A campaign in its most basic form is a structure that links battles in the Warhammer World together and uses them to tell a story. Campaigns are very varied but they are usually played by gaming groups with anything from 2 to 10 people involved. The most basic ones follow a tree diagram between two players. Perhaps your Goblin army is trying to reinforce a large Orc Waaagh! and your opponents Dwarfs are trying to stop you. You fight a Pitched Battle. If the Goblins win, they reinforce the Waaagh! and the next game is a siege while they trap the dwarfs. If the Dwarfs win, the next game is an ambush, as the Waaagh! is overwhelmed without its Goblin backup.

An online campaign is a way of bringing together people across the world to play a huge Warhammer campaign. Think of them as (hopefully better) versions of the Nemisis Crown or Storm of Chaos that Games Workshop ran. The players fight for a team (called a faction) in an effort to triumph over the other teams involved the campaign. Usually these factions are organized roughly by race, by forum or by traditional alliances. Each faction is trying to take as much territory as they can from the others while defending their own. A map is used to represent the area of the world that is being contested. Each faction starts with a small amount of territory and must use points gained by fighting games to capture more.

Don't worry about this. It can seem a bit overwhelming to new players, but the basics are very simple. You fight games, and your faction decides where on the map it will attack with the results it has available each turn. Read through the rules post for the campaign, but don't worry about remembering everything straight away. The main thing is to sign up for a faction and get stuck in. Get to know your team mates in the forums and they will be more than happy to help you understand the rules. Don't be afraid to speak up though. Just because someone seems to know what they are doing, doesn't make them right!

No to both questions. You can use ANY game you wish in the campaign, against any opponent provided you played it after the campaign started and you only report each game once. The online component refers to the map and the results, which are posted here at animositycampaigns.com. The games you play can be online or offline varieties. Most campaigners submit games played at their local club against people not playing in the campaign.

Most experienced campaigners find that playing smaller games is the best way to get enough to go around. You can fit in 2 or even 3 500 point games in the time it takes to play a 2250 point battle. You can also 'bank' unused games, for use during later stages of the campaign so this approach makes sense. We keep the turns relatively short to keep interest up and stop people form getting distracted. It also keeps the immersion up.

Fluff is the slang term for stories or fiction written by players. Part of the fun of playing in a campaign is seeing all the stories that the players produce and getting immersed in the idea of a real war taking place. We encourage all players, regardless of skill, to have a go at writing as it will contribute to your factions final tally when the dust settles. A good place to start would be to come up with a name and a background for your general then try and work this into your battle reports. Instead of telling people 'I moved my black Orcs to try and counter charge his Clanrats' try and put it over as a narrative. 'Gitgit urged his Boyz forward, the heavily armoured Orcs surging forward hoping to catch the ratmen off guard'. Fluff does not have to be very long, it is the cumulative effect of lots of little bits that really makes a campaign special, so get writing!

Diplomacy is a part of most online campaigns. Each faction typically nominates a diplomat. Their job is to communicate, via PM, with the diplomats of the other factions, offering deals, alliances, insults, whatever they think is the best strategy to further their faction goals. The basic idea is to stop your enemies attacking you before it is too late. How you go about doing this is up to you!

Special projects are put in play by the GM team to keep things interesting. If a faction captures a city that contains large reserves of gold, the GM team might reward them with new equipment or mercenaries. If a faction sacks the capitol city of another faction, the GM team may give them a bonus to their reports next turn to represent the surge in morale. Keep an eye out for these events.

Animosity was the name of the first Campaign run by Da Warpath back in the wake of the Storm of Chaos campaign in 2004. It represented a Greenskin Civil war, but several other races tagged along for the ride. Since then, unwilling to give up on a good thing, there have been two and a half (don't ask) more Animosity Campaigns, this time set in the kingdom of Araby. Animosity 4 is scheduled for release late in 2009 and this website is designed to be a home for that and any future campaigns run by the Animosity GMs

A4 starts when the countdown on the main page reaches 0.

