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So my FLGS is looking to run an escalation campaign, and I have taken to running it. I have neither run one or participated in one, but I'm doing my best to make this work. I am the senior player here, so that would be why I was nominated. I've drafted up some rules, and would appreciate some feedback. Here they are:

500 Point List Requirements
1 HQ
2 Troops
1 Additional Slot

No saves better than 3+
No monstrous creatures
No large blasts
No fliers
No special/named characters
No vehicle armor better than 12
No toughness higher than 6
- until 750

Units can be bolstered, and gear can be changed between matches, but units choices are permanent.
Each unit has a maximum of 30pts for wargear (unless gained through victories)

Units accrue experience after each match, each unit is separate, and gains (or loses) experience in the following ways:
Survives the match 1
Does not survive- 1
Is fleeing- 1
Kills a unit 1
Kills a warlord 2
Wins the game 1
Wipes out the enemy 2
Engages an enemy warlord in challenge-1
Wins a challenge 2
Refuses a challenge -1

A level is gained for every 10 experience, and a reward is gained. Roll 1d6.
1- gains 15 points of wargear (can be given to any unit)
2- gains 25 points of wargear (can be given to any unit)
3- gains one piece of wargear of choice
4- gains one stat of choice
5- increase IN, LD, Wound (to a max of +2)
6- increase BS, WS, Strength by 1 (to a max of +2)

If an enemy warlord is killed, roll for damage trait.
1- commander loses 1 reward and unavailable 1 match
2- unavalible 1 match
3- loses 1 reward
4- re roll
5- unaffected
6- gains preferred enemy, whatever killed it

Point Limits Per Week
500
550
650
750
875
1000
1250
1500


Battlefield Traits
Roll 1d6
1-2 nothing
3- Gas = feel no pain +6 all units
4- Fog = range of all shootin attack reduced by 4 inches (never less than 10)
5- Tremors = run and assault rolls reduced by 1
6- Storm = lightning (at end of each phase roll 1 d6 for each unit, on a 5-6, squad is hit with 1d3 str 4 pinning attacks

I've done some research, and asked some people, and this is what I have come up with.

I've played in something like this very recently.

We started out with 500 and went up to the standard size templates every 2 weeks after.

500
750
1000
1250
1500

Was great fun.

I took Orks and came 5th on the leader board. No losses but a lot of draws.

All I would say is to change the initial FOC for the games at 500:
0-1 HQ, 1-2 troops, 0-1 FA/HS/EL. This means that you don't have to sink points into a HQ, which can be a real pain for some armies (BA/SW/crons spring to mind) and also means you can have some flavour, rather than the typical Librarian, 2 tac squad you see at 500 without these changes.

Sounds good, just a few nitpicks

 AtariAssasin wrote:

No vehicle armor better than 12

The old WH40k in 30 minutes rules had a sum of 33 as limit, which is actually surprisingly well chosen. A chimeras or razorback at those point levels aren't game breaking, wave serpents or dreadnoughts are. It also disallowed models with more than three wounds, you might want to look into that as well.

Engages an enemy warlord in challenge-1

You lose experience from fighting the warlord? I should assume that it's the other way around. If the warlord then kills the unit they already lose point for that. Also, tarpitting a death star is good play, it shouldn't be punished.

Refuses a challenge -1

Winning challenges already gives a huge bonus (which is great), but this punishes units with functional characters, like apothecaries, pain boyz or librarians, which aren't meant to fight in challenges. Again, you are punishing good play. If you really want to make turning down challenges unattractive, give one point to whoever is issuing the challenge when his opponent is chickening out.

4- gains one stat of choice
5- increase IN, LD, Wound (to a max of +2)
6- increase BS, WS, Strength by 1 (to a max of +2)

4 can also increase toughness and attacks, while the others can't. Is this on purpose? Limit at 2 is good.
IMHO distributing all stats across the three and allowing one pick rolls would work a lot better. Additional stats are very powerful, I wouldn't hand out three at once - any unit of troops getting either 5 or 6 would turn into a mad killing machine rivaling most elite choices of their codices. Now think about a unit of nob bikers, paladins, screamers or a seer council rolling a single 5 - they will probably proceed to crush the entire campaign.

