Lord of the Manor - Sinews of War

(This is a continuation of my thoughts about a mapless Medieval campaign supporting tactical medieval rules, such as Chainmail.  This is the first version of the random generation of lands and troops.)

There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls,
Doing more murder in this loathsome world,
Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell.

                          - William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet

Several things are still left to do, in order to complete the Lord of the Manor medieval campaign rules.  At a minimum, these include rules for conducting campaign battles (what is at stake, terrain selection, etc.), their outcome, and how to spend the bezants that accrue to a player, as part of their demesne.  In addition, I think that a section on random characteristics (one each) that make a demesne unique, would be interesting.  This article, however, is about the many uses to which a Lord of a Manor could put the accumulated bezants of that domain.

A Lord may find himself in possession of a certain number of bezants, which he may wish to spend, in order to make his military ventures more likely to succeed.  This may include several things that are listed below, but in general include hiring more men, investing in armaments, the hire of mercenaries, and perhaps securing a marriage for an heir.

More Men
Hiring more men is quite easy to do.  Simply choose a unit that is already in the demesne army, and pay the amount indicated to add more figures to the unit.

• Foot unit then the cost is 100 bezants to add an additional 6 men to the unit
• Billmen can have 6 crossbow added to their unit for 200 bezants
• Mounted unit, then the cost is 200 bezants to add an additional 3 men to the unit

Each unit can have this done a maximum of one time only (i.e. - Billmen can have 6 additional men, or 6 crossbow, but not both).  The additional money can be spent to upgrade mercenary units, as well.

Mercenaries
Mercenaries can be hired, both domestic and foreign (foreign mercenaries only available to a Demesne that has a Port).  In both cases, they will return at the end of the campaign season they have been hired for.

Domestic Mercenaries
Type	Cost	Class
Villeins	100bz	18x light infantry, mixed weapons (sword, axe, spear)
Routiers	200bz	18x heavy infantry
Town Levy	200bz	18x light infantry, pike, act as Levy
Yeomanry	200bz	12x English Longbow, light infantry with archer stakes
Catapult Troupe	200bz	4x crew, light catapult

Note that the demesne does not have to have a Town as part of its lands, in order to hire Town Levy.

Foreign Mercenaries
Type	Cost	Class
Swiss Pike	300bz	18x light infantry, pike
Landsknecht	200bz	18x heavy infantry, polearm
Burgundian Arbalaster	200bz	12x light infantry, heavy crossbow
Hansa Billmen	100bz	18x light infantry, polearm
Catalan Scouts	100bz	12x light infantry, javelin
Aragon Jinetes	200bz	9x light horse, javelin

Note, as mentioned above, in order to hire Foreign Mercenaries, the demesne must have a Port as part of its lands.

Armaments 
Money can be spent to upgrade the equipment of some units.  Each option below can only be applied to a unit once, although a unit may benefit from several options.  For example, a single Archer unit (12 figures, light infantry, Longbow) may be made into Armored Archers (Heavy Infantry), and given Archer Stakes.  Or a Sergeant unit may be upgraded with Lances, and being made into Knights (Heavy Horse).

• Spearmen (Heavy Infantry), can be made into Billmen (Polearms) for 100bz.
• Archers can be made into Armored Archers (Heavy Infantry, Longbow) for 100bz.
• Archers can be given Archer Stakes, for 100bz.
• A unit of Foot Men At Arms (Armored Infantry) can become a unit of Mounted Men At Arms (9 figures, Heavy Horse) for 200bz.
• Billmen (Heavy Infantry) can be given plate armor (Armored Infantry) for 100bz.
• Crossbow troops can be given Pavise, for 100bz.
• A Light Catapult mercenary troupe can be upgraded to a Heavy Catapult for 100bz.
• Sergeants or Mounted Men At Arms can be given Lance, for 100bz.
• Sergeants (Medium Horse) can be upgraded to Knights (Heavy Horse) for 100bz.

Dynasty
A Lord may decide to secure a good marriage for his heir (either son or daughter), which may come with gifts of additional lands to the demesne.  A Lord may only benefit from this, once.  The Lord decides whether to invest in a Marriage (300bz) or a Diplomatic Marriage (500bz).

Marriage (300bz) - The Lord receives as a gift, a parcel of land.  Roll on the table to determine a new land to be added to the demesne.  The normal scutage for the lands - troops and/or money - will accrue as normal.

Diplomatic Marriage (500bz) - The Lord receives as a gift, his choice of a parcel of land.  Roll on the table twice, to determine two different lands to choose from (re-roll a double result)  The Lord chooses from among the two lands, and it is added to his demesne, as above.

