Simple rules for a three- or four battle Mini Campaign for two armies Version 0.1 (untested...) [DW: ] marks Demonworld specific remarks, [WZ: ] Warzone specific. Note: The use of Spivak pronouns (e, eir etc) is intentional, and not a typo ;) 0. Preparation 0.1. Choose the overall army size for each side. This should be two or three times as large as the battles you usually play. [DW: 2400-3600 Points] [WZ: 1200-2100 Points] 0.2. Every player creates an army of the agreed size that fulfills all army list requirements and limitations. Every player then secretly splits eir army into three parts, a vanguard, a main body and a rearguard. The vanguard and rearguard may not contain more than a third of the army each (e.g. if you play with 1500 pt armies, the vanguard may not be larger than 500 points). They must contain at least one unit, though (not only individuals). Army list limitations (e.g. for the percentage of characters) only apply to the whole army (e.g., your rearguard can consist of special forces only, if you want). Fortifications may only be bought for the rearguard, and only be used in battle 4. [DW: Schutzwaelle, Baumwipfel etc] [WZ: Extra trenches etc.] 0.3. Play begins. The following battles are played in numerical order. For each battle, the participating units are listed below. The winner of each army collects Campaign Victory Points (CVP); at the end of the campaign, the player with the most CVPs wins. The campaign may end in a draw, a close victory or a decisive victory depending on the CVP result (you'll have to decide yourself what you consider a decisive win, though ;) Magic or other special items that can only be used once in one-off games (e.g. a potion of strength) can only be used in a single one of the following battles. Of course, the owning mini of special items has to be determined before the campaign, and cannot change during the campaign. 1. Clash of the Vanguards Story: Armies usually march with a vanguard covering the main body and searching for the enemy. This first battle simulates a head on clash of the two vanguards. If e choses to do so, the winner of this battle will be able to pursue and destroy the loser's units after the battle. Troups remaining from this battle will then try to reinforce their main armies. Units involved: Both vanguards. Set up: Standard rules Campaign Victory Points (CVP): 2 for the winner (determined by standard rules) After the battle: After the battle the winner may choose to pursue the losing vanguard and chase it away. For this purpose e must nominate at least as many points worth of models as the losing vanguard has left after the battle. Both the fleeing vanguard of the loser and the pursuing units of the winning vanguard are out of the mini campaign (the winner's units pursuing the enemy will be counted in campaign step 5, though). The winning vanguard's units that are not needed to pursue the loser can return in later battles (see below). If the winner chooses not to pursue the enemy, all the remaining troups of loser and winner can reappear later (see below). 2. The victorious vanguard returns Story: As the victorious vanguard withdraws to join its main army, there is a small chance that it will lose its way and stumble into the enemy rearguard instead. This happens on a roll of 1 or 2 on a D6. If the roll is 3-6, this second battle is skipped and the campaign continues with battle 3, the main battle. Units involved: The rearguard of the player who lost battle 1 vs the surviving units of the winning side of battle 1 (minus those that are pursuing the enemy, if any). The latter units retain any wounds received in battle 1. Magic and other effects from the last battle that change a unit's characteristics for one game wear off before the next battle, though. Set up: Standard rules Campaign Victory Points (CVP): 1 for the winner (determined by standard rules) After the battle: The units of the losing unit can not participate in the rest of the campaign (if their army manages to win battle 3 or 4, they are counted in campaign step 5, though). The winning side's units can enter battle 3 as reinforcements. 3. The main battle Story: After the initial skirmishes, the main armies meet and fight it out. Both generals may try to bring in reinforcements (if these haven't been dispersed in one of the earlier battles). However, if the losing side in this battle has no uncommitted rearguard left to cover its retreat, the defeat will be complete; if a rearguard remains it has a chance to stop the pursuing victorious units and save the beaten remainders of its army. Units involved: Set up on the table are the main bodies of both armies. Available as reinforcements: - If battle 2 did not happen: Both armies can use their rearguards as reinforcements. These will enter the battle field from the same table edge as the main body of the army. In addition, some survivors of battle 1 can enter as reinforcements. Surviving units of the loser