""Raider"" Topic

I played the first game in a new solo mini-campaign that I cooked up.

The premise is, you are the war leader of a band of raiders (think Vikings). Your object is to collect booty (points) by sacking towns. Open towns are worth one victory point; walled towns are worth three points and walled cities are worth nine points.

At the beginning of the campaign you roll 2d6 to find out how many points you need to win.

Your force is 1d6 (x 500) + 500 warriors (a range of 1,000 to 3,500).

When you land, only the locals can oppose you at first. Open towns and walled towns have 2,000 defenders; cities have 3,000 defenders. Open towns are typically unarmored peasants; walled towns, cities and castles are light infantry, with 25% missile, 25% medium infantry and 10% men at arms. Castles have 1,000 men. (There really isn't any direct object in attacking the castles; but if you took one it would be your fortress, although with no intrinsic garrison.)

Fortified places can hold out for 1d100 map turns. Raiders take a huge risk trying to assault them. And if they try to besiege them into submission, the amount of time required will allow defender forces to muster and perhaps relieve the garrison. So the open towns, although offering far less booty, are the easiest target.

I use event cards and generate the activated defenders by drawing a "crown" card each map turn. (I use a "Kingmaker" system, specially designed for my Lamoria map picture picture .) The defenders begin with a draw of 12 cards, but steadily grow stronger, making your task increasingly difficult and dangerous.

As your raiding warband takes casualties, you can replace them (or grow your force) by spending points accrued to roll d6's (1d6 per point you've gained from sacking towns): the resulting total equals percent (re)gained: example, if your force was at 80% and you spent two points (2d6) and rolled a seven, then your force would be back up to 87% of original strength.

Each point gained from sacking adds +10% to your morale level roll.

Each lost engagement is -1 entire morale level (i.e. you are served well, but slowly, by gaining booty; you lose morale rapidly by losing even one engagement).

It takes one full map turn to engage defenders in battle; and another map turn to sack the place.

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I played my first raid tonight. Here are some piccies.

picture That's my fleet in a port "square.", and the warband is attacking the open town of Urane.

picture The anchorage comes right up alongside the town. (I know, the map doesn't agree, but I had to put the boats on the table, they look too cool. That's Dervel's longship, btw, TMP link .)

I am using a Breton-Norman army, and I lucked out and got the maximum 3,500 men; I need to collect 7 points in sacked towns. I expect this will be an "easy game", but we'll have to see. It has begun well.

picture My warband is without horses, except for "Me" and my standard bearer (the equivalent of 100 mounted men total out of 3,500, in Art of War terms). Once I have raided a town, I can mount up a unit. The unmounted men at arms are already ashore, and "I" with my small mounted company, are on the inland flank facing the open town of Urane. A unit of crossbowmen is behind the men at arms, and a third line of medium infantry is also formed up. The townsmen are shivering behind their fences; bowmen to the front. In the main street a body of defenders waits to move where needed. "Someone" (hehe) knows what he is doing, in defending the town; but he has crap quality to work with.

picture picture A unit of unmounted serjants also comes ashore, and the medium infantry are sent around to threaten the town from a second front.

picture The men at arms come within 100 yards of the town and close up, affording protection to the crossbow-men, who begin a barrage of the fence and its defending townsmen. These have weak bows which are ineffective against the shields and armor of the men at arms. The plunging crossbow bolts wreak destruction upon the unarmored bodies of the defenders.

picture After a few minutes the defenders are pulverized. The crossbow-men run out of missiles and retire.

picture Desperately, futilely, the townsmen rush to the threatened sector to meet the advancing men at arms. A sharp fight develops along the fence. Meanwhile, the medium infantry advance also against the fence and down the street, which is blocked by the defenders.

picture "I", the leader of this wonderful feat of arms, and my mounted companions, ride around the back of the infantry and leap our horses over the unguarded fence and into the town. The men at arms and medium infantry quickly force their way over the fence, taking very light casualties in the process.

picture The end. The last few defenders are cut to pieces in the street. Their morale remained steady. But it was hopeless from the start. My career has begun well. A booty point at no cost so far to my warband.

Next target, is the open town of Vouille, at the north end of the island. After that I shall sack Fyn at the south end. I'm going to ignore lord Burees' castle of Akaf. Then I shall take my fleet over to the main island, or perhaps the other small island to the south, and pick off somemore open towns.

So far, the forces of Lamoria have not mustered any significant strength in the north. If I attack the south, there are two powerful lords already mustered who can march to engage me. And their combined forces outclass mine. So I will be steering clear of them if at all possible.

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I have cooked up a simple strategic profiling system for NP defender forces. A roll of 1d6: 1-3, the defenders withdraw into their fortresses and garrison them, or await attack in camp; 4-5, they move to defend the capital city of that province; 6, they "bring the raiders to battle." The profile roll is modified by odds: if the defenders are outnumbered, the roll is at -1; -2 if outnumbered 2 to 1 or more. Reversely, if the defenders outnumber "Me", then they +1; +2 if they have 2 to 1 odds or greater.

I also have a battlefield order of battle generator for NP defender forces. But until I have my first field battle (if I do my job right, I won't have to fight one of those), I won't bother with the details at this time.

1066.us

This is great stuff. I gather you loose the game if you and your army is wiped out?

This idea would also work for WW2 British Commandos or German Brandenburg forces. Well, the idea would work perfectly for any setting you raid into through out history.

Some very good ideas there! I now want to do something similar.

Mike

Wonderful idea. Campaigns add so much to gaming, if only one can keep them going.

Shelldrake is right about how this idea could be adapted for many other periods or genres. I may have a stab at adapting it for a wandering warband of Masai bothering their neighbours and stealing all their cattle.

Very nicely done and displayed! Though the longships sitting in that little "pond" do look quite funny.

How do you deal with "travel time" It seems a long hike up north to Vouille? Does army arrive their automatically? Is there any attrition? Desertion? Harassment from locals? What the open towns you capture? Do you then leave them ungarrisioned? Won't the enemy simply occupy it again when you head south causing you to have stop there and take it again?

Nonetheless, a very nice start.

This is really cool, thanks for sharing it.

Excellent! What rules are you using for the battles?

This is great stuff. I gather you loose the game if you and your army is wiped out?

Yes. Start another one. Since I have an emotional ("generations-long") interest in Lamoria, I will be pleased if they see the invaders (Me) in hell. Or not, as the case may be….

Very nicely done and displayed! Though the longships sitting in that little "pond" do look quite funny.

Grr. That's NOT a POND. It's the inlet, or "bulge" in a river near the town. On the edge of the table, you can see. If it were a pond, it would be surrounded by table and not on the edge. (not upset, really, just playing with you)

How do you deal with "travel time" It seems a long hike up north to Vouille? [….]

This map is patterned after the "Kingmaker" map; counters move five "squares" per turn (that bad weather doesn't interfere, that is). Attrition, harrassment from locals, etc., are not considered. The mobilized defending forces will be moving toward you if they roll up a "bring enemy to battle" profile. Otherwise they will be moving to link up and form a larger army, according to profile. This is a "quick and dirty" game, with one objective: get your points of booty and get out (so no original objective to hold territory/fortresses/towns).

Over time, repeated raids will find the already sacked (open) towns ruined, and will have to pick on the harder targets; which will of course make it a lot easier for the defenders to move quickly to repel the raiders. If such turns out to be the case, I can see the raiders doing what the Vikings did: staying the winter and fortifying their camps, and holding territory, from which to muster larger armies for deeper raids.

Excellent! What rules are you using for the battles?

