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Post by Piyan Glupak on Oct 18, 2016 12:42:39 GMT
I am working on a new campaign, to be played solo. It is set in a world with Bronze Age technology. The world is called "Egros", and has one known continent. The top bit is cooler in climate than the bit south of the mountains. Here is the map:  Six nations will battle it out. Their capitals are shown in bold. There are no Goblins, Orcs, Dwarves, Elves or Hobbits. There is magic, heroes, and the occasional god. There are a few giants and centaurs. I will try 5 campaign years to see how I get on. I intend to use the HotT Campaign rules, with a few additions: 'Mountainous Routes' by Stephen Montague 'Desert Routes' by Alan Saunders Both these can be found on the Fanaticus archive site. The direct link for both is: fanaticus.website/variants/varmountains.html'Terrain for Campaigns' by Alan Saunders from the old Stronghold site: web.archive.org/web/20091027012133/http://www.btinternet.com/~alan.catherine/wargames/campterr.htmKeith McNelly’s ‘Programmed Leaders for Ancient Campaigns’: homepages.paradise.net.nz/mcnelly/ancient/db_campaign.htmSome of these additions were written for DBA. Where they, for instance, say "remove an element" I will be removing 2 army points. Again, for incautious leaders who are prepared to cross the sea in Spring or Autumn, they will also cross mountains in Spring and Autumn and Desert in Summer. EDIT: 11/11/2016 - The alterations to PIP and combat dice scores in 'Programmed Leaders for Ancient Campaigns' will NOT be used. |
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Post by Piyan Glupak on Oct 18, 2016 13:29:10 GMT
A bit more back story and some army lists:
The North is less wealthy and up to date with the latest technology than the South. Because of trade routes, the People of the North Wind are wealthier and more developed than their neighbours, the People of the Dawn, and the Painted Ones.
The Empire had obtained tributary status over the Sea People, the Old Kingdom, and the People of the North Wind, but not over the People of the Dawn, or the Painted Ones. This had led to relative peace for quite a long time. After the old emperor died, his successor was a bit of an unknown quantity. It was noticed that some of the people that the old emperor relied upon were displaced from their positions. The nations that had been subjects of The Empire took their independence and prepared to take their chance…
People of the North Wind
1* Hero General, 1* Magician, 2* Blades, 6* Spear
The climate is temperate. Provinces are Maestydf (capital), Conwe, Llyny
Sea People
1* Hero General, 1* God, 1* Hero, 4* Spears, 2* Warband
The climate is warm. Provinces are Kniumea (capital), Susia, Eraro
People of the Dawn
1* Warband General, 2* Riders (centaurs), 6* Shooters, 2* Beasts (boars), 1* Flier(eagle)
The climate is temperate. Provinces are Andeirk (capital), Colwe, Llane
Painted Ones
1* Warband General, 2* Behemoth (giants), 6* Shooters, 2* Lurkers (spiders)
The climate is temperate. Provinces are Risy (capital), Prane, Ciethy
Old Kingdom
1* Blade General, 1* God, 1* Water Lurker (crocodile), 5* Shooters, 3* Blades, 1* Hordes
The climate is hot. Provinces are Hatwas (capital), Medju, Nety
The Empire
1* Knight General, 3* Knights, 1* Magician, 6* Spear
The climate is warm. Provinces are Awak (capital), Tisol, Arak, Arqash
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Post by korean on Nov 8, 2016 14:53:44 GMT
excuse me, can you play solo HOTT GAME? Hmm, interesting method.
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Post by Piyan Glupak on Nov 9, 2016 6:25:36 GMT
You can play most wargames solo. The easiest way is to try and do the best for the side whose turn it is. As far as I know, there are not many other wargamers in Bulgaria.
One of the problems that you can have with solo play is that you tend to use similar tactics own, due to your individual method of play. There are methods to make some decisions for one of the sides by dicing. I use 'SoloDBA' for DBA games sometimes.
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Post by korean on Nov 9, 2016 7:17:30 GMT
in my country, young people who play miniature game have almost played warhammer 40k or infinity. there are no player who play DBA or Hott . so I`m attracted at your solo play.
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Post by Piyan Glupak on Nov 10, 2016 5:27:13 GMT
Here is a link for the PDF file for Solo DBA:- fanaticus.website/variants/SoloDBAVer2dot2.pdfThis version is intended for DBA Version 2.2. A version for DBA 2.2+ was started, but progress on that slowed to a stop. I know that a few people still play 2.2+, but a lot of the people who were interested in it seem to have transfered their interest to a new set of wargames rules called "Triumph!". I have gone back to using DBA version 1.1 for my historical ancients wargaming. You could probably adapt it to any version of DBA, or to Hordes of the Things. There are other methods for solo playing around. By the way, there is quite a lot of useful information on this site: fanaticus.website/There isn't a forum there, but it ended up with most of the reference documents of the old Fanaticus site. Most of the content is intended for DBA, but some is useful for HotT. |
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Post by medievalthomas on Nov 10, 2016 18:30:13 GMT
Re: New Players
An essentially element of DBX gaming is teaching others to play. Don't expect people to buy the rulebook and teach themselves to play (particularly using an older version).
