Spendle Moor

The Shadow Wars campaign started in 1046, two years after the inconclusive battle at Blackthorn Abbey. The winter snows lasted into the spring campaigning season; therefore, the campaign's first year started slowly because the weather made it difficult to muster the armies. Even in good weather, the notoriously unreliable Bitter Wood Goblins (Pau-Umbarji) only began to emerge from their forests in early summer. In and1046, they were the last to join, the host that had gathered near the site of the old battlefield.  

Strategies

I used William Sylvester's approach in his book, The Solo Wargaming Guide, for the strategy. For the Umbarji, I wrote down three options and threw 1d6 to acertain the Ozbeg's Umbraji Warlords strategy. Therefore, in early summer, Ozbeg decided to complete the subjugation of the Lake towns that had started two years earlier. The old war horse, Doba Skullcrusher, was sent south with a small force to take command of the Marshport garrison to complete the conquest. Ozbegs's main thrust would be to cut the Amber Way trade route and force the Steppe tribes away from their secure positions. 

Great Moot

Sylvester's method would work for the Umbarji with their strong central command structure, but it was unsuitable for the Tribes, with their fragmented objectives and loyalties. Therefore, a Great Moot was held, which decided the strategy by scoring the tribes' numerical strength and the charisma of the tribal thegn. More on how this was done will appear in a later post.  

The result of the Moot was a cautious strategy where the main army waited for developments at Thorkeld’s Tower whilst a sizable force led by the Zebra Tribe and the Lake Refugees moved to support the Lake People. 

Therefore, by mid-summer, the campaign's focus had shifted to Lake towns, and it was here that the first battle of the campaign occurred, north of Lakeside at Spendle Moor, 

Battle of Spendle Moor

By Midsummer, Doba Skullcrusher had joined forces with Malzag, the governor of Mashpoint and decided to march around the northern end of the Lake and fall one  Marshpoint from the north. The plan had the advantage it would also open up a line of communications to the Thrang Hills, where he assumed the main horde would be located.

Meanwhile, Lake people had been reinforced by the Zebra and Rhino tribes, plus the expected arrival of Elf adventurer Eranil (Chance Card) and his followers. Yet Doba kept the initiative and forced marching his army, now over 3000 Umbarji strong. His rapid movement caught the Lake commander Tiberian and his newfound allies off guard. They now had two options: wait for Doba to besiege Lakeside or stop him on the moors before reaching the rich agricultural lands surrounding the Lake. Despite being riskier, the second option was preferred, and the small force, some 2000 strong, marched northwards to hold the ridge at Spendle Moor.

Never Underestimate Your Enemy

However, once again, the humans and their allies underestimated Doba, who had already moved his Wolf Riders so they could gain a foothold on the ridge. Doba planned to implement his famed strategy, the ‘Skullcrusher’ or hammer. He would hit one of the enemy flanks hard, in this case, the right, whilst the hammer’s shaft pinned the enemy until they were slowly ground into submission.

Opening Moves 

With a rapid attack on their right flank, Doba took the initiative, which allowed him to secure a foothold on the high ground and threaten Tiberian's militia without the latter gaining the advantage of the slope. The Lakeside's enthusiastic but inexperienced horse countercharged but was cut to pieces by the Wolf Riders.

Eranil Saves the Day

Eranil, seeing the threat, decided to march his Elves forward and force Doba's centre into battle. The powerful bows proved lethal as Doba led his centre to engage the outnumbered Elves. Meanwhile, Liefe had moved his Zebra Riders forward to threaten the Umbarji Youngblood on the left flank, supported by the lumbering Rhino charioteers. It was not long before there was fighting across the whole battle line. The Wolf riders finally got the upper hand, and the militia horse fled; in the centre, the elf spearman made quick work of the inexperienced Youngblood. On the left, the other Youngblood regiment was equally unlucky in their first battle, being cut down by the Zebra tribesmen.

