Lohwand: Research...

 

Fantasia 1940

My head is swimming a bit from all the research I've been doing the last little while; the more so because today I unearthed yet more resources from my own collection that I'd forgotten about: issues of "Ancient Warfare" magazine, for example. Or "Kmt: a Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt". 

Also role-playing games: Cthulhu Invictus, along with the companion volume; Basic Role-Playing: Rome; Cthulhu Dark Ages. It's almost like I've been working on this project for years subconsciously!

And, just before lunch I stumbled upon the Maze & Minotaurs RPG site yet again. I'd downloaded everything in the past but I made sure to download it all again. (It's free!) Doing so reminded me that there might be a lot of relevant material within its rules and supplements.

The Lead Adventure Forum

Also this morning I posted a reply to a query about what figures I am planning to use. I quote it here:

I'm planning on using 60mm plastic figures where possible, 54mm (1/32nd scale) otherwise. I haven't gotten rid of my smaller scale force either so maybe at some point I'll use them as well.

For the Tharkallan Empire I've decided on Expeditionary Force (XForce) 60mm figures:

http://www.expeditionaryforce.com.sg/catalogue-c-9.html

In addition to the Early Imperial Roman range [i.e. Tharkallan Empire], they make Celtic Barbarians, Early Germans, Classical Greece, Ancient Macedonians and Ancient Persians.

They also have a range of Hundred Years War French and English.

Their future plans include Punic Wars, Ancient Egypt and Biblical Era, IIRC.

For immediate Enemies and Allies(?) of the Tharkallan Empire the western "Celtic" tribes are covered: Kost, Celtos, Teleos, Soleos, Brithos, Erin, and, possibly, Slontos. I will try and give them some sort of tribal identity. I don't mean collecting an army for each, but finding some way to swap them, either standards, or shields, or having detachable figures that can be switched around on the bases to make the unit look more like one tribe than the other.

The Early Germans will work as Wenelian barbarians, and also Toonolian Marsh tribes.

If XForce does come out with Ancient Spanish, then I will use them for Shem and Zingara.

Imther (and my Dunlendings) will be Ancient Thracians (part of the XForce Macedonian line).

For Amazons I am planning on using LOD figures which are also 60mm. Oronin, Oraya and Ologog comprise the Amazon Confederacy.

https://lodtoysoldiers.com/

They have a War of Troy range which also includes Greeks and Trojans.

The XForce Classical Greeks will supply: Ilmoria, Vilmir, Lormyr and Holay. Perhaps Sylila, but it just occurred to me that a non-Confederacy Amazon nation might be a good idea. Some Macedonians might find there way in as well.

Kos, Kroy, Ossary and Corlay will use LOD Greeks and Trojans.

Dara Happa, Saird and Turan will be a mix of Ancient Persians and Macedonians. Dara Happa being more Persian and Turan more Macedonian.

Deelguy and Eyagi are desert tribes, but otherwise I know nothing about them. The Hyrkanian Steppes and the Redlands have horse nomads. Erigia and Pent are still a bit nebulous as are the further Eastern nations, except Pan Tang, which I am intending to be very Chaotic, with Samurai as warriors, and many demons and monsters of various sorts.

The Shield Lands, comprising Furyondy, Jemmerdy, Valon, Olokand, Ulek and Vanch, I am planning on using the XForce Medieval range.  I think the character of the nations becomes more "Rus" as one goes eastward. Vanch is a frontier nation, mostly wilderness. The conflicts there will be small scale, between local Marcher Barons and the Forest Tribes.

Dol Amroth will also use Medieval figures. They are Swan Knights per Tolkien, but are NOT Elves or Half-elves*. I have already sourced the helmets that I think will work with the XFoce knights. They are my version of the Knights of St. John, only I am not using Christianity or Islam as religions. For religions I am doing something else. A blend of Glorantha and other sources. So, Humakt as premier War God.

* I don't want to use Elves and Dwarves, nor Orcs. At least not, the Tolkien, or D&D or GW versions. Trolls, along the line of Gloranthan Trolls, and half-trolls, like the Tusk Riders I like. I'm working on Tusk Rider conversions right now. I have some mounts, and am just waiting on suitable rider figures (in transit.) Sprites as found in the Thane Tostig saga, definitely, and Evil Dwarves as suggested in the Narnia stories, maybe. Beastmen, yes. Giants, yes. In Lohwand they are about 6" tall.