of battle 1 can only return if they were not pursued; units of the winner of battle 1 that did pursue the enemy can not be used as reinforcements here. These reinforcements will enter from one side of the table (decide before the battle), even if that means that opposing troups enter very close to each other. [DW 2nd ed: Simply use the optional flank march rules for the returning vanguard units of both armies] - If battle 2 did happen: The units that lost battle 2 are not available as reinforcements. If battle two was won by the rearguard (of the army that lost battle 1), the surviving units of this rearguard may enter as reinforcements from the same table edge as their main army, just as if battle 2 had not happened at all. If battle two was won by the vanguard (the winner of battle 1), the surviving units of this vanguard may enter the battle from the rear of the enemy, i.e. from the same table edge as the enemy main army. The rearguard not involved in battle 2 (i.e. of the army that won battle 1) is available as reinforcement, entering on the same table edge as its main army. All units that enter as reinforcements and have fought another battle before retain all wounds from these battles! Magic and other effects that change a unit's characteristics for one game wear off before the next battle, though. Set up: Standard rules Special rules: Reinforcements All units available as reinforcements can be brought into play individually, e.g. a rearguard must not enter as a whole, but can only send individual units or heroes as reinforcements. However, the general does not have total control over the time when these reinforcements arrive. For each unit the player wants to arrive as reinforcement in a given turn, e must roll a D6 before the turn. E _must_ make such an arrival die roll for each unit with an arrival number larger than zero. If this arrival die roll is smaller than or equal to the unit's arrival number, the unit arrives. Initially, all units available as reinforcements have an arrival number of 0. When a player first rolls for a unit's arrival, its arrival number is 1. After each arrival die roll the player can chose to increase or decrease the unit's arrival number by 1. You'll have to note every unit with an arrival number larger than 0, and its arrival number, on a piece of paper somewhere. [Explanation: Increasing the number after a failed arrival roll means that the general still wants the unit to come later. Decreasing it is the general's way to try and stop a unit from coming. This may be good if a rearguard unit would arrive too late to do anything. Note that any units that arrived on the table for the army that loses this main battle are not available for battle 4. You _must_ make an arrival die roll, so it may happen that a unit arrives in the battle too late to be of any use to the losing army, and still cannot be used in the rearguard battle, either.] Campaign Victory Points (CVP): 4 for the winner (determined by standard rules) After the battle: If the loser of the main battle has no rearguard units left that did not enter the table during the main battle 3, the campaign is over. The winner of battle 3 gains an additional Campaign Victory Point. Continue with campaign step 5 below. If the loser of the main battle still has uncommitted rearguard units left, the winner of the main battle 3 determines the part of eir army that will pursue the losers of the main battle: e adds up the points value of eir remaining units. The pursuing troups may not be worth more than half of this remaining points value. In addition, the pursuing force must consist of those surviving troups with the largest normal movement allowance possible. There must be a pursuing force, although it may be smaller than the maxuimum allowed (even if generals don't like it, victorious armies are always eager to cut down the fleeing enemy. This may not always be true in the context of modern or SciFi professional armies, of course...) 4. Covering the retreat Story: After the main battle is fought, the loser tries to withdraw from the pursuing winner. If there is an organized rearguard left, it has good chances to stop the pursuers, who are tired from the main battle, while the rearguard had time to choose good defensive terrain and dig in. Under the protection of a rearguard the beaten army can withdraw and reorganize; without a stable rearguard to cover its retreat, the fleeing army will be cut down by its pursuers. Units involved: Rearguard of the loser of battle 3 (only units that didn't enter the table during battle 3; it doesn't matter if the player rolled to get them as reinforcements, all that counts is if they arrived or not). The winner of battle 3 uses the troups determined after battle 3. Set up: The defending rearguard's player may choose both the terrain and the side on which e will set up. In this battle (and only in this battle) the defending rearguard may use fortifications bought