May 19, 2021

Enough With the Skeletons Already - a Solo Campaign of Exploration


So here's the thing I came up with after the previous post.


Story of the Campaign

General Thünbár Gűnbár's forces landed on the unexplored Yellow Continent. He is sent by the Kingdom of the Western Peninsula to find the long lost Temple of Bar Koth. Whether he is an unwanted political figure home, or the most talented general they could find, is up to the player.


Initial Deployment

Thünbár Gűnbár receives 20 Wealth to recruit from and lands his forces at Tungbár. Argan Sagon receives another 20 and lands his forces at Trilagbár. The three fortresses have a garrison of 1d6 units. Argan Sagon's battles are always auto-resolved, unless the two armies are joined. Argan Sagon is not the best soldier and is expected to commit a few mistakes.


Resources

As per the EasyBattle rules; barren zones (anything except towns and crops) do not yield Wealth. A barren zone under the Kingdom's control can be turned to Crops for 15 Wealth. Barbarian raiders may reduce crops to barren zones again.


Campain Movement

Movement on the map is as in the EasyBattle rules.

Each time an army enters an unexplored zone, roll for:

Terrain type on 2d6: 2-3 Lake; 4-5 Desert, 6-7 Mountains, 8-10 Barren, 11-12 Forests. Deserts and Mountains reduce movement. Lakes are impassable and the army must retreat 1 grid. If any connected zone is a Lake, the water is continuous. Lakes are never larger than 3 hexes.

Enemies met on 2d6: 8+ enemies are present and a battle must be fought. The terrain feature of the hex is going to be prominent on the battle map. (For the time being, all Barbarian factions are hostile; this might change later.)

When leaving the fortress, and each time when entering a Barbarian settlement, roll 2d6 to determine the next nearest settlement. The distance is measured in hexes: place the Barbarian settlement in any direction at the same exact distance. The Kingdom's armies may ignore the existence of that settlement, but after a while, the enemy might send a conquering army to oppose them, unless they are subdued in time. [The first two settlements are placed.]

Sacking a city after conquering it yields 1d6 Wealth. This destroys the city and makes the zone barren. A garrison must always be kept in conquered Barbarian cities.


Enemy Strength

Each time an enemy settlement is reached, draw two cards from a shuffled pile of French playing cards: the value of the two cards equals the number of defenders (faces and aces have a value of 10). Replicate the process for each encounter when the controlled armies reach 18 or more units. Otherwise generate encounters as per the EasyBattle rules.


Campaign Goal

Roll 2d100 after each turn the armies had spent moving to find the Temple of Bar Koth (omit the roll whenever they stop to recuperate). On a roll of 200, the Temple is found. Each explored zone reduces the target number by one. The game may continue after the Temple is found.

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like a very promising campaign!

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    1. Thank you very much - I'm not sure how much time I can invest into the game, but I hope I can keep it going for a while.

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