The Art of War (ours) link

Here's my next little scenario: the taking of Vouille.

picture Raiders on the march toward the town of Vouille. My unit is mounted with the horses that we took from the hapless folk of Urane.

picture Vouille.

picture Here the raiders approach Vouille. The defender leader from Urane must have escaped and gone to the next target of the raiding force, because preparations have been made: stakes block both ends of the street. And the main body of defenders are kept back out of sight (fear of crossbows).

picture I lead my unit of milites toward the street, and notice a definite lack of defenders in plain view.

picture Zounds! Is that a phalanx of sharpened stakes I see before me? The townsmen are keeping well out of sight behind the buildings.

picture Riding well outside the effective range of their feeble bows, I circle the town and see the other end of the street also fortified against cavalry. There is nothing to be done, except dismount and attack over the fences on foot. Like the last time.

picture The medium infantry file off to the left and take a position opposite the end of the street. All the unmounted and dismounted milites line up in front of the crossbows. Our horses are left with the unmounted serjants close by in our rear.

picture Bowmen pop up and begin to shoot. Their fire is ineffective -- even though our crossbowmen are briefly exposed to danger as they advance with the heavy infantry still in open order in front of them. They close up and advance to within 50 yards and stop. The crossbowmen shoot while the mail and shields of the milites screen take the defenders' arrows. The first vollies of crossbow bolts are devastating! Half of the defender bowmen are destroyed at once. The leader of the defense sees the danger and orders his men back into the shelter of the street (this required a performance check, which took two turns to get the required 9 or higher), to fight at the alleys between the buildings.

picture The dismounted milites move over the fences and up to javelin range. The crossbowmen take over the duty of holding the horses, and the unmounted serjants move toward the end of the street. The medium infantry advance to within javelin range of the townsmen behind the stakes.

picture Closeup just before the carnage.

picture The javelins and thrown spears drive off two-thirds of the townsmen with heavy losses.

picture The medium infantry pursue the fleeing defenders (out of sight to the right). The serjants arrive and begin to attack. The milites take a few casualties at the fences; but the peasants take much heavier losses.

picture The medium infantry stopped their pursuit and came back to join the main fighting. The serjants attacked from the other end, and this picture shows the last moment before the defenders were overwhelmed.

Vouille is sacked. We have horses enough to mount two of the three cavalry units, and move south to Fyn. There is no defense this time; most of the people have fled into the countryside. The town is sacked with no organized resistance and without loss to "Me". I now have three of my seven points to claim victory.

Several map turns later, I have disembarked on the north shores of the island of Negraponta (sans horses again, except the few we had room for), and am ready to attack the defenders of Milo (this will occur on map/game turn 14).

It appears that there is, as yet, little outside organized defense in this region: the locals here, too, are on their own against us. My luck is good so far and holding. I plan to sail no further and finish my campaign in Negraponta.

I'm on a roll (punny). Three solo battles in a week. Haven't gamed this much in years. And this last one was especially fun.

My army landed at Milo on the north shore of Negraponta, as planned. Bad weather delayed us. By the time we got ready to attack the town, the levy of Prisca (the other open town in the same "square"), had merged with the levy of Milo, forming a rustic army of 4,000 men. The garrison of nearby Merle castle did not sally and join them. If they had, I think I would have lost this one.

picture The defender levy were confident and actually attacked us. We saw them coming and had to act fast: the danger was that we could be caught in two parts. The heavier troops on the other side of the inlet, and the light infantry (seen in the bottom center) on the mainland with a river between, which the heavier troops could not cross.

picture So we used the ships and moved the milites and medium infantry to the shore, while the light infantry swam the river mouth. picture

picture The defender levy had arrived in the neighborhood with a third of their army on our side of a stream. This force crossed over to the far side and joined their main army as the left wing.

picture Their right wing was 1,000 bowmen, who moved up to the bank of the stream and started to shoot at my medium infantry as they were taking position as my left flank. My light infantry and unmounted serjants were formed into my right. And I led the center, all my unmounted milites, backed by 500 crossbows.

picture The defender bowmen shot and shot until their quivers were empty. Our casualties in the shieldwall were light.

picture By then my center had taken its position and the crossbowmen began to shoot into the enemy left and right: their center, thus far, remained refused.

picture picture Casualties among the defending formations were heavy. Their left stood their ground, but the bowmen, now out of arrows and suffering badly, routed a short distance out of range, then turned around at the far end of the wood.

picture My crossbows ran out of ammo, and we began to cross the stream enmasse. The enemy center rushed forward and joined their left to take advantage of the bank (this made the difference of a column less disadvantage on the combat results table).

picture View from the invader right: the battle is joined.

picture In the center (my boys!), everything went very badly for a while. As you can see, the enemy are kicking my kiester. I (the figure representing ME) advanced up onto the enemy side of the stream, and as my men on either side of me got into troubles, I was flanked briefly and fighting two-to-one. I have seldom thrown so many 2's and 3's in a pair of combat rounds: a total of seven of my 24 figures (1,500 men), were removed from the game due to these lousy rolls! picture The one bright spot was, I did not roll an elimination on myself: quite the opposite, I wiped out those attacking me! (Me, seen dead-center) picture In the next round, more of my men went down, but we also accounted for more of the enemy (ie. the dice rolls behaved themselves better). But those blaggards caused enough damage to my battle that I had to make a morale check: they scared me, and hurt my army. In this engagement I lost 158 men, more than triple my casualties up to this point. (permanent losses total c. 6%, so that's not bad)

picture But we conquered in the end. Ironically, my light infantry won without losing a single figure: and their foes fought to the last without breaking. The enemy center checked morale and broke. Our medium infantry mopped up the stubborn bowmen in and around the wood on the left; but not without some loss (a total of 3 out of 16 figures were eliminated during the game) picture And then it was soon over. You can see a few enemy figures still resisting: four or five turned around when I did less than well in the combat rolling. But these extra-desperate defending townsmen died where they stood. Only about 300 of the enemy escaped outright, of their original 4,000.

The game is now into the 19th map move/turn. I have sacked Milo, Prisca, and also Furexum (whose inhabitants fled without resistance). There is an army of defense gathered to the town of Mycopolis. They number some 2,700 troops (real units, not just rustic levy), and are evidently awaiting more reinforcements before marching to attack us. (The 1d6 roll to generate their strategic profile allowed them to garrison only, because they -1 for being outnumbered. If they had originated closer to where I have my fleet, they could get a +2, for outnumbering my 500 to 1,000 ship guards. Then they could "bring them to battle", forcing my main army to move to defend my ships. But since my main army is between the defenders and my ships, they can only react directly to that threat: and, being outnumbered, their options become limited. The defenders' only hope of breaking this situation is to mobilize more troops, thus outnumbering me; or, I could do something stupid like leave my fleet too far away in my rear, thus giving the defenders an opportunity to attack it: I could be stranded, and eventually overwhelmed.) I ignore them and move to attack the open town of Spoleta, north of Mycopolis. The townsmen stand to defend their homes. (The defender army at Mycopolis, joined to the Spoleta levy, would outnumber my army 4,700 to 2,500 at best; this +1 to the strategic profile roll is still not enough to make them attack me: they will either remain in garrison of a fortified town, or, move to defend the capital city of Negrapont. The strategic profiling is designed to represent a lack of initiative and imagination, typical conditions when raiding forces have things mostly their own way. Thus I am still free to attack). That will be the next, and probably last, game in this little campaign. Because I have six of my required seven booty points. And when I take Spoleta, that will be the last point, and I can sail for home, a bloody hero (naturally, I will return another day).

picture Here's the open town of Spoleta. There is a ford 10" wide in front of it, marked by two pieces of "drift" wood. A dense marsh covers the main approach from the north. My army is seen marching in three columns at the far end of the table. (I left 1,000 men to guard my ships at Milo.)

picture As you can see, most of my army is now mounted. A combined unit of medium infantry and the crossbows approaches the ford.

picture picture The townsmen line up across the stream and an exchange of missiles ensues: because the medium infantry lacks the training to cooperate in screened fire, my crossbows have to go out in front to shoot. They take rather heavy (unaccustomed) casualties; even the medium infantry get shot. picture The total effect is a morale check, and my unit of foot routs! picture The light cavalry also panic, but my milites remain firm. The townsmen resist the impulse to attack across the stream in pursuit and hold their defensive position.

picture The light cavalry recover their morale and start toward the stream; they can swim it. picture I lead my milites toward the ford.

picture There are some casualties to arrows as we cross the ford, but we reach the defenders and they are generally driven away from the bank with heavy losses. Meanwhile, the light cavalry swim the stream. The infantry has rallied and formed up behind the fight.

picture The defenders rout, and we pursue them into the town. The light cavalry soon join in. They can jump the fences, where the heavy milites cannot.

picture The end. My bad rolls made "ME" rout personally for a brief moment, but there were too many of us and the defenders could not take advantage of the few individual spots where they turned around and fought stubbornly. Some 500 of them escaped off the table.

