Lyman Trumbull
01-16-2017, 04:46 PM
Guide for New Companies
With the increasingly large amount of people creating new companies and the approach of Skirmishes, I believed that I would offer some of my own tips to newer companies. While my company is certainly not the largest, I can offer some of my experiences on how it came to be from just one person. Furthermore, the rest of the community have been kind enough to offer there own tips and experiences.
A few words:
To get started, I would just like to point out that you should NEVER be discouraged from creating your own company, while it might seem daunting to somebody with little to no experience or the fact that there are already many established companies within the forum, everybody has an equal opportunity. That said, I will begin with the tips.
Trumbull
I would absolutely agree to NOT be afraid of starting a company. I personally did not come from any gaming communities or groups, I didn't even know what Team Speak was when I started. The road may not be smooth, but don't give up. Something isn't beautiful because it's easy. Our company stood at 4 members for a long time.
Rawlings
Section 1 (Forming and maintaining a company):
This first section is going to cover what you, not should, but might want to do in order to increase the chances of your success with forming and maintaining a company:
- First off, if you have not done so already, I would highly recommend reading Bravescot's thread about forming a company here (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?957-How-To-Make-a-Company-Regiment):
- Essentially, it gives you an introduction on how to form a company as well as a short introduction on how to run a company.
- Second, you should strive towards having an interesting thread, while good threads are not made in a day and take time and commitment, they always help in attracting new members, many of which could have been interested in the history of the company, this could be what engagements the company was involved in or what they did generally during the war. While copy-pasting a Wikipedia page is quick and easy to do, I would personally not recommend it, this is mostly due to the fact that while there are certainly many people who enjoy reading long texts about the history of a certain topic, myself included, it can give off the impression of you not caring so much about your company. Furthermore, company pages with interesting headers, banners and media in general go a long way in luring people to your company. It would be quite useless if I said what to do without any examples and so I have chosen a selection of either good looking, interesting or an all rounder. These include but are not limited to:
8th Virginia Co.H (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?2997-8th-Virginia-Infantry-Regiment-Co-H-quot-The-Potomac-Greys-quot)
52nd NY Co. A (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?781-52nd-New-York-Volunteer-Infantry-quot-German-Rangers-quot-or-quot-Sigel-Rifles-quot-Company-A)
42nd Pennsylvania Co. E & Co.F (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?721-42nd-Pennsylvania-Infantry-quot-Bucktails-quot-2nd-Battalion-Co-E-amp-F-EU-NA)
1st USSS Co. A (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?766-1st-United-States-Sharpshooters-Company-A&highlight=Sharpshooter)
1st Texas Co. F (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?777-1st-Texas-Infantry-Company-F-quot-Woodville-Rifles-quot)
4th Virginia 1st Battalion (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?1822-4th-Virginia-Infantry-Regiment-1st-Battalion-Co-A-B-C-D-EU-SPANISH)
Some people might ask, what should I put in my thread? It could be a many number of things, what I would recommend however is:
- A header, what you could include is the uniform of your company as well as the engagements they were in, in this example, I will be using my company's header, located here (https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7750/28767072234_b4b6e1e680_o.png):
- A short summary of what your company does, this could be what you expect from your members or what you offer over other companies, a 'Unique Selling Point' if you will.
- History of the company, arranged with graphics in order to present your point better, an example could be that your company participated in Gettysburg, then add a map showing where your company fought.
- Adding a roster gives people a view of how big or small your company is, this could be especially useful to those who want to join a small or large company, everybody has their own tastes.
- Giving somebody an option to contact you directly, either by Steam or by PM could give them an option to ask about your company to ensure whether or not it is for them.
A word from A.P. Hill, Powell
Another thing to understand is that currently, the Developers are focusing only on the Maryland Campaign of 1862. This campaign will include Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, and Antietam/Sharpsburg. I recommend THIS (https://www.nps.gov/anti/index.htm) website as the definitive information page on the larger battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg.
Note, while you can form any unit you like, be aware that the Company Tool is not going to support units that did not participate in this campaign. That said, THIS PAGE (https://www.nps.gov/anti/learn/historyculture/people.htm) has links to the Orders of Battles of both Union and Confederate units.
I have attempted to keep a running spreadsheet of companies already formed in both CSA (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?1386-Confederate-Order-of-Battle-Company-Overview) and USA (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?1385-Union-Order-of-Battle-Company-Overview). Please be advised I haven't updated this in a bit, but for the most part, they cover a good number of already formed companies.