First make sure that you have registered a profile on the Animosity forum. You'll find more information about tis on our how to register page. Once you have registered you can sign in through the mainpage of the site. Next you should head over to Da Rosta forum where you can find registration threads for each faction. Leave a message in the thread for the faction you wish to join. Faction information to help you make your choice can be found here. Once you have posted, the GMs will grant you access to your faction forum. This process is manual so please allow 24 hours for your access to be granted.

The campaign is divided into turns, much like a board game. Each game turn will last 4 days and every turn will count as a season (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter). During these turns you can undertake various activities for your faction such as strategic planning (where your army will strike next turn), diplomatic communications (making friends and enemies), writing fluff (stories), reporting battles, smack talking with other players and taking part in campaign contests. If you are unsure about thigns, don't hesitate to ask in the forums. The veteran players in your faction will be happy to help you out.

Reported battles are how a faction gains territory on the map. The more games your faction reports, the better your chances of capturing key locations. Each turn you can report a single land battle report (games of Warhammer, Mordhiem, Skirmish, Warbands or Bloodbowl) of any size. Also you can report an additional single sea battle report (Man O War, Seahammer or any naval flavored games) that can be tied into the campaign.

Unlike previous Animosity Campaigns we will be attempting to encouraging fluff by rewarding players for writing. Instead of allowing players to include fluff along with their battles reports we will be channeling these efforts into the Tales from the Front forum.There are two ways of getting involved.

Firstly, the faction that submits the best fluff each turn will be rewarded. Fluff will be counted towards the turn it was posted in, and only fluff from the Tales from the Front forum will be counted. Fluff can take whatever form you wish. Short stories, battle reports, artwork or, if you wish, each faction may submit a "newsletter" once per WEEK. The contents of the newsletter is up to the faction but it should relate to the campaign and be at least 1000 words. Each faction that submits a newsletter will receive some form or reward (it will likely change each week) but the main bonus will go to the faction that the GM team judges has produced the best fluff for that turn, overall.

The second method of fluff involvement is for individual players who are unable to report battles on a given turn. In the battle report form (when it is finished - Draig) there will be a box for you to place a link to the Tales from the Front forum. When you submit your "Fluff" report you will select a location as normal but provide a link to your fluff. The fluff that is being submitted MUST be posted that turn (we will be checking dates) on the forums so you may not use old fluff pieces. The GMs will then review the fluff selection and award an appropriate amount of Battle Field Points. All fluff submissions must be a minimum of 500 words in length.

Update

All fluff battle reports must be posted a minimum of 6 hours before the turn ends. This is to allow the GMs time to read said reports and rate them before the turn end to ensure a speedy turn update. This means that you battle report form will need to be submitted before this 6 hour window. If it is submitted after all regular battles will be counted but it is possible that fluff reports will not be...

At the end of the campaign victory points will awarded for locations held as well as levels of regional control on land and at sea. These will be tallied to produce a mathematical winner. Please note not all regions and locations are created equal, and we will not be telling you directly how many points each is worth. You'll have to figure it out for yourself.

That being said we will also be rewarding factions who achieve their own faction, racial and individual goals over the course of the campaign. Just because you don't win the mathematical war doesn't mean you can't win....

The GMs take a very dim view of cheating. We reserve the right suspend or ban a player who is suspected of cheating. Anyone caught creating or using multiple accounts, hacking faction forums or behaving in an abusive manner that is not reflective of the campaigning spirit will be removed from the campaign and possibly the site. We are all here to have fun and we will not allow the misdeeds of a few people ruin the experience for everyone.

We will be tracking the ip addresses of players. Multiple accounts run from the same IP address without explanation will be investigated.

In addition, to cut down on the large number of inactive spy accounts that signed up for Animosity 3 we are going to remove faction forum access from anyone who has not submitted a battle report or posted in the faction forum for two turns. There will be more information on this in your faction forums nearer the start of the campaign.

