With the strategic movement rules almost ready, I added a few refinements to the Valormr Campaign Strategic Movement Map: two towns, cataracts, fords, a ferry, and a bridge. I updated the map in the original article. I also appended a legend. The map in higher resolutions, 100, 300, and 600 dpi, is available on the Downloads page.
Strategic Movement
This is the third of five articles, which discuss strategic movement in the Valormr Campaign.
- Strategic Movement (Introduction)
- Overland Travel
- Waterborne Transport
- Terrain Effects
- Weather
The following table is reproduced, for convenience, from “Overland Travel.” Move rates are expressed as a number of points, one point equaling one mile. The points given here are for one day of travel. A unit spends these points to move into a hex.
| Force Type | Move Points |
|---|---|
| Ground Troops† | |
| Infantry | 12 |
| Cavalry | 24 |
| Special | |
| Courrier* | 48 |
| Waterborne Transport | |
| Galley | 18/72**‡ |
| Longship | 18/90**‡ |
| River Boat | 36 |
| Sailing Ship | 90‡ |
|
Troop Transport |
72‡ |
|
† Details on ground movement are given in the previous article. |
|
Transporting Figures: Ships carry a number of figures,1 as noted below, plus any number of individual figures, such as heroes, wizards, leaders, and couriers. An army may be transported one regiment at a time but not in smaller units. This means a number of vessels to carry at least one regiment must be purchased.
Night Movement: As ships under sail move throughout a 24-hour period, their daily move points include travel during both the day and night periods of the turn. When necessary to know a ship’s location in the evening, assume it has consumed half its daily move points.
Debarkation: An army does not move until all regiments are assembled at the port of debarkation. To make way for other armies to embark or debark, the commander figure, awaiting regiments in transport, may move one hex off the port hex. While so waiting, a unit is considered formed, though, if attacked, may only bring to bear the present portion of its force.
Galley: Equipped with a ram and two light catapults, a galley moves as fast as a troop transport and may escort a fleet—to fend off lizard men going into Skullhaven, for example. For effective defense, one galley per regiment transported is required. As its marines are necessary to its mission, a galley cannot transport troops.2
Figure Capacity: — Cost: 4
Longship: The Northmen sail their longships on the sea and row them in rivers. Northmen have enough longships to transport themselves. They do not pay army points for them, and no other army may buy longships.
Figure Capacity: 2 Cost: —
River Boat: These small boats may travel only on rivers. Due to limited carrying capacity (10 men), four river boats are required to move one figure.
Figure Capacity: ¼ Cost: ¼
Sailing Ship: Sailing ships are used by pirates, who do not pay army points for them. A sailing ship may be outfitted with one light catapult (additional cost: ¼). All pirate ships are so equipped.2
Figure Capacity: ½ Cost: ¾
Troop Transport: A troop transport is a seagoing vessel. In our simple campaign, we ignore any time required for embarkation and debarkation as well as the state of the tide. As a troop transport may travel in the night, once a unit is embarked, some part of the day may remain, plus all the night, for the voyage. Reduce the transport’s move points by 25% or 50% accordingly. Unlike those aboard longships or river boats, figures moving by troop transport are not crew. A full day in transport is, therefore, considered a day of rest.2
Figure Capacity: 3 Cost: 3
Advanced: Embarkation and Debarkation
Some amount of time is required to embark and debark troops. In addition, a departing ship must await a favorable tide. Without creating tide tables (or applying historical tables to the game world), we assume, in the advanced game, a seagoing ship waits six hours—that is, one-quarter a sailing ship’s move points or half that of a rowed vessel—during which time embarkation is effected. Debarkation may require half the time. Embarkation and debarkation at any point other than a port cost half daily move points of the unit (not the vessel). Still a simplification. Within the operation exists much room for complexity.
1 Valormr scale figures are 1:40. Convert as appropriate.
2 If you’re following along in B/X, the escort galley, here, is a large galley with armaments, the sailing ship is small, and the troop transport is converted from a large sailing ship.
Strategic Movement
This is the second of five articles, which discuss strategic movement in the Valormr Campaign.
