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Cromwell
12-21-2011, 09:58 AM
For sometime I have been looking into a WotR campaign. The difficulty I was having was that the fighting was not about territory but about power and there were no real geographical front lines. I then remembered I had tucked away an old copy of the board game "King Maker". To use the game and refight the battles created using DBA would I felt be far to complex and time consuming. Also not everyone has a copy of "Kingmaker". So I had a think and came up with this following idea.

The boxed games has a number of card decks one being a Nobles deck. There are 11 main nobles and 13 lesser ones. If you do not have "Kingmaker" the main nobles are
Earls
Arundel (Fitzalan)
Northumberland (Percy)
Devonshire (Courtenay)
Warwick (Neville)
Shrewsbury (Talbot)

Dukes
Norfolk (Mowbray)
Lancaster (Plantagenet)
Buckingham (Stafford)
Suffolk (Pole)
York (Plantagenet)
Somerset (Beaufort)

The lesser nobles are
Lords. Howard,Clifford,Berkeley,Cromwell,Grey,Bourchier,A udley,Greystoke,Herbert,Hastings,Scrope,Holland andStanley.

From this you should be able to make noble cards. The game also has round discs which bare the coat of arms for each individual noble, these are needed but can be made just by righting there names on pieces of card.

Also 6 other counters from the game are used, 3 red rose showing Henry of Lancaster, Edward of Lancaster and Margret of Anjou and 3 white rose showing Richard of York, Richard of Glouster and Edward of march. Again these can be readily made.

Also needed are the event cards. these contain various mechanics to make "Kingmaker" work there are 83 of these. Out of these the 17 Plague cards are needed as are the 10 Free Move cards. The remainder have no impact on our campaign but are kept to bulk out the pack and are treated as "No result". All but 4 of the plague cards show nobles names who have been killed. Usually three on each card. If making the cards yourself just write three nobles names on each card spreading them evenly. Leave the four blank plague cards blank.

Set up.

One player is York the other Lancaster. Deal out to each player the main noble cards, then deal out the lesser noble cards. Each player should have 12 nobles. The Lancaster player is then given his "Royal counters" and the Yorkist player his.

For the purposes of this campaign it is assumed each noble brings 4 elements of the army to his chosen cause.

Therefore the first battle is set up as normal for a DBA 12 element a side battle. Each player selects three nobles (No more than three) to take part, one must be a main noble. He will be the general. Select the three nobles identity discs and place them directly behind the element that is representing them in the battle. Note that each of these elements recieves the +1 for being a general element in combat. (Although the actual general will be the main noble). Place the actual nobles cards behind your edge of the board.
If you wish you can place one "Royal" counter on one of the noble units with the nobl. If you do you army can add 2 to each pip role as long as the total does not exceed 6.

The battle is played out as a normal DBA engagment. However any noble element that is killed has his card removed and placed in a "Dead Pile" If an element has a royal counter attached is destroyed that Royal is dead also.
Battle victory conditions are as for normal DBA. At the end of the battle any Nobles element on the losing side including the generals that is still in base to base contact with an enemy is captured as is a Royal if attached. The winner can now decide what to do about his captives, he can execute and they are placed in the dead pile. To do this roll a D6 4,5,6, he is executed, and placed in the dead pile, 1,2 he escapes and goes into a "Uncommitted Pile". A Royal captured is always executed. Any remaining nobles on the losers side are transferred to the "Uncommitted Pile" (This represents them losing heart and having had their forces depleted). Any surviving Royal is kept by the loser.

After the battle each player draws an event card. If the card is not a plague or Free Move card it is discarded. If it is plague, check your own nobles if you own one or more of the nobles on the card he is placed in the "Uncommitted pile" If it is a blank plague card, shuffle your nobles, let your opponent pick a card. That noble is palced in the "Dead Pile". If you pick a "Free Move" card you can draw a noble randomly from the "uncommitted pile" Roll a die on a roll of 1, he promptly deserts your cause and goes over to the other side. Hand your opponent the noble card.

The object of the game is to be the only side with at least one Royal alive and one noble. The game is lost if all your sides Royals are killed or if you have no noble cards in your hand after drawing an event card. If you are in that postion you either have no Royal pretenders to support or you have lost the support of the nobles. Either way enjoy your walk to the scaffold!!!:eek

You include a royal in a battle if you wish, if however you did not use one in the previous battle you must for the next battle roll a D6, 3,4,5,6 a Royal must appear in the next battle.

