Hi all,

my club have played a few epic games and are building up to a large 10kv10k game, but long term i would like to run a campaign, a slow burn project we can pick up and play when ever the mood takes us.

The idea is to take the base planetary empires hexes which have modular tiles you can add rivers, factories, hives spaceports etc. you can use flag poles to mark captured territory and some 6mm figures/tanks to mark armies moving on the board. we just take a pic when we are done then can set up the campaign map again and get straight back into the game.

inspired by the likes of the campaign map in the pc game final liberation and old board games like the horus heresy / battle for armageddon, we can have order points each turn - movement, attack, rebuild (if you have captured a factory)

an idea is to have persistent armies, start with a high points count but when a unit dies during a battle - your favourite titan for example - its gone! - you would have capture resources to build more units/get reinforcements.

we could have a brief storyline to start with and let it develop with the campaign and have special rules for certain tiles - eg main hive gives you an extra command point or your commander giving extra production points. another idea would be to have a fog of war so you dont know what you will be fighting against.

really open to ideas on this, i have planetary empires just need to start throwing some rules together into a first draft, any feedback is appreciated want to keep it simple and fun with some cool special rules.

pointswise it would be 10k per side - probably orc v marine. or imperial v marine (plus titans on both sides)- when a unit dies its gone until rebuilt, if its broken roll at the end of the game to see if it reforms
armies can be split in three to give three army groups on the board. -(min 3k) - this is where fog of war comes in make a note of your army group composition like the flanking move in bolt action, when you fight you find out what you are up against or maybe spend order points to scout an army.
we need to work out command points per turn - 10 each? and a cost for actions - movement, attack, rebuild.
we need to work out rebuild costs - eg a titan would cost more than a tactical squad.
we need to work out where you can rebuild - eg marines need to capture a spaceport for reinforcements
we need to decide what bonuses buildings give. eg factorys give a command point for rebuilds
we need to work out terrain effects. - eg a river costs you an extra movement point to move accross
ideas for special rules for characters /commanders needed, eg a free look at enemy armies - extra movement specific orders, extra build points, reroll morale checks, etc etc.

you could bring in other games like battlefleet gothic, - two fleets fight it out and the winner grants x amount of build points to their side or a bombardment of an enemy army etc

really open to suggestions and ideas, all are appreciated

thanks all

john

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In principle there are three styles of campaign, where either the battles or the campaign are key, or where you wish to enjoy both. The main issue with most campaigns involving multiple people is that the campaign usually gets held up by someone missing / dropping out who is vital for a given battle or set of movement orders. The second key issue occurs where one person or team has effectively lost (or more precisely lost enthusiasm) which often triggers the other problem.

If you have a solid circle of friends who are committed to the long term campaign, you have a good set of objectives for each player / race (which are asymmetric for preference), and time is not a critical factor, then go for the full-blown campaign and fight the relevant battles that crop up. My advice here is to keep it simple - start with writing down the rules and guidelines, and then simplify these several times until the result seems too simple. At that point you might end up with something that will work and remain enjoyable

An interesting alternative is to set up a form of 'Battle generator'. Here, the battles are key while the 'campaign' provides a very simplistic background to explain why the battles have occurred. As a start you might consider the following

• Set up a circular 'space' map where each player is an equal number of 'planets' from his two neighbours and with a central group of other planets within easy access of everyone.
• Each person builds an army from the same number of points, including the means to travel between planets.
• Each campaign turn, each player may move their troops from a planet to an adjacent planet. The number of separate armies that a player can move is only limited by their available transport capacity.
• Where two opposing armies try to land on the same planet, they have a battle using the available troops. (Note, Terrain set-up rules and Victory conditions will need to be defined before the campaign starts.)
• After the battle, the Loser moves *all* his troops back to his home planet. The Winner moves all his dead formations and any that are less than 50% back to his home planet, the others automatically return to full strength. This means that everyone has all their formations in place at the start of each campaign turn.
• You may want to allow each planet a very limited 'growth' capacity to build replacements from lost formations. If so, the Winner may choose to re-build a few formations instead of moving any of the remaining troops to an adjacent planet.
• The Winner of the 'campaign' is the person who controls the most planets (or the most planet regeneration points) after a given number of turns.

