So the warmer climes are now upon us, which means only one thing.
IT'S CAMPAIGN SEASON!
The snows have receded, the crops have been planted, and lets face it, that neigbouring kingdom/city state/prinicpality has been asking for a kicking since the last Harvest. Smug git with his better land.
So there's only one thing for it. Muster your troops, sharpen your sword, and go chop his populace into a fine paste and take the better land for yourself, and make that bugger starve this year!
What does this thread have to do with you? Well, I'm ultimately looking for a little input from you guys.
Now, the campaign itself I'm hoping to have as a fairly loose drop in/drop out Map based affair. Easier said than done, but I'm pretty sure I have a relatively fool proof method of carrying it off.
Essentially, in any given month, each player is going to have say, 4 or 5 games which they can claim as counting for the campaign. Now this is declared at the beginning of each game to prevent obvious shenanigans. The advantage here is that should someone not be able to make it one week, they can double up on games the next week. The declared game need not be against someone in the campaign, nor necessarily be a 'counting' game for the opponent. Little bit of flexibility goes a long way, as the participants no longer have to limit their games to other participants.
The setting, as ever with my Campaigns, will be the Border Princes. As such the armies are going to represent a mix of exiles, greedy little chancers, and those seeking riches. As such, absolutely NO special characters are allowed. I'm pretty sure they all have far, far more important things to do than fanny about trying to forge their own little corner of the Old World! This also means I can up the cost for conquering tiles, as I envisage the Border Princes as being distinctly more wild than the Empire or Brettonia, and thus before an area can be settled, there needs to be a sweep of the more voracious gribblies (that and it's my bloody campaign, and as I won't be playing as an active Empire, I can do what I bloody well want
)
Other rules I'll be introducing include the character advancement rules from WD351(
UK) and a few home brewed ones.
And it's the home brews I would like opinion, advice, and possibly even feedback on if you decide to give them a whirl.
First up, Unit Champions. I really like the idea of the Character Advancements. It adds a lot of...erm...character, to the players armies. Might do a little tweaking to them, but the main change I'm tempted to include is a reduced and capped table for Unit Champions. If you've played Mordheim, consider the Unit Champions to level up ala Henchmen. Each stat can be increased once, and they will have a limited experience track. For the Champions, I would make one slight adjustment, in that they (and they alone) can claim Character Points for slaying other Champions in Challenges. I think this is resonable, as they have more to learn than a Hero or Lord, and it's about inspiring the troops as much as anything. However, I do worry including this might unbalance things. Opinions please!
Next up, I was browsing the
GW Webstore last night, looking for the extra Campaign Markers (the re-released Metal one) when I stumbled across the Collector Elementals (
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat1300199&prodId=prod1140125 ) which I shall be ordering fairly soon for use in the Campaign itself. However, I am unsure as to how best to apply them. They will be hidden 'Easter Egg' type things, and assigned to the first Empire to discover each one. Now the only thing I am sure of is that their control will be determined by who controls the location each is discovered in, thus encouraging some decent punch ups over specific locales, which is always good for a laugh.
But beyond that, I'm in several minds of how to proceed. One train of thought is to have them interfere in the Campaign Phase, such as torching fields (fire) raising Walls faster (Earth) increasing/decreasing rainfall (Water) and helping with favourable weather (Air). My only concern here is balancing the 4 abilities, and that as a reward for a decent punch up, this may not be terribly great.
So perhaps to have them fieldable. In a distinct old skool kick, I am keen to have them bound to a specific Magic User in a game, who will be their summoner. But how to use them? What sort of stats? What sort of abilities? My initial train of thought toyed with Essence Points, which are heavily inspired by Planeswalkers in M:tG. Each would have a list of Bound Spells, lifted straight from the Lores of Magic. Each casting would drain the Essence of the bound Elemental by it's Power Level. Dispels would be allowed as normal. Once the Essence was drained, the Elemental would be removed. Discussing this with my local Store Manager, he suggested just giving them the bound spell selection, and a high(ish) number of wounds. Each casting would knock a wound off. Same principle, easier to follow. But how powerful to make them? I want them to be an advantage, but far from game winning on their own. Remember, there will only be one of each type in the Campaign, and ideally, all too easy to wrest control of, should you have the Kahonies!
Also the usual additional Campaign Magic Items to keep things fun
Got a couple in mind from the article I wrote for Watchman Issue #2. Especially the spell redirecting mirror!
So, thoughts, suggestions and critiques please ladies and gentlemen! Please don't worry too much about something being balanced or necessarily fair at this stage. A good idea can be balanced eventually!