during the campaign preparation. The pursuing troups enter the table on turn one from the table edge opposite of the defending rearguard. [DW 1st ed: Exception: mobile fortifications that are allowed to an attacker in a standard campaign battle (e.g. Schutzschilde) are allowed in other battles, too.] If the defending rearguard sets up completely impenetrable fortifications, you'll have to limit the defender somehow. E.g. have the pursuer pick which terrain is available at all, or let em choose the table edge on which the rearguard must set up. Try to be reasonable; but remember that this setup procedure _is_ supposed to give the defending rearguard an advantage. Campaign Victory Points (CVP): 2 for the winner (determined by standard rules) 5. Count the losses. After all battles are fought, the armies count their losses, mourn their dead and swear revenge... Add up the point values of the following surviving troups, separately for each army: 1. The surviving units of the winner of battle 1 that were used to pursue the losing vanguard (if any) [These are the victorious troups of the vanguard battle that return to their army some time after the other battles, having automatically destroyed the fleeing losers of battle 1; all other troups in battle 1 either came to the table in battle 3 or lost their way] 2. The surviving units of the losing side of battle 2 (if it happened), but only if the loser of battle 2 won either battle 3 or battle 4 [The winning units of battle 2 either joined their army during battle 3 and are counted later, or they lost their way and didn't return.] 3. The surviving units of the winning side of battle 3 4. The surviving units of the loser of battle 3, but only if battle 4 happened and was won by the loser of battle 3 5. All surviving units of battle 4 [DW 1st ed: roll for units mentioned here destroyed or fled off the table as after a campaign game, except for the units that lost battle 2. This roll is only made at the very end of the campaign, so troups recovered from these rolls can not fight any later campaign battles, they only count towards the point total in step 5 of the mini campaign.] The army with more points left after all these battles (counting as described above, i.e. not counting units that survived a battle but were destroyed afterwards because their retreat was blocked) receives 1 Campaign Victory Point. If it retains more than twice as many points as the other side, it gains another Campaign Victory Point. The army with the largest number of Campaign Victory Points wins the campaign, of course. 6. Remarks, Strategy etc The interesting question is how to split your army into the three sections. A strong vanguard allows you to win battle 1 and get a flanking attack in the main battle. Your rearguard protects you against encirclement in battle 2 (if you lose battle 1), and covers your retreat if you lose the main battle. Of course, in the main battle you can try not to keep any rearguard units in reserve, at all, and use them all as reinforcements. But if you lose the main battle 3, a functioning rearguard is your only chance to save your surviving units for campaign step 5, so you at least have a chance of making your defeat a small one, or even win (if you won the battles 1 and 2). This means that if you win battles 1 and 2, with a strong rearguard to cover your retreat you can afford to lose the main battle and still win the campaign. Without a rearguard left to fight battle 4, the campaign is essentially decided by the main battle. Battle 2, if it happens, can have very different outcomes depending on the forces involved. A weak remainder of the winner of battle 1 may be slaughtered wholesale; on the other hand a strong returning winner may annihilate the opponent's rearguard and attack the enemy's rear in the main battle! That's also why there is only 1 CVP for the winner of this battle. The fact that wounds are not healed between battles means that heroic individuals may not be as much of a threat after a battle or two. This fits a campaign setting - you have to decide in which battle you want to use (and risk) your heroes, monsters etc most; in the other battles you'll just have to try and keep them alive. In larger campaigns this is different; but this mini-campaign simulates battles that happen within a few days at most, so there is no time to heal serious injuries... This mini campaign can also be played by several players. For example, one player can command the vanguard of an army and another the main body and rearguard. Other combinations are possible, of course. You can also play around with allied armies, maybe with a vanguard of one army covering another army as main body. These rules are copyright Klaus Herrmanns (E-Mail ) and available on the web http They may be copied and distributed if I am credited as author. Please ask me before distributing changed versions, and don't make money with this (unless I get some of it, too ;).