Post by wstevens on Mar 15, 2009 23:22:09 GMT
Well I hope you have a few minutes to read through my preliminary ideas for this.
Historical campaign thoughts
Each round played will be totally different to the next and will give players a little more adventure than just playing pitched battles in a league style.
On some occasions the battle that you may play may have the opponent with more points than yourself. Such things happened in battles – take what happened at Guagamela – Alexander was outnumbered 5 to 1 and managed to surface triumphant.
So how will it work? Unfortunately this cannot be worked as a map based campaign due to the immense variation in timescale and geography between the armies. However this will be done as if your army is on its own trudging campaign going from A to B, where A is Battle 1 and B is Battle 9 or 10. It doesn’t matter who you will play at anyone time, in fact you may play the same person more than once or never actually play someone at all. More on this later!
To start the ball game rolling I would need at least 8 to 10 players to make it viable. The time for the campaign will be over a long period to try and get all games in. However, serious lag time of no commitment for over month will hamper the way that this would go. There may be people waiting on your results before they can actually proceed. So in light of this – if you cannot commit to this then this is not for you.
I could just say the second meeting in every month would be historical campaign night but then there would be always one person with a dickey tummy or flu or maybe a family problem, or another commitment that would not allow them to attend. Your thoughts on this part will be gratefully accepted. If you do commit it will be for ALL the games in the campaign – no matter how one sided it may look on occasion. Warfare is not fair!
There will be two allied factions made up of 5 players each (I hope) – so as the last Warhammer fantasy campaign it will be a team effort. So Team A and Team B. This will be done with like armies taken into consideration.
For the campaign you will need initially:
One 750pt army with one hero captain (not a general choice although he will act as one) for small skirmish games – this does not mean that they should be all skirmishers. There must be a least one unit of 20 infantry here or 5 cavalry at minmum.
One 1500pt army with a general and BSB (although Greeks / Macedonians will be allowed either a hero captain in place of a BSB owing to their oracle traditions)
A 500 pts reserve army with a least one infantry unit of 20 minimum, and one cavalry unit of 5 minimum.
As the 750pt army is kept separate from games involving your 1500pt army you can use the same models for each army.
Any army from the Chariot wars book, through to Alexander, Punic wars, Spartacus, Fall of the West, The Armies of Antiquity (also in the back of the newer rules book edition) but not Crusaders and anything medieval. If its before 900AD its ok. If you have a query on a particular army just ask me, although a 1500pt army of US marines would surely receive the answer it deserves – so please be sensible. I am expecting to start in September 2009 – so this should give you enough time to gather forces.
All wounded are counted as healed by the next round. The following are solely note form ideas and do not properly show rule of engagement as yet. The main idea for points will be 3 battle points for a win, 2pts for a draw and 1pt for a loss. However, little extra battle points can be won in particular games and they act as an incentive.
Round one will be out of the hat!
An easy 750pts skirmish confrontation played with an order of battle.
You will just fight to the death as you have surprised each other. Roll to see which side of the table you come on at – if you roll the same side then you must start 18 inches apart.
The winner of this will add an extra foot skirmishing unit to the next battle with a value of no more than 75pts. The loser will not.
Some will bemoan the fact that they may waste a night just playing 750pts but I feel that those that are not regular players will benefit from this and I do not envisage people finishing in less than an hour. In fact with so many little rules and the unfamiliarity with their current army some may be as slow as me!
Round 2 will be a straightforward 1500pt pitched battle against each other. Winners of the last round will have an extra 75pts of foot skirmishers. Again names out of the hat! The winner of this battle will make one of their infantry champions into a captain /hero (not a general). This is added to their 1500pts
Round 3 will be a central defence. Team A will defend and Team B will attack. The defender will play with their 750pts force (which will act as a garrison) and the attacker will use their 1500pts force. However, the defender has their reserve army of 500pts to come on during the start of round 3 – they will have to roll for each unit on a 4+ they enter the battle. You must use the scatter dice once to determine which table edge they will ALL come from –effectively a flanking reserve.
If the defender wins he gains an extra 2 battle points. The incentive for the attacker is to not let that happen!
Round 4 will be a straightforward pitched battle – but here the target is the enemy general. Kill this person and earn an extra battle point. If he is killed he will not be able to fight in the next battle. If he is wounded he will enter the next battle with a unit of your choice but will be at the wounds that he sustained from this battle. He will also be at –1 WS because of his wound(s). You will need to protect him.
