For the Love of Campaigns...

For most RPGs, the word "campaign" either means the GM thinks he has a story that just must be told, or he has actually has enough consistent players to link more than one adventure together.

For miniature wargamers, although the consistent players might be an appealing reason to run a campaign, the main reason is "I have a ton of shit for this game, I might as well use it."

As great as a tournament army for 40K might look, can that stability/balance/power gaming be continued battle after battle? How often can you play the same game over and over again?

The first campaign that we pondered was the Battletch campaign rules that were in Dragon Magazine. They had their faults, most importantly requiring a map from a Star League book that was out of print before the issues even came out, but they were comprehensive. Resource management, production, transportation, and deployment was all included, and that was all before any battles could be fought. The only problem we had (besides the lack of the map), was the lack of minis, and by the time we (read: Wooly) accumulated our vast collection, real life kept us to holiday and convention supergames, rather than a weekly "Battletech night." To be honest, I picture the campaign like one would play a 70's super-wargame. Thousands of chits and five hours of paperwork to deliver gasoline to the front... maybe by week five we could conduct some combat.

As much as I poo-poo 40k and Fantasy Battles, Mordheim and Necromunda had some of the best skirmish campaign rules that I've found. I greatly enjoyed the campaigns we ran at Griffon Games. Throw in a few optional rules for some weekly flavor and we kept it exciting and interesting for the smallest warband or the largest gang. Mercenaries and warband growth allowed a player to take a modest initial purchase and slowly expand on it, great for both the player and the store selling the product.

For Gnome Wars, I'm trying to find a mix between the complexity of B'Tech and the intimacy of Mordheim. The Wishing Well Campaign we started with was simply playing the scenarios out of the rulebook, and building upon them. As the Germans continued their rampage into Swiss territory, I started adding units to the Germans (Cav, the Witch) while the Swiss were missing figures, but fighting from heartier defensive positions. At the end of the campaign, the Germans had a toehold in the Swiss mountains if we run a mountain campaign, Field Marshall Steven von O'Hara was lauded as a hero (and might be responsible for a new Spring offensive), and the Scottish Highlanders were looking much more favorably towards the Germans than their traditional Swiss allies.

I've harped on the Tanga campaign long enough, but I needed to run it to see if the other Skirmish Campaign/Elite books were a worthwhile investment. I'm definitely looking into using an expanded version of World War I: Rommel's Route to Verdun for the previously mentioned Spring offensive.

That won't mean we'll be leaving Africa for good. As the Germans are the dominant colonial power in my version of the gnome world, I'm working on that "Chicka Zulu" game for South Africa, there can be some battles on the Sudan and Ethiopia, and if Lon would ever release Aussie infantry, I might ponder a "Roo Wars" campaign, loosely based on the Boer Wars.

Of course, I still have my eye on "The Ham Fighter Revolution", a campaign on Maximillian in Mexico, and I could easily convert some WW2 scenario books into Gnome Wars era battles.

Finally, if "A Very Gnomish Civil War" is well received, I might have to pick up its inspiration and write out the specifics for others to play.