Campaign Turn Initiative?

[fuzzilogik]

Can someone give me a quick breakdown of how campaign turn initiative works? I think my group may be doing it wrong. Currently we all roll and add our racial modifiers. Then the highest total goes first. In the rules it says you may choose to skip, but I’m not really sure what that means. Does that mean that you don’t get to take any offensive action for the turn?

If I have the highest total I would prefer to go last. That way I can see how the other battles shape up and perhaps hit someone who has already committed some of their ships and won’t be able to put up a fight. Also I can know how many defensive battles I'll have to fight and I may not want to attack anyone.

 

[H]

you can skip? I must have missed that, anyhow assuming you act...

player one declares target
player two gets a chance to contest, if not
player three gets chance to contest if not
player 4 gets a chance to contest. If not

player one takes target,
player two declares target
player 3 gets a chance to contest, if not,
player 4 contests.

and so on, if however a player contests, that is their entire turn, then the highest player NOT to have acted, declares a target.
All actions should happen, and all fights be rolled for before any battles take place. that way, you don't know if your oponent will fight his first battle, or hold off his ships to fight you! someone will no doubt come and correct me now ;-)

 

[CZuschlag]

First of all, I think your group is forgetting to subtract from your campaign initiative score the number of strategic objectives you currently own.

I believe if you elect to Pass, you can still encounter someone else at a contestable site, but if the two-player minimum is already consumed, you end up doing nothing this turn. Help?

The rest below is just my opinion. Not too much factual evidence, just anecdotal.

As far a a middle ground goes -- the RRs award for winning a system seem to encourage lots of violence, if you engage in war at all. In the long term, doing the minimum amount of fighting is easily the way to go, fleets do not get rebuilt in nearly the time it takes to destroy them, and in a multi-sided campaign, it rarely pays to make things really bloody. Bases help against this phenomenon a lot. The campaign game is one of complete aggression or turtling and ship-polishing. There doesn't seem to be much of a middle ground short of deal-making, diplomacy amoungst players --- turning your a campaign feel into a bit of old fashioned Avalon Hill Kingmaker. Well, maybe not quite that nasty.

 

[CZuschlag]

Hiffano,

I think there was some debate about the campaign's wording, suggesting that the battle must be fought before the next player slects his or her site. I hate this interpretation because of the gang-up effect. It is also, in the context of the real world, not practicable -- we found that if you figured out the campaign battles that had to be fought all in one night, it took 2 weeks, at best, before you could do another turn. If everyone wanted to wait for each battle's completion, you'd be done with 3 turns in about a year. Ick.

 

[Da Boss]

you can skip? I must have missed that, anyhow assuming you act...

player one declares target
player two gets a chance to contest, if not
player three gets chance to contest if not
player 4 gets a chance to contest. If not

player one takes target,
player two declares target
player 3 gets a chance to contest, if not,
player 4 contests.

and so on, if however a player contests, that is their entire turn, then the highest player NOT to have acted, declares a target.
All actions should happen, and all fights be rolled for before any battles take place. that way, you don't know if your oponent will fight his first battle, or hold off his ships to fight you! someone will no doubt come and correct me now ;-)

thats how we play it........

 

[H]

Hiffano,

I think there was some debate about the campaign's wording, suggesting that the battle must be fought before the next player slects his or her site. I hate this interpretation because of the gang-up effect. It is also, in the context of the real world, not practicable -- we found that if you figured out the campaign battles that had to be fought all in one night, it took 2 weeks, at best, before you could do another turn. If everyone wanted to wait for each battle's completion, you'd be done with 3 turns in about a year. Ick.

Hmm, I prefer everyone stating targets, then everyone rolls for what they are, then you just get on with the games!

 

[Da Boss]

we have been allowing skipping as sometimes it is in the best interests of the person winning initiative............

 

[Greg Smith]

Officially skipping isn't allowed, but there are several groups on here that do it.

 

[fuzzilogik]

Very helpful info! We are just starting turn 3 and we were doing it wrong. I was totally missing the way selected targets are contested. We'll have vote on whether or not to allow skipping. The skipping makes more sense now that I understand contesting.

So how do things change after all the strategic targets are held? If the Narn are attacking a Minbari held target, no one else can contest that right?

Narn hold Barren World
Minbari hold Agricultural World
Shadows hold jump gate.

Narn initiative 12
Minbari initiative 10
Shadow initiative 9

So the Narn choose to attack the Minbari agricultural world. They roll a 5 point raid, Call to Arms battle and both players choose and assign ships to that battle.

The Minbari elect to skip.

The Shadows elect to attack the Narn barren world (they can’t attack the Minbari agricultural world as it has already been contested this turn). They roll a battle level blockade and choose and assign ships.

Then the players get together and fights the battles when convenient and turn in the results to the GM. Is that about right for this highly simplified example?

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[Locutus9956]

Actually I believe they CAN attack the agricultural world. They simply fight whoever wins the first battle. Could be wrong here though will have to check later, but it strikes me as massively stupid if you cant attack somewhere just because someone else wants to have a crack at it first....

 

[katadder]

only 1 fight per campaign turn on each system. this is why init is important for campaigns.

 

[fuzzilogik]

The big problem with allowing more than one fight per turn, per objective is that it would mean the rest of the campaign turn is on hold while each battle is fought. We want to get to the point where we can figure out every battle size and type for the whole turn via email then people can get together and fight the battles when convenient. I now see a problem in my previous post.

“So the Narn choose to attack the Minbari agricultural world. They roll a 5 point raid, Call to Arms battle and both players choose and assign ships to that battle.”

They shouldn’t be assigning ships at this point. They should wait until every player has finished selecting targets, then everyone assigns ships. That way a player will know how many battles and the size and type of each before he has to commit any ships and also other players won’t know which battles each player will choose to load up on.

 

[Burger]

“So the Narn choose to attack the Minbari agricultural world. They roll a 5 point raid, Call to Arms battle and both players choose and assign ships to that battle.”

They shouldn’t be assigning ships at this point. They should wait until every player has finished selecting targets, then everyone assigns ships. That way a player will know how many battles and the size and type of each before he has to commit any ships and also other players won’t know which battles each player will choose to load up on.

That is a point of contention. Some people do it your way, some people do it the other way. The rules are a bit vague. We do it your way, makes it much more tactical and less guesswork... but this isn't the place to resurrect that arguement. Its just down to preference of the group. Have a vote

 

[katadder]

we figure out who is fighting who so that all the fights can be done at the same time, for most people. however you dont figure out game size/scenario until your fight is ready.

 

[fuzzilogik]

Good stuff. Now all I have to do is explain all this to the group and get everyone to agree. Oh, and I should probably paint and mount my ISA fleet at some point.

 

[Admiral Phlop]

Yes, BJ you might want to get that small task accomplished before the next turn. :wink: