"Plains War Campaign" Topic

Hi,

I'm about to start a Plains War campaign pitting the Sioux\Cheyenne alliance against the US Cavalry.

I have 3 players commanding the 4th, 5th, and 7th cavalry regiments versus five players (two via email) commanding five Indian tribes (Hunkpapa, Oglala, Sans Arc, Blackfoot, and Northern Cheyenne).

I'm the umpire. The map is hand-drawn and is a point to point movement system. Communications is limited and players will have to scout for the enemy (and each other), which will likely be difficult to find their enemy's exact location. Supplies will be involved, but I'm keeping this simple so that the campaign can be run to conclusion.

I figure the campaign will last between 10 to 15 "turns". Each turn should take a player about 10 to 15 minutes to plot out. We should be able to get two or more turns in a week depending on the encounters we have. We will fight the battles using my new Din of Battle (2nd Edition) rules I have been working on. The battles will either be fought at company scale (each unit a company), squad Scale, or can be resolved by me if they are really small.

Cavalry players will have to hunt down the Indian villages and either bring them back to the reservation or destroy them. They get more VPs for capturing villages than burning them.

The Indians have to guard their villages, gather at the Sacred Hunting grounds and then disperse for the Winter.

This is a competitive game with each player gaining victory points by meeting objectives or destroying the enemy. Very similar to my Boxer Rebellion Campaign.

Once I get my editing tools back on my new computer I will update the Charlotte Garrison website with maps, events etc.

Should be a blast and I'm really looking forward to this.

Eric Burgess

Eric, this sounds GREAT! Please do keep us in the loop.

Thanks,

John

Oh, inspiration! I bought a load of 15mm plains wars figures years ago, but never got around to doing anything with them. I think I've just seen the spur to action!!!

Hi Eric;

That sounds great, and do keep us posted.

I have 15mm Plains War Indians and Cavalry, that I have used with the rules "Warpaint"….many moons ago.

Joep

I liked Din of Battle a lot. Never used it for Pony Wars though. I also have used Yellow Ribbon one of my current fav's. I do have some 1/72 and 6mm Pony Wars figs not in use. Hmmmmmm………..

Thanks,

John

Sounds like a good game. You have tied it down to a very limited number of moves, so you should be able to get a conclusion. I've just been reading up on this, so I'll be interested to hear how it plays out.

Sounds awesome, looking for aseries of AARs.

I like what you are doing to keep the 'fog of war' there for the players, something I have seen some campaigns falter on – as the two human rulers in a fantasy campaign (boy friend and girl friend) have 'perfect coordination' without any distant communication links or (when two rulers in one locale) problems with underlings who misunderstand, 'don't get the word', disobey for personal reasons, or just flat have a brain cramp.

Gracias,

Glenn

Thanks guys,

Here are are few more details of the campaign.

We are using 15mm figures, from Frontier miniatures that I picked up completely painted at Historicon about a year ago. Nothing like having a project completed from the very beginning. I am going to switch some of the figures out over time as I love the Minifig Plains Indians and dismounted cavalry. All figures are based individually and a company (unit) is four figures. The small unit density on a big table gives you the feel of the wide open spaces of the Plains. I've always been a "big battalion" type guy, but this basing really gives me the look I wanted for the Plains Wars. Plus, with four figures per unit you don't have to paint a lot of figures. I have both mounted and dismounted figures.

There are three cavalry commanders each with 8 companies of cavalry and two supply trains. The 7th cavalry also has a company of Crow Indian allies attached which will help them with scouting.

Each Indian tribe has a random starting location within their tribal area (six locations) and starts with a random number of units (based on a die roll). Two of the tribes have 4-6 warparties, one has 6-8 warparties, one has 8 – 10, and the Hunkpapa have 10-12 warparties. This gives me some replayability for the campaign if we like how this turns out.

I designed the map on a 8.5 x 14 piece of paper using a template to create circles (rivers\creeks), squares (plains), and triangles (mountains) and then these locations are connected either by trail or river\creek. I took the finished map down to Kinkos and made copies and lamenated them for my local gamers. I've sent JPG files of the map to all participants. Each location has a number associated with it. I also named most of the figures on the map: rivers, mountains, ridges, passes after players in our group.

I hope to create a Powerpoint presentation that will show the map and the movement of all 8 player's forces during the campaign. Should be pretty cool when done. I will post updates to TMP along with files and final PowerPoint slide show when the campaign is completed.

The first orders are due this week and we should start heating up, no later than turn 2 I would think.
- Eric Burgess

Dude, I am in awe of your preparations. This ought to truly rock!

Gracias,

Glenn

Thanks Glenn. Eventually I'll post the map and rules so you can take advantage of the work I've done. No point of keeping it a secret. :-)

- Eric

This is really great! So, are you treating each 4 figure Company as one unit in DoB? Will the Indian Warparties also be 4 figs each?

Thanks,

John

Hi John,
Yes, the Indians would also have four figure units.
- Eric

Eric
I take it you are using individual figures to represent a base? I did that with 28mm figures – it is a good way to go, and with 15mm figures will reduce the table size you need.

Im one of the Indian chiefs in Eric's game and I have to compliment Eric on the work he did to get this going. Im really looking forward to the campaign, it should be a challenge to both sides.

Wow sounds like the kind of thing i would give my left you know what to play in…..sounds like great fun….keeps us updated!

Thanks for the kind compliments folks. I'm enjoying the heck out of the campaign and we are only in the first turn.

I will need to be careful with my posts on TMP because I can't give too much away.

There will be no battles on the first turn, but both Indians and Cavalry are trying to scout and determine where the enemy is located and what their stregth is.

BTW, the PowerPoint slide show is turning out fantastic with animation of the player's movement. I just wish I could find a way to mouse-over an object and pop-up a brief text message that could tell the viewer what the forces are in the location.

- Eric Burgess

Hah! Figured out the ScreenTip option with PowerPower. Now this is going to be fantastic!

Eric

Hi JJ,

I can send out maps (JPGs) to anybody that wants them. I could send out rules too provided there is a promise not to share with any of the players in the campaign.

The PowerPoint will not be available until the end of the campaign I'm afraid as it will have too much info.

Eric Burgess

if you want copies let me know via email.

EBurgess @ Carolina.rr.com

Just remove the spaces above to send email to me.

- Eric