Others, giving little heed to hearsay and old wives tales, say that the favourable, gentle winds and weathers of the world have shaped the land into a place most amiable.
Whatever the truth may be, it remains that the Isle is indeed a green jewel nestled in the warm bosom of the Infant Sea. In times past it has been a home to many peoples and continues to be so to this very day. Proud, ancient elven cities still persist on the Isle as well as rich Dwarven holds, dug deep under the rich mountains of Idin. On the Isle of Idin gentle farmlands and schools of wizardry have existed in peace and prosperity for a long count of years.
All this and more has existed under the mighty, gentle hand of the kings of House Bardast. Of old, Primovantorian descent, the Bardastian monarchs have been farsighted and prudent in the management of their kingdom and have seen it prosper beyond the splendour of other nations.
But all is not well in the Kingdom, for the last King, Hastius XI, died without issue, and as it is the nature of human, elf and dwarf alike, power left unclaimed is a prize most wanted. Rival claims to the throne have sprung like weeds on an untilled field, with each claimant drawing from age-old alliances and tapping into military, monetary or political strengths each house has carefully nurtured under the watchful eye of kings past. The council of Idin, convened to choose a new monarch for the Isle, sat for many moons but no claim was accepted. The throne remains vacant.
So it is that now the Isle of Idin teeters on the brink of war, all its riches ready for the taking.
Outsiders have now begun to make claims on the lands on the Isle of Idin, and the tumult and chaos have opened the door to darker powers as well. Goblins and other creatures of less-than-savoury nature have been seen sailing close to the shores. War's brewing..
Greetings!
After a work-induced hiatus from maintaining the blog, I return with a campaign!
We decided to host a slow-grow campaign with a light map element attached to it and I'll write a bit about the system we're using plus some thoughts and ideas of what a good campaign consist of. My previous campaign, a map-based campaign for Vanguard, fell to ruin and sank into the deeps of forgetfulness due to my own inactivity and a lack of thought-through system for using the map.
As I consider myself a creature capable of learning, I decided to come back better prepared, so I set myself some ground rules regarding the campaign and its mechanics. The map needs to play a role in the games. It has to incentivize the players to grab areas and interact with the map and it needs to be easy to grasp. It shouldn't break the core rules of the game, nor should it be overly elaborate. It should reward winning games, but it shouldn't hinder further progress. Thus I came up with the following outline and rules.
Our campaign will have, initially, five rounds.
As this is meant as an introductory campaign, we'll start at a surprisingly small size of 350 points. These games will be played on 3' x 3' tables and are mostly meant for teaching some new-comers the basic mechanics of the game. Another reason for starting that small is simply to provide some external support for people looking to get their armies painted. I find that small, attainable steps are better for this than more ambitious goals that tend to dismay some players more than they inspire.
The timetable is, roughly, as follows:
Round 1: 350pts in January
Round 2: 500pts in February
Round 3: 750pts in March
Round 4: 1000pts in April
Round 5: 1250pts in May
Round 6: 1500pts in June
I wanted the timetable to be loose enough to give ample time for painting up the required units, but I am also prepared to make it tighter should players want it.
Map - an overelaborate scoreboard
I've always had a thing for maps.
Whether it's in miniature war gaming or in a fantasy novel, I've always fancied pretty maps and I decided to make one for this campaign as well. I had an old frame lurking about and I decided to use it as a base for my map. I knew that I wanted to make a three dimensional representation of the area we'd be fighting over as I think that adds nicely to the immersive aspect of the game. I want the players to form rivalries and epic stories about how they defended Tor Idinor against marauding goblins or how they sacked the Tower of Fire, driving out the Druids who used the magical power in the war for supremacy of the Isle.
The main point is to be a glorified scoreboard as I don't want the map element of the campaign to overrule the basic mechanics and balance of the game too much. There are some in-game interactions between the map and the games, but they are deliberately kept relatively small.
The map is made out of cork with some wood filler for added shapes. The forests are sand mixed with PVA to make a pretty liquid paste that doesn't clump up but retains an uneven texture that can be drybrushed to give it an "deep" organic look. The water is simply PVA shaped, painted and gloss varnished to give it a sheen.
The cities and castles were a pain to make, as I wanted them to be more than just map markers. The amount detail that would've gone into it had I given into my desire to keep working on it would've been immense, but I wanted to cut it short in order to get it done and so the cities aren't quite as big as I wanted them to be, nor are there roads and bridges.
Playing the map
With some help from a fellow player I wrote a quick and simple set of rules for playing on the map. I kept them as simple as I could, because I wanted to make sure no one felt like there was some weird mini-game they had to master in order to take part in the campaign.
The map is divided into roughly hexagon-shaped counties. Each county represents one "point" in the campaign so the more you get to claim, the better you're doing. Some counties have special areas in them that can be claimed. Each player also has a war-party they can send to harass (and potentially destroy) special areas in unclaimed counties or counties controlled by other players. These aren't meant to represent the players' armies as such, as it's assumed that each invasion force has thousands of troops on the Isle. The war-party is simply an artefact on the map that can be used to create more narrative and more immersive play.
Each round begins with an initiative roll, which is 2d6. Ties are rerolled until a sequence emerges.
At the outset each player takes their turn and claims one of the landfall counties spread evenly on the coasts of the Isle. On later turns and at the end of each round the players can claim counties that are touching one or more counties they already control. If a player can't claim more counties that are adjacent to their counties, they may then claim a new landfall county.
