Hyboria Ladder Campaign

 

The following is a quick post to confirm how the latest foray into Robert Howard's Continent of Hyboria has been structured.

The winner of the first game, a Pitch Battle, enters the portion of the "Ladder" belonging to the losing side. Assuming the winner defeats their enemy again they move further along the ladder continuing as attacker; if they lose, they are pushed back into their own part of the ladder, or to the previous position, now as defender. The ultimate winner is the side that takes their opponents Major Town, or the side that is deepest into enemy "territory" after, in this case, six battles. I've decided to set a time limit as I fear it may all get stuck at some point, moving backwards and forwards! We'll see...

Having won the Pitch Battle, Conan moves on to the battle for the first step in the Campaign

The rules used to fight the battles will probably vary based on the situation, though Dominion of the Spear and the Portable Wargame are most likely to be used. I hope that explains things a little. The next post hopefully will report the battle for a village, as the Aquilonian Army pushes into Nemedia. 

A further tarriance in Hyboria

 The following game represents the opening move of a new campaign set in Robert Howard's Hyboria. The Campaign mechanism and rules will be set out in the next post. As far as the setting is concerned, the situation is as follows; A coup in the Court of Nemedia has replaced the King. The new ruler, Count Ortagines has a deep aversion to Conan, now King of Aquilonia, and sends agents to capture the King's favourite concubine (whose name, typically, is not recorded). Conan, in a blood thirsty rage, leads an army to the Nemedian border...

Map found somewhere on the WWW

The first game is a simple pitch battle, the result of which will lead on to the next. Apologies for the rather dark pictures; it's rather dark this morning!

For the Aquilonian Army I am using a 10mm force that was painted for a different Campaign completely but will suit. The figures are mostly Irregular Minis. Conan is a Mark Copplestone figure.

For Nemedia, I went prospecting in the foothills of the Lead/Plastic Mountain Range and unearthed a few figures and quickly slapped some paint on them; the Nemedians are supported by some Mercenaries. 

The game:

The opposing armies glower at each other and trade insults

The Aquilonian Knights punch a hole in the Nemedian line
Conan faces the Nemedian General, Baron Panatone

The Nemedians suffer further casualties. Conan and the
Baron are in single combat - this can only go one way...

The Baron falls and the day is won

So, Aquilonia wins the first battle and Conan is now on the way to vengeance.

A piece of good news, for me anyway, is that Irregular Miniatures 10mm ranges are being produced again; currently the Fantasy and Medieval ones are available, but I am assured that all the 10mms will be out next year. I hope to make a few Very Small Armies for further Hyborian Escapades in the near future. See HERE for the resurected Irregular Minis.

Exeunt

 

Turn 6 saw Legion IV advance in the centre, the Brocolii tribe and Legion II recuperating in the North, while in the South Legion III marched after the retreating Coronithi and attacked them.  

The Fifth Battle

Coronithi v Legion III

The Coronithi Chief was determined to stall the advancing Vard Legions with a hit and run battle hoping to fall back to the Capital with as many men remaining as possible.

The Vard General decided that the landscape he had just advanced into favoured a more defensive stance and fought the battle with this in mind.

The Vard control the hill and have their archers in the woods. The Coronithi attack somewhat halfheartedly.  

At one point the Vard are drawn into an attack...

but their General is cautious, wanting to preserve numbers for an attack on the enemy Capital

The Coronithi withdrew with both sides suffering some losses.

Turn 7 saw further movement by Legion IV and recuperating forces on both sides

Poor Army movement dice throws for both sides stalled the Vard advance on Turn 8, however the recovered Legion III was able to advance to the enemy Capital

The Sixth Battle

Coronithi v Legion III

A very reduced Coronithi tribal force, plus the Capital's town garrison, faced the Vard Legion III.

The Vard General employed the same tactic that had won him the last town, firing on the garrison (who are not able to move) and avoiding a frontal assault until they have been sufficiently weakened.

The Coronithi Chief's plan was to march down the Vard's left flank and tackle the archers before the garrison was shot full of arrows.

His plan almost succeeded...

With the garrison slain the Vard were able to occupy the Capital

A last desperate fight took place

but the Coronithi Chief finally surrendered.

With the fall of the Capital the long awaited mobilization of a fourth tribal force evaporated.

The Brocoli (the last surviving tribal force) decided to accept terms. The Vard had successfully expanded their territory and were looking for a new Hare & Hounds board to invade.

