Caporegime
First of all, as we have ventured into PC Gaming (the first season was done in the Tabletop Warhammer thread in GD) an introduction for the PC Gaming crowd is needed!
What is Vassal?
Vassal is a program that let's you simulate board games and play them in multiplayer over the internet. People create modules for it that reproduce popular boardgames. A team has created a module for the tabletop game Warhammer 40,000 (PC gamers will be familiar with it as the source material behind games such as Dawn of War and Space Marine) using this module let's us play the tabletop game over the internet without having to spend hundreds of pounds on models and be in the same geographical location.
Here is a sample picture of a battlefield:
What is Warhammer 40,000?
Put simply, it is a turn based strategy game where two (or more) armies fight it out over a series of turns trying to achieve objectives (some games may be as simple as kill him more than he kills you, others may include objectives to take and hold)
What is Vassal 40k Season 2?
From February to April 2013 I ran Season 1 of Vassal 40k. 6 of us took part in a league structured tournament, we each played each other player, 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw. You can find the results in the dropbox (I'm getting to that)
After the conclusion of Season 1 we started talking about what we wanted from Season 2. We all decided we wanted a less competitive more story driven campaign, with significant help from No1newts I came up with a story driven, team-based Campaign. More details below.
Sounds interesting, what do I need to play?
A note for those who are interested:
The Tavos system is located on the border of the Imperial and Tau empires, it has been in constant dispute for almost 100 standard years, changing hands regularly. Recently during a lull in the fighting a Chaos Incursion has occurred. Coinciding with Abaddon The Despoiler's Thirteenth Black Crusade, portal have ripped open into the realm of humanity across the system. The Chaos Hordes have poured forth to claim what they can and destroy what they cannot. The attack came swiftly with the system's battle hardened fleets and orbital defences falling to the invaders. Tavos I and Tavos III also fell quickly leaving Tavos IV, the bureaucratic and military centre of the system the last bastion of hope. The Government has called for assistance and Space Marines from the Ultramarines chapter and Tau have formed an alliance of convenience to beat back the Chaos threat along with aid from Eldar of the Craftworld Iyaden who for their own mysterious ends, have decided to offer support. At the Chaos side stands a corrupted Ork Warlord leading his Waaagh into the system, Dark Eldar are always looking for new slaves and the Necrons too march with the Chaos forces though no one has been able to find a reason why...
Forces available
Before we begin
There are 6 rounds of play, this is based on 10 players (but can scale to however many we have) and the lore set out above is modifiable due to which armies people wish to take. The campaign shown below is multi branching and requires 3 battles of all 10 players involved (depending on availability we can change this) Each round has 5 battles, meaning each player takes part in one battle per round, who takes part in which battle is decided by each sides commander (to be agreed upon and appointed by the team) and after each round squads within an army and the overall forces of either defender or attacker gain bonuses depending on their performance in the previous round (Bonuses below)
To ensure we have equal numbers on each side we'll proced as follows:
Commander's role
Campaign organiser's role
Campaign structure
The Rules:
Army:
Games:
Please remember this is a friendly tournament, try not to make an exploiting, spammy list (there are a few out there) and whether you win or lose, enjoy your games and respect your opponent
If anyone has any suggestions for changes to those rules or additional rules then it is very open to discussion
Mission Rewards:
Current Player List:
Shamikebab
Pudney
LordHughes - Attackers
JHeaton- Neutral
Brabbinho - Defenders
No1newts - Defenders
Woogie - Attackers
Gooner Leroy - Attackers
What is Vassal?
Vassal is a program that let's you simulate board games and play them in multiplayer over the internet. People create modules for it that reproduce popular boardgames. A team has created a module for the tabletop game Warhammer 40,000 (PC gamers will be familiar with it as the source material behind games such as Dawn of War and Space Marine) using this module let's us play the tabletop game over the internet without having to spend hundreds of pounds on models and be in the same geographical location.
Here is a sample picture of a battlefield:
What is Warhammer 40,000?
Put simply, it is a turn based strategy game where two (or more) armies fight it out over a series of turns trying to achieve objectives (some games may be as simple as kill him more than he kills you, others may include objectives to take and hold)
What is Vassal 40k Season 2?
From February to April 2013 I ran Season 1 of Vassal 40k. 6 of us took part in a league structured tournament, we each played each other player, 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw. You can find the results in the dropbox (I'm getting to that)
After the conclusion of Season 1 we started talking about what we wanted from Season 2. We all decided we wanted a less competitive more story driven campaign, with significant help from No1newts I came up with a story driven, team-based Campaign. More details below.