I recommend that you do a thorough search of the USA (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/forumdisplay.php?31-Companies) and CSA (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/forumdisplay.php?35-Companies) company pages first before finalizing your decision just to make sure that you don't try to build a company that is already formed. That said, however, there are rules in place in the Company Tool, that state if you cannot maintain a minimum of 10 men in your company, and someone else can exceed your unit size, they may take over your company choice, by numbers alone. It would be advisable to read the company tool information pages to make sure you understand.
BUT I agree, after some reading and research please feel free to form a company and look forward to the time ahead as the community and the developers revisit the 1862 Maryland Campaign.
Section 2 (Attracting new members):
Now that your thread is up and running, I will be giving you some tips on how to now potentially attract and gain new members.
- Registering your company on the Company Tool (https://warofrights.com/CT_Login#companyToolHeader) and the Company List (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?2201-Company-List) will allow users to find your company easier, this can be done by searching for a specific state, size, time zone, etc.
- While this is a useful way of advertising your company, there are certainly many others, the most common and useful of which are recruitment videos, they are used in order to show what your company is all about and capable of. These videos are great ways in encouraging people to join your company.
- Next, I would recommend posting an advert about your company on the looking for members (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?1478-Looking-for-a-company-members) thread, it gives you an opportunity to advertise your company on a thread that is visited very often and so increases your chance in gaining new members, moreover, a good looking poster could potentially lead to you attracting more members as it could give off a feeling of professionalism.
(http://www.warofrightsforum.com/show...ompany-members)
- With my first recruit, back when the company was led by another captain and there was only the two of us, I stated that the first person to join would receive a promotion, this was, at the time, a corporal, he still is my corporal today as he has shown himself to be capable and responsible. While giving people a higher rank than enlisted is not what I do more than once, it gives people an incentive to join your company. Speaking of recruitment incentives, you could always get some of your members to recruit others, by this I mean their friends who might seem interested in joining your company, furthermore, since their friends are also within the same company, it could provide a better reason to join, moreover, you could increase the chance of your members doing this if you created a medal or award system, this way, if your members recruit new members, they will receive one of these for their service.
- Being active in the community and gaining relationships with other companies always helps, I will use an example of my own. During a training event between my company, the 66th NY, and the 42nd Pennsylvania, somebody dropped by to join the training, he was not part in any of our companies and so I asked whether or not he was enjoying the training, he said yes and I furthermore gave an invitation to our company which he accepted.
- Don't be afraid to ask someone to join your unit! For the longest time I would usually shy away from asking people if they would be interested in joining our unit, because I was usually around other guys who were in a different unit and I felt they had "dibs" so to speak. Of course in some cases it is inappropriate to ask, but I was taking it too far. Sure, you may not have known they were already in a company since they had no tags, but in that case you've just built a relationship with another unit. No harm no foul.
- Have company tags! This lets people in-game see who you are affiliated with. The more the see the same tags, the more they know you are a serious group. Get your name out there!
- Drill, drill, drill. While we wait for skirmishes, drilling is the main attraction to many people, I would say. If you and your company can drill and teach new players then you have a good chance they will want to join you.
Section 3 (Last words and putting things into perspective):
This are some of the things of which I would attempt in order to gain new members, as I said previously, though they might not always work, it could pay off in the long term, to put this into perspective, it took me over a month to gain one member and in the coming month after that, I gained approximately 6 members.
Trumbull
While having a great thread is awesome, don't expect it to happen overnight unless you are talented and have a lot of time on your hands. This is why for my 3 tips I have focused more on what will promote your company IN GAME, since that's what most people want to see. If your company is active, you'll grow like a weed. Don't be afraid to ask for help or advice from other members of the community. Many of these people are really awesome resources that we can learn from, I know I have.
Again, do not be discouraged! I had never done online gaming before War of Rights. I am just a reenactor who just had to make a company in this awesome game, no matter what the odds were. I had no idea what the odds were anyway. Just stay true to what you want your company to be. For me, that was having a historically accurate unit with a great bunch of guys, building comradery in the field just as they would have over 150 years ago. I believe we have stayed true to our intentions, and I can ask no more than that.
With that being more said than I intended, best of luck and I'll see you on the field!
Rawlings
If anybody has any other ideas, I ask that you please share so that I may add it onto the list as this thread's goal is to encourage and assist those with newly found companies. Furthermore, if anybody has any questions, I would be happy to answer.
