Jeridian wrote:
I like the concept, and have attended 40k Campaign Weekends (Tempus Fugitives) but I think your being very optimistic with timings.
We recently played a 12000pts game and it took almost 9 hours. Trying to cram in 3 6000pts games in one day is pushing it with just one player a side, two players a side takes even longer- even with simultaneous activation* players will still want to co-operate on what their formations do, they will have to wait if both formations are shooting/engaging one opponent's formation, players will have to take into account Overwatch of an opponent perhaps distracted by actions of their teammate, etc, etc, etc.
*I'm not really sold on sim activation working in Epic. What if both activations engage one enemy? What if both choose to shoot one enemy? Is this treated as one big engagement? One shooting action?
I'd have two vague sides- Forces of Order armies (SM, IG, Eldar, etc), Forces of Disorder (Chaos, Orks, Eldar, etc), with a set number of tickets for each side.
I'd have 1 vs 1 game 1 in the morning- 3000pts, 2.5hrs. Perhaps some sort of skirmishing/scouting mission, garrison-only formations, etc. Give benefit to game 2. If your savvy, use the scores from game 1 to pair up best and worst players for balanced pairs, or best vs best, worst vs worst, pairs for equal playing field.
I'd have a 2 vs 2 game 2- 6000pts combined, 3-4hrs.
Give benefit to game 3.
I'd then have a 4 vs 4 (or pushing it a 6 vs 6) on the next day. For your big finish mission. At 12000pts- 18000pts it can and will take all day.
One of the selling points is 'laidback non-tournament gaming', which doesn't hold true if your rushing around trying to complete 3 6k games, skipping lunch to do so, etc. I'd rather have time to spare, than never finishing games.
Thanks for your thoughts, I agree with some of what you say, and appreciate your thoughts on timings. As you and C&E have both said you feel the timings are tight and may lead to it being overly rushed, I am thinking that a 2 game day 1 would be a good compromise between slackening up the timings and not making the day overly long. I disagree with your point on simultaneous activations, I find they work well and the 'what-if' scenarios you suggested are all covered in the rulebook, I dont feel it is overly complex, the rules section for it is just a couple of paragraphs, and I think it promotes better cooperation between the paired players.
I understand the logistics behind your suggestion of Order vs Disorder, but I think it dilutes the narrative of the campaign, and what Im really going for is a strong story. I plan on having a laptop/data projector with maps etc of the campaign flow, showing forces/landings/battles etc to really reinforce the links between battles and their place within the campaign as a whole.
Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions.