I have been playing one to two games a week since the rules came off the press. I must say I'm probably winning more than I'm losing. This only makes sense because at this time nobody knows the rules better than I do.

Not that knowledge of the rules saves me from stupid things. Like charging straight across the front of three Cos. of crossbowmen to attack a large body of Highland infantry on the flank. In this incident the first move of my charge left me in effective range and a massed target for the bowmen.

They had a Combat Value of 12 +5 (weapon bonus) +5 (massed target) for a total of 22. They rolled three combat dice for 19 or less (20 always misses). Well you can imagine they got all three hits. My attacking Sergeants were only two Cos. strong so it was maximum damage. The automatic morale check was a failure causing them to halt at that point in disorder. See what I mean about rules knowledge.

Beginning

Well my point of this article is document the beginning of my Mini-Campaign (MC). I decided to generate a Domain for each of my Leaders that I had been fighting with. I like to use a different one for each opponent I fight. I have two different Welsh Domains for fighting an English army, an English Border Domain for fighting a Scottish opponent and a Burgundian Duke (Feudal French) for fighting French and German opponents.

This sort of MC is very exciting and fun. In the last battle I played, my Burgundian Warlord, Duke William was killed by a lucky crossbow bolt to the head. I have since replaced him with his eldest son, William II. While William was Chivalric Motivated his son is a Raider, hmmmm.

King David of Wales

His majesty King David is a lesser King of Wales. If you know your Welsh history you know that Wales was divided up into many small almost ducal size kingdoms. David Llandower is one such King.

He controls an area in the Northern part of Wales opposite Chester. His army is primarily Spearmen. He has made a good alliance with his cousin to the south and is usually able to secure some Allied Welsh Bowmen for his army.

King David has any interesting Domain. His House Hold is seven which provides him with four Vassals whose combined Social Ranks equal his House Hold.

King David's strongest Vassal is Lord James the Earl of Dwineed.

Next in line is Owen, Lord of Chine.

In addition he has two trusted landed Knights. Sir Martin and Sir Mortimer. He calls these stout Knights his M&M's

As is true for this period most of his Nobles are of Norman heritage as noted by their names.

In Defense of the Domain

By Welsh standards King David has a powerful Kingdom. While it may not be strong enough to take on the King of England it can hold it's own against any of the Marcher Nobles armies the English may send against him.

As an experiment let's raise King David's army. To start with he draws cards equal to his Social Rank (5). Remember that the deck is modified in DOB so that any face card except an Ace is equal to 5 points. The Ace is 1. If he draws an average he will have 25 Points. To this he adds his House Hold (7). This gives him an average army of 32 AP.

Rally To Me Lords

He now must summon his Vassals and hope that they come. First is Earl James. David draws a card. It must be equal to or less than his House Hold minus the summoned leaders Social Rank. In this case HH7 - SR3 or a 4. This is modified by +1 as David is Royal. With the average card being 5 the Earl will probably come. If he comes he draws one card and adds it to his House Hold of 5. He will average 10AP.

Next David must summon his Noble. This will be easier. HH7-SR2 for a 5+1 or a 6 or less. This summons is further modified by -1 due to the Noble having a Raider Motivation. If he comes he brings his House Hold of 4.

Lastly David Summons his Knights. HH7-SR1 +1 or 7 or less. If they come they each bring their HH of 3, or 4AP.

In our first battle Lord Owen fails to show, as a Raider he feels there is no way to increase his own wealth.

The Army Of David.

King David: 25 + 7 = 32AP
Earl James: 5 + 5 = 10AP
Sir Mortimer: 3AP
Sir Martin: 4AP
Total Army + 48AP

Not a bad army. Next issue we'll look at the Domains of Earl James and the scoundrel Lord Owen. They each are strong enough to have their own personal Domain. In a pinch King David could call upon either of them to raise an army and go to war on his behalf.

The Final Solution

Why go to all of this trouble a few readers may ask? Well, we all love to play campaigns, but they are pretty difficult to run. This MC allows you to form your own Domain and rule it. When you go to war you decide who is summoned and who stays home. After the battle there are modifiers for the next MC to penalize you if you lost the battle and to make it difficult to summon a scurrilous Lord ho continues to fail to come to banner.

Well I'm off to a 4th part. The next issue will be in a few months. At that time I hope to have an in-depth article by Ray Estabrook of All About Games in Belfast Maine. He is running a fabulous map campaign set in the County Maine (France) based on the original history of the times. Till then may all your rolls be 1.