Custom campaign rules ideas welcome

[dinnermeat]

Going to start a campaign soon and wanted to shoot some ideas around. Going to have territory campaign map with star bases, nebulas, etc. Maybe balance out fights with the option to make pirates/mercs but if they take a set amount of damage they take before they will auto retreat. Maybe even a resource system, what do you all think or have any ideas to share.

 

[nekomata fuyu]

ACTA-B5's campaign system had resources being supplied from captured planets and other key locations.
One thing to be very careful of is that this can cause a campaign to swing very quickly towards whoever gets the early wins. Basically, whoever gets the early win(s) has more resources, can get a better fleet, can afford to fight on when weaker players must withdraw to conserve their forces, and ultimately gets a much better shot at winning the following battles. This in turn gets them more resources, etc.

 

[dinnermeat]

Looking at different campaign rules for ides, going to make a sector map with systems and points value per system. Like a system with a earth like planet w/ starbase 50 points and double repair points while in system. Each system can have a mobile base or extra reinforcements if you invest points in a system and if they do you can added x points of merc ships if you want to spend your points in attacking. Or just save them to replace lost ships but you cant exceed 2000 points for your fleet size. Even bonus points for a second objective for bonus points for the battle.

 

[gunner41c]

Make a small 7 hex map. The center hex is your home planet. I am basing this off of SFB-CTA rules for campaigns for my idea. Make a bunch of 7 hex maps to add areas to your home map. In each of these small 7 hex add maps represent a solar system you can explore and add to your empire. Some of the maps are empty space, some are solar systems with planets, some are resource systems (asteroids, moons and so on), and some are dangerous move areas (nebula's, etc). You start with your home system and add areas to it by playing the campaign game scenarios. As you earn victory points in the battles you repair your ships from the battle and add their points back into your empires fleet point pool. Use the campaign system to generate the battles as listed with the roll charts for fleet size, exp, and so on. Just add your own starship into the fleet and keep track of it's experience (xp dice) and improvements. The Prestige points are used to add systems to your empire, every 2 points allows you to a a 7 hex map system onto your empire. Your fleet victory point pool is increased as you win battles and the reinforcement/repairs will deduct points from the ships use in each fight. Each turn your home system adds 100victory points to your pool. Each other system will add in a random amount to your pool to reflect your colony's resource generation. You can only have as many systems as your prestige total is currently. So an empires prestige of 12 for example would allow 6 extra systems to be added to your empire. If you drop to 10 you lose the last system added. Add the systems in a clockwise fashion around your home system to generate a random universe. Each player would have their own map system independent of the other players maps. You would elect to attack the other players by sending a fleet of whatever points you decide to commit to attack one of the outlying systems and try to work into his home base. You have to spend half the amount of fleet points as you commit to the attack as a cost of declaring war on another empire.
Example: your Klingon empire declares war on the Federation empire and sends 1000 fleet points to attack a Federation system, it would also cost 500 additional points for declaration of war and to simulate the supply resources needed to attack. The Klingon then places a fleet marker worth 1000 points on an outlying system and proceeds to work towards Federation Home system. The Klingon would be fighting any fleets it meets as it travels through the systems. Repairs to attacking fleets is still deducted from the Klingon players fleet pool as normal. Lost ships reduce the size of the attacking fleet permanently. Any systems passed through stop generating resources and battles would affect the players prestige points and the size of their empire. To reinforce an attacking fleet you would add another fleet marker worth "x" points on the initial start point and move the fleet marker until it caught up with the original invading fleet. You still have to pay the half penalty for each invading fleet point, so a reinforcement of 500 fleet points costs your pool 750.

Each turn roll to add a system to your empire based on your prestige point totals. Then conduct possible battles due to invasion or you can roll on the campaign scenario table for a mission to generate prestige points and fleet victory points. The fleets in your systems would be used as the battle forces to fight the missions. Just draw points out of the individual fleets to supply the mission forces.

To add a system when you reach multiples of 2 prestige points, randomly roll a new system. You have to do the "Explore a strange new world" mission successfully to add a population or resource system to the empire. Use the campaign force generation roll charts to determine the size of the mission forces. If you win the scenario you add the new randomly rolled system, any victory points to your fleet pool and any prestige points to your empire. Hazardous and empty space 7 hex areas do not count towards your prestige point system totals.