Credits:
- Lance Rawlings (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/member.php?3084-Lance-Rawlings)
- A.P. Hill, Powell (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/member.php?734-A-P-Hill)
With the increasingly large amount of people creating new companies and the approach of Skirmishes, I believed that I would offer some of my own tips to newer companies. While my company is certainly not the largest, I can offer some of my experiences on how it came to be from just one person. Furthermore, the rest of the community have been kind enough to offer there own tips and experiences.
A few words:
To get started, I would just like to point out that you should NEVER be discouraged from creating your own company, while it might seem daunting to somebody with little to no experience or the fact that there are already many established companies within the forum, everybody has an equal opportunity. That said, I will begin with the tips.
Trumbull
I would absolutely agree to NOT be afraid of starting a company. I personally did not come from any gaming communities or groups, I didn't even know what Team Speak was when I started. The road may not be smooth, but don't give up. Something isn't beautiful because it's easy. Our company stood at 4 members for a long time.
Rawlings
Section 1 (Forming and maintaining a company):
This first section is going to cover what you, not should, but might want to do in order to increase the chances of your success with forming and maintaining a company:
- First off, if you have not done so already, I would highly recommend reading Bravescot's thread about forming a company here (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?957-How-To-Make-a-Company-Regiment):
- Essentially, it gives you an introduction on how to form a company as well as a short introduction on how to run a company.
- Second, you should strive towards having an interesting thread, while good threads are not made in a day and take time and commitment, they always help in attracting new members, many of which could have been interested in the history of the company, this could be what engagements the company was involved in or what they did generally during the war. While copy-pasting a Wikipedia page is quick and easy to do, I would personally not recommend it, this is mostly due to the fact that while there are certainly many people who enjoy reading long texts about the history of a certain topic, myself included, it can give off the impression of you not caring so much about your company. Furthermore, company pages with interesting headers, banners and media in general go a long way in luring people to your company. It would be quite useless if I said what to do without any examples and so I have chosen a selection of either good looking, interesting or an all rounder. These include but are not limited to:
8th Virginia Co.H (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?2997-8th-Virginia-Infantry-Regiment-Co-H-quot-The-Potomac-Greys-quot)
52nd NY Co. A (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?781-52nd-New-York-Volunteer-Infantry-quot-German-Rangers-quot-or-quot-Sigel-Rifles-quot-Company-A)
42nd Pennsylvania Co. E & Co.F (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?721-42nd-Pennsylvania-Infantry-quot-Bucktails-quot-2nd-Battalion-Co-E-amp-F-EU-NA)
1st USSS Co. A (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?766-1st-United-States-Sharpshooters-Company-A&highlight=Sharpshooter)
1st Texas Co. F (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?777-1st-Texas-Infantry-Company-F-quot-Woodville-Rifles-quot)
4th Virginia 1st Battalion (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?1822-4th-Virginia-Infantry-Regiment-1st-Battalion-Co-A-B-C-D-EU-SPANISH)
Some people might ask, what should I put in my thread? It could be a many number of things, what I would recommend however is:
- A header, what you could include is the uniform of your company as well as the engagements they were in, in this example, I will be using my company's header, located here (https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7750/28767072234_b4b6e1e680_o.png):
- A short summary of what your company does, this could be what you expect from your members or what you offer over other companies, a 'Unique Selling Point' if you will.
- History of the company, arranged with graphics in order to present your point better, an example could be that your company participated in Gettysburg, then add a map showing where your company fought.
- Adding a roster gives people a view of how big or small your company is, this could be especially useful to those who want to join a small or large company, everybody has their own tastes.
- Giving somebody an option to contact you directly, either by Steam or by PM could give them an option to ask about your company to ensure whether or not it is for them.
A word from A.P. Hill, Powell
Another thing to understand is that currently, the Developers are focusing only on the Maryland Campaign of 1862. This campaign will include Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, and Antietam/Sharpsburg. I recommend THIS (https://www.nps.gov/anti/index.htm) website as the definitive information page on the larger battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg.
Note, while you can form any unit you like, be aware that the Company Tool is not going to support units that did not participate in this campaign. That said, THIS PAGE (https://www.nps.gov/anti/learn/historyculture/people.htm) has links to the Orders of Battles of both Union and Confederate units.
I have attempted to keep a running spreadsheet of companies already formed in both CSA (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?1386-Confederate-Order-of-Battle-Company-Overview) and USA (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?1385-Union-Order-of-Battle-Company-Overview). Please be advised I haven't updated this in a bit, but for the most part, they cover a good number of already formed companies.
