Warhammer Fantasy Campaigning, with a Difference….

Now then folks,

Those of you who attend gaming groups will be familiar with campaigns, and what that entails.....namely, that everybody is full of vim and vigour for the first two weeks, and then real life intervenes and half of the games in week three are postponed, and then somebody goes on holiday/changes job/goes to prison/quits because they've lost two games etc, and either a new person has to step in and take over or a lot of head-scratching and adjustments need to be made.

It just doesn't seem to work very well.

Now I'm sure that there are many groups of gamers who have fantastic campaigns and as a concept a large campaign really captures the imagination, but each person comes with their own bagful of  'variables', and the more people you have, the more variables.  Also pretty much every campaign I've seen or taken part in rewards victory which seems like the obvious thing to do as you are all fighting for territory/magic crown etc, but in practise only serves to distance those not doing as well from those doing well further and further.  I don't care how much you don't mind losing, losing every week in less and less balanced battles will breed an apathy to the next round of the campaign.

So, me and one of my regular opponents sat down and decided to try an new way of campaigning.  There would be just the two of us.  Now, hear me out before you run away and read something else, it's not as bad as you might think. 

Firstly, we decided on an escalation campaign, escalating in nice easy blocks of 500 points a time, starting with the first round at 500 points in a border patrol style (1 hero, who may be a level 1 mage, 1+ core units, and 0-1 special unit of no more than 250 points, nothing monstrous or war-machiny allowed) and then increasing to 'normal' games at 1k, 1.5k and so on.  This was partly because we'd been playing 40k for 6 months and had forgotten how fantasy worked, partly for narrative as it represented the armies gathering in ever-increasing waves, and partly because we had an inkling that certain armies would be stronger at different points levels, thus giving a bit of variation to each game.
To limit shenanigans, at 500 point we would only use a 3' wide table, and at 1k a 4' wide table.  After this the full 6'x4' table would be used (table is 4' long in all circumstances).
Also, round two was blood and glory scenario (rolled for after army lists had been made), and all games in a round would use the same scenario (rolled for each round but excluding the previous rounds scenario).

Secondly, we would take charge of three armies each and although not in 'teams', our own armies would not play each other.  This created 9 games per round and would prevent list tailoring. 

Thirdly, a simple scoring system was required, so we adopted the football table system (3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss, total victory points earned as goal difference).  The top two armies (or rather the top army from each player) would then duke it out for victory at the end of the campaign in a winner-takes-all battle at warhammer world (you can book tables there, it's amezzin).

Fourthly, we decided to introduce a 'balancing' system to avoid a rampant winner emerging in round 2 and both of us getting fed up with the whole thing.  To this effect, the bottom two armies would receive bonuses in the form of free magic items for the next round (eg, at the end of round 1 the Skaven are 5th and the high elves are 6th.  For round 2 the Skaven would get a free dispel scroll to use in each battle, and the High Elves would get a dispel scroll, the ruby ring of ruin and the war banner free to use in each round 2 battle) distributed to unit champions, unit standard bearers and generals.  At the end of that round, the table would be re-calculated and the new bottom two armies would get new bonus items.
Starting at the round 3 stage (1500 points) the bottom two armies would also take part in a storm of magic game where the winner gets two bonus points, at the possible expense of rising up the table and not qualifying for free magic items due the bonus points.


We have currently just completed round 2, and although we are not into the storm of magic bonus points games until the next round, it's going very well.  With only two of us to account for, we have only missed one week in seven so far, and have managed to get in 2-3 games per night at the lower points levels.  The top three armies all currently have 10 points after playing 6 games and are only separated by victory points, fourth place has 9 and fifth 8!  My Beastmen currently languish in 6th with only 5 points, after failing to take any points in round 2.  This does mean however that they will get some nice toys to play with in round 3......

The games have also been tight and tense, and the different armies really shine against different opponents, keeping everything balanced nicely.  In round 3 the gloves will well and truly come off however, as we have some points to play with.  I'll keep you updated sporadically, and possibly do a piece that's a bit more in-depth when the winner has been decided and I can reflect on what did/didn't work.

If you have any thoughts to share or have done something similar yourself I'd be really interested to hear from you, so comment away!

Until next time, adios

Neil