We ask the players to keep an eye out and report any suspicious activity and would remind you all that cheating doesn't really help anyone. The idea of the campaign is to have fun and tell a story, and by cheating you not only disrupt the story but you seriously jeapordize the GM's desire to put large amounts of effort and time into the campaign.

Neutral, Captured and Locked are the three different states a location can be in. Neutral locations are held by the forces of Cathay or are unoccupied and held by neutral forces. Captured locations are those who have captured by a faction. The Captured location generates a slow trickled of resource for the capturing faction. Locked locations are locations that were captured and controlled by a significant margin. Locked locations remained locked for 1 turn before reverting back to a standard controlled locations. Locked locations may not be locked again unless they are taken by another faction.

Locations, Regions and Breach points are the attackable areas in the campaign. Locations are individual sites of interest within Cathay: cities, towns, farms, shrines, mines etc that can be captured and controlled. These locations all generate resources for the capturing faction as well as counting as base points for movement (movement described later). Locations also have effects on the control of other locations within a certain range.

Regions are the Provinces of Cathay and the surrounding lands. Regional control has an effect on the locations within the regions as well as on other regions. The exact amount varies as certain provinces are more important than others but by controlling the countryside (regions) you can isolate and give bonuses to locations (cities, towns, etc). You cannot completely capture a region to the point of locking as they are too large to be guarded completely.

Breach points are connecting points between regions (currently represented as yellow dashes on the map, though that may change...). Breach points are bridges, ferries, mountain passes, gatehouses and other key logistical choke points that must be held before an army can move from one region to another. Breach points can be captured and controlled but generate no resources as they represent logistical locations rather than sites of natural resources. As a result they do not count as a starting location for the purpose of movement.

Sea locations function a little differently than standard land battles. Since the sea cannot be effectively captured, locations will never be locked and control of the sea will be a fleeting thing at best [pun intended]. All factions start off with a single sea region under their control. Factions may attack any location they wish as movement at sea is far more fluid the movement on land.

If a faction successfuly controls a sea region (has a minimum of 50% or more control) that is adjacent to a land region then this faction may attempt an amphibious assault into the land region (note this can potentially allow a faction to attack locations beyond their 2 region movement range). Amphibious assaults are dangerous undertakings and come with their own risks especially if they are attacking locations that are beyond their usual area of supply. This method of assault is the only way to attack Nippon or the Island Trading City on Cathays East Coast (this is unnamed as yet - Draig).

 Update

Amphibious assaults may only target regions and locations which are touching the sea region that you are attacking from. You may not target locations which are not touching the coast. 

 Update 2

Below are the list of locations that can be amphibiously assaulted and which Sea regions must be held before this attack can take place. 

Location E- Daokong maybe attacked from Sea Region 5

Location F- Hai-Han maybe attacked from Sea Region 9

Location AD- Wanshi maybe attacked from Sea Region 7

Location AE- Niejoko maybe attacked from Sea Region 6 or 8

All other Sea Regions may attack regions as a whole but not individual locations. After a faction takes control of a given region they may then attack locations within that region with land battles

When your report a battle against a location or region you must choose between two types of reports: Capture or Pillage. All submitted battle reports place battlefield points at their locations with the amount depending on their results. A win will give more points than a draw and more still than a loss. If you select a capture report, the battlefield points go towards capturing the location for your faction. If you select a pillage report, your forces pillage the location damaging the site and looting it for items of value. These battlefield points are then accumulated until they reach a predetermined limit and the location is either captured or pillaged depending on the type of reports submitted. You will be able to access graphs that display this information for every location, region and breach point through the map room (this is not live yet - Draig).

If captured the location reverts to a control mechanic similar to the one used in Animosity 3. The Control mechanic takes the total battlefield points for all factions and turns them into 3 percentages of control: Capturing Faction Control %, Non-Capturing Faction Control % and Neutral Control %. The Capturing Faction % is the percentage of the total points accumulated by the Capturing faction, the Non-Capturing Faction % is the total of all of the non-capturing factions and the Neutral % is the number of points which represent local populations and other natural obstacles that need to be overcome. When a location becomes controlled it will be locked for a turn to represent your forces securing the area and the resource trickle increases.