Bob's idea for using a Hare & Hounds style board for mini-campaigns has certainly worked for me. It would be interesting to try this in a Horse & Musket setting at some point.

Expansion

 Having got a small window of time between work and domestic duties, I have made a start on my version of Bob Cordery's Hare & Hounds Campaign set up. 

The setting is an imaginary "Ancients" situation, with the expansionist Republic of Vard seeking to subdue various tribes who have formed a confederacy to resist them. 

The H&H board was created by randomly generating a number of 3x3 Portable Wargame boards. I haven't drawn on the links but they follow the same pattern as described by Bob's illustration.

I'm using a pin board to keep track of the Army movements (8 Euros at Tesco!):

The Vard (Green pins) start with two Legions (numbers II and III) up near the frontier. The tribal armies are near their respective settlements. The composition of the Legions/Tribal Armies has been predetermined using a table similar to the random army tables in Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames. Each Army has 6 units and a General.

Turn 1 sees the Vard cross the frontier. 

On Turn 2 the advancing Legions are opposed....

The First Battle:

 Legion II V The Anacondi Tribe.

 

The initial set up sees the Anacondi to the East (top of the picture) with three Cavalry units and three Infantry. The second Legion of the Vard Republic have three Infantry, 2 Cavalry and one Archer unit.

The Anacondi are aggressive and advance at once.

The Legion push the Anacondi back on the right while the centre holds with their left flank protected by dense forest.

  Pushing forward, the Chief of the Anacondi realizes too late that he has enemies to his rear

 the remaining tribesmen are surrounded, and the tribal force is annihilated! 

The surviving members of Legion II must now recuperate and wait for reinforcements before moving again.

The next game will see Legion III pitched against the Coronithi tribe.

Further to the last post, I have made a change to my conditional formatting to add a wooded hill instead of the second wood/forest grid. Thanks to Jonathan Freitag for suggesting this. I haven't adopted a separate town on a hill option - I may dice for this!

The War of the Aragon Succession - a mini-campaign

 Very keen to try out Bob Cordery's Napoleonic Campaign rules (see HERE), I set up a quick mini-campaign using part of the Waddington's Campaign Map Bob has re-drawn.

The setting is as follows - The King of Aragon has died leaving two potential candidates for his throne. The preferred candidate for the nobility of Aragon is the dashing Prince Carlos, soldier, duelist and all round good huevo. The other candidate, Prince Alfonso, is related to the King of Francia, and is definitely from the very shallow end of the gene pool (almost the foot bath). Tensions between the two Kingdoms rise and both mobilize their forces.

Armies of Aragon (left) and Francia (right) encamped

Francian forces cross the border and war is declared

The first clash of armies - Aragon army 4 v Francia army 2

Battles were fought using 3x3 PW rules. General's on both sides were instructed to watch attrition rates and withdraw where deemed prudent.

Battle 1

In the first battle, Francia's Army 2 (blue) quickly sent Aragon's Army 4 (yellow) into retreat. They holed up in the nearest town whilst the Francian's camped outside.

Further map moves led to a clash between the two Army Threes

Battle 2 

In the second battle casualties on both sides were a little higher but again the force from Aragon backed out first. Once the Francian Army had patched up the wounded and collected the troops who had wandered off, the General ordered a pursuit of the enemy!

Army Threes clash again!

Battle 3

Despite their reduced size, the two armies fought hard, but once again Francia prevailed. Aragon now had two armies licking their wounds inside city walls. Francia's Army Two was pinning down one of these, whilst their Army Three had withdrawn. This left Army Four fresh and heading for the Capital.

Aragon's Army Two rushed off to stop Francia's Army Four heading for the capital

Battle 4

The fourth battle saw Aragon desperate for a victory and fighting with little regard for loss. As the attacking side I deemed it necessary for Yellow to push Blue off his baseline at some point. With the woods on their left flank however Blue stoically held their ground despite great loss. At the end of the day Yellow withdrew his remaining troops. He had damaged the Francian force sufficiently to slow down their march on the Capital, however with 4 straight defeats the War was lost and the Nobles of Aragon sued for peace.

Please note I played a fast campaign with the minimum of record keeping and didn't worry about recording the days / months. 

The rules worked well and I can imagine a more structured approach to the system with more time given to battles and records creating a really enjoyable campaign. 

I note that since I started typing this Bob has posted changes to the rules!! C'est la guerre.