Saturday, April 4, 2009

HOTT Campaign Rules

This is a draft of the Campaign Rules I will be using for my HOTT Campaign weekend in June . They are based heavily on the Campaign rules presented in Hordes of the Things.

STARTING RESOURCES
Each Player will begin with a country consisting of three regions, one of which is their capitol. The map I was planning to use for this campaign can be seen here:

Campaign Map

(This may change depending on how many participants I get. Also there may be another Orc army involved… If necessary I will make a new map the week before when I have a better idea of who’s coming and what armies are being used…)

To defend or expand their country players will also start with a Field Army. The Field Army will consist of 24 AP worth of troops.

Before the game begins players will secretly write down the location of their field army. All will be revealed simultaneously and placed on the campaign map.

THE CAMPAIGN YEAR
The Campaign will be played out through a number of years. Each year will be broken down into four Seasonal Turns: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.

During the Spring, Summer, and Fall turns Field Armies may move about, engage in battles, and lay siege to enemies cities.

At the end of the Fall season all Field Armies must retire to Winter Quarters.

During the Winter taxes are collected and Field Armies are rebuilt.

SEASONAL TURNS
At the beginning of each seasonal turn players will secretly write down where their Field army will move. All are then simultaneously moved according to the movement rules below.

MOVEMENT
Field Armies may move up to two spaces along the designated routes shown on the map. They can not pass through or over an area they do not control unless granted passage by the owning player. All armies which are moving will be moved one space, any armies moving two spaces will make their second movement afterwards if it hasn’t been halted. Armies that “bump into” enemy armies are halted and may move no further that turn.

In cases where two opposing armies are attempting to move into each others adjacent territories both will dice – the higher moves first and is the attacker in their opponents territory.

When the Field Army moves all elements must move with the Field Army. The only exception is Allied contingents. As an alternative to moving a player may elect to send an allied contingent. An allied contingent is subject to all the normal movement rules with the exception that after any battle is over any surviving elements will retire back the way it came – if possible – and rejoin the Field Army. If it is not possible the contingent is lost.

Sea Movement is as per p30 HOTT 2nd ed.

As an alternative to moving a player my elect to “Defend the Realm” in which case they make no movement until all other players have moved one space – they may then move one space to meet an invading army that has moved into the defenders territory.

GIVING BATTLE
As per p31 HOTT 2nd ed.

PARTICIPATION BY ALLIED CONTINGENTS
As per p31 HOTT 2nd ed.

RESULTS OF A BATTLE
As per p32 HOTT 2nd ed.

STANDING A SIEGE
As per p32 HOTT 2nd ed.

MULTIPLAYER BATTLES
It is possible that more than two armies would end up in the same territory during the same season. If all players agree this can be played as a Big Battle game where all armies are deployed on the table at the beginning of a battle. Otherwise two primary antagonists should be determined. They will be deployed on the table at the beginning of the game and the rest of the armies will arrived in a similar manner to Allied contingents. All field armies will groups of up to 6AP. The first group will arrive using the same rules for the arrival of an allied contingent. Further groups can thereafter be deployed in a similar manner at the cost of 2 PIPs. Only one group from any field army my be deployed on a given turn (i.e. you can’t spend 4 PIPs and deploy 2 groups)

WINTER
At the end of the Fall season all Field Armies must retire to Winter Quarters. This is done as per p29 HOTT 2nd ed.

During the winter tax their people and raise new recruits for their Field Army. Players may add 2AP to their Field Army for each territory under their control, plus an additional 2AP for their Capitol. The maximum size of an army is 24AP. Additional AP can not be saved or shared, it is lost.



I think that’s it…? Trying to keep things simple and fast. If you see any glaring errors or confusing bits or whatever - please let me know!

As I mentioned in the Previous Post. I’d like to run a quick play-by-email run-through of the system just to see how many battles it generates and how quickly players could get knocked out of the game. If you’d like to help out just drop me a line!

4 comments:

  1. 2 AP per territory? This means that one will be able to rebuild only 8 AP per year assuming no change in territory. I see a lot of cagey skirmishes where one side retires as soon as the battle looks like it might go bad in order to avoid losing too much. This may also manifest itself in lots of refusing battle unless the terrain is favourable, etc.
    Basically there is not too much incentive to battle unless really neccessary - there is just too much to be lost in a total defeat. Incidentally, how are hordes treated in campaign? Are they freely replaced every year? Do you only lose those hordes that are off the table at battle's end?

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  2. Them's the rules right outta the book. Yep it's pretty nasty... But then, wasn't that what battles of the ear would have been like...? A lot of jockeying for position... one big battle... war over... We do want to bring this campaign to some sort of satisfactory conclusion in a day and a half.

    If you just leave and don't give battle you loose territory - which looses prestige and the ability to rebuild your army when you ARE eventually bought to battle. You can't run forever. You only have three territories!!

    I also thought of including a couple of "events" that give players incentive to attack - such and such kingdom has insulted our daughters honour if you don't attack them by the end of turn one you will lose 5 prestige points.

    Check out Neldoreth's Viking Campaign. It's quick and nasty... Look how many stands the Danes had left in their army at the end of the first year...

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  3. This is why I am running the playtest, just to see HOW nasty it might be... If people ARE going to be knocked out of the game by noon on Saturday I may have to rethink things just a bit...

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