Campaign Help

[MechaBriZilla]

Hi All!

So, I'm trying to revitalize a group of players that I used to play with back in the days of WHFB.  When AoS dropped, I was about the only one in my group that was excited about it.  We played a game or two before the advent of the battle plans, and after that things sort of fell apart for our little group.

I've decided to block out some time from my calendar and begin planning a campaign in the hopes of getting people to give the game another go.  I won't lie, for some of these guys there was a fair amount of rage involved when they quit.  So, this may be a doomed endeavor.

Anyway, for those of you who have been a part of building the AoS community, what was key for you in bringing old players back? And, for those of you who left the game, and are coming back around to give AoS another go, what made you think the game was worth another look?

I'd personally like to do this without points, and use the Open and Narrative rules for my little campaign.  Should I drop that in favor of matched play?  I know points and balance were big issues for these guys.  But my favorite part of AoS is that it's better at making compelling stories for your games with the use of battleplans and time of war rules.  But I suspect these don't work as well in Matched Play, though to be honest, I haven't been able to test it out myself.

Anyway, I'm open to any and all thoughts on what makes a successful campaign, as I've never run one before.

[Thanatos Ares]

From what you've said I would try and blend open/narrative with matched play for this endeveaour as points was a big deal for your target players.

It's surprising how tactical AoS can be for players that rage quit.

I genuinely wish you success in bringing players back to fold

#onlythefaithful

Waaagh! Skullcrack iz comin fer ya

[Ratamaplata]

Could you balance points/open play by saying that each player picks an overall force for the campaign of X pts (could be quite a lot higher than any single game), then make them have to assign resources... i.e. week 1 you say you'll be playing battleplan A and each player can assign any number of units they want to it... but then can't use those same units for battleplan B in week 2.

Or a battle where you can take whatever you want but any units which get wiped out are then out of action for D3 games. Or totally dead and lost of a D6 roll of 1.

That way it becomes like a general managing his forces to fight multiple fronts. And although you have the same amount of resources in total, individual games could be totally lop-sided in points.

[mmimzie]

You can do path to glory and just give people more points instead of having them chose from the pools. Lots that quit will be baited in for points.

The other thing folks that left want are tactics. AoS is a very deep game that can be very very punishing for small mistakes. Which is true to the way fantasy battle seemed in 8th. This can definitly draw them in. Showing someo f the advanced tactics can help here as well>

As far as what to do to get people in. Let them start small. So the games are big learning fest, and they go fast. 

My campaign kicked off with a simple 500 Point scenario that was on a 2x2 board deploying within something like 9" from the opposing corners. They were all 3 turn games. The objectives were simply something in the middle of the map.

really it just depends on how hardcore fols in your area are. Maybe if you kicked your campaign off with some sort of tournament people would be thrilled.

Hope some of these help man, and keep up the good work growing the hobby ^.^. 

[Ben Johnson]

Hi there,

we have been doing a simple league at the club rather that a full blown campaign, it also means we can all play different types and sizes of games if we like. Maybe this is something you could use as a base for your group. 

Good luck with it and make sure to tell us how it goes. 

[someone2040]

I started an Escalation League at the start of the year at the club I attend. We started off pretty small (like 6 Clash Comp pool choices) and of course, armies grew over the course of the campaign. Every month I wrote up a loose narrative and had a Battleplan we'd use for the campaign day (Club is open every Sunday, we had one particular Sunday of the month which was the designated campaign day).

I think overall it's just important to gauge what your intended audience wants. I wanted a bit of structure to the armies (So used clash comp pools with some house rules) as well as for it to escalate from a small points level so that newer players or veterans alike could join in.

However, if your crowd is largely older players then perhaps you don't want an escalation campaign. If they're all competitively minded or are wanting to run something simple, then perhaps you just want a simple leaderboard (Like from the Generals handbook). If you think they'd be interested in a narrative, then you gotta get out there and create one.

 

Be realistic though about how much time you can put in and how long you intend it to go on for. Towards the end of mine, I was spinning my wheels a bit with motivation as I was extremely busy at work and travelling. So I called it a day (about 1 month longer than I expected it), and the group is going to decide where we go onto next.

[MechaBriZilla]

Thanks Everyone!  These are great ideas.

I have quite a bit of time to plan this all out, as we won't be getting started until January.  Most of my old group is working parents, so my intention was to have an official game day every other week, and then let players who couldn't make it have the following 2 weeks to figure out how to make it up.  Our schedules are pretty crazy, so I figured this gave folks the most flexibility in getting their games in.  I plan to let have my little event roll out over 4 sessions.  so two months worth of organized play, hopefully ending in a stable group.  So I'm I think I've struck a balance with giving us a good jumping off point, and not getting myself in over my head.

My main problem is that it's been so hard to get games in my area, that I want to do about 10 different things.  I love narrative play myself.  I feel like its the most fun, because the game belongs to the players.  If someone is getting hammered, you can always reforge the narrative.  (see what I did there?)  But I also know that a lot of these guys left because of the lack of structure when AoS came out.  So I'm pretty sure I need to have points, and a more competitive tone.  I guess I can try to lure them down the open play narrative path later.  

I love the idea of a points pool that you can work with over the course of the campaign.  Or having defeated units suffer in some way in successive games.  It really does add a narrative flow to the game that straight up points play doesn't.  But I worry about victories snowballing and the winner of the overall comp, becoming clear too early on.  I don't think it's as fun if there isn't some doubt about who will be the overall winner until the last game. Any idea on possible reinforcement mechanics, or some other option, that could keep people in?

I've done a little thinking on this myself.  Here's an idea that's been peculating a bit.

I have exactly 4 scheduled game weekends, so I thought we could do escalation style.  My thought here is that it gives people a chance to get comfortable with the rules and strategies of AoS while developing knowledge of their units as they go.  Each week I provide a set of Time of War rules, and two battleplans.  Whoever has less points in their army picks the battle plan.  Points given for wins, units painted, sportsmanship, (and if we go with a Narrative campaign/matched play hybrid battlereports.)  Points would be weighted in the order that I list them, so that winning the games is the most important thing, but that a close call could be determined by the secondary items.

Week 1-  Either use the Regiments of Renown skirmish rules or Vanguard sized forces.

Week 2- Vanguard or Battlehost

Week 3- Battlehost or Warhost

Week 4- Apocalypse style game with all players on the same board.  If we go more competitive, then I'd have the teams divided so that the number 1,4,5 Players are on one team, and the number 2,3,6 players on the other team, and so on, depending on the number of people who play.  Though I doubt I can get more than 6 players in.  This also means that week four is the only date that is mandatory for the competition.

I like the idea of starting with Regiments of Renown Skirmish and Ending with the Apoc style game so that the players get a wider breadth of experiences with what AoS is capable of being.

 

 

[Carnelian]

I love the idea of a points pool too but I've never come across a system that is both elegant and makes for good games. 

However, I think narrative AoS will be that system as there are so many fun scenarios for unbalanced forces.

Excited just to think about it!

[Ratamaplata]

Run it like D&D with you as GM. If someone gets too much advantage then maybe they get the attention of a rival warlord who sends his troops to support their enemies. Or let the underdog take an extra artifact or trait?

Or make battleplans that favour the underdog in some way?

As long as it's fun it should be all good surely?