My children and I are big Wings of Glory fans, and after a number of years of enjoyable play, are looking at trying out a multiplayer campaign.
I have looked a bit at some of the proposed campaigns here on the site, but am looking for something very simple & straightforward - my kids are 9 & 12 years old, both very bright, but a lot of complexity will take away from what we most love about the game.
We'd like to approach this campaign idea from a career perspective, where the pilot starts as a rookie in an early war plane, then progresses (if he survives) through the war, receiving more modern aircraft while also acquiring skills (per the RAP).
So, with that in mind, we are talking about the following approach:
Pilot Dossier
Each player creates a pilot using a Pilot Dossier printed out for the purpose. The dossier includes spaces for the pilot's name, nation for which they fly, skills they have obtained (will be explained below), and means for recording aerial and ground victories accumulated over the course of the pilot's career.
Aircraft Progression
Each pilot begins with the appropriate early war scout aircraft for their chosen nation. There are a total of four tiers of aircraft that the pilot can "unlock" by flying missions. The tiers are drawn from the available Nexus/Ares product line and are aligned in roughly chronological order. Progressing to a new aircraft requires the pilot to survive 3 sorties. Upon completion of the third sortie, the next tier of aircraft is unlocked. Some of the nations have multiple options at certain tiers, allowing the player to choose which option to fly.
Skills Progression
Each player's pilot begins the game as a Rookie (per the RAP manual). After the pilot completes his first two missions, he is elevated to normal status (if he survives). For each 5 aerial or ground victories attained during the course of the pilot's career, the player will be given the option of choosing a pilot skill (as listed in the RAP manual). The pilot skill attained will be recorded on the pilot's dossier.
Missions
Sorties will be appropriate to single-seat scout aircraft. They will include a mixture of combat air patrol/fighter sweep, escort/intercept missions, balloon busting, and ground attack. Missions will be scored per guidance in the RAP manual wherever practical.
Dead is Dead
If a pilot is killed while on a mission, he is dead. The player will create a new pilot of Rookie skill level and be assigned an aircraft based on the last tier of aircraft unlocked, and the career will begin anew from there. This ensures each player gets to enjoy all the aircraft tiers, but is given special benefits (in the form of skill progression) for keeping his pilot alive and contributing to the war effort.
If a pilot is wounded while on a mission, it is assumed that he recuperates to full health before returning to active duty - so wounds do not carry over from sortie to sortie, and are only relevant within a given sortie. Again, for simplicity.
Scoring
At the end of the 12 sorties comprising the campaign (3 sorties per tier of aircraft, with 4 tiers of aircraft), the cumulative total of aerial and ground victories attained by each pilot will be used to determine the Ace of Aces.
In addition, the total number of points scored by each player (per mission scoring as given by the RAP manual), across all pilot careers they controlled during the campaign, will be used to determine how much the player contributed to the war effort.
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Having never run a campaign before, I am open to suggestions on the above. It seems like it could be pretty fun, and pretty easy to run / book-keep. Would love feedback.
Addendum: Here is a photo showing the four aircraft tiers, with early war planes at the bottom and late war planes at the top:
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