An Hour of Wolves and Shattered Shields
Players intending to play in this years Dark Age campaign, need just do
the following:
1. Pick a Faction
The following factions are available (except where noted). Anyone who does not own a Sheildwall army but who wishes to play, just
pick a faction, I will get the army list copied for you and the figures will
be provided!
The armies may come from either the Arthurian supplement or Sheildwall, as
both are accepted for competition.
2.Design Your Kingdom
Your kingdom is made up of four provinces. Each type
of province gives you options for troop types or campaign benefits and will
also dictate what terrain is placed on the battlefield. You must choose one
of the following for each province:
|
Mountains |
Allows skirmishers in your army. Allows Hills as a
terrain type. |
|
Forests |
Allows skirmishers and War Machines in your army. Trees as terrain
type. |
|
Plains |
Allows Cavalry in your army. |
|
Settlements |
You may give units Heavy Armour upgrades where allowed
in your list.. Allows Buildings and enclosures as terrain options. |
|
Major River / Port |
Allows Dogs of War. You may choose a ford or bridge over
a shallow river as terrain or a settlement on a beach as terrain ( e.g. a port
) |
|
Mines |
This province has deposits of tin, silver or similar.
Before any battle roll 1d6. On a roll of a 5-6 you have struck a rich
seam and may have 1d3+1 hundred points more troops in the forthcoming
battle. These must still be legal in the list. |
In addition, you must designate one of your provinces as containing your
capital. Capital cities or fortresses produce bodyguard units.
You must also nominate a different one of you provinces as holding your
“Temple” ( this can be Stonehenge type monument or Cathedral or whatever. )
Temples produce Priests ( or whatever your armies equivalent ) and they also
bless and consecrate Army Standards.
When you lose provinces in battle, you will not be able to raise more units
of that troop type for the next campaigning season. Loss of your temple
means no new priests or army banners if they have been lost and if you lose
your capital you become a client king of the person who conquered you ( more
on this later ).
For example: I am playing the Irish, so I will call my four provinces
Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connaught for ease. I have no cavalry in my
army, so don’t need plains, but need Dogs of war to have any chance of
meeting Vikings toe to toe. Since woods don’t suit my army ( as it is not
Light Infantry!!!!! ) I will designate Ulster and Leinster as Ports/ Rivers
and the other two as mountains. It is tempting to take Mines and gamble on a
good roll prior to battle, but this is balanced against having a ford to
defend if I take rivers…..I will place my capital at Tara in Leinster and
put my temple at the island monastery of Rathlin in Ulster.
3. Pick an Army
Your army represents the army that goes on campaign for that season, and so
can change from season to season. One battle at one club is one campaigning
season.
However, you can only have one king in your Kingdom, up to four sub-kings (
or other Counts in the case of Norman Shieldwall armies ) but any number of
heroes. (within the points limit and percentages of your army lists,
obviously ).The army that goes on campaign does not need to be led by your
king ( in fact some of you may not want to commit him against some types of
army in case he dies ). But if your king dies in battle he may be replaced
by a sub king in the next until you have lost four sub-kings after which
your army will be led into battle by heroes!! You may like to name your king
and sub kings to avoid confusion. You may choose never to take your king on
campaign, but he must be used if defending your capital.
Armies will be 2000pts in order to get a result in one afternoon and not end
up with “hung” battles. If we are still not getting results this may drop to
1800 or 1500. The army is picked from the list as presented in the book.
None of the optional rules in the appendix of sheildwall will be played (
saints bones and magic weapons etc ) but all army advantages will be played
( e.g.: welsh ambushes etc ).
Army lists should be available on the day for inspection. Anyone found
cheating will be crushed under the weight of their shame.
4. Fight a battle
Players will attend club as usual. Anyone who is a player in the campaign
but cannot attend club will not avoid playing! The Umpire will roll one
random event on the table on page 90 of the rulebook and apply it. Note that
it is possible to lose provinces due to rebellion or drought on this table
and it is just possible for someone to lose all their provinces without ever
turning up to club!! This will allow occasional attendees at the club to
still take part in the campaign.
Players who are there on the day will fight one battle each, either by
mutual agreement or based on revenge from the week before. You do not have
to fight the same opponent week after week to win the campaign. Games will
be fought on a 6ftx4ft board with deployment zones being 12” in from the
rear edge and 6” in from the two short edges.
Having decided who you are to fight, you each “wager” a province. Each
player may place one terrain piece ( size not to exceed 12” ) of the type
indicated by his “wagered” province. They may place it anywhere outside
their opponents deployment area. If your province contains a capital or
temple you may now place it as above.
