Planetary Empires Campaign Ideas

[Gorgosaurusrex]

Hey Ordo,

 

I'm getting 3 new people into 40k and have decided to do an escalating Planetary Empires campaign. We're starting at 500 points and adding 250 points weekly, ending on week 6 or 7 with an Apocalypse game. There will be 4-6 players total - I'm keeping this intentionally small. Sorry but there's no open slots for players. I just want my friends to paint up their armies and get experience with the game ;)

 

What I need help with is some sort of experience system. I know the 5th ed book has campaign rules where units and characters can gain USRs and stat bonuses if they survive a game. I want something like this but want to avoid excessive bookkeeping (this isn't Mordheim) and snowball wins - where a player keeps winning because of his buffs and keeps getting more buffs because he's winning.

 

Here are a few of my ideas:

 

-Players may pick one unit that survived the battle and grant them one USR for the duration of the campaign. This will be lost if the unit dies. I'm worried about stuff like Fleshbane and Rending on cheap units with lots of low strength attacks - maybe offer 6 to choose from? Relentless, Stubborn, Feel no Pain (5+), etc.

-As above but the surviving unit gets an additional stat point instead (WS, BS, T, etc).

 

Alternatively I could only allow Warlords to get experience:

 

-Players can capture tiles that grant a roll for a random artifact from their Codex, to be used only by their Warlord

-Warlord can pick his warlord trait for the first game but must use it for the duration of the campaign

-Warlords can get USRs that they pass to their unit

 

Any suggestions or ideas are welcome!

[fluger]

I suggest only giving experience to warlords.  

I like the choose a trait and keep it.  

 

I think you should take a look at the USRs that aren't really super strong as options for the warlord to gain.  Things like Stubborn, Adamantium Will, Counter Attack (IIRC it only works for the model with it), etc.  Basically, some stuff that might tip the scales occasionally, but won't be out and out game breaking.  

 

I also recommend having some kind of factor that helps downtrodden players have some kind of reason for continuing.  Like, the few campaigns I've run that have had good longevity, there was some kind of mechanic for hail mary type things so that the players that get ganged up on or are just unlucky and are being smeared can do tricksy things to at least do interesting things.  One thing was that if you only had X number of tiles in your control (X being a small number), then you could make one attack on any tile on the board, regardless of circumstances.  Basically allows the player to hit big empires that are spread out and create a new front.  You can also get more complex and have things like logistics play out, basically, having more territory requires more troops to quell regions.  The way that works out is that mobile armies have caps in points based on total bases.  So, you get a mobile army token for every region you control, but if you control only one region, it's 2k, if you control 10 they are capped at...I don't know, 1250?  Basically, a smaller empire can be more focused and strike successfully near their home base, but as they spread out, its harder to bring to bear equivalent forces.  

 

Anyway, I find map campaigns to be SUPER fun, but they really need almost a secondary game to really make them work in a way that allows everyone to remain invested for the duration.  

[KIRBY]

This sounds like a great way to introduce people to the game.

[Sugarlessllama]

Have you checked the Gamermacy.com? They have a great custom hero system for their international narrative map campaign. 

http://www.gamermancy.com/custom-heroes-legendary-vehicles-and-xp.html

[generalripphook]

For vetren units I would say the unit has to survive with at least 50% of their unit alive to gain/maintain their veteran status

[Gorgosaurusrex]

Have you checked the Gamermacy.com? They have a great custom hero system for their international narrative map campaign. 

 

http://www.gamermancy.com/custom-heroes-legendary-vehicles-and-xp.html

 

This is fantastic!

 

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I think I will keep experience to Warlords and make the bonuses minimal. We'll be using the Planetary Empires rules so I already have the "Map Game" set.

[fluger]

For vetren units I would say the unit has to survive with at least 50% of their unit alive to gain/maintain their veteran status

I don't like having XP on units because it's a huge pain to track.  I like having armies on the board be just a points limit and then changing them based on results. 

[fluger]

Have you checked the Gamermacy.com? They have a great custom hero system for their international narrative map campaign. 

 

http://www.gamermancy.com/custom-heroes-legendary-vehicles-and-xp.html

I looked at this, and it's awesome.  

[InfestedKerrigan]

I looked at this, and it's awesome.  

 

Paragon of Example on a Knight?  Yes, Please.

[InfestedKerrigan]

 

 Lords of War are not  eligible   to be upgraded -   unless your primary army for the Campaign is Imperial Knights. If so, you do not choose one of the Paragon Warlord trait options listed below, but instead only use the Seneschal rules as normal.  Furthermore, only one Imperial Knight may be upgraded for use in your primary army.

 

Dammit.  Never mind.