In either case, the Lord now has secured an Alliance.  In the future, he may call for allied troops for any fight.  He will have to pay for the troops, but he gets the two following options.  Note that these are not mercenaries, and will behave as normal troops that are part of the army, but for one battle only. 

• 100bz - Crossbow (12 figures, light infantry, Crossbow)
• 200bz - Knights (9 figures, heavy horse, lance)

Note that the Lord may choose to hire one, or both, of these units. Also, they do not start on the battlefield with his regular army, but may arrive at anytime on turns 2,3, or 4.  The Lord makes a note before the game start whether they will arrive on his left or right flank, and what turn they will arrive.  They appear on the edge of the battlefield (within 6" of the center line), at the noted turn (the Lord should reveal his note to his opponent at this time), during the Lord's movement phase.  They may move normally next turn.

Lord of the Manor - Sample Army - Bombastia

(This is a continuation of my thoughts about a mapless Medieval campaign supporting tactical medieval rules, such as Chainmail.  This is the first version of the random generation of lands and troops.)

This is a partner article to the one on the army of Poppenheim.   As mentioned previously, Bombastia is the other medieval state that was part of pre-modern Furstenberg. It was often at war with Poppenheim, even into the early modern period, when the 1696 Crisis of the Pumpkin-King Throne between the Principality of Bombastia and the Grand Duchy of Poppenheim would lead to the Unification Wars of Furstenberg (ending up establishing the modern state of Furstenberg).  But, as early as the 11th century, and on up until the 18th, the two states were often at war with each other.

So, relying on the Lord of the Manor system, lets take a look at what the medieval state of Bombastia looked like, and what the army looked like.

First, the chief Manor of Bombastia is at Hofbrau Burg, and the ancestral feudal duty of the Hofbrauen means that the army of Bombastia starts out with a unit of Knights and a unit of Crossbow.

Hofbrau Berg

The other lands that make up the Demesne of Bombastia are as follows:

• Four farmlands, which the player chooses to provide 3 Spearman units, and 1 unit of mounted Sergeants.
• Two forests, which the player chooses to provide 2 units of Archers.
• One town, which provides 1 unit of Billmen, and 100 bezants.
• One Church, which the player decides to tithe 100 bezants, and gains the use of 1 unit of Holy Order Knights.
• Two Highlands, which the player chooses to provide 1 unit of Highland Pike, and 1 unit of Reivers.
• One Orchard, which provides the player with 1 unit of Men at Arms, and 100 bezants.

This means that the army of the Demesne of Bombastia consists of:

1 unit of Knights (9 figures, heavy horse, lance)
1 unit of Holy Order Knights (9 figures, heavy horse, lance)
1 unit of Sergeants (9 figures, medium horse)
1 unit of Reivers (9 figures, medium horse, lance)
3 units of Spearmen (18 figures, heavy foot)
1 unit of Billmen (18 figures, heavy foot, polearms)
1 unit of Men at Arms (18 figures, armored foot)
1 unit of Highland Pike (18 figures, light infantry, pike)
2 units of Archers (12 figures, light infantry, long bow)
1 unit of Crossbowmen (18 figures, light infantry, crossbow)

And the player has access to 200 bezants, but spends 100 of it to secure the unit of Holy Order Knights, from the local Church.

This is a very good army, but the player might be eager to either conquer the Towns or the Port that the Poppenheim player has, to balance out the money situation - very lopsided, at 600 bezants (Poppenheim) to only 200 bezants (Bombastia).

Lord of the Manor - Sample Army - Poppenheim

(This is a continuation of my thoughts about a mapless Medieval campaign supporting tactical medieval rules, such as Chainmail.  This is the first version of the random generation of lands and troops.)

In the past, some of my wargaming with Imaginary Nations (or Imagi-Nations) has featured a number of substates and states in a fictional region called Balkania.  In 19th and 20th century conflicts, I have used the two states of Furstenberg and Rumpwhistle.  Earlier conflicts have been between the two medieval states of Poppenheim and Bombastia (they were baronial lands that became part of Furstenberg).

Here is the treatment that a medieval Poppenheim receives, when using the Lord of the Manor method to determine the army.

 So, the demesne of Poppenheim has 12 lands. The first is automatic (a Manor), the other 11 were generated using the dice method presented in the earlier article.

First is the Manor, which we will call Schloss Romfels, and is the seat of Poppenheim power. It provides two units to the army, a unit of Crossbowmen, and a unit of Knights.

Schloss Romfels

• Three Farmlands, which the player chooses to provide 2 units of Spearmen, and 1 unit of mounted Sergeants.
• One Forest, which the player chooses to provide one unit of Archers
• One Pasture, which the player chooses to provide one unit of Slingers, and 100 bezants.
• Two Towns, which provides 2 units of Billmen, and 200 bezants.
• One Port, which provides 200 bezants, and access to hire Foreign Mercenaries.
• Two Highlands, which the player chooses to be 2 units of Highland Pike units.
• One Fish Pond, which provide 1 unit of mounted Men at Arms, and 100 bezants.

