The Commander Series Forum

Will be starting a 1K-2K point campaign soon with my usual bunch of gaming geeks using my CWC counters I made with some 2D terrain also mainly from Memoir'44 and Tide of Iron. I would have loved to have used 6mm or even 3mm models but alas my friends are just as cheap as me so we settled on my counters, but as long as I'm getting games of CWC in it doesn't matter I guess.

In my previous campaigns I've run of different gaming systems the progress of each player is tracked by "Supply" and the more supply they have the more points they can field. An underdog player, some one who has less points, can choose the scenario, deploys first, and decides who goes first, so it almost evens out.

The CWC book covers all the scenarios well so with in depth descriptions has what has got my friend more interested in linking the games together to make it a weekly thing, as well as the cold war setting that most of them haven't played before. Although I think my Abrams versus T-72s game using Dropzone Commander terrain is what got them into it to be honest

However I'm actually kind of stumped of how keep the players involved post-game. I was thinking of rehashing the Supply system but combine it with some sort of Assets table that is rolled after each game; one table for the winner, one table for the loser. Each Asset gives the player one free unit that can be used next game but it would be a broad area to cover from CMD, INF, ARM, ART, AIR, AT. As the game is set during the start of 1989 it allows players to use a majority of the lists from the rulebook but removes some of the more advanced units....ish!

Unsure though if this will complicate things or not?

Rolling a D6 after each game and claiming a new unit sounds good in theory but I would have to make a counter for every unit unless they used a cardboard proxy which looks even worse but I guess it is about the game more than the looks as we are going to be using 2D counters! Suppose I could make blank nation-specific counters for people to write on for ease of use.

Need some sort of end goal but can not think of one except for the one on the next ? So any ideas?

At the moment it is just 6 mates getting together once or twice a week and playing a flat version of CWC. I will find out this week what nation they want to play as and what armies they want to use. We will be using some house rules such as on-board artillery, usually at the back and can be targeted but at a -1 to the command roll. Helicopters can deploy as ground units and act in a similar way but most of the core helicopter rules still apply. Command Units' can be changed to a ground unit or even transport helicopter but suffer the penalties laid out in BKC2 for movement, shooting, etc.

I was thinking of using RISK territory cards to represent a player's winning/loosing progress. Each player gets a hand of random cards of even numbers, if a player wins the loosing player must give him one of their cards. The first player to have 2 full sets of continent territory cards wins the campaign. Does this idea for an end goal sound good or lame?

I'm planning a campaign this summer using the World at War board game as a background. The game comes with a nice hexagonal map and I am planning on using it to show overall progress in the campaign. A major victory would gain you a certain number of hex territories, a minor victory would gain you fewer hexes.

I plan on allowing rolls for reinforcement and reconstitution of units. Playing with all kinds of ideas right now in preparation for the kickoff.

I've found the "Race to..." campaign structure works well; essentially several players are on the same side, competing with each other to beat the "NPC" forces. See my recent "Race to New Street" post for AVBCW for a BKC reworking of the idea.

If they all want to be a "player faction" you could have a set up with six tracks to the objective, and just allow them to play an NPC force of whatever they fancy against the player driven forces.

Maybe the balloon has gone up in Central Europe and they're all racing for key points on the Rhine, split them into a NATO force and a WARPAC force, and then have a big multiplayer game with whatever everyone has left with whoever got to the objective first having some advantage.

Currently there are 6 of us and I've found out what we will all be playing as:
Soviet (me), NATO, Iraq, Britain, United States, and Iran.

So it's a mix bag all round and for the most part we are going to be playing an intro campaign of sorts as at the moment we are able to play our game at the back of my local pub on some tables on early Saturday afternoons. So beer and wargaming on 4'x3' tables using 2"x3" counters of 1K points with games that last about 90 minutes has got people in high spirits. Will be playing for RISK cards from the 2-player Balance of Power box so it is purely European countries we are fighting for, with the end goal being to control two full sets of coloured areas.

All players have agreed to play a second campaign of which I hope to wrangle the players into doing a Fortress America map based on the Board Game. With America being the NPC force and us being the player factions like toxicpixie suggested. Hopefully these links to BGG for my ideas will work!!

Looks cool

Also found this awesome "custom" map on BGG also and it looks even better though would be hard trying to get it printed though not impossible. Again, hopefully you guys can see this:



Also checked out MiniPatton A World at War map and it looks pretty good as it reminds me of the map from Hearts of Iron 2 more than anything else! Though perhaps in the future when we recruit a few new faces we can do some sort of Red Alert-style game where us players are fighting a resistance war against the red tide.
World At War Map for reference purposes.

Hi-hi, we played that at Uni back in the day, ace game! Germany gutted itself on Poland once, and capitulated in Oct '39 Although perhaps not as rewarding as when the UK player launched a two pronged amphibious attack and captured both Rome and Berlin in a straight assault!

Although I did manage to lose the entire Soviet army on the first turn of Barbarossa due to a terribly badly thought out cunning plan...

I have yet to play it as it is on my wishlist of things to buy, as well as a decent printer with a good quality:ink ratio

Just got my friend's army lists in, so I'm busy making counters, and it is pretty difficult to decide what units to take in a 1K game, though you get an additional 500 points for Assault missions which everyone has pretty much taken Aircraft and an extra tank.

Decided to add a special "Base" page to the campaign that players can add to after each game. They simply roll a D10 and multiply it by 100 to see how much supply they have. Winning a game adds 100 for minor victories, and 300 for major victories, while -100 for minor defeats, and -200 for major defeats. Supply is used to buy buildings that extend the capacity of your army using the building list below. Hopefully the rules are simple enough that there won't be any mix up. Planning on adding this to the Fortress America campaign but more refined.

Players have an A4 sheet split into 9 squares. The centre being their Command Centre of which can not be sold or removed and is the base for their chosen starting 1K army +500 point Assault force. The outer squares can house one of the following buildings:

> Supply Depot [700 supply]: Adds 200 points to army limit that can be spent on any unit type.

> Fuel Depot [900 supply]: Adds 250 points to army limit that can only be spent on Armour, IFV, Recce, units only.

> Munitions Depot [800 supply]: Adds 250 points to army limit that can only be spent on Anti-Tank Weapons, ATGW, and AA Artillery units only.

> Landing Strip [1000 supply]: Adds 250 points to army limit that can only be spent on Aircraft units but of all types.

> Barracks [600 supply] Adds 170 points to army limit that can only be spent on Infantry, INF upgrades, and ground Transport units only.

> Intelligence Link [500 supply]: Adds 1 re-roll to any failed Command roll. This can only be done once per game but can be used every game. More Links the more available re-rolls.

All units from these additional buildings are placed in reserve if the mission allows such. Player who have less points may choose what mission they want, may also deploy first, and take the first turn. If the underdog player wins they can then choose which RISK card from their opponent's hand to take from a choice of two that the opponent has chosen.

Finally got round to finishing the counter sheets for all 6 armies and they all managed to fit on to 2 A4 pages too.

There is a lack of FAO and FAC units on the sheets as one of the house rules I'm using is that CO and HQ units can order in Air and Artillery attacks within LOS at a -1 and infantry at a -2. This gave the infantry a worth-while point value, saved some extra points that would have otherwise been spent on the extra unit, and opens more tactics.

Page 1: Soviets, NATO, and Britain
http://soviethybrid.deviantart.com/art/Col...

Page 2: Iraq, Iran, and United States/USMC
http://soviethybrid.deviantart.com/art/Col...