You then take it in turns to place either difficult terrain ( marshes, rough
etc ) or more of the two terrain types being wagered. You do this by rolling
1d6 and placing the terrain anywhere in that 2ft by 2ft terrain square. When
one player declares there is enough terrain, their opponent can only place
one more piece.
Example: The Irish wager a mountain area and the Saxons wager a Settlement.
The Irish may place a hill anywhere on board outside the Saxons deployment,
and place it in their deployment area to hold their centre. The Saxon may
choose a building or enclosure and place this on a flank where they can
defend it. They may then roll as many times as they like to place difficult
terrain, enclosures or hills. Both sides can choose any of these options.
The Irish would choose a building, in the hope that it lands in their
deployment area and they can defend it against the shieldwall.
You then fight the battle as normal, putting units on alternately etc.
5 Winning and Losing
Who has won and lost may be obvious. We will be using the Battle results
guide at the back of the rulebook if there is any doubt, gaining points for
units destroyed, table quarters held etc. A draw will ONLY be called in
exceptional circumstances. We are not here to fanny about with stand off
battles…..
If you win, you gain the opponents province. You can draw on troop types
from this province during the next campaigning season. ( e.g.: if you take a
plains province you may now like to upgrade your troops to cavalry or raise
cavalry units not available previously ). You may never own more than 5
provinces. If you win two battles in a row and gain two provinces, you will
have to choose which to bin and which to keep.
You may upgrade any ONE unit who captured a unit standard during the battle
or ran down and destroyed an enemy unit to “Veteran” for the next battle.
They retain this until they flee in battle or are destroyed at which time
they start again.
Any hero who defeated a rival in single combat, or captures a banner, may
gain feats on the Veteran Character table on page 95 of the rulebook.
Any King or Sub-King who wins two battles may roll on the successful
Generals table on page 95 of the rules. They may also gain feats as above.
If you lose you lose the province. You may not raise any new units from that
province for the following season. Any units who were not destroyed or fled
off table remain for the following year. E.G.: The Irish army loses its last
port / river. I may not hire any new Dogs of war for the following season.
However, my Sons of Death unit finished the battle intact and so I may
choose to include it again the following season.
This has the effect of limiting your options and making some units quite
precious as they become irreplaceable. If you lose your temple you cannot
get anymore priests or Army standards if yours were lost. The last province
you lose will be your capital. You become a client king to the King who
defeated you at the gates of your capital.
As discussed above, you only have one king and four sub-kings to use in the
whole campaign. If they are all killed, junior members of the family will be
promoted to Army General, but they can never have stats more than hero
status.
6 Ending the Campaign
Eventually, one player will conquer a couple of others and power groups will
emerge. Alliances will be struck and treachery committed.
At Christmas, we will play the usual Bretwalda game. However, the sides will be
split along the lines of the campaign, with everyone bringing their armies
as they are at that time in the campaign. Bretwalda will then be fought with
the winning group winning the campaign!!
By using rules that effect even players who do not come to every club,
everyone should know what state their kingdom is in and what troops they can
raise.
7: Special Rules, Spies and such
In addition, the following special rules apply to this campaign:
Spies: At any one battle during the course of the campaign you may declare
you are using your spy. You may then roll on the table on page 91 of the
rulebook and apply it to your enemies army.
Princesses: You each have one Princess to marry off and secure an alliance.
You may “deploy” your Princess on any rival faction to prevent them
attacking you that season. This option is played on other factions against
their will, but who can argue with the course of true love? You may also use
your Princess to secure a mutually agreed alliance, meaning the alliance
cannot be broken for at least two seasons. Alliances made any other way can
be broken when you like.
*SPECIAL RULE*
This rule will apply to all games during this campaign. IF a unit breaks and
either cannot flee directly backwards due to the presence of enemy units, or
encounters a formed enemy unit ( not skirmishers ) in its first flee move
directly away from the attackers, it is destroyed. Pursuers must declare if
they are pursuing before units are moved or flee distances rolled.
This will be enforced to prevent surrounded armies fleeing through gaps and
rallying to keep the game dragging on. It will also increase the number of
units destroyed in a game which will give a decision more quickly and risk
certain troop types not being raised again.
Also: Where two factions are squabbling over the right to dispatch a capital
city, the winner of a dice roll can have the opportunity to attack that
season, with the other faction attacking the season after if it still holds
out.
8: Record keeping
I will undertake to produce a table listing what has happened to each
faction, develop the back story and keep everyone up to date. Rolls on hero
or general tables will be witnessed after the battle and a record made.
However, it is up to each of you to record the state of your army
accurately, the benefits your heroes have and any veteran units etc. Again,
anyone found out cheating will be shamed.
I will post the results on the website after each battle.
Anything I have forgotten or missed out will be agreed by mutual consent or
made up by me on the spot ( the Umpire is always right ).
Now then, on with the slaughter……. |
