The voice of Solon Theros boomed in the arena. “Your enemy is your enemy…”

Pal Hargrane adjusted his grip on the sword and raised the shield again. Solon Theros called a halt to the battle, but his tone forebode ill comings.

Hargrane’s wooden shield, painted with Ternemeer’s three white stars on a blue field, separated him from the Dracken Deep soldier opposite, who raised his flail. The spiked ball dangled above blood-spattered dirt. A moment before, the spikes gouged Hargrane’s shield, and his blade nicked the Drackean’s cheek. The mark trickled red into the man’s dark beard above his own shield, which bore a dragon head, black on dark green.

“Allies You Have None”

The scene depicted here was played on the wargames table. The scenario and setup is described in “‘Allies You Have None’,” the man-to-man combat phase of Champions of Chaos.

“Your countryman is your enemy…”

Hargrane looked to his left and right. Ternesmen along the line, few remained, did the same.

Hargrane’s true countrymen were far away—across the sea, his mother told him. Vikings killed his father and sold his mother, the babe Pal in arms, to Darkmeer traders, who brought them to the Low Countries. Pal grew up starving as a slave, working beside his mother in the mud fields of the Lionsgate Wards, until Ternemeer raiders captured them. Pal was in his twelfth year.

In Ternemeer, they were better treated. They weren’t slaves to the Ternes but bonded laborers, indentured for an indefinite period to pay their own ransom. Such were the customs in Darkmeer. But Pal and his mother had good food, comfortable quarters, and not so long work days. The Ternes protected them from raids by the Warders as well as the Drackeans. Now, years later, his mother was treated as any other Terneswoman, and Pal Hargrane fought alongside Ternesmen and loved them.

With pride he carried the shield with their coat of arms. The blue field was the Ternemeer, a lake after which the surrounding territory was named. The three white stars were reflections in its surface, representing hearth, family, and the protection of one’s neighbors. Ternemeer was his country. The Ternes were his countrymen, indeed.

“Allies you have none—Fight!”

The command echoed between the walls. Three hundred warriors stood, brows furrowed, heads cocked. Pal Hargrane struggled to make sense of the words. Blood pumped hot in his ears. His head spun.

Before the echo faded, a cry of rage rose up from behind Hargrane’s recent opponent. The red mark on the cheek was replaced by a spiked ball and a splash of blood. 

Nostrils filled with the smell of copper, Hargrane braced the shield and rushed the new enemy. His blade separated the life from the Drackean’s body, as battle cries again filled the air over the arena at Aldefane.

“Fight!” echoed in Jarl’s ears. To his right, a Ternsman loosed an arrow into the back of a footman, another Ternesman. As quickly, Jarl drew the string of his own longbow and put an arrow into the first. As cries rose up from the battlefield, warriors fell upon it. The nearest target was a Ternemeer swordsman, back turned, eighty yards away.

While Solon Theros spoke, Theodoard got to his feet. He stood knee-deep in running water where he almost drowned. Crossing the stream with his company of armored flail men, he tripped. A man in plate mail is not quick to rise from prone. Soaked with water, he is less quick. Face down in a foot-deep stream, he doesn’t breathe.

Theodoard picked the flail and shield from beneath the rippling surface, grumbling under his breath. He missed the entire battle. For that, he would be ridiculed. There was a Drackean footman now, turning toward him with a smug look.

“Allies you have none—Fight!”

Or maybe it wouldn’t matter so much. Theodoard charged.

Gareth Tor dropped his bow and drew his sword. Any archer who did not would be the first target of any other archer who did not. A Ternemeer armored warrior charged toward him. Another warrior, a Drackean archer like himself, sword drawn, charged the Ternesman from the flank.

When the Ternesman went down, Gareth Tor charged the Drackean, who he recognized. Tor feigned a cut but thrust instead, as he had done in a dozen sparring matches against Seitse Baack. Seitse never did learn to avoid the feint.

Pal Hargrane turned to face his next opponent. None were near. Fallen bodies lay around him. Sixty yards distant, a Ternesman raised a bloody sword. His eyes met Hargrane’s. Then he stopped. The eyes grew round, and the Ternesman fell forward, an arrow in his back.

Hargrane followed the arrow’s fletching to a Ternemeer longbowman. The Ternesman nocked another arrow. Shield leading, Hargrane moved toward the Ternesman. Another warrior, a Drackean flail man, moved in the same direction with the same purpose in his step. The bowman aimed and, as quickly, shot. But the arrow was for neither warrior.

Crouching to pick up the fallen Ternesman’s shield, Gareth Tor looked up in time to see the profile, a steady vertical line and a diminishing horizontal—a receding elbow—a hundred thirty yards distant. He raised the shield and ducked behind it. The arrow’s steel head slammed into the wood, which shuddered at the impact.