Shazar, Tarkesh, Haradwaith, Calormen and Carmania are the Turks. But they are not Islamic. They probably all worship a pantheon headed by Tash - see "A Horse and His Boy" by C.S. Lewis.

Umbar are a mix of Carthage and Corsairs, ala Tolkien.

Haida Pakala are also pirates or corsairs of even more irregular appearance.

The Chakan Forest area is veing populated by Chintoys Aztecs, Mayans and Incans.

Stygia is Ancient Egypt, of course. I have some figures for them from an old manufacturer and they are part of XForce's plans. The rest are a bit more muddled, and subject to change.

After posting my reply I had a flash. I've been thinking a lot about the Auxiliary cohorts of the Tharkallan Empire. In Roman times they were recruited in regions outside Italy (i.e. non-heartland regions) but they served away from their recruitment areas. So, in Lohwand, I might reasonably recruit Auxiliary cohorts from conquered areas like Granbretton or Filkhar, etc. And those contingents would be found serving elsewhere. 

And then I began thinking what do the Granbretton Auxiliaries look like? Do they have beast helms, for example? Or at least horns on their helms? 

Scanning an issue of Ancient Warfare magazine featuring articles about the army of the First Princeps (Vol XII, Issue 1), I found an illustration of a marble frieze (p14-15) dated to the 1st century AD and showing helmets with side feathers. The Legio V Alaudae, "The Larks", is suggested. And I know from the WRG book on the Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome that the Romans were a lot less "uniform" that wargamers tend to portray them.

So perhaps I will make some embellishments to the basic figures.

Another flash of inspiration I had while typing my LAF reply was that one of my southern nations - Slontos - might be of "Celtic" origins. (This because of the similarity in spelling to the others.) It is on the north coast of the "Southlands" continent, essentially like the Vandals in North Africa. 

Downloading the Mazes and Minotaurs material all over again reminded me that there are Amazons in the game. And since I am still working out what to do about them I took a look; I might use some of the M&M ideas. One idea I did have about them otherwise was that they might be similar to the Alans (IIRC) in that they use their subject peoples as warriors. I'm still deciding about that option.

The Perfect Captain

Lastly, one of the things I found today was an issue of Medieval Warfare magazine which had articles about Ireland (Vol VI, Issue 4), and in that I found reference to "Strongbow". And that reminded me of the Perfect Captain rules of the same name.

And that reminded me that they had sent out an email saying their site would be disappearing sometime in October! i.e. Next week, perhaps! 😨

So, if you haven't seen their stuff, and you like good period rules, then I advise checking it out while you still can:

The Perfect Captain

You won't be disappointed! :-)

Lohwand: Come Together

The Beetles - Abbey Road

Things are starting to come together with my Lohwand campaign. I'm advancing on a wide front, what with tinkering with rules (see my Armatura posts), and pondering map scale, to doing research on the Roman World. All aspects of the Roman World. Lots of reading: books, lots of books, magazines and PHD papers from Academia.org not to mention the online sources: blogs, re-enactment sites, and the like. I'm going to have to set up an "Appendix N" page to highlight the sources.

As stated before, the Tharkallan Empire is my Rome. I even called them the "baddies". Sort of an evil empire, with the goal of World Conquest. That was probably a bit harsh. Lohwand certainly has other "Baddies" and to say that the Tharkallan Empire will turn out to be the worst of the lot is a bit pre-mature. It might not end up that way at all as the campaign plays out, for it is my intention for it to play out as it will, with only as minimal direction from myself as necessary.

Comparing Tharkalla to Rome, I see I've already got things backwards, giving them Britian (i.e. Granbretton, in my campaign) before they have Greece or Egypt or Spain. (The Lormyrian League region, Stygia and the region bordering Shem on my Lohwand maps.)

Lohwand

That is fine. It's a fantasy campaign after all, not a historical one. I'm afraid they aren't going to get to Aegyptus/Stygia for a little while yet as there is an internal revolt they have to suppress first, in the provinces of Voria and Bisset.

This is not my idea completely, but rather comes 1) from the Everway card results for those provinces and 2) the arrival of the comet, which I posted about earlier. The comet has quite innocently provided an interpretation of the Everway cards that might just fit!

More later...

Later...