I have my seven required victory points in booty. During the next few map turns, I move to Milo and embark my troops. The defenders get no opportunity to bring me to battle and I sail away. Game over. I win. My total losses were 8%.

Time to shuffle the cards and start another one….

1066.us

Merlin/Doug,

Excellent campaign and battle reports! After 48 years of interest in military history (hey, playing "Army" starting when I was 5 and watching everything I could on TV about WWII and other conflict counts, doesn't it?) and about 30 in board- and miniature gaming, I only recently got into the Dark Ages. But the plunge was pretty steep and with enthusiasm--I've ordered more than 300 figures (about 100 each Saxons/Normans/Vikings--Crusades will be next) and lots of buildings and terrain, and bought a couple of dozen books and rules on the era, all in the last two months! I just bought your Art of War rules and the Norman supplement for download yesterday (I'm the guy you refunded $2.50 USD because I goofed and ordered them separately--Thanks!), but haven't had any time to go through them yet. And it wasn't clear to me from your posts--did you use some modification to the Kingmaker game for your campaign rules, or do your rules cover campaigns?

Your excellent website is a wonderful resource and full of inspiration, especially your travelogue--keep it coming!

Mark

Thanks Mark.

The Art of War rules don't cover campaigns, other than the appendix having a Crusades mini-campaign. I use Kingmaker's system to govern my campaigns. I've created various campaign systems over the years, but Kingmaker remains my favorite.

Kingmaker is a "perfect" system for adaption to any campaign, especially solo. You make up your card balance to reflect the severity of "Events" and the available military resources. I balanced my "Lamoria" Event and Crown packs very closely modelled to the Kingmaker proportions: I simply "changed the names" to account for the differences in England and "Lamoria."

Currently, in "Raider" games, the Island is politically divided once more, as it has been in the past. There is a sole king of Lamoria, but his authority is divided by the division of his subjects into North and South: the Isthmus of Treating is the border, natural and political. Effectively that means that if the raiders hit the North, only the forces of the North will defend, and visa versa. If an office or possession card draws a noble force into the other half of the Island in response, he will not join forces with the defenders of that region; and will be fortunate if he does not end up in a battle with them! It makes for a climate similar to England during the Viking incursions.

I think later "Raider" game's victory conditions might require staying in Lamoria and growing your army by holding land. Like the Danelaw in history. This would be accomplished by taking towns and castles and garrisoning them; and if the cards pertaining to them are drawn, then they go to the "Raider". When your original army size has been increased to the size required, (e.g. "double army size"), then you win the campaign. And Lamoria has a permanent inclusion of foreigners now living as locals….

Thanks for the information, Doug. I have never played Kingmaker, but I think I'll pick it up. I have 4 Harn maps from Crocodile Games that I bought with possible 19th Century Colonial campaigns in mind, but never did use them. There are several that would work well for this type of raider campaign.

Again, thank you loads for the inspiration and ideas!

P.S. "Jackals in Iron" was one of my first reads on this era last month. A veritable wealth and depth of information, and wonderful imagery. Great historical fiction. Do you perchance know the author? ;-)

Yeah, I think so. Except on days when I am not myself….

Started another one. Botched it: was done with a nifty battle that I barely won with a few figures left standing. Then the next morning, I got to looking at the board and I realized that "Type Two" woods and marshes do NOT allow medium infantry to "run" through them (and this is the co-designer talking :) ). As my middle-aged muddle significantly altered the outcome of the battle just played, I growled, tore everything off the map, crumpled my paper work and steamed for a couple of days. Then I started over.

First of all, I've slightly reworked the NP defender's possible strategic and tactical profiles: makes them a bit more aggressive:

Strategic profile; roll for each separated force:

1 = defender force goes into garrison in the "captial city", i.e. "Satines" in the north, or "Escorta" in the south.

2,3 = defender force garrisons nearest threatened fortified town or city.

4,5 = defender force encamps in same square as raider camp.

6 = defender force brings nearest raider army to battle.

The modifier to the d6 roll is: defender outnumbers raider by at least 1.5 to 1, +1; by 2 to 1 or more, +2; defender is outnumbered by raider by at least 1.5 to 1, -1; by 2 to 1 or more, -2.

Tactical profile (o. b.) for defenders (using same +1, +2 or -1, -2 mods for disparate army sizes):

1 = defender dismounts knights (men at arms) to use as front ranks; defend in place, single line. Any auxiliary cavalry (such as the light/medium serjants of Satines, or the Muslim horsearchers of "Escorta") on the wings, attempt to outflank.

2 = defender infantry in front line; cavalry in second line, counter-charge only. Any auxiliary cavalry on wings, attempt to outflank.

3 = defender cavalry on wings, counter-charge only; any auxiliary cavalry form a reserve, support cavalry counter-charge (out-flanking if possible).

4 = defender cavalry in center, counter-charge only; infantry on flanks; any auxiliary cavalry behind in support (including outflanking if possible).

5 = same as "3", but charge with infantry in support / followup.

6 = same as "4", but charge with infantry in support / followup.

Defender (NP) may alter the above if your (PC) tactics alter the feasibility of their o. b. profile, but only on a defender d6 = 4,5.6: if so, the defender may counter your maneuver with any available forces.

I rolled up another force of 3,500. I used only the "upper" portion of the Norman-Breton army list (considering my reputation to now attract only the best). Victory is mine with six booty points.

picture

We landed outside Ceuta, whose populace fled. After disembarking we sacked the town. Then we moved on the nearby town of Kalaun, which was also forsaken, and we sacked it for free. I sent the ships to the port at Sark and moved the army to Akentree. A defender army led by two nobles had mustered and encamped in the same "square" as Akentree: their effort was to gather Akentree's levy, and the castle of Loulon's garrison to join them, which would raise the army's strength to c. 5,000 men. But the die rolls for both failed to get a "6", so the defenders were in three separated forces.

picture We moved on Akentree, picture and as we formed up to attack the town, the defender levy seemed to flee out the back side (this took three "performance checks" before I -- the impartial game master -- could get them to do this). As it appeared that the defenders had routed away, I required myself to make a "performance check" to NOT take the bait of a defenseless town. 5/7ths of my army stood in their ranks unfazed, while my out of control crossbowmen looted and burned the place. As the defender levy saw that their attempted ambush was foiled, they fled, joining the main defender army a few miles away: the garrison of Loulon also came out. And a third nobleman with his c. 250 mounted men-at-arms, just misses arrivng in the defender camp in time to make the battle: but I decide that I will "parley" long enough to let them join up. (I forgot to add to the strategic profile above, for "6 = defender force brings nearest raider army to battle": merger with other forces allowed only if they join at least one "square" before contact with the raiders, by moving the shortest route possible. That means that when Loulon and the levy of Akentree merged with the main defender army -- while I was sacking Akentree -- the late-arriving nobleman was still a few "squares" away. And as "bring to battle" allows no dallying, he would miss out, having not yet arrived in the same battle "square" when the battle occurs. But I can delay matters, if I choose to delay the battle at my end to my disadvantage by "parleying".) The entire defender army then moved to attack me at Akentree. (I am allowing myself to fight this defender army, because once it is dispersed, I can easily attack the next three open towns that are nearby and get my required remaining three points of booty. If this defender army is not eliminated, it will dog my tracks; very possibly get a lot stronger -- as each turn I draw from the "crown" pack for the defenders -- and then attack me before I can get away. So, fight them while they are only as big as they are now.)