 This gives a family consisting of:

1 unit of Knights (9 figures, heavy horse, lance)
1 unit of mounted Men at Arms (9 figures, heavy horse)
1 unit of mounted Sergeants (9 figures, medium horse)
2 units of Spearmen (each, 18 figures, heavy infantry)
2 units of Billmen (each, 18 figures, heavy infantry, polearms)
2 units of Highland Pike (each, 18 figures, light infantry, pike)
1 unit of Archers (12 figures, light infantry, longbow)
1 unit of Slingers (12 figures, light infantry, sling)
1 unit of Crossbowmen (18 figures, light infantry, crossbow)

And the player has access to 600 bezants, and has access to hiring Foreign Mercenaries.

This is a very interesting army, and should provide a lot of interest to the player who is commanding it.  There is a lot of strong infantry, although the Highland Pike are going to be tough to manage (they hit very hard, and might be a terror, if the enemy army lacks any pike units - but they are light infantry, and would be susceptible to flank attack, and archery).

Lord of the Manor - Lands and Troops

(This is a continuation of my thoughts about a mapless Medieval campaign supporting tactical medieval rules, such as Chainmail.  This is the first version of the random generation of lands and troops.)

The Player represents the Lord of a Manor, which owns a Demesne.  At the center, of course, is his Manor, or Castle.  This provides two military units, A unit of Crossbows (light infantry, 18 figures, crossbow), and a unit of Knights (heavy horse, 9 figures, with lance).

So, if we go with this chart for the random determination of lands:

 2 - Vineyard
 3 - Port
 4 - Town
 5 - Freeland
 6 - Forest
 7 - Farm
 8 - Pasture
 9 - Church
10 - Highlands
11 - Fish Ponds
12 - Orchards

Then the next step is to determine what a Lord will receive for his feudal escheats from each of those types of land.

Vineyard - Lands with grape vines, plus wine presses, cellars, and a local population of workers to draw from.  The wine is a valuable trade item, so this land produces not only feudal soldiers (heavy infantry) but also money, from the wine trade.  Provides a unit of Spearmen (heavy infantry, 18 figures), and 100 bezants.

Port - This land is along a navigable river, and a trading town has been built up at the spot of a natural mooring spot on the river.  Some money is produced from the trade port, but more importantly, the ability to hire foreign mercenaries is possible, due to the amount of seagoing traffic that comes through here.  Provides 200 bezants.  May hire foreign mercenaries.

Town - A sizeable independent town has grown up here, meaning that it supports not only a sizeable market (large enough to service the town, but also the surrounding lands and villages), but also a church, guildhalls, mills and other urban services.  The feudal obligation of the town is met through providing troops drawn from the town population, and the marketplace generates a regular flow of tax money.  Provides a unit of Billmen (heavy infantry, 18 figures, polearms), and 100 bezants.

Farm - This is not just a single farm, but farmland representing multiple hides worth of feudal farms and subtenants.  The feudal obligation of all these farms and villages is met in the form of heavy infantry, but also the natural horsemanship of the population means that some mounted soldiers can be classed as sergeants.  Provides either Spearmen (heavy infantry, 18 figures), or Sergeants (medium horse, 9 figures).

Forest - Representing the waste of the demesne, the woodlands provide the serfs with the means of producing charcoal, harvesting firewood, and hunting for small game.  Of course, there are enough villeins and scoundrels lurking along forest roads that a ready supply of archers can be conscripted.  Depending on the area around the forest, it is also possible that some mounted archers can be found, and could be formed into units of hobilars.  Provides either Archers (light infantry, 12 figures, longbow), or Hobilars (medium horse, 9 figures, bow).

Pasture - This represents closed lands for the Lord's private flocks of animals.  Open land is found in the farm lands for the serfs to graze their own animals, this is representing husbandry of animals on a large scale.  Local villages supporting the economy of shepherds and drovers will produce feudal troops suitable for light cavalry duty, or as slingers.  There is also some money to be made from the wool trade.  Provides either Slingers (light infantry, 12 figures, sling), or Riders (light horse, 9 figures), and 100 bezants.

Highlands - These lands are in hills and mountains with terrain typically too rough for large scale farming or grazing.  The locals are rough independent clans and tribes, that owe fealty but may not provide much for the manor other than occasional military service.  The troops are irregular bands that are useful for scouting and skirmishing, best described as light infantry or mounted raiders.  Provides Highland Infantry (light infantry, 18 figures, Pike; or 12 figures, Bow), or Reivers (medium horse, 9 figures, lance).

