Campaign Manager: User Guide

User's guide for the campaign manager.

Joining a Campaign

To join a campaign, select the campaign from the main page, then click the "Accept Invitation" button. An invitation can be specific to a player, or open to all. A player can only join a campaign once.

When you accept the invitation, you will be prompted to enter the army name, the faction to play, and a bit of fluff about the army. Note that you can (and probably will) have several battleforces in the campaign, and the army is the collection of them all.

User Interface

From the user page (click on your user name, in the top row), you can make changes to your user interface.

Password

You can change your password. The system doesn't enforce any password renewal policies.

Style

You can change the UI style; Currently, there are three styles, in addition to the basic "Plain" (like this manual): "Gray", "Science Fiction" (mostly green on black) and "Parchment" (for Fantasy players). CSS hackers that want to create their own style are welcome - mail me if you want to build a style.

Campaigns may have a style set; You can select whether your personal choice or the campaign choice takes precedence.

About

You can write a little piece of text about yourself - public contact information, links to your galleries and personal web pages, anything you like. Just keep it sober and relevant to miniatures wargaming, please.

Player Rating

Players are rated according to their performance in battles. All battles that are actually fought to conclusion counts for rating purposes.

The Campaign Manager uses the ELO rating system. Players initial rating is 1100.

Creating a Battleforce

To create a battleforce, select your army and click the "Create new battleforce" button. You can have as many battleforces as you wish, within the limits of your AP budget.

When you create a new battleforce, you will be prompted to enter a battleforce name and a bit of fluff. You can also optionally enter the URL to an image you wish to use as a battleforce logo. The image should be at most 300x300 pixels. The image should be reachable from the internet; If you don't have a webhotel of your own, you can use any of a number of free image hosting sites such as imageshack or photobucket to store your logo.

Players can, when creating a battleforce, copy the entire battleforce from another battleforce the player created earlier, even in another campaign. The battleforce must be for the same faction, though.

Adding units to a Battleforce

To add units to a battleforce, select it and click the "Create new unit" button.

When you create a new unit, you must specify the following attributes:

Name

The unit name should be unique, and can be as fluffy as you like.

Unit Category

Select all categories that the unit can be selected as. For most units, only one category applies. Units that cannot be selected alone (eg, retinues and transports) don't have a category and should be included in their "parent" unit entry. Example units that can occupy different FOC are Chaos Space Marine with a dedicated Mark (Elite or Troop), or Tyranid Warriors (HQ or Elite), or Tyranid "light" Carnifexes (Heavy Support or Elite).

A unit is always a Force Organization Chart selection, and can deploy as several units in battle - eg, Imperial Guard Infantry Platoons are one "Troop" selection each, but contain 3-6 deployed units.

Some units are only valid in battles of a certain size - eg, a unit of 16 Chaos Space Marine Chosen may not by fielded at all in a 1000 point or less battle.

It is usually a good idea to include variations on some units within the same battleforce, to meet different requirements. In the following example, the two Space Marine HQ selections would never be used simultaneously (eg, because the player has only one Commander model), but they allow fielding Artos in games both large and small.

Categories	Type	Name	Description	Points
HQ	Commander	Captain Artos	Frag Grenades, Bolt Pistol, Power Fist, Bionics, Purity Seals	97
HQ	Commander	Commander Artos	Tank Hunters, Trust the Emperor Artificer Armor, Frag Grenades, Melta Bombs, Bolt Pistol, Power Fist, Terminator Honours, Bionics, Purity Seals Command Squad Veteran Seargeant: Bolt Pistol, Power Weapon, Terminator Honours, Melta Bombs, Purity Seals Apothecary: Chainsword, Narthecium/Reductor, Melta Bombs, Terminator honours Company Champion: Artificer Armor, Master-Craft Power Weapon, Combat Shield, Bolt Pistol, Melta Bombs, Terminator Honours Standard bearer: Chapter Banner, Chainsword, Melta Bombs, Terminator honours 2x Space Marine: Missile Launcher, Terminator honours 3x Space Marine: Bolter, Terminator honours	614

Some units may only be fielded if another unit is also fielded - eg, Imperial Guard Conscripts and Armoured Fist platoons may only be fielded if an Infantry platoon is also fielded. Such units count as separate FOC slots, and should be entered as separate units.