Round 5: Ambush in No mans land!: One army has found themselves literally in the enemy’s land and is now blocked from behind – (meaning that they cannot move backwards and off the table edge). They have to make it to the other side of the table. Roll a D6 to see which army has to breakthrough. The opponent must split their 1500pt+ army in two and will move on both sides to stop the army leaving. If the army gets at least 50% through he can add a cavalry unit worth up to 200pts to the next 1500+pts game. If the defender stops him from doing so he may add a 200pt infantry unit to the next 1500+ match.
Round 6: Camp fire skirmishing. Two patrols have camped overnight but have not noticed that they are very close. Team A have prisoners captured in the last round. If Team B are able to free them you can use the 500 pts reserve in the next match IF you are defending. If they are not freed you cannot use them. Use the 750pts skirmishing army. Further rules of engagement will be done.
Round 7: Central defence: Team B will defend and Team A will attack. (as before)
Round 8: Kill the messengers! Here you will have to stop a message getting through to the enemy’s HQ. Both players will have reason to send a messenger – He will be hidden in a unit. The messenger has to pass to the other side if he does full battle points will be awarded. This is a 1500+pts game.
Round 9: Look at which messengers got through – they will be able to team up with any partner of their choice on each team and play a doubles skirmish match using just their 750pts team. Who they get drawn against is all a hat job again. Those that did not get messengers through will have to play 750pts on their own against 2 teams. If the solitary 750pts army wins this is worth the full points allocated – the doubles team would have to share the points. In the event that two 750pts armies are pitched against each other then normal rules for points would occur.
If it occured than none of the messengers got through then I will do a random draw for doubles. Just try and get them through!
Round 10: For an all-dayer – all 1500+ pts teams will have a large decider – this counts as killpoints for each unit killed – no matter how big or small it is! Each killpoint = 1 battle point!
You will be able to call in your 500pts reserves in this after round 2, but they will all come from one random edge.
As these are just thoughts I want to hear what people think – there are no actual rules of engagement for each round as yet – but these with map and instructions will be available soon. It is worth noting the victory points for each game, although in some cases they will not be the winning factor. For example the messenger game, the Free the prisoners game. Etc.. They may be a deciding factor in the overall battle.
This is not about an overall winner but is based on team work. However, a personal stats table will be drawn up and the best general will be the one with the most accumulated battle points and VP difference.
So just to remind those who are finger hovering over your keyboards - this is just a a first thought draft - any ideas, suggestions or thoughts will be grateful recieved, but not to the point that you rewrite the hard work put through this already and generally take the proverbial.
Historical campaign thoughts
Each round played will be totally different to the next and will give players a little more adventure than just playing pitched battles in a league style.
On some occasions the battle that you may play may have the opponent with more points than yourself. Such things happened in battles – take what happened at Guagamela – Alexander was outnumbered 5 to 1 and managed to surface triumphant.
So how will it work? Unfortunately this cannot be worked as a map based campaign due to the immense variation in timescale and geography between the armies. However this will be done as if your army is on its own trudging campaign going from A to B, where A is Battle 1 and B is Battle 9 or 10. It doesn’t matter who you will play at anyone time, in fact you may play the same person more than once or never actually play someone at all. More on this later!
To start the ball game rolling I would need at least 8 to 10 players to make it viable. The time for the campaign will be over a long period to try and get all games in. However, serious lag time of no commitment for over month will hamper the way that this would go. There may be people waiting on your results before they can actually proceed. So in light of this – if you cannot commit to this then this is not for you.
I could just say the second meeting in every month would be historical campaign night but then there would be always one person with a dickey tummy or flu or maybe a family problem, or another commitment that would not allow them to attend. Your thoughts on this part will be gratefully accepted. If you do commit it will be for ALL the games in the campaign – no matter how one sided it may look on occasion. Warfare is not fair!
There will be two allied factions made up of 5 players each (I hope) – so as the last Warhammer fantasy campaign it will be a team effort. So Team A and Team B. This will be done with like armies taken into consideration.
For the campaign you will need initially:
One 750pt army with one hero captain (not a general choice although he will act as one) for small skirmish games – this does not mean that they should be all skirmishers. There must be a least one unit of 20 infantry here or 5 cavalry at minmum.
One 1500pt army with a general and BSB (although Greeks / Macedonians will be allowed either a hero captain in place of a BSB owing to their oracle traditions)
A 500 pts reserve army with a least one infantry unit of 20 minimum, and one cavalry unit of 5 minimum.
As the 750pt army is kept separate from games involving your 1500pt army you can use the same models for each army.
Any army from the Chariot wars book, through to Alexander, Punic wars, Spartacus, Fall of the West, The Armies of Antiquity (also in the back of the newer rules book edition) but not Crusaders and anything medieval. If its before 900AD its ok. If you have a query on a particular army just ask me, although a 1500pt army of US marines would surely receive the answer it deserves – so please be sensible. I am expecting to start in September 2009 – so this should give you enough time to gather forces.