The Heartland Provinces

The Western Heartland

Some more mapping, this time trying to detail a bit more the Heartland Provinces of the Tharkallan Empire. Borrowing names from popular works liberally here: Michael Moorcock's "Elric", Greg Stafford's Lunar empire (Glorantha), R.E. Howard's Conan stories, Tolkien, ERB's Barsoom.

The Tharkallan Heartland Provinces I listed previously: Jharkor, Dharijor, Dharjiin and Doblian. The Western Heartland consists of Kostaddi and Karasal, recognized only after they were conquered and incorporated into the Empire. The Heartland Legions are raised in these six provinces.

The other Tharkallan provinces, like Nemedia, Voria, and Bisset, do not have the same status; the legions raised there are the equivalent of Ancient Roman Auxiliary legions. They do not serve in the province they were raised, but are posted elsewhere in the Empire. 

Map Scale

I've decided two things, or at least am pretty sure about two things: 

1) I'm going to use kilometers as the unit of measure. I had toyed with using tsan (from Tekumel) but decided it was too much monkeying about and would needlessly complicate things. (A tsan is 1.333 km);

2) I think I've settled on how "big" Lohwand is, making 50 km roughly the width of the capital 'O' (Font: Book Antigua).

I've been playing around with making scale rules to show on the maps. I just have to come up with a way to ensure they remain consistent at the various zoom levels as I highlight one region or another. I think the key is to insert the scale into the region before I zoom in to do a screen-cap, move it about to a suitable spot where it isn't too much in the way, and then do the "print screen" to put the image on the clipboard. I didn't do that for the second map shown above. I just sort of fudged the scale "by eye".

Lohwand: Tharkallan Imaginifers of the Heartland Legions

 

Roman Imaginifer

Each of the Tharkallan Heartland Legions has an Imaginifer who stands with the Legate's command party overseeing the legion's part in the battle. The standard is topped with a golden image of the Emperor and is an embodiment of his authority and power; it is a symbol of the Empire's reach and indicates that the legion bearing it acts according to the Emperor's commands. But, in Lohwand at least, it is more than just a symbol.

Imaginifer Magic

The Imaginifer standard can act as a conduit for a Far-Seeing spell cast within the Imperial Palace. The standard bearer provides the power to allow the standard to function in this manner. As such the bearers must be specially chosen and trained. 

When activated a connection is facilitated between the Emperor's Far-Seeing device, either a Palantir or a Scrying Bowl, and the Imaginifer. Range is not generally a factor; at least it has not been to date, though stormy weather at either end can disrupt the spell. When used in this manner the Imaginifer image acts as a sort of viewport, allowing the Emperor to see what could be seen from the vantage point of the standard, just as if he were standing there himself. The Emperor can only see in the direction the standard is facing but the spell allows commands to be transmitted to the bearer who then shifts the banner as appropriately. 

The Emperor does not cast the spell himself, of course, but has a High Seer from the College of Magic enact the spell. The standard "sees" with excellent eyesight, which can be further enhanced to many times magnification by the High Seer. 

It is possible for the Emperor to issue missives or commands to the legion through the voice of the standard bearer though this adds an additional drain on his stamina and so must be used sparingly.

Lohwand: Armatura v4.0

  

Some slight changes and additions...

Lohwand: Armatura v3.0

Armatura v. 3.0 (Front)

Following on from my earlier post I have again revised the front of the Armatura cheat sheet to reflect the new ideas. Also, I realized I had the nomenclature all wrong for the cards, calling the "court" cards "suit" cards. Apologies if that caused some scratching of heads! 

The main changes are that now, within the colour block that a player uses for activations - i.e. red or black, one suit is considered "higher" than the other. So Hearts and Spades are "high", Diamonds and Clubs are not.

Having made the changes, I now see yet another: under "Initiative" I say that Aces are considered "high" for that purpose. It should read that they can be "high" i.e. 14 or "low" i.e. 1 as the player wishes. Also, "high" suits can be used to break ties. That is, a 7 of Hearts (high) would beat a 7 of clubs (low).

I've also tried to cover the end of Game a little better. I'm thinking about it from a campaign perspective, rather than the "Sunday afternoon" sort of game. So if a side is reduced to the point where it fails the Army Morale roll and has lost, then there may be pursuit or there may not.

