Campaign system

Well, the issue of a campaign system has regularly come up so I’d like to share some thoughts upon it here:

I myself am familiar with roughly two campaign systems, a strategic map system and an escalating mini-campaign. The latter is the easiest to construct since it involves a fixed narrative in which scenarios are played in a predetermined order culminating in one big battle. Each previous battle will confer some kind of progression to each player and maybe some kind of benefit in subsequent battles for the victor.

Escalating campaign:
- Fixed narrative of consecutive battles. It is possible to form a league of multiple plays of the same scenario to determine the winner of a round
- Progression in both ships (refits, upgrades) and officers (promotions, skills)
- Previous battles influence future battles

A strategic map campaign is a lot harder to construct, it usually involves double-blind movement on a strategic map which at some point will generate battles which may or may not be balanced. It furthermore involves resources to influence the balance of power.

Strategic map campaign:
- A strategic map on which forces are positioned and battle zones are established
- Progression in both ships (refits, upgrades) and officers (promotions, skills)
- A way to initiate battles and a way to somewhat balance the forces involved (or not?)
- Finite resources (oil, ships?)

Feel free to add anything to these lines of thought or to introduce your own ideas. I’m currently inclined to start out with a small escalating campaign to see if we can get that working. The experience gained and the mechanics involved for ship & officer progression should go a long way to eventually build full-scale strategic map campaigns.