Port Victoria – Bossa Nova

Port Victoria – Also known as Fort Victoria, previously known as Port Philip and/or Devil’s Cove. The major modern settlement. Launching point for nearly all expeditions into the interior of Bossa Nova.

Shortly after sighting Easter Island in 1722, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen continued and caught sight of the new island as he sailed through the Pacific. Unable to approach because of the treacherous currents and inhospitable coast, he named the place Skull Island and sailed away.

The next recorded visitor — Spanish Captain Don Felipe Gonzales — arrived in 1770, but he too had no opportunity to land. Then came the famous Captain James Cook in 1774 who sighted it, noted it, and commented that it appeared to have no scientific or commercial interest. The French managed a landing in 1786, but Captain le Comte de La Pérouse found the land so inhospitable that he quickly left.

Successive expeditions of Peruvian slavers had patchy success. Many never returned. Those that did told of cannibals and monsters in the hinterland that defied reason. When a crude settlement was made the remnants of much earlier Spanish expeditions were uncovered. It was then that the name Port Philip was reinstituted, but of these initial explorers, thought to have landed some time in the 1400′s, no living trace was ever found.

Finding the coastline so injurious to navigation and the natives so blood thirsty, the place was left largely to its own devices. Those charts that showed any presence at all vaguely indicated a mass called variously Skull Island, after Roggeveen, or Bossa Nova, after the disasterous original Spanish (or Portugese) missions. No one wantwed it, or cared that it existed. And so it may have remained until Alexander von Humbold, in November 1802,  studied guano and its fertilizing properties. It was that that the Peruvian leaders remembered Bossa Nova and its large guano deposits, and the first serious steps were made to make a permanent foothold.

Now, In 1880(ish), guano mining for fertilisers and more specifically explosives is big business. Almost simultaneously British, French, German and American interests claimed the island, along with Peru, Chile and Bolivia. Spain’s claim, while stronger legally, was reduced during the related Chincha Islands War (1864-1866).

British commerical interest is stronger, and so is its presence. As a consequence the main canton where most of the foreigners live is now called Port Victoria. The other name used is Fort Victoria, reflecting the bizarre and as yet unexplained gigantic wall that separates the spit of land with the port from the rest of the island.

Of the original inhabitants of Devil’s Cove, few are now in evidence. Those that survived the slave raids, smallpox and other civilising events have fled into the interior, where they continue to pose a significant risk to any intruder.

An uneasy truce exists in Port Victoria between the embassys of Chile and the allies of Peru and Bolivia. Outside of the protective walls, however, the forces of these beligerants raid and counter raid each others’ mining operations and expeditions.

The Last Valley – map

After finding the nine squares that make up the generalised area of the campaign by using the Battle Finder from The Perfect Captain I had a coarse understanding of the terrain. I then redrew these into a consolidated picture, with each of the nine squares being roughly translatable onto my 4′ by 4′ wargame table. Some leeway has to be allowed when a battle occurs when adding the terrain models as I don’t exactly have specific models to match the maps. But close enough will do. Also, though I have drawn them all togetehr, technically there could be significant gaps bewteen the specific nine ‘arenas’.

I also have renamed the randomised terrain zones to better reflect a middle German location.

So in the north west we have Köninggarten, a hilly and deeply forested area. The main road runs through a section tailor made for ambushing, and narrow paths cross the forbidding woods.

North is Mickel Tal, an area dominated by two peaks. Only a narrow track passes through the ravine to Lansby Tal in the north east. Lansby Tal is itself a broad valley that has been lightly settled and cultivated. A main road runs north through the region, in clear sight of the heights to the north east.

Directly west is Kapelle Heilig Wald (Holy Wood Chapel). Here in the valley proper the Betrunken Kuh Fluss (Drunk Cow River) cuts the region in half. The southern bank is clothed in deep forests. A narrow path rises to the north into the hills and nestled at the base is a chapel.

In the centre of our region is Heilige Sergius, the village named after Saint Sergius, a martyred (is there any other kind of saint?) Roman soldier who refused to renounce his Christianity. This region has all terrain types, from crop lands, riverine, hills, forests, the main roadway and light urbanisation. This is the heart of it all, where most of the population are permanently based, and from where our protagonist company will set out from to meet threats.

East is Chertney Mühle, an extension of the fertile Betrunken Kuh Fluss valley, dominated by the hills that seperate it from Lansby Tal. The road branches north over this rise. To the south of the river lie extensive marshlands.

Lambient Hügel is a wild area in the south west, dominated by hills and enclosed by forests. A track leads out of the forests toward the village, making it a difficult piece of terrain to patrol and one most susceptable to a surprise attack.