This sounds like the style you are intending to set up. Here you start out with a very simplistic format and add a few relevant extras as appropriate, whilst desperately trying to avoid adding too much complexity that inevitably slows things down

The key suggestion for both the above is to write the campaign with the least able participant in mind. And you may still have to publish guidelines for engagements that are too one-sided (perhaps with odds of 3:1 or greater), and how these impact the campaign.

The final kind of Campaign focuses on everything outside the battles, including diplomacy, alliances, logistics, movement capabilities, fighting capacity etc. Here any engagements with the enemy are decided without actually fighting on a tabetop. Instead these 'battles' are decided by the umpire / moderator from a series of charts, or perhaps by a 'battle-board'. The results are then fed back into the campaign ready for the next set of campaign orders. This style of campaign can be a very interesting addition to normal wargaming, and does not preclude the most interesting battles being decided on the tabletop if so desired.

One idea that helps keep campaigns fresh are asymmetric campaign goals. For instance, if both sides are fighting a domination style game it becomes a grind once one side controls enough bonuses that they are going to inevitably win (think the Germans at the start of 45). They're playing but more about how long is it going to take yo lose?

Instead if one side is say invading and needs to capture the four primary hives on the planet. The defenders are outnumbered but are trying to evacuate materials, populace, technology to the next continent where they can make a stand, allows both sides an opportunity to win and a reason to keep playing.

Scenarios like that are harder to create but there's plenty of inspiration from history to take from (the above is operation barbarosa) but others spring to mind to steal borrow from such as a superior force , numerically and quality, stuck in enemy territory fighting their way out (Xenophon and the 10,000). Perhaps there's a hidden artifact that chaos is trying to claim (or the Imperials salvage from an ork controlled planet before chaos discoves it?) Its in one of 3 enemy controlled hexes that unfortunately have extensive factory mine works and defenses. The defenders need to capture the abandoned planetary defenses. Each restored prevents a certain amount of invader reinforcement each turn?

The ideas are pretty endless. Have you read the Rock of Ages Planetary Empires campaign from GW way back when? Great ideas in it (back when content occasionally was printed as opposed to just being a sales catalog)

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PS that mega hive is glorious. That yours?

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thanks guys,

its going to be 2-3 dedicated players over a long period of time, domination of the map being the main objective, but having resources and key areas to fight over brings some strategy into the game and the map. having attrition and units "dying" should help the campaign come to a conclusion too as we dont want it to go on forever.

a ratio for battles is a good idea so a larger force will have an advantage but not too much - might have a ratio then reserves that you roll for each turn.

a cap on building might be an idea too.

these guys have some interesting ideas

http://www.librarium-online.com/forums/40k-campaigns/191744-our-planetary-empires-campaign.html

sadly its not my mega hive, found the pics online, its very impressive, i like the use of the bfg ship.

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Heres a first draft of rule set, still a work in progress feedback appreciated thanks

campaignxyz the war for planet abc

background:
two armies fight over a resource rich planet.both sides have limited reinforcements due to warp stormsboth sides make planetfall on the capital hives continent and begin their campaigns for domination of the planet.

campaign map order phases: (one turn = one month)

Strategy phase: tally orders, ten base orders per side + army bonus + building bonus minus army retreat penalty.

build phase:
using a max of 4 base orders plus factory bonuses you can build additonal units. max 10k of units. each factory captured gives one build specific order.
requirements to build units:
infantry - 2 fatories and two orders
transports, light tanks, marines -two factories and four build orders
tanks artillery and aa - 3 factories and 5 build orders
titans and titan killers - 4 factories and 6 build orders.
built units are allocated in the next strategy phase.

movement phase: one move = one order. splitting your army is two orders(max 3 armies).

