If you found this video helpful, check out this video featuring 5 ways to spice up your wargames!
https://youtu.be/dRqFu_-z9yQ

On my old hammer discord, we are running a massive narrative campaign with about 20 people.

Original Warhammer 40K was VERY narrative, with a referree, interesting scenarios, and all sorts of details to flesh out stories. It's part of why I'm so fond of that era, vs. what came later.

I've just picked up Guards of Traitors Toll. Semi cooperative, narrative game, around city streets, cops and normal city folks. Fantastic fun!

My favorite moment? I was playing Chaos Warriors against Wood Elves and my general was a Chaos Sorcerer named Fossegrim. Fossegrim had a Warrior Familiar named Mr. Stabby. Now, this was 7th or 8th edition Warhammer Fantasy and familiars were not optimal wargear choices, but I love them thematically; I paint & name a familiar for every Chaos Sorcerer in my army, even if they don't make it to the battle field.

Now, Fossegrim's unit managed to get across the table and collide into the Wood Elf General's unit. I declare a challenge with Fossegrim against the Wood Elf General. The Wood Elf goes first, gets an amazing amount of hits in, but I made all my saves. I rolled miserably and failed to hit. Meanwhile, the rest of warriors in the units fought to a stalemate.

And then I remembered Mr. Stabby didn't make his one attack in the challenge. I make my one little measly attack and it connects!  The Wood Elf General fails his save and takes a wound. This means Fossegrim's unit won the combat. The Wood Elf player rolls morale and gets boxcars. A complete and utter failure. I roll well enough to successfully run him down. This was enough to eke out a win.

The fate of the Wood Elf lands came down to little sword-wielding familiar coming to the aid of his wizard 🤣

I will never forget a sniper game I played where submachine gunner K stood in a doorway and shredded an entire Soviet patrol while return fire, flung splinters from the wooden doorway and concrete sidewalk all around him, miraculously leaving him untouched as he targeted one enemy after the other. I didn't think that my opponent could roll so many ones in twos for an unbroken stretch of time.😅

Chain of Command, a Second World War ruleset like Bolt Action but crunchier and more historically focussed, has a series of pint sized campaigns (so called because the cost the price of a pint). They run 4-6 scenarios to form a linked campaign which may see more than 4-6 games as forces fallback and fight over the same ground. Along with At the Sharp End - the general campaign system, they make for great a narrative gaming for any platoon+ sized formation - even using the Bolt Action rules.

Is that a carro veloce in the foreground there? If so you are THE MAN!

I like casual and competitive wargaming but man I love narrative campaigns infinitely more! They just feel so much more immersive most of the time. This video gave me a bunch of new systems to check out great job!😎

My personal favourite is introducing a strategic layer. But I like many times of narrative campaigns.

The more I get into miniature wargaming, the less I like lists and metas, and the more I crave stories. The narrative and characters are what's compelling to me. That's why games like Stargrave and Frostgrave have become so important to me in recent times. Games that I have full control over. And characters from my own mind that have been created by my own hands. My little crews and warbands that have a deep care for, and a curiosity to see what unfolds for them with my help. I hope to eventually find others to tell stories with, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

criminally underrated channel

Great advice man, i feel narrative is more fun then competetive as well. May the Good Lord bless you sir and the Lord Jesus Christ loves you sir and he wants a connection with you!! Hes coming back soon!!

BattleTech can be great for campaign games, with aerospace, ground and individual role playing systems all compatible with each other. I remember a great campaign we played where we started with a space naval battle with one force trying to block the dropships of the other from making planet fall, followed by the ground battles afterwards as the invaders attempted to establish a bridgehead.

Shout out to frostgrave !

I was playing my first game of Mordheim and decided my characters ought to get down from the second floor of the building they were deployed in to engage with the enemy at turn 2. All of my models failed their jump test and ate dirt; which caused the rest of my warband to flee in panic.

I started wargaming in about 1976 with Panzer Leader from Avalon Hill.
Then, I got into ttrpgs because I loved, for lack of a better term, “building” something.
Then college, grad school, family and career took over.
Now, I am on the other side of that and am enjoying the solo narrative games like 5 Leagues/Parsecs, and the like.

Great vid, totally agree! I only get a little bit of time to actually roll dice so I want it to mean something, atm me and two mates are playing a mega campaign using nearly all the OnePageRules grimdark future systems.

Defo worth you checking OPR, out as it lets fight at every scale. For example, we are currently playing small skirmish games (OPR Grimdark future firefight,  similar to kill team) which are going to dictate who gets to control the orbital defence platforms above the contested agriworld. In the next chapter the three opposing invasion fleets are going to battle out in the void beating for control of a massive orbital grain conveyor, using OPR:warfleets (a streamlined battlefleet gothic type game), with the winner of the first chapter in control of orbital weapons batteries. The winner from that round will then have access orbital grain conveyor and the ability to easily transport heavy units on to the battlefields below (the winner will be able to grant ‘deepstrike ability’ to any heavy unit). The final chapter will be a series of full scale battles using OPR:Grimdark for control of the surface of the Agriworld. Great thing about OPR other than its simplicity, is each system support campaign play and XP progression, also its models agnostic. Me and my mates are using WH40k models and lore but we aren’t using GW’s rules, which is the last great thing about OPR is that it allows you to play the universe you want without having to use the over bloated rules set.

Emergent Narrative is so important in a ruleset for me. It's the soul of the game to me, and it's why modern 40k just doesn't scratch the gaming itch to me.

I've commented on another one of your videos earlier today. Ah man you would fit right in our gaming group.

This is exactly how we like to play.