Caution as a Virtue

After their victory, Umbarji Wolf Riders came under bow fire from the scouts in the wood, sufficient to make them withdraw to reorganise. Doba Skull crusher still had the Boar Rider and his Wolf pack to throw at the Lakesider's right flank. However, his centre and left had collapsed under pressure from the Elves and the Zebra Riders. It was now clearly apparent that the Youngbloods were not ready for the battle, let alone a full-scale siege that would probably have followed any victory. Doba decided it was too risky to commit further men to the fight when he could not follow up any triumph, so he ordered a withdrawal. An action that relieved Tiberian, who was happy to hold the ridge and watch the enemy pull back along the road.

Some Pictures 

Campaign and Different Attitudes

A campaign changes your attitude to a battle. Previously, I would probably have fought the battle to one side’s morale had collapsed. However, it suited both sides to disengage to fight another day, knowing that replacing men was a haphazard business. The other impression from this battle was the Doba Skullcrusher had outmanoeuvred his enemy but lacked the quality of troops to give him the victory his tactics deserved.

Fantasy Campaign - The Shadow Wars Maps.

I love games with a narrative. One way of achieving that is to make the battle part of a campaign. I had already fought several battles using the Fantastic Battles rules. These have involved a variety of opponents that reflect my old 10mm Warhammer collection. However, I decided to use my old Orcs, now labelled the Umbarji, the Shadow Ones, in a campaign against the tribes of the Wilderness Steppes. The campaign events occurred two years after the inconclusive Battle of Blackthorn Abbey. Again, Ozbeg, the Umbarji warlord, is the aggressor, launching a campaign of conquest to control the Amber Way, a vital trading highway. Therefore, the Second Shadow Wars began a series of Umbarji raids along the trade route and the market towns of the Lakes.

The Campaign Rules

Eventually, I will post the rules, but I am using this campaign to develop and amend them. The campaign rules in Fatalistic Battles acted as my starting point, which I have adapted for solo play. Therefore, I have added ideas from Henry Hyde, Tony Bath and William Silvester. So, in brief, there is nothing particularly original in the overall design, but as they have developed, some of my ideas have started to appear. This blog aims to introduce the campaign and the thinking behind my rules.

Basic Concepts for the Campaign Rules

Here are my main design principles for the campaign. Keep it simple as possible with a minimal amount of record-keeping.
I have used the campaign rules in Fantastic Battles as the framework for these rules.
A Campaign Year has four seasons, three ‘Active’ Seasons' and 1 'Winter Season' for recruiting diplomacy and cleaning up events from the campaigning season.
Each season consists of three months. Each campaign move is one month.
Each month, a Chance card is drawn per side to create uncertainty and aid solo play.
Charlie Wesencraft's weather barometer forms the basis for the weather rules.

The Strategy Map

The design approach of minimal record-keeping means that my campaign maps does the heavy lifting. The most important map is the Strategy Map, which provides an overview of the region where the campaign is being fought. The map below is the second iteration of the Strategy Map for my Shadow Wars campaign. It covers an area about the size of the Iberian Peninsula. Therefore, each hex is about 20-24 miles from face-to-face, roughly equating to a two-day march (in good conditions), although movement rates varied tremulously in the pre-industrial period.






Other maps will include a Diplomacy Map and possibly a Local Map if the action focuses on one area. Using a Local Map is at the player's discretion because the campaign's Active Seasons can be managed by using the Strategy Map alone.

Using the Strategy Map

A ‘point-to-point’ system is used in the Fantastic Battles rules, and this is the system I have adopted. The central locations are picked out as points or nodes on the map. Forces travel from one point on the map to another by moving along roads, paths or ancient causeways that join the different locations. Each path is marked with a circle showing the movement points required between the two nodes. The monthly movement allowance for a Force (a group of units under a single command structure) is four movement points. This can be varied by force marches, faster moving forces, for example, cavalry only or flyers and the climatic conditions.

Movement.

I have adapted the Fantastic Battles movement mechanism of drawing chits to provide the movement order. Place chits into a container/bag so there is one chit for every separate Force (army, naval, flying, or a character is unattached to a force). This means the chits may vary each month as armies divide and characters attach and detach. The monthly move is completed when all chits from the container bag have been removed.