New system Roll: 1d6
1) System with population that generates fleet points each turn
roll 1d6= 1)100vp 2)80vp 3)60vp 4)50vp 5)30vp 6)10vp
2) System with resources that generates fleet points each turn
roll 1d6= 1)50vp 2)40vp 3)30vp 4)20vp 5)10vp 6)5vp
3)System with a hazard (go to the rule book pg. 22 and generate a system using the charts)
4-6)Empty system (7 hexes of nothing just empty space)

Each turn you can move any fleet counter 1 system that is in contact with the system it's in. The fleet counters have points assigned to them as you see fit. Start with a minimum of 300 points and go up from there. These fleets cannot be more than your fleet victory point pool when added up. Example: if you have 4000 points in your fleet victory point pool you could have 4x 1000 fleet counters in your empire. You can replace losses to fleet counters by sending a smaller fleet of points to reinforce it from your home system. The fleets lose point value as they suffer destroyed ships only, otherwise just deduct repair costs from the fleet victory point pool. Each turn your empire generates victory points from your colony's and home system and repairs are paid from that. So assigning fleet victory points to a fleet ties up those points from being used as replacement/repairs.
You can build a mobile base or battle station in a system. All you do is send a convoy from your home system to the system where you want the base/station to be built. The mobile base costs 120 points to build and the battle station is 375 points to build. These costs come out of your fleet victory point pool. Each civilian ship carries points equal to its purchase value as cargo. Example: a heavy freighter is 30 points to buy and carries 30 victory points in it. So attacking a convoy is a nice way to destroy the enemy's fleet victory points. A 300 point convoy could have 5x heavy freighters to deliver 150points to a fleet to expand it. The convoy reaches the system, the carried points are used to build the MB or BS and then the civilian ships points go back into the fleet victory point pool. So a separate fleet of warships could escort the convoy to protect the civilian ships from attack. If a battle takes place just have the convoy exit the opposite edge of the map as an enemy tries to attack/destroy it before it gets away. A mobile base in a system stops all enemy ships in that system from moving out of it. A battle station affects the systems in contact with the system it's in by exerting a zone of control and prevents movement out of it's system and surrounding systems. So you can protect your empire from invaders by building MB or BS.

To generate a random enemy use the following chart if you wish.
En Player Side
DR Federation
1 vs Klingon
2 vs Romulan
3 vs Kzinti
4 vs Gorn
5 vs Tholian
6 vs Orion

En Player Side
DR Klingon
1 vs Federation
2 vs Romulan
3 vs Kzinti
4 vs Gorn
5 vs Tholian
6 vs Orion

En Player Side
DR Romulan
1 vs Federation
2 vs Klingon
3 vs Kzinti
4 vs Gorn
5 vs Tholian
6 vs Orion

En Player Side
DR Kzinti
1 vs Federation
2 vs Klingon
3 vs Romulan
4 vs Gorn
5 vs Tholian
6 vs Orion

En Player Side
DR Gorn
1 vs Federation
2 vs Klingon
3 vs Romulan
4 vs Kzinti
5 vs Tholian
6 vs Orion

En Player Side
DR Tholian
1 vs Federation
2 vs Klingon
3 vs Romulan
4 vs Kzinti
5 vs Gorn
6 vs Orion

En Player Side
DR Orion
1 vs Federation
2 vs Klingon
3 vs Romulan
4 vs Kzinti
5 vs Gorn
6 vs Tholian
This chart will generate a random opponent so you can fight anyone (except your own side, you may if you like of course)

Each player can choose a race for their empire. You could have 2 Federation empires competing as an example. Just have the other players play the enemy side for your fights and you return the favor during their turns. Build your empire up to a prestige limit that you preset. The home worlds can never be attacked or conquered. Once a player has less than 2 prestige points they can only have a home system and basically have to restart their empire again. If an opposing player invades and causes the defending players empire to collapse to only a home system the war is over and peace is declared. The defending player can rebuild his fleet pool 100 points a turn plus whatever missions they conduct and win. As time goes by that player will have a big enough force pool to start expanding again and adding systems to their empire.

Please give some feedback with ideas you have to make this work better. I tried to keep it as simple and playable as possible without a lot of paperwork. Just start an empire, purchase your favorite ship to be added to your battles/missions, keep track of it's experience and grow your fleet/empire. I used the campaign rules in SFB-CTA as a basis for this larger campaign game.

 

[dinnermeat]

Interest idea, I got the basics down. Each player starts with 7 systems in hexes and 3 conn in the middle with 5 unclaimed systems/rock fields/nebulas. Each system is worth 20 points a turn and you get 1 homeworld worth 100 points, you can buy trade fleets for 150 points per system and they will net you 50 p each turn per system. You can upgrade a system with a battle station for the points cost, but the attacker gets 300 extra points in orian pirates he can take, but they will warp out i hull drops 50% or is unable to warp leave the closet board edge. moble bases can be bought and can move 1 hex per turn, appear in game play and double repairs for any fleet in system. Your fleet max per hex is 1000 minimum 500 per hex, execption homeworld which is all in and your homeworld gets a free battle station at start of campaign. Fleets move 2 hex in friendly hexs and 1 in neutral or enemy hexs, you can only 1 hex per turn and also raid 1 other hex except the homeworlds with another fleet. Raid is optional andf if not contested will destory any trade fleet and attacker will get points gain of that system for 3 turns or until a friendly fleet moves there at end of turn. Otherwise keep all the rules in the rulebook for exp and ship perks, etc. What does everyone think, or any I should do.