Straight south from the village is Mawlder Heide (heath) a high alpine plain carrying the main south road. An old watchtower overlooks the road. An rough path leads east to Furt von alt Roderick (Old Roderick’s Ford). Here the river doglegs back, creating a large swampy zone that gives way to forest in the south. The ford crosses the river just at the transition zone from heath to swamp so it is not suitable for wheeled vehicles of any kind. After periods of heavy rain the whole area becomes a quagmire, but after a freeze it resembles a sheet of glass.

The Last Valley, week one

Week one of the occupation of the valley pretty much ran as described in the earlier journals (but we can now write off some of the events as the result of fevered imaginations rather than literal events as some basic elements of the campaign have changed).

Ernat, Eduare, Albergio, Dide, Jurisco, and Gari, soldiers of Spain sent into middle Europe during the early part of the Protestant rebellion in the Holy Roman Empire, found themselves separated from the rest of their Tercio in order to find winter quarters. They each have command of a handful of men, but until these major characters are killed I will not flesh them out.

Doubt remains whether they crossed into some kind of mystical realm, but the fact remains that they discovered a village high in the mountains that had so far been untouched by the general war that was a tearing the world apart.
The villagers were submissive and cowed by the hardened soldiers. In a short time they established themselves a the masters of the place, billeting themselves amongst the locals, taking what they pleased. (It was bikie heaven.)

From this first week, to recap, we know that there are gypsies living down by the river who are widely travelled, knowledgable, and deeply superstitious. We know that there are creatures living in the woods that attack lone villagers. For the moment let’s assume they are wolves. We have a number of villagers identified, including the Mayor, the barkeeper, and a couple of thugs. (Going forward, we’ll drop the references in the earlier sessions to strange priests and perverse religions: there are only the historical religions so far: Roman Catholicism, Lutheran Protestantism, Calvinist Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, and a selection of whacky Protestant cults.)

The major fear of the soldiers is that someone else could discover the village and take it from them. Therefore the standard objective for the party is to eliminate any intruders so they cannot carry the world back to anyone else. Secondarily, they must continue to dominate the locals. This means they must crush any hint of rebellion, and they must provide stability to the locals’s lives so that they will it want to rebel. They must become the civil administration.

Using the weather generation table from Harn, and consulting on the Winter column, I rolled a 16. The week was generally overcast and rainy. Strong winds drove the biting rain into every nook and cranny. It was cold, but no snow yet fell, a timely reminder that winter was a setting in. The adventurers contented themselves with drinking at the tavern, and making themselves at home in the beds of the townsfolk.

Next time, week 2 (turn 2), I will roll to see if the event is internal (a pure Mythic scene development of some domestic event), or external (a wargame played either competitively or solo using Mythic and the random tables to assist the set up and played using the developing Flashing Steel – Forged in Blood late Renaissance rules). I’ll find the weather using the Harn tables, and I will generate a bunch of random seeds from my Last Valley Information Generator.

Finding the protagonist company

The company invading and attempting the hold the last valley is commanded by Ernat Marulanda Gasco. With him are five lieutenants. Each of these men have a group they command. The following is a reprise of earlier information (2 years old), updated with new understandings and details of the groups they command.

Who are these people? They are Catholic soldiers, sometime during the Thirty Years War in Eastern Europe campaigning against the Protestant rebels. They are currently detatched in winter quarters and are only interested in feeding themselves and recuperating before the weather improves and the campaigning season starts.

Who is the leader? (one in four chance for the main characters) Ernat.

Who is Ernat Marulanda Gasco?

(Une characteristics) Established Tradesman [what trade? Don't know yet].

(Une motivations) Colaborate Vigilance [Ernat is a tactical genius, organising the other members of the party for their mutual defence. This is one of the reasons he is the leader]; Advocate Harmony [he is the peacemaker between the members of his foraging party. He can smooth over their differences. This is the other reason he is the leader]; Suppress the World [he is cynical about politics and morals. His actions are based on his own perceived need, or that of his party, rather than some abstract external force such as justice, national security, or religious conformity].

His command group is 5 shot: his bodyguard are all musketeers.

Who is Jurisco Suarez Cornejo?

(Une characteristics) Dependable Scrapper [Jurisco likes a fight and is not afraid of getting in one].

(Une motivations) Compose Pleasure [he writes music and/or composes poetry]; Defile Allies [he levies kontributions from friends and enemies alike. He cannot tell the difference between enemy combatants and civilians]; Seek Hate [he sees the war he is in as a just war of good against evil. He hates the Calvinists as devils on Earth].

Juarisco’s group are also all musketeers. There are 11 of them.

Who is Dide Rucina Covalan?

(Une characteristics) Defiant Politician [Dide likes the sound of his own voice. He also likes to take a contrary view].

