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Thread: "Ace of Aces" Career Campaign idea

  1. #1

    Default "Ace of Aces" Career Campaign idea

    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.

    --------------

    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:
    Last edited by surfimp; 01-25-2017 at 15:31.

  2. #2

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    Excellent as far as it goes, but what about two-seaters? How would you include them?

  3. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by zenlizard View Post
    Excellent as far as it goes, but what about two-seaters? How would you include them?
    Because the focus of the campaign as presented is on the individual scout pilot over the course of a (hopefully) war-spanning career, with the ultimate goal of becoming the "Ace of Aces", my thinking is that multiseat planes, be they two-seaters or larger bombers, would be treated as NPCs (non player characters).

    Each player would control their PC (player character) pilot, and depending on how many players (and thus pilots) you had participating, a sufficient number of NPC aircraft on each side (Entente and Central) to flesh out the mission scenario. These NPC aircraft could be scouts, two-seaters or bombers, as appropriate to the mission. Think of them like the "wingmen" assigned to a player in a flight simulator video game, and you've got the idea in a nutshell.

    Because of the "dead is dead" idea, these NPC aircraft are important for providing ablative wounds / extra firepower / etc. The efforts of the player in controlling the NPC aircraft available to him/her will be reflected in the mission points accrued, but if the player does too much of the "heavy lifting" during the mission with the NPCs, their pilot character will not be accruing as many kills and thus not "leveling up" as quickly (though it may help the pilot survive, in fairness).

    The goal is to provide interesting choices in a simple, straightforward manner.

  4. #4

    Thumbs up

    Sounds like a good plan.

    The main thing is to enjoy the games & have lots of Fun along the way to hopefully becoming that special Ace.

  5. #5

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    It might be an idea to have several named NPC that the kids can develop and take over when their PC pilot is killed. That way they don't have to go through the rookie process over and over and maybe won't just use their NPC as cannon fodder to hide behind.

    "He is wise who watches"

  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by surfimp View Post
    Because the focus of the campaign as presented is on the individual scout pilot over the course of a (hopefully) war-spanning career, with the ultimate goal of becoming the "Ace of Aces", my thinking is that multiseat planes, be they two-seaters or larger bombers, would be treated as NPCs (non player characters).

    Each player would control their PC (player character) pilot, and depending on how many players (and thus pilots) you had participating, a sufficient number of NPC aircraft on each side (Entente and Central) to flesh out the mission scenario. These NPC aircraft could be scouts, two-seaters or bombers, as appropriate to the mission. Think of them like the "wingmen" assigned to a player in a flight simulator video game, and you've got the idea in a nutshell.

    Because of the "dead is dead" idea, these NPC aircraft are important for providing ablative wounds / extra firepower / etc. The efforts of the player in controlling the NPC aircraft available to him/her will be reflected in the mission points accrued, but if the player does too much of the "heavy lifting" during the mission with the NPCs, their pilot character will not be accruing as many kills and thus not "leveling up" as quickly (though it may help the pilot survive, in fairness).

    The goal is to provide interesting choices in a simple, straightforward manner.
    You can run the enemy or your own two-seaters using the WoG Solo app, works well in the Over The Trenches campaign.

  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by flash View Post
    It might be an idea to have several named NPC that the kids can develop and take over when their PC pilot is killed. That way they don't have to go through the rookie process over and over and maybe won't just use their NPC as cannon fodder to hide behind.
    I get where you're coming from, but the flipside is that if every pilot is essentially the same, then the whole purpose of the PC pilots becomes diluted if not irrelevant. Because if you can just "take over" another pilot without much loss, all pilots are essentially identical cogs and the RPG-ish component of the career idea, and of the PC pilots as "player avatar," is essentially undermined.

    Furthermore, the goal of the mission score tracking (via VPs) is to offset the loss of a PC pilot. Maybe he died, but maybe he went out in a blaze of glory, winning your side the mission and accruing lots of Victory Points, putting you ahead on that scoreboard even while you fall behind on the "Ace of Aces" scoreboard. The goal is for there be multiple "ways to win"... which is intended to encourage meaningful player choices.

    Anyways, that's the theory behind the proposal, but I do appreciate the feedback! I have never played nor run a campaign before (and it probably shows). I am very willing to hear feedback because, at the end, this is about having fun first and foremost.

  8. #8

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    Steve the whole concept sounds a great idea . Time with the younger generation , especially playing games is never wasted.
    Will you be writing any AARs for your campaign? it brings the game to life and is certainly a great way to get the kids into creative writing.

    Will be watching this space
    Paul


    I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings
    Coming down is the hardest thing

  9. #9

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    So we've played through our first three missions in the campaign, roughly corresponding to Spring through Summer of 1916.

    In our alternate reality, the Fokker Scourge isn't over, apparently! The Central Powers are off to a strong lead, leading 9 - 3 on VPs after three missions. It appears my oldest boy (flying for Germany) is channeling his inner Boelcke, and the Triple Entente is in trouble.

    We have started using the "Strategic Victory Points" scoring methodology from Tony Crewdson's WoW WW1 Campaign Ruleset found in the Files section. These provide a bit of extra detail and expansion over what's provided in the RAP manual, which has proven helpful for our scorekeeping.

    One change we've made: when a two-seater aircraft completes a mission objective (eg. Photo Recon) by flying off a friendly board edge, it scores its points but does not credit the opponent 1pt for leaving the board. That seems counter-intuitive, as a two-seater absolutely wouldn't endanger vital photographs in order to partcipate with its escorts in dogfighting interceptors (at least, not in our thinking). Other than that, we're following Crewdson with respect to his SVPs.