If a Pillage effort is successful, the location is reset. All battle points are reduced by three-quarters and the location remains contested. A portion of the regions resources is captured by the pillaging faction and all future capture efforts are made easier as a result of the damage done to the location. If the location becomes captured in the future the resource trickle will be reduced compared to the non-pillaged level.

Note, we will be culling BFPS from inactive locations, regions and breach points as the campaign progresses.

Update

From a mechanic standpoint you may not issue pillage reports for regions or sea regions. Although you faction can from a fluff standpoint pillage there way across a region, the resource trickle from a region represent resources that have been acquired or pillaged from that region. In other words don't report pillage battle reports on regions or sea regions... 

Update 2

Breach points can be pillaged but since they do not generate resources there would be no resource bonus for pillaging a breach point. It would result in the breach point being damaged and as a result easier to capture in subsequent turns.

Animosity 4 is reintroducing a resource mechanic into our online campaigns. Resources can be used to pay for special projects, bribe figureheads, trade between factions and pay for upkeep of the armies of the faction. Resources are acquired primarily through capturing/pillaging and controlling locations. When you capture a location you receive a modest resource lump sum (the size and description of the location gives you a hint to the amount) as well as a slow trickle of resource every turn for a captured location. If you pillage the location you receive a larger lump sum but no trickle as well as damaging the resource value for any future force that captures it.

Upkeep is the cost for factions to maintain and use their forces on the field of battle. Upkeep will use up the resources that are acquired through capturing or pillaging locations. A portion of these resources will be deducted regularly depending on the faction size. This represents feeding the men and horses, maintaining their equipment and other miscellaneous costs. This upkeep cost will be deducted every other turn with the amount based upon the number of members within the faction. If a faction is unable to pay its upkeep costs on a given turn it will only be able to move and attack 1 region away rather than the normal 2 and face a minor percentage penalty in their battle reports. This penalty is then increased if they are still unable to pay in subsequent turns. The first upkeep payment will be paid at the start of Turn 3 as the factions have arrived with enough resources to last their first two turns

Note: It is the responsibility of faction’s leaders to maintain the level of activity of players within their factions. GMs will not be removing players from factions to assist them to pay their upkeep bills.

Special Projects are special events that occur during the course of a war. They can provide special bonuses such as modification to attacks, strengthening defenses, provide information on enemy movements, or create various game changing events. The resource cost of the project will depend on the size and effectiveness of the project. Players and factions may create their own projects and submit them to the GMs for approval where it will be assigned a resource cost and / or other stipulations before it is allowed to go ahead. Alternatively they may be awarded for other actions at the GMs discretion.

Final Note: The resource mechanic has been balanced with a certain level of active players in mind. As a result if factions are dramatically above or below this level it may result in an adjustment of the resources distribution...

Factions may only attack up to 2 regions away from a captured or control location. Armies may not attack locations or regions that are outside this 2 region movement. If reports are made outside this distance they will be discounted. If a faction cannot pay its upkeep costs its movement rate is halved, which in turn allows them only to attack 1 region from a captured location.

Breach points count as regions for the purposes of movement and must be captured or controlled before an army can advance into a following region. Breach points do not count as a location for the starting points of movement and as a result you must hold “true” locations to count as a starting location for movement purposes.

Update

If a faction hold greater then 2/3 control of a region it may count as a starting location for purposes of the movement mechanic.

 GM NOTE: The 2/3 control is a rough number as the region graphs do not show exact percentages. As a result if a faction get close to this 2/3 threshold then they will most likely be allowed to use the region as a starting location. 

Update 2

Movement is carried out from region to region. No addition movement is required to move to a location within a region and no control is required in the region to attack a location. 