Tor grabbed his bow from the dirt and drew an arrow, while he stood. Two armored warriors moved to engage the Ternemeer longbowman, but they were two shots away. 

Tor’s first shot went wide. The Ternesman’s next arrow plowed into the ground at Tor’s feet.

While the Ternesman was at the far end of bow range, Tor was well within reach of the other’s longbow. As the Ternesman drew again, Tor let fly another. It too went wide.

The warriors charged the Ternesman, who turned his draw on the swordsman, twenty yards away. Tor nocked and drew, steadied his aim, and released the arrow.

Pal Hargrane charged. The longbowman nocked a third arrow and drew it back. Then he pivoted. Hargrane looked into the Ternesman’s eyes. They were blue. He covered the eyes with his shield, still charging. The arrow rang his helmet like a bell.

An instant later, Hargrane and the Drackean flail man closed on the longbowman, as the last drew a sword. Three weapons raised. Battle cries pierced the air, and an arrow slipped between the two armored men to strike the longbowman’s chest.

While the swordsman checked his swing, Theodoard allowed the flail to follow through. The sword would be quicker, but, now that one bowman was down, the more imminent threat to both warriors was the other bowman. Panting under chest plate, Theodoard yanked the ball from flesh and turned on the Drackean across the field. It was a long way to run. Flying arrows made it longer.

But the Drackean bowman held the missile weapon straight out to one side. Then he dropped it. Relieved that he wouldn’t have to run again, Theodoard raised the flail, but the sword was quicker.

The Drackean bowman, now armed with sword and a Ternesman’s shield, fought well, but Pal Hargrane saw the feint. He avoided the thrust and planted a blade in his opponent’s ribcage. The bowman slumped to the ground. The shield lay across the body. Hargrane’s eyes fell to three white stars on a blue field.

Again, the command echoed between walls. “Halt!”

“Missiles cannot be fired into a melee” (Chainmail, 16).

I allowed it. Though the melee phase follows missile fire, opponents in contact are considered to be engaged in melee. But, having no allies in the fight, Gareth Tor didn’t care if he missed the intended target.

While rolling the attack, I thought of a couple ways to handle a miss. Fond of neither, I was glad the bowman hit the mark.

“Instead of using one figure to represent numerous men, a single figure represents a single man. Use this system for small battles and castle sieges. When using the Man-to-Man Combat system all preceding [mass-combat] rules apply, except where amended below” (Chainmail, 25).

Figures

At the end of the skirmish phase (previous), Solon Theros excuses the commanders and allows the peasants to slink off the field. Remove those figures from the arena.

Champions of Chaos

“Allies You Have None” is the man-to-man combat phase of Champions of Chaos, an introductory wargame scenario, in which Solon Theros chooses champions to fight for Chaos.

Replace each standing unit, no matter how many figures remain, with two figures of its type. Place one where the unit stood, the other some distance away to avoid like-armament melee. For each unit without a standing figure, add one of its figures to the field where the unit met its end.

Each figure represents a warrior equipped as the figure, allowing for exceptions for variety in armor and weapon class.

Using my own field as an example, one figure of Meine’s Light Foot remains. I replace it with two figures. I allow one Light Foot, normally unarmored, to wear leather armor as the miniature wears. The other I designate to wear no armor. Another example, the same figure wields two daggers. To differentiate the figures—who are now “characters” after all—I give one a sword. I want to see how well an underdog performs, so the sword goes to the leather armored figure, while the unarmored figure begins with a pair of daggers.

Twelve to Twenty

If you have less than a dozen or more than a score of figures on the field, add or subtract some. Barring simultaneous combat, where opponents might slay each other, the number of melees you’ll fight is equal to the number of figures less one.

Scales

Although the figure scale is now 1:1, Gygax and Perren do not indicate any change in either the ground or time scales using the man-to-man system. This strains my imagination, but for the moment, I’ll leave it.

Exercising Chainmail

The intent of Champions of Chaos is to learn the Chainmail rules as written and use them at the table. Thereafter, armed with better understanding of their working, we may make adjustments in later scenarios of the Valormr Campaign.

Terrain

The only note concerning the terrain is that columns, in addition to blocking movement, line of sight, and field of fire, may be used as cover versus missile fire. Chainmail says, “Cover subtracts from dice scores” (41), without stipulating the penalty. I suggest subtracting 1 or 2, depending on the attacker’s angle, allowing that full cover makes the target impervious.

Acquiring Shields and Additional Weapons

A victor may pickup the shield and weapons of the vanquished. Multiple weapons may be carried within reason. A dagger, sword, shield, and spear may be carried, for example, but if you don’t fight with the spear, it—or the shield—must be discarded. It comes to the same though, because you can pick up the spear after the melee if you aren’t bleeding out next to it.