Basic Movement

The basic movement allowance is 4 points, and a unit must end its move in turn on a node. This means that a Force might be unable to use all its movement because it has insufficient points to get to the next node. Movement points not used are lost and are carried forward. The basic assumption is that (Ancient and Medieval) armies followed established routes on land, riverways, and sea lanes.
These base rules on movement can be varied positively and negatively; examples are given below. A fuller list will be published after more playtesting.

Positive Effects on Movement.

1. A cavalry (mounted) only force gains one movement point. They lose this if they have taken loot or enslaved people.
2. Flyers could count all the circle movement points as 1.
3. A chance card can increase movement, scouting or secret route. 
4. Force marches can increase movement by 1d3, but the army is subject to desertion and fatigue in living armies.
5. Magic may enhance movement

Negative Effects on Movement

1. The map shows three types of roads. The best route is the Amber Way, built by the ancient and is well supplied with fortified inns and water points. It is the fastest route and is less affected by climatic conditions. 
2. Weather. The lesser roads/routes can deteriorate the rate due to climatic changes. This may be heavy rainfall, snow and wildfires (something that plagues the Wilderness Steppes). In winter, some of these routes become closed.
3. Supply Lines. A Force that can not trace a clear line of nodes back to its home base(s) loses one movement point because more time is needed to forage. However, continuing this can lead to desertion and reduce fighting quality.
4. Chance Cards can reduce movement through broken vehicles, poor planning or raiding by a third party, bandits, or resistance.
5. Magic can produce weather conditions, illusions and confusion that can reduce movement. 

These are the movement rules I used in the first year of my campaign, which started in 1045 the battle of  Blackthorn Abbey

Workbench 2023

This blog is self-indulgent; it is just a list of the projects I hope to complete in 2023. However, it might give the reader inspiration or ideas for their games. Like most wargamers, I have long project lists, which I am always willing to add despite their minimal chances of reaching the table.

My Campaigns

My first group are those projects I started in 2022 and need to continue or complete. Overall, in 2022 I was better at getting games to the table and averaged about two games a month. I also started two campaigns. The first is a Fantastic Battles campaign, using my own campaign rules to fight the 2nd Shadow Wars. In 2023 I need to continue to develop the rules and move to the next campaign year as an Umbarji (Orc) civil war begins to brew. The second is my Pulp Alley campaign, Tomb of the Serpent, which has now moved to Cario as the heroes try to stop the ancient Egyptian god, Apophis. 

Strength & Honour and Lion Rampant

The other two ‘banker’ games are Strength & Honour and Lion Rampant. For the former, 2023 is the year of the phalanx, as I see how the rules deal with these hedgehogs of the ancient world. Initially, the focus was on Rome’s wars against Mithradates, but the aim was to run a 1st Punic War or Hellenistic campaign. Hopefully, Mark Backhouse will have completed his early Roman supplement to the game and coupled with my research; the campaign will be ready to play in 2024. For Lion Rampart, the first objective is to play the last battle of my Feud campaign before moving eastwards to play something from the Early Medieval period, including the twelfth-century Latin East (Outremer).

Two other projects are centred around games that use the Lion Rampart framework. The first employs the ‘The Men Who Would be King’ (TMWWBK) rules, where the idea is to follow the campaigns of Neil’s Blue Caps (The 1st Madras Fusiliers) during the Indian Mutiny/Rebellion. Most of the preparation has been done, so I should be able to play the first game in 2023. The second is to use the 'Xenos Rampant' game to fight an alternative WWII setting, where Dad’s Army takes on Cthulhu-led Third Reich. This is planned for the last quarter of my painting schedule goes to plan.

God’s Scale 2mm.

The next group of projects centres around the 2mm and can be briefly but inaccurately described as Black Powder games. I recently played the Napoleonic corp-level game, Blucher, using card markers, which I found very enjoyable. I am looking at some other divisional/operational rules, and the plan is to play several Peninsula War battles at both the corp (battle) and divisional levels. The first battle on the list is Vimeiro (1808). The second element of the 2mm adventure is the English Civil War and other conflicts from the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. I will use the Twilight Rules (Divine Right and the Sun King). The first game will be the Battle of Cheriton (1644), followed by Edgehill (1642). I am also reading about other battles of this era and may try something from the Thirty Years' War or the Great Northern War. One of the Twilight rules is that they are well served with historical battle scenarios.

