Quadratus | 12 Dec 2007 8:35 p.m. PST |
Folks, I am looking for some home made/free rules for a campaign based on ancients (Roman imperial civil war would be nice) something that had a basic money/movement/random event system.
Any suggestions from this August body? Thanks,
Matt |
vtsaogames | 12 Dec 2007 9:02 p.m. PST |
Try the DBA Resource page. There are several campaigns there, from simpler than you describe to fairly complex, with economics, etc. |
Paul B | 13 Dec 2007 12:09 a.m. PST |
I suggest you try & find a copy of "Setting up a wargames campaign" by Tony Bath |
Thistledo | 13 Dec 2007 5:29 a.m. PST |
While "Setting up Wargames Campaign" is a great read I think you may be tempted by it to over complicate your campaign. Most wargame campaigns founder due to length or complexity. Do you want economics and diplomacy or just manoeuvring armies and working out replacements for battle casualties. Keep you first campaign simple and you can add in complexity as you go or in a second campaign once you know which parts interest you. The DBA site has some great campaign ideas you can adapt to most rule sets. While on this topic I wish someone would create a web site for free campaign rules and ideas, regardless of the period. |
BigRedBat | 13 Dec 2007 6:46 a.m. PST |
Perhaps find and use a suitable boardgame as the campaign background? The Year of the Four Emperors would be a splendid subject for a short campaign. Simon |
LEGION 1950 | 13 Dec 2007 1:36 p.m. PST |
As Simon said base your campaign using a board game. Our group did and it work out well. Cheers Mike Adams |
Cry Havoc | 14 Dec 2007 5:51 a.m. PST |
I agree. Using a board game can work very well. You might have to tweak the rules but the components alone are very helpful. For Romans I bought Conquest of The Empire 2nd Ed recently when I found it on sale. It deals with Roman civil war. I havenīt found time to play it yet. But it comes with a very nice large map of the Roman Empire and 396 miniatures. (Miniatures not of wargaming standard but very nice to use on a campaign board (Soldiers, ships etc.)). You might want to look it up at boardgamegeek boardgamegeek.com/game/17710 |
Quadratus | 14 Dec 2007 6:59 a.m. PST |
I have the board of the first edition board of conquest of the Roman empire, the rules for board movement are very simplistic . It should be easy to modify and adapt to make this work. What I am looking for is a system of random events to make the campaign more flavorful
Thanks for the help, :) Matt! |
60th RAR | 14 Dec 2007 7:48 a.m. PST |
The old AH "Hannibal" was just re-released. It makes an excellent 2nd Punic Wars campaign engine and the card-driven turns give a lot of random event flavor. |
Quadratus | 14 Dec 2007 10:29 a.m. PST |
The old AH "Hannibal". . . I am hoping Santa will put it under my tree. |
(Change Name) | 14 Dec 2007 6:04 p.m. PST |
To my way of thinking, basing a campaign on a boardgame seems to make the most sense. Imperium Romanum might be a good vehicle for the Roman Civil Wars. |
ravachol | 25 Dec 2007 4:18 p.m. PST |
you could try the battle finder from the perfect capitain , or warior kings ( you can find it on a yahoo group) |
BigRedBat | 26 Dec 2007 4:08 a.m. PST |
There's a great blog by a chap called Ironmitten (Google it) who is running a Roman Civil War campaign; he has a useful map and gives some details of the mechanics. Lovely painting and great cartoons, too. He is very imaginative, and has created some unusual units and named characters. Not to be missed! Simon |
Quadratus | 26 Dec 2007 6:29 a.m. PST |
I've seen Ironmitten, that's why I am on about this! Sadly he hasn't shared much of the mechanics and I did not really see anything that would help you run a campaign like his (buying provinces, legion loyalties, income, etc). The map seems to be a slighltly modified board from the MB game Conquest of the Empire. Thanks for the post BRB, if you find out anything further let me know! Matt |
BigRedBat | 26 Dec 2007 8:02 a.m. PST |
Perhaps he used the MB game? Simon |
Rudysnelson | 26 Dec 2007 8:39 a.m. PST |
For a campaign system you will enjoy, a lot depends on the rules that you will use. I had designed one for DBM and WRG back in the 1980s. I can check and see if we still have Supreme Warlord on the e-files or if we have put them in the Time Portal Passages magazine (on Magweb). The next issue is whether you prefer, hex, point to point of area movement. As mentioned the MB Roman game has an area map. As stated DBA has a basic point-to-point system. Based on the restrained logistics of the era, I think that point-to point- is the based system for the grand tactical level. Area is good if you are moving armies for control of a region and its resources. (Out of era but we used area for the Distant World Battles campaign system.) |
Quadratus | 26 Dec 2007 9:54 a.m. PST |
RUDY NELSON SAYS: "For a campaign system you will enjoy, a lot depends on the rules that you will use. ." We will probably be using WAB rules. . . so converting how many troops you can raise/pay for per province would need to be done, but that's not a big deal. . . "The next issue is whether you prefer, hex, point to point of area movement." We will be using a map of an empire broken into provinces (much like the map on Iron Mitten), allowing people to move a certain # of provinces per campaign season. Whatever rules you have would be appreciated. Just to look at them and see how other people run their campaigns is helpful. ..