To exercise the full range of weapon-versus-weapon and weapon-versus-armor classes, you might allow other weapon types to be picked up. At the end of a melee, roll a d12 on the weapon class list (Man-to-Man Melee Table, 41). A result of 1 to 8 indicates the corresponding weapon is nearby, in addition to the arms of the vanquished; 9-12 indicates no additional weapon is found.¹

Record-Keeping Reduction

Allow the combatants to reduce by half your record keeping. Make no notes on armament until the end of a melee.

In a one-minute turn, picking up or discarding a shield or weapon takes no appreciable time, as does sheathing and drawing a weapon prior to engagement. A combatant who draws a weapon in melee, however, is treated as being attacked from the rear (25). You can do it, but you shouldn’t.

Additional weapons in one’s arsenal allow for choice in subsequent melees. As he approaches, consider your opponent’s weapons and armor compared to your own on the Melee Table (41) and the “first blow” rules (25). Don’t draw too soon. Given time, a clever opponent might, after you’ve drawn, drop one weapon and draw another before closing.

Missile Weapons

A combatant using a missile weapon attracts a charge from one to three of the closest opponents in missile range. This because every fighter knows that, even if they aren’t the first target, they might be the next.

Missile weapons are most judiciously used after the field is thinned. A stationary bowman fires at a range from 150 (bow) to 210 yards (longbow) twice per turn, but the second shot is taken at the end of the turn. Consider the number of targets and range before nocking an arrow.

Move, Missile, and Melee

Following the Turn Sequence (9), move each figure—charging whenever possible, take any missile fire, then resolve melees. By my reading of the rules, a man-to-man melee is resolved in its entirety within a single one-minute turn. For simplicity’s sake, conduct one melee at a time.

Because it would too onerous to roll first move (Turn Sequence, step 1) for a dozen figures, on the first turn assume movement is simultaneous but don’t write orders. Dice for first move at the beginning of a melee to determine which figure is the attacker and which the defender. The field should be considerably thinned by the second turn.

One Hit, One Kill

Modern adventure gamers might scour the Man-to-Man Combat section for how many hits a figure takes before it falls. The answer, though unwritten, is one. Hit points haven’t been invented yet.

“Halt!”

In this series of melees, a story unfolds. One warrior is victorious over all opponents. Pit figure against figure until only one remains.

When Solon Theros calls the halt, your figure stands over the prone form of his or her last opponent. Scattered around the silent battlefield, a score of others, enemies and former comrades, stand over prone forms.

Notes

¹ Weapons of classes above 8 are unwieldy in man-to-man combat. Just for fun though, pit a dagger against a two-handed sword.

Annemie Tacx drew the killing field. She knew her enemy. Minke Meine was an aggressive commander.

Tacx’s longbows formed across the space between a pillar and the north wall. Their arrows could reach into the bog, south, and across the stream, east. Between the longbows, heavy foot interspersed themselves. A troop of peasants skulked thirty yards behind. Opposite the pillar, two units of armored foot in a column filled the narrow stretch of firm ground beside the bog.

Dracken Deep vs. Ternemeer

Find the scenario and setup for the skirmish here described in “Dracken Deep vs. Ternemeer.”

Meine positioned her archers along the stream, just beyond longbow range. Likewise, her armored foot, three units in a column, between the two eastern pillars. Her light troops lined up along the north wall.

Then the doors closed, and Solon Theros, after promising cruel death for cowards, began the battle.

Meine’s armored troops advanced, lead elements crossing the stream. The longbows let fly the first volley as, on Tacx’s right, her own column advanced. The forward unit skirted the field.

The following unit halted at the field’s edge, and Meine’s light foot charged them. The intent surely was to mask the longbowmen’s fire. But the charge was repulsed, and Meine’s main body entered the field under a hail of arrows.

Meine’s lead element charged Tacx’s right. The right withstood the charge. Then, under fire from across the stream, the right pressed the attack, charging Meine’s main body.

The light foot, recovered, charged the firing line. A volley of arrows cut down their first rank. The second rank charged on. The longbows refused combat, falling back to the line of peasants, while the heavy foot halted the charge.

In the killing field, the fight was on. Armored troops clashed. Having dispatched the light charge, Tacx’s heavy foot flanked the line’s left, while Meine flanked the right. In the general melee that followed, both sides were diminished.

With no targets, Meine’s archers advanced, crossing the stream. Tacx’s longbows also advanced, putting the enemy archers in range of indirect fire.

In the loggia above, red eyes blinked. “Halt!” said Solon Theros.

The last swords clanked. Shields lowered. Remnants of armored troops were on the right. The killing field was colored in blood. On opposite sides, longbows and archers. Between them, Tacx’s few remaining heavy troops stood, chests heaving.