If there isn't then it is essentially like a typical game where it just "ends"  with no more fighting. The losing side is assumed to withdraw from the field as they can with no more game-play.

If, however, there is pursuit, then the losing sides units have to attempt to withdraw from the field. The units all now have Fear as a modifier, though the better units may not be too affected still. Some units that were already fearful (i.e. militias) now become terrified as well, so that should mean they collapse in short order.

Lohwand: Aces Wild!

While re-editing my Armatura cheat sheets I am recognizing nuances I hadn't noticed before.

I am already using the D10 to represent eleven values, with the '0' representing a '10' or a '0' depending on circumstances. The "Counting Zeroes" concept.

Yesterday I realized that the Ace in a deck of cards is essentially the same, with the ability to be either the highest card or the lowest. So how can I incorporate that feature? I have some ideas.

Then, today, I recalled how a friend had good and bad events in a deck based on the two red or black suits - hearts good/diamonds bad - or whatever. So now I am thinking there is room for further variations to be added to the card activation.

Example:

One side is activating on red, the other black. If Hearts are better than Diamonds, and Spades better than Clubs what is the effect? One effect could be that if a unit is activated with a Heart or Spade it gains a +1 to the Combat Result* if it is also "Counting Zeroes". 

*There will be a Combat Result table that determines how a melee is progressing.

Another option is to allow a unit that is no longer Counting Zeroes to count them for that activation - i.e. +10% to the die rolls.

A third option is to have Exceptional Leaders, as in Fire and Fury, and provide a bonus if the Exceptional Leader is present when the card is played.

Getting back to the Aces, they could function similar, but could also be linked to the "Counting Zeroes" concept. That is, if a unit is Counting Zeroes the Ace is high card; if not, then it is low card. If high card, they might have a special Command Action similar to those I already described. If low card, the suit of the Ace might still come into play as given in the examples above.

Incorporating these ideas means re-vamping my cheat sheet! I'll have to find room somewhere as they probably should go on the front page of the sheet.  *sigh*

Lohwand: Armatura v2.0

Front

I realized pretty quick that I'd left a lot of stuff out of version 1.0 - not that it would fit on a LTR sized cheat sheet anyhow. So first thing I did was resize my sheet to tabloid, 11" x 17".

Then I set about adding in the stuff I'd left out because of space or just plumb forgotten to include. The new front of the sheet is shown above. I'm still working on the back, but already I've made a few tiny edits to the front so I expect there'll be a version 3 soon enough. :-)

One thing I noticed was a player, most likely me, could pick up a card but then pass, and as long as his opponent, also most likely me, didn't also pass, he could keep accumulating quite a hand of cards. Which sounds likely a shifty, Scipio Africanus sort of thing to do, so I've changed it so it you want to pass you have to discard a card. It still lets you get rid of the chaff but at least your hand doesn't get any bigger. 

I think there are a couple of other edits as well, but here is v2.0 before the edits.

Lohwand: Armatura v1.0

Armatura (Front)

Armatura (Back)

Here is the cheat sheet for the rules I am intending to use for my Lohwand campaign. It isn't a complete set of rules but I've tried to fit on all the essentials.

It still needs a little cleaning up, as I just took the sheet for A Band of Joyous Heroes and modified it. As I intend to use this for my large scale Lohwand campaign I have modified the move stick slightly. The older (lesser) distances still show - please ignore.

Figure scale: 54 to 60mm

Figure ratio: approx. 1:24  (This is based upon my prototype cohort organization.)

Movement and Ranges use a range stick based upon a common bamboo chopstick - see cheat sheet for illustration.

Unit Traits:

Virtis - a unit's fighting ability. Roll equal or under on a D10 to score a "hit".

Disciplina - a unit's discipline. Used for morale checks, and also determine the complexity of maneuvers permitted.

Labor - a unit's ability to perform engineering tasks: build roads and bridges, siege works, mining/counter-mining, and similar.

Zeroes: Recognizing that a D10 is typically numbered 0-9, and that this actually allows for eleven possible options. The concept of "Counting Zeroes" is explained in brief on the cheat sheet. It essentially amounts to a 10% bonus to units that can count it.

Armatura: found in the melee section, this is an ability possessed by certain units (i.e. veteran Roman legionaries) that reflects their combat training and skill, giving them a bonus. A Knight of St. John, or Spartan Hoplite might also have the trait.