• Registered: 2005-03-28
  • Posts: 379

Topic: not a proposal/just questions on viable campaign

Saw a comment where someone was looking for IS scenarios to come in a campaign format.  Problem I have with that I'm not sure what would be a viable list of features for a campaign in this setting.

Real-life wet navies in the early 20th century would see ships spent months, if not longer, undergoing repair if they were badly damaged (requiring stays in dry dock).  As most conflicts in the IS universe up until WWI really aren't going to last more than several months, would repair rules really be viable? 

I also don't see drawing up rules for reinforcements, resource gathering or facility construction as it doesn't mesh well with the setting, IMO.  This isn't a game universe where potential battle sites are light years apart.  This is all happening within several days of Earth.  So if you need extra firepower for the next fight, there's little doubt in my mind that command would have all the time it needs to transfer a healthy ship your way.

There's also not enough time to say "I've researched this or I've built that," as again -- conflicts span mere months, and ether ship construction, in my mind, probably takes at least one calendar year (more likely a few years) to get a hull built and commissioned. 

I guess you could have crew experience.  But really, other than in WW2, where you had the same ship crews duking it out in the Pacific over a long period of time, has there been a 20th century fleet that's seen enough fighting that its crew could become "hardened?"  I don't think such a thing happened in WWI, the main Brit and German fleets only fought two real actions (Jutland and Dogger Bank). 

Just wondering

So how would you model a campaign with these limits?

  • Registered: 2005-03-30
  • Posts: 272

Re: not a proposal/just questions on viable campaign

Best approach within the limits defined might be to establish a pool of (historically?) available ships for each side, and assign each country goals for victory.  Maybe have more ships become available at intervals as ships from other theaters or the odd new build arrives, and perhaps a rule forcing a badly-damaged ship to be withdrawn for repairs rather than used to destruction.  Assign victory points for winning battles, more points for accomplishing preset campaign goals, with a winner beiing declared when some set number or ratio of VPs is reached.

Of course, you'll also need a strategic movement system, and some kind of rules for intelligence and scouting.  Just simple stuff like that...  smile

Rich

  • From: Denver, CO
  • Registered: 2005-03-27
  • Posts: 3,578

Re: not a proposal/just questions on viable campaign

hundvig wrote:

Of course, you'll also need a strategic movement system, and some kind of rules for intelligence and scouting.  Just simple stuff like that...  smile

Well, I assume a "strategic" map would be one that covers the Earth/Moon system, plus space stations, plus the KF cluster.

Not a whole lot of strategic points in space... hmm

Dan

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

mj12games's Website

  • Registered: 2005-03-28
  • Posts: 379

Re: not a proposal/just questions on viable campaign

No, not  a lot of features to take and defend.  Not a lot of space to cover, either, as everything Earth's spacefaring powers are interested in is within 10 days of "sailing" time.

I'm thinking that to keep it on a tactical/operational level, you'd start it with each player being able to choose XXXXX many points in ships.  Some of those points would have to go to historical vessels that are part of the established timeline.

You'd play battle #1, with maybe each force fielding a single historical vessel (for example, in TMW we have at least one battle where we know the Orpington has to be there).  Other than that, either player is left free to field say, 300 points in ships printed in the rulebooks or, if they want, hulls they've created using the construction rules.

If player A wins the first battle, then he gains so many more "repair" points to patch up any damaged hulls.  The losing player receives few, if any.  Then the storyline branches off and drives the players to Battle #2 or 3#.  So I'm lookin at a plot driven campaign.  Crew quality may improve over the course of multiple engagements, it may not.

Originally wanted to try something like this for GF, but I ain't skilled enough to get around the fact that that game -- rightly -- doesn't have a way to value ships.  EVERYTHING is based off victory conditions, so it's harder to come up with balanced fleets.