"Play by email Campaigns?" Topic

Friends lend me your eyes. I need your knowledge.

I have promised the members of my e-club in Greece to run a operational level play by email campaign for them. Either set in a 19th century setting or a sci-fi setting that is essentially 19th century in space (think Legend of Galactic Heroes, ergo the cross post to sci fi). I have some ideas from Paddy's generalship game, but I have some more. I will lay them out to you in case you are aware of a system out there that covers them.

1) 2 Players play the role of Chief of Staff/ Commanders in Chief who have operational command of a major military operation (a war) for two sides. Think Moltke the elder, Benedek 1866 etc. The others play the roles of corps commanders. Remaining corps, division, and brigade commanders are NPCs. Players essentially command corps on an operational map.

2) Battles are fought by me either by automatic system or using one of the rulesets I have.

3) I want politics and personalities to play a role. I consider the positions of Chief of Staff/ Supreme Commander as fundamentally managerial/ political position. Part of it is managing the personalities under your command, and part managing political expectations from the High Command. Indeed I am envisioning a double game. On one level players play to gain VPs and objectives in the war for their side, but they are also trying to survive politically. They may lose either due to the war going bad, but also because they fail to manage their subordinates and the political expectations of higher ups (think Political Points as Victory Points). I envision NPCs to have characteristics like those in Altar of Freedom but also political ones (like political appointment that cannot be removed from command without costing the player Political Points). Players decide issues like promotion, demotion etc but must consider political cost. CnC players maybe demoted to Corps Commanders, and Corps Commanders may be promoted. Payers can intrigue against each other.

4) Οrbats are battalion based, but players can only really command to the brigade level (i.e breaking up a crops to send units to various tasks).

5) My friends are not that familiar with good war gaming, so logistics should play a role but als be straightforward
6) Operational rules should be simple enough, but provide players with the opportunity to create a great game and easy to accommodate with rules like Neil Thomas 19th century rules, or Big Bloody Battles.

I might be asking too much, probably I am, as this is a rpg/wargame mix I am asking for, and I will in the end probably sit down and right my own rules, but if you are aware of some system that covers these stuff please tell.

With Respect
KTravlos

Don't know of anything off the top of my head. Assuming you write your own, my basic suggestion is KISS. Otherwise you'll go crazy. The less paperwork you have to do, the better. Also, less paperwork means less chance for umpire error. Nothing riles up the natives like that.

5.) Units need to have a clear line of supply back to a supply source, perhaps of some meaningful distance. Otherwise they are out of supply. If so, in One Hour Wargames apply -1 to all combat die rolls. In BBB, shift all firepower attacks one column left.

I would suggest a point-to-point map of some sort, very simple. Like the DBA campaign except a wee bit larger.

I agree with everything vtsaogames said.

You should cross-post this to the Campaign message board, and especially read this thread there.

- Ix

A little more discussion about adapting DBA campaigns:

It's really easy to stylize or bolt chrome onto DBA campaigns. I have several examples of varying complexity here, and there's a vast repository of examples linked on fanaticus.org.

One of my DBA campaigns is a "piston campaign" – basically a line divided into spaces/points, and the only way forward is through the enemy army. I made it as a battle generator for ancients. The simple but effective logistical flourish that armies closer to their own baseline get more reinforcements is also a balancing mechanism (the farther an army gets from home, the fewer losses it can afford; the closer it is to home, the more resilient it becomes) that tends to extend the campaign to more battles and even out severely lopsided battle outcomes.

Along the lines of the "piston campaign" concept is this very simple campaign format with 2-3 parallel tracks from the web site of War Artisan. This is a great way to get a simple operational map if you want players to worry about being outflanked at the operational level. You could always draw something like this over the top of an actual period map to make it look really nice.

- Ix

If you don't like point-to-point maps, look at the way Columbia Games does hex maps in titles like ]Liberty and the Front series. The hexes are large (not stacking necessary) and essentially function as territories. Each hex has both a general terrain type which affects defense/supply/stacking, and a terrain type along each hex side which affects movement and supply in/out. This elegantly packs a lot of terrain detail into the rules with very simple game mechanisms.

- Ix

Hi KTravlos

Have a look at 1618 Something link It covers a lot of ground in campaigns.

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

I haven't played 1618something in years – but it was a great game as far as I can recall. Never tried to base a wargame campaign on it though – might work.

Gentlemen and ladies, thank you for the replies. I will be umpiring and playing out any battles (probably break down corps battles to division ones, and let corps commanders just give general orders).

Yellow Admiral, thank you for the specific campaigns.

The players will not really be doing much research nor I expect them to do. This is why I am partly looking at an imganiation 19th century campaign. Essentially their game time will be eaten up by deciding what they characters do (ala Paddy Griffith)and giving orders. Anything beyond that is me (NPCs, unknow events, political repercussions of decisions).

The idea is to have three states of the world. Mine as umpire (true state) and the two states each side has (and indeed each player has) which will be divergent from the real state. They will have campaign maps, unit rosters, and character profiles, but the information they have will be abstract. For example I will know the real grade of troops, they will just have some general idea. I will know the real political power of a subordinate, they will have a abstract idea. etc. Even negative or positive traits will be revealed either by player interaction with officers (sacrificing time) or the battlefield.

Hi Konstantinos,

I've mentioned it elsewhere, but permit me to vote a second time for you to take a look at Longstreet. There's a bunch of information and free downloads here:
link

I think it could provide most of what you're looking for.

Chris

I second the keep it simple advice, especially with logistics.

For a more random interaction or reaction among the corridors of power (political, financial, industrial, illegal), perhaps a draw from a card deck? Hearts indicating some favor; Clubs some sort of setback; Diamonds some sort of financial or power reward; and Spades some sort of trickery, espionage, skullduggery, or other black ops sort of event.

You might also want to take a look at Wally Simon's Campaign Secrets of Wargame Design, which offers a dozen different campaign system mechanics you can use in most any campaign game, from various army point mechanics, to logistics, to maps. Available ($19) from onmilitarymatters.com or in UK from caliverbooks.com

(Disclosure: I edited the five "Secrets" booklets).

Table of Contents:

* Solo Campaign: Zulus Against British
* Dot Wars: Armies on the Move
* Simplified Campaigning: Napoleonics and Status
* Campaign Anyone? British Colonial Era Ideas
* Ancients Campaign: Army and Commander Points
* American Civil War Campaigning: Styles and Substances
* Zulu Uprising: A Mini Campaign
* England vs. Colonies: American War of Independence Campaign
* Lost Napoleonic Campaign: Planned Moves and Victory Boxes
* Rhombusia Campaign: Colonization and Rebellion
* Campaign Trail: Play by Mail Wargaming
* A Map Exercise: Tiered Movement

Thank you all.