Thanks, Matt |
Rudysnelson | 26 Dec 2007 3:44 p.m. PST |
Matt send me an email at scottnelson@bellsouth.net OR snelson@netcommander.com (EMA/DHS email) I found a couple of files that contain mechanics that might give you some ideas. I can only email from work. ATT stinks! So it will be Thurs or Friday before I can get them sent. |
Rudysnelson | 27 Dec 2007 7:28 a.m. PST |
|
Quadratus | 27 Dec 2007 9:41 a.m. PST |
got em, thanks! The Sudan campaign looks interesting and the DBM one is gigantic! |
Judas Iscariot | 27 Dec 2007 11:18 p.m. PST |
Something that I have found works out really well
Combine the DBA Campaign map/system (Of recruiting troops, which is an abstraction of the economic value of the "Geography") with the 'Strategic" movement system of Hoplon (intended to be used in just such a Campaign system) You would need to draw up your map, with each portion of your army being raised in a particular spot (In some case, you will have almost the entire army being raised from one city/geographic local – this is where the Hoplon "Strategic Map" comes in) until you have your entire army plus reserves marked out in each geographic area. Then, each geographic area gets drawn up as a Map itself of a 4x4, 5x5, or 6x6 (and so on) grid (Depending upon the size of the geographic area it represents): Each grid square will have a dominant terrain feature, and possibly a "resource" (Meaning, this square is where this element of spearmen come from, or n number of peltast elements (or other type of element) As you enter a geographic reagion with an enemy army with your army, you then begin a series of "Local Strategic Moves" in maneuvering to get your army to the part of the region with the best local terrain for you (The overall Geographic region will have a dominant terrain type, which will be present in all of the local grid squares, and each grid square will have its own local dominant terrain feature, meaning it will have a mandatory geographic regional terrain type and a local terrain type), and hopefully cut off a part of the defending army in the process (If the defender have his army broken up for whatever reason you may be able to cut part of it off from the rest by reason of localized terrain – say a waterway or un-fordable river, or being in a BUA that has been laid under siege). The manner in which you enter a grid square will also determine who deploys, in what order and where the dominant terrain bits are (This is hard to explain here, but it is in the Hoplon Rule Book)
I have used it once to play a DBA/Hoplon Campaign with another small group of players, and many times as solo play myself, just to make certain that it worked out how we saw it work in the multi-player game. It makes things like cutting off resources of another player notable and more lively than a system that just completely abstracts such things to begin with
And, despite the long description here
With diagrams and written as "Rules", it only takes up about 6 to 7 pages, of which most of are filled with diagrams |
vojvoda | 29 Dec 2007 5:51 p.m. PST |
There is on the net somewhere a campaign for Sicily called I think Magna Grecia. It is for the Punic Era but would work well for the Civil War period as well. I have it in softcopy but not sure where on the hard drive it is. VR James Mattes |
vojvoda | 29 Dec 2007 5:52 p.m. PST |
Found it! link VR James Mattes |