House Water's Winning Star Wars Scenario

So the pitch made to the House of Water was the heroic last stand and flight of the Pope to Castel Sant’Angelo , and this is what we started discussing one night on Discord.

And where we ran into our first hiccough.

We started throwing ideas back and forth on how to do a scenario on the 42 guards that protected the Pope along his escape route to the @Graystoak and myself had some great ideas and I even drew a map, here it is

So what was the issue oh magnificent Gerr?, I hear you cry.

Well the next morning @Elessar2590 pointed out that to him the 189 Swiss guard and their last stand at St Peter’s was the defining moment and the reason for suggesting it.

We discussed it in Discord, we tossed ideas around and it was decided that we were all right. What we saw as the defining moment of the fall of Rome was different, but they were still connected in a way and to that end, after a late night chat on Discord, we came up with two games. One scenario for the last stand and one for the flight of the Pope. Together these two scenarios will tell our Battle of the Sack of Rome.

We have chosen to set our Scenario during the Orig Trig (as the kids call it) but the basic games could be played in any of the settings with minor tweaks.

So in broad terms we have the Pope, being ushered safely away by a small number of elite guards.

Meanwhile lead by their Captain the remaining guards sell their lives on the steps of St Peter’s Basilica.

Looking at that it really suggested to us that having a supreme leader being exfiltrated lends itself perfectly to the Emperor and his super elite Imperial Guard. But if we want the Rebels to attack the Emperor it couldn’t be on Coruscant, where any force of poxy traitors would be roflstomped in short order.

Then once again House Water flowed gently around the problem until it was swallowed up like a bungalow on a flood plain. Looking at a photo of St Peter’s Square, @Noyjatat (when do you stop adding “atat”?) pointed out how similar it looked to the Palace at Theed.

Both buildings are fronted by a large round area, which in turn are surrounded by covered colonnades. So we decided that the Emperor was visiting his summer Palace on Naboo, getting some much needed R&R when attacked by the terrorists.

The Swiss guard made their last stand initially at the Teutonic Cemetery (camposanto teutonico on the left of the map) before falling back to the Basilica’s steps. From the Basilica 42 escorted Pope Clement VII to the  Passetto di Borgo and onto the Castel Sant’Angelo.

We decided that we needed some reason beyond a kill mission for the first scenario to make things interesting for both sides, and the subject of the catacombs of Rome was suggested as having many entrances and perhaps being means to move about the city. Thus we could use them as spawn points for the Rebels who would make up for their lack of quality by having a endless spawn mechanic. In the end we combined that with the idea that they provide routes to navigate the city which is filled with an army unleashed.

By holding them the Imperial Guard can delay the advance of the Rebels somewhat in the second scenario.

With that I give you our Scenario for the Sack of Rome, a two part Saga, in a galaxy a long time ago, far, far away