(Une motivations) Communicate Gluttony [he is greedy, valuing foodstuffs above other goods. He torments the other party members by describing sumptuous dishes and recipes, especially when they are hungry]; Interact Industry [he is industrious for the party good. He does not shrink from helping out in any task for the party welfare. Despite his faults he is no slacker]; Refine Intelligence [he's a smart man, it cannot be denied. He knows a lot of stuff about a lot of things. If anyone wants to know something, Dide is who they will ask].

Dide’s group are Cuirassiers. There are 5 heavy armoured horsemen in his group.

Who is Albergio Restrepo Mendiluce?

(Une characteristics) Careful Shopkeeper [Albergio is the party quartermaster. He keeps a careful watch on their provisions].

(Une motivations) Assist Criminals [Albergio goes along with the party. Let's face it: the party are foraging soldiers during some of the worst wars in history. They are bad, and Albergio just joins in]; Promote Advice [he is a supporter. If someone in the party suggests something that he likes he goes to the trouble to agree with them. He is prepared to pick a side]; Agonise Dreams [What dreams? Don't know yet - this is a good open thread ].

Albergio commands a group of mixed infantry: 4 pikemen and 6 musketeers.

Who is Eduare Amor Magallanes?

(Une characteristics) Nefarious Clairvoyant [Eduare claims to have holy visions but he is a liar. He makes up stuff to get what he wants].

(Une motivations) Associate Discrimination [he sticks to the 'birds of a feather flock together' principle. He is in a Calvinist land. Therefore all the people there are Calvinists (heretics)]; Encourage Stories [he likes a good story, either told by himself or someone else]; Promote Atrocities [this speaks for itself].

Eduare commands a group of 3 miscellaneous horsemen.

Who is Gari Cuervo Iguaren?

(Une characteristics) Dependable Labourer [Gari will do what he is told. He is not afraid of hard work].

(Une motivations) Agonize Nature [he is troubled by the religious war raging around him. While not smart enough to understand the arguments, he does understand the principles and what is at stake: the immortal soul of man]; Inform Opulence [he always has his eye out for lootable things and he tells the rest of the party about them] ; Advise Narcissism [he is a toady, reminding the others how clever, handsome, rich or witty they are].

Gari commands a group of pikemen, or general close brawlers, I reckon. There are 10 of them in his group.

There’s the party. As random as I could make it, justified into a logical framework. I don’t think I like any of them as humans, but they do seem real. They fit the genre. They should generate interesting stories. To generate the types of troop I drew cards against the chart listed in the earlier posting. To find the number of men in each group I rolled 2d4 for cavalry and 3d6 for infantry.

Thirty Years War Project

Thoughts over the weekend went as follows:

• I need a few more figures – but then what war gamer has ever ‘completed’ a period and never needs any more figures,
• I need to pull my finger out and build more buildings,
• I need to finally get a decent modular river model (and road),
• Where is this action happening?

And this last made me think of The Perfect Captain. These guys provide, free (but you can donate) some of most well thought out and truly presentable game rules and support out there. I love them. They have a campaign system: a set of cards that you can randomly draw to find the terrain for a battle. I randomly selected nine areas, made the village the centre of a notional area, and then fit the other eight around it. I drew them rough on squares because my playing arena is a 4′ square.

Here is the result. Next step is to have a randomisation method for events. Something like: Marauders appear in map 3. And this will inform me of the what and the where for a given game.

No victory for Parliament

The Vic Mega-game occurred today, Sunday 29 May. There were around 24 of us, divided into Royalist and Parliamentarians. Each player took a brigade of 4 regiments and then fought, campaign style, across a series of tables to assault the enemy capital. Where battles took place there were at least three commanders on each side. For the very huge battles at Cambridge and Newbury there were at least 6 players a side. Flanking manoeuvres from neighbouring tables also figured strongly in the ‘strategic movement’ phases that occurred every half-hour.

The dubious honour fell to me by vote to be the CinC of the Parliamentary forces. See here the photo of me, left, Martin for the Royalists in the centre and Mike, right, who organised and refereed the day.

In short, we held up a general advance on our left flank of tables, advanced strongly through the right and made a deep penetrating raid directly to Oxford. Had the campaign ended then, with the rout of the King’s forces on the table, victory would have been ours. However, this was only half the day, and the Royalists consolidated across the entire front of 3 tables (though never re-securing their home territory) and pushed hard.

At the end of the day it was a Royalist victory taken on points in the final round as they had control of tables right through the centre. A grand strategy and full credit to them, aristocratic swine. The Royalists were tenacious and well commanded by Martin.

More photos can be seen here.

The rules were Black Powder and I renew my thoughts that they seem better suited to Napoleonics than ECW, but that is just a quibble. The important thing was that games were played. A lot of people got to push around figures. I made many new friends, and hope to renew their acquaintance at another event.