- Strategic Movement (Introduction)
- Overland Travel
- Waterborne Transport
- Terrain Effects
- Weather
Move rates are expressed as a number of points, one point equaling one mile. The points given here are for one day of travel. A unit spends these points to move into a hex.
| Force Type | Move Points |
|---|---|
| Ground Troops | |
| Infantry | 12 |
| Cavalry | 24 |
| Special | |
| Courrier* | 48 |
| Waterborne Transport† | |
| Galley | 18/72**‡ |
| Longship | 18/90**‡ |
| River Boat | 36 |
| Sailing Ship | 90‡ |
|
Troop Transport |
72‡ |
|
* A lone rider; includes such individuals as spies and scouts. |
|
Daily Rest: One period (or two half periods) of rest is required to recover full daily move points. At the end of the first half period of rest, half daily move points are recovered. A force may rest and move in half periods, that is, rest-move-rest-move, for up to two periods, before requiring two consecutive half periods of rest or be fatigued.
Weekly Rest: A unit can move up to six consecutive days. It must rest one full day of every seven.
Forced March: A unit may take an additional 50% of its daily move points, thereby moving half again as far. The unit must rest the following day or be fatigued.
Fatigued: A fatigued unit subtracts 25% from its daily move points (drop fractions). If the unit becomes engaged in battle, it is fatigued as per Chainmail (11). If it then performs combat actions that would normally make it fatigued, the effects are doubled. A fatigued unit must rest one full day to recover from the effects.
Infantry: Humanoids who march in formation are classed as infantry. Humans, orcs, elves, halfolk, gnolls, goblins, etc. all move at the same daily rate.
Cavalry: The only cavalry in the campaign are dwarven boar riders, orc rhino riders (both giant), and a single company of horsed mercenaries from far eastern lands.
Cavalry-Grade Horses
The campaign takes place in the early iron age on the DONJON LANDS time line. Horses in the region are not yet bred large enough to bear the weight of an armored rider and of the temperament required to do so in battle—our exercise of Chainmail’s Jousting rules notwithstanding.
For creatures which do not move in formation, find the number of miles they travel per day in your favorite source.1 Convert miles, one for one, to movement points. Best to round up or down to the nearest multiple of six.
Courier: Any commander figure can send a courier, which is assumed to be a lone rider. A courier costs no points. Its movement is tracked on the strategic map. A courier may move through and stop in a hex occupied by any friendly figure. A courier passing through an enemy occupied hex escapes on a dice roll of 4 or more. Stopping in such a hex requires a dice roll of 6 to avoid capture. A courier may be transported aboard a waterborne vessel but may not take a horse on a river boat.
Nocturnal Movement
Many fantastic creatures, including gnolls and lizard men, see in the dark as well as light (Chainmail, 43). These creatures may move and attack at night, resting during daylight hours. Often, they rather move at night to gain advantage over light-sighted enemies. Goblins, kobolds, and orcs, who suffer in sunlight, always choose nocturnal activity.
Light-sighted creatures, such as humans, may move on the strategic map during the night with the following limitations:
- Cost: The cost is twice normal move points per hex and per any river crossing operation.
- Terrain: Permitted only into clear terrain hexes or on a road into any terrain hex.
1 For move rates in the Valormr Campaign I use B/X so to align with Wyrmwyrd.
“Hey, we’re walking…”—Russel Ziskey (Harold Ramis), Stripes (Reitman, 1981).
A one-inch hexagon grid overlays the strategic map. One hex equals six miles.
Each force is represented on the strategic map by its commander figure, which occupies one hex. The commander’s entire force is assumed to occupy the same hex.
Only one commander may occupy a hex at any time. The space provides the army with forage and ensures units do not become mixed. A commander figure cannot move through a hex occupied by another commander figure.
Advanced: Passage of Lines
In the advanced game, a force may move through a hex occupied by a stationary allied force but may not stop on it. If enemy contact is made during a passage of lines, both forces are considered unformed.
Since many fantastic creatures may move in darkness and sailed vessels may also move throughout the night, a turn is defined as 24 hours, beginning at daybreak and divided into two periods: day and night. In some case, each period may be further broken into half-periods. These half periods are called morning, afternoon, evening, and night.
Light-sighted creatures prefer to move in the day period, while dark-seeing creatures may move in either period or split their movement, making half a move during each period.