Remember also if you still have a main noble he must appear as the general in battle.

If the event pack runs out, just shuffle and use again.

As can be seen there will come a time when a player has less than 3 noble cards, if this happens he can only field 8 elements, and if he only has one noble he can field only 4 elements. The player can choose any elements he wants to make up the 8 or 4.

This gives a campagain that involves a number of battles with constant twists of fortune and that they are strongly influenced by what happens between battles.

There is a minimum of record keeping so the campaign can be stored away just making sure the cards are kept in their correct piles. It can then be resumed as required.

For a shorter campaign use only the main noble cards, this gives only six cards a side at the start.


Best of luck if yo ugive it a try.:up

Cromwell
12-21-2011, 01:08 PM
I have just played the first two battles of this campaign.

I elected to play Lancaster and let my solo system take York.

In the first battle I selected Earl of Shrewsbury as my main noble and Gray and Bouchier as the two minors. I also elected to take King Henry along to get the extra pips. York took Earl of Somerset and Scope and Holland as their minors. They elected not to bring a Royal along.

The battle played out well I used the 3.0 system of blades following up (it worked quite well) I swamped the Yorkists on my right flank and after a close contest in the centre York lost 4 elements to my 2.

After the battle Somerset and Scope fled the field to the "Uncommitted Pile" however Holland was in base contact with an element of Longbows who promptly captured him. I gave orders for him to be executed however it appears he escaped or was helped away and he too fled to the uncommitted pile. (he rolled a 2 to escape!) :???

We then drew event cards. York drew first and it was a non event. lancaster drew and recieved a "Free Move" card and randomly I took a noble from the "uncommitted pile" and it turned out to be Holland come back! This time on my side. Surprising what the threat of a headmans axe can do!:rolleyes

For the second battle I again selected to field Shrewsbury and another 2 minors. York did the same but also elected to bring Richard of Glouster along as a Royal. The extra pips they got were nearly my undoing!:eek

Two elements of knights managed to breakthrough my blades destroying an element of them and promptly galloped towardsmy camp with nothing to stop them, luckily my cannon had already accounted for 2 longbow elements and a stirling effort by my general the Duke of Lancaster in the centre crushed the York mercenary auxilarys and another element of blades to his right took out another element of bowmen. So the day was mine!:2up.

Three York nobles fled to the "Uncommitted pile" The pretender Richard slunk back to the remaining Yorkist supporters.

During the event phase York again drew a non event. I drew a plague card and one of my main nobles,the Earl of Stafford, was carted off to his sick bed in the "uncommitted" pile.

I will fight another couple of battles in the next few days.

Main thing I already discovered is don't let minor nobles add +1 to their combat/firing rolls. They become to powerful only keep that for the general.

Also I may make plague kill on a die roll to start thinning out the nobles a bit.

Otherwise very pleased with the rsult so far. As long as you keep the cards seperate (I put mine into labelled envelopes) there is no book keeping at all.

Jim Wright
12-21-2011, 08:43 PM
Good campaign system! Simple. Has period flavor. Nicely done.

Jim

john svensson
12-22-2011, 07:40 AM
Nice reports. I had heard that Kingmaker could be used to generate a decent campaign system.... haven't had the game for probably 25 years now, but at least I see someone is putting it to good use! I imagine a similar system could be adapted to the 100 Years War also. John

Alan Lauder
12-22-2011, 04:58 PM
Another interesting campaign idea, Cromwell! Thanks, will give it go when I can put together a second WOTR army. Actually, they really need starting again from scratch - maybe in 6mm this time. I've been looking for a DBA project - this could well be it! Plays well to my Anglophile tenancies as well. :up

Alan Saunders
12-22-2011, 11:45 PM
We've been playing WotR using HOTT recently, and really enjoying it. We've been looking for a campaign system to use with it, and this sounds like just the way to do it. I wonder how to adapt it for more than two players, though.

Cromwell
12-23-2011, 04:20 AM
I think it depends on how many players there will be. At the moment in a 2 player game each player starts with 12 nobles. So with 4 players each would start with 6 nobles.

The problem comes with Royals as there were only about 6 floating about so that could limit you to one Royal each in a 6 player game.

I am sure it could be tweaked perhaps by not giving Royals at all and just winiing by eliminating all other players nobles. I feel the Royals add something though so another idea could be to award a Royal for a battle won. Once all royals have been awarded if a player with a royal loses a battle he gives the winning player the Royal. This then means the winner of the game is the player with all royals and at least one noble.

