In the introduction to Setting Up a Wargames Campaign, Tony Bath warns the neophyte campaigner against “plunging immediately into complicated campaign rules” (551). Though the preparation is much different, the risk is similar to that of the adventure game campaign creator: “For many it can end by getting bogged down in the complications and, in the ensuing frustration, vowing never to go in for that sort of thing again.”
To this I add my own constraint, shared by many modern wargamers, that of time. I aim to finish the Valormr Campaign by summer’s end. I prefer to spend these days fighting battles with fantastic creatures in murky swamps, not getting bogged down with the rules in them.
Bath continues: “For that reason it is often best to start off with a simplified campaign.” Valormr is such a campaign. I draw from the first three chapters of Wargames Campaigns, wherein Bath discusses the map of the continent, the people and cultures which inhabit it, movement and weather, making contact with the enemy, transferring the strategic to the tactical scenario, and disengagement.
In later chapters, Bath delves into supply, characterization, and lots of fun and interesting bits he calls “campaign extras.” I’ll save these for more advanced games of the future. In setting up the Valormr campaign, where I make an obvious shortcut for simplicity or where I am so inspired, I record ideas concerning more complicated rules. As ideas, these are neither fully developed nor well thought through. If you go for a more complicated campaign, massage them as necessary to fit into your game.
Notes
1 As copies of the original text are less common, I cite page numbers from Tony Bath’s Ancient Wargaming (Curry, 2009).
Heroes trained, Solon Theros is ready to show them to Anax Archontas. He wants to showcase them—not kill them. But if the heroes are not challenged, the dragon will be displeased.
Champions of Chaos
“Heroes of Chaos” is the fantasy combat phase of Champions of Chaos, an introductory wargame scenario, in which Solon Theros chooses champions to fight for Chaos.
Heroes of Chaos Versus Ortuyk’s Horde.
Orders of Battle
The heroes are accompanied by heavy and armored footmen. Solon Theros charges the hobgoblin Ortuyk to assemble an army. To the goblinoid horde, Solon Theros adds lizard men, who inhabit the marsh south of Aldefane, plus lycanthropes, an ogre, and a true troll, all of which are found in the surrounding countryside. From the dungeon below Aldefane, he adds ghouls.
The point value of creatures that fight on the fantasy combat table should equal the point value of the total number of heroes that survived training. For example, I have eight heroes, which comes to 160 points.
Choose from ghouls, lycanthropes, and at most one ogre and one true troll. The first three are the easiest on the Fantasy Combat Table and still challenging as a group to the heroes, while the true troll is a significant challenge on its own.
The goblin horde and the lizard men should total 100 points and include a couple units of archers. The heroes can lead the forty points of foot troops, divided evenly between heavy and armored, to take out the goblinoid archers, which are a threat to lone heroes.
Orders of Battle
Heroes of Chaos
Ortuyk’s Horde
Troop/Creature Type
Cost
Figures
Total
Figures
Total
Troops
Heavy Foot
2
10
20
Armored Foot
2.5
8
20
Subtotal
18
40
Fantasy Combat
Heroes
20
8
160
Subtotal
8
160
Troops
Goblins
1.5
10
15
Goblin Archers
4.5
4
18
Hobgoblins
2.5
12
30
Hobgoblin Archers
5.5
4
22
Lizard Men
2.5
6
15
Subtotal
36
100
Fantasy Combat
Lycanthropes
20
2
40
Ghouls
10
3
30
Ogres
15
1
15
True Troll
75
1
75
Subtotal
7
160
Total
26
200
43
260
Notes on Orders of Battle
Choose one hero to be the Army Commander, who sets up not attached to any unit.
Ortuyk is the Army Commander of the Horde, which includes the lizard men. The lycanthropes, ghouls, ogre, and troll are unaffected by the Army Commander.
The usual pall over Aldefane obscures full sunlight, so goblins do not suffer from it.
Goblin and hobgoblin archers, using short bows, have a missile range of 15″.
Lizard men attack as Heavy Foot and defend as Armored Foot. With a move rate of 6″, lizard men traverse the bog at normal rate, though they cannot charge through it. Morale Rating: 10; Point Value: 2.5.
As heroes do not check morale, Solon Theros has no need for the torturer and executioner and leaves the east and west gates open. Roll morale for the foot soldiers and Ortuyk’s Horde as normal.
Setup
Heroes of Chaos deploys troops to the west of the killing field, Ortuyk’s Horde east of the stream—except the lizard men, who are deployed (hidden) in the bog.
Army Deployment. Ortuyk arrays the goblinoid foot troops behind the two eastern columns, the archers forward at stream’s edge. The lizard men, hiding in the bog, emerge from beneath the water’s surface to attack from the flank and rear.
