"Campaigns that start badly" Topic

Started a Meka Tac campaign (think battle tech). Picked out 4 Meks for my merc force, and 4 more for the gov't types. First mission was to get in, destroy one or two enemy Meks and retreat. Let's just say some plans don't survive very long once contact is made.

Only had 1 Mek actually survive, and didn't do enough damage to other side to even pretend it was a victory.

So, what would you do…
Play something else,
Start over: refight the battle and go from there,
Suck it up and carry on with only 1 Mek

Regroup, and await reinforcements.

Perhaps come up with a new plan of attack too.

Fighting retreat scenarios and use it for a roleplaying background.
HQ wants you to lead pursuers into a ambush.

Sometimes fighting against all odds can be the most interesting, and fun, battles…

Is this a solo thing?

OK, please stay with me here,

In the Western Desert (WW2) the tank forces sufferred horrendous losses in material. A force might be reduced to 50% or less tanks in a single day, but, and here's the thing, by the following morning several lost tanks were usually returned to the unit after being recovered (sometimes from under the noses of the enemy!) from the battlefield and repaired. The Germans were extremely good at this.

In your game, you could allow for this sort of thing going on. Rather than get X back, I'd use a post battle saving throw adjusted for who holds the field.

Also, if this is a campaign, reserves should be available – it's a 'war' not a 'one day battle'. Try get hold of some wargame campaign books – T. Bath, Featherstone, Grant, etc. They are packed with ideas.

'Money' is a useful thing in campaigns. In your case, you might call it 'industrial capacity'. If each side starts with a war chest it can use it to buy reinforcements – but, when they do, they lose campaign victory points in proportion. On reaching zero the game is up – the side loses due to a lack of resources.

Lastly, campaigns are littered with lulls, especially after a major action. I don't know what the time scale is in your campaign, but you might want to make it flexible.

As you might tell from the start of this post, I only play historical campaigns. However, war is war, and most campaign rule mechanisms are transferable from Hannibal to Patton. I hope this helps.

olicana makes sense. Also, is your four mech force all that your side has? Even if it's all you have.
As an example, I almost never have more than a battalion of infantry to use in a WW2 game. This does not mean the German, Soviet or Finnish armies were just single battalions.

Perhaps your side lost this battle, or war, and not just the skirmish.

If you want to go that route, this battle/skirmish can just be an interesting anecdote in the history of the unit. Your survivor can be one of the few, that perhaps is revered throughout history for their bravery, even though they lost.

Then again, perhaps he, or she needs to redeem his or her poor performance, at some time in the near future.

Pardon me, I've had a lot of experience with running campaigns, but no experience with sci-fi mechs. If You are the GM or running the campaign then its quite simple to modify the back-story to carry on. You had three mek's destroyed? Well then, bring one back each campaign turn as reinforcemens and when you build up to equality try a different plan.

As others have suggested fight delaying actions or one on one ambush's.

It's a solo project, so I can play fast and loose with the rules.

This was to be the story of a small mercenary unit (4 mechs to start then hopefully grow). Reinforcements were going to be gained by WINNING battles. Looks like it will be the story of one guy's glorious comeback instead.

Thanks for the insights, I think it will play out like this:
Fighting retreat to get to 'our' lines.
Main attack by army forces while my unit rebuilds.
Main force attack while my unit runs a side rescue mission to free their leader.

Long time battletech player. if your unit is down to one mech, sounds like it's time to run an infantry skirmish on the mech repair depot the enemy has to steal you some mechs…

Used to use shadowrun to run "shopping expeditions" in my battletech games when the PC's suffer some terrible losses

that or the lone mech has to escort a hovertruck later from wreck to wreck seeing if anything was salvageable.

Ooh, I like that one, too.

See almost all the British Empire's campaigns – at least the ones that get written about. The Anglo-Zulu War was a classic – Rourke's Drift was an amazing bit of spin in a pretty complete disaster for the British in the opening days of the campaign, but they eventually ground the Zulu's down & utterly destroyed them as a force in the end.

Is this a solo campaign or are other players involved?

Back in the day I played in a club campaign of the American Revolution as the British C-in-C. We had an early disaster – Burgoyne's army got cut up a year ahead of schedule, losing 2/3 of the force. We played a series of rearguard actions as the survivors retreated to Canada. I always told the British team that our goal was to hold out until nightfall and not suffer too many losses. Each time we achieved this I congratulated everyone. As a result the British team kept playing and two campaign years later the rebellion collapsed, largely because the Rebel team didn't want to fight battles at a disadvantage. If you put the right spin on it, folks will keep playing. If you must always 'win' every table top battle, a serious reverse can end the campaign.

If your campaign is solo, who knows?