Campaign "Scenarios"

[Matt W]

The time commitment to complete a campaign is tremendous but the time commitment to complete a battle is no more than a standard scenario. In most cases each side will have 1-3 battalions engaged (and later in the campaign these may be very thin indeed) and the maximum number of turns is 24, so consider these battles as very normal PG games. A campign will have a string of these but certainly no more than 30 and generally less than 20. Heck, First Axis and Go For Broke were 30 scenarios each and those were relatively easy to wrap your mind around. The differences are:

1. You are playing for control of a location. If you win the other side has to retire. The implications of these wins and losses frame what follows.
2. Any losses you experience stay with the unit. Replacements depend on use of logistics which could be used for more attacks. I "won" the West Wall campaign as the Americans but if I had to keep track of my losses I don't think a promotion would have been in the cards!
3. The goal is not to simply win battles but to acheive some objective which may require a string of battles.

Daniel and I were playing Lehr scenarios and my British forces convincingly cleared out the town of Tilly, yet 2 or 3 scenarios later I had to clear it out again! Turns out that my historical counterparts did not match my cardboard efforts in the first battle and therefore came back to the town later to clear it. I did not relish the idea of doing again, what I had already done, and this time against a larger force. If this had been a campaign as opposed to a scenario pack I would have held the location and not had to fight over it again.

If you do play games and supplements to completion (and I have argued in the past that such an approach is quite fun), then you will run into situations as I did in Tilly. Refighting a battle you have already won may still be fun but, darn it, you already won that one! I enjoy the feeling that there is something more than just a scenario victory happening and the campaigns provide that bonus.

Plus you really understand, finally, why you shouldn't let your transport be destroyed.