I have to admit multiplayer would be interesting.

Cromwell
12-28-2011, 12:10 PM
I have just played another two battles in this campaign. The first battle was a clear win again for the Lancastrians. York had a minor noble killed in combat and after the battle was lost the remaining two nobles fled to the "uncommitted pile"

The event phase was a non event for both sides.

For the second battle the Yorkists were horrified to find their support was so low they only had two Nobles to use which meant they could only field an army of 8 elements! However the battle was a close run thing, the Yorkist mounted knights tried to outflank but low pips stalled the attempt and although my centre was overwhelmed my right flank crushed the Yorkists giving a result of 4 yorkist elements destroyed and three of mine. Both the Yorkist nobles fled.

This left York with three Royals but no support from the nobles. The event phase was lucky for York they got a freemove card and secured a noble to their cause thus saving them from defeat. I also drew a free move card but I promptly rolled a 1 and my new recruit deserted to the Yorkist cause!:eek

In both battles both sides fielded a Royal and the extra two pips for each sie gave two very fast battles.

So York are still at a disadvantage but are very much in there.

I will update when the next engagment is fought out!

Doug
12-28-2011, 09:01 PM
A set of campaign rules for DBA (and DBM) using Kingmaker was developed by Wilhelm Oudshorn some time ago, called Warrewyk. If anyone is interested I can email them a copy, just PM me.

Cromwell
12-29-2011, 03:43 AM
A set of campaign rules for DBA (and DBM) using Kingmaker was developed by Wilhelm Oudshorn some time ago, called Warrewyk. If anyone is interested I can email them a copy, just PM me.

Thanks for this Doug. I have sent you a PM:up

Crocus
12-29-2011, 08:37 AM
Cromwell

This is a neat and tidy campaign idea and I thank you for posting. Of course it makes me want to invest in 15mm WoR minis AGAIN, but I forgive you! The basic idea could work for an Age of Arthur mixed bag of alliances, or even MIR 3-4th Century madness.

Incidentally do you stipulate troop type/composition for each noble, or do you pick and mix as the mood takes you?

Happy New Year and Smash Consumer Capitalism (after I buy the WoR armies)

Crocus

Cromwell
12-29-2011, 09:52 AM
Cromwell

Incidentally do you stipulate troop type/composition for each noble, or do you pick and mix as the mood takes you?

Happy New Year and Smash Consumer Capitalism (after I buy the WoR armies)

Crocus

No I don't specify any troop types for nobles. Just each noble brings 4 elements to the battle. The elements can be made up as you like. I take the basic DBA WoTR army from the list and divide the elements by 3.

The idea of the campaign is to give a no record keeping, non terrirtoy based campaign that gives purpose to WoTR battles fought using DBA rules.

I am sure this could be used with BBDBA and DBMM as well.

Tony Aguilar
12-29-2011, 10:02 AM
There should be plenty of period flavor (and counters etc.) available in the "A Crown of Paper" WOTR campaign rules by The Perfect Captain:

http://perfectcaptain.50megs.com/acop.html

Cromwell
12-29-2011, 12:45 PM
Thanks Tony I forgot about Crown of Paper!

I fought the last battle of my Campaign today. The Yorkists Sun has set!

The last battle involved only 8 elements again for York as they only had 2 nobles. They also fielded a Royal, Richard of Glouster. I had my army generaled by Duke of Lancaster and he took Edward of Lancaster along to the battle. The battle was close fought again.

Once more the Yorkists tried to outflank with their knights but 2 longbow elements destroyed them. On the other flank the York supporter Lord Grey was locked in melee with Lord Berkley's retinue of men at arms.
York were now three elements down.
The centre went better for York and the Duke of Lancaster was killed, also slain was Edward of Lancaster who was with his retinue. Then another element of the Dukes men at arms managed to destry an element ot York longbows thus giving Lancaster the Victory.
Lord Grey was captured for Lancaster by Lord Berkley and executed on the field.
The last noble of Yorks hopes fled. All support for York collapsed when the event phase meant they failed to secure any further support for their pretenders to the throne.

The Lancaster headsman began to sharpen his axe whilst I had my man polish the Crown!! :2up

The campaign involved 5 battles and York failed to win a single battle. I was a little concerned my solo battle system was at fault so as I had time I set up a battle between Early imperial Rome and Ancient British. I took the Celts.........I got trashed!!:sick So I think the system was okay!!