picture You will note, that the north edge of sacked Akentree is showing at the far upper-left end of the table; as well as the two hills that showed on the previous table. I have moved out of the town and drawn up my battle line to take into account the dispositions of the approaching defender army, which outnumbers mine 5,250 to 3,500. But quality is mine: most of my troops are "B" class morale by now, being very braced by their ferocious reputation. I do have one "D" crossbow unit, and the rest of my army are "C" class. I don't know as yet what the enemy morale is, and won't until I need to roll against it for any reason (no sense giving myself information that I, the raider captain, would not have).

picture And here you see the view from my side (if you could fly, of course). The unit led by myself is just riding out of the sacked town on the left. My crossbow men and light (unmounted) serjants are in the center, behind the cavalry. I plan to perform a "feigned rout" on the enemy right flank: their largest unit of cavalry, and the cream of their army. If they go for it, then my center cavalry unit will "close the door" on them, and the enemy should be destroyed. This will cause a morale check on their infantry, and possibly their entire army, if their cavalry left wing has ridden out from behind the woods by that point. This may ripple panic down the ranks and I will then sweep them from the field.

I will let you know how it goes….

picture As planned, I led my unit of cavalry out to try the "feigned flight" thing on the enemy right.

picture My own right faced off with the enemy left cavalry. Meanwhile, in the center, my infantry began to take a pasting from the enemy crossbows. My own crossbows were up against a better armored force and didn't score nearly as well. But my morale held up, which proved decisive very soon.

picture Here's where everything I did was wrong. Appreciating how close the town was to my back, I advanced as close to the enemy cavalry as I dared -- to give myself sufficient withdrawing space, even so, I knew it was going to be a very close-run thing. My cavalry center moved over to get into the "close the door" position.

But the enemy refused to take my "feigned flight" as legit, and kept trotting toward me. This used up all of my withdrawing space. I had to turn to the right before we had gotten clear, and the enemy cavalry charged and caught me in the flank (our hasty toss of last-second javelins did nothing), bowling Me and my men over like ten pins. My center cavalry had managed to counter-charge and catch the left end of the enemy formation and stop it: the bulk of my center missed entirely and had to wheel to the left to face the doomed combat of Me and my left wing.

picture The head of my column escaped momentarily and swung toward the left flank of the enemy formation. But his mounted crossbow men on his own right wheeled and "closed the door" on us instead.

picture Here's the situation as my center approaches to charge the played out enemy: my unit and I are toast: the last few figures didn't even hold out long enough to be standing when the charge hit home. The center made their morale check for seeing this total disaster, then wiped out the enemy right just as swiftly as they had eliminated "Me and my boys."

picture While this was going favorably (even though my army did not deserve it), things went even better on our right: the enemy left was at first favored in the initial charge, but we withdrew and in the second charge we thoroughly beat them and they routed. By then, as you can see, my infantry was really mauled by the enemy crossbow fire.

picture But seeing the rout of their cavalry, the enemy infantry out in the open took off, and my infantry gleefully gave chase. picture The victorious cavalry of our center set off in pursuit.

Ironically, the "D" class peasants in the woods made all of their morale checks, for seeing their friends run away, and stayed put. We ignored them as we swept the field of the last dregs of the routing enemy.

My next task was to find out if any enemy noble leaders, and myself, had survived. As my army held the field, I had only a 25% chance of being dead: and of course, "I" died. Deservedly so, for exposing my tender body to such danger (i.e. getting too tricky: I should have simply charged the enemy, then withdrawn and hit him with my center cavalry; then repeated this until he was dead: much simpler and almost as effective as a successfully carried out feigned flight). Only the late-arriving enemy noble survived, and he took the dregs of their army to garrison Satines.

Using the fiat of all wargamers, I "resurrected myself", and will continue to lead this army: now in the guise of "my son." Hopefully "he" ("I") will be wiser than his dear ol' Dad, and not be so clever with his tactics. (And if "my" bad luck at survival rolls continues, there are enough "younger brothers" to keep my plied with PCs!)

I moved on Mauracus (after buring "dear ol' Dad") and sacked it for free. Then I approached Linbarry: the townsmen, though alone, are prepared to give fight….

Great stuff indeed! I love these reports, Doug. Keep them coming.

I, the son of the late warlord, have returned to Lamoria twice now. The previous adventure almost went fatally for us. First of all, I rolled up a smallish force of only 2,000; and one-half of them were light and medium "serjans"; I only had the one heavy milites unit, and of course my indispensible light infantry crossbows. Worse still, only my milites unit were "C" class morale, the other three units were all "D" class. And worst of all: I rolled 12 for the number of booty points I had to gather before I could return home a bloody hero!

The south half of the island picture seemed the least defended, after I had stirred things up in the north by sacking Bragara, Belulio and Knyxus,
picture so I embarked in the face of a dithering defender army and sailed south. I disembarked at Elyn. But the defending levy punched me in the nose: I lost 135 men! I sacked the place and moved on to Maoonfaund: where those defending peasants also cost me another 135 men!! At this rate I would be all used up long before I ever got my
remaining 7 booty points. I embarked, thus eluding a defender army, and moved to Donondol. Beating those defenders only cost me 45 men, but the defending field army was upon me, and I had to flee to my ships for my life without sacking the town. The north half of Lamoria now looked less dangerous than the south, so we sailed around the headland and disembarked on the Amalfi side of the bay at the east end of Negrapont. The defender barons came toward us in packets, some garrisoned Castorum; others came near and camped. I saw that they were not going to attack us, so we sacked Amalfi for free and got on our ships pronto. To cut a longer story short: my last 6 booty points
were gained in the south half of the island; I had to fight off two field armies which outnumbered me, but not by much, and quality was mine: by then all my units were "B" class morale. By the time I was getting my last 3 booty points, my army was down to 74% original strength, i.e. c. 1,480: and I was being dogged by an army of over 5,000 defenders! Three times I had to roll to see if they were finally going to commit to an attack, with a 50% chance each time that they would do it. I lucked out, pure and simple, and got away.

The solo campaign I am in the midst of is already more interesting. First of all, I coincidentally (aggravatingly) rolled up another force of only 2,000 men, and a victory total of 12 (again!). At least all my hand combat troops (3 units) are heavy milites this time: but three out of four units were "D" class morale again, with one "B" class milites unit. So far I am 15 map turns into the game, and only have 3 booty points. I have been tramping around in the area of Ankara, where we first disembarked. I've seen very little organized defense, but the north is starting to swarm with mobilized barons (thus my decision to avoid going there). Only one baron with 750 infantry was ready to move on us when we attacked Ankara. The militia of Freygoe fled (as the Ankara men had done): and so when the defending force arrived, they were alone. We spanked them thoroughly, losing less than 30 men. With no field army coming to contend with us, I went around trying the strength of the walled towns, even the city of Escorta itself: but none of them looked the least promising, so we moved on. Another baron got his army together, a force of 1,250 men, all good infantry and some crossbows. Rather than face them near any garrisons, I withdrew back to Freygoe, to the very same field as the earlier battle, and awaited their approach.