The rolls for Initiative were 3, 5, 7, 11, 11. The elevens were rerolled and so the victor emerged. The first player decided to take Ankh-Or harbour as their starting point because they wanted to claim the desert counties as their own. Then other players chose their starting points, each carefully examining their potential and their distance from cities and castles. Questions of defending their own areas also arose. Which harbours offered the safest bonuses, which towns and Spires were the most difficult to assail?
War-parties
After claiming new counties, players take turns in placing their war-parties on the map. War-parties can move in direct lines from any county controlled by the player but they can't cross mountains, enemy-controlled counties or large bodies of water. Note that they can attack an enemy controlled county, but can't go across it to reach deeper into their territory.
Any special area attacked by a war-party can't be used until the opposing war-party is driven off or moves out on it's own. A war-party can destroy a special area so that it yields no more benefits for its controller. This happens if the attacker and the defender do not play any games during a round and if the defender does not move a war-party in to defend the county.
If a county has two war-parties, the players are encouraged to play a game and see which one wins! If the defender wins, the attacking war-party has to retreat and the defender can again use the bonuses from that county. If the attacker wins, the defender has to retreat and the bonuses are denied for the round. Due to the disturbance of defending forces, the attackers will be unable to focus on the siege and so the special area (castle, town etc) is still held, albeit under siege!
Counties can't be taken once claimed, so they can be burned to the ground, but their ownership doesn't change hands. This is to keep better track of the score and how each players games are going and to keep "win more"-mechanics from forming.
War-parties have a few additional functionalities depending the player's army's alignment:
- War-parties of good armies can protect an unclaimed county they can reach. This way the player can claim the county's special area bonuses even though they can't claim the county. This is, of course, unless the county is attacked by some other war-party.
- Evil war-parties can sack unclaimed counties, destroying their special area bonuses the same way they would in an enemy-held county, unless the war-party is harassed by another war-party.
- Neutral armies can do both Protect or Sack unclaimed counties, but once they sack an unclaimed county, they can't claim bonuses from protecting a county. The good people of the Isle simply wont aid butchers and brigands!
Special areas
Some counties give bonuses, although only one of these can be used when building an army. There are four different bonuses from four different areas:
Villages
There are eight villages on the map. They are also the closest bonus areas to the landing counties. An uncontested village allows one non-hero unit to be given a free magic artifact worth no more than 10 points.
Cities
There are four cities on the map. Each city allows a 10 point deductions to a non-spell upgrade of a non-hero unit. So a 25 point upgrade could be purchased for only 15 points.
Spires
There are four wizard's spires on the map. Each spire allows a 10 point deduction of a spell upgrade. This way a 20 point Banechant could be purchased for only 10 points.
Castles
There are four castles. An uncontested castle allows a player to use an additional war-party. A player can have a maximum of two war-parties. If a castle is attacked by an opponent, the war-party immediately retreats back to the castle to defend it. It can't be used to relieve the castle of the siege, so the bonus is lost the same way other bonuses are lost if the county is attacked.
This way there is some small benefit from playing the map, but the game itself isn't overly affected by the area bonuses. The point here is to encourage narrative games and to create flavorful rivalries between players and to avoid the usual "well, these two armies just kill each other for no apparent reason".
The initiative is used also during the next phase, as the players send out their war-parties. The first player, playing Empire of Dust, decided to send heir war-party North from the Southern desert to sack Trade Town, the fair city that has grown fat and rich under the shadow of Mount Idin. First they checked whether their war-party had a clear path and then they counted the hexagon-shaped counties between their own landing zone and those of others to ensure they were attacking a bonus area they themselves had little enough chance or need to claim.
The player going second played Forces of Nature, and being careful to claim a bonus for the round, to protect the ancient Spire of Fire even if they can't claim the focus of magical energy yet. Basileans sent their forces Northward, to lay claim to the Spire of Frost to claim the same bonus.
Finishing the round
After the games of the round have been played and players are ready to move on the next round, it's time for some cleaning up before moving on.
Players can play any number of games during a round from a single game to as many as they can squeeze in. The games played affect the map campaign and translate into "score" as follows:
- If the player won more games than lost this round, they claim two additional counties following the normal rules for claiming areas.
- If the player played an even number of wins and losses, they claim one additional county. They also gain +2 initiative next round.
- If the player lost more than won, they gain +4 initiative on the following round.
This means that those with fewer areas are likelier to get the areas they want next round, so winning wouldn't become more of a "win more"-thing.
Smoke rises in a thick column towards the steel-grey skies and heads driven into spikes adorn the brunt ruins. The towering cliffs of Mount Idin seem to weep at the loss of the fair city as the restless dead move away, retreating to their domains in the desert.. The fair city of Trade Town is no more. For years to come, the name will be an ill omen, a symbol of wanton destruction.
Meanwhile, to the east the rising sun graces the Spire of Fire, its proud head crowned with the colors of the Wild. With the druids and their forest-folk allies guarding it, it's wizards have promised and delivered their vast knowledge to the aid of the Forces of Nature.
Basilean flags hang limp from their poles on a windless morning. Driven back on all fronts, the Hegemon's Finest must fight on doggedly, if they hope to claim the Isle of Idin for the Hegemon.
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