I mentioned previously I had been working on fantasy rules based on Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame and had been painting forces. That has continued on and off in a very ad hoc manner and I now have Orcs, the Empire of Man and Undead completed. I've decided to kick the campaign off using the Orcs and the Empire of Man.
Background
The winter of 1230-31 was the worst in recorded history, so bad that the very seas froze over and the island home of the Empire of Men became connected to the wider world by an ice bridge.Driven from their lairs in the mountains by the harsh conditions, the Orcs crossed the ice bridge in search of food and plunder, spreading out across the island in the depths of winter. With the coming of spring the ice bridge melted leaving the Orcs trapped and determined to consolidate their hold over the island.
War between the Orcs and the Empire of Man is inevitable and as the campaign season begins we find the opposing forces in control of various provinces and ready for war...
The Campaign
I'm a big fan of the campaign system Peter has put together on his Grid Based Wargaming - But Not Always blog and will be using something very similar.Each season will contain a random number of between 2 and 4 battles, with campaigning happening in spring, summer and autumn. For each battle the attacker will choose to attack a province under enemy control, with limited bonuses to their force based on number of friendly provinces adjacent to the province under attack (i.e. supporting forces). The outcome will decide ownership of the province in question, with draws meaning the defender retains possession. The winner of a battle (or in the case of a draw, the defender) decides where the next battle will occur and is the attacker.
Ultimate victory will go to the force able to capture all provinces on the island or I get tired of things!
The Battles
Battles will be fought using 15mm fantasy armies on a 70mm grid using Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame rules. Before each battle forces will be composed from available troops up to a point total using the following formula:Attacker: Base 30 points + d4 points per attacking province and supporting province (max 3).
Defender: Base 30 points + d8 points per defending province.
On the map above if the Empire of Man were to attack from Oldmead into the Orc held province of Faywick they would compose a force of 30 + 3d4 points. The Orcs would defend with 30 + d8 points worth of troops. Minima and maxima of troops are according to the army builder on my Portable Wargame Fantasy page.
Table setup will be generated randomly using a set of terrain cards and mechanics allowing for some rearrangement, again based on Peter's ideas found here.
What's Next...
I'm planning on running a test battle or two during the week to iron out how I want to run the defender in each battle e.g. tactics, aggression level, etc. I have loads of options to choose from in my collection of wargame books but it needs to be simple and quick to fit with the Portable Wargame ethos.That's all for now. More when I kick things off properly.
Cheers,
Millsy
Looks fun Millsy! Are you soloing everything or looking for players?
ReplyDeleteCrikey Peter, I had only just hit when publish when you saw this!
DeleteTBH I hadn't considered enlisting players for certain aspects but I'd certainly consider it. What were you thinking?
Not meaning to hone in your fun Millsy. A little too much self isolation eagerness there. I’ll be really interested to see how this plays out.
DeleteAll good mate. If I get this to work smoothly enough then I would definitely be interested in finding ways to engage other people. I've tried this before and it petered out (no pun intended) but under the current circumstances there's a bit more impetus for people to be involved ongoing.
DeleteLook forward to this progress, Millsy!
ReplyDeleteWill be interesting to see how this plays out.
ReplyDeleteOoh, nice adaptatin. I look forward to seeing how this works out.
ReplyDeleteAny thoughts about whether you'll include chance cards/random events like Peter did in his ECW campaign?
Thanks mate. I am certainly considering cards. I've heavily [ahem] "leveraged" Peter's terrain card model and have already put together some draft chance cards but they need some tweaking to balance them. I'm also not sure yet how I want to use them e.g. one drawn per side before battle, during battle, etc.
DeleteA very effective looking map. Good luck with the campaign and thanks for the shout out.
ReplyDeleteThanks Peter. Have been following your campaigns for quite a while now. If mine is even half as successful I will be very pleased indeed!
DeleteThat should keep ypu out of mischief Millsy, take care.
ReplyDelete