 

[Halfbat]

Whichever you go for, in-empire resources must be available to avoid the problems neko. f. stated. I think that one of the reasons the straightforward "conquer a new system = +resources" approach is that it misses out any of the balancing factors that make for better game play.

If you do include resources, it may be a good idea to allow for internal infrastructure/luxury resources to be transferred over to wartime resources. Of course, this means you then have to have a 'happiness index' of some kind (I've seen it called Contentment Rating, Unrest level, and similar). A constraint on this is that newly-transferred planets are going to be trouble and initially have an adverse effect on the 'happiness index' of the victors.

It also depends how in-depth a campaign is required. Having resources down to the planetary or system level creates key targets, as does placing construction facilities. Supply is a must-have: a rapidly expanding empire must have expanding supply lines and dedicated supply ships the further away they get from their existing lines. Starbases become important (and tough nuts to crack) as they may have resources and can act as forward bases and repair facilities without sending stricken ships back to be repaired. A contracting empire has shorter supply lines so could have faster routes to repair.

Integrating the exploration could encourage some ships to be allocated to exploratory work, taking them off the front-line, but also raising the possibility of minor encounters - D7 vs Constellation class become more likely as both have better labs rating than many of their counterparts.

The thing I like about these sort of campaigns is that it gives a really good reason to have a range of ships, including the non-war-focus ships.

Hope this helps. In whichever system, the numbers are tricky.

 

[nekomata fuyu]

I can see ways that "new system = new resources" can work, but I think they will get more in depth than ACTA wants to be.

The trick for such a system is that you must also have "new system = new liability" in order to balance out the new resources. Seeing as I'm guessing that we want the game to make some degree of sense, I expect the most likely source of liability would be due to spreading your forces more thinly.

On that note:
- You can't have a fleet which just happens to be wherever is attacked. Doing so means that your fleet is not spread out be defending a larger area.
- An alternative is to take your fleet and specify which ships are defending which systems. This means that having more systems leads to less ships defending each system.
- With this system, if you allow the attacker to use their entire fleet, things get unbalanced. Instead we will make each player specify a defence fleet for each system, along with an attack fleet that they can use for attacking other players.
- Just because it adds some flavour, but next to no extra complexity at this point, we may as well also allow a reserve fleet to be specified. Such a fleet can join the defence of an attacked system, but will not show up until partway through the battle. Only fast ships can be used in a reserve fleet (as only they would be able to reach an attack in time).
- Also, this system now means that individual battles will often be unbalanced, as a smart attacker will be attacking weak points, and otherwise making sure that the odds are in their favour. This also means that other players are fighting battles where the odds are against them.

Now, imagine each player having to do this at the beginning of each campaign round. This would also mean that you also need to have campaign rounds, which introduces questions of what happens if someone doesn't turn up for a given week, etc.

All in all, I think such a system can be rewarding and fun. You will need dedicated players who aren't going to get bored and skip turns, or ragequit every time they're in a battle with the odds favouring the opponent. This is where the ACTA system works better for a loose campaign where people can just turn up and play as often or occassionally as they like.

 

[dinnermeat]

I like the ideas, really trying to find a balance with the map campaign and balance, I do not want unbalanced fights but I may have it where there are no fleets just contol areas and you can pick what ships plAy where ever. And for he most part I want a map where players can choose how they spend their points and territory.

 

[gunner41c]

The biggest thing I was going for was the lack of record keeping. Your fleets are just point values drawn from the force pool. Any destroyed ships reduce the fleet size unless you replace them physically with a reinforcement fleet. Repairs are covered by using unassigned force pool points. To accomplish missions you would figure out what ships you need and put that into the scenario you are playing.

During your turn you would either obtain a new system, fight a scenario (explore mission)(campaign generated fight), or invade a competing players empire. The 50% cost of an invading fleet represents the supply cost of invading and maintaining the current invading fleet. The main thing is to use the campaign section in the rule book. The campaign sections gives you a framework and this empire setup makes the way to use prestige points differently.

The random roll would give you a flexible and unpredictable space map. It is similar to making the campaign game a combination of Civilization and Settlers of Catan. The map hexes are a center hex surrounded by 6 other hexes. Each area added would be the same size 7 hex arrangement but of varying internal setup (planet, resource, empty or hazard). The adding the hex group in a circular and clockwise set up makes for a random star map.

To add a personal element you would have a personal ship to campaign with and watch it's experience/level grow. You would add it into the fights to be like Star Trek where Cpt. Kirk/Picard were always the center of the action, which you would be too.

 

[Asguard101]

I was hoping Vbam would get thier SF Campaign system out. I has hoping to use it with ACTA:SF, but it appears that is on hold if not canceled.