PBEM Burgos Campaign

Corps HQ at the start of campaign

It’s been a busy week getting the new campaign going.

I had filled all the command posts and sent out the player starter packs before we went to Madrid.  So I was hoping that I would have the first set of orders waiting for me when I returned.   Some chance.

The orders started to arrive last week, and by the deadline of Wednesday only two were outstanding.    One was from a player who had already warned me that he would be late due to being on holiday.  Then he had to cut his holiday short due to Hurricane Sandra.  Next was that the hurricane had followed him home – he lives in New York.   He wanted to remain in the campaign, so I wrote his orders for the first move.  But he then had to vacate his home due to the hurricane and eventually had to withdraw.

It was Thursday before I heard from the second outstanding player.  He had just been released from hospital due to a traffic accident.  

With two players out of six withdrawing at the last moment, I was very tempted to cancel the campaign.   However I had two reserve players, and decided to offer them the roles to see if they were still keen to play.

One of them had taken part in the last campaign.  I had offered him a part in this one, but due to a misunderstanding I thought that he did not want to do so, and I offered it to a new player.   In fact he did want to play, and I had put him on the reserve list.   Fortunately he was delighted to step in and take on the role at short notice.   And having played in the last campaign understood how it all worked.

The second player on the reserve list was a newcomer to the campaign.   I was half expecting him to have changed his mind, but fortunately he was also keen to take part.

So with a hectic exchange of emails over the past few days we managed to get all the orders in for the first day, and the campaign is up and running.

I have changed the campaign system so that the players only write orders once a day.   But I process them as three moves each day, and notify them of any contact during that time.   I also intend to post a campaign diary entry three times a week, one for each move.   All of this is proving more time consuming that I had anticipated.  But I am hoping that it will all become easier once I get the campaign system going.

This emergency has proved the value of reserve players, and I now have none left.  So if anyone would like to take part and is prepared to wait until there is a vacancy please let me know.