Orchards - Lands given over to long term agricultural produce, such as fruit and nut trees.  Typically such lands are a sign of a successful Manor, and so the presence indicates that there will likely be more money to provide armored and trained infantry, such as men-at-arms.  Provides one unit of Men at Arms (Armored Foot, 18 figures), and 100 bezants.

Fish Ponds - The lands of the Lord of the Manor are all his, including all wild produce (salmon from the rivers, deer from the forests, and so forth).  In order to increase the amount of fish that a Manor produces, fish ponds would be instituted.  Again, this represents a wealthy and vibrant Manor, which would attract scutage from wealthy families aligning themselves with the Lord - such families would produce heavy cavalry, if not knights, so are represented as mounted Men at Arms.  Provides one unit of mounted Men at Arms (Heavy Horse, 9 figures), and 100 bezants.

Church -A Manor would typically have several churches on it.  This would include at least one Chapel in the castle and perhaps a small church in each of the peasant villages, towns, and ports.  But when this result is indicated, it means that there is a higher status Church on the lands of the Manor.  These lands, while included within the demesne of the Manor, are actually independent. However, they might have the Knights of a devoted and powerful patron on call for feudal duty, or there might be a chapter house associated with the Church from a religious order of Knights (such as the Templars).  The presence of a Church, therefore, allocates to the Lord of the Manor the use of a unit of Holy Order Knights.  Provides one unit of Religious Order Knights (heavy horse, 9 figures, lance - treat as Religious Order), but only if Church is paid 100 bezants.

---

Money raised from Lands in the Demesne can be used to purchase extra equipment, to hire mercenaries, to pay for Scouts or Spies, to fund Adventures, and of course to tithe to the Church, in order to secure the services of Holy Order Knights.  Details on these will be in a future article.

A sample army, for Medieval Poppenheim, is detailed here.
A sample army, for Medieval Bombastia, is detailed here.

Lord of the Manor - design in progress

(This is a continuation of my thoughts about a mapless Medieval campaign supporting tactical medieval rules, such as Chainmail.  This represents just some further thoughts about a random generation system for determining what "lands" would be in your demesne.)

Working on the Medieval campaign rules some more has turned into me experimenting with distributions and stochastic curves, as I look at using a 3d6 system, and a 2d6 system.  Here are both charts, presented as I was experimenting with them.

3d6 Version	2d6 Version
3 - Orchards  4 - Vineyard  5 - Port  6 - Town  7 - Free Land  8 - Forest  9 - Forest 10 - Farm 11 - Farm 12 - Pasture 13 - Pasture 14 - Free Land 15 - Church 16 - Highlands 17 - Fish Ponds 18 - Orchards	2 - Vineyard  3 - Port  4 - Town  5 - Freeland  6 - Forest  7 - Farm  8 - Pasture  9 - Church 10 - Highlands 11 - Fish Ponds 12 - Orchards

In both cases, I think I got the frequency correct, of the different types of Lands, in relationship to each other.  However, I am thinking that I will go with the 2d6 system, because it means that the land types at both legs of the system (meaning, Vineyards, Ports, Fish Ponds, and Orchards) are extremely rare in the 3d6 system, and I did not intend that to happen.

Next will be assigning troop types to the different lands... and working on the limits and options inherent in the economic system (money sources, money sinks, and market options).

Medieval Campaign ideas - developing

My recent review of Chainmail, and subsequent organizing of a solo game of Medievals (involving some re-basing and prepping of miniatures) got me thinking again about campaign as the narrative for wargames.  Providing context and texture - why we fight, where we fight, and the bigger goals/aims of the battle other than just attrition.

Which of course had me return back to one of the things I think wargame campaigns are very interesting at - that is, providing a game mechanic for determining the composition of armies, especially in a way that is a little bit out of control of the player.  In a lot of set-piece meeting engagement games, the player will bring whichever version of his army suits him - either by spending points, or just by picking units from his collection.

In a campaign, of course, there might be constraints or circumstances that limit this decision.  One of the things in a medieval setting that would limit the troops available would be the fief system, where each noble in the heirarchy would have others who owed him a feudal obligation (of land and soldiery), and he in turn owed such an obligation to his lord.  So by determining the size and status of the fief that a noble controls, one can estimate the size and nature of the army.

Years ago, Ben King used to host a great medieval game called Feudal.  It allowed for a number of provinces in a realm to be divided up among the players.  These would then each provide some troops (knights, men-at-arms, archers, etc) depending on the type of province.  I am going to borrow some of that concept here.

