Up To Two Gangs Per Player

Contrary to the official rules, this campaign format allows a player to play up to two gangs if they wish, if they are able to play frequently enough to avoid becoming a bottleneck for other players. This can help add some meat to a Gang War with fewer total players. A player who chooses to play two gangs should alternate between their gangs as much as possible.

No Cycles

Rather than organize a Gang War into Cycles, the minimum number of battles that must be fought by each gang is decided upon when the campaign begins, and when that number has been reached the campaign enters Apotheosis. For example if a Gang War campaign was started with an agreed upon minimum of six battles per gang, once the last gang had fought their sixth battle Apotheosis would begin.

Extra Battles

Before Apotheosis, players who can play more frequently than others may continue to have battles amongst themselves with no upper limit. For instance, it is possible that a Gang War might include a gang that has fought the minimum number of battles while another gang within the campaign has fought twice that many battles. Playing more battles than the minimum required is a matter of risk vs reward, and it's not a guarantee of advantage...particularly given how gang ranking is determined (described below).

Strength of Schedule

To the extent possible each player should attempt to play each other player at least once. Depending on how many gangs are in the Gang War and how long the Gang War lasts this may not always be practical, but it is ideal.

Whenever possible gangs should avoid fighthing the same opposing gang(s) consecutively, with Rescue Mission being justification for a notable exception.

If a strong gang repeatedly plays against a weaker gang, the stronger gang can get unusually powered up by preying on the weaker gang. This should be avoided. Similarly it is unfair to everyone else for a player to deliberately allow another player to use battles against them as an opportunity to buff up, "farming" for credits or XP. Even if not playing to "win" a battle per se, a player should always attempt to gain the best possible benefit for their own gang and to minimize the benefit to the opposing gangs.

If abuses are occuring, the Arbitrator can opt to not count the results of a Gang War battle and rule that it was just a skirmish, in which case fighters who participated do not gain XP, credits are not spent or gained, and no changes to a gang's Stash or roster or Reputation or Territory Size or Gang Rating occur.

Apotheosis

When Apotheosis begins, each gang still participating in the campaign may fight one more battle. A gang may opt to pass on this opportunity.

Top Dogs

Once the last results of Apotheosis are recorded, the two Top Dogs will be determined by comparing each gang's Reputation. Ties go to the gang that has the best Win / Loss record (ratio), followed by the gang which fought more total battles, followed by the gang with the higher total Rating, followed by the gang with the most Territory.

If the top two gangs belong to the same player, that player's best gang and the next best gang in the campaign that belongs to a different player are the Top Dogs.

Showdown

After the final ranking of the gangs is calculated and the Top Dogs are determined, the Top Dogs fight a final battle. The winning gang claims the title of Overlord of the Sector.

Serial Continuity

Some of the gangs and fighters of a concluded Gang War campaign can be carried forward into a subsequent Gang War campaign.

Offshoot gangs can be formed from the final gangs of the campaign with 1500 starting credits, up to half the Reputation (rounded up), and up to half the Territory Size of the original gang (rounded up) and may retain Special Territories up to that limit. The experienced fighters of the original gang can be hired by the Offshoot gang, paying the cost of the fighter's current rating in credits from the Offshoot gang's starting funds.

It is also allowed for two Offshoot gangs to be created from the same gang by just splitting resources and fighters from the original gang between them.

If Spyrer Hunting Parties are allowed in a campaign, if a Spyrer Hunting Party has not yet completed their Hunters Pact before the Gang War is over and Offshot gangs are being allowed, the Spyrer Hunting Party may carry over their roster as is and continue playing in the next Gang War. See the Campaign End section of the Spyrers Gang List for details.

Allowed Gang Types

The following types of gangs are allowed to participate in this campaign format:

The following additional types of gangs may be allowed to participate in this campaign format if agreed upon:

Gang Creation

New gangs start with 1000 credits, Offshoot gangs (if any) start with 1500 credits.

