Map based Turf?

[Teun135]

Currently, turf is simply a numerical value on the gang roster, and occasionally a special territory added in abstractly. I was thinking about instead, doing a map based campaign where each player would expand their turf (like in risk or something).

I had an idea where each player began in a corner of the map and expanded inward, with special territories being marked permanently on the map when they get rolled up as part of the normal turf expansion. Players would pick a territory adjacent to controlled turf per point of turf gained on the roster.

Only gangs that fought in the Battle would be able to gain or lose territory.

It doesn't have much advantage over the vanilla turf system, but it would make for some interesting campaign hooks (such as fighting over a certain territory due to it's strategic location, or it's got a special bonus for it). It would also cap the max turf of gangs, which might help limit the leader from running ahead of the group too far!

Thoughts?

 

[spafe]

In all game systems I've played... having a map you can see and interact with is awesome... really increases the player engagement and gives an overall 'feel' of the battles you fight actually doing something.

 

[Ross]

I wouldn't be surprised if GW release an official map-based campaign in a future Gang War. They've done similar things with 40k and AoS, and it's something a lot of people have enthusiasm for.

In my eyes, map campaigns come in two flavours. Either the map is just another piece of background fluff that looks nice but doesn't alter the way the campaign plays, or it drastically changes the underlying systems of the campaign.

You idea sounds like the former, and in my eyes is the more sensible of the two. Having a bunch of custom-made admin to do can sometimes be more hassle that it's worth for both the administrator and the players.

When designing the maps, you've got two options. Either a hex (or other even-sided polygon) map, where each territory is connected to the same amount of other territories, or something more like your Risk map, where some areas have fewer adjacent territories than others (like Australia). I think this latter option is much more fun; players race to grab the best spots and fight over them. But it's a lot harder to design so that it's balanced. You'd be best finding a board game with a similar kind of map and ripping it off. Something like Pandemic (though the Pandemic map may be a bit sparse), where your territories are points with roads going to them. You could draw out the same points and roads on a big sheet or .psd or whatever, and then draw whatever Underhive landscape you want around them instead of the world map.

You could then play your campaign as is, with your map as a visual aid, or you could add in some of the special rules that you mentioned, though I'd be tempted to keep them to a minimum. For example:

1 - If a player's Turf Size increases or decreases, they must claim or delete a territory on the map adjacent to one they already control. If they cannot do this, their Turf Size does not increase. You could run into problems here if a player steals territory from a player they are not adjacent to, with little "islands" of rival territory popping up all over the map, so you could simply say that the loser deletes whichever territories they choose and the winner claims empty ones in the usual manner.
2 - If a player generates a Special Territory, they must assign it to one of the the territories they control on the map. Here you have two options, either a) the special territory stays on the map, and if the player loses that territory it becomes a neutral special territory that can be claimed by the first person to take the point on the map, or b) if the player loses that point, the special territory also vanishes.

 

[Ross]

Some other maps that could be used as inspiration.

Power Grid
Axis and Allies
Ticket to Ride

 

[Punktaku]

YakDay 2017 had some excellent maps based off current locations. those would be worth checking out. and Angel Falls (i think it was) had a cool map.

 

[Ross]

Do you have a link? "YakDay 2017" brings up a lot of search results.

 

[Punktaku]

Do you have a link? "YakDay 2017" brings up a lot of search results.

i guess it’s about time i learn how to do that, eh?

edit: Yakday Peterborough 2017
edit: https://yaktribe.games/community/threads/a-sump-runs-through-it.5726/
edit: https://yaktribe.games/community/threads/yakday-london-2017.5988/page-9#post-116416

 

[Teun135]

Hab Dome AD 201

• Teun135
• Dec 18, 2017

A quick hab dome territory map I drew up for the discussion on map-based Turf Wars.

I threw this together in a few minutes... something like this is what I was thinking. Dunno how balanced it is, but I guess campaigns are not always going to be balanced anyway!

 

[Punktaku]

View media item 8594View media item 8593These are maps i used when running a Necromunda campaign at the FLGS way back in the late 90s.

 

[MusingWarboss]

I’ve seen it done before in a really fun sounding way. If you google “Rules for a Necromunda Campaign” you’ll find a link to 40konline where the whole thing is posted.

It’s on a hex map.

It was by the user Underhand, which I don’t know if they’re related to @TakUnderhand or not.

 

[TakUnderhand]

I’ve seen it done before in a really fun sounding way. If you google “Rules for a Necromunda Campaign” you’ll find a link to 40konline where the whole thing is posted.

It’s on a hex map.

It was by the user Underhand, which I don’t know if they’re related to @TakUnderhand or not.

Thanks for the thought! Not me though.


Regards mapped campaigns, I did put this in the vault at one point (again, not my work).

 

[Z-Ray]

I made this in preparation for starting our campaign.

 

[Azzabat]

My buddy had (what I thought was) a brilliant idea when he ran our last campaign.

He used a hex map and everybody had their 5 starting territories, but they were cantered around one in the middle which was a neutral “Transport Hub”. The idea was so long as one of your territories was adjacent to this “Transport Hub”, you could attack any other players territory (anywhere on the campaign map) that was also adjacent to a “Transport Hub”.

