How to Set Up a Wargames Campaign

Title Shamelessly Stolen from Tony Bath

The long-awaited Imaginations Campaign is getting closer!

I am in the middle of writing out the scripts for the four videos in this series. The outlines will be published here for Subscribers to peruse first, then made available to general audiences later.

This project is the result of over a year of research and playtesting various ideas, many of which were published here in one form or another. I did make a couple of attempts to start this already, but each time I did, I discovered something new to me (and essential!) that I felt needed to be included.

I did a lot of reading. A LOT.

The information and lessons in these books were incredibly useful in deciding which ideas were going to be most effective and most interesting. I have pages and pages of notes, plus a bunch of ‘stacks, with cogitations on these rules and concepts. Luckily for me, I didn’t have to compile them all into one coherent whole. Henry Hyde did it for me!

And now I know why this book took him eight years to complete…

Wargaming Campaigns by Henry Hyde

The best thing about this book is that it showed me exactly what needed to be done, and pointed the way back to the old-school sources of many modern campaign design concepts.

From reading Tony Bath and Don Featherstone I learned how Chainmail was supposed to work. I think I could even go back and make Warriors of Mars work!

*The History of Wargaming Project* was an amazing resource, reprinting many of the OG rules and essays on the subject of wargames from the 60s & 70s. It’s amazing to see the level of cross-pollination and idea-sharing in these books as well. Something similar is happening on Social Media today. This hobby is very, very exciting!

Campaign Carnival 2023

The beginning of the ImagiNations Campaign will coincide with this year’s Campaign Carnival and the release of the Campaign Carnival Deluxe Edition zine. This year’s event will be a bit different from last year, as it will be based on the ongoing ImagiNations Map Campaign.

We will be using the existing map I created waaaay back in the day. It will accompany text and video for all of the tools mentioned in the zine. Paid subscribers will get a free PDF of the CC Deluxe Edition and a PDF of the outlines for the video series.

Video Subjects

• Introduction

  • Welcome to the How to Set Up Your Wargames Campaign series

  • A step-by-step process for creating a wargames campaign from scratch (or almost)

  • Shout out to Joy of Wargaming and Hethwill Wargames for inspiration, and motivation, and for providing examples of what can be done.

• List of Resources - The books I will be using for this Campaign are listed below. All but the General’s Compendium are available from Amazon or other sources. The links are Amazon Affiliate links, which means I will get a few cents from each purchase, at no extra cost to you. As of this writing, Kindle editions are available as well. I highly recommend the books by Bath and Silvester.

  • Solo Wargaming Guide - Silvester

  • Wargaming Campaigns - Hyde

  • Martinstaat 1744 - Hyde

  • Hellfire Campaigns - Webster

  • General’s Compendium - Sarlin, Vetock

  • Setting Up a Wargames Campaign - Bath

  • Naval Wargames - Featherstone

• What Do You Need?

  • Campaign Idea: theme, era, conflict, etc

  • Solo or Multi-player

  • Dice & Playing Cards

  • Wooden blocks (link), counters (link), chits, or miniatures for Tactical battles - Replica Kriegsspiel blocks and dice are available from Command Post Games! https://www.commandpostgames.com/product/kriegsspiel-blocks/

• VIDEO 1: How to Make a Strategic Map

  • Types of Maps

    • Cartographic

    • Hex/Square

    • Area

  • How to make a hex map

    • Tools

      • Pencil

      • Markers

      • Digital/Software

    • Resources

      • Atlas

      • Google maps

      • Fiction

  • Geography (Webster)

  • Population & Settlements - Spreadsheet download (Silvester, Webster)

  • Resources (Webster)

  • Troop Mobilization (Silvester, Webster)

• VIDEO 2: The Armies and Their Commanders

  • Counters for Strategic Map

    • Troops

    • Patrols

    • Couriers

    • Caravans/Supply Routes

  • Index Card “Character Sheets”

    • Rulers

    • Commanders

    • Regiments

    • Heroes/Personalities

• VIDEO 3: Regimes at War

  • Regime Type (Hyde p 282)

  • Regime Posture

  • Inciting Incident

• VIDEO 4: Record Keeping

  • Diary/Journal of events, battles, etc

  • Faction Information

  • Calendar

  • Weather

  • Supplies and Provisions

  • Event Cards

Running the Campaign

I have some ideas for a campaign theme, or inciting incident, which I’ll share in a later post. I also want to make this interactive, so I will be soliciting ideas and inviting the Wargame Culture Community to participate. This can be through fighting battles or perhaps “Playing the part” of a Ruler or Commander in a Braunstein-style capacity.

We will be using a version of The Scouting Game during this campaign, and developing a working Siege mini-game!

I’m looking forward to developing concepts we’ve already discussed here, such as Terrain “blinds”, to make the campaign fun, exciting, and informative.

Thanks for reading, and I encourage you to subscribe for full access to the posts as they happen!

Thanks again, and keep on gaming!