The Rebellion of 1403 campaign There are simple campaign rules in DBA. (No, I don't have WRG shares). It seems quite possible to use the background for the battle as a basis for a whole campaign. The points below don't pretend to provide a full set of mechanisms for such a campaign - just some suggestions of things that could be incorporated . The existing rules probably need to be modified for something like weekly turns as the distances involved are relatively small. The principle forces would be: Royalists (2 armies, King and Prince Henry); Hotspurs' Rebels, Glyndwr's Welsh with both French and Scots waiting off stage. The army lists would be based on 100 Years War English (168) and French (170), Scots Common (140) and Welsh (92). The numbers shown correspond to the WRG list numbers