Skirmish Campaign Ideas

So far, Snorin has had 2 successful outings. Question is - where do I go with all this?

The Snorin Campaign

I'd like to create a campaign system for Snorin where the party's experiences enable them to grow in prowess. There are a couple of different approaches to take,

The RPG Approach

I would track experience and loot. Individual characters would level up and gain equipment, becoming more powerful in the process. As they do so, they can face bigger threats. This is an approach taken by RPG-style skirmish games like Nordic Weasel's Five series.

The problem with this approach is that it get fiddly keeping track of loot and experience for all the characters. That happened to me with Five Klicks from the Wasteland - I got a little burnt out tracking all that stuff.

The Captain's Approach

Basically, I'm only tracking the experience of the captain of the warband. An example of this approach is Pikeman's Lament. As he progresses, Snorin will gain traits and be able to select better followers. I'll also give luck points, enabling rerolls. This is my preferred approach.

What About the Others?

I happened to look over my previous posts where I showed my other skirmish figures. This made me feel a little guilty that I have not got them in action yet. I really should do something with them.

Back to the Arena

This is the most obvious approach - do an arena tournament. I could make it an elimination tournament. Let's see who's best!

Other Campaigns

Another option is to choose another pair and stage a campaign a la Snorin. I thought about using the Imperial army, setting a campaign in my LARP world, and seeing how the legion does.

The Imperials are the middle row

Squad Based Skirmish

As a captain or even a lieutenant, Snorin should be commanding more than 3 other warriors. I thought about doing a squad-based approach. The captain and perhaps some specialists would be individual figures and the rank-and-file would have multiple figures on a base.

For squad battles, I could re-use my big battle bases like these.

When I created them, I put a lot of figures on a base. I was going for a big battle look and I think I succeeded to well. There are just too many figures for me to accept this as a skirmish. For example, there are 96 figures per heavy infantry base!

For skirmish, I would prefer maybe 6-8 on a heavy infantry base. But that would involve creating new bases. Ouch! So this idea will just rattle around in my head for a while.

More Snorin

The Adventures of Snorin the Dwarf

Previously, we met Snorin the dwarf. A young dwarf lord, he is in charge of a scouting party that patrols the dwarven mines. On his first patrol, he ran into a band of goblins and defeated them.

Once again, we find Snorin on patrol.

Set Up

Snorin's patrol starts from the bottom edge. It consists of (clockwise from top left)

• Snorin - a captain
• A bannerman
• An archer
• A regular soldier

Captains and bannermen have advantages in combat.

The patrol is returning from its mission when it runs into a band of goblins.

Note: I am short of goblins so I am using some pig-faced orcs. I treated them as goblins for the battle.

Snorin's party must breakthrough the enemy and escape from the top edge.

The Skirmish

The soldier advances up the middle as a diversion while Snorin leads a flanking maneuver to the right.

The soldier wounds a goblin.

The flankers kill 2 goblins.

The patrol makes progress to the exit.

As Snorin drives off a goblin, the soldier gets surrounded.

He falls to the goblin.

Snorin and the bannerman run off another goblin. The last goblin warrior and the shaman hang back, allowing Snorin's command to escape.

Victory for Snorin.

Aftermath

I'd like to create a campaign framework where Snorin and his party advance with successful missions. I don't have anything specific yet.

I did roll to determine the fate of the lost soldier. I rolled a 6, which I interpret to mean that they were able to rescue and revive him.

Snorin's Tale

Prelude

After my first arena battle, I mentioned that I was thinking of doing a skirmish campaign set in a dwarf-goblin war. Well, the campaign has begun.

I don't have enough goblins printed, so I decided to press some orcs into service.

The Story

Snorin is a young dwarf noble. Recently, the elders have given him charge of a squad of troops to patrol the dwarf mines.

Snorin receives word that a mining detail has gone missing. He leads his squad to investigate.

Setup

I'm using my arena as a chamber. Snorin's squad enters from the bottom. Snorin (upper left dwarf) is accompanied by 2 soldiers and an archer.

They spot 3 goblins in the chamber. Two more goblins and an orc are hidden behind a wall (I'm using one of my hills as the wall).

The Battle

One of the goblins rushes the party. He does not last long.

Snorin takes on the goblin leader (middle left).

The goblin leader dies. But the goblin shaman (upper right) keeps the rest fighting. 

The orc wounds a dwarf warrior. Snorin kills the goblin archer.

The dwarf soldier counterattacks the orc, wounding it.

Then the dwarf archer kills the orc.

At this point, the goblin shaman weaves a mist that allows it and the remaining goblin grunt to escape.

Victory for Snorin's first skirmish!

Now What? (Skirmish Edition)

So Far

What have I completed?

1. I decided to make counters to use for arena battles.
2. I designed and printed counters for 13 different factions.
3. I stuck the labels onto bases, giving me completed counters for 2 factions - dwarves and goblins.
4. These two factions met in my first arena battle.

Now What? A Skirmish Campaign?

t would make sense to complete the counters for the other 11 factions. But I find myself getting distracted by other possibilities, specifically the idea of a dwarf-goblin war campaign. I would follow the exploits of a band of dwarves as they fight to clear a goblin infestation from their mine.

Considerations

First, what rules should I use for the campaign itself?

• I'd like something that will generate diverse missions and will allow my dwarf warband to improve over time.
• I don't want something that requires me to track a lot of resources. That was the issue I had with Five Clicks, a post-apocalyptic game by Nordic Weasel.
• I will probably write my own campaign rules. In the meantime, I'm perusing various wargames for scenario and campaign ideas.

What additional resources do I need?

• I feel like I need more grunts for both sides. Also, I envision running into some monsters, like trolls. Now I need monster counters.
• Terrain? I could just use the terrain from my MicroBattles Big Battles set. But I'd like to put something together that is more skirmish-y