Naval Wargaming

Naval wargaming is the third main area and a genre often ignored by landlubbers. I plan to use small scales to refight some classic naval actions. The adventure starts with the Age of Sail, with a refight of small engagements after Trafalgar, Cape Ortegal (1805). Ecnomus (256 BCE) will be the ancient venture which will link into my preparations for a1st Punic War or Hellenistic campaign. Last on the list is Cape Matapan (1941) from WWII, a period I have never played before. For each period, the starting point is the rules by Long Face Games.

Workbench

The last area is my workbench, where I have several skirmish games. This range from swashbuckling rules, ‘Flashing Steel’ to the Superhero genre employing Four Color Studios rules. I also want to try out 7TV rules and scenarios because of the excellent narrative element. The last pile on the list is some old Kickstarter board games I need to play or sell. What's familiar about all the games on the workbench, they involve a small number of figures and terrain, which I already have in my collection.
The Brown Book Initiative

Brown Books!

I love to write down ideas and how my thinking on a game develops. This motivates the blog, but I wanted something more spontaneous. So I bought some cheap brown notebooks and labelled them for each project under development. Each book will have my thoughts on the scale, rules, some research and how I plan a game or campaign. These will feed into this blog here, so there is more of a narrative between blogs.
Closing Remarks

Well, it's longer than I thought, and I have bitten off too much, but isn't that what all wargamers do? To this list, I have to add the new shiny rules and figures that appear in 2023, which will distract me in new directions. Already, I heard that the Two Fat Lardies are publishing a western gunslinger skirmish game; now that is a setting I have not tried!

Enjoy your gaming.

Wargaming & Campaigns

Wargaming is about a narrative, a story that I can continue on the tabletop. I achieved this storytelling in two ways. First, by recreating historical encounters. Here the backstory comes pre-packed with the events surrounding the battle that enrich the narrative. Here is the fun of researching the background of the conflict, the commanders, the terrain and why the encounter happened. The second approach is to place my battles in an invented campaign setting—this approach I tend to use for non-historical encounters and skirmish games. I have loads of notebooks, either on paper or electronically, with random jottings about people, places, belief systems and the rivalries between the leading players. Occasionally, I brushed the dust off these musings and turned them into a wargame campaign. Here are two different ways of setting up and playing a campaign.

A Pre-Made Campaign - The Tomb of the Serpent

The Tomb of the Serpent is a pre-made campaign from the Pulp Alley father-daughter partnership. Here my intrepid adventures take on the horrors of an ancient Egyptian God named Apophsis. In this campaign, I plan to follow the Tomb of the Serpent’s chapters but add more details that will give rise to several sequels and introduce some new characters. For example, the test game, set in a Chicago warehouse district, has already given birth to the Mist and his struggles against the Moretti crime family. Two leagues that will be the centre of a later campaign.

The Home-made Campaign - The Second Shadow Wars

The other campaign uses the Fantastic Battles rules by Nic Wright. The campaign will be played using my old 10mm Warmaster figures; minimal painting should be done. However, I have said that numerous times before! I have already played several battles using these rules, reported elsewhere on this blog.

• Blackthorn Abbey, where the oaks clash with the Wilderness tribes of the Steppes
• Battle of Landon Gate, a high medieval army, fought with the armies of the undead in the most peculiar of family disputes.
• Nidbodmar Bridge, Where the High Elf King launched the Purity Crusades against the Dark Elves.

The project's next stage is to develop these three battles into three separate campaigns. Ultimately, the aim is to combine them into one epic-style campaign.

Old Rivalries and a Forgotten History - The 2nd Shadow Wars.