All wounded are counted as healed by the next round. The following are solely note form ideas and do not properly show rule of engagement as yet. The main idea for points will be 3 battle points for a win, 2pts for a draw and 1pt for a loss. However, little extra battle points can be won in particular games and they act as an incentive.
Round one will be out of the hat!
An easy 750pts skirmish confrontation played with an order of battle.
You will just fight to the death as you have surprised each other. Roll to see which side of the table you come on at – if you roll the same side then you must start 18 inches apart.
The winner of this will add an extra foot skirmishing unit to the next battle with a value of no more than 75pts. The loser will not.
Some will bemoan the fact that they may waste a night just playing 750pts but I feel that those that are not regular players will benefit from this and I do not envisage people finishing in less than an hour. In fact with so many little rules and the unfamiliarity with their current army some may be as slow as me!
Round 2 will be a straightforward 1500pt pitched battle against each other. Winners of the last round will have an extra 75pts of foot skirmishers. Again names out of the hat! The winner of this battle will make one of their infantry champions into a captain /hero (not a general). This is added to their 1500pts
Round 3 will be a central defence. Team A will defend and Team B will attack. The defender will play with their 750pts force (which will act as a garrison) and the attacker will use their 1500pts force. However, the defender has their reserve army of 500pts to come on during the start of round 3 – they will have to roll for each unit on a 4+ they enter the battle. You must use the scatter dice once to determine which table edge they will ALL come from –effectively a flanking reserve.
If the defender wins he gains an extra 2 battle points. The incentive for the attacker is to not let that happen!
Round 4 will be a straightforward pitched battle – but here the target is the enemy general. Kill this person and earn an extra battle point. If he is killed he will not be able to fight in the next battle. If he is wounded he will enter the next battle with a unit of your choice but will be at the wounds that he sustained from this battle. He will also be at –1 WS because of his wound(s). You will need to protect him.
Round 5: Ambush in No mans land!: One army has found themselves literally in the enemy’s land and is now blocked from behind – (meaning that they cannot move backwards and off the table edge). They have to make it to the other side of the table. Roll a D6 to see which army has to breakthrough. The opponent must split their 1500pt+ army in two and will move on both sides to stop the army leaving. If the army gets at least 50% through he can add a cavalry unit worth up to 200pts to the next 1500+pts game. If the defender stops him from doing so he may add a 200pt infantry unit to the next 1500+ match.
Round 6: Camp fire skirmishing. Two patrols have camped overnight but have not noticed that they are very close. Team A have prisoners captured in the last round. If Team B are able to free them you can use the 500 pts reserve in the next match IF you are defending. If they are not freed you cannot use them. Use the 750pts skirmishing army. Further rules of engagement will be done.
Round 7: Central defence: Team B will defend and Team A will attack. (as before)
Round 8: Kill the messengers! Here you will have to stop a message getting through to the enemy’s HQ. Both players will have reason to send a messenger – He will be hidden in a unit. The messenger has to pass to the other side if he does full battle points will be awarded. This is a 1500+pts game.
Round 9: Look at which messengers got through – they will be able to team up with any partner of their choice on each team and play a doubles skirmish match using just their 750pts team. Who they get drawn against is all a hat job again. Those that did not get messengers through will have to play 750pts on their own against 2 teams. If the solitary 750pts army wins this is worth the full points allocated – the doubles team would have to share the points. In the event that two 750pts armies are pitched against each other then normal rules for points would occur.
If it occured than none of the messengers got through then I will do a random draw for doubles. Just try and get them through!
Round 10: For an all-dayer – all 1500+ pts teams will have a large decider – this counts as killpoints for each unit killed – no matter how big or small it is! Each killpoint = 1 battle point!
You will be able to call in your 500pts reserves in this after round 2, but they will all come from one random edge.
As these are just thoughts I want to hear what people think – there are no actual rules of engagement for each round as yet – but these with map and instructions will be available soon. It is worth noting the victory points for each game, although in some cases they will not be the winning factor. For example the messenger game, the Free the prisoners game. Etc.. They may be a deciding factor in the overall battle.
This is not about an overall winner but is based on team work. However, a personal stats table will be drawn up and the best general will be the one with the most accumulated battle points and VP difference.
So just to remind those who are finger hovering over your keyboards - this is just a a first thought draft - any ideas, suggestions or thoughts will be grateful recieved, but not to the point that you rewrite the hard work put through this already and generally take the proverbial.