Similarly, when Warhammer Ancient Battles was first published, the book had rules in it for a mapless campaign.  There, each province type would allow you to purchase different types of troops that your army might or might not have access to, but the provinces were determined randomly.  Again, these are useful ideas for what I am trying here.

The point of the exercise is to provide a basis for a medieval army.  There should be a reliable core of the army that feels distinctly medieval - maybe some knights?  Maybe some men-at-arms?  Other than that, there should be a total of, more or less, 12 units per army (just my own personal preference).  In this highly ordered idea of an generic army, I am going for a mixture of typical medieval units (both English and Continental), and not particularly the sorts of historical archetypes that arose where an army had (largely) one or two types of troops (such as early Swiss armies that were almost all halberdiers, or an Imperial force that was almost all mounted knights).  That could happen in this system, randomly, but it would be rare.

Terminology is important, for setting the tone and feel of a game.  So, rather than going with provinces, I am going to use the term Lands.  A Lord (the name for the ruler that a Player is representing) would control a Demesne of around a dozen Lands.  But lets make it random.

Dice (2d6)	Lands in Demesne
2-3	10
4-5	11
6-8	12
9-10	13
11-12	14

Here we have a method for a Lord to have a number of Lands in his Demesne.  One of these would represent his Manor, where his castle is.  The others would be of a random type.  Each would provide two things for the Lord of the Manor - feudal troops, and money.  Here is a list of some example ideas...

Free Land - no troops provided, but the tenant peasants pay rent - $$
Port - access to foreign troops? (pike, crossbow) - $
Vineyard -infantry, money - $
Town - urban type troops (halberd, sword-and-buckler) - $
Farm - infantry, sergeants (armored cavalry, but not knights)
Forest - archers, hobilars
Pasture - light horse, slingers, money (from wool) - $
Highlands - light infantry, light horse
Orchards - men at arms (an effective manor, attracts followers) - $
Fish Ponds - sergeants (a wealthy manor, can afford to support stables) - $
Church - knights (order?)

This idea is still developing, but I am envisioning a table, maybe 3-18, with entries for the different types of lands listed above.  Each type would have a random set of troops that it would provide, and a random amount of money value.

Money would be used for either upgrading troops, or hiring mercenaries.

Commonality of Land types would be something like this...

Most Common
Farm
Forest
Pasture
Free Land

Common
Town
Church
Port
Highlands

Least Common
Vineyard
Fish Ponds
Orchards

The idea is still brewing, but it has some merit, I think.

Random Battlefield setup

My recent review of Dominance included a nod to the random table layouts that the author includes in the rules set, as a pretty neat resource for gamers.  I remember back when I played some Dominance, I had two renaissance armies (one infantry based - Swiss, and one cavalry based - French), and my friend and I who played the rules would randomly select one of the table diagrams in the book, and then dice for initiative in setup, and for side of table.  We would do our best to lay out the terrain based on what pieces we had (pretty easy), and off the whole shooting match went.

This got me to thinking, and looking around at different systems on blogs and in articles on random battlefield set up.

Over at Warfare in Miniature, there is a system that the author (James M) devised that is basically a PDF with six pages in it.  First you dice for a page in the document (1-6).  Then you toss two percentage dice, to generate a number from 1-100.  Consulting the page you rolled up, you will find a grid, with 8x9 squares on it, and with the numbers 1-97 on spaces in the grid.  If you roll 1-97, then the space you rolled is the upper box of your wargames table.

The orientation of the number, is the direction of "north" on your newly generated terrain area.  Green areas are forest, brown areas are hills. Red lines are roads, blue lines are rivers.  Green boxes are built up areas/fields.  Simple.

Each space on the grid represents 2'x2' on the gaming table, so you will have a grid of 3 spaces (or 6 feet), by 2 spaces (or 4 feet) to lay out your table in.  So for each of the six pages there are roughly 97 tables, that is a total of 585 tables, or something mathy like that.  But, the remaining three chances (98,99,100) for each page are also accounted for - they are tables that have homogeneous terrain over the whole surface.

Seriously, this is cool, try it out.  The article is Here.  The document is Here.

Another system that exists (and there are a number) that uses cards for the battlefields is the most excellent Battle Finder system from The Perfect Captain. As always, the rulesets from The Captain are free, although donations to charity are recommended by the authors.

Battle Finder is a complete campaign system, presented in a generic sense, although The Captain has developed some specialized adaptations for several medieval and renaissance games.  In short, you construct a campaign map (or scenarios in a linear or narrative campaign) using some easy to print out small cards, each of which has a nice 4x6 tabletop pictured on it.  Here are a few examples.

The Battle Finder system allows these cards, individually, to be mounted on a map that replicates a hex grid (each space connects to six surrounding spaces).  An individual card, printed and cut out, looks like this:

A most excellent system, and the campaign rules are terrific.