What propaganda was at work with these people? I wondered: when we left the island last time, I wager that the army we had almost faced believed they had frightened us off. Anyway, so far, both defending forces to mobilize had come after us like angry guard dogs, despite being out-numbered. True, once they got near enough to see their disparity, they prudently refused to attack us: but I wasn't about to
let them follow us around until they got strong enough to attack. So I turned on them, intent on wiping them out before continuing our progress sacking open towns.

picture As you can see, there is a nice assortment of hills on this battlefield. The defenders made a dash for the nearest and largest of them. We also moved toward it, not wishing to attack any infantry square uphill. Things didn't work out to either side's satisfaction. (Here you can see us starting off to our right in column,
picture trotting, while the crossbows run along as best they can: in fact, they played no part in the brief battle. Note the corpses of the earlier battle, where the 750 defenders had formed a forlorn square.)

picture Our leading cavalry unit got to the hill about the same time as the enemy, and both moved toware the summit. (I assume that only on the center of any hill can a unit see down both sides at once: ergo, there is no missilefire until you can see the target.)

picture The infantry closed up and our milites trotted to the crest: both sides then threw javelins.

picture My boys took the worst of that exchange, losing four of six figures: the defender infantry only lost two figures. The morale ("C") of our milites held and they charged down upon the enemy, who held their ground. The infantry of the south know how to do "pre contact" (see the tactics of Italo-Norman armies): I had a decision for them to make: hold onto the last spear/javelin? or throw it and face any surviving cavalry without any phalanx bonuses whatsoever, and no chance of making the cavalry pull up short? I had done good damage in the first round, and felt lucky. So I threw away the spear/javelins: and wiped out five of the remaining six cavalry figures! The standard bearer on the end, the sole survivor company, rode down the light infantry in front of him and escaped (which was a lucky thing, because if he had perished, then my other three units would all have had to make a morale check
for seeing a friendly unit wiped out to the last figure).

picture And here you see the end. With no more spear/javelins, the defenders could not reply to our cavalry as they rode up and surrounded their square, throwing our javelins as we came in. But the effectiveness of these was insipid (the only decent javelin fire had been from the defender infantry: their few crossbows scored nothing however), and we only scored a few hits for all that dice rolling. Nevertheless, it was enough by now to make the enemy check morale as they were completing their square, but they were "C"class and their morale held. Note that the square is already penetrated in this picture; but their morale held to the last and we had to wipe them out where they stood. (Note also, in the upper left of my attacking cavalry, the figure representing "Me", is in the process of routing. For one ignominious moment, at +5 combat advantage, I managed to roll snake-eyes on myself, then fail my "B" class morale test: I rallied quickly, but still! what a putz on horseback I seem to be: just like dear ol' Dad was. I am much happier fighting on foot, it seems….)

I lost a total of eleven cavalry figures defeating this
force of 20 light and heavy infantry: as I held the field, I got back 75% of my losses, but this one smallish battle has cost me 137 men: with 9 booty points to go, I have lost 8% of my army so far.

Keep raiding and writing. It keeps up my morale as I paint away.

What size table are these battles fought on? I have limited space and was wondering what size force would fit on a 4 foot by 4 foot table leaving some room for maneuver?

Keep the reports coming, at your convenience of course.

Jim

Hi Jim. I use a ping-pong table. But, as you can see, the battles for (up to) a few dozen figures per side only occupy c. half that space; i.e. really close to your 4 x 4. When I was first married and living in a small apartment, my table was a 5' hexagon in the corner of the livingroom. It worked really well: maximized space while taking up as little as possible.

I always rejoice when "Raider" is back at the top of the Medieval Discussion list! Thanks for another fine report, Doug. I'm with Jimwright, these keep me focused on my Dark Ages painting.

Mark

picture The open town of Ossetas was my next target. Boy did they scare me! I had the worst run of dice so far in all these solo games. It all started out normally. I lined up in two divisions, and passed through a wood near the west fences of the town with the left division, while my right division approached the town from the south. You can see two of the defender levy units in the main street, and a third facing my right division out in the open with javelins.

picture The levy unit out in the open threw their javelins with no effect: so far, so good, from my perspective. I have shot down numbers of them with crossbow fire, but the levy morale holds and they close with my men.

picture My first hint that I was going to roll a lot of bad combat dice was when one of those outnumbered and outclassed levy killed two of my figures because I rolled snake eyes on myself (with my guys at +13). My right division wiped out the enemy unit and moved toward the end of the street.

picture My men and I crossed the fences and moved up between the houses. The levy engaged us across the fence and at the alley mouth. I had a reasonable combat advantage in all the fights. Part of my division went around to the left, to the street, to outflank the defenders. We scored very light casualties on them with our javelins as we closed.

picture And here you can see us pressing them back into the street, killing them. Both levy units then failed their morale.

picture But at that moment, I rolled a series of 2's and 3's, rallying the defenders in combat, and killing my guys off (including the figure representing ME)! Both of my divisions had now taken enough casualties to get scared, and both RAN! picture The dregs of the unengaged defenders routed one turn and turned around: my personal division rallied at once: but I was not part of that, because MY figure (ME!) was down (snake eyes is very bad for your health).

picture My men met the defenders along the fence and soon killed them off.

picture And my right division, rallying, returned and finished off the few levy who remained.

Altogether, I had lost 10 or 11 figures out of my original 29! A whopping one-third. Those men of Ossetas were dynamite (actually, without my very horrible combat dice helping them, their reputation would not have amounted to anything).

This one open town cost me the highest casualties I have experienced so far: 150 men dead. I have lost 16% of my force, and still have eight booty points to go before I can return home….

I survived, personally, btw: it was only a flesh wound….

After sacking Ossetas, we moved north to Zarah. picture Nearby Sinda's levy panicked and took to the hills, so we faced Zarah's men alone. They blocked off both ends of the street with implanted stakes. picture

picture I led the infantry to the nearest end of the town, where we faced two-thirds of the defenders.

picture The cavalry was sent to the other side of the town, where they faced the rest of the defenders sheltering within a wood that was too dense for the horsemen to penetrate.
picture The cavalry moved into the wood's edge as far as they could, and the levy retreated deeper into the shelter of the trees.

picture Meanwhile, our assault at the other end was going well enough, even though the defenders at first gave almost as good as they got from us. There were more of them than of us. And so in some places they were able to double up, which caused heavier losses to us than is typical when facing such inexperienced and ill-equipped troops.

picture The cavalry turned away from the wood and walked between the stakes. The levy in the wood turned and moved to take the cavalry from the rear. In an exchange of javelins with the rearmost cavalry, each side lost a figure.

picture And here you see the cavalry charging down the street into the defenders from the rear: the levy had just broken in rout (from casualties). Seeing this happen, the levy unit back by the wood turned and ran away too. Our final losses for this battle were 88 milites.

We sacked Zarah, then Sinda. And then a defending army was upon our track: 500 mounted knights and 500 bowmen (another "rabid guard dog" response! by an outnumbered force). Rather than have them dogging our steps to the next juicy open town, I decided to engage and kill them.

picture But there was this small stream in the way. I had to choose to go ahead with the battle, facing a cavalry charge into the first unit I sent over the stream: or else pull off and choose a different battlefield. I opted to finish it here.

picture In skirmish order, I sent my c. 400 light crossbowmen to shoot it out with the enemy's 500 unarmored bowmen (using bow 3's: at 10" to 15" range, they needed 12's to hit us, and we needed 11's and 12's to hit them).

