SW Armada: Welcome to the Corellian Sector
After weeks of anticipation FFG has finally spilled the beans on the new Star Wars Armada Campaign System.
Every since it was announced back in July Armada players have been itching to get more info on the new Corellian Conflict Campaign. On Wednesday FFG took mercy on us and gave a little peak at what to expect. I could not be more excited by what we have seen so far. This campaign system looks to be both just what Armada needed and an amazing system on it’s own. So lets take a look.
The Basics
The Corellian Conflict is a new campaign system for Star Wars Armada. It works as a framework for players to tie their individual games into a larger goal and story. In it two teams fight for control of systems and bases across the eponymous Corellian sector. Each player controls a persistent fleet of warships across a number of ampaign turns. During each turn teams plan and execute battles, build bases, harvest resources, repair ships and build new ones. Each turn is broken down into a Strategy Phase, a Battle Phase and a Management Phase. Teams, which range from 1-3 players each, are trying to gather as many campaign points, with the highest scoring team winning at some point.
Space Battles never looked this good
A Need forTeamwork
While many campaign systems feature teams they often do not require much teamwork. In many systems players mostly act on their own, fight battles at their whim, and maybe adding points or some other abstract victory marker to their teams score. The Corellian Conflict on the other hand truly requires it’s teams to act together. Each team must work together in the Strategy Phase to plan attack and defense. In addition it seems that resources may be shared among teams, meaning that proper allocation will be up to the team as a whole and a key point of the game. Other choices, such as using a special mission, must also be made by a team as a whole. While having to gather your whole team to plan turns does present a slight logistical problem, it’s not one that’s hard to overcome. I think that the emphasis on teamwork is a great feature of this systems and can lead to a lot of fun planning and good tricks.
Two teams of three players meet to plan the next turn
Unique is Truly Unique
One of the coolest facts we’ve learned is that unique cards are unique to a whole team, not a fleet, and can even be permanently lost. I cannot state how cool this is. It means that cookie cutter fleets, or very similar fleets, just won’t happen, each enemy fleet will be forced to be pretty different from it’s allies as they can’t use the same admiral twice. In addition this will play into the teamwork aspect of the system, forcing players to discuss who gets to use with unique character or title. The end result is a greater diversification of fleet and upgrade choices and a strong encouragement to experiment and try new things. The Corellian Conflict is going to force you to play new fleets and break up any rut you’ve fallen into, each game is going to be different. I do have to wonder if they’ve come up with a plan for what happens if all of a teams admirals are killed, but that’s a bridge to be crossed later.
That means only one of these! *CHEERS*
Organic Growth and Lopsided Games
This ties in closely with the above point. Throughout the course of the campaign each players fleet will be growing and changing organically. Fleets may grow as you add ships, or shrink as you lose them, you may be forced to find an ad-hoc replacement for a lost unique ship or scramble to adapt your fleet to a certain role. In the Corellian Conflict Fleets can be as large as 500 pts, leading to Armada games that are bigger than ever, and thats not counting free Battle-stations or Ion Cannons. On the other hand unlike normal games each side is not guaranteed to have similar point totals. It seems quite possible that you might go into a fight outnumber by several hundred points, and simply have to deal with it. This is exciting, lopsided battles always change the game for the better, acting almost like little missions. Players will have to adapt tactics and objectives to the current situation.
Looks like Tony Stark has been supplying the rebels with his hologram tech
Long Term Thinking
To me one of the most exciting parts of a campaign is thinking in long term goals. Each battle becomes part of a great whole and that adds not just to the whole campaign but to each battle itself. For instance in a lopsided battle, rather than being annoyed at the uneven odds, I can now focus on how I can turn this battle around. Maybe I chose to fight the lopsided battle to draw the strongest enemy fleet away from an important system my ally will attack. Maybe I just need to survive a few turns to win a long term victory. Maybe I have to try to score a few kills to weaken the enemy while not losing my own ship, maybe I’m just out to kill one unique card. In the end it all plays into the big picture, though this requires planning.
Planning worthy of a Grand Admiral
New Missions and Options
The Corellian Conflict comes with a host of new missions, some of which are unique to campaign and others that will be allowed in non-campaign games. These missions often change up the game a lot, allowing for one side to bring more unit or to gain a defensive attack. Here are the ones we know about so far:
The unique Rebel mission
It’s Imperial counterpart
The ion cannon will fire several shots to make sure any enemy ships will be out of your flight path.
Scramble all fighters!
Now witness the firepower of this fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL battle station!
All of these are going to work to make each game new and exciting.
An Interdictor damanged in one mission will be weakened in the next if not repaired
Final Thoughts
Overall I really like what we are seeing from The Corellian Conflict. It seems like a perfect way to add depth and change into Aramda and promises to be a fun and exciting system. Like with all campaigns I do worry about balance and how they plan from keeping a team which gains an early edge from snowballing their way to victory. While this does happen sometimes I hope FFG has thought of a way to deal with it, we’ll have to see. Tracking results and damage over many weeks can also be a bother, but is also part of the fun. Other than that this is an exiting prospect for us all. The Corellian Conflict should be out by the end of the year, and even better, seems like it will be followed by more campaign expansions.
Well BoLS fans, thats all for today! Let us know what you think about the Corellian Conflict down in the comments!
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