The lycanthropes, ogre, and troll enter the arena from different locations in the movement phase of the turn following a trigger, according to the table below.
Creature Type
Start Location
Trigger
Werewolves
South gate
First melee
Ogre
East gate
Werewolves enter
Ghouls
Loggia base (center north)
Horde at 25% or less
Troll
West gate
Ogre enters
The ghouls, in the dungeon, flee a cleric’s turning up the stairs out a door at the base of the loggia. As the ghouls tend to avoid conflict with the large fantastic creatures and rather enjoy humanoid flesh, Solon Theros signals the cleric once the goblinoid presence is thinned, i.e, when the Horde is reduced to one-quarter or less of its starting strength (9 figures).
Victory Conditions
Heroes of Chaos and Ortuyk’s Horde win when all enemies are defeated or forced from the field.
Solon Theros wins the dragon’s praise if at least six heroes survive. If eight or more heroes survive, Anax Archontas appoints the super-hero General Commander of the Chaos Armies.
So Long, Solon…
If five or fewer heroes survive, Anax Archontas has Solon Theros over to the lair for dinner. Menu: Super-hero Barbecue.
High in the sky, the sun seeped through the foggy shroud that covered Aldefane. The arena’s hard dirt, stained with blood, was silent. The victors stood in one rank. Swords sheathed, helmets under arm, mail dented, shields marked by scores of deflected blows. The day broke with hundreds on the field. These twelve warriors defeated all foes.
With a boom, the western door burst open, and Solon Theros strode through it. Red eyes glared from the mask of the winged helm. Mask and eyes fixed the rank of twelve. He approached the victors with one purpose. From these, Solon Theros would make heroes to fight for Chaos in the dragon’s army. But first, each must pass the final test.
In one hand, he grasped a broad-blade sword. In the other, a shield, demonic skull splayed across the face. Bare shoulder muscles rippled with the swing of his arms. Oiled leather creaked at every step. Scaled armor clinked at every other. Boots crushed the ground, grinding stones beneath.
“When a Super-hero approaches within his charge movement of the enemy, all such units must check morale as if they had taken excess casualties” (Chainmail, 30).
Following the joust, remaining figures are armored foot. Any who fail the morale test finish in the care of the torturer and executioner. All who pass undergo one year of training to become heroes. These will fight in the final phase of Champions of Chaos.
A Final Test of Courage. “Heroes (and Anti-heroes) need never check morale” (30).
Her name was Nine. Pal Hargrane knew by reputation the fighting woman, another countryman who, by decree of Solon Theros, was his enemy. Hargrane had not confronted a Ternesman in the melee. He faced one now in the lists. And this one, if he’d got the story true, once slew a trio of orcs while holding the gate alone at Thornedown Fort before it could be closed. The make of warrior opposing him gave Hargrane no reason to disbelieve the tale.
Astride a roan horse, she sat tall in the saddle and handled the lance with ease. Like his, her shield bore gouges from flail spikes.
In the first ride, he broke his lance on the shield. Its point striking the scarred blue field above the middle of three white stars was pressed into his mind’s eye, as though he’d glimpsed the sun, and now a shadow of it obscured his vision.
Hargrane took another lance from a lackey and held it aloft. When the horn sounded, he tucked his heels into the mount’s flanks, and horse and rider launched across the tiltyard. Nine did the same. Pal Hargrane would never remember the moment when the two met in a clash of steel that thundered between the arena’s walls. Both mail-clad riders fell to the ground. While the horses paced out the charge, neither moved.
He wasn’t aware of time passing as a slit of shrouded sky turned in slow circles through the helm’s visor. As the nausea passed, a vague memory of imminent danger crossed his mind. With a grunt he raised himself to an elbow. Wood splinters lay on hard packed dirt. Between him and the south gate, the black-hooded torturer halted, shoulders fallen. A blade-length away, Nine struggled to stand.
Hargrane grabbed his shield and stood, drawing his sword. Nine stood also, but her stance was unsteady. Though a leg was injured, her blade moved at arm’s end in a nimble dance. A thrust slid across Hargrane’s breast plate as he turned to avoid it. She blocked his cut with the shield. His sword added to the scars upon the blue field.
They exchanged more blows in like manner until, lowering his shield, he drew her into another thrust. He stepped aside. On the bad leg, she was slow to recoil, leaving her flank exposed. He saw the opportunity through the imprint in his mind’s eye of three white stars on a blue field. Ternemeer was his country; the Ternes were his countrymen, indeed. It was the only time Pal Hargrane ever hesitated in battle.
