Stage 1. The Design.
So, I'm thinking of making a campaign for my Gaming Club in the new year.
The trick being, I've never done one before....
So, in order to force myself to get stuff going for it, I figure I'd write a blog of my random ramblings on it, updating you all on how the plans are going, or not as the case may be.
There's a few challenges to it, really. Firstly, a few people at my club have fallen out with 40k a little, mostly due to Grey Knights and space wolves... So it'd be good to try to entice them back into it. Secondly, while we've got a load of 40k players, they're not always massively reliable. Thirdly, I know I'm going to procrastinate a whole lot in doing this....
Initial Thoughts
Having glanced over Planetary Empires and Mighty Empires, I like Mighty Empires format of 'conquering stuff' more than Planetary's every tile is owned at the start.
Teams could help with the 'unreliable player' element somewhat. - Maybe by splitting between armies, would help avoid having mirror armies fighting each other... Blood Angels are pretty popular.
The general format I've been talking about with my buddies is along the lines of having 1500 point games where your armies are picked out of a force of 2500 points set at the start of the campaign.
We'd like some way to chart casualties and resources for replacements. Possible injuries for characters
I think the 'points' value for every game should be equal.
Having proper Missions is awesome. Battle Missions would be a good starting off point.
There's been some talk about having 'Recon' 'Defensive' and 'Offensive' armies.
Building some defences would be neat.
I've been playing around with some 'equipment reward charts.'
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That's actually quite a big list really.... Which is kind of worrying, as that's after some discussions about K.I.S.S. - Ideas about 'supply lines' were dropped, thankfully.
So, the opening battle of the campaign, we're thinking of a big planetstrike game. Or maybe 2 planetstrike games. Though that's depending on the story and the armies.
The Imperium is on the offensive! After the failed Tau and Eldar joint incursion onto the Therandan Gateway, Imperial Forces are seeking to reclaim lost territory by attacking a world that has become a staging post for the Xenos attackers...
More to come soon!
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Righteo, blog number 2....
So, one of the sort of mechanisms I've worked out is using Battle Missions more often.
So, I'm thinking something along the lines of:
Campaign Tiles are either Owned, Unclaimed or Defended.
Attacking Armies are either Invasion (1500pts) or Recon forces (1000pts).
Games occur when an attacking army either meets another attacking army, or hits an enemy Owned or Defended territory.
Unclaimed:
Recon V Recon: Roll for a Normal Mission. 1000pts
Invasion V Invasion: Roll for a Normal Mission. 1500pts.
- Winner takes the territory. Draw, both fall back.
I'm not sure what to do with Invasion Vs Recon games.
I know there's a fighting withdrawl scenario, but I also know that a 500 pts difference is an awful lot... I guess I'm open to suggestions.
Claimed
A claimed territory, is a territory owned by someone but hasn't invested in defending it. The attacker rolls a D3 for the kind of mission that's played. The theory is that 2/3 missions will favour an attackers list, with 1, not. A bit like Annihilation being a foil for the Objective missions.
[i]Invasion[i]: 1500pt Games. - Can take territory
1-2: Ambush! Local Forces surround and Ambush the invading army.
3-4: Surprise Attack
5-6: Implaccable Advance
Recon: 1000pt games. - Gains extra resource points.
1-2: Dunno, but Attackers are on the back foot?
3-4: Slave Raid. The atackers count as Necrons.
5-6: Pillage. The attackers count as the Chaos forces.
Defended
A defended territory, is a tile where the defender has spent resource points in fortifying. This is shown by using the Bastion markers from the Planetary Empire set. Potentially one could have a heavily defended territory using the Mighty Empires Castle markers. Possibly allow the defenders a small bastion (no guns) and 6-12 inches of defence lines to deploy as part of their deployment?
Recon: 1000pt games. - Gains more extra resource points
1-2: Mobile Defence. Defenders count as Eldar
3-4: Cut and Run. Attackers count as Orks
5-6: Reconnaisance in Force: Attackers count as Necrons
Invasion: 1500pt games. - Can take territory.
1-2: Trench Warfare
3-4: All round Defence
5-6: Wave Assault
Special Missions
The Attacker may choose to play the 'Flank Attack' mission as the attacker, if he has 3 controlled tiles in contact with the tile he's planning on invading.
I want to include Fighting Withdrawl somewhere into it...
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Casualties
Casualties are hard to think about. Is it too much to expect a person to total up all his guys of the same stats and weapons at the start of the campaign and base his army off of that?
I dunno, it's starting to sound awfully complicated again... But, if you were to take a badly remembered 2k guard list of mine...
1x Colonel
1x Commissar Lord
1x Ogryn Bone'ead
3x Ogryns
7x Veteran Meltagunners
3x Veteran Plasmagunners
12x Veteran Lasgunners
2x Veteran Sergeants
3x Guard Autocannon Teams
1x Guard Missile Launcher Team
4x Guard Sergeants
24x Guardsmen
4x Guard Grenade Launchers
4x Guard Flamers
1x Guard Lieutenant
1x Guardsman Marbo
4x Chimeras
1x Leman Russ
1x Leman Russ Demolisher
1x Manticore
1x Valkyrie Vendetta
1x Valkyrie
1x Bane Wolf
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That doesn't seem too bad a list to have to make up at the start of the campaignm does it? Considering Guard are one of the largest numbered, more varied armies, it doesn't seem too excessive.
Anyhows, the rough idea is. Lets say, you take that list and you have to make a 1500 point army out of it for the campaign. The theory then is, you roll at the end of the game for the units you've got casualties for. And then you need to replace them with resource stuff.
I'm thinking of something along the lines of, wholely legal units must be fielded (Keeping in mind they have 2.5k of reserves, not just 2k) but since I'm not a fan of unequal pointed games, if for some reason a person is at the point where they have no legal reserves left to add into their forces, they're restricted to recon missions on the attack, and on defence, the extra points can be made up of 'militia' who are picked from the casualties, but are at -1 ws and bs.
I think if I wrote that out properly, rather than just a ramble, it would be quite playable... Only hiccup would be the sergeant equivalents I think?
Well, that's enough for one day, methinks!
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