Note that the application does not enforce many of the unit selection restrictions that the Codexes specify; It is up to the players to double-check that their opponents selection is valid.

Unit Type

Select the unit type from the drop-down list, or enter a new unit type in the text entry field if the unit type you want isn't in the list. Unit type is the name of the unit in the relevant Codex ("Commander", "Chaos Predator", "Piranha Light Skimmer Team" etc).

Points Value

The points value of the unit.

Description

Enter the unit description to a sufficient level of detail that the other players can, with the relevant codex in hand, verify the point value. Relevant details include anything that can vary, like model counts, upgrade characters, wargear, psychic or magic powers etc. Do not include the detailed point values in the description, just an unambiguous description (the detailed points values is considered GW copyright).

Limits

For Warhammer 40K campaigns, you should have at least one HQ and two Troop units in the battleforce, in order to allow fielding a valid force. Other (non-40K) campaigns will have different minimum requirements.

If a battleforce does not meet minimum FOC slots rules, it may not join battle, and all battles it enters will be resolved randomly, immediately.

If you create a unit that makes the battleforce too expensive, the system will disallow it and remind you of the battleforce points limit.

Removing units from a battleforce

Select the unit that you wish to dismiss in the dropdown list, then click "Dismiss unit".

Deploying a battleforce

After the campaign begins, you can deploy a battleforce to any of the nodes shown in the dropdown list. Once you deploy the battleforce, adding units to it starts costing AP.

Copy a Unit

Units can be copied from other units from the same faction already created by the player; The player is allowed to make modifications to the copy (at the very least, to give it a new name) before saving it.

Upload from HTML

The tool also allows import of a collection of units from an HTML file structured as an Army Builder output file. This allows players to use the Army Builder tool to create their army, save it as HTML, and then upload it in one go.

Campaign Maps

If the campaign has a map, the map(s) will show the locations of battleforces and control icons. Players can click on the icons to jump to the relevant battleforce or army page.

There is also a flyover ("hover") helptext showing the army and battleforce names of the marker icons.

Battles and battleforces have a location link. Click on the link to jump to the map location description.

The map locations each have a little "up arrow" icon on them. Click on the up arrow to show the map where the location is found (the first such map, if the location appears on multiple maps).

Moving battleforces

Move

A deployed battleforce can be moved to any of the locations listed in the dropdown list. Select the desired target, then click "Move battleforce". If the path is difficult, the system rolls a die and determines if the move succeeds.

If the target location contains an enemy battleforce, the two forces are locked in battle, and may not be issued any orders until the battle is resolved - all order buttons will be greyed out (inactive) to indicate this.

Redeploy

To redeploy a battleforce, select any of the locations in the dropdown list, then click "Redeploy Battleforce". A redeployment always succeeds.

Expand Control

To expand control to a neighboring node without actually moving there, select the node in the dropdown list, then click "Expand Control". If the path is difficult, the system rolls a die and determines if the move succeeds.

Tournaments

In tournaments, battles are generated by the referee or the application, according to the rules set up. Thus, after the battleforce is created, it never deploys or moves.

Challenges

In "Open" tournaments, battles are generated when a player challenges another player, who then accepts the challenge. On the army page, select the challenging battleforce, and the challenged battleforce, and click the button. A battle (in status "Challenge") is then generated, using the size and selection rules set up for the tournament. The challenger may choose mission and force size limit, or let the application determine it randomly.

The opponent can refuse the challenge, in which case the battle is deleted again.

If the challenge is accepted, both players proceed to select forces and play the battle as described in the next section. Note that only a fixed number of battles against each opponent in an open tournament counts for victory point purposes. However, all battles fought counts for rating calculations.

Battles

The whole purpose of the Campaign manager is to set up a lot of interesting scenarios that we can play on Club night, so this is really the heart of the system.

Some battles may be resolved automatically, immediately, by the system, but most will await player actions as described in this section.

Scenarios

The system randomly determines a scenario to play, and a scenario point limit in the range 500-2000 points (depending on campaign settings). The scenario description for the "standard" scenarios is a reference to the Big Gray Book; Copying the scenario text may be a copyright violation. The system allows for the addition of more scenarios, so feel free to find interesting scenarios to add to the collection.

