Onion Wars Campaign is recruiting

[Zarquon]

The Onion Wars CMBB Campaign, the Granddaddy of all CM campaigns, is looking for new players. We're a bunch of about 12-15 players and 4 GMs who like playing a stress-free, fun campaign. We are not much interested in replaying WW2; instead, the campaign is about two fictional states fighting for control of a large island. We're in Turn 26 of the campaign, and it's already 1945 (end of the CM tech tree). Have a look, and don't feel shy to ask if you want to know more.

OW homepage:

http://www.onionwars.net/phpbb/index.php

Island maps:

http://www.onionwars.net/maps.html

The rules:

http://www.onionwars.net/Docs/OnionWarsRules.pdf

*** How long does a turn take? ***

Don't ask. Sometimes we get it all done in two months. Sometimes four. It depends on how much time the GMs have on their hands. And turn means the campaign turn. Battle turns are played by PBEM and you can expect a battle to be finished in two weeks' time.

Just one word of caution: if you're not willing to stick with a game that sometimes takes a long time before something new happens... well, you've been warned. The good news is that something *will* happen. Sooner or later. We have been playing this campaign for 6 1/2 years now. That's right, it all began in May 2003. I guess that should be proof enough that we mean it. But over the years, dozens of players joined. Some have stayed, a lot were disappointed when they couldn't play a new battle every week and disappeared (I'm not trying to discourage anyone from giving it a try, I'm just saying that if you already *know* that you want something more fast-paced then this is not for you). There is always something going on, though. We have a PBEM file system that allows you to watch all movie files from other battles and players write ongoing AARs of their games or discuss strategy. And if you're looking for training battles or just want to play for fun, there are always other players to take on.

*** Do I have to learn 5,000 pages of rules before I can get involved? ***

The emphasis in on fun. We're not like some of those other campaigns which attempted to micro-model every detail (and never got off the ground). If you want to play battles, there is hardly anything you need to know. if OTOH you're interested in strategy and planning, there are openings as well. The rules are quite straightforward and well documented, but you'd better expect to spend some time on it, like with every complex game.

*** What size are the battles? ***

We have some skirmished with only a handful of squads on each side and we're had the most massive battles, with over 100 tanks and several infantry battalions involved. But most games see about 2-3 companies on each side. And since it's a campaign, there are no flags to take and you never ever know what enemies you're going to face, or how many.

*** What's required of me? ***

Medium experience in CMBB. None of us is a die-hard know-it-all übergrognard. Some players are quite good, most are just somewhat experienced. Nobody will blame others for losing a battle. Other players can help you with setting up if you like; after that, you're free to do what you like. All we ask is that you have played enough CM to avoid the worst newbie mistakes most of the time.

------> http://www.onionwars.net/phpbb/index.php <------

[Pushkary]

Zarq, what you missed is that Onion Wars is a progressive campaign, where units gain experience and diminish with battle losses. Personally I have have more fun planning the direction of the grand strategy than playing tactical battles.

[Zarquon]

So do I. But tactical players are welcome as well.

[ravells]

This looks like fun, but I think I need to get some more PBEM quick battles under my belt first. Can I join at any time or are there specific set times for joining?

[Zarquon]

No, anytime is fine. At the moment, all Turn 26 battles are underway or complete. I'd expect the planning phase for the next turn to begin in 2-3 weeks' time, and another couple of weeks until the T27 battles begin. But if you want to know what's going on in the campaign, you can join immediately. Also, there are always experienced players available for fun and training games.

[ravells]

Cool. Well there's a lot of reading in to do for it, and I've still got a lot of reading to do on the general tactics that some kind folk here have been emailing me...so it'll probably be in a month or so.

cheers

ravs

[Zarquon]

If you like, come to the OW site and we can play a game.

[huhr]

Hi,

I have read some of the rules and it looks interesting, Just need to read more so i can understand them a little better,

h (demy)

[Zarquon]

If you want to take part as a tactical player, all you absolutely have to know is:

- a 30-turn battle ends in turn 29 (to preserve fog of war)

- when it's done, you have to write some brief after-battle-orders (like "stop and dig in near Hill 777", or "pursue the enemy across the river")

- write an ongoing AAR, i.e. let the others know every couple of turns what's going on in general. Screenshots and poetic language are entirely optional.