Figureheads are NPCs controlled by the GMs who interact with both factions and players throughout the campaign. The eight figureheads (more info can be found on the Figurehead page on the top menu [not live yet - Draig]) each have their own agendas and goals for the campaign and successful interaction with them can dramatically assist factions in trying to achieve their goals. Similarly, angering figureheads can impede yur progress, so beware!

Communicating with figureheads is not a mandatory requirement of the campaign but in doing so you can potentially gain allies to assist your faction and prevent enemies from using them against you. Each faction can communicate with three figureheads per turn and will do so through a Figurehead communication thread in their faction forum (only letter per figurehead please). This restriction has been implemented to force factions to choose their allies carefully and also to keep our writing staff sane. You should elect a player to be responcible for communicating with the figureheads for your faction as any messages over the limit of three will be ignored by the GM team.

Please read the figurehead backgrounds very carefully before you write to one. Their aims and ambitions are very clearly outlined in the fluff and the GM team will have no sympathy for individuals complaining about the actions of a figurehead.

Finally, be aware that certain figureheads will ally with any faction. Others will lean towards certain factions. This information can be found in their background, however NO FIGUREHEAD is exclusive to a single faction and every faction will be able to court multiple figureheads. It is the players responcibility to read the figurehead backgrounds and approach figureheads that are sympathetic to the goals of their faction.

Winning the support of a figurehead is temporary and you will have to work hard to maintain their trust. However, figureheads will be far more powerful allies in this campaign, able to directly province significant support to factions and individuals and they are worthy of your time and effort. The nature of this support will vary from figurehead to figurehead but will include direct military aid adding battlefield points to locations of your choice, recources and useful information. Conversely, figureheads, if mistreated, can become enemies so be careul not to take them for granted.

This is another new mechanic that these shiny new forums allow us to accomplish. Players are able to switch factions but only within reason and players will be required to jump through several hoops before any defection can be carried out. Defections will require a sponsor in the new faction and carry a resource cost to the new faction.

Note: This is a minimum requirement. GMs may require additional costs to be paid or set tasks carried out before we allow a defection to occur. Players will not be allowed to faction hop and should keep in mind that the defection must make sense. Its unlikely that Orcs would be accepted into the ODS for example. In addition the defection must be justified by fluff on the part of the individual, it can't come out of the blue. The GMs reserve the right to refuse ANY defection. This is not a right, and there will be few, if any defections over the course of the campaign, but the facility is there if it furthers the story.

In a similar way, Faction Merging and Splitting is being allowed but the effort required will be very large and it should not be undertaken lightly. GMs won't allow any merger that threatens the balance of the campaign. Merging/Spliting of factions will require a major resource commitment as well as other cost/tasks that will need to be completed before the GMs consider allowing this to move forward. As with defections, the GMs reserve the right to refuse any Merge or Split outright, and any proposal submitted to the GMs would have to be heavily grounded in fluff to be considered. Simply saying 'Me and two freinds want our own faction' will get you nowhere.

The Kingdom of Cathay is the oldest and until recently the most stable human civilization in the World. Cathay is massive and the Emperor has a substantial military force at his command. As a result the armies of Cathay will be an GM controlled faction that participates in the Campaign. Portions of the army are under direct control of the various figureheads while the vast majority of the forces are under the Emperor's control and are stationed around Wei-Jen in a position to intercept any incursion.

From a mechanic standpoint the forces of Cathay are controlled by a formula based upon the number of battles that are reported on a given turn. The formula will generate a number of battle reports for the Cathay factions. The reports will the have a random outcome (win/draw/loss) generated and be distributed among the locations based upon a set tiers system that has been developed. The tiers represent the level of importance that locations/regions/breach point are to the Kingdoms of Cathay. For example attack a rural farming location may generate little response while attacking a province capital or attempting to breach the Great Bastion may result in a more forceful reply.

Should factions gain enough trust with particular Figureheads, they may receive support from locally controlled units of the Cathayan Army and though winning this level of trust will be difficult, it will by no means be impossible.

