Welcome to the Eternal Skirmish Campaign!
What is the Eternal Skirmish Campaign (EC)?
The EC is a variation on the Skirmish Campaign laid out in the Miniatures Handbook. The original EC is still played over the internet via Vassal and is currently administered on the DDM fan site hordelings.com.
In the Eternal Skirmish Campaign, each battle earns your warlord experience points (XP), and when your warlord acquires enough XP he gains a level, where he can learn everything from new spell powers to feats to an extra attack....imagine your favorite Kobold Sorcerer warlord chanting off Fireballs, an Orc Druid with Call Lightning, or Urthok the Vicious with 3 melee attacks that do 20 damage with the Power Attack Feat and a Flaming Axe!
In the EC your warlord is also given XP which he may assign to a Lieutenant (Lt). Your warlord's Lts can also gain levels, gain a Commander Rating if they are not already commanders, and even be promoted someday to become a warlord of its own! For example, one of our players, jjbeezer, is currently playing Clank the Warforged Fighter, a creature who was promoted as an Lt to become a Warlord.
Each match you also gain a magic item which varies in strength depending on whether you win or lose. In future matches you can gain new items, upgrade to more powerful magic items, and even try to win an Artefact in one of the periodic tournaments that are run.
Every week players who are interested in playing must sign up to play. There is no obligation to play every week, so if real life gets busy just don't sign up for a few weeks until you have time to play again. On the other hand, if all you want to do is play DDM, you can play up to four warlords simultaneously once you've been around for a while (1 per week up to a max of 4 in your 4th week). You will only be matched versus warlords of similar power, so you don't have to worry about getting your butt kicked by any of the Epic 10th level warlords.
What do I need to join?
D&D Miniatures: It is pretty much essential that you know how to play DDM before you can join the campaign. If you don't know how to play, buy yourself a starter set, read the rules, and find some friends to play with! If you don't have anyone to battle with locally...read on.
The Vassal Game Engine: You will also need to install and make yourself familiar with the VASSAL Game Engine - a sweet ass program that allows us to play DDM online. maxminis user bshugg has written an guide how to get this program up and running. Next thing you'll want to do is try to meet a few people online and play a couple test games. If you don't know how to play DDM yet you'll find, once you've logged in to VASSAL, plenty of players who are happy to help a new player out.
Miniatures Handbook: Although not essential, it is very helpful to be familiar with the Skirmish Campaign Rules as published in the Miniatures Handbook. If you don't have this book or have never played in a skirmish campaign before things might be a little confusing at first, since the Eternal Campaign is essentially an advanced version to the Miniatures Handbook skirmish campaign rules. Fortunately, there are many players in the campaign who are more than happy to help new players out.
Eternal Campaign Rules: If you've got everything down pat so far, the next thing you'll want to do is become familiar with the Eternal Skirmish Campaign rules (see links to the left =). You are not required to know these rules in depth, especially for your first few games, however, after you've played for a few weeks it is important that you are comfortable with them. If you have any questions, ask, and other player will point you to the answer.
How do I sign up? (Quick Start Guide)
Pick a Warlord: The first thing you will need to do is choose a warlord. The limitations on which creature you may choose as your initial warlord are identical to those in the MHB Skirmish Campaign. Your warlord must be 35 points or less, and must have a Commander Rating. A complete list of initial warlords sortable by faction, name, or points, has been compiled in order to help you out with your first choice.
Pick a Name: Next, you will want to post your warlord along with your warlord's name (e.g. Bertha the Dwarf Sergeant) and your time zone relative to GMT (eg GMT -8 [Pacific Time] or GMT -5 [Eastern Time]). Each week a signup thread is started dedicated to signing up players for the next round of the campaign. This signup threads can be found in the Online Play forum at Hordelings, usually this thread is posted by Thursday, with a deadline of Sunday midnight. When you first join you are limited to one warlord, but each subsequent week you may add one new warlord up to a max of 4 warlords simultaneously, one for each faction.
Find your Opponent: Each Monday the new week's schedule is posted. The schedule will show who your opponent is, what the warband sizes will be for your match (this includes your warlord), and how many support troops you or your opponent will receive (support troops are extra creatures you can bring to the match in order to even out a battle versus a more powerful warlord). Once you know who your opponent is, you need to email them (click on their username in the stats page) AND post in the schedule thread in order to arrange a time for you to play your game.
Warband: Every week you may create a new warband to best suite the circumstances. The two main things that you will want to tailor your warband around is the week's scenario and your opponent's warlord. You'll want to check out who his warlord is and what kind of capabilities he has (eg if you see your opponent has a pair of magic items granting resistance to fire, you might want to reconsider bringing that Elf Pyromancer). You can do this by clicking on his warlord on the stats page which causes the stats to appear in the right frame.
Another thing you will need to know when creating your warband is that in the campaign your warband is limited to 8 creatures and 4 support creatures (if you get any), and you may use huge or Epic creatures. No creature with a Commander Rating higher than your warlord's is allowed in your warband, and warband points includes your warlord. You will also want to make sure you read the "Weekly Notes and Rules Updates" posted in the weekly schedule thread.
Play! Now that you have your warband ready, type it out in a text file along with your terrain tiles or map (or as scenario dictates) and when you meet your opponent online, you will both paste them into the chat screen at the same time. Now roll initiative and you're off!