Real warfare and tabletop campaigns

[Stunke]

Okay some of you out there have been in the army at some time, and I need your perspective on some things.

I'm trying to make some sort of campaign rules, so you can pit your armies against eachother, just as if a real life war campaign was at large.

So I'm thinking of making about 9-10 different scenarios you can play against your opponent as a part of the campaign. The scenario that is being played will be determined by the two players rolling for the tactical initiative, so to speak, catching the enemy off guard.

The scenarios so far are:
Take and hold (for better positioning in a later game)

Breakthrough (an attempt to encircle an enemy, preventing them from getting to the frontline)

Assault (all out assault, an extreme attack to make sure the enemy will not be able to bring certain soldiers to an upcoming battle)

Ambush (maybe combined with a capture or an assassination attempt)

Stand off (regular battle, line up, fight)

Patrol (game comprised of a lot of terrain and only few unit scattered across the board, one forces trying to prevent the other from bringing home intel)

Trench warfare (with special rules for blast attacks, flamers and Hold "actions", this was meant to be an action filled game where close combat armies would really get to sweat)

Raid (raiding an ammo dump or a radio post, preventing intel, or ammo from reaching the main army)

I'm aware that these are not real life tactics, but let me know if you think anything needs to be implemented or changed...

Like real life tactics, what are the soldiers trying to archive, and what benefits will they yield. Translated into this simplistic world of wargaming of course.

Well anything really.
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I am thinking of making primary and secondary obejectives.
The primary being winning the scenario at hand, the secondary would be capturing an enemy officer, inserting agents, assassination or fatigueing the enemy.
The secondary objectives will not only need to be completed during the game, there is also a slight chance that they might not even suceed after all, so I'm hoping they will not end up dominating the campaign.
Every fation will have a certai secondary objective that they will be strong against.
Forsaken will discover spies, Dragyri wont break during torture, skarrd cant be stressed and fatigued, brood wont be affected by assassinations.

Both armies have a pool of points (maybe 3000) that they get to make their armies from, then their casualties are taken from this pool untill one player reaches zero points. Over the course of many battles naturally.

During the campaign certain scenarios will gain more troops, and there will ofc be a limit to how often these can be played.

Every army will have a named general, colonel and captain. Capturing these will give the opportunity to extract more info, but you never know when they will be fielded!

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[gunslinger]

YOU ARE ON the right track here.. I will post up some more tonite or tomorrow to give me time to think.. are we dealing with large scale elements? or small sized elelments?

in other words.. squad sized = approx 15 men
platoon sized = 3-5 squads
company sized = 4 platoons
batallion = 4-5 companies
bridgade = 3-4 batallions

etc.. there are larger echelons, but most likely you won't be dealing with larger than brigades...

[Stunke]

The initial idea was for the players to decide on a starting value like 3000 or 5000 pts depending on the scale of the war, and for how long you want to run the campaign.

The idea would then be NOT to field equally sized armies for each game. You just choose a point value you want to field, but if you field MORE troops than your opponent you will be penalised tactically to make the decisive manouvre, meaning you get less influence over which scenario will be played.
If you field 50% more than your opponent you will still be able to fight him with the large force, but you'll forfeit your right to make a tactical initiative roll, and your opponent chooses the scenario being played.
So its not always a good idea to field the largest possible army.

I'll cut and paste from the first couple of pages:


There will be one known, and two unknown objectives for each game (one general, and one secret pr player). The players will roll for Strategic initiative after their armies have been created for the game. Once both players have committed to their forces, each one decides for himself what scenario he wants to play, and if he chooses so, the secondary objective too. Once the scenario is noted down Both players roll a d20, and add or subtract the following modifiers.
The player that has the lowest roll, after modifiers, gets to play the chosen scenario, and chooses who will be the attacker.

There are modifiers to the Strategic initiative roll.

For every starting 100 points, beyond 750, in the fielded army: +1
Winning the last confrontation: +2
Forces below 600 Points: -1

If your entire army is larger than your opponents: +1(optional)

This way a 1000 Pts army, that won its last confrontation, gets: +3 for being above 750 and +2 for the last win= +5

The opponents chooses a 750 Pts force, But has a larger total army, thus getting: +1

The modifiers represent the trouble in manoeuvring larger armies around compared to smaller more tactically flexible forces. Spies will have an easier time locating a huge contingent of troops compared to a handful of soldiers sneaking in, to raid an ammo dump.
The penalty for winning the last game is to ensure the conflict will move a bit back and forth when it comes to initiative.

All these rules can be modified by completing secondary objectives.
[/i]

[gunslinger]

AHH, ok, i think i follow you now.. the reason i was asking about element size, is that different tactics are deployed at different echelons.. squad tactics have no merit for a battalion sized element.. etc.. let me throw this in the brain bucket and wash it around a bit and see what comes out .

[Stunke]

Yeah I figured you were thinking something like that.

Thats was the point in the initial question:
How do one translate warfare tactics into the most entertaining campaign for a tabeltop game.

In movies you always hear about establishing a bridgehead, but what is this comprised of, and what effects will it have on your army if the enemy raids it? These kinds of things.
This ought to give the two players some tactics so they can choose different means of attacking the opponent, but they cannot always have it their way.

Is there any non-military players reading this, with any ideas or things they'd like to see in a set of campaign rules?

[Cain]

Gunslinger were you in any of the armed forces? Or are ya big fan of John Keegan - Mask of Command, Face of Battle, or First World War - all very good stuff for those who like to analyze warfare.

Stunke, I think your idea regarding secondary objectives is great! For example, controlling a narrow pass leads to taking control of the base camp...chain of event stuff.Great ideas, I look forward to you next post.

[punkrabbitt]

Hi there!

I'm just you friendly neighbourhood Moderator-man here, asking if this campaign system is for Dark Age specifically or for TTGs in general? If its especially for DA, it's getting moved to the General Discussion; if it's not., it going to Mayhem.

Just trying to clarify before it gets moved to its new home

:rabbit:

[Stunke]

Well with race specific benefits I'd have to say it's for DA only.

I need to know if there is some way to add a large post to this forum, or will I have to mail the entire campaign rules to anyone interested.

As of now, it is about 90% done, and it takes up about 13 pages in word, 3 pages being the rules, the rest are scenarios and secondary objectives.

Its written mostly in one go, so I will definetely need some corrections and ideas for balancing it out just right.

[Stunke]

Are we dealing with large scale elements? or small sized elelments?

in other words.. squad sized = approx 15 men
platoon sized = 3-5 squads
company sized = 4 platoons


Well.
Here's my math:
The standard game should be around 750 to 1000 points.
If your entire army is wiped out in every game you run out of reserves after approx 7-8 games.
For the brood this means that I'd probably field around 10-12 men pr combat engagement = 1 squad.
So the rules should revolve around 10 squads = 2 Platoons.
For the forsaken and dragyri this would be even more.

[Kyle]

I downloaded you rules and what I have read looks great! I just need to find some opponents. I was in the Army FYI and was a genuine 11-bulletc catcher (infantry).

[Stunke]

Well, your input would be greatly appreciated then.
I haven't really got a clue as to the different missions squads get sent out on, but im not really trying to copy war entirely either, so any ideas and suggestions as to how you create the best mix between warfare and excting gaming are more then welcome.

Especially the Raid scenario, was a bit hard to figure out. In a way to make it interesting that is.