Caravan to the Keep

Keep on the Borderlands Campaign

It had been a long, boring journey from the civilized lands to the Keep on the Borderland. Over that time, four plucky individuals, hired as guards to protect a small caravan, have grown close.

Aldric, a fighting man, Corvin, a mystic, Rook, a rogue, and Lothariel, an elven pathfinder. formed the core of the guard. They were led by a drunken veteran named Scar and two inept fighters, Mutt and Geoff.

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It is morning. The caravan is camped by a small lake, about a day and a half from the Keep.

Our heroes hear a cry from a servant girl drawing water from the lake. A giant grab emerged from the waters and tried to nab her with its massive claws. She ran, screaming for help.

Lothariel unleashes an arrow, but it ricochets off the hard carapace. Aldric and Rook rush past, interposing themselves between the crab and the girl. The crab strikes them, wounding them with its claws.

Lothariel drops her bow, draw her blade, and rushes into the fray. While Aldric keeps it busy, she ducks underneath it, striking upwards into its vitals. Again and again it plunges deep, until the crab shudder and collapses. Lotahriel barely escapes being crushed.

The Campaign Begins

As I mentioned previously, I'm beginning a new dungeon crawl campaign using the classic D&D module, Keep on the Borderlands.

Reading through it, I noticed that the player characters must first find the Caves of Chaos before delving into the dungeon. So I decided to create a "hex crawl" (although I'm using squares). Along the way, they might encounter wandering monsters and other denizens of the region.

Here is my hex crawl map.

The party begins in square A4. I rolled randomly for terrain and it came up as fens. I also rolled for a wandering monster. I used the table in the module and got a giant shrew. That seemed silly so I changed it to something more water-related - a crab. I also changed the terrain to a lake to fit the story of someone going for water.

The Characters

The characters may seem similar - I initially created them for my experiment with Order of Eventide. I just converted them to Swords & Six-Siders stats.

I decided to create the caravan backstory to give a reason why they end up in this isolated outpost. I thought that a guard of 4 seemed a bit light, so I added some NPCs. I made them somewhat useless so that the party needs to do the heavy lifting.

And with that, they're off!

A New Campaign

Get ready - I will be journeying to

I decided to start a new dungeon crawl campaign, and I'll be using this classic D&D module. I chose it based on commentary from Professor Dungeon Master. Here he recounts a campaign he ran.

I am heavily revising my Micro Dungeon rules. I am using Swords & Six-Siders as the basis for my design. This way, I can just use the S&SS monster stats (and it is easy to convert from D&D to S&SS)

Stay tuned!

More Random Thoughts

On Skirmishes and Dungeon Crawls

Some of my recent thoughts:

• I've reversed course and now lean towards "small skirmishes" with individually based figures.
• I'm reading Five Leagues from the Borderlands again. Some good ideas but I don't think it will work for me.
• It calls for 8 figure bands. I prefer 2-4 heroes vs. the enemy hordes.
• There are a lot of pre-battle steps. I just want to get stuck in; I don't want to game a shopping trip.
• I am looking at a simplified wound system. My dungeon crawl rules ran into the same issue as D&D - at higher levels, combat drags because of higher hp. Five Leagues has a system that could work, however.
• Why not go back to Four Against Darkness?
• I don't like having to switch dice at higher levels
• I'd like all possible enemies in one place, not scattered over multiple volumes
• Dungeons are too random. And crafting specific dungeons takes too long.

On Arena Fights

Thinking about skirmishes led me back to my arena fights with Nocan.

• Thinking about ditching the junior/senior circuit. Graduating to the senior circuit seems too much like starting over.
• But then, how do I do levels? My tables that generate opponents are all predicated on 3 levels per circuit. I would need to redo all my tables.
• I also thought about adding possible death rolls during bouts, just to make the games more risky. No decision on this yet.

Soccer and Star League

With the World Cup approaching, I've been thinking about some prior gaming. Back in 2014, I played some soccer dice games, then modified the rules for Star League - grav ball style sporting contests. I wonder if I can dig up these games?

Stuck and Some Random Thoughts

I find myself in the wargame doldrums again, and I don't care. It has me pondering my gaming.

The LARP Effect

I've mentioned before that my favorite hobby is actually LARP. Things have been going well, with lots of new players. I've also been busy with some crafting projects (mostly weapons).

Alas, the season is drawing to a close (we shut down for the miserable Florida summers). That has me thinking about using games as a substitute. But how?

Dungeon Crawls

This seems like the perfect substitute for LARP, but I've been having issues.

