PBEM Hanover Campaign Summary

I have just posted a summary of the Hanover campaign on the Campaign Diary Blog

http://new1813campaignhotmailcouk.blogspot.com/

The blog gives a brief history of the whole campaign, from the umpire's point of view. It also has a copy of the umpire strategic map for each day. Because this was a PBEM campaign, it was not possible to show the position of all eight corps on the daily report, so this is the first time that they have been seen.

A great deal has happened since my last post. I had just heard that one of the campaign CinC had resigned, and that the campaign had come to a premature end.

Since then I have notified all ten players, and confirmed that I would be starting a new campaign shortly. I had eight command posts on the new campaign, and offered first refusal to all the previous players, except the one who had caused all the problems in the first place.

I was prepared to lose many, if not all, of the previous players. I have found that PBEM players do not have the same dedication to the project as you would expect to find in a club campaign. I think this is because of the lack of personal face to face contact. Its all too easy to commit to a project on the web, and its just as easy to walk away if you get bored or lose interest. Because of the negative exchange of posts in the last weeks of the previous campaign I expected many to have lost interest. Indeed I myself had lost interest as a direct result.

In fact five of the original ten signed up for the new campaign. Four politely turned down the offer. The four all had good reasons, and all expressed gratitude for my work on the campaign, regret that it had ended as it did and were sorry that they could not take part in the next campaign. However I suspect some had just lost interest in a project which was spoiled by one player who obviously did not appreciate the work which had gone into it and who was determined not to compromise.

The good news is that the five who have signed up for the new campaign were all players I was really pleased to keep. Within a few days I have recruited four new players, who all appear to be just the sort I want and who would fit in well. So in four days I have the eight posts filled and a reserve.

During the week there has been a lot of activity on the campaign forum, as I explaind what I want to achieve with the new campaign, and asked for comments. Comments and questions came quick and fast, as did suggestions to improve on the previous campaign rules. The forum is buzzing with questions and expectancy. It bodes well for the new campaign.

I have started work on rewriting the campaign rules, and will post them on the forum as soon as they are complete, so that the players can comment before we start the campaign.

Most importantly I have learned a valuable lesson. There is no point in pacifying someone who just wants to cause trouble. It will not happen again. Constructive criticism is always welcome, but as soon as it becomes clear that a player is refusing to accept my explanation and determined to cause trouble he will get one warning only. I have ensured that no player is critical to the new campaign, and will not hesitate to remove any who put the project in danger. Once bitten, twice shy as the saying goes.

Despite that sombre warning I am really looking forward to the new campaign. The new format looks very promising, and it will be interesting to see how it all pans out. I am sure that there will be more challenges and problems, but that is what makes it all worth while.

Wish me luck!