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My friends and I always liked warhammer, but only I had anything close to the capital to sink into it (and that's only because 1.) I don't habitually buy three boxes of MTG cards on release each time and 2.) I buy second hand, with only the odd occasional new purchase) so when Shadow Wars Armageddon dropped, my friends became interested, since they can spare the 40 bucks or so for a squad and just not use specialists/borrow them from me if they needed to. However here comes the second problem:

My friends and I all live very far apart. As in two cities away apart. Whenever we have a gathering we often have to plan it a few weeks in advance, clear schedules, and then time it on the train to all meet up at a respectable time. This makes normal campaign play impossible, as we're unable to set scheduled times to meet and play.

However I heard that SWA campaign is not that long, since matches are often decided on a single bottle test. So I was wondering about the following:

1.) How long is an average match of SWA in terms of minutes? Like on average. Furthermore, how long is a campaign usually? if it's anything under 2-3 hours, we might be able to do campaign play. There's currently 4 of us interested so assuming nothing stupid happens no one will ever sit out of a match.

2.) If the above is not feasable for us, then how do you all handle single-mission play? Do you modify the points limit to accomodate for some options that you would otherwise have to earn during the course of a campaign? What about specialists? How do they factor in without the limit of prometheum caches and one-mission limits? Do you just get rid of them because they're generally not balanced? are there actual balance issues playing this way? Also how do you handle skills?

Apologies if this is detailed in the book, I'm still trying to make my way through it to fully understand the rules. However my friends are really excited about this, especially since two of them bought a box of Dire Avengers and Tau Pathfinders respectively for their potential armies, so they're really happy that they don't have to buy more now (the models are unassembled, so they can still customize them).

I'd say around he 30 minute mark for games, but you'll still need like 10 ish games. On the one hand you can get more caches as you win, but you're also spending them for loot and guys.
And you're not going to win every game. So 2-3 hours isn't likely to happen unless one of you is getting crushed pretty hard. It's theoretically possible to get 4 caches a game (d3+1) so it could be done, but I wouldn't count on it.
And this is just 1v1.

One off games would seem more realistic to me. In that case I would up the point to 2k and pay for advances (the costs are covered in the rules).
The basic 1k points are pretty restrictive, and by the end of the campaign you should have a close to ideal team in terms of numbers and gear. Advances are random but meh.
As an example, a 10 man team of csm , say 1 leader, 2 gunners and 7 marines is like 1.3k already and they're still naked. Add two heavy weapons for roughly 200 points each and you're already close to done.
Each game gives you at least 1 advance (unless everybody died lol) so that's another 150+ points of advances).
So yea, somewhere between 1,5k and 2k I'd say is a good amount depending on how far you want to push your killteams.

my friend with the Dire Avengers is trying not to blow more money than she has to right now, so I think we will aim for the 1500 point.

As for Specialists and skills, should we just do away with them entirely or is there some way to include them?

Keep in mind that all Specialists are not created equally, but you could agree to allow one for each team (or proxy if someone doesn't have that particular model).

I wouldn't include skills, but if you want to change it up, allow each player to pick the same amount and call it even. Personally I would still roll for the results, but it's up to you. Also some will be less useful if you're not running a campaign, but you could always disregard those.

Thanks for the input. Maybe to keep costs down and keep it simple we'll just omit specialists and skills then.

Now my problem is just picking a team lol. I really want to use Termagants but they don't exist as a playable faction >.>

 Roknar wrote:
It's theoretically possible to get 4 caches a game (d3+1).

IIRC regular wins are plain d3. Not d3+1. However, there are some occasions where you get extra loot. For example a scavanger mission where you get an extra cache if you roll a 6 for at least one of your loot markers. Or when you steal the opponent's cache in Raid.

A 30mins average is for people who know the rules and don't waste too much time.
If you're just starting, and your friends don't usually play wargames, it might take a lot longer (especially if you sometimes chat a bit).

My advice would be to start at 1000pts, with 0 skills and special operatives, just like at the beginning of a normal campaign. You've never played, so it's definitely enough to enjoy a good game. And more points means more models and therefore longer play times, which seems to be the most restrictive point for you guys. Special operatives and skills are additional rules you have to remember, which is not suitable for people just starting the game (again, I'm assuming your friends are not familiar with miniature wargaming).

with the default campaign it will be to long, but you could reduce the amount of promitus you need to win

Good point actually. They do say you could reduce the amount of caches required. Normally it's 15 but you could go down to say 10 and run a normal campaign. I just fear the campaign could be over early if you get somebody that rolls well on that final d3, but it's worth a shot.