If Spyrer Hunting Parties are allowed in a campaign, if a Spyrer Hunting Party has successfully completed their Hunters Pact before the Gang War is over their player may start a new Spyrer Hunting Party with more credits available and keep playing in the campaign. See the Hunters Pact Acheived section of the Spyrers Gang List for details.

Reputation

New gangs start with 1 Reputation. Offshoot gangs start with half of their predecessor gang's Reputation, rounded up. Over the course of a Gang War campaign a gang's Reputation can be reduced to 0 but cannot fall below 0.

Territory Size

In a Gang War, each gang has a Territory Size rating, which is a number that represents how many Territory slots a gang has available. Territory slots are never empty; there is always a Territory in each slot.

It is possible for a gang to have Territory Size 0. Some variant types of gangs never gain Territories, while other gangs might have all of their Territory stolen from them. A gang that has a Territory Size of 0 can attempt to force a Turf Struggle in the Determine Scenario step of the Pre-Battle Sequence, even if that gang can't gain Territory. Otherwise, there is no special effect of Territory Size 0 other than lacking such a resource.

Territory Size By Gang Type

The following chart indicates the starting, minimum, maximum Territory Size rating and a starting Special Territory (if any) for each type of gang that can participate in a Gang War. A maximum Territory Size of "-" indicates that type of gang has no maximum limit. An Initial Territory of "-" indicates that type of gang does not start with a Special Territory.

Offshoot gangs may start with up to half the Territory Size of their original gang (rounded up) and may retain Special Territories up to that limit.

Special Territories

Special Territories are locations, facilities, contracts, or even entire settlements that provide specific advantages to the gang that controls them. However, other gangs are always eager to push the current gang that holds them off and claim such tasty resources for themselves...or pillage them for a one time windfall.

Usually, gangs take specific Special Territories by force from the roster of another gang which they have defeated in battle. However, when a gang gains a Special Territory randomly the controlling player rolls D66 on the table below to determine which Special Territory they gain:

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Tactics Cards Decks

Each gang participating in a Gang War should build and maintain a deck of Tactics Cards with exactly twenty (20) cards chosen from among those available to their type of gang. For most starting gangs, their gang's Tactics Card list only has twenty cards and thus this resolves itself; for instance the Escher Tactics Cards list has 20 cards, thus a starting Escher gang simply forms a deck from those 20 cards.

However, if allowed, a Spyrer gang must make some choices from the Spyrers Tactics Cards list to assemble their deck of 20 cards.

Physical or Virtual

Ideally physical cards should be used; it is generally simpler and easier to manage at the table. However, those who lack access to a printer or prefer to be paperless, can make a listing of all of their gang's Tactics Cards and number them from 1-20. To select Tactics Cards from this "deck" randomly, the player makes d20 rolls to determine which cards are "drawn". If a card that has already been drawn is rolled again, or if a card that is inappropriate to the type of battle (such as a Zone Mortalis Only card rolled during a Sector Mechanicus game) is rolled, roll again. A player using this option should bring a D20 with them to the battle.

Swapping Cards

During campaign play, it is possible that new Tactics Cards might be won as rewards and added to a gang's Tactics Cards deck. If this occurs, during the Update Roster step of the Post-Battle Sequence, the player of that gang must remove cards from their gang's Tactics Cards deck to get back down to exactly twenty (20) cards. Typically, a player would keep the 20 cards they deem most useful and drop the rest.

Similarly, during the Update Roster step of each Post-Battle Sequence a player can swap out one (1) card from their gang's Tactics Cards deck for a Neutral Tactics Card of the same Tier.

No Pre-Battle Sequence Fiddling

Making changes to a gang's Tactics Cards deck is not allowed in the Pre-Battle Sequence to prevent overt min-maxing for the upcoming battle, and to avoid the undue wasting of time often involved in fiddling about reading and swapping cards. All such changes must take place in the Post-Battle Sequence as previously described.