- if you're away for more than two or three days, let us know so another player can take over for a while

- if a unit withdraws or routes off the map, make a note for the GM so that it won't be counted as a casualty

- the enemy always has an ungodly amount of artillery at his disposal, while you have none. Be a man, live with it.

At the beginning of a turn, the GMs publish a list of battles. You apply for one that suits you, or your team leaders will assign you one. After that, you're your own boss. Occasionally, the team leaders will give some general orders during the game (usually to prevent more losses). That's about it.

[Deadmeat1471]

I'm interested in joining, ill sign up to the forum tomorrow

[noxnoctum]

Looks cool, I don't feel like reading a ton of stuff though atm (kinda tired ) so a few basic questions.

This IS PvP right? No AI involved?

Do you think there's anyone who'd be up for playing their turns via tcp-ip?

You mention "tactical player", what other kind of player is there?

Is it up to me whether to join the Emerald Empire or the Union of "Smoked Salmon Republics" (great job whoever came up with that lol)?

[Zarquon]

When playing against some of out esteemed Salmon ("pink") opponents, you might think you're playing vs. the AI. They say the same about us. They're totally wrong.

TCP-IP or PBEM is up to you to arrange with your opponent. It happens sometimes, but the norm is PBEM.

Tactical player means you're assigned a battle and you play it, according to the overall plan. The plan is usually "kill'em all" or "please don't get everyone killed, if at all possible". The plan usually fails. Strategic player means you spend hours to develop a plan for your theater, dealing with the fact that you don't have remotely enough troops and tanks, they're all in the wrong place, you don't know what the enemy has or is about to do and your most brilliant ideas turn out to be impossible to implement. If you enjoy solving crossword puzzles in a language you don't understand, this is the job for you.

Actually, this is the fourth Onion Wars campaign. In previous incarnations, they had Blue vs. Red, Orange vs. Green, etc. Now it's Salmon vs. Emerald, a much more tasteful and sophisticated choice of team colors, if you ask me. And yes, you can lower yourself to the standards of Salmondom, or be a proud defender of the mighty Emerald Empire. It's up to you.

In the end, the art of strategy is to avoid a fair fight. In the OW campaign, you can be part of that.

[noxnoctum]

Just posted in the "new players" area.

So out of curiosity since there are no objectives is it only about inflicting casualties?

How are battlemaps generated?

Are battles uneven since presumably the amount of units in a fight are determined on the strategic layer? (would be really cool I think)

[Zarquon]

1. It depends. Sometimes there are clear objectives. For example, this turn Emerald defended a very important bridge that had been captured by paratroops last turn. Half a dozen pink (Salmon) tanks (including a very rare IS-3) and an infantry battalion attacked in open terrain. The infantry was cut down by very heavy MG fire, almost to the last man, but Emerald had only a curious mix of tanks and AT weapons to get to the tanks - Italian tankettes, a Turan II (there is a shady arms dealer named Colonel Pepper, who comes by once a month to sell junk at fire-sale prices), a StuG or two, 105mm recoilless guns, 42mm popguns, AA guns, a few Shreks, stuff like that. The relieving force had been held up by another Salmon force south of the bridge and was engaged in another battle. If even one Salmon tank had gained LOS to the (light) bridge, it could have destroyed it. That was quite a nail biter.

Then we had a mountain battle. Infantry and some light guns and mortars only. We don't know the outcome yet, but the point was to occupy as many enemy-held hilltops as possible, because that would determine sector control.

Sometimes we have partisans attacking a small garrison force. Sometimes we have "spoiler" battles, where one side attacks only to bind forces and draw reserves from more important areas. Sometimes it's clear that one side was beaten so badly that the survivors will retreat and lose the sector. Sometimes it's inconclusive and the frontline will remain static. It's up to the GMs to decide the outcome, but they have a lot of experience it that now.

