By Mark Latham

Having recently taken part in a Legends of the Old West campaign day at Warhammer World, I got to thinking that some players find full-blown campaigns daunting, or don't have much luck, and so prefer to play one-off games and home-grown scenarios instead. While that's fun, I think the campaign system is the most fun part of Legends of the Old West, and so I've put together a guide to campaigns, for players of all experience levels. While these tactics and suggestions in no way ensure victory (on the aforementioned campaign day, I finished in the lower half of the table), I think they will help you get to grips with important concepts such as balancing your Posse, coping with setbacks, and boosting that all-important Infamy rating. I also take a look at some generic in-game tactics that any Posse can use. I hope you find these notes enlightening!


Types of Campaign
Now, I recently wrote some extensive notes on campaigns in the Showdown supplement, so I won't labour on here. Suffice to say that the type of campaign you're playing in will affect your strategy.

The most popular type of campaign for Legends of the Old West is, I think, the long campaign favoured by gaming clubs and larger games groups. This is the kind of campaign where a bunch of people show up each week and play some scenarios straight out of the book, then work out experience and trading before heading home. An organiser usually keeps some form of leaderboard, and after a set number of weeks the campaign closes and the winner is announced. This type of campaign is popular for a reason, and is really what the rules were written for. It allows players to take part with minimum preparation, with a good number of games under their belts. It also allows Posses to really progress, and purchase all kinds of juicy upgrades - and perhaps even hire a few Legends. The downside is that if you don't have much luck early on, you'll often get left behind and may even have to withdraw and start a new Posse.

Other types of campaign are map-based and narrative, or 'tornado' campaigns, like the Warhammer Historical campaign day. I won't dwell on the map-based and narrative campaigns, as you'll find plenty of information on these in Showdown.

Tornado campaigns (my own term for them) take place over one or two days, which means that players typically won't play more than half a dozen games each, and perhaps a big multi-player game or two if the supervisor is feeling adventuress. These types of campaign really require a lot of thought from players, as you don't get enough games or time to rectify a poor choice, and sometimes you have to make the best of a bad situation. If you've ever been on the receiving end of a whupping during a tornado campaign, then these notes are for you!

Gathering the Posse
The most important choice you'll ever have to make during a campaign is the first one - which Posse you take and what goes in it. As you'll hopefully discover here, those choices aren't really about gamesmanship, but about your playing style and personality.



Which Posse is for me?
I'm amazed at how many forum threads I've read and conversations I've had that lead to the same conclusion: that some Posses are more powerful than others, and thus make campaigns unbalanced. My response: nonsense!

These conversations always drag out the usual suspects: 'Texas Rangers have better profiles than other Posses' starting models'. 'US Cavalry are more survivable than other Posses and are too good in combat'. 'Outlaws have more fame than Lawmen or Cowboys and this makes them powerful early on'.

While these are all good points, I just don't think that people have really gotten to grips with how to nullify their opponent's strengths and play to their own. Texas Rangers and US Cavalry Posses are very powerful, but they're also very small. With enough cheap marksmen toting rifles, you'll soon have them displaying a little caution. And the US Cavalry charge doesn't work against every opponent - just wait until they meet the Chinese Tong! Likewise, Outlaws can call more quickdraws early on, but their Kids are very vulnerable to long-range shooting - the kind that Buckaroos and Deputies excel at.

So the question of which Posse you should choose really depends on you. If you want to heroically walk (or ride) down Main Street, taking fire from all sides, then Texas Rangers and US Cavalry are your best bets. If you prefer skulking about and outnumbering an opponent, then Outlaws, Bandidos or Native Americans are for you. And if you want a solid, all-rounder Posse, who can give as good as they get, then perhaps you should consider Lawmen or Cowboys. These are just broad strokes - Posses not mentioned here have other strengths and weaknesses, and appropriate styles of play, which will be better served in a later article.