I've been using wood stoves for 15 years and have never made a "campfire" design. Unless I have a strange batch of short wood, I start by loading east/west with a full load, the front of which—where the air comes in—is the lightest/dryest/smallest. I use 1/8th of a Super Cedar and leave the door cracked for a minute or two (if it's borderline warm outside and need to create a draft, I might open a window, but it's very rare).
The only change to this is if I have small wood and can load north/south. This is definitely quicker to get going, but I'm limited to 14" or so depth, which would exponentially raise my processing and fetching time.
A note: if you can't get a good draft without jumping through hoops—and you plan to use the stove fairly regularly—look into installing an outside air kit.
One more note: these days, unless getting legitimately seasoned wood at under ~$300/cord, the equation for wood vs. other heat sources isn't always awesome. Obvi, if you already have wood—or 100% scrounge like me—it's (essentially) free.
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