Finally, I hope that my fellow Parliamentarians can forgive the many blunders that I must have made through to campaign. Despite my attempts to persuade any of the Royalists to change sides, there was only one taker, and sadly it was too late in the day to change the overall outcome.

A good and exhausting day of playing toy soldiers.

Hân – start of the map redraw

Incongruous characters – a failure to get on board

In the old days when I actually used to take part in and GM conventional role-playing games I recall coming up against a bizarre event. This almost always occured at the start of a campaign set up, or change of setting. No matter how much the GM of the moment would describe the coming setting, or provide background material and books of art to illustrate what the cultural, technological and historical basis for the game was, there would always be someone who would choose to be a character that could not possibly exist there and/or call themselves something that was glaringly incongruous.

It seems I am not alone in finding this strange phenomenon. As I was reminiscing about Runequest I went surfing, as you do, and found a lovely site that a GM had obviously put a lot of work into. The games sounded as if they were fun, though I noted the sad comment that no game had happened for 158 days. This pricks my heart in sympathy – there is nothing worse than having a labour of love, as an RPG campaign is, just wither away through lack of interest/committment/availability.  

Runequest is clearly designed to be viewed through a bronze-age, heroic classical Greek lens. The original sources all confirmed this. The art of the site in question really hammered it home.

I looked at the character lists. There were characters named Alansar, Cleombrotus and Darkos. These seemed within the general mood. Then, sure enough, I found one called Grant McKielsen. Very Greek. Very bronze age.

It reminded me immediately of the time I tried to start a similar bronze age camapign. I layed out books of Greek architecture and art, described the fashion and weapons of the time, brushed over the stories of the Illiad. Then I invited the players to think about the characters whey might want to portray in this setting. Most got it straight away. We discussed hoplites, senators, physician/philosophers, and priestesses. All seemed to be going well.

Then one of the players declared that he wanted to be a bard. With a lute. And a big floppy hat with a feather in it. Armed with a rapier.

I can still hear the crickets and see the tumbleweed around the table as the rest of us digested this information.

What is the psychology at work here? Conceit (didn’t hear a word anyone esle said – too busy being a hero in their own mind), misguided sense of humor (see, it doesn’t fit, that breaks the suspension of disbelief, cause we’re not really heros, we’re just playing a game. Get it?), ignorance (back in the ancient days, like before flat screen TV everyone blah blah blah sword, last movie I saw), or something else?

Comments?

Building a miniatures campaign

It has been a long time since I managed to play in any campaign, either role playing for miniatures. The tyranny of distance and time has conspired to make my circle of friends tiny, with divergent interests and time schedules making linking games together in any meaningful period of time difficult.

But, as Lord Percy said when asked how he was going to master the art of alchemy, transmuting lead  into gold in a single afternoon, “I like a challenge”.

Thrilling Tales has a magnificent scenario builder. Not quite as clear as one might want in some cases, and a little repetitious in others, but overall it is a great piece of work. I heartily recommend it. Using this core idea, even with the table entries as they stand, you can build a pretty interesting story arc. Thrilling Tales is built for inter-war ‘pulp’ adventure and if that is your bag, as it is mine, then every dice roll speaks magic.

However, the specific scenarios are designed for a role-playing game. However (2), it is designed for the Savage Worlds system which is intended to be a skirmish war-game system at the same time. However (3), Savage Worlds talks about Plot Point campaigns: set ups that lead the players through a semi-structured ‘plot’ which allows a peripheral ‘sand box’ play. This is arguably a perfect world, unless you have a magical group that all want to just live and explore and just soak up the majesty of the fantasy world created (man – how I remember those heady high-school days). However (4), the Plot Point campaign is not really described particularly well in anything I have read. I do appreciate the idea, but the actual implementation remains obscure to me.

Being an organisational person, I drew a picture. You can see it here: plot point campaign.  In this, I propose 6 (miniatures) games in a sequence make up a campaign. This campaign is tied to a setting, with a beginning, middle and end, with each game leading to the next.

For Flashing Steel (still in the pipe works at Ganesha) I built the three game campaign, but this is significantly different. Ganesha games are particularly man on man skirmish, and are designed to be friendly ‘pick up and play’ style. They are excellent short games – we get through a scenario in 40 minutes – so you can play a mini-campaign in a night. Not so a Savage Worlds game which is longer, though admittedly not the length of a dreary big-battle taking a full night for four moves.

The campaign skeleton I threw together today wants testing. No doubt. The real test is to build a story arc into it and have it play tested. Now all I need to do is get my friends to have interest in a single topic for more than a few days or, alternatively, pick a topic for which I have enough figures…

HÂN – campaign update

It is one of those campaigns that I come back to every now and then with a wistful attitude. There is every chance that it will never be played, but the material is there. Call it a pet project.

Here is a Mind Map I made of some of the material.