If an enemy warlord is killed, roll for damage trait.
1- commander loses 1 reward and unavailable 1 match
2- unavalible 1 match
3- loses 1 reward

Note that warlords tend to get killed in games more often than not, and it's already a big hit to your game. While I can get behind the warlord not being allowed for one game, taking away rewards seems harsh, considering that he already got less rewards because he got killed and he might have to sit out a game on top of that. How about instead halving his movement (limp leg), having him start at half his wounds, rounded down next game to display he hasn't healed fully yet, or disallowing the use of a second hand (can't use 2-handed or second melee weapon, heavy weapons or storm shields) because of a broken arm. Punishing people for getting their commander taken out is alright, but taking away hard earned rewards is going to cause frustration.

4- re roll

Boring

4- Fog = range of all shootin attack reduced by 4 inches (never less than 10)

You could save yourself some rule issues by just counting it as night fighting - similar effect, less headaches.

5- Tremors = run and assault rolls reduced by 1

Tremors usually make all terrain count as difficult terrain in 40k. That said, assault doesn't really need another kick in the teeth, maybe also reduce all BS by one because everyone's hands are shaking?

6- Storm = lightning (at end of each phase roll 1 d6 for each unit, on a 5-6, squad is hit with 1d3 str 4 pinning attacks

Add "AP: -" for your rule lawyers

I have used the lightning idea before and I wouldn't make it a 5 or 6 it will happen too often. The way we used it in the past was to get counters and at the start of every player turn move them 3d6 with a scatter. Any that hit a model directly did a str 6 hit to just that model with d3 wounds. If a tank was hit it took a str 6 on rear armor. If the counter didn't hit a model but would be considered in coherency(within 2") it did d3 str 3 hits. But we had like 3 or 4 counters on the board and it did that every player turn during the movement phase before anything else happens. It adds a bit of random fun to the game.

Thanks for the help guys, alot of the stuff Jldmah said was errors in my writing.
The stats were not SUPPOSED to be all three, but one of the three.
And the engages a warlord in combat should read +1 not -1.
You are right about the refusing, and it would probably be better to just do +1 to challenger if refused.

I saw a larger list of warlord losses for being killed, and it seemed pretty harsh. We started off as having it possible for them to be lost for the campaign, and that felt a bit extreme to me. There is a list I saw that was -1s and -1ws for rolling a certain percentile, but that seemed extreme to me. Seemed like that was worse than just losing him for a battle, no?

Those are good suggestion for the battlefield conditions, I will probably change them as suggested.

I will update and repost.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

500 Point List Requirements
0-1 HQ
1-2 Troops
1 Additional Slot

No saves better than 3+
No monstrous creatures
No large blasts
No fliers
No special/named characters
Vehicle armor total cannot be greater than 33
No toughness higher than 6
No models with more than 3 wounds
- until 750

Units can be bolstered, and gear can be changed between matches, but units choices are permanent.
Each unit has a maximum of 30pts for wargear (unless gained through victories)

Units accrue experience after each match, each unit is separate, and gains (or loses) experience in the following ways:
Survives the match 1
Does not survive -1
Is fleeing -1
Kills a unit 1
Kills a warlord 2
-Kills a warlord in duel, additional 1
Wins the game 1
-Kills all enemy units, additional 1
Engages an enemy warlord in challenge 1
Wins a challenge 2

A level is gained for every 10 experience, and a reward is gained. Roll 1d6.
1- gains 15 points of wargear (can be given to any unit)
2- gains 25 points of wargear (can be given to any unit)
3- gains one piece of wargear of choice
4- Increase attack or toughness by 1
5- increase IN, LD, or Wound (to a max of +2)
6- increase BS, WS, or Strength by 1 (to a max of +2)

If an enemy warlord is killed, roll for damage trait.
STILL WORKIN ON THIS PART

Point Limits Per Week (this has the slower ramp up because we have alot of people who are just starting, or havent played in a while, and it gives us some time to get rolling and get used to the mechanics (or at least, that was my thinking))
500
550
650
750
875
1000
1250
1500


Battlefield Traits
Roll 1d6
1-2 nothing
3- Gas = feel no pain +6 all units
4- Fog = Night Fighting
5- Tremors = all terrain is difficult terrain, BS is reduced by 1
6- Storm = lightning (at end of each phase roll 1 d6 for each unit, on a 6, squad is hit with 1d3 str 4 pinning attacks