• I'm not satisfied with my rules and I haven't found commercial rules that work for me.
• Setting up a game can require some work - I have to come up with the dungeon encounters. I could use a random generator, like Four Against Darkness, but it can feel too random. Playing a battle, like the Dominion of series, is actually simpler to set up.

I'm still thinking about how to do quick and easy dungeon crawls, but I'm not really getting anywhere.

Skirmishes

In lieu of a dungeon crawl, perhaps I could do some fantasy skirmishing.

As part of my stalled American Revolution skirmish project, I made some counters with small numbers of figures per stand.

I designed these for "big skirmishes" where each unit is approximately a "squad."

But I haven't printed them because of printer problems. First, I ran out of toner. When I refilled, my tablet that was linked to the printer died. I have a new tablet but I have to figure out how to link it to the printer.

Regardless, I am still wondering if I should do small or large skirmish (1 figure vs. multiple figures per counter).

Posting Less

I'm writing this as a way to sort out my thoughts. But I'm feeling that I'm wasting time with blogging. I may reduce posts to just battle accounts, in which case there may be long periods of silence when I fall into the doldrums.

Bellicosus vs. Philip

The Twelve Foes of Rome Campaign

The next chapter of the campaign.

Carthage is defeated but now Macedon is making trouble. Rome sends Bellicosus the Younger to resolve the issue (in other words, conquer Macedon).

Battle of Kleisoura

Bellicosus (red) advances into Macedon through a hilly pass. King Philip V of Macedon waits for him.

• Romans - Cavalry, legionaries (armored elite), allied spears. Reserve: spears and legionaries
• Macedonians - Peltasts, 2 phalanx. Reserve: 2 Allied spears, cavalry

Note: Peltasts should be treated as spears. I used a light infantry marker to distinguish them. Unfortunately, I forgot they were spears and treated them as lights.

The Roman legion in the center drives off the phalanx.

But the Roman allied spears rout.

Roman cavalry takes out the peltasts.

Once again, the center legion is victorious.

The legion then routs the reserve spears (not pictured).

And then flanks the remaining spears.

Philip retreats into Macedon.

Battle of Kallisarissa

Bellicosus pursues the retreating Macedonians, catching up to them near the town of Kallisarissa.

Note: I used the same lists as above but dropped one unit of spears from each army.

Bellicosus sends his legions forward. They rout the peltasts.

There is a stalemate on the left.

But the Macedonian cavalry routs a legion.

Then routs the other.

Bellicosus loses. The Romans retire.

Battle of Phiasko

Bellicosus and Philip meet in a final showdown.

Same armies as last battle.

The Romans are victorious on the right but lose on the left. Bellicosus tried to rally the cavalry but gets killed in a melee.

The Romans are disheartened. Then disaster! The Macedonians overrun both flanks!

The Romans lose! They must retreat from Macedon.

Aftermath

The Romans blame the loss on Bellicosus's untimely death.

He failed to rally the cavalry. I made up the death result to give a more fitting end to his career.

They send another army to avenge Bellicosus's death. The Romans ultimately succeed in conquering Macedon.

Game Notes

• Ouch! That was a tough end after a promising beginning.
• I wonder if removing a unit tilted the favor towards the Macedonians. I could replay the last two battles to find out, but I'd rather not.
• Instead, I will move on to the next foe - Mithridates of Pontus.
• Previously, the Bellicosus family was undefeated in its campaigns. Now they are 3-1.

Dominion of the Spear Revised

There's been no progress on my naval counters. Instead, I've been perusing the revised version of Dominion of the Spear. It is available on Wargame Vault.

It incorporates rules changes that have been proposed and included in later Dominion titles. I already use many of them but I wanted the official revision.

In addition, I picked up 36 More Ancient Battles for Dominion of the Spear. As the name implies, it includes 36 more battle scenarios. I noticed it had Heraclea (a Pyrrhic battle) and Zama, among others. I'll have to give some of these scenarios a go, although I don't plan on playing all of them.

Rethinking My Naval Counters

Back in December, I explained that I was not happy with my square naval squadron counters. Instead, I worked up some new, rectangular counters. I planned to make two sets - line abreast (for galley warfare) and line ahead (for age of sail and modern).

I never got around to printing them. My ink cartridge ran out and I kept forgetting to order a new one. I finally resolved the cartridge issue, but now I am rethinking the counters.

The Problem

I created these simple, generic ships so they could represent any era - from galleys to dreadnoughts. This should reduce the number of counters I need.

But having different counters for different formations kind of counteracts that. I end up making more counters anyway.

The Solution

Now I'm thinking of mounting ships individually. This gives me more flexibility - I can arrange them in line abreast or line ahead, or even separately for small ship actions.

I will probably use 2 ships per squadron for Dominion of style battles.