Sunday 11 June 2017

Planning 19th Century 6x6 challenge campaign games

I originally had some WW1 games listed as part of the 6x6 challenge, but with the completion of my Imagi-Nations armies I have decided to go with these instead of WW1. I have found with some of the pervious 6x6 game challenges, having a campaign structured around the games helps with the enjoyment and encourages the playing of games.

For the 19th Century European campaign I am trying out a mapless campaign. The idea of not using a map came from reading the blog Come on! My Brave Fusiliers!

19th Century European game being played to test out some new rules
As with all my campaigns to date. I will try and keep the rules to minimum at the start, merrily begin the campaign, then add to the rules if a situation demands. Being a solo wargamer does have some advantages.

The campaign setting has Greater Novia and Ustorian battling over the disputed territory of Scailand, which sits between lands of the Ustorian monarchy and the Novian states who have come together politically under the banner of Greater Novia.

As there is no map to this campaign. Victory is determined by public opinion in the home country or states. The level public opinion goes up or down after each battle and is determined by:

  • Defeat
  • Glorious action
  • Valiant defence
  • Past glories
  • Casualties
At the end of 6 games the side with the highest public opinion wins. The type of game played is selected randomly with dice: 1-3 is a pitched battle and 4-5 a small engagement. After any pitched battle, the next game must be a rear guard action. 

I will be using the rules for determining units involved in a game from Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe by Neil Thomas. Note - first game in the campaign must be a small engagement.

A flanking manœuvre in progress
Both sides start the campaign with a 50 percent public approval rating. After each battle this is adjusted by the following game outcomes:
  1. Defeat - the first side to lose more than fifty percent of their force in a game loses 5 percent from opinion.
  2. Glorious Action - a side that captures and hold an enemy objective gains 5 percent to opinion. As the home press write about the bravery of the troops in capturing the enemy position.
  3. Valiant Defence - a side that denies the enemy and holds an objective gains 5 percent to opinion. Correspondents write about the defiant defenders and foreign sympathies starts to have an influence.
  4. Past Glories - a cavalry unit successfully attacks and destroys an enemy unit gains 5 percent to opinion. Dramatic lithographs in the newspapers depict the cavalry charge rekindling memories of past victories, and nobility support of the regime is strengthened.
  5. Casualties - for each lost unit roll a dice and lose 5 percent for each dice score less than 4. Early photography of the horrors of war and the high casualty lists start to appear in newspapers and working class pamphlets. Public sentiment is starting to change.
The tabletop terrain for each game will be randomly selected using a dice roll:
  1. Scailand foothills - 3 x hills, 1 x building, 2 x woods
  2. Scailand farmlands - 1 x hill, 2 x fields, 2 x buildings, 1 x wood
  3. Scailand industry areas - 2 x hill, 3 x buildings, 1 x wood
  4. Scailand plains - 2 x hills, 2 x woods, 2 x buildings
  5. Scailand woodland - 1 x hills, 3 x woods, 2 x buildings
  6. Scailand marshland - 3 x marshes, 1 x woods, 2 x buildings
And randomly placed on the tabletop. More on the approach in a later post.



16 comments:

  1. The mapless / Public Opinion campaign ladder seems rather suited to an ImagiNataions campaign. Have you set your mind on going gridless? I remember you saying you were inclined to do that.

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    1. At the moment I am not using a grid for my 19th Century games. This is partly because I am still messing around with the rules and trying variable movement which lends itself to non-grid rules.

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    2. The 'free form' does have a nice looking flow to it in your photo above.

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  2. Peter,
    Well thought out strategy for the Rules- your units look great- it all does look very pleasingly Old School- ( which I'm sure that is what you initially set out to do with Imaginations Armies).Cheers. KEV.

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    Replies
    1. Hi KEV, Thanks. They are very simply painted which suites the miniatures. Cheers Peter

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  3. Another campaign with a new set of troops will be fun to follow.

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    Replies
    1. I am looking forward to starting the campaign.

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  4. Most, if not all, of my solo campaigns are mapless. I find it a much easier way to run things. Your public opinion conditions are similar to the proclamation mechanism I've used for some of my Wars of South American Liberation campaigns.

    I did wonder if you would add all this to your 6x6 list; I'll adjust my charts accordingly.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, it was somewhat inevitable I would adjust my 6x6 games. I will have a read through the South American Liberation campaign posts for more ideas. Thanks.

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    2. I think this is the most relevant post:

      http://hordesofthethings.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/proclamations.html

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    3. Thanks - a nice combination of proclamations and demoralisation.

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  5. I like the idea of the public opinion, esp for late 19thC.

    The mapless campaigns I've run/played in the past have been ladder sorts of things advance guard leads to pitched battle then rearguard action if one side loses until someone wins the battle and the pursuit. Must tuck this idea away for future use.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks. I like the idea of advance guard, pitched battle, rearguard game approach to give variety to the games.

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  6. Most, if not all, of my solo campaigns are mapless. I find it a much easier way to run things. Your public opinion conditions are similar to
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  7. How do you decide which units are available to the armies? If a unit is eliminated in one game, does it stay eliminated for the remainder of the campaign?

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  8. I chose not to have any losses from games reflected in future campaign games. Generally I try and keep my campaigns a simple as possible as I use them mainly to provide addition context to my solo games. In this campaign game units were determined more so by rules from 19th Century Wargaming.

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