Friday, September 24, 2021

Mid Nineteenth Century Campaign - A Beginning

Part of the Hildorien Maethor Army 

 Early in the Spring I decided to run a campaign for my local game group. The goals were simple tactical rules and small force to have games conclude in 2-3 hours, area point-to-point movement and well defined objectives for the map part. Previous control of an area and the movement into that area would determine the type of battle based on cross referencing each armies posture. This would give a short time spent on map moves and focus the game on the tactical level. 

Flag of the Principalities of Mutts
I have eleven players for the game and while it is an ImaginNation setting I wanted it to feel like the historic period. I therefore have 3 major nations, each run by two players, to represent the powers of Austria, France and Prussia. There are two players directly opposed to each other that represent Italy. The remainder are all independent. The general goals are for Austria or Prussia to build and run the German state, while France seeks to prevent this. The Italians are looking for a single unified state and remain independent from the big three powers. For the independents the goals range from being on the winning side of Greater German and having a voice in its future, or retaining their independence from all other states. There are plenty of neutral/small states on the map to conquer, or control to allow the smaller states to negotiate terms with the larger ones. These will simple require occupation to obtain control. 

Flag of Hildorien Maethor
An unusual feature of the campaign is ending it in phases based on the total loses of all nations. I want to represent the short duration of most of the wars and I felt this would accomplish that and make players more aggressive. Once the loss limit is reached all controlled territory can be traded, and all armies will return to their starting levels for the start of the next phase. 

Flag of Lupuslignum
Each player begins the game with two full armies and a half strength one that is used to replace loses in the main two. The initial size of each army is based on its type, of which there are four different ones, Aristocratic: cavalry heavy, Educated: artillery heavy, Quality of Quantity: large but an abundance of green troops, and Small but Elite: having no green troops, the largest amount of veterans, but the least numerous. The tactical rules are base on Bob Cordey's Portable Wargame with a number of tweaks of my own. 

I will provide more details on rules in future posts. 


Thursday, September 23, 2021

Back From the Dead...Kind of

19th Century ImagiNation Army


 After nine month of fighting with it I have finally convinced Google that this is indeed my account.

So what have I been up to these past months? I just returned from Gen Con and what a strange show it was. I don't think I have seen this level of attendance in over 25 years. Still waiting on official numbers but my estimate is 20,000 per day and 25,000 unique. That's way down from the 60,000-65,000 of 2019. Despite that, it was a good show. I especially enjoyed seeing old friends again.

The rest of the year was work, personal issues and some gaming. The biggest part is working to start up a Mid Nineteenth Century Unification Wars Campaign. I have the tactical rules done, a good deal of the campaign rules and a few of the armies complete. Now that my schedule is open again progress should move quickly. More detailed reports will follow soon.

Detail View of Line Unit