Resolving battles

First, both players must select the units from their battleforce. Select the battle in the list of incomplete battles, then checkmark the units to include. The selection must be legal according to campaign and scenario force selection rules (eg, 1-2 HQs, 2-6 Troops etc).

The first player to select units may undo the selection until the other player completes selecting.

No other player can see the choices made until both players have completed their selections.

When both players have made their selections, the chosen unit lists are made public to all, and the battle is ready to play. The location fluff may provide inspiration to terrain choice, but there are no explicit rules for this.

For Warhammer 40K scenarios, roll dice for scenario level (Alpha, Gamma or Omega) after setting up the terrain.

After completing the scenario, determine the winner and victory level as specified in the scenario description and the Margin of Victory table in the Big Grey Book (p86) or Big Red Book (p103). The winner, or either player in case of a draw, may enter the result by selecting the victory level in the dropdown box and clicking "Battle Result". For scenarios without the Victory Points special rule, select the middle level ("Crushing Victory" for WH40K, "Solid Victory" for WHFB). The other player now has 24 hours to verify the entered result by clicking "Approve Result"; If no action is taken in 24 hours, the result is assumed to be approved.

Once the entered result is approved, the battle results are carried out and victory points are awarded. The losing battleforce (both, in case of draws) are retreated to a random neighboring controlled node; If there are no such nodes, the battleforce is destroyed (moved to Undeployed).

Random Resolution

Both players may suggest to their opponent that the battle is resolved immediately, randomly, by clicking the "Propose Random Resolution" button. If the opponent agrees, by clicking "Accept Random Resolution", the battle is immediately resolved randomly. Once a real result has been claimed, the "Random resolution" option is no longer available.

If a battle is not resolved within 14 days (default setting) of the engagement start, the battle is resolved randomly, by the system.

When a battle is resolved randomly, the system rolls a die: On 1-2, the attacker wins, on a 3-4, the battle is a draw, and on 5-6 the defender wins. There is never any victory points awarded for a random resolution. Retreats are handled is for normal resolution.

Disagreements

If a battle result is entered, but the opponent does not agree (or if the claiming player made a mistake) the opponent should click the "Disagree - Call on Referee" button, and notify the Referee, either in person or by mail.

The Referee can choose to:

Cancel the claimed result, letting the players enter a new result. The players now have 24 hours to enter and approve a corrected result, otherwise the battle is resolved randomly. This would be done if the disagreer is right, or if the claimer made a mistake. In case of abuse, a VP penalty may be imposed on the claimer.
Forcibly approve the claimed result (overruling the disagreeing player). This would be done if the claiming player is in fact right. In case of abusive disagrees, a VP penalty may be imposed on the disagreer.
Force an immediate random resolution. This would be done if there is no way to determine which player is right.

Background Storytelling

Players can write background stories by clicking on the "Background stories" link in the "Recent Bulletins" section, then clicking the "Enter new background story" button.

You'll get an input text area to write in free form (up to 10000 characters). Use HTML formatting for layout (the <cite> tag works well, likewise the <i> and <b> tags). You can also enter hyperlinks to background material that you're hosting elsewhere, if you like.

Players may also enter battle reports for completed battles that were actually played (ie, not for random resolution battles), and where the player participated. You may only enter one battle report for each completed battle.

It costs 1 AP to enter a background story, 0 AP for battle reports.

Reviews and Opinions

Players may (and are encouraged to) review all background stories by their fellow players. Each story may be given a rating from one of the following:

Good: Use this when the story adds to your experience of the campaign. Be generous.
-: Indifferent: Use this if it didn't add to the campaign.
Bad: Use this for stories that abuses other players characters or are offensive in other ways. Don't use it simply for bad storytelling or spelling.

To review a story, select the "Background stories" link in the "Recent Bulletins" section, find the unreviewed story, select the rating you wish to grant, and click the "My opinion" button.

You cannot rate your on work, of course.

At the end of the campaign, each story that has two or more "Good" opionions will yield a 1 VP bonus for the author.

Stories that have two or more "Bad" opinions are candidates for summary deletion by the referee, and a possible VP penalty for wilful abuses.