2. Always hand-crafted by the GMs, roughly according to the operational maps. That's one reason why it can take a while to set up all battles in a turn. The GMs take pride in creating interesting maps.

3. Every unit, down to the last flamethrower, is tracked in a database. All in all, I'd say that most battles are *roughly* winnable. But yes, battles can be very uneven. That's the whole point, isn't it? Sometimes you don't have a chance to win. But you never know exactly what's coming. It's up to the players or the team to decide what the goals of a battle are - hold to the last man, advance cautiously, capture a specific piece of ground, etc. Hey, getting out alive can be a very worthwhile goal in itself. And sometimes, you know... "DROP EVERYTHING ON OUR POSITION!". Sometimes you know your small defending force will go down, but then you manage to knock out five enemy tanks out of ten before you do. And once in a while, you see a small miracle happen.

[noxnoctum]

Sounds like a lot of fun, can't wait to get assigned to a team and read up on some of the AARs. You guys keep records of every battle right?

So I assume that you have a large stock of maps for different sectors right, so one map could be re-used repeatedly? Doesn't that cut down on some of the time or is the strategic map too large for that to help?

What determines how many battles per turn there are? Is it number of players or how many territories are contested? Is it possible to get a bunch of battles per player?

[Zarquon]

Sure we do. It's a lot of reading, though.

[drrowley]

zarq

not sure where to sign up? hit one link and it went to a window, saying proceedure had changed and no link.

6 years, can't believe a missed the post.

thanks

d

[Zarquon]

Hmmm, works fine for me. Must have been an ISP hiccup, or somefink. And hurry, the roster is close to being full.

[Zarquon]

OK, thanks everyone for the great response! We've had so many applications that both teams are full again.

[Zarquon]

Hi everybody!

Ten months later, the campaign is seven and a half years old, Turn 27 is almost finished, and we're still playing! (If you don't know about the OW campaign, please read the first posts in this thread)

But we've run into a problem lately: out of four GM's, three have been unable to contribute much in the past months. Illness in the family, too much work in the office, not enough time to run a fictional war. That's life. But after all this time and literally hundreds of battles, we're not ready to give up. That's why we're looking for GM's who'd like to help running this campaign.

There's a lot to do - evaluating team orders, writing espionage reports, figuring out which forces run into each other, setting up a battle, creating a scenario, watching the players fight it out, writing the after-action reports, answering idiotic team questions, answering some more idiotic team questions, you name it. But we have separate theaters and every GM is in charge of only one of them.

We're not one of those campaigns where the senior adjutant to the chief of supply operations submits a draft of next turn's weather report to his superior officer every month, according to rule §131, article 4, subsection B. Actually, the supply rules take up about two paragraphs in the rulebook, and I couldn't even name them. That's probably why we are still in business. That doesn't mean we're unsophisticated hacks, we just try to avoid bookkeeping paralysis and rule creep. In the end, it's all about strategy and good CM play.

If you've ever been involved with running a campaign and long for a little more than a series of unrelated fights, come and have a look. We're in the process of easing GM work by streamlining some more and making player teams shoulder more of the work, e.g. map making and most of the bean counting. And some of us have been doing this for seven and a half years (did I mention that?), so it's not like you'd be left on your own if you join. You might even meet some of the old-timers of this board there. If you have an IQ of less than room temperature, don't worry, that's just what we expect from our GM's.

There are no health benefits or retirement bonuses, just some good old-fashioned strategy wargaming at a leisurely pace. If that's your cup of tea, jump over to

http://www.onionwars.net/phpbb/index.php

and have a look, and we'll throw you in the deep water, I mean, take you by the hand. Show you the ropes. Well, you get the idea.

Still not convinced? Check out the Salmon Nurse Calendar:

http://www.onionwars.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1816

Personally, I have a thing for Miss September 1942, but that's only me.

[mxh123]

Let me know if interested, PM or email me back.

I am sure that Moon can help you out somehow regarding a manual for Combat Mission.

[ekrommen]

Im interested, Ill be in the Onion forum shortly

Thanks!