Over the course of a long and mediocre career in wargaming I have come across a lot of wargames rules systems and I still own a large collection of rules that I have bought, read and never played. However, one result of having this games library is I get to see how other wargames deal with things like terrain choice and placement. I have also attended a fair few tournaments for many different systems over the years and have encountered a multitude of Terrain placement systems. I have been musing over how best to generate the terrain for My Kings of War Campaign games and as part of those musings I have put digit to keyboard to discuss some ideas I have been having.
Please bear in mind that I have an extensive collection of terrain built up over several years of building terrain for tournaments and themed tables and so I can be fairly free with my ideas for set ups, obviously if you only have a tables worth of terrain some of my more grandiose ideas may not work for you, but what better incentive to build more terrain?
When Armies meet in battle they very rarely just show up at a prearranged spot on a certain day and have at it, I am making an assumption that the races of Pannithor don’t have a ritualistic formula for battles and that their armies of warriors perform similarly to those in our past in that battles occur because one side is actively looking for a fight and the other has some kind of motivation to take them on, be it an invasion scenario, a siege, fighting for resources or just for the Honour of Race, King or Country. In this case I also make the assumption that Armies don’t just travel around in big mobs until they bump into each other. Real Armies would send out Scouts to keep tabs on what was going on in the surrounding countryside and to watch for any hostile forces or opportune targets they may find. In a fantasy world this scouting can take many forms, small units of lightly armed Cavalry, Flying creatures, Scrying wizards or stealthy Hunters, all of which can range ahead of an army and report back on the enemy dispositions. Once the Scouts have done their work the general can choose when and where to engage the enemy army, this makes Scouting an important factor in deciding the terrain over which the armies will then fight and I feel this needs to be simulated in the Campaign to provide a bit more realism for the players to enjoy. One way this could be done would be to fight the Scouting battles using either Vanguard or Ambush, but very few people play the Vanguard rules and I find them to be overly fussy and a bit unrealistic in their mechanisms. Ambush is great for small point battles but I prefer to utilise an abstracted system to calculate the outcome of the Scouting battles and incorporate them into a “Pre Battle Phase” or PBP. This PBP will be used to determine the amount and the type of Terrain that is placed on the table, who gets to choose the Terrain pieces and who can place them first. It will also alter the Deployment rules from the normal “I go, you go” depending on the outcome of the PBP. None of this will be surprising to players of other systems as I have not created new rules but am rather adapting other systems to make a fun addition to my Kings of War Campaign rules.
I use a hexadecimal system for my campaign maps and each of the hexes has a dominant terrain type e.g. Forest, Desert, Marsh, Mountain, Hills, Plains etc, Armies that meet in these hexes can expect to fight over terrain that matches the dominant type in the hex, so armies fighting in a Forest Hex will encounter more Woods on the table than normal, marsh hexes will have more water features and so on. This allows me to tailor the terrain charts to match each hex and the number of terrain features is determined by the Scouting ability of the Players armies. The Scouting points are determined by the unit types and numbers in their army, plus their home terrain type (chosen at the start of the Campaign) has an effect on their ability to Scout in different terrain types, Imagine Desert Nomads suddenly required to scout in a dense forest, they can do it but not as effectively as in their home terrain type. This combines to give each force a “Scouting Factor” as calculated from the tables below. This Scouting Factor is also used to determine who deploys first and alters the deployment rules for the purposes of the campaign. Once the Table has been set up as in the section Below, the SF is used to determine which side (if any) has been “Outscouted” and by how much they have been outscouted. The more an army has been outscouted the more of the army has to be deployed before their opponent has to deploy troops. This simulates the advantages given to a force that is able to observe troop types and deployments before the main army arrives so the commanders can tailor their dispositions accordingly on the battlefield.
Thus as you can see from the blurb this will not be suitable for Tournament games but for “Friendly” or campaign games it can add that extra element of realism rather than 2 forces just lining up on a symmetrical battlefield of green.
The actual rules
As mentioned in the above blurb these are the actual rules I have written to add the element of scouting and tailored terrain to my Kings of War Campaign. These rules can work for both normal and Legendary KoW, Ambush is already, in my mind at least, the meeting of small skirmish forces of lighter troops than are present in the main armies, but the same rules for terrain could be used to add an element of scouting to the Ambush game.
Initially the Scouting Value of the Army being used in the campaign games can be calculated using Table 1 below, each qualifying element will add or subtract from the Scouting Factor (SF) of the Army. If, like me, you used fixed points armies for the campaign battles then each Army can have its Scouting factor calculated in advance when the list is written. If you change your armies before each game then the SF will need to be recalculated with each new List.
Once you have your Armies SF you then calculate the Terrain component of the Scouting by consulting Table 2. Cross referencing your Armies Home Terrain Type against the Terrain Type of the Hex in which the Battle is being fought to give you the terrain factor. The Army and Terrain Factors are then combined to give you the overall SF for this particular Campaign battle.