    I've also created a Mission Log and Aircraft Tier list on Google Docs to track campaign progress:
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

    We've chosen the missions more-or-less at random / based on what we've felt like playing. We're constructing a loose narrative around them to give the overall mission flow a feeling of "truthiness," and it's proven just fine so far.

    Having finished the first 3 missions, we've unlocked the second tier of aircraft (listed on the spreadsheet above, on a second tab). Of course my oldest boy has immediately selected an Albatross D.II - and who can blame him! More dark days ahead for the Entente, as they do all they can with their Tripehound and Nieuport 17.

    We're thinking that it probably makes sense to have points limits for each mission, based on the tier of aircraft being flown. Our provisional thinking is as follows:
    Tier 1 - 100pts / player
    Tier 2 - 150pts / player
    Tier 3 - 200pts / player
    Tier 4 - 250pts / player

    Aircraft selection will be limited to the current tier as well as the immediately preceding tier.

    This will allow some headroom for a variety of mission loadouts (aka "list building"), giving a bit more pilot agency and likewise giving some semblance of "balance" to the proceedings.

    Looking forward to seeing what happens through the fall and winter of 1916/17!

  10. #10

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    Tony Crewdson's campaign rules work well. I used them for a big campaign back in 2009-10.

    How are you selecting mission types?

  11. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by Carl_Brisgamer View Post
    Tony Crewdson's campaign rules work well. I used them for a big campaign back in 2009-10.

    How are you selecting mission types?
    Mostly at random / via discussion, so far:

    Quote Originally Posted by surfimp View Post
    We've chosen the missions more-or-less at random / based on what we've felt like playing. We're constructing a loose narrative around them to give the overall mission flow a feeling of "truthiness," and it's proven just fine so far.

  12. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by surfimp View Post
    Mostly at random / via discussion, so far:
    One way we used to do it was with a mission flowchart, copy here in the files section - http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/dow...do=file&id=363

    Click image for larger version. 

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    It starts with a meeting engagement over No Man's Land, with the victorious side seizing the initiative. This allows that side to engage in randomly generated offensive missions with a greater chance of gaining SVPs. A loss takes the previously victorious side back to the meeting engagement and gives their opponents a chance to take back the initiative.

  13. #13

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    That's cool! It's more or less the theory we've followed, but we jumped right in at the recon phase. My understanding is that, for the most part, the photo recons went up regardless of how successful (or not) the fighter sweeps were proving to be.Then the idea is that a photo recon leads to an artillery spotting mission and/or a strafing/bombing mission (i.e. to attack a train station in the rear area where troops are staging, etc.). But the suggestion to encapsulate the missions in such a way as to reflect the momentum of the overall war effort is very cool. I shall study this chart and try to make good use of it.

    Thank you!

  14. #14

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    Flowchart does look helpful for a campaign like this.

  15. #15

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    OK, so a mid-season update for those following along from home

    To date, we've played 7 of the planned 12 missions and seen a seesaw back and forth between the Entente and Central Powers. Right now they are neck-and-neck, with Central Powers in first place with 17 campaign points vs the Entente at 16.

    First off, here is the updated aircraft tier list. For review, for each 3 missions completed, the next tier of aircraft is "unlocked". Each tier represents around 8-9mo of time during the war, beginning in February 1916.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    The scoreboard can be seen here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

    The scoring rubric for missions is as follows:

    Click image for larger version. 

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    As to be expected, over the course of our campaign "alpha test," we've been dialing in the scorekeeping and aircraft tiers. We've currently just started Tier 3, with a (revised) 250pt limit per side. My oldest son took the opportunity to bring three Albatros D.Va and their potent A deck guns brutalized the SPAD VIIs and Sopwith Camel the Entente sent to intercept their combat patrol. This saw the younger son's Camel get shot down, but as he was over friendly trenches at the time, and hadn't suffered pilot injuries, we elected to let him draw a B damage card to see if he successfully crash-landed. We decided that on a draw of 0, the crash-landing would be successful and the pilot would survive (but be sent to the hospital)... happily for my son, his pilot made it. The other two SPADs were forced to withdraw with heavy damage, ceding the air to the Germans this time.

    As far as the "Ace Race" goes, my oldest son's pilot - "Goggle Guns" - is in the lead with 3 victories to date.
    My younger son's pilot - "Goneér Guava" (where do they come up with this stuff??) - is close behind with 2.
    Dear old dad has been flying the NPCs and serving as GM, currently, but am planning to recruit an American pilot now that we've arrived in early 1917.

    It's been great fun so far, and my local gaming group - comprised mostly of sci-fi and fantasy players - has expressed significant interest in running a WoG campaign of their own, using the above ideas. Should be fun!

  16. #16

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    Good to see your campaign coming along nicely. At gaming clubs I have found campaigns are a sure way of encouraging new players into the game, it adds another dimension and gets people invested.

  17. #17

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    Looks good, Steve.
    I may start something similar once the Over the Trenches series is finished (unless flash is a glutton for punishment and starts over from the beginning ....)

  18. #18

  19. #19

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    I've gone through a couple iterations of the Pilot Dossier cards. Here's the current version, designed to be printed on 8.5" x 11" paper (though of course it could easily be resized to fit A4).

    "Veteran" status simply means they have begun to acquire Ace Abilities (i.e. have amassed at least 5 or more kills).

    Click image for larger version. 

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  20. #20

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    And what finnaly happened with the campaign? Who won? I'm aware it was 30 month ago, but I'm still curious



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