Thursday 30 May 2013

Thoughts on the Mighty Armies Campaign

We now have the first three campaign games under our belt for the Mighty Armies Campaign I'm running with MBB, Orc and Goblin. Following these games, and some discussion on the nature of the special rules, we decided to tweak them a bit.

Firstly, here is the standard campaign map. I've added an extra node before each players homeland just to extend things slightly. We've also added a limited form of attrition into the game, in that each player has a starting treasury of 400 gold pieces that they have to pay for lost units out of, so some areas now give a gold piece bonus per campaign turn. The map shows the battles for turn one where there are two symbols in a territory. The addition of gold pieces also means we can do some nifty random events like mercenary troops turning up that the players have to bid for or a bazaar with some wondrous items.


At the moment there are four special areas:

Mill - gives +2AP to each battle fought

Fletcher - gives archers Shooting 2 or Long Ranged for free, or upgrades to artillery range if archers already have Shooting 2 and Long Range

Volcano - 50% chance to get a dragon for 1/2 price (5AP instead of 9AP) but -2AP if the roll is failed

Wizards Tower- 50% chance to get a wizard for 1/2 price but -2AP if the roll is failed

Alchemist - Explosive artillery ammunition. If an artillery piece destroys an enemy unit an adjacent enemy is also killed on a 4-6

MBB and Orc both failed the roll to get the Wizard and Dragon, so both lost 2 AP's. They both commented that the mill and the Fletcher gave decent bonus's without any risk, but the Wizard and Dragon could bot result in losses to the army. So, to that end we are modifying the dice roll to be 1-2, you lose 2 AP's of army, 4-6, you get the special character.


Extra Spells
I've also had a thought about some extra spells as well, prompted partly by a post I saw on making thorny hedges from an old loofah, which is something I want to try.

Barrier: Create a length of terrain that blocks line of sight and movement. It could be a thorny hedge, a wall of stones thrust up from below the ground, a flaming barrier or just a magical wall of force. Each MP spent will produce 2 x 40x20mm (that's the base size I use) sections of impassable terrain that blocks line of sight. Terrain lasts until the end of your next turn, but can be maintained by the expenditure of 1 MP by the magic user for every 2 sections of barrier as long as he remains within line of sight of it. Barrier has no effect on flying units.

Sunder: Used to destroy a Barrier. Spend 1 MP and roll a dice against the owner of the Barrier. If you roll higher, one stand of barrier is destroyed. If you want to try and destroy all stands of barrier, roll at -2.

Swift of Foot: Spend 1 MP and make a shooting 2 attack against a friendly unit. If successful they gain +1 inch to their movement (the shooting 2 attack is required because I want it to be harder for heavy units to move faster).

Sure of Foot: Spend 1 MP and make a shooting 1 attack against a friendly unit. If successful they gain the Mobility trait for this turn only (again, I want it to be harder for heavier units, and i wanted it to be harder to get than Swift of foot, as mobility is arguably more useful).


Favoured Units
I've also thought about the favoured units that we are going to use and have come up with the following special abilities table. After a battle, each player is allowed to make a single roll for a unit that took part in a battle and survived. Only one favoured unit of each type is allowed. If a group is destroyed in combat, it is lost and any replacements do not carry over the abilities.

Infantry:
1: Toughened Armour - Ignore the first failed combat result result once per battle. Instead treat it as a draw.
2: Perfect Drill -  Only needs 1MP to activate if group consist of 5 or 6 stands.
3: Tortoise! - If the unit suffers a casualty from archers, then roll a dice. On a roll of 6 they instead survive. This is in addition to any other rolls that might affect the result (i.e. scouts roll 5+ for their scout ability and if they fail can then roll again at 6+).
4: Wall of Blades - Enemies charge bonus is reduced by 1 (so a normal charge gives no bonus, a chariot gets +1 and a flying unit with a lance gets +2) 
5: Shock Troops - For the first round of combat roll one additional dice and pick the highest result.
6: Shield Wall - Unit is not subject to the -1 penalty if attacked in the flanks.

Cavalry/Chariot
1: Barding - Ignore the first failed combat result result once per battle. Instead treat it as a draw.
2: Horsemanship -  Only needs 1MP to activate if group consist of 5 or 6 stands.
3: Fine Steeds - Movement is increased by 1 inch.
4: Dragon Forged Lances - Charge bonus is increased by 1 (so a normal charge gives +2, a chariot gets +3 and a flying unit with a lance gets +4) 
5: Shield-breakers - For the first round of combat roll one additional dice and pick the highest result.
6:  Skilled retreat - If forced to retreat from combat, unit may ignore any single stand that would otherwise block it's path of retreat. If more than one stand blocks the unit or groups path, normal effects apply.

Monster
1: Tough Hide - Ignore the first failed combat result result once per battle. Instead treat it as a draw.
2: Well Trained -  Unit only counts as one stand for determining the size of a group for activation purposes.
3: Quickened - Movement is increased by 1 inch.
4: Dire Charge - Charge bonus is increased by 1 (so a normal charge gives +2)
5: Savage attack - For the first round of combat roll one additional dice and pick the highest result.
6: Terrifying Howl - once per battle your monster may spend 1MP to attempt to bind a unit or group as though it had cast the Bind spell.

Archer/Artillery
1: Pavaise - Ignore the first failed combat result result once per battle. Instead treat it as a draw.
2: Rapid Fire -  Artillery may move and shoot in same turn. Other units gain one re-roll per battle.
3: Skirmishers - Movement is increased by 1 inch.
4: Heartwood Staves - Range is increased by 1 inch. 
5: Defensive fire - When charged the group or unit may make a single shooting attack at the charging units before they enter combat. Any units destroyed are removed immediately. May not target units attacking from flanks/rear.
6:  Arcing fire - Archers/Crossbows may attack from rear rank of a group as though they had the Long Ranged ability. Units with Long Ranged already gain 1 extra inch or range. Artillery units gain 1 re-roll per battle.

General
1: Inspiring Banner - Rally actions now only cost 1MP
2: Personal Herald - May Rally a group or unit within 3" without being part of that group
3: Enchanted Armour - Ignore the first failed combat result result that would target this unit once per battle. Instead treat it as a draw.
4: Blessed/Cursed Weapon - May roll one extra dice in the first round of combat and pick the highest result.
5: Art of Waaaaagh! - You may roll two dice for initiative and pick the best result.
6: War chest - Before each battle roll a dice. On a 1-4 there is no effect, on 5-6 you gain 2 extra AP to buy troops with.

Spellcaster
1: Spell Gem - Spell Gem gives d3 extra MP's at the start of a battle that may only be used to cast spells. Only one extra MP may be spent per turn.
2: Scrye - Once per battle you may force an enemy to re-roll one dice and you can pick the result you prefer.
3: Homunculus - Ignore the first failed combat result that would target this unit once per battle. Instead treat it as a draw.
4: Wand of Power - Range of all spells (including Ring of Teleport) is increased by 1 inch. 
5: Dancing sword - Support is increased by 1.
6: Ring of Teleport - Once per game, and at any time (even during the enemy turn), you may move the spellcaster 5 inches in any direction to a location that they can draw line of sight to.



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