Escalation Campaign

Our local group is doing an escalation league with a little RP.  I have put together the rules for it, and it has been going well so far.  Here are my ideas and how we are running it so far.  Feel free to use any of the rules if you like.   If you are looking for painting or modeling, those are coming.  I have been working on my dark eldar lateley.  Let me know what you think of the rules.  The first round saw the axis of evil at 28 points and the Imperium at 20 points.  It has been a lot of fun to play games at lower levels and see what people can shoe-horn into their lists.   Hq Experience Points For xp, I am thinking each general would have to keep track of his battles: win=2 points kill MC or HQ=1 point run down enemy squad=1 point HQ(&/or attached unit/transport) destroys unit/vehicle=1 Enemy general taken out of action=1 Enemy general taken out of action by general=2 These Xp points would be gained 1 time per round, and only against your specified opponent.  That way it wouldn't penalize those people that were only able to play a couple games or over-bonus those that could get in a lot of games.  You can level up at 4,9,13,18,22,27,31,36 etc.  We may have to modify that if it takes too long to level up, or if we get some crazy awesome hqs.  Now an Hq could possibly score 5 points and then die.  If that was the case, he would roll once on the hq death table and once on the upgrade table.  Possibly gaining FNP for the upgrade, and slow and purposeful for the downgrade.  This is all very experimental and subject to change.  I say, lets just try this out and see how it works.  I will get all the rules I have sent out put into a PDF for people to print and keep with them.  Life always gets in the way of my plans though.  Also I originally thought that only one general per battle could gain xp, but now I think it would be fine to have 2 per battle gaining points as we scale up the points.  Any other questions?  Thoughts?  Suggestions? HQ dies roll d6 1     Loses 1 CAMPAIGN wound and roll again on the chart. (every leader gets a number of campaign wounds equal to their base wounds.  Once these are all gone, the character is dead.) 2-5      Roll once on the characteristics table 6         Roll once on the Special rules chart Characteristics roll D6 1     -1 Weapon Skill 2     -1 Ballistic Skill 3     -1 Toughness 4     -1 Strength 5     -1Leadership 6     Roll once on the Special Rules Chart Special Rules 1-2     HQ 1 Piece of equipment (Most expensive) costs 50% more than usual 3-4     HQ becomes Slow and Purposeful 5        HQ becomes Stubborn 6        HQ rolls once on the upgrade chart   Each death/downgrade makes the hq cost 10 less points, no matter the result.  You can never lose/gain 2 points off of your original stat line. Gain experience upgrade, (points to be determined, though I like your breakdown) Characteristics roll D6 1     +1 Weapon Skill 2     +1 Ballistic Skill 3     +1 Toughness 4     +1 Strength 5     +1Leadership 6     Pick one and Roll once on the Special Rules Chart Special Rules Chart 1     HQ gains Fleet 2     HQ gains Feel No Pain 3     HQ gains Acute Senses 4     HQ 1 Piece of equipment costs 50% less 5     HQ gains Eternal Warrior 6     HQ Chooses one off of this chart Again, no upgrading more than 2 points past original stat line.  I wanted to have enough options to keep it fun, but not too many that people get confused/bored.   If your Hq dies a couple of times, and fights about like a wounded kitten, then you can bench him.  Say your HQ you have been using is a space marine captain.  You can choose to have a librarian lead your troops, but if you choose to use a captain, then it has to be the downgraded one.  The point of the experience points is to add some flavor and tie-in from one game to the next.  If you switch HQs every battle, then you will never get a really cool, super-upgraded one.   Each player can also use up to two HQs for experience building.  Let your opponent know, and keep track of his XP.  Then roll on the chart at the end of your game to see what happened.  It would be best if your opponent saw and verified the results.