The first campaign is the continual struggle between the Orcs (Umbarji or 'Shadow Ones') of the Howling Mountains and the tribes of the Wilderness Steppes. The campaign events occur two years after the battle of Blackthorn Abbey and link into the history of Umbarji dynastic rivalries. Meanwhile, the surviving members of the First Umbarji wars amongst the Steppe Tribes are few, and the old stories are lost. The Wilderness tribes also lack a strong leader, as they bicker amongst themselves. It is against this backdrop that the Second Shadow Wars will be fought.

Inspiration and Ideas

For this campaign, the rules and the ideas are my own, although I have drawn heavily on the writings of others. Most recently, Henry Hyde's book on Campaigns has inspired me to have another go at trying to set up my campaign. Henry's book is full of ideas, and rather than trying to take on all his ideas in one go, I have used the book as a toolkit. From the book, I have selected the areas that appeal to me and only involve a little bookkeeping. I have also gained inspiration from classic works, like Tony Bath’s Setting up a Wargames Campaigns, etc. The plan is to share the development of the campaign rules on this blog, with posts and, in Tahoe future, a downloaded rules outline.

 

The Battle Of Blackthorn Abbey

Fantasy Wargaming is one of my main interests. The traditional mixture of the medieval setting with that magical element appeals. A genre that allows your imagination to create your own heroes, histories and fantastic places. Also, like many wargamers in the U.K., there is the influence of Warhammer with its gothic backdrop. However, my love for writing led me to create my own world, inhabited by its own unique people. Therefore, the rules I currently use for my fantasy wargaming are Fantastic Battles because of their design flexibility. A fuller discussion on fantasy wargame rules and why I chose Fantastic Battles can be found here.

Ozbeg the Maligned

Ozbeg the Maligned was not the most impressive of Great or White Orcs, but what he lacked in physical prowess, he made up with his cunning and his royal birth. His granduncle (Bulad the Bloody) was the last great kaumn (King of Kings) of the Western Umbarji (my Orcs). As usual, Bulad’s death in a raid against the city of Letharac led to the fragmentation of his empire. Ozbeg, a younger sibling of a minor concubine, inherited a small domain around the southern peaks of the Howling Mountains. A lordship that was on the fringes of the now-defunct empire. Reverting to the old Umbarji traditions of plundering and burning, Ozbeg provided his followers with the essentials of life; honour, war, blood, slaves and plunder. While his forces raided and slaughtered, Ozbeg continued to sow seeds of discord amongst his brood brothers. Slowly but steadily, Ozbeg’s horde grew from hundreds to thousands. His hunting lands gradually extended into the great northern plains of the Mammoth Steppes.

Lu’Lak -The Blood Shaman

Ozbeg attracted numerous orcs to his banner as his land grew, including the Blood soothsayer Lu'ak. Lu’ak saw in Ozbeg the potential for wealth and power and proclaimed him the living embodiment of Gijak Creveetor, the Umbarji creator god. The proclamation was heretical, even by Umbarji standards and potentially brought Ozbeg directly into conflict with his siblings. However, most were too far away and too busy fighting themselves to be worried about snotling like Ozbeg. Ozbeg’s semi-divine status attracted many discontents to Ozbeg’s banner. A lighting campaign to the south forced the lesser Umbarji (Goblins) tribes of the Bitter Forest to acknowledge Ozbeg’s hegemony. Ozbeg's ambitions turned to the south to the land of men and ogres. He started to raid the trade road, and the villages and hamlets clustered around the Lake.

The Attack on Marshport

The grass sea had just started to turn to bone-white in the summer heat when a bedraggled runner appeared in Strom Ironheart’s encampment. The man had come from the township of Marshport, where the Amber Way met the Lake's northern shores. The story the messenger told brought dread to Strom's soul. Raiding was a way of life on the Wilderness Steppes. Zebra riders attacked Elk people, Ogres tribes plundered their own and human kin, and occasionally the Umbarji appeared from their mountains to create havoc. However, the story of the Lake-man was different. He told of a strange rhythmic heartbeat that pervaded the night, a strange howling that he swore was in a demonic tongue. Then an incredible feeling of dread before the Orcs swept through the township. Left for dead, he watched his kith and kin, stripped of all their processions or being herded into the night. Those who stumbled were skewered and left to the birds and wolves.
Strom had seen the carnage of a Umbarji raid before, but they had never been bold enough to attack a lake settlement in recent years. However, it was still grazing season, and even if it was more daring than he would expect, one raid did not require the Great Summons.

