The Fluff (pulled from the Campaign Carnival 2022 booklet by World of Weirth, barony names adapted from the forces of Dice Legions Roll vs Evil):
Two neighboring Domains have been involved in a trade dispute for nearly a year.
Baron Arron of Heirland has had enough! He has lost all patience and in the Spring of the year mustered his forces and sent them into the Barony of Mireland to seize the disputed resource area.
Baron Barren called up his own bannermen to defend the domain, meeting the army of Heirland on the Fields of Aprikoosit.
The Crunch: To determine the initial forces, I've utilized the system from The Solo Wargaming Guide by William Sylvester. I rolled dice to determine the towns/villages and available forces. Since per scenario these are two baronies (generally smaller forces) I decided there would be a central castle town (rated A[2-5 regiments]) for each barony and 4 additional potential sources of soldiers. The rolls were fairly even:
- Mireland received towns of B [1-5 regiments] and B size and villages of D [3 companies], F [1 company], and H [no units]
- Heirland received towns of A and B size and villages of D, F , and H
- Mireland's A and two B towns yielded 4 regiments, 2 regiments, and 2 regiments
- Heirland's towns yielded 3 regiments, 2 regiments, and 3 regiments
So the dice were kind and both baronies start evenly matched, 7920 troops each. In Dice Legions each side has three types of regular (pip based) troops. I chose to divide them up as
4200 basic infantry, 2400 cavalry, and 1320 'trained' (due to range attacks) troops. I then added 10 of each sides' special units to the mix.
The 1st Scenario (from the CC 2022 booklet with DL names):
The Fluff: The overconfident and headstrong general of Heirland was defeated, his strategy thwarted, and he was ignominiously captured by the Golden Guard of Mireland! Heirland’s army was forced to withdraw from the field, leaving behind a small force to defend the retreat.
In my head canon, the Baron of Heirland was unaware that the coveted resource (a mineral useful in magic and alchemy) was located in the goblinoid inhabited swamps of Mireland. Baron Barren had made a deal with the goblinoids, sharing the riches of the trade for rights to the mineral. This also generated goodwill with goblinoids, who now swelled the ranks of Mireland's army. Baron Aaron assumed the light human population of Mireland would not be able to resist the size of Heirland's army. His general was ill prepared to meet a foe of equal numbers and savage intent.
The Crunch: Per the scenario, Heirland will only have access to 45% of its forces, while Mireland will have 90% of its starting units.
Heirland:
1890 Heirland Infantry (by Dice Legion standards - 16 dice with one die understrength at 4)
1080 Heirland Knights (9 dice)
594 Heirland Scouts (5 dice with 1 at 5)
5 Heirland Batttle Mages (5 dice with one starting at 4 of 8 health points)
Mireland:
3780 Gatorkin Mercenaries (32 dice with 1 at 3)
2160 Goblin Drake Riders (18 dice)
1188 Goblin Infantry (10 dice with 1 at 5)
9 Carnage Beasts
Terrain:
Using the method in the CC 2022 booklet to generate terrain, the battlefield has a large section of woods on the west and southwest corner with some wooded hills just south west of center.
In Dice Legions woods give cover (allowing for rerolls of failed saves against hits). Hills give extra range to ranged attacks. Of the Mireland forces, only the Carnage Beasts are slowed by the forest. Heirland Infantry and Knights will both be affected by this terrain.
Dice Legions Roll vs Evil forces are set up as and even matchup of 18 dice in each army, with 6 activations per army fielded. Since this is a fight of uneven numbers, I'm ruling one activation per every 3 dice. Heirland will have 12 activations per turn and Mireland will have 17 per turn.
Setup:
The standard set up for Dice Legions calls for a 12" 'no go' zone between opposing armies. This assumes the armies will move towards each other rather than one trying to get away. Dice Legions also has no facing, so units can move away just as easily as moving towards the enemy. Given these reasons (and my small battlemat) I'll be setting the Heirland forces within a 6" strip in the middle of the board and the Mireland troops just outside that strip. This is to keep the Heirland forces from turning tail and running with little chance of being caught.
Results:
It
was a wipe out. The Heirland forces knocked out two Mireland leaders on
the first turn (one killed and one on a retreat that never ended). All
three of their leaders were gone by the end of round 3
The
improvised morale rules, rather than allowing Mireland a chance for
points from routed units (though that is where most of their points came
from), proved a boon to Heirland as a means of escaping melee or
forcing Mireland forces to retreat. Admittedly a lot of that is the whim
of the dice, but by RAW Dice Legions, once in melee most units are
stuck there until one of the units in melee dies.
I
got caught up on the Mireland side with getting the drake cavalry and
range units up to tie up units, inflict damage, and possibly cut off
retreat. I didn't move in the gatorkin infantry until late. those guys
can really lay down hits and avoid (save) hits. (Both are a success on
3+ on each d6).
The
final results: Mireland inflicted casualties of two units, routed 8 off the board, and
captured one leader. Heirland had one unit escape disrupted and 24
escape in good order.