Solo Campaign Idea

In thinking about a solo campaign, I am of a mind that many of the actions that one would want to do in a wargaming (military) campaign should be adjudicated through some stochastic method - a dice chance, or probability chance - of success.  This keeps too much mono-thought and knowledge of what the other side (i.e. - the same player - me) is thinking, from creeping into the calculus of what a turn consists of.  If every action has to be diced for, then there is necessarily a layer of artificial constraint introduced that will keep actions from always being successful.

Okay, enough philosophy of solo game design.  Here is my idea.  Have a map, based on point-to-point movement, which is marked up with a number of key pieces of information. Initially, I am thinking that the information would be numbers reflecting the chances of completing a military move, and also of recovering casualties and recruiting new figures.  Here is an example of what I am thinking of.

On this map, the hexagons represent campaign locations.  The castle symbols represent either cities or fortified areas (the actual symbols used would be based on what time period, and what sorts of locations are important to know about for that time period).  The black numbers are the difficult of completing a move along that route.  If you decide to try and move an army from location G to location H, for instance, you see that the route has a "9" marked on it.  That means, in this simple example, that if you roll 2d6, and score 9 or less, then the move is successful.  Sea routes are also marked - notice the score along the river between B and E, and the score along the coast between E and J.  The Anchor symbol represents that the location has access to water based movement along the waterway that the anchor is connected to.

So much for movement.  But the locations on the map are also marked with pairs of red numbers under each.  Those represent two things - the first is the chance to recover troops.  This could be a chance to recover lost stands from a unit, after a battle.  Again, this is based on a roll of 2d6 or less.  The numbers used are purely for example and discussion in this article, but the numbers I used are 8 in regular locations, 10 in population centers (cities), and 6 in ports (or economic centers, but none were marked on this map), where I reasoned that there are more demands for work would mean it is harder to recruit men to serve in a unit.  The second number is the chance to recruit a whole unit if it is available to an army to recruit such a unit.  Limits could arise from the tactical rules used (i.e. - in some games, and army only consists of a maximum number of units), or could be introduced as part of the campaign (each leader is given an Operations rating, which represents the maximum number of units he may have under his control).

This system could easily be expanded by introducing resources (gold, food, ore, magic, etc) to represent the particular time period.  Different types of routes could be introduced (rail lines, which would also have a number representing how difficult it would be to plan a military move over a stretch of rail).  By having different routes, different rules on how many different types of moves a unit could make, could be introduced.

That brings me to the last point - action points.  I was originally thinking something like 3 action points.  It would cost 1 point to move one segment by land, and 1 point to try to recover a lost stand to a unit, but all 3 points to try and recruit a new unit, and maybe 1/2 point to move by a sea route.  In this way, if using a 2d6 system to adjudicate actions, then if rolling a 2, one would have a critical success, and would be able to recover an additional action point to use this turn.  If rolling a 12, it would mean abysmal failure in planning, and no additional action points may be spent that turn.

Finally, the added element might be characters, or rulers.  I always liked the idea, based on the original Tony Bath concept, of having all the major characters in a campaign nation to be developed.  This was done in very nice way in the board game Blood Royale, many years ago, and also in many miniatures campaign systems.  One of the things by having a dice based campaign system, is that some characters might be better at some actions vs others, not to mention skills at tactical combat (either command bonuses, or combat bonuses).  For instance, Lord Whistlebird is a harsh tyrant, but a bit of a coward. He gains a +1 bonus to target numbers when trying to organize a march (he pushes the men into a forced march), but gets no bonus from being in combat with a unit.

Many possibilities are here with even such a simple system.  I think I might put together a map, and try it out with the Renaissance troops.

Why do I plan game activities?

To me, it is important to plan gaming activities.  This is because of a couple of different reasons, personally, so if I can ramble on for a few minutes, here are a few of them.

1. It gives me goals.  If I know I a want to do a game in the future (solo, for/with friends, at a convention) then planning will give me a timeline to get done what I need to (learn rules, paint miniatures, playtest, write up a dungeon, etc).  Of course, procrastination is always a stumbling stone, but with a plan, at least you can know what you SHOULD have done, on the way down, once you stumble.

 

2. Mental exercise.  Sometimes, my schedule is just too darned full to get in some of the gaming activities I want to do.  For instance, in my current look at 15mm AWI gaming, one thing I would like to do is rebase some miniatures.  Also build some terrain.  But I might not have good chunks of time in my schedule over the next few weeks to do those things - but what I can do is research battles, re-read rules, and maybe get orders of battle and scenarios down on paper.  Why those things?  Because they are all easily doable at the computer, or with a tablet, or with a book and pencil - while doing other things.  Lunch, watching a movie with the family, waiting for response on a work email.  etc.  They are planning activities - not the same as actual gaming activities - but they scratch an itch and keep my mind engaged in the topic.

