With The Corellian Conflict being released shortly we’re going to give you an inside view of what the writers have to say about what to expect!
Fantasy Flight Games:
SS: We wanted to create an experience that went beyond simple set battles. One of the things I’ve always loved in minis games is being able to tell a story over multiple fights, running military campaigns where your accomplishments help you or your allies down the road. I wanted the decisions you make during this game matter next week—or even next month.
AD: We also wanted to give gaming groups something to unite around—a fun way to get together on regular basis. My favorite thing about tabletop gaming is the social experience… and looking Sam in the eye when I blow up his Liberty-class Cruisers!
The Corellian Conflict is setup to let you enjoy the game and rewards from a week to week basis. A win is no longer just a win for that 1 game, the benefits you get follow you all the way to the end of the Campaign.
FFG: Alex, your earlier comment about players who suffer early losses leads me to another of my questions. How does The Corellian Conflict address the problems that come when a player needs to “catch up?” How do you prevent players from simply getting ahead and then getting further ahead?
AD: The campaign really is a team experience. Resources are shared, decisions are made as a group, and there are a number of special rules aimed at addressing mismatches. Whoever has fewer points in a campaign round gets to initiate the first assault, there are two different special attacks players can launch in order to reap more resources for fleet building and repair. And if the situation gets truly dire, a player can retire his or her crippled fleet and disgraced admiral to call in a new fleet better suited to the battles at hand—at a price in victory points, of course!
SS: The campaign rules requires everyone to fight, each round. Even if your fleet is battered, scarred, or seriously outmatched, you have tobring it to the table. But in that situation, you don’t just have to run your head into the brick wall that is your opponent. You can choose to think about the next game, and say, “Well, I’m going to lose either way, but if I get out of this game with all my ships intact, I can repair them, buy some extra upgrades, and next time I’m going to be a lot better off.” Then you can play the entire game trying to survive. And suddenly your opponent isn’t trying to win; they’re trying to kill something vital before you cut and run.
Focusing on the team aspect of the game, FFG has made it so if someone isn’t as a good of a player as everyone else they won’t get left behind. There are actually some strategic advantages to not playing as well.
FFG: Can you guys take us inside one of these huddles? Let’s say we’re mid-game, and the Imperials have a slight lead. What would the Rebels be thinking?
SS: Sure. The Rebels might be looking at one of the Empire’s core worlds, and thinking that if they blew up the Imperial base there, it would set the Empire back in their ability to rebuild and refit fleets.
Let’s say there are three Rebel players and three Empire players. That means the Rebels get to declare the first and last attacks, because they’re behind. So the Rebels figure out what their best fleet is, and what their second best fleet is. Their first attack is with their second best fleet, and they attack a location that’s kind of valuable. Maybe it has Diplomats or some other ancillary effect. They’re hoping the Empire is going to send its best fleet to defend the location.
Even if the Empire doesn’t take the bait, they may still be tempted to use their best fleet when they declare their attack—since it’s the only attack they’ll be making during the turn. The Rebels deliberately send their worst fleet to defend, with instructions to just keep as much stuffalive as possible.
Finally, the Rebels declare their final attack with their best fleet, hitting that vital core world. Hopefully, the Empire has been drawn off by these other battles, and has only left its “B” team at home to protect things.
As previously stated, being behind has it’s advantages, especially in the offense aspect of the game. Attacking first and last, with the element of surprise of which fleet you’re going to deploy, and the enemy having to be reactive instead of proactive is a great advantage to the little man.
FFG: Okay, let’s talk for a moment about the All-Out Offensive. What does its victory condition offer the campaign that you might miss if you could only win by being the first team to reach the requisite number of victory points?
MB: Well, it’s a story capstone, and that’s one of the reasons we wanted to include it. The Corellian Conflict is a narrative campaign, and we wanted to have a big, memorable event at the end that people will be talking about for ages. And, boy, can the All-Out Offensive deliver! Playing with six players and more than one-thousand points per side is a really unique Armada experience!
SS: Yeah, we guarantee that you’ve never played a game of Armada like the All-Out Offensive before. It’s a huge megabattle with lots of points on each side, and you’re coordinating with up to two of your buddies as you plan out each turn. But it’s more than that—you’re playing with the fleet that you’ve built up over months of gaming. You’ve been with this fleet from the beginning, you’ve earned every one of those upgrades, extra squadrons, and ships. Now you’re throwing it into the maelstrom of war, and seeing what comes out the other side.
MB: Having elements of each fleet jump in sequentially, in waves, also builds a ton of tension.
With 6 players and more than 1,000 fleet points per side this is easily a battle of epic proportions, a megabattle even! Teamwork is obviously going to play a large role in the outcome of the campaign. This is going to force you and your friends to start talking about possible list builds and how you would go about attacks.
FFG: Talk about that.
MB: In the All-Out Offensive, each player must set aside hyperspace reserves. These ships can arrive during later rounds at predesignated points, joining the ongoing battle.
SS: The All-Out Offensive is specifically is designed to enable this huge, set-piece battle. One of the ways it does this is that it requires every player to keep something in reserve. So you’re holding back Star Destroyers and Mon Calamari Star Cruisers and having them arrive from hyperspace on turns two and three. That keeps gameplay faster earlier in the battle, and it also ensures that nobody gets wiped out early and has to sit the rest of the battle out.
Also, it’s incredibly thematic!AD: Our test experience with the All-Out Offensive was a truly incredible game, and it captured the beautiful chaos of a massive do-or-die space battle, with ships jumping in from hyperspace, players going all-out to win, heroic vessels that had survived the entire campaign going down under merciless barrages of firepower.
It was a hugely satisfying culmination where everyone got to throw caution to the winds and go for the jugular.FFG: Thanks, guys!
Pulling ships out of hyperspace on turn 2 and 3, do I need to say anything else? This is going to put such a twist on the Armada we currently know. Dropping a large ship on the board just to have it turn around and unleash a plethora of dice can be devastating! There is so many aspects of this campaign that you and your friends have to look forward to.
With so much to offer, The Corellian Conflict is going to make Armada that much more fun, and add a whole new level of competitiveness. It’s no longer one commander against the other, it’s now Imperial vs Rebel in epic fleet battle!
Get ready for The Corellian Conflict because it’s almost here. Pick a side, pick a friend or two, and get ready to take over the galaxy! There can be only one!
Pro Tip: Stay Stealth