All moves for a period, day or night, are simultaneous. In the case where two or more forces may move into the same hex at the same time, the force with the fewer number of figures moves into the hex. The figure count includes only troop figures. It does not count figures representing individuals, like leaders, heroes, wizards, and trolls.
If the number of figures on each side is equal, the force with the most move points remaining. If it’s still a tie, the commander with the most daily move points. Still a tie—dice for it.
Note: The case might arise in which cavalry gains the contested hex and continues movement, thus allowing the other force to move into it.
Reading Map
The remainder of Strategic Movement is divided into four parts.
The Valormr Campaign opens as Anax Archontas raids the dwarven citadel to establish a lair within and to cut off the main surface entrance to Throrgrmir, the dwarves’ underground realm. Meanwhile, the dragon’s allies and operatives in the subterranean realms east and west of Throrgrmir cut off communication and supply by the subterranean highway and river.1
Dwarf High King Harbard V then sends out a call to Throrgrmir’s surface neighbors, requesting aid to break the siege.
Whether they believe the Wyrm Prophecy, the lands of Law consider a dragon laired up so close to home an unacceptable threat. More than that, Throrgrmir is the richest, most influential, and most powerful state in the region. Its neighbors come to its aid to ensure lucrative trade with the gold- and gem-producing realm and to earn the favor of the dwarf kings and their powerful clans.
Anax Archontas desires to subjugate the Throrgrmir dwarves and begin the Age of Dragons. Failing subjugation, their destruction will do. His orders to the General Commander of the Chaos Armies are to besiege the underground realm until the dwarves surrender or perish.
Each of the responding Forces of Law is under its own command. The commanders’ objectives are to march to the Throrgrmir Valley, to join forces with the dwarves and any other responding forces, and to break the siege on the citadel, routing the red dragon and, if possible, destroying it.2
General Commander of the Chaos Armies Hadewych the Arbiter gives orders to certain of her subordinate army commanders to harass the Forces of Law as they march to the valley. The intent is to reduce the combined threat to break the siege, if not destroy the Forces of Law in detail. To the remainder of the Chaos Armies, her orders are to reinforce the siege on the citadel and prepare for battle against the oncoming Forces of Law.
1 Chaos’s underground operations are not the focus of the campaign so are not played out. We assume they are successful to a great degree. The dwarves manage to get messages through service tunnels, narrow and circuitous, but not supplies in any appreciable amount.
2 In a more complex scenario, each of the Forces of Law may seek to advance its own agenda.
While Anax Archontas makes plans in a temporary lair in the Western Mountains, the normal state of affairs in the Throrgrmir Valley and the lands beyond is this (counterclockwise from upper left):
In Eskillson’s chapter on the Empire of the Undersun appears the following footnote:
“1 Valormr: val (war or slain) + ormr (wyrm), pronounced Val-ORM-r. During the Throrgrmir Renaissance, when the new-hatched wyrmlings prowled the dungeon, already dragons came to hasten the prophesied Age of Dragons. The dwarves called to their neighbors, who responded in force. Dragons recruited forces of Chaos to oppose them.”
—Viggo Eskilsson, Histories of Throrgrmir From Great Wyrm to Age of Dragons
Wargamers often refight historical battles. They layout terrain similar to that upon which a battle was known to be fought and command troops equipped and armed as those of the era in numbers and composition according to historical record. These aspects they couple with the game rules to simulate events as they may have unfolded. Curious wargamers might change some aspect of a battle, thereby departing from history, in order to ask the question, “What if…?”
Eskilsson tells us precious little about the Battle of Valormr and, of the campaign that led up to it, nothing at all. We understand from this that the dragon incursion had little impact on history’s course. Being curious wargamers, we want to learn more.
The Valormr Campaign, like a historical wargame, simulates history. It doesn’t tell us what happened. It tells only what might have happened. Still, we may draw from events unfolded to inform the history of Wyrmwyrd.
Valormr: Rules for Strategic Map Campaigns
This article is part of a complete series Valormr: Rules for Strategic Map Campaigns, in which I draw on Tony Bath’s work to outline rules for my own campaign.
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.
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.
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 | |
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.
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).
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.
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.