Campaign Points

Battle points are 3 for a win, 1 for painted army are separate from the xp an hq can get.  These points are used every round to see which side won.  So if jed wins 5 battles, mike wins 4, jeremiah wins 1 and Daniel wins 3, and all armies are painted, then you would have (5x3)+(4x3)+(1x3)+(3x3)=39 win points,  5+4+1+3=13 paint points or 52 for the imperium.  Say the axis had 57 points, then axis would win that round and the campaign would start to swing in their favor.

 

You can send out the battle results to the whole group for bragging rights or just send them to me and I will post the results.  The results will determine what happens in the next game.  Remember, these results are only for your chosen opponent for that round.  You can play other games against other opponents for campaign results but not for xp.  So if you play and lose against your assigned opponent, then win against two other people, and your army is painted all three games you would get:
3 + 3 points (2 wins)   3 points (all three games painted army) for your side. 

Also, subsequent games DO NOT have to be the prescribed game.  You could play a battle missions game, or a random game out of the rulebook, or anything else you and your opponent agree upon.  Just trying to keep it fun.  Let me know if you would like any changes or revisions to the setup to keep it fun.

Campaign 2011

So the two sides will be forces of the Imperium:

Jer.-           Space Wolves  General-Ulf the toothless
Dan.-             Raven Guard    General-Paul "Hawknose" Atreides
Jed.-                   Red Scorpions  General- Comander Cullen
Mik.                  Blood Angels    General-Dante
Joe.                     Salamanders     General- Capt. Foltos and Vuurs'a

The Axis of Evil
Jos.                   Dark Eldar        General Vect
Ste.                 Tyranids           General Swift Death
Tim.                    Rogue Trader    General Phineas Drak
Roy.                 Dark Eldar       General 'Vasectomy' Vect

Dun.              Traitor Angels Sanguine  Captain Rob




For the first battles, lets do a basic anhiliation mission from the 5th edition book with random deployment.  500 points per side.  Army builder lists are best, but you can agree with your opponent beforehand, if you don't have access to the program.  Play on a 4'x4' table, with enough terrain to cover at least 1/4 of the table.  Randomly placed on the table in a manner agreeable to both players. 

My plan is a tree campaign.  Each player will play 0-1,000 games per time period.  I will tally up the results and move us to the next battle.  After this first battle, the results WILL have an effect on the next battle.  So when the imperials win 25 of the battles, and the Axis wins 12, the imperials won that round. 

For the generals,  I am going to assign opponents each round.  You can (and are encouraged) to play others during that round.  Your general can only gain experience against your assigned opponent, one battle per round.  You need to tell your opponent that you are playing for experience this battle, and results will be tallied/recorded.  Both players should play for experience the same battle.  Breaking squads in assault, killing monstrous creatures, tanks, enemy HQs etc. will give you experience.  If your general dies or does amazing feats of awesomeness, you will roll on a chart and gain or lose experience accordingly. 

You can use different generals each battle, or the same one the whole campaign.  Just let your opponent know who the battle leader is.  "This here is Captain John, he has this statline, this experience etc.  I really love this guy, please don't kill him."  Something like that.

Here are some rules to keep things sane. 

For 500-2000 point battles, no Named characters over 200 points.  You can use named characters under 200 points for these battles, and then the big boys on the larger games. 



After each battle, I would like to have the winning player write up a small report with the following stats:

Win = 3 points
fully painted army = 1 point


Also any pertinent information about each hq if it is an experience gaining game. This way the exploits of each general and army will have a history in the game.  

You can play any other play at any time.  If you played against a team mate, that would just be a practice game and wouldn't add to the tally of which side is winning or losing.

My thoughts so far are to have games start off at 500 points, then 750, then 1000, 1500, 1850, and 2000.  Maybe 2500.  then a big Apocalypse game at the end. 

Assignments for the month of September

Jed to play Dun

Dan to play Jos

Mik to play Tim

Jer to play Ste

Joe to play Roy

Once I have all the battles totaled, I will let you know what the next battle is going to look like.