SHALLOW AS FUCK. The same planets get taken during setup, because some are stupid good and the rest are close to useless, and then things proceed along the same frack like 95% of the time.
• Some players, or usually one side, get bored before the final assault battle. Usually because one side gets an advantage r1, and things snowball from there. So in my experience most CC games die before ever doing the final battle (I've only done it ONCE, and that was only a simulation,  6 500 pt fleets, and not the result of actual campaign play).

So what I hope to do with this series of articles is: 

• Add some options to fleet building to keep it interesting and varied. Example: errata to some cards, additional squadrons, rules for discarding upgrades etc.
• Expand upon the strategic minigame to make it matter a little more. Examples: make all planet specials actually matter.
• Add some tools to hopefully limit snowballing/keep it interesting even if you're losing. Examples: no early base assaults, alternate rules for special assaults.

Soon to be a Hero of the Rebellion

I'm not doing a total conversion (but I might do a wholly new campaign from scratch if I find the time to finish what I started). If you're into total conversions, I recommend checking out Darth Veggie's WIP over at the FFG forums.

Here are some useful resources you can dl:

CC Rulebook (pdf): The rulebook in a convenient, digital format.

CC Map (original): Scan of the original CC map.

CC Map (enhanced): Same map, but digitally enhanced (found this online)

CC Manager v4.0 (spreadsheet): Great tool for tracking planets and attacks and fleets. You can even customize it to fit your games.

I'd also like to mention the Camping feature in Vassal. I use it all the time for tracking the location of base/outpost/presence stickers. Start Vassal, create a game, hit the Campaign button, and start dragging stickers over from the Pieces menu. Save and export the map. Next round, load the map, make any changes, save and export. Very easy to share a digital map on Facebook or whatnot, or just display it to the group if playing multiple games in a row in a common location.