Scope in Campaigns

One of the biggest things for me, and if you've any of my hundreds of articles, you probably know this, is campaigns. Now why campaigns? because I get to not only create my army, I get to create a war for them to fight! and I can use whatever I imagine... and my opponent agrees too... <.< So, one of the things I've always wanted to do, was get that feel of a larger scale war. I don't mean apocalypse, I mean, the nuts and bolts of what goes on before and after a battle, and back to another battle, and so forth. I guess what I'm trying to say is, a larger scope.

No matter what I come up with it always turns out too complicated, or too easy to take advantage of in some way shape or form. I've come up with battles fought over entire rooms, and we had to declare battles, and we used poker chips to represent our forces, which were our armies. But we ended up playing on the floor and that broke our backs, as well as led to more than a few stepped on models.

SO latest Idea, is to take a poster board. And if you really wanted to go out, you could build a terrain feature and use that. But use poker chips to represent forces. Each "outfit" we'll call them, and each outfit is a representative of our armies, really you can cut and paste them. The terrain features is like a board, of boards... I mean by that, you have cities, rivers, mountains, any terrain you like. Hell make it all flat no mans land if you want. Draw up suitable markers on the posterboard, and the like. Each unit has to use 6 inch movement, like regular models. 12 if every unit has a transport, or is just all vehicles.

When two opposing chips come within 24 inches of one another, a battle is started. Here's the fun part. You get to choose where you place them, and whatnot, so you can take advantage of terrain features for your armies, and that will create more depth alone. But the best part, is how multiple armies interact.

Say for example, you have a company of infantry, and the enemy throws a company into the mix as well. So you have one poker chip where the enemy is in 24 inches. But, kind of like piling in for close combat, multiple poker chips can pile in 6 inches before a battle. and if they come from the proper angle, then that whole army can outflank. On the appropriate side obviously. If an army doesn't come in from an angle, they just treat reserve as normal, but only if it had to pile in. If it was within 24 inches to start with, then you can deploy as normal.

So what constitutes an outfit? Well for starters, screw force org, it has to be a minimum of 200 points, and a maximum of 700. Why so low? well, if you had it at 2000 points per poker chip, aka, each chip being your entire army, you would take too long to do the battles in a reasonable time. Also if two chips interact, how would you field two of your army? so in that sense, you can still take more points than your army is worth, just make sure that your units don't overlap, meaning, spread out your forces a little. If you have like a 100000 point army, then by all means, make each chip 2000 points, just make sure your opponent can do the same.

Now how do you win? Fighting in reality, is never just destroy your enemy. It's to protect something, or to break something. So in that regard, each man must take three objective markers (could be different colored poker chips, or objective markers from in game) and declare one to be worth three points, and the other two worth one point each. The one point each, or Forward Command Posts, they are going to give any of the defenders the following special rules in the ensuing battle over the objective: troops have stubborn, and may rally even if below half strength. The Attackers have the Special Rules: all infantry have counter attack special rule, as well as the stubborn rule for all models.

Tired of reading yet? well, for the final 3 point objective, treat it like the siege rules I have written in a previous article

or come up with your own :D

SOOOO, agree on a point limit, get the chips for that point limit. Remember, 200 to 700 points per chip. 3 objectives per side, two, one point objectives, and one 3 point objective. Treat chips like the models that are in them. For example, the slowest unit there, if they aren't in a transport, are as slow as the whole force must move, infantry = 6 inch movement, vehicles = 12 inch movement, fast vehicles = 18 inches. 24 inches to enter battle, chips may pile in on the defenders side, meaning, whoever initiates the conflict may not consolidate, but in response to a battle, the side being attacked may pile in chips within 6" of the battle. Lastly, be creative, spice it up.

I know that looked like a lot of rules, but it's quite simple after a few minutes of rereading. Consider things like minefields, which count as difficult terrain for your opponent, or vast forests that do the same. However, maybe if that outfit has a unit that has move through cover, just one, it applies to the rest of them, as they show them the way. Things like that, be creative, have fun. Keep in mind this is no way a perfect rule set, just an idea.