 

Autumn Raids

During the autumn months, when the first snow flurries occurred, the Umbarji raids became a torrent. The lifeblood of the tribes, the caravans that crossed to the Steppe, faced constant attack. Even Lakeside, the largest township on the Lakes, had to fight off Umbarji raids.
Rumours from merchants said that a great Orc king once again led his people. For Strom, a young warrior, when Blud wreaked his chaos, his old gut rumbled with fear, and it was now the time to blow the Horn and summon the tribes.

To Battle 

Storm and his fellow chieftains had decided on caution because several tribes had yet to answer the call of the Horn. They decide to march to the ruined Blackthorn Abbey, where the Umbarji could be contained before they could damage the Wilderness Steppes trade routes more.

Battle Strategies

Strom planned to hold the centre and Shalak Hill that protected his left while threatening the inevitable Orc advance. The mighty Bison Riders on their right-wing would be the tribe’s offensive arm. They would overcome the Umbarji left and then threaten their central battle.
Ozbeg considered his options limited because he had already sent a third of the host home with the booty taken from the lakeside communities. His interests were to gain the relic within the abbey and to please his warriors, who wanted more blood. The massacring of merchants and their families had proved an unfulfilling pursuit. Therefore, Ozbeg's strategy was simple; use the meat grinder of Umbarji axes to smash through the centre. Let the boys have their blood reward while trying to refuse his flanks to the enemy. The manoeuvre would please his warriors and distract them from the mission to ransack the ruins in search of the relic.

Order of Battle

Opening moves. 

The battle opened with a rapid Umbarji advance, with the untried Ear Slicers (Umbarji had not severed the ear of their first kill, sometimes referred to in the human tongue as Youngbloods) leading the advance, keen to earn their first trophies. Strom held the Tribes position in the centre while probing the right and left flank.
An exchange of missile fire opened hostilities, but surprisingly, the first fighting occurred on Skalak Hill.  The Zebra Riders had clashed with the over-eager Forest Goblins. As swords clashed, magic crackled across the battlefield as the two battle lines advanced. Ozbeg, at this point, seemed to have the advantage because the Ear Slicers charged forward into the human's shieldwall that managed to hold. However, Rhino Riders on the right flank were slow and could not bring the Umbarji left flank to battle. Would the human centre hold out to allow the Bison Riders to start rolling up the Orc battle line?

Crunch Time

The Ear Slicers pressed forward, impervious to the Thangrian's (Hawkmen) fire, who tried to disrupt their advance. Inevitably, Umbarji crashed into the shield wall of the Stag Tribe with their guttural battle cries and their hunger for the kill. The central battle contact had come too early for Strom, so he threw in his mammoths to halt the Umbarji centre. Soon, the whole centre was engaged in ferocious fighting. Meanwhile, the Umbarji elite entered the abbey's crypt and searched for the relic. The only good news for the humans was that on Shalek Hill, the forest Umbarji chieftain had been killed, and his command was routed.

The Meat Grinder Arrives.

Finally, the Bison Riders brought the Umbarji Gore Riders to battle. A brutal melee followed as both sides tore each other sheds.

However, as tusk and spear clashed, the struggle in the centre was concluding. The Ear Slicers finally gave way to the human shieldwall. Still, for the Stag tribe, the respite was short as the Lu'ak commanded the Bonecrusher's forward support with his magic. The charge quickly broke the shieldwall, and the human started to flee. Strom became caught up with the flight, having suffered a deep axe wound to his sword arm as he tried to lead his men to safety. 

The Tribes Centre Collapses

However, Ozbeg had little inclination to pursue; his Bonecrushers had been badly mauled. At the same time, his cavalry arm had routed. Besides, he had the relic and now knew that the human tribes were fragmented, something to discuss later with his warlords.

The Story Continues in the Battle of Spendle Moor.