Finally, there are several other military forces operating in the region that may play a part in the campaign, but these will not be involved form the beginning. Depending on how the story develops and what targets are pursued by the factions, these organizations may come to the fore.

Special Projects

Below are some pre-made special projects that factions can employ when they wish. These projects do not require GM approval before their use and as a result only notification to fauthsie is required before they are used. Projects when initiated will take effect at the start of the next turn. One thing that should be considered by factions before using a project is possible additional effects of using the projects.

Intelligence Project - Intelligence projects are what their name entails; these projects provide information about opposing factions. These projects come in three forms: small, medium and large. The varying project sizes represent the amount of resources spent in the attempt to gain the desired information. The small projects are low cost longer term intelligence effort; the project takes longer but costs less to run while a large project costs more but provides faster results. Naturally a medium project is somewhere in the middle.

The size of the project also has an impact on its chances of success. Small project may be small but in intelligence gathering the fewer people that are involved the better. That being said, with fewer people and resources these operations are easy to break up if they are discovered. On the flipside a large project may be easier to detect (do to the size of the infiltration) but for those same reasons they are harder to prevent from being successful.

When a faction wishes to initiate a project, they select the size of the project and a question which they wish answered about a faction, figurehead, region or location. They then PM this request to fauthsie. Depending on the level of detail in the question, the target, the size of the project and the presence of counter intelligence by the target all affect the chances of success and the amount of time required for a response to arrive.

Costs: Small- 10 Resources, Medium- 15 Resources, Large 20 Resources

Counter Intelligence project - Counter Intelligence is the attempt to prevent enemy factions from gaining information. This type of project decreases the chances of success of any intelligence project on the purchasing faction. Counter intelligence projects must be continued each turn in order to main protections for their factions. Counter Intelligence projects have a minimum costs, this cost represents the bare minimum costs to provide a basic level of protection. Factions may spend more resources then the minimum amount to provide additional protection.

Costs: 10 Resources min.

Trade Embargo – Trade embargoes are generally a tactic employed by groups during trade negotiations in order pressure the other side to cede to their demands. In times of war, trade embargoes can threaten to choke off cities in towns as they prevent food and other vital supplies from reaching the population. Embargo prevents a faction from gaining a resource trickle from a location for a period of 2 turns.

Costs: 8 Resources

Fortifications - Does as the name implies, fortifies a targeted location or breach point against further attack. This project will cancel out a handful of enemy reports that are targeted at the fortified location. The effects remain in play until a location or breach points are attacked.

Costs- 10 Resources

Propaganda - Propaganda projects influence the Neutral/Cathay faction percentages of control over locations and regions. Whether through spreading lies and threats about enemies or regaling tails of philanthropy of your own factions, propaganda projects can raise or lower the level of neutral/Cathay control over a target location.

Costs- 10 Resources

Sabotage - Sabotage projects damages an opposing factions level of control over a location by harming vital infrastructure or damaging military equipment etc. This project lowers the level of control of a hostile faction the currently has captured or controls a location.

Costs-12 Resources

Faction/Player Created Projects – All projects that are created by factions or individuals must be submitted for approval to the GMs (fauthsie)
Each submitted project should include the following information: A short fluff description of what the project would entail and the effects it would cause, a mechanical description of the project (what in game affect you are looking for) and a proposed cost.

After the GMs have reviewed your project we will respond to your request. We will accept your project, accept your project but offer difference that will alter the project (ie to limit the scope or lower the cost), deny your project but offer suggestions to make it acceptable or outright deny the project (some uber-doomsday project). At anytime each faction my only submit 2 projects for evaluation while individuals can only submit 1. Priority will be given to the faction projects so individual efforts may have to wait.

Update

With the exception of intelligence projects a faction may only use 2 of the same project on a given turn..... Also keep in mind that not all projects automatically succeed there is a mechanical process to determine success or failure....