You have to actively recruit. I have taught lots of people whose first miniature wargame was DBX (some version).
I'm using the popularity of Game of Thrones (Ice and Fire) as a recruiting tool.
TomT
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Post by Piyan Glupak on Nov 11, 2016 6:17:05 GMT
Re: New Players An essentially element of DBX gaming is teaching others to play. Don't expect people to buy the rulebook and teach themselves to play (particularly using an older version). You have to actively recruit. I have taught lots of people whose first miniature wargame was DBX (some version). I'm using the popularity of Game of Thrones (Ice and Fire) as a recruiting tool. TomT I managed to teach myself (and my original playing circle). At that time, the current version was DBA 1.1. My opinion is that earlier versions are easier to learn to play without tuition than later versions. Some of the people who learned DBA and HotT playing with me were experienced wargamers, but a reasonable proportion were not. DBA was the third set of rules that I tried as a novice wargamer, and the first that I felt really comfortable with. I started with 'Forlorn Hope' for English Civil War battles, but the recommended conversion for 6mm figures at that time made them clumsy to play, and not particularly believable in results. I tried DBM (which was the most widely used and talked about set of ancients rules of the time) but found them difficult to learn without help from an experienced player. I then tried DBA because I read somewhere that it was a good way to get used to the basic mechanisms. I rapidly found that I could play DBA easily, and enjoy it. So could my friends. Soon after, DBR replaced Forlorn Hope for my ECW games, and HotT followed |
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Post by vodnik on Nov 11, 2016 11:27:08 GMT
...a word about DBM. For some people to large with to many elements. But there in the DBMM rules a smaller version: DBMM200. In Germany there are tournaments using this version. So why not playing DBM200 using smaller armies...
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Post by Piyan Glupak on Nov 11, 2016 12:13:19 GMT
A bit of a hiccup occurred in the campaign. It happened a while ago. Unfortunately, I needed to think about it. I have also been a bit busy, so I haven't given an update, or been able to continue the campaign.
The People of the North Wind (whose army is loosely based upon the mid to late Bronze Age of northern Europe) invaded Colwe, one of the provinces of the People of the Dawn (who have one of the armies based upon early Bronze Age northern Europe). The leader of the PotD was defined as an "ambitious tyrant", and resisted the invasion. So far so good.
Unfortunately, if I understand it correctly, Keith McNelly’s ‘Programmed Leaders for Ancient Campaigns’ gives Ambitious Tyrants +1 on the PIP dice but -1 on combat dice. When I played the battle, the People of the Dawn got massacred by the People of the North Wind. The PotD quickly lost 2 centaur Rider elements, 1 eagle flyer and 1 shooter. The People of the North Wind suffered no loss. I believe that it would be very difficult for the army of an 'Ambitious Tyrant' to win a battle.
After a few days to think about it, I thought that I would fight the same battle on the same terrain without either the PIP or combat adjustments. I might have worked out how to play the PotD army better than I did before. At any rate, the result was very different. The PotD lost 8 points, including their Warband general, the eagle Flier, and 2 elements of Beasts (boars). The PotNW lost 12 points, 1 ensorcelled Magican, 2 Blades and 2 Spear. The game was also more satisfying.
After a few more days thinking about it, changing my computer and wrestling with both Windows 10 and Linux Ubuntu (Ubuntu is easier, in my opinion), installing a small pond in the garden etc, I have decided to use the result of the second attempt at fighting the battle, and to ignore the alterations to PIP and combat dice.
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Post by kaptainkobold on Dec 12, 2016 3:26:33 GMT
Unfortunately, if I understand it correctly, Keith McNelly’s ‘Programmed Leaders for Ancient Campaigns’ gives Ambitious Tyrants +1 on the PIP dice but -1 on combat dice. When I played the battle, the People of the Dawn got massacred by the People of the North Wind. Did you apply the -1 to combat dice to just the general's element (which I suspect is the intent) or every element in the army? |
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Post by kaptainkobold on Dec 12, 2016 3:28:56 GMT
excuse me, can you play solo HOTT GAME? Hmm, interesting method. HOTT is extremely easy to play solo. Some people like to use some kind of programmed player for one or both sides, but since there is no hidden information in the game, and there are no simultaneous actions, it's entirely possible just to set up a game and play each side to the best of your ability. I do it a lot. |
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Post by Piyan Glupak on Dec 12, 2016 6:39:54 GMT
Unfortunately, if I understand it correctly, Keith McNelly’s ‘Programmed Leaders for Ancient Campaigns’ gives Ambitious Tyrants +1 on the PIP dice but -1 on combat dice. When I played the battle, the People of the Dawn got massacred by the People of the North Wind. Did you apply the -1 to combat dice to just the general's element (which I suspect is the intent) or every element in the army? I applied it to every element in the army. Hmm... -1 (or not giving the +1 factor) to the combat roll of just the general's element would make a lot more sense. Thanks, Alan. |
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