The terrain to be placed by each player is determined by calculating the difference between the two opposing players SF, the Player with the higher score is said to be the “Outscouting” Player while the player with the lower score is the “Outscouted” Player. A tie results in neither player having a clear advantage.
Taking the number of pieces of terrain from the relevant Terrain Table for the Terrain type of the Hex the battle is being fought in is calculated by the difference in the two SF scores of the opposing players as per Table 3.
Although the Number of Terrain pieces add up to 10 there is a chance that this number can be raised or lowered in the actual Terrain Deployment phase.
Once the Players have worked out how many terrain pieces they have each to deploy they can then move into the Terrain deployment phase.
The Player with the highest scouting score begins by Rolling on Table 4 to find out what terrain pieces are available to them, then his opponent does the same(if they have the same Scouting Score then roll a dice to decide). Both players then roll a D6, if a 6 is scored then that Player takes another roll on the table so the max possible terrain pieces is Twelve. They then take it in turns to deploy the terrain on the table starting with the Highest Scouting Player (or if they are equal then roll a dice to decide) Terrain pieces can be placed anywhere on the table as the players see fit. The Players then take it in turns to roll a dice for each Terrain piece on the Table. On the score of a 1 the piece is removed, on a 2-5 it stays where it is and on the score of a 6 the Player may re deploy the terrain piece on the table if he wishes.
Once the Terrain has been deployed on the Table, the Players roll off to choose sides with the Player with the Higher scouting Score adding a +1 to their score.
In the Army Deployment Phase, if one player has been out scouted , then they always deploy first, if they have been Out scouted by up to 2 points then they deploy approximately a quarter of their unit strength (rounding down) before their opponent, if they have been out scouted by up to 4 points then they deploy approximately half their unit strength (Rounding down) and if out scouted by More than 4 points then they deploy three Quarters of their Unit Strength ( rounded down).
Once both sides have deployed their entire Force the Game proceeds as normal.
Example
Beertroll has his favourite Dwarf army at 2300 Points and Trollette is fielding her new Goblin Army of Fleabag riders. They are Fighting in a Moorland Hex and the Dwarfs Home Tile is Mountains (Shock!) and the Goblins Home Tile is Swamp(Really, who would guess)
Beertroll works out that his Army of mixed Infantry , Cavalry and Flappy birds has the following scouting Score:
Berserker Brock Troop +1
Wingy Kingy +1 (Flying Individual)
Stoneclaws +1 (Flying Unit)
4 units with Pathfinder +2
One unit with Scout +0.5
2 Def 6 Units -1
1 Shambling Unit -0.5
For a Scouting Score of +5 (1+1+1+2+0.5-1-0.5) +1 For Mountain Home Territory in a Moorland Tile
Trollette looks at her Fleabag Army and finds that her Gobbalobbalins have the following Scouting Score
4 Troops of Fleabags +4
Groany Snark +1 (Flying Individual)
3 Wiz’s +3 ( Mounted Individuals)
1 Flagger+1 (Mounted Individual)
Winggit +1 (Flying Unit)
War Trombones -1.5 ( War machines)
For A Total Scouting Score of +9.5 (4+1+3+1+1-1.5) +1 For a Marsh Home Territory fighting in a Moorland Tile
This Means Trollettes Goblin Fleabag Army has Out Scouted the Dwarfs by a score of 4.5 points
This means that Trollette will roll 8 times on the Terrain Table and BeerTroll will roll twice.
Then Trollette and BeerTroll both roll an additional Dice, Trollette rolls a 4 and BeerTroll Rolls a 6! ( Unlikely I know but hey its my example)
So BeerTroll Rolls for an additional piece of scenery.
The Trolls go to the Table and take it in Turns, starting with Trollette, to deploy their Terrain pieces, Trollette deploying 8 and BeerTroll 3.
Then, again starting with Trollette, the Trolls alternate rolling a Dice for each terrain piece on the table, Trollette rolls 1,2,2,3,5,6 and BeerTroll Rolls 1,1,2,2,5
This Means 3 pieces of Terrain are removed ( Scores of a 1) and one pieces is redeployed by Trollette ( Score of a 6)
So there are finally 8 pieces of Terrain on the Table. Trollette wins the Dice Roll to choose sides easily and waits for BeerTroll to Deploy
BeerTroll was out scouted by More than 4 Points (4.5 to be precise) so he must Deploy 3 quarters ( 75%) of his unit strength Rounded Down, BeerTrolls army has a total US of 25 and so he must deploy 18 US before Trollette has to start deploying, BeerTroll reminds himself to get more Mounted Characters and Put the Scrying Gem in his campaign Army.
I hope you enjoyed reading about this system I wrote, purely for fun to be used in a Narrative campaign of my own devising. Maybe Next Year I will expand the Campaign to include the Ribble Warriors Club and write up some more Blogs for your delectation, who knows what may occur ?
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