The Triple Helix Project: Campaign Update: Army Banners and Capital Cities

Monday, November 7, 2011

Campaign Update: Army Banners and Capital Cities

Campaign Map at the Beginning of Autumn

In my last article, I outlined all the players that are involved in the Norsca in Flames event. This article I wanted to focus on the first day of actual set-up and play. I’d like to start by saying that the day went really well despite some opening hiccups, however, these have been remedied since and the Players Pack has been altered to reflect the changes made. An updated copy of the Players Pack can be found here.

Before we were able to start playing, everyone needed to place their Capital City icons on the map. It was at this early stage that I discovered two important things:

1 – Few people actually read the players pack

2 – Only half the players actually made ‘Banners’ to represent their Army on the map.

In regards to the first one item, I wasn’t really surprised. Gamers a lazy by stereotypical definition and a stereotype is based on certain aspects of fact. What is insulting however, is when I’m told ‘Well you didn’t give me a copy of the player’s pack, so how was I supposed to know?’ Being that I’ve been posting links for two separate sites that host my players pack on the Kingaroy Wargamers Facebook Page, I was less than impressed. However Mark (our Event Guru and fellow blogger), being the top bloke that he is, swiftly produced no less than 10 Map Icons for various races that were able to be used for Capital Cities and Army Banners alike. With Army Capital and Banners both sorted, everyone began to snap up defensive positions as quickly as possible. Lizardmen, Empire, Ogres and Brettonians all took up residence in the corners, forcing the Vampire Counts, and both Chaos Players to take up positions in the centre.

As the campaign started in the ‘Summer’ Season, all players were afforded 6 Campaign Turns to snap up as much land as possible before the ‘Season’s End’ Phase came into effect and Supply Points started being came into effect. Army movement and land capturing was somewhat subdued throughout the entire Summer, with few players managing to roll higher than a 2 during the Movement Phase of each Campaign Turn. The first actual army conflict of the Campaign was a clash between the Empire and the Lizardmen, with both armies causing potentially major damage to each side. When the casualty rolls were made at the end however, very little lasting damage was actually sustained (with the exception of a slain Stegadon). The battle that followed, however, would drastically change the face of the campaign.

Geordie's Capital Before...

In a daring feat of back-room dealings and fortuitous dice rolling, Jamie and Master Goodchild executed a daring raid on Geordie’s Capital City. According to the campaign pack, while Capital cities come fortified, these fortifications must be represented by appropriate terrain pieces. As the club does not as yet possess any actual fortifications (something I intend to change in the very near future), Geordie’s defending force was at a distinct disadvantage. Caught between two 2000 point armies, his 1000 points of defenders threw themselves at the Brettonians and proceeded to do as much damage as they possibly could, but were ultimately destroyed. Upon further reflection, it may have been more tactically sound for Geordie to take a more defensive position inside one of the buildings allowing him to minimise the number of troops that fought against him and possibly would have allowed him to survive. With Geordie’s defensive forces vanquished, the subsequent engagement of the Vampire Counts and Brettonians was somewhat lopsided, with the Errantry Crusade severely battered by the undead horde. In order to preserve the remains of his army, Jamie was forced to withdraw from the fight, allowing the Vampire Counts to freely sack the city.

Geordie's Capital After - The Skull Marshes

With the destruction of Geordie’s Capital that area of marsh has been turned into a special location known as the Skull Marshes. Playing games in this area will now require players to use a specific mission as well as providing some extra benefits for Geordie, should he play another game in that tile.

The Great Maw Stronghold - The Home of the 'Protector of Norsca

Mark’s Ogres spent the summer expanding their territory and avoiding confrontation in preparation for some nefarious plan that will be no doubt unleashed in the near future. As part of this plan, Mark has begun shaking down Jamie’s Brettonian Lord, extorting food from his territories in exchange for ‘protection’ for his Capital. Being that the Brettonian Lord is currently not in a position to negotiate with the Ogres on the matter, he has generously supplied the Ogres with an additional Supply Point which Mark has used to increase the strength of his army. Such a significant growth of his army without even having to play a game has meant that Mark is swiftly creating an unstoppable army before using it to systematically attack and destroying all those who resist his rule.

At the end of the 6^th turn of ‘Summer’, the territories of each respective player looked like this: