Well, I looked around and did not find a set of Campaign rules that
caught my fancy. I didn't have another look a Epic Empires, so I don't
know if a way was found to use the rules without having to own Mighty
Empires.
Anyway, it seems I must write some rules. Not really a problem; it is a
job I enjoy. Since I already began a set of rules I had to totally
re-think everything. Here is a abstract of what I've got so far. Perhaps
some of you have some ideas or suggestions. I am aware that many people
have gone on about their new Campaign rules; I hope you will not decide
to draw the line with me.
As someone in the WD bunker once said "I've never known a map campaign
that actually got finished" neither have I. But for an ongoing club
campaign that is not such a bad idea. Much like Necromunda or
Gorkamorka. Except neither games rely on maps. Mine shall, and I've
pretty much figured out a way to make this possible.
The problems with map-based campaigns arise because the movement system,
so as not to become too constrictive, remain loose. Think of this, if
you put your thumb on a map, and that is the smallest amount of space
you would bother dealing with, and then stuck a pin somewhere within
that thumbprint. Where the pin punctures the map is the area your army
would actually take up. Well, that kinda makes the map very inaccurate.
Where exactly is that pin within the thumbprint? Kinda like the old sats
with the km pixel sizes.
So if you restrict an army to very absolute and distinct spaces what do
you get? Complaints. When you have a nice map why are you restricting
everything to set areas, there are no set areas in life. Kinda like
building nice 3D terrain and rules that use 3D terrain (like GW games)
and then putting a hex map over top. Thing is there is a place where
there are places where you are, and if you are there, that is where you
are, and places where you just can't be. Space. Since the scale of Epic
is so large, it could actually work. True, you can be anywhere in Space,
but try deploying 3000 Cadian Shock Troops into hard vacuum. Not nice,
you'll be scraping Shock Troop Pat� off your outer-hull for weeks.
So I've decided to set my campaign in space. Another plus is that it is
not necessary to actually draw maps. Merely this planet leads to this
planet and so forth. This means I can keep a nice map on my puter, and
just tell people what they have access to. That way, the can chart their
own stars.
Anyway, enough introduction, now for some actual rule ideas. Pretty much
all my numbers are arbitrary until I actual finish then play the thing.
First rules. You arrange your army and set it down on paper. 1 player
per race. If there are more then 1 player for a race, then it becomes a
sort of Supreme Commander deal, where you're all in the same army, 1 guy
gives the command, and then you fight. Because the army is writ, neat
things come into play like XP rules, and having to move a defensive
minded Detachment across space to protect a vulnerable planet.
Every race gets a certain amount of movement. It is different for every
race, and different depending on your troop load. All Marines travel
better then Imps, all Daemon detachments travel faster then an all
cultist detachment (They're from the warp, hello!)
Every detachment moves differently too. It is faster to move 500 points
then it is 2500, because you need to acquire less transports, and there
is less mass (Acceleration has to do with mass, Read Fredrik Pohl's
Gateway saga, FTL thru 0 mass drives) That's one of my favorite rules I
made. This encourages small surgical strikes.
Of course, I designed that rule for different movement points, so I have
to re-write it, or make more space between planets.
Uhm, battles for planets were orginally to be fought out with a Campaign
Tree, but that would take much too much time for one planetary siege. So
now it is single battles. The only way to win a planet is to either kill
all the enemies detachments or have him retreat.
For this I made the permanent damage rule. If you are wiped out you role
on a table. There is a chance that you're destroyed, a chance that you
fear or hate the enemy. These all effect XP rules, bringing you a level
or two down, or in the case of Hate, bringing you a level up.
These can be nasty, so I've added some other things
You can build stuff
Capital: Where new detachments are formed
Fortification: Automattically awards you fortifications if you play a
defensive scenario
Factory: Builds new troops (Which are sent to the Capital to be formed)
Rehab Center: Get rid of those nasty psychological brain farts
(Permanent Damage) with a little good ol' home cooked brainwashing.
'Nids will have different rules that will probably allow them to strip
planets of all life and leave nothing but a wasteland. I'll have to give
them rules that will offset this (If you lose a planet to them, you lose
that planet forever!!! Bwahaha. Wait, I'm an Imp.)
Well, those are my thoughts on my rules in a nutshell. I've got them
written nicely, but it's a 1000 and a bit words long, so I didn't want
to post them as is. Plus all the charts and art (That'll be later)
Anyway, feedback is good, flames are bad.
Tyler
Not like people are talking much today anyway
Received on Sun Apr 19 1998 - 00:48:50 UTC
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