3. Evaluate what needs to be done for a future event.  If I plan to do a Third Crusade wargame in November (which I am thinking of), then I will start thinking about my miniatures, rules, wargames terrain, scenario - etc.   While planning, I will take stock of what I already have available, and what needs to be developed.

4. Sometimes if I don't plan things, then (since I am interested in so many different gaming topics, and a victim of my own ability to change focus at the drop of the hat) sometimes I don't get anything done, and another year has passed and I still haven't played out the whole Furstenburg/Rumpwhistle 23 Weeks War of 1870. What is worse, is that I haven't recorded it here for posterity on the blog (what would the world do if it did not know the outcome of the 23 Weeks War?).

5. Related to all the above - it is fun.  Planning is a gaming exercise - whether it is the next set of encounters for my RPG campaign, or sorting miniatures and planning a painting project - it is all fun.  And I like to talk about it and share it here on the blog.

Naval Imagi-Nations Campaign

Background
As the nations of Balkania left the Imperial Age, and entered into the age of massive industrialization, like their European counterparts, there was a mad rush to construct fleets of warships of ever increasing complexity and lethality, in an arms race that rivaled those of the early 20th century.

Tweedland Destroyer Flag

The Imperial Navy of Tweedland, modeled after a number of successful designs in the British Navy form the years between the wars, was involved a series of strategic operations in the Pampion Sea, against her ancient adversary, Royal Marina of Vulgaria.  The Vulgarians had jump-started their naval architecture program just a few decades earlier by kidnapping several prominent Italian designers and engineers, so their units bear a strong resemblance to the Regia Marina.

Vulgarian Royal Marina

Tweedland, in this region, is operating from their colonial ports at Utica and Cyrene, and operate a rather large air station at Pancritas.  They are actively involved in policing the Pampion Sea, as well as supporting their ground operations in Talantis - which means delivering supplies to Tarraco.

Vulgaria, on the other hand, has their southern mainland ports of Massilia and Salonae to support operations in the Pampion Sea.  The regional capitol at Cremona is home to not only Vulgarian 4th Air Force, but also is home to their notorious Motor Torpedo Boat squadrons.

Friesland Naval Ensign

The ground campaign in Talantis is between the Tweedland 8th Army, and the Frieslander Talantian Corps.  In order to limit the amount of support that the Tweedland navy can deliver, the Frieslander Supreme Commander has authorized the use of U-Boats in the Pampion Sea, against Tweedland shipping.  These elements will occasionally coordinate with the Vulgarian Royal Marina.

As a political gesture towards honoring the Pampion Triple Naval Alliance, the Free-Falconia Government has placed some of their remaining naval assets under command of the Tweedland colonial office at Utica.  These would normally be allocated to keeping the Talantian Approaches open, for supply convoys, but operational needs may have them committed, alongside Tweedland ships, throughout the Pampion theater of operations.

Free Franconia Military Forces

Campaign
I have been working up a simple system whereby two sides of players (one commanding British and French ships, representing Tweedland and Free-Falconia; the other commanding Italian and German forces, representing Vulgaria and Friesland) will follow this order of play for each turn:

1. Allocate patrol forces - naval and air
2. Receive operational intelligence and orders
3. Commit reserve forces for support of operations, or divert patrol forces
4. Adjudicate map situation, and develop tabletop battle for that turn

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Rules
I will be using General Quarters.  I plan to employ the original GQ1 and 2 rules - I have the newer GQ3 edition of the rules (published by the fine folks at ODGW), and they are great, but they would distract, as I am expecting players who are not necessarily naval gaming experts, and the older rules are much simpler).  Ship models will be Navwar 1:3000 vessels.

Operations Map
This was developed using AutoRealm, and I plan to use the same map for several different fictional naval campaigns.  I plan to go back and use the transition fleets I developed for Furstenberg and Rumpwhistle in an operation on this map, as well.

Star Wars X-Wing - simple campaign rules

I have played this a few times now, and really like it.  The models are great, and the game system is a nice modification of the Wings of War (Wings of Glory) system.

Picture of an X-Wing game in progress, from Boardgame Geek http://tinyurl.com/mel9bxn

One of the things, especially given the great stories about the conflicts between different units of Imperial and Rebel units in the Expanded Universe (books, comics, games, etc), is the idea of an ongoing campaign within a sector of space.

I have been thinking of how to do this, especially given a map, and some unit logistics, and access to different units (ships, fighters, etc), but it is still in the works.