I led the smaller of my two battles of milites toward the stream at a walk, while the left wing moved up in a dense column at a trot. My object was to enter the stream first with them, on a narrow front, partially restricted by the nearby wood: that way, even when charged (assuming that they would make their "C" morale check for being charged while walking out of the water! -- the single biggest risk of my plan), they would only be facing a charge five figures wide. The chance of taking the four casualties required to check morale was very modest. The enemy, pushing me back, would be into the water themselves, all impetus lost: i.e. I only had to face one combat round at a -7 disadvantage, then my numbers would overwhelm the enemy knights.

picture I stopped my own unit at the stream's edge. picture The enemy knights turned at a trot around the wood, as our cavalry splashed across and neared the opposite bank.

picture I started my own battle across the stream one turn later; the same turn that my left battle started out of the water and were struck by the charging enemy knights: our morale held! Out of five combats, I routed one of theirs and killed one; while one of my figures was pushed back, one routed, and one eliminated.

picture The enemy withdrew post combat. My leading ranks pursued close enough to throw javelins, and got one figure; this constituted a 25% casualties check on the enemy, and they broke (they were "D" class. (I imagined the troops being very unhappy to be led impetuously into battle before joining with more of their compatriots: remember: this has happened twice before: the word of those rash defeats must have gotten around by now.)

picture As they "milled in confusion", we fell on them with overwhelming numbers. Note the bowmen in the background are turned about in rout as well: they took 25% casualties from our crossbows and ran (being "D" class also). This battle cost my force only c. 12 men dead.

After disposing of these worthy but foolish enemies, we went next to Vesperikan, and, finding it undefended we sacked it; then did likewise to Frayden.

Things are looking better. I have 8 of 12 booty points now. But the levy of Lufisthan is standing to fight. They haven't bothered to enstake the mouths of their streets (it is a "performance check", against their "C" morale class, which they failed; so, no stakes). I will fight this out later…. (meanwhile two defender forces have mobilized, but are not strong enough to move against us, and at present are staying back to garrison Veligouta)

picture Behold the open town of Lufisthan. My force is split into one mounted battle and one dismounted and infantry battle.

picture The cavalry enter by the street, and the infantry cross the fences and meet the defender levy as they issue from behind the houses. The cavalry made any defense at the alley mouths impossible: my devious plan to flush them out into the open.

picture The defenders left one unit in the center of town behind fences, so the cavalry, having no target in the street to charge into, stopped and met them in a mutual exchange of javelins: damage was about even. The infantry met the flushed out defenders a very short melee and routed them all.

picture The cavalry closed and exchanged blows over the fence, until the defenders there were eliminated by death and rout.

My force moved to Zur, the last unpillaged town in the northeast of the south half of the island. There was no organized defense and we sacked the town, then turned upon an army of defenders which had finally moved to confront us: they were 2,500 to my c. 1,600.

picture The defenders were weak in cavalry: only 250 to our 1,250: their main strength was a combined levy and mercenary unit of mostly light infantry, crossbow and some heavy infantry, c. 1,750 men: and a unit of unarmored archers (with bow 3) held their right flank in a skirmish line. I had the same organization as the last field battle, deployed with 750 cavalry taking up the right, my own unit of 500 in the center, and the 360 crossbows in skirmish order on the left, opposing the enemy's archer skirmishers.

picture The small unit of the enemy's cavalry charged our center, but because of their small frontage, it was no great difficulty evading them. I had to do this or else face that charge in open order! How I managed to accomplish this prodigy of self-deception I still don't know: but it happened, that somehow I got distracted and didn't close up my unit in time: so we skedaddled off to the right barely getting entirely out of the way. (In "The Art of War" rules, once a unit declares a charge, it must drive straight forward: the ranks are packed and launched, so there is no chance, at speed, for maneuver: if they tried, the unit would come apart and essentially destroy its cohesion by getting in its own way: in reality, this would result in many self-inflicted injuries from the tangle producing many falls!)

picture The enemy cavalry plunged past my men. Our right prepared to charge their infantry. And in a rapid exchange of missiles on our left, the enemy skirmishers were routed: the crossbowmen pursued them.

picture This shows the situation the moment before our right charged into their infantry. My unit has turned and set off in pursuit of the enemy cavalry, who took the only prudent course open to them, and lengthened their lead in a successful bid for escape off the table edge. Meanwhile, the crossbows chased off the archers and killed most of them.

picture Two turns into the melee with the infantry: their pre-contact javelin fire was rather feeble, thank goodness: that can really kick cavalry's trash before the fight even starts: of course, the infantry have to stand firm before the charge to do that, which they did on this occasion. The left end of our cavalry got pushed back and partially routed initially: but by contrast, the right end of our line went through their line like poop through a goose, and swung around to take them in the rear…

picture …at which point they broke and routed: which was a good thing for me, because had they not routed, my men would have had to check morale themselves for 25% casualties.

(When both sides have taken casualties of at least 25%, the side which took the heaviest percentage checks first: then if they stand, the other side checks morale also: if the side which checks first routs, then the winning side defers their morale check for casualties till they finish their combat.)

You can see my cavalry in pursuit of the enemy cavalry in the background; and the crossbows beating up the last of the archer skirmishers.

===========================

I now have 10 of my required 12 booty points for victory. And I face only one very beat up baron of the south currently under arms (a survivor of the battle at Zur). My next target will probably be Kurbaran, which has recovered since the sacking it received last raid. This will reproduce my march across the center of the south half of the island, only in the opposite direction. My army is at 75% strength.

"And I face only one very beat up baron of the south currently under arms"

Uh, oh. Sounds like an unexpected disaster on the way….

Jim

No more piccies of interest in this campaign. It is over. Kurbaran's levy took 25% casualties in one unit, from combined javelin and crossbow fire, and routed, causing a panic in the other two units. We chased the majority of them off the board, killing c. a third (with no casualties to my force). Then we sacked the town and moved on to the next open town, which lay defenseless. A defender army of c. 1,000 men dogged our tracks. But we were by then heading to the coast and our ships, and ignored them. By the time we embarked, another 1,000+ defenders had joined their army, and watched us sail away.

I won more fame and glory as a bloody handed reaver, yeah. (One of these days, one of these days, I can feel my comeupance waiting, and Pow! right in the kisser.)

Ah winter time! the freezing inversion has descended, and I feel stir crazy coming on. Time to go raid "the islands" again. That's what my body is telling me more each day, and I suspect before spring arrives with its broader and deeper diversions, that's exactly what I will do.

Nope. I might make the open towns that defend themselves a little harder to take on. Not sure how to go about that though….

Oh, boy! I like these game reports! I'll have to dig out the map and rules to follow along.

"I might make the open towns that defend themselves a little harder to take on. Not sure how to go about that though."

How about – "Town Guards"

After the first 3 open towns fall to your raiders, word is out and the open towns may hire a Town Guard. The Town Guard is used in addition to the normal town defenders. They will give some backbone to the hapless villagers and make things a little more dangerous for your raiders.

ONLY AFTER you elect to attack a town, do you find out if there is a Town Guard. Roll a D6.

Towns in the same area of ANY town you have raided, D6 score of 1 – 5 results in a Town Guard.

Towns in adjacent area to ANY town you have raided, D6 score of 1 – 4 results in a Town Guard.

Towns 1 area away from ANY town you have raided, D6 score of 1 – 3 results in a Town Guard.

Towns 2 area away from ANY town you have raided, D6 score of 1 – 2 results in a Town Guard.

Towns 3 area away from ANY town you have raided, D6 score of 1 results in a Town Guard.

Towns 4 or more areas away from ANY town you have raided don't think it will happen to them, so no Town Guard.

The ANY town thing means if you spread you attacks round by moving large distances before attacking to avoid Town Guards, then all towns are more likely feeling insecure and therefore more likely to have a Town Guard. But staying in one locality may mean a defender's army tracks you down and brings you to battle on their terms. Decisions, decisions. Just what you need for a solo campaign!

Town Guard force size, roll a (D6 + 1) X 100 points.

Town Guards would be 70% light armor and 30% medium armor troops, all on foot. Maybe 30% of the light armored troops could be missile armed, bow 3 or crossbow 2? Morale: 00-10=D, 11-89=C, 90-99=B.

Town Guards will are loyal and never attack the towns. Their job is to make your job harder. Tweak Town Guard characteristics or odds of being present to get the feel you want.

Town Guards don't need to be limited to only Open Towns. They could be apply to any and all towns, but not castles.

