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I've been talking about this kind of campaign for awhile and now I would like people's input. My basic idea is for a "Pirate Princes" campaign taking place in a mineral rich asteroid field in the far reaches of space. My first thoughts are to have monthly turns with 2 battles per month. BFG battles would be 750 points and the results of those battles would effect the Planetstrike battle for that month. There would be a variety of scenarios including: interdicting ore shipments, raiding mining facilities, attacking pirate bases, capturing ships, surprising fleets "at anchor," and just plain beating the crap out of each other.

Battlefleet Gothic's rules are available on the games-workshop.com site under Specialists games. I have small Imperial, Chaos, Tyranid, Eldar fleets and a large Orc fleet of course, which people could borrow for their games. Planetstrike is out now and we could use those rules for the planetary actions. When Planetary Empires comes out we could incorporate those rules too.

Here's where I would like your input.
1. Who would like to play? Which race?
2. Teams (1 BFG player and 1 40K?) or individuals (or both)
3. How to motivate people to continue playing especially after losing a couple of games? Ideas: Points for victories divided by number of games played. Would you be willing to pay an entry fee (say $20/player or team) and forfeit $2.00 for each month's worth of games you miss? This money would go into a pot for the winners.
4. On a scale of 1-10, how much should campaign rules modify the actual games? For example a "1" vote would mean that the campaign rules set up opponents and scenario but doesn't effect the games; a "5" would add that the BFG game's results would effect the planetstrike game such as eliminating the orbital bombardment (for a loss by the attackers), regular for a marginal victory of either side, or double bombardment for a major victory by the attacker; a "10" vote would mean that earlier games would effect later games, (for example the damage from one game would carry over to the next, damage would be repaired for supply points (some gained each turn by all players and other supply points would be gained and lost depending on the outcomes of each month's battles. Victory in the campaign would be the number of supply points remaining at the end of the campaign. Please explain what each of your votes means to you.
5. what are your ideas?

A lot to think about Andy!! I like where you are going with this, I'll ponder on it and get back with you as soon as I can.

Goodman

An interesting idea, I might be up for it, but one thing, if you charge anything, be prepared for this to turn extremely competitive. If thats what you want, go for it, but I like campaigns because they aren't on as competitive.

Just something to think about.

I agree that I like fun and not insane competition. I WOULD PREFER THAT THERE WAS NO ENTRY FEE. The entry fee would be refunded to all the players who joined the campaign minus the penalty for missing games. I would hope that the prospect of playing the games would be enough of a motivator, and having monthly games would give everyone enough time to finish their games so I would hope that there wouldn't be the need for the penalties; however the realist in me recognizes that not everyone who starts a campaign finishes it and if there is a penalty I would not want to keep it for myself.

Sounds like a lot of fun. Teams would be good and would make it a lot easier for games to get scheduled; in that if one person played the BFG game and the other on planet (or both on planet, or any mix therein). And I agree with Alex that we should not do entry fee and perhaps not even prizes the first go through. We seem to get competitive enough when its just games linked to a story:). Perhaps we could do a short test run during the rest of summer to work out as many kinks as possible and then do a full version in august or September when everyone is back and could make it as big as we want.

If people want to include prizes/etc. then we could hold off on that until the full version.

As for how the games interact I would vote for at least a 5; though not sure about going to 10:). Even something as minor as winner of the BFG (or previous games/etc.) would get some bonus points for next battle, additional bastion if defending, additional point for strategems, etc..

As for army, I have no idea:). Once my discount kicks in at the ishop I may no longer be able to resist getting yet another army:).

Don't necessarily like teams. Seems like it may make it harder to finish the campaign if a team mate drops out or gets really busy (as I am wont to do).

Wouldn't mind pitching in some money for a prize/motivator. $20 isn't that bad.

Would love to play, will probably build my Dark Eldar fleet (have like 15 ships in various states of non-put-togetherness) and play 40k as the Dark Eldar (we do love our raiding parties!).

I am in for sure. I will likely play as Tau....except that I am trying to get my Imperial Guard honed for the tournament in August, and ultimately for Adepticon. My problem is, my favorite BFG fleet is Chaos....but I could "pretend" my guard are renegade/chaos guard. Then there's the "I dont really have enough guard to do a huge Planetstrike game" problem....will have to do some soul searching here...

I don't like the entry fee deal either....I think that having two games a month is totally doable...in fact it might have the opposite effect...causing people to get bored and loose interest. But I do suggest we keep the participation capped at a manageable number to avoid the cluster we had in Reece's last campaign.

Also, the Planetary Empires tiles should be released beginning to late August, I will be getting a set...I know Chris will likely get one too...not sure if you want to incorporate these into the campaign somehow?

If we limit the group to 8, and they can be teams or individuals. Since we are pirates there can be a mixing and matching of BFG and 40K factions as Dave would like to fly Chaos but have land fights with Imperial Guard. I'm envisioning a more abstract campaign (match ups are scheduled like Reece was doing with set scenarios to play) than something like Planetary Empires and tiles but I don't see a problem if you would like a map based campaign and players choose their opponents. I played one game of planetstrike and believe that it is imbalanced in favor of hand 2 hand armies, but it is an exciting tactical challenge nonetheless. So far I am considering 40k scenarios to include a planetstrike style attack on the pirate base, an attack on a mining colony (above ground buildings and underground chambers where the prize would be stored), and a shipboard action to seize or destroy the ship. All of these would be approximately 1000-1500 points.