Sounds interesting, what do I need to play?
- The latest version of Vassal (found here)
- The latest version of the Vassal 40k module (found here)
- There is a basic guide to Vassal here (here) it was written for the last version so a few things have changed. I'm happy to walk people through it though, I can run little 20/30 min beginner's sessions if there is interest.
- A chat program (first season we used the PC Gaming Mumble server, FrenchTart has very kindly allowed us to use his server since that closed down)
- I also host a dropbox folder that we use to share files (army lists for example) and it has lots of useful information you will need to play. If you want an invite please Trust me your email address.
A note for those who are interested:
- Games take about three to three and a half hours, they don't have to be played in one session but we have so far.
- Please only join in if you're going to see it though, people dropping out causes complications. I am happy to run friendly games if people want to try Vassal and see if it's for them.
- I've written Battle Reports for the games we've done so far, here is an example if you want to read and see how a game goes (here
The Scouring of Tavos IV
The Tavos system is located on the border of the Imperial and Tau empires, it has been in constant dispute for almost 100 standard years, changing hands regularly. Recently during a lull in the fighting a Chaos Incursion has occurred. Coinciding with Abaddon The Despoiler's Thirteenth Black Crusade, portal have ripped open into the realm of humanity across the system. The Chaos Hordes have poured forth to claim what they can and destroy what they cannot. The attack came swiftly with the system's battle hardened fleets and orbital defences falling to the invaders. Tavos I and Tavos III also fell quickly leaving Tavos IV, the bureaucratic and military centre of the system the last bastion of hope. The Government has called for assistance and Space Marines from the Ultramarines chapter and Tau have formed an alliance of convenience to beat back the Chaos threat along with aid from Eldar of the Craftworld Iyaden who for their own mysterious ends, have decided to offer support. At the Chaos side stands a corrupted Ork Warlord leading his Waaagh into the system, Dark Eldar are always looking for new slaves and the Necrons too march with the Chaos forces though no one has been able to find a reason why...
Forces available
Before we begin
There are 6 rounds of play, this is based on 10 players (but can scale to however many we have) and the lore set out above is modifiable due to which armies people wish to take. The campaign shown below is multi branching and requires 3 battles of all 10 players involved (depending on availability we can change this) Each round has 5 battles, meaning each player takes part in one battle per round, who takes part in which battle is decided by each sides commander (to be agreed upon and appointed by the team) and after each round squads within an army and the overall forces of either defender or attacker gain bonuses depending on their performance in the previous round (Bonuses below)
To ensure we have equal numbers on each side we'll proced as follows:
- Announce your intention to play and which of the three sides you army is from (attackers, defenders or neutral)
- I will work out the teams and then we need a volunteer from each side to be the Commander
- Each player picks their lists from their chosen Codex (teams can collaborate for advice if they wish)
- Lists are submitted as per the rules on the following page
Commander's role
- Commanders pick which of their team will do which mission on rounds 2-4
- Commanders are in charge of their side for the all player battles, their decision is final.
Campaign organiser's role
- That's me!
- I'm in charge of running the campaign (I can also be a Commander if needed)
- I'm in charge of communicating with both teams to help schedule games
- Writing up Battle reports (although other people are always welcome to)
- Customising missions as we go depending on what has happened
Campaign structure
The Rules:
Army:
- All army lists must be chosen from the latest available Codex. No Forge World special units permitted.
- No Flyers or Flying Monstrous Creatures, you may take Flyers but they count as Fast Skimmers.
- No Allies.
- Each player will require 3 lists, all from the same codex (see below for details)
Games:
- Missions are to be scheduled by players at their convenience. Each Round will be completed before moving on to the next. Players must be available for voice chat using Skype or Mumble (Mumble may be easier for the big battles, FrenchTart has very kindly allowed us to use his server)
- Rounds 1-5 are played on a 6x4 battlefield. Round 6 is played on an 8x4 battlefield.
Please remember this is a friendly tournament, try not to make an exploiting, spammy list (there are a few out there) and whether you win or lose, enjoy your games and respect your opponent
If anyone has any suggestions for changes to those rules or additional rules then it is very open to discussion
Mission Rewards:
Current Player List:
Shamikebab
Pudney
LordHughes - Attackers
JHeaton- Neutral
Brabbinho - Defenders
No1newts - Defenders
Woogie - Attackers
Gooner Leroy - Attackers
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What do you do? I'll make sure Season 3 is done earlier in the year!