I await word of the first Raid! Pictures too, if you can. The more the better!

Jim

Hi

Or rumors of the attack have the failed remenants of previous wars congregating to exact revenge by defending the strangers against YOU.

Might even have a "seductress assasination attempt in the night" rule.

R

The available options boggle.

I like your idea, Jim. The displaced population which has fled would naturally congregate, as Rocky suggests, thus providing the manpower for a "town guard."

I think that morale scale is a tad too good, though: 00-39=D seems more reasonable, since even Viking armies start out with that. The town guard is a reaction to panic and defeat, after all. Yes, they are organized to deal with the next Raiders that come along, but they are also afraid of the Raiders.

Right now, I am "reviewing troops and stocking the longships." Plus, I have a battle to fight in the current campaign, which was interrupted by the onset of spring last year. I still have the markers up on my map, waiting to fight the battle out on the table….

Okaaaaay…. picture That's a rather poorly lit pic of the two lines closing, just before the cavalry charge. This is the long-delayed battle outside Spoleta, which has been sacked since May 2007; yeah, I finally got around to fighting this one-sided battle.

It happened because the defending army was planning to arrive in time to join with the local militia, which would have given the total defender army a very slight numerical advantage. But by the time the army arrived, the locals had skedaddled and WE had pillaged the place. Ooops! the arriving army now saw itself outnumbered almost two-to-one.

The quality of this defender force was first-rate, just too small. They drew their 250 medium cavalry "serjans" into a thin line in the center and advanced to meet us. Their left was 500 heavy pikemen in a thin line screening a thin line of 500 medium infantry crossbow. Their right was 1,000 heavy infantry pikemen. In the center "I" led my unit of 500 knights mounted on the local horses we had just rounded up. I don't know how I manage to do these things, but in the course of rolling for initiative, I got the 250 serjans to a trot at the same time that "I" failed to do the same: I "wrong-footed" myself! and the upshot was that the serjans charged into us while we were still trotting. picture The outcome was not in doubt, however, because each 18 point (charging) medium serjan was facing TWO trotting heavy cavalry = 28 points. We rolled five combats on the +10 column, killed two, and the serjans routed. picture Half of their right pikemen routed at seeing this; the rest of their army stood to the last. We closed with both infantry wings, while my cavalry were led to the right and took the enemy left in the rear. picture After massacring their left, we saw that their routing pikemen had stopped, turned around and were reforming well to the rear. I took my knights and charged them and they were quickly overwhelmed. Numbers won this battle. The weaker of the two defending barons was killed, but the survivor took his badly depleted force down south and garrisoned the capital of Satines. We lost 160 men in this battle.

I moved southeast, passing by the devastated open town of Knyxus and attacking Belulio, whose militia resisted us. (So far, no added defenders have manifested: there was a 3-6 chance on 1d6, that Spoleta and now Belulio would have 500 to 2,000 added defending locals, but no such luck for them, which makes my "job" that much easier, and dull, ::sigh::.)

We lined up for the asault in this formation: picture The defenders had staked the open ends of their streets, but with our overwhelming crossbow fire it did them no good. As soon as their center routed we closed in everywhere. picture Here's a closeup of my cavalry attack pushing through the poorly defended stake line and into the town picture We lost 28 men.

So far my army has taken c. 5% casualties, and we have 2 of our required 5 victory points. I intend to sack the remaining three open towns on the island of Negraponta to "win". I have already deployed to assault the town of Bragara, which also has no extra defenders (where are those guys hanging out? A bunch of slackers is what they are). This should be a walk-over too. My boys like it this way: easy pickings, seasoned with cheap blood!

So far, the south half of Lamoria is mustering for defense with alacrity, but the north is practically devoid of mustered troops. (Such is the unpredictability of the card decks; the situation could change in a trice, and I could be facing an overwhelming defender force.)

It looks like if I took the city of Negrapont, and the bridge castle by the same name, that I could conquer the whole island and establish myself as lord of it. Tempting….

Sorry I just noticed this. Thanks for the report. Very impressive

Yer velcom.

I have a new digital camera which is more effective. So when (I should actually say, if) I get back to that campaign (which I have advanced a bit since the Feb entry, but stopped in Mar), I have another one-sided battle to play out before I descend on the last open town in Negraponta (I have four of five required booty points to declare a "win"). I doubled back on a defender army dogging our tracks: they are out-numbered at least two to one by my boys, and so we should mop them up handily. I need to do this before attacking the town: because we might arrive to find 500 to 2,000 extra defenders plus the local peasants, and having the defender army in the neighborhood too would just be stupid of me. So, as I say, if and when I pick up the game again (the weather's turned nice and vitiated my already meager desire to stay in doors to play with miniatures), I will be fighting that battle, and taking piccies with my new Sony Cyber-shot….

Doug, I love the idea. I would love to see it done on a map of England, Scotland, Ireland (and Isles) with Danes and Norweigians invading!

I finally finished my latest episode in Lamoria. This campaign was started waaay back on 30 April 2007. I really feel like it was played out in real time, i.e. "I" spent the last year and a half IN Lamoria like a bloody visitng Viking :)

picture That's "Me" to the left rear of my banner bearer. I had all the rest of my army dismount and only kept this one unit on horse in case a breakthough would be needed.

You see, picture the enemy, rashly shadowing my army's advance on the open town of Lacum, had persuaded me to turn on them and take them down first before proceeding. As soon as the defending force realized that I was coming to get them, they formed square on a convenient hilltop.

picture picture picture My army advanced to surround the square.

picture picture The enemy had no missile troops with them: this was almost like a mini-Hastings situation, only I had a formidable body of crossbowmen compared to the total strength of the square. This proved decisive, and limited my eventual casualties to a bare minimum.

picture This is what the square looked like after both units of crossbow ran out of missiles: I was lucky, in that one unit shot a total of ten times, and the other eleven, before running "dry." That, plus my unusually high hit rolls: the average was one hit per volley! Very nasty. You can see the heavy infantry in front here, ready to close up and advance.

picture More casualties, this time from enfilading javelins; the enemy was armed with pikes and other non missile weapons only.

picture And my infantry and dismounted cavalry close in on all sides. We lost several companies (figures) before causing any further casualties. But then we finally broke a corner, and created a hole, through which we broke in and assaulted the inside of the square from the rear picture : the enemy made their morale check for a broken square, and we had to beat them down to the last man.

My total casualties amounted to only 75 men lost. My force has lost 13% on this campaign so far.

We advanced through the forest to the only unpillaged open town remaining on the island of Negraponta: Lacum was empty, its inhabitants having taken to the hills and woods: so we sacked it for free.

I had the island at my mercy, or so it seemed. So we marched south to the bridge castle (the castle of Negrapont, connecting Negraponta to the main island)) and besieged it. This began on game turn 18, and the castle would hold out till game turn 36: I thought it was worth a try, especially since a defender army of 2,750 troops was holding the city of Negrapont just north of our siege lines, and by all appearances had no intention whatsoever of sallying. If they had, we were prepared with many horses to meet them in the open.

The siege advanced till turn 23, then disaster struck: Plague! I rolled for how virulent this particular outbreak was, and it was a whopper, taking out all the leadership of the defending garrison in the city. My army was also heavily hit, with half of my men ultimately pershing. Luckily, "I" was not one of them!

Calling this a positive sign of disfavor for sticking around after I had gained my victory conditions (I needed to loot 5 points of towns, which Lacum had completed), I got aboard my ships and sailed home.

I have already started another campaign. This time I have only 2,500 troops: I have already sacked the open port and cathedral town of Sancre for free (no defense); and an enemy army of c. 1,750 troops has moved up and is attacking us. They are being very ballsy. When I get around to playing the battle, I will let you know how it goes. (oh yeah, I also need "only" 5 victory/loot points in this campaign too; but with only 2,500 troops, and almost half of them "D" morale starting out, I think this might be a little bit challenging to pull off)

Alright! I played another battle today and took piccies, of course (I really like my camera).