It worked really well in keeping all of us fighting everyone, not just the people whose territories butted up against ours.
I’ll see if I can rustle up a picture of it.

 

[Kambuk]

Map should really be 3D not flat....
If the 2D map is an abstraction of a 3D area then you can attack anyone.

Kambuk

 

[CaptainDangerous]

I love the idea of using maps, my first gw game was mighty empires and ever since necromunda was released I have always thought how the two could be combined!
I really like the hex grid but I think if you were to compare the two maps from Yakday, the London map has bags more character to it!
And the ‘a sump runs through it’ map is just on another different level completely! Awesome work!
Here is the Peterborough map incase anyone missed it...

And our illustrious yak brother stoof painstakingly searched out and located the precise whereabouts of each territory IRL, in some cases to much amusement....

I look forward to seeing folks ideas and designs!

 

[Jacob Dryearth]

I’ve seen it done before in a really fun sounding way. If you google “Rules for a Necromunda Campaign” you’ll find a link to 40konline where the whole thing is posted.

It’s on a hex map.

It was by the user Underhand, which I don’t know if they’re related to @TakUnderhand or not.

I tried playing these very same rules last year with 2 others. It didn't go well. The optimal action each campaign round was expand, expand, attack. There was no incentive to build defenses, and income became way to high. Perhaps we simply had more hexes than required for the number of players. We very quickly just ignored the changes and restrictions to scenarios, and scaled everyone back down to 5 territories and played as normal without the map.

But... if someone were to make a map campaign that works, that would be great!

 

[almic85]

I have looked at a heap of map based campaigns to start running with in the new year, but the simplest and easiest for a first timer would be to just have a map that functions as a turf tracker.

I would avoid putting in rules that limit who you can attack and would instead just have each gang expand out from their home base in any direction or contracts in if they lose.

Once all the territory is full (or you have run the agreed number of weeks/cycles) you can then have a final week of play before heading into apotheosis (the big end battle).

It’s also worth noting that getting the size of the map is important to its success. Too big and the campaign will drag on. Too small and it may end in a week.

Once you have a run through with a basic map then start playing with extra rules to add in.

Also if it is “just” a tracker it doesn’t matter if it is hex based or otherwise, so you can go nuts with what the map looks like and just divide it into the number of territories you want.

 

[Jacob Dryearth]

I have looked at a heap of map based campaigns to start running with in the new year, but the simplest and easiest for a first timer would be to just have a map that functions as a turf tracker.

I would avoid putting in rules that limit who you can attack and would instead just have each gang expand out from their home base in any direction or contracts in if they lose.

Once all the territory is full (or you have run the agreed number of weeks/cycles) you can then have a final week of play before heading into apotheosis (the big end battle).

It’s also worth noting that getting the size of the map is important to its success. Too big and the campaign will drag on. Too small and it may end in a week.

Once you have a run through with a basic map then start playing with extra rules to add in.

Also if it is “just” a tracker it doesn’t matter if it is hex based or otherwise, so you can go nuts with what the map looks like and just divide it into the number of territories you want.

I think that's the best way to do it!

 

[almic85]

Currently, turf is simply a numerical value on the gang roster, and occasionally a special territory added in abstractly. I was thinking about instead, doing a map based campaign where each player would expand their turf (like in risk or something).

I had an idea where each player began in a corner of the map and expanded inward, with special territories being marked permanently on the map when they get rolled up as part of the normal turf expansion. Players would pick a territory adjacent to controlled turf per point of turf gained on the roster.

Only gangs that fought in the Battle would be able to gain or lose territory.

It doesn't have much advantage over the vanilla turf system, but it would make for some interesting campaign hooks (such as fighting over a certain territory due to it's strategic location, or it's got a special bonus for it). It would also cap the max turf of gangs, which might help limit the leader from running ahead of the group too far!

Thoughts?

Looks like I commented before basically saying that your idea is the easiest way for a first time map based campaign runner.

I would suggest that the number of territories used on the map should be be worked out by multiplying the number of gangs by the number of cycles you want to play by 50%.

As there is only 1 scenario that generates new turf ( as opposed to stealing or destroying turf) I would suggest that each player try to play at least 1 game of scenario 1 each cycle, plus whatever other scenarios they wish to play.

So a 4 person campaign meant to run for 6 cycles would have (4x6x0.5=12) 12 territories to fight over.

If you intend to only play 1 game per cycle you should reduce the percentage in the above to further reduce available turf.

Then when you move to the next turf war you can either start again with 1 turf or generate a new section of hive and start each gang with te same number of turf they had in the last turf war.

Some additional rules you could try are:
1/ starting gangs with more than 1 turf.
2/ starting gangs with a special territory.
3/ having special territories already set on the map for people to fight over (this needs additional rules about attacking adjacent territories).
4/ special rules about attacking adjacent gangs (or gangs that can be accessed via neutral territory).

 

[kendoka]

Sorry for the Necro-post...
Anybody doing their own maps?
Was thinking on modiying something like this:
http://fantasycities.watabou.ru/?size=25&seed=1221618831&name=Glory Hole&hub=0&random=1