Chaos Campaign: Purchasing Skill Improvements directly with WarChest Points.

[Leftovernoodles]

I am pulling together a custom head-to-head 3025 Chaos Campaign using the Campaign Ops rules.  So far I can do everything I want to do directly with WarChest points (WP) except let players purchase Skill upgrades (which require Support Points, SP).  To keep things simple I'd like to keep the whole Campaign using just the WP as currency.  Here is what I worked out for costs:


Cost to Move Up To:  Piloting
5   -   5
4   -   10
3   -   20
2   -   30
1   -   40
0   -   50

Cost to Move Up To:  Gunnery
5 - 5
4 - 10
3 - 20
2 - 30
1 - 40
0 - 50

Any feed thoughts or back on the values?   Has anyone done something similar?

[Sartris]

it's a workable scale that ramps up costs compared with the flat-rate upgrades provided in the SP purchase system. It will prevent players from getting a bunch of elite units too quickly. In my own campaigns, I just have the upgrades stop at 2g/3p.

[Force of Nature]

How many WPs are the players starting with? If it is 1000, 50 points for a 0 gunner is CHEAP. I would double the points for piloting skill improvements and quadruple the points for Gunnery skill improvements.

As they are, there is no reason why players pick four assault mechs with 0/0 gunnery/piloting skills and keep the rest of points.

I did this ONCE during a campaign. It was boring because nothing could stop 0/0 pilots other than over whelming odds against us. Then all we did was retreat off the table.

My advice, DO NOT allow players to buy gunnery/piloting skill improvements.

[Sartris]

this is for a progressive upgrade system i think

so a zero gunner would be 140wp if you started at 4. If you limit upgrades to a maximum of one between missions (doubling cost if they didn't participate per standard CC rules), it should prevent that kind of abuse.

[Leftovernoodles]

How many WPs are the players starting with? If it is 1000, 50 points for a 0 gunner is CHEAP. I would double the points for piloting skill improvements and quadruple the points for Gunnery skill improvements.

As they are, there is no reason why players pick four assault mechs with 0/0 gunnery/piloting skills and keep the rest of points.

I did this ONCE during a campaign. It was boring because nothing could stop 0/0 pilots other than over whelming odds against us. Then all we did was retreat off the table.

My advice, DO NOT allow players to buy gunnery/piloting skill improvements.

I want to make advancement part of the game.   Both sides have 1000WC, but I am following the limits dictated by campaign ops so one side should go bust before things can get too crazy.  Those are progressive values.

[JenniferinaMAD]

I've found that a strict limit on how many WPs can be traded for SPs is a better way to limit skill upgrades than simply upping the costs. If no matter how many WP you get, you have a limited pool each month to fix your mechs with and train your pilots, players will be cautious about training too.

This also enforces a kind of campaigning endurance even if the players keep winning battles: the repair costs will mount up, and if battles happen more frequently than players are allowed to trade WP for SPs, they must occasionally take RnR breaks to rebuild their SP pile.

[nckestrel]

The purpose of SPs is scaling, IMO at least.  WP are flat (doesnt matter of you are a lance or a battalion).  Transport scales with force size, salaries, etc.  Buying a single unit or increasing the skill of a single unit doesn't scale.
So if i were going to use WP only, I think I might make training something that scales.  Spend x WP and roll once for each unit.  2-10, nothing.  11 improve the higher (worse) of P/G, 12 improve the lower (better) of P/G.  Or something like that.
Perhaps make them 12 and 13 and give a +1 if the previous mission was won.