I disembarked my force of 2,500 troops (Normans, of course), at the port of Sancre and sacked the open town for free. Before we could move further inland, a defender army of 1,750 men engaged us in battle, led by two of the northern barons (one of whom is the constable of Lamoria).

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They had a superiority in cavalry. One of my units had mounted on the captured local horses, so we had 500 knights to meet their 500 knights; and in addition they had 250 mounted crossbowmen, who formed half of a second line in the center.

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I refused my own center as my infantry wings advanced; my plan was to avoid the inconvenience of the scattered trees inhibiting my front, so that I could get maximum effect in a charge. The enemy advanced swifty toward us.

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The tailend of my right wing barely escaped the crush between the charging cavalry meeting. They routed off the "thin line" of enemy pike and crossbow in front of them.

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My knights did not do well in the first onset (there goes my banner bearer, routing off, the craven swine!) (I like the way the figure representing "Me" is perfect for this situation as I look over my right shoulder at the banner running away.)

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I withdrew my knights and faced to charge again (and gave the banner to another knight to carry when the original bearer went down). My left wing infantry was hastening to get in behind the enemy cavalry, but were stopped by defender "thin line" charging pikemen. The second charge and counter charge of knights went badly for my side again. The bigger numbers of the enemy cavalry was starting to tell! I couldn't get my bigger force of infantry into the combat. All I could do for precious minutes was push them back. Killing them took time!

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I had caused the first morale test on the enemy's cavalry, but they didn't run; then my knights had made their morale check for casualties. It was a mutual slogging fest to the end.

My cavalry was almost all down and run off, when my two infantry wings had finally finished off the enemy set to delay them from the all-important cavalry fracas. My infantry wings double-timed to get to the melee before it was too late. And it almost was. The figure representing "Me" was the only one remaining in combat when my dismounted knights caught the last of the enemy cavalry before they could kill me! The last two companies of knights and crossbowmen prudently rode off.

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One of the barons leading the enemy army was dead on the field. But the constable escaped with the dregs of his forces and took refuge in a nearby castle.

We ignored them and moved on two more open towns, Loi and Carp, and sacked them for free also.

Meanwhile, the constable went to the capital city, Satines, and joined the other defenders slowly mustering an army there. Their strength equalled our own, and yet they were timid at this point and moved only to the nearest walled town, Monomvasia. I moved my raiders to the open town of Teprius not far away and found this town defended.

Whether or not it has extra defenders I won't know until I set the table up for the assault. And, if there are added defenders, then that will raise the level of initiative of the nearby defender field army, and they might join the defenders of Teprius: I could find myself committed to a battle against as many as 6,300!

'Tis a risky business, this Raider stuff….

Solo campaigning taunts me with its perversity: last game the figure representing "me" picture was the last figure of my unit on the table. This game I was the first and only one to be a casualty!

The defending army outside Teprius was over 5,400 strong. But they didn't have quality. 2,000 were the local peasants; another c. 1,100 were defending militia from the surrounding territories; the balance was made up of real troops, but not all of it was good: and as it turned out nearly all the army was "D" class morale.

I launched a cavalry charge to meet the enemy cavalry in the center picture This enemy cavalry was almost entirely medium "serjants", with their left end of the line being mounted light crossbowmen: only the conroi of the Constable of Lamoria was heavy cavalry knights. He had added his drubbed infantry forces from the last battle to the far right end of the defender battle line. Their morale was bad and probably infected the other troops there!

Anyway, we mutally charged in the center, and the defender crossbowmen "blew by" on my right. Generally I won all down the line with a few crappy rolls causing casualties to myself. picture Another view of the initial cavalry contact: picture in the foreground my left-most unit is about to charge into the enemy militia infantry. They shot at us but didn't kill anybody.

Here's the result of the first turn of combat; the defender "serjants" are not doing well picture I had my knights withdraw-post-combat: this maneuver caught the defender "serjants" off-guard: that is, they followed up the best they could, not making contact until we turned about and mutually charged each other again. picture This picture shows the "serjants" plodding toward us and both sides are about to charge again: meanwhile, the defender mounted crossbowmen kept right on charging toward my thin line of crossbowmen, who skedaddled left and right nimbly out of the way of such a compact frontage of close order horsemen (cavalry charges don't usually work too well on a limited frontage against a thin, open order line of infantry who have plenty of time to see said-charge coming). Subsequently, mounted crossbowmen and my crossbowmen on foot shot at each other with no effect that I could see (i.e. I "Missed" with everyone on both sides!).

And on the left while this main fight was going on, my unit charged into the militia: picture they scored enough javelin hits (pre-contact) to make me take out 2 of 9 figures (not quite enough for a morale test). Then my boys chewed right through them and they routed: at which point, the mercenary infantry swinging in from their right decided to quit the field en masse without striking a blow for freedom.

The "serjants" routed after I killed enough of them to cause a morale check.

At which point the left wing of the defender army, the peasant levy of Teprius, took to their heels.

And this is what it looked like at the point where there were no more defenders resisting anywhere: picture the mounted crossbowmen turned tail and rode off the other side of the field (not shown). Three out of the four defender baronial leaders were dead on the field; the lucky Constable was the only survivor, again! He withdrew with very few troops toward the capital of Satines. I lost 63 knights to win this battle.

On the map, I moved south to the open town of Tumist and sacked it without resistance. I now had my victory "5 booty points" and headed for Sancre where my ships were beached. The defenders had no real forces to contend with me before I sailed away: but Mother Nature nearly took me out: Tumist and Monomvasia got the Plague right after I left the neighborhood of Tumist! Oh yeah, that was TWO "bullets" yours truly dodged: I rolled after the battle to see what happened to "me" (remember, I was the only casualty in my unit; and I should add that it was a light mounted crossbowman who knocked me on my kiester and then escaped from the field in the general rout, AFTER I routed him first, i.e. I rolled snake-eyes on myself): and I lived to fight another day: only to almost be attacked by the Plague. Naturally, I am feeling very lucky to sail back to Normandy, the returning victor, again….

Glad to see you are safely back in Normandy.

Don't know how I missed the reports of this campaign. I better start paying attention.

I suggest you rest your men through the Holidays.

Hit Lamoria while the snows of the New Year blanket the island.

Heck no! I hate the cold. Actually, other than the "bad weather delays attack" event card, I don't consider weather or the seasons.

Btw, I uploaded new Lamoria map JPG files (in the OP): my Cybershot took much fresher, clearer pics than the Optio did….

OP = opening paragraph?

Jim

Opening Post (hoist on my own acronym, and I HATE acronyms; the irony is disgusting)….

Ok, feel free to feel disgusted.

The new camera really does take better pictures! Very nice.

Or maybe the operator is getting better?

Thanks for the map updates.

Jim

Doug,

I wandered over to 1066.us. New look! Excellent.

I never realized how big your Lamoria map was. It is even cooler once you know what size it is.

Stern looking doofus by the map though. Expecting a lump of coal? Again?

Happy Holidays.

Jim

The new camera really does take better pictures! Very nice.

Or maybe the operator is getting better?

Well, the flash on the Optio went south very soon after my wife bought it. As I recall I was reduced to using non flash mode and bringing in artificial light. But the lens on the Sony is better at giving clear edge details, so I think the quality is better all around. My skills are only a little better. The camera does all the "work"….

I wandered over to 1066.us. New look! Excellent.

Yeah, the map is c. "Strategy One" size, hehe. I change the top pic on the home page usually each time I edit the site (although my daughter's kitty sitting on my table stayed up for a few edits; "Buster" is too cute picture

I put on my mail shirt to do core body exercises. And I whimsically took a few piccies of me beside the map, contemplating the next raid. (I don't exercise with the helmet on! That was just part of the whimsy….)