For the space of a heart beat, all was silent. Solon Theros began to speak. “Your—”

Arrows whisked the air. The heavy troops fell. Silence again.

Another beat, another volley of arrows from the other direction. Archers fell. Stillness followed. A crow swooped over the field to light atop a fallen pillar. It ruffled its feathers.

Solon Theros began again. “Your enemy is your enemy. Your countryman is your enemy. Allies you have none. Fight!”

Champions of Chaos

So begins the man-to-man combat phase of Champions of Chaos.

Score

Annemie Tacx leads Ternemeer to victory over her rival Dracken Deep’s Minke Meine. Both will go on to lead troops against the forces of Law in the Valormr Campaign.

Scores include the two figures felled after the halt. This is Chaos.

Afternoon light seeps through Darkmeer’s mists. At Aldefane, Solon Theros, from the loggia, surveys the field below. His eyes glow red through a steel visor. Atop a tall tower crouches Anax Archontas. Diamond pupils, large as shields, gleam through slits.

Terrain

The simplest version of the scenario is played on a featureless field. To exercise the terrain effects rules, I embellish the arena.

A loggia, still intact, overlooks the arena from the north. Beside it, a stone tower reaches 480 feet into the fog above.¹ An ancient fountain (off table) still flows. Water spills through cracks to form a stream (blue), which floods low ground (bog, green). Massive columns (stones), which once supported a roof, lean at discomforting angles. The sinking ground toppled one of the four. It lies half submerged in the bog. Elsewhere, the decaying structure deposits rubble (pebbles) on the otherwise hard-packed dirt. A large gate, now destroyed, once enclosed the south side. A door is set in each semicircular end, east and west.²

With 120-foot bases, the columns, whether standing or toppled, block movement, line of sight, and field of fire. Consider rubble as rough terrain. The stream is 20 yards wide at all points. Otherwise, see the Terrain Effects table (Chainmail, 9).

Champions of Chaos

“Dracken Deep vs. Ternemeer” is the skirmish phase of Champions of Chaos, an introductory wargame scenario, in which Solon Theros chooses champions to fight for Chaos.

Figures

The orders of battle give the number of figures by cost and troop type for each force.

Notes on Orders of Battle

1. Additional weapons count only for total points; the figures are already counted.
2. Commanders are not purchased. They don’t fight. Their presence impacts troops on the battlefield as per Chainmail’s commander rule (21).
3. Dracken Deep Bows are Heavy Foot; Ternemeer Longbows, Light.

At 50 points per regiment, Anax Archontas spends 100 points, which are deducted from Chaos’s total for the Valormr Campaign. With the points, the dragon could have bought five heroes. He expects Solon Theros to produce more.

Deployment

Regiments are divided into formations of like troops called units.³ The commanders dice for first go. The winner chooses a side of the stream in which to setup her troops, positioning herself in the stands above. Her opponent takes the other side.

The commanders, in turns, then place one unit at a time, each anywhere on her side of the stream.⁴ The commander figure is also placed in turn on the battlefield.

Start

When the last unit is deployed, Solon Theros orders the doors closed. Two figures position themselves in the south gate. One holds an axe, the other a whip. Both wear black hoods.

Claws scrape granite as the dragon adjusts position. Pebbles and dust fall in a plume from the tower.

Solon Theros scans the assembled troops. “Who flees kneels—before the executioner… after long torture.”

The superhero begins the battle so: “Destroy your enemy; give no quarter.”⁵

Begin with the Turn Sequence (Chainmail, 9). Move-and-countermove preferred, as it’s faster and easier.

Morale: Test Post Melee Morale (15) as normal but replace a surrender result with a rout. Furthermore, a unit that fails a check for Instability Due to Excess Casualties (17) is not removed from play, nor does it surrender. Instead, each time a unit fails this test, it suffers a penalty (-1) on one dice whenever a roll is made. So, if a unit fails a second time, it takes a -1 from two dice.⁶

Objective

Score points by removing enemy figures from play. Each figure is worth its purchase cost, including additional weapons. The commander with the most points when Solon Theros calls a halt wins.

Notes

¹ The tower’s height puts the battlefield 30 feet outside the range of the dragon’s fear effect.

² The tabletop arena is built from stones quarried from the wintertime model of Throrgardr.

³ Larger forces might have enough figures of a troop type to make multiple formations. In that case, a formation of like troops may be added to a previously placed formation.

⁴ Another scenario, perhaps called “Champions of Law,” might restrict setup to a smaller area.

⁵ Prisoners, the rules for which are too complex for the scenario, are disdained by Solon Theros.

⁶ Tracking accumulated penalties for instability might be a record-keeping burden. I suspect though that a unit fighting with even the initial penalty won’t last long.