I recommend that you do a thorough search of the USA (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/forumdisplay.php?31-Companies) and CSA (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/forumdisplay.php?35-Companies) company pages first before finalizing your decision just to make sure that you don't try to build a company that is already formed. That said, however, there are rules in place in the Company Tool, that state if you cannot maintain a minimum of 10 men in your company, and someone else can exceed your unit size, they may take over your company choice, by numbers alone. It would be advisable to read the company tool information pages to make sure you understand.
BUT I agree, after some reading and research please feel free to form a company and look forward to the time ahead as the community and the developers revisit the 1862 Maryland Campaign.
Section 2 (Attracting new members):
Now that your thread is up and running, I will be giving you some tips on how to now potentially attract and gain new members.
- Registering your company on the Company Tool (https://warofrights.com/CT_Login#companyToolHeader) and the Company List (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?2201-Company-List) will allow users to find your company easier, this can be done by searching for a specific state, size, time zone, etc.
- While this is a useful way of advertising your company, there are certainly many others, the most common and useful of which are recruitment videos, they are used in order to show what your company is all about and capable of. These videos are great ways in encouraging people to join your company.
- Next, I would recommend posting an advert about your company on the looking for members (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?1478-Looking-for-a-company-members) thread, it gives you an opportunity to advertise your company on a thread that is visited very often and so increases your chance in gaining new members, moreover, a good looking poster could potentially lead to you attracting more members as it could give off a feeling of professionalism.
(http://www.warofrightsforum.com/show...ompany-members)
- With my first recruit, back when the company was led by another captain and there was only the two of us, I stated that the first person to join would receive a promotion, this was, at the time, a corporal, he still is my corporal today as he has shown himself to be capable and responsible. While giving people a higher rank than enlisted is not what I do more than once, it gives people an incentive to join your company. Speaking of recruitment incentives, you could always get some of your members to recruit others, by this I mean their friends who might seem interested in joining your company, furthermore, since their friends are also within the same company, it could provide a better reason to join, moreover, you could increase the chance of your members doing this if you created a medal or award system, this way, if your members recruit new members, they will receive one of these for their service.
- Being active in the community and gaining relationships with other companies always helps, I will use an example of my own. During a training event between my company, the 66th NY, and the 42nd Pennsylvania, somebody dropped by to join the training, he was not part in any of our companies and so I asked whether or not he was enjoying the training, he said yes and I furthermore gave an invitation to our company which he accepted.
- Don't be afraid to ask someone to join your unit! For the longest time I would usually shy away from asking people if they would be interested in joining our unit, because I was usually around other guys who were in a different unit and I felt they had "dibs" so to speak. Of course in some cases it is inappropriate to ask, but I was taking it too far. Sure, you may not have known they were already in a company since they had no tags, but in that case you've just built a relationship with another unit. No harm no foul.
- Have company tags! This lets people in-game see who you are affiliated with. The more the see the same tags, the more they know you are a serious group. Get your name out there!
- Drill, drill, drill. While we wait for skirmishes, drilling is the main attraction to many people, I would say. If you and your company can drill and teach new players then you have a good chance they will want to join you.
Section 3 (Last words and putting things into perspective):
This are some of the things of which I would attempt in order to gain new members, as I said previously, though they might not always work, it could pay off in the long term, to put this into perspective, it took me over a month to gain one member and in the coming month after that, I gained approximately 6 members.
Trumbull
While having a great thread is awesome, don't expect it to happen overnight unless you are talented and have a lot of time on your hands. This is why for my 3 tips I have focused more on what will promote your company IN GAME, since that's what most people want to see. If your company is active, you'll grow like a weed. Don't be afraid to ask for help or advice from other members of the community. Many of these people are really awesome resources that we can learn from, I know I have.
Again, do not be discouraged! I had never done online gaming before War of Rights. I am just a reenactor who just had to make a company in this awesome game, no matter what the odds were. I had no idea what the odds were anyway. Just stay true to what you want your company to be. For me, that was having a historically accurate unit with a great bunch of guys, building comradery in the field just as they would have over 150 years ago. I believe we have stayed true to our intentions, and I can ask no more than that.
With that being more said than I intended, best of luck and I'll see you on the field!
Rawlings
If anybody has any other ideas, I ask that you please share so that I may add it onto the list as this thread's goal is to encourage and assist those with newly found companies. Furthermore, if anybody has any questions, I would be happy to answer.
Credits:
- Lance Rawlings (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/member.php?3084-Lance-Rawlings)
- A.P. Hill, Powell (http://www.warofrightsforum.com/member.php?734-A-P-Hill)