attack phase: to attack an adjacent enemy army costs 3 orders.
to attack a factory costs +1, a spaceport +2, a bastion +3, a hive +4.
ratio of forces in attacks - max 2-1 ratio extra units arrive as reserves, roll for reserves each turn on 5+ they arrive in game.

rally/retreat/supply phase:
1: rally broken units - roll a d6, 5+ unit reforms at full strenght.
2: retreats - defeated armies pullback 1 tile in the direction of their supply hub -1 order in the next turn.
3: check supply lines (in turn 1 select a tile as a supply hub for your army) you must be able to trace a line back to the hub, if you are blockedby enemy armies and do not fight/move back into supply your army is destroyed in the next turn. to move your supply hub costs 2 orders - cannot be moved to an out of supply unit.


ending the game:
ways to win
1:caturing the enemy supply hub and reducing their army to sub 5k points.
2: reducing the enemy army to sub 2k points
3: hold the central hive for 3 turns in a row.

WIP:

terrain bonuses - eg starport gives extra movement and the ability to assign reinforcements in the turn they are built.

victory bonuses after attacks - army commanders build reputation and skill - roll a d6 and get a bonus eg do an immediate ambush flames of war style in an attack. you drop yur perks if you merge the army or split it.

fog of war- when you split an army note down the name of the army and write down its forces, unless scouted you dont see the size or composition of the army until battle starts.

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Hi!

Wow! Those hexes look awesome!

Primarch

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Primarch


The Primarchload
Magnetized Titans Tutorial
Net Epic Gold
Heresy Rules

not mine unfortunatley

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Hi!

What company makes these "planetary empire" hexes?

It's funny me seeing these, because for years I would have like to run a campaign using something like this, but I thought they didn't exist.

Primarch

_________________
Primarch


The Primarchload
Magnetized Titans Tutorial
Net Epic Gold
Heresy Rules

GW
http://www.games-workshop.com/en-WW/War ... ry-Empires

One of the few products worth anything at this point

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He's a lawyer and a super-villian. That's like having a shark with a bazooka!

-I HAVE NO POINT
-Penal Legion-Fan list
-Help me make Whitescars not suck!

there's a new mighty empiresversion with rivers and the hive tile is a separate item

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http://warheads.ie/index.php?topic=895.msg9202;topicseen#msg9202

getting this ready to go for the new year, and am looking for advice trying to come up with a simple campaign map ruleset we have 4 players who are in for the campaign,

any ideas are appreciated, also there will be two new marine players is there a solid all round list thats reccomended?

say 3k points and a separate 2k of reinforcements of marines ive got a heap of marines/marine vehicles so go wild on the units just need a durable list or two and this is the right forum to get them!

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E:A battles tend to be very bloody, with armies sometimes being completely wiped out (in a recent tournament game I had 3-4 units left on the table from a 3K army). This is one of the reasons I suggest for W:A campaigns that you play this as a 'battle generator' style. The rules in their basic form are :-

1. Everyone draws up army lists for a given points value (say 5K)
2. Everyone has a nominated "Base" on the edge of the circular / Hex map, that is equidistant from each other player. Their forces move from that point.
3. Each player moves all his forces in a campaign turn.
   Campaign movement ranges
   • Infantry move 1 square / hex
   • Vehicles move 2 squares / hexes
   • Aircraft may operate over 3 (4?) squares / hexes
4. Battles
   Where the player moves his forces into a space occupied by en enemy, fight a battle. The forces from the winner stay in place, but any destroyed formation and all the losing formations are returned to their main 'base'. (This way, a player has all his troops available at the start of his campaign turn).
5. The winner of the campaign is determined by the number and value of the squares / hexes occupied.

As an alternative mechanism, consider the boardgame "Small world". This is essentially a variation on the above, comes with an interesting map that can be adapted to this style of campaigning, and has some interesting rules for varying the situation.

i like this idea, one problem i can see is around splitting armies i think it should be kept to a miniumum to keep calulating movement simple and to ensure decent sized battles? the return to hq idea is a winner though

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Very interesting topic, will grab this for later