Going by stands (dice): Heirland 49 VP; Mireland 13 VP
Going by models (pips and special units): Heirland 341; Mireland 116
Aftermath:
Heirland: (in models, 20 men each)
Scattered: 36 Infantry; 7 Scouts; 7 Knights; 1 Mage
Injured: 5 Infantry, 1 Scout; 2 Knights
Killed: 4 Infantry; 3 Scouts; 3 Knights
Mireland:
Scattered: 4 Gatorkin; 12 Goblin Infantry; 21 Drake Riders; 7 Carnage Beasts
Injured: 4 Goblin Infantry; 3 Drake Riders
Killed: 1 Gatorkin; 3 Goblin Infantry; 4 Drake Riders
Lessons Learned:
If you're going for mass battle, get the scale right. By choosing a 1:20 ratio for each model/pip, there were 99 stands/dice on the battlefield. Admittedly, some were set up and never moved, but that was a lot going on for a solo play. A 1:40 ratio would have been better.
The Law of Unintended Consequences: The morale rule I implemented and leader activation bonus I added lengthened the game. the morale rule added a third roll to combats (from attack rolls and save rolls to attack, save, and morale) and a post combat movement phase. The leader bonus activations made especially the Heirland turns longer (Mireland barely used that rule). These factors plus my inexperience with the system and the scale snafu above led to this being a 5 hour game from set up to finish. That does not include to time to put everything away and factor up the loses.
RAW first, mod later. Rules as written exist for a reason, try them first. (It turns out I didn't foul up as much as I thought. I believe my setup modification more than countered the ill advised morale and leader rules. I 'reasoned out' a RAW combat with the same forces, and I believe the result would be the same. see below if you're interested.) There's a reason a 'full army' in Dice Legions is 18 dice. The mass battle "Legion" level of the game is one army "per player". The game I played should have been a 3 on 2 as I set it up.
Scenario rules matter: I did an oopsy. I either missed or just skimmed passed the rule about using die rolls to determine which units would be part of this battle. I just took a straight 45% of total Heirland forces. Fewer Scouts would have meant the Mireland leaders survived longer. Fewer Knights and Mages would have meant slower units in the forest, more likely to be locked up and destroyed. Would that have turned the tide? Hard to say. Reading Is Fundamental, kids. :)
Notetaking: I definitely need a campaign journal to track what's going on force wise. Who's available next, where are the injured, etc. I also need to adapt a more systemic way to track the action on the battlefield. I had to go back and forth though several notes and my memory to figure out the AAR. I have blank notebooks around. Time to use one.
Overall this was fun. I felt stretched and challenged. I can get better. As evidenced by my system tinkering, the old brain juices are pumping. I think the space of how to do a wargaming campaign has a lot of room for development. How to you make a campaign flow in a way that individual battles are interesting and competitive and the flow of the overall conflict doesn't become a runaway? What is the right mixture of the random and planning? How do we keep the focus on the action on the table? I'm looking forward to what comes next in the Carnival, and beyond.
RAW refight (utilizing the forces I employed in the battle I fought)
The setup rules for Dice Legions: Setup a 12" no man's land in the middle of the board. Each side has free setup on either side of that zone.
The obvious Heirland setup given the 'just escape' objective: setup on the very edge of the board. Put the Battle Mages in the wooded area side by sidewith at least one unit outside the outermost of the Mages. (Why will be explained in Turn 3.) There is no facing in Dice Legions, so just activate and move off the board.
On my 24" by 36" gameboard, the Mireland forces setup RAW would be a minimum of 18" from the Heirland board edge. The fastest of the Mireland units are the 18 Drake Riders. The have a move of 4". In Dice Legions a unit can either move and attack or move twice. There is a contested die roll (roll-off) each turn, the winner can choose to go first or last.
Turn 1: Regardless of the winner of the roll-off: Mireland activates 17 Drakes and they move 8"; they are now 10" from the map edge. Heirland activates 12 units and moves them off the board. (This could potentially be 13. The Heirland Scout unit has an ability to activate a Scout for free if Heirland wins the roll-off.)
Turn 2: Same actions as Turn 1. The Drakes are 2" from the map edge, an inch or so from the Mireland units. There are 9 to 11 Heirland units left on the board. Five of those will be the Battle Mage units. The others will be Heirland Knights. (Why will be explained in Turn 3.)
Turn 3, option 1- Heirland wins the roll off: The Heirland units activate and move off the board. All units have escaped with no losses.
- By stands: Heirland 70 VP Mireland 0 VP
- By figures: Heirland 370 Mireland 0
Turn 3, option 2 - Mireland wins the roll-off: The Drakes move and attack. Heirland forces should be aligned in a way that only a couple of outside units could be double teamed. The Mages and Knights have a 3+ save versus any hits. Setting them up in the woods gives them cover, allowing rerolls of any missed saves. Only extremely Mireland slanted rolls should result in any units being killed in one round of battle. The Mages have a special ability to move even when engaged in melee. On the Heirland turn, they leave the field. The remaining 4-6 Knights will be locked in place and only be able to attack in turn.
After Turn 3, option 2: Chances are the remaining Knights will be ganged up on and killed. There is a chance, if they are engaged with a single unit, they can escape if Heirland wins the next roll-off. Best case scenario for Mireland: 29 Heirland dice escape, 6 are killed. The totals:
- By stands: Heirland 58 Mireland 12
- By figures: Heirland 298 Mireland 72
Both the above outcomes are worse than what I gamed out. RAW in a 'playing the game by the rules' strategy by Heirland does no favors to Mireland victory point wise. In terms of casualties for the campaign, Mireland would fare better overall. A refight with my modified setup rules might narrow the Heirland ability to escape, or it could tilt the balance of the scenario the other way. Maybe a battle for another time.
Until next time, folks, may your dice roll true.
