[headquarters]

Tried it out for a few years.

Our campaign centered around a group of survivors who were working as Private security contractors in CA.

As all came crumbling down they started wandering the rubble until they decided that they needed to settle in to make it .( yeah - I nudged them a little ).

They organized a platoon and took over a village and consolidated.Then they took another and repeated their exploits.

As time (game time ) went by they expanded their influence and area of operations.Beyond the scope of the original game it is fair to say.We made our own rules to do this .

Some things to bear in mind .

Administration : need to be done properly to give the campaign some aspect of being about building a "faction" and interacting with others.Manpower,rations,resources available etc must be kept on record so the players can allocate according to their choices.
This can grow out of hand if you allow it to - it certainly did with us .Some players loved the "Civilization" like aspect of it .Some just wanted to get out and roll the D6 - in a way .

All in all - if you can balance the admin to a tolerable level for all you got a pretty good recipe for generating cool missions. To have the players fight for goals they have defined on their own is more rewarding to the GM and the players than giving them a job at hiring hall etc .The players give the GM the mission in a way , and he /she stacks the odds according to what he feels is the right and balanced opposition /situation .

I wont say that the size of the unit or cantonment is the factor that complicates or not - its the level of detail you find to be correct to run such a campaign.

Bear in mind that as the GM you will need to be up to date on your partys fief as wekll as the fiefs in the area that you can expect them to interact with .

A useful hint is to have a "quartermaster" type NPC that keeps the records and acts as the resource allocation advisor to the party.That way they can still decide on the general strategy and plans but need not bury themselves in XL sheets .The GM will then have to -maybe in conjunction with a player.

The admin for the next session should be done at the end of the preceding one or by email before meeting up . That way you can minimize the paperwork when you actually get together to play .Bean counting needs to be done at the preferred level or it becomes to easy/pointless to run a large unit size game imho .

But given some preparatory record sheets and devising a system to keep track of expenditure and results it could be done fairly easy. ( We never QUITE succeeded in making it to everyone taste -but I am convinced that it can be done .The trick is to be restrictive as a GM in allowing the industrious players starting projects etc - strangle the resources to a level were its easy to keep track and allow them only so many agendas at a time . )

Action and combat missions : there will be no shortage of such if you do not want there to be .

Sure its not realistic that that Generals and administrators go out on patrols etc .

But then again -given the nature of the the situation post WWIII , many missions will be "Too sensitive" for the common militia man .Many will be so dangerous that only a fanatic or PC will actually go out to do them -and succeed.

Sometimes a battle will stall until a leader steps up and leads from the front to break the enemy line .Patton,King Gustav Adolf,king Richard III of England,Fieldmarshall Nay of napoleonic France and countless others did this many times in their careers.

They were sometimes not only the military commanders but also leaders of their nations.So in short - maybe there will not be the random skirmishes that occur during a stealthy patrol as much anymore .(Although they can happen still ) .But missions were the players decide everything from tactics to objective .The GM needs only say that "there is no way anybody will do that Sir!" to give the players the incentive to kit up and go forth.

Another part of such games will be the party`s inetraction with eachother.The fact that power is available and that leaders and positions of influence needs to be appointed can lead to a lot of cool situations -and a lot of griveous ones as well.Jostling for power is one thing when the whole party is dirt poor and need eachother on a day to day basis .But as wealth ( cool gear ) and scores of loyal troops etc come within reach behaviour may change or be enhanced for the worse as far as loyalty to other players is concerned.

I find this more interesting than the campaign where all are of a similar mind and the motives are more black and white .

NPCs - you will need to make up a score of NPCs as the players need to interact a lot more in depth with people .The people in the cantonment,traders,bandit lords ,unit leaders,other cantonment notables etc etc .
If you like it might develop into a post apocalyptic soap opera.

I have thouroghly enjoyed our little "Bloodlines" campaign ( neo feudal setting ) and have tried the many pitfalls that you can stumble into if you dont keep an eye on things .

The biggest one is to keep the records straight and the bean counting at a level you know to be practical in terms of actually playing when you get together.

To end this with a little self promotion - our site

thebigbookofwar.50megs.com

has some stock NPCs and documents on production etc that you might be able to modify to your uses.