However, for some simple "pilot focused" games, where a player is rewarded for good performance with the same pilot, I offer up these rules.  This is based on the situation where either a Club or Game Store is the location for regular, weekly (or whenever), play.  With players able to play games with other players in the campaign.

We're all in it together.

 1. Once a player chooses a unit (ship, fighter, etc - including all upgrades), that player will play that unit until they either (1) are *killed* in a game, or (2) gain enough experience points to purchase a new confuration.

2. Once a new player enters the campaign, they are allowed to purchase a fighter, with a pilot and upgrades, for a set amount of points (suggested - start with 15 or 20 pts for Imperial players, and maybe 25 points for Rebel players). See alternative below, for all players being in the same squadron.

3. For each game that a player "survives" they receive 1 new point ("increase points").

4. For each point of damage (regular or critical) that they inflict on an enemy ship, they receive 1 new point.

5. For each enemy ship that they inflict the killing shot (this could be shared, by ships firing simultaneously), they receive 1 additional new increase point.

6. Anytime a player wants to use their points (added to their starting value) they may replace their unit with a different unit.

Trophy in the Ready Room.

Option 1: "Part of the Rebel Alliance" All players are (either) Rebel or Imperial.  In any game, some of the players (or bystanders) will have to play units of the other side.  If campaign players are playing the "bad guys" then after the game is over (regardless of how they do), they will receive points "on account".  These points will be awarded to their total, after the next game that they play, as a regular player (piloting their regular ship).  The amount of points that they receive varies based on how well that they do.  If the "bad guy" pilot survives the encounter and their side wins, then they receive 1 point for every ship (or fighter) on the "good guy" side.  If the bad guys lose, then they receive half (round down) of this amount.

Option 2: "The Force is Strong in this One" When a player finally dies, they get to come into the game with a new pilot at the starting level.  If that pilot survives their first battle, then they immediately receive Half of the increase points that their prior pilot had.  This represents the training that a pilot could have received from their (now dead) mentor.

Note that a campaign referee should "ok" any games, in terms of scenario, balance of forces, etc.  In the case of players being on both sides (Imperial and Rebel) this is less important, but in the case where all the players are on one side, it will quickly get out of hand, if a Referee is not part of the solution.

This system would work much better if there are multiple games each week (or each club get-together), with smaller faster encounters making for a better campaign.

Campaign System for Craftees

More on this later, but here is an idea (for comment, please) for a campaign system to be used with a simple wargame system (should work for any era). I proposed this originally for Craftees players.

The thing I was thinking of for a Craftees campaign would be something relatively simple (in terms of details) but still stylistically fun. Maybe a simple point-to-point movement map, with some nice army markers made out of craftee-parts. Whatever period it would be for, use small armies (maybe 6-12 units) and simple battlefield rules (the Thomas rules would be great here).

Mark three armies on the map for each side.

Each node on the map would have a basic terrain type, dictating the type of battlefield (i.e. - open, hilly, wooded, river crossing, etc)

Alternate moving. First player chooses an army marker to move, and rolls 1d6. On a 2+ he moves the marker one node. Then he picks another (or the same) marker, and rolls again - this time a 3+. Then a 4+, 5+ and 6+ (meaning a maximum of 5 moves in a row). If at any time, he fails a dice roll, then the order changes to the other player.

Whenever a player moves an army marker onto another army marker, there is a fight. Both sides get 4d6 to determine attacker/defender. If one side outnumbers the cavalry of the other side, they get +1d6 for each unit of light cavalry more than their opponent, and +1d6 for each 2 units of heavy cavalry. Both sides roll their dice, and high roller gets to decide (after seeing the battlefield) attacker or defender. The defender then picks side of table, and sets up army. The attacker moves units on first turn.

Limit the game to a certain number of turns (or play to the written victory conditions if using the Thomas rules).

Once an army loses, it must retreat a d3 nodes (must move away from enemy, cannot encounter new enemy, cannot double back on same nodes - if it cannot do this, it is eliminated). Once an army loses twice, it is removed from the map. The winner is the player with armies left once his opponent is all gone.

If the campaign has multiple players, then the players not involved in a battle may take turns challenging a player on the other side to a "raid". A raid is played with half the units of a normal game, and if successful scores "operational points". If one side or the other accumulates 3 operational points, they can be spent to remove a "loss" from an army marker (remember that two losses make an army marker disappear from the campaign map). Raid losses do not count towards making an army marker disappear (since they aren't based on army markers, but take place, somewhere nebulously defined as "the front"). Raid battles always end when the main campaign battle ends, if it is not a victory at that pooint, then neither side gets an "operational point".

To Do - (1) print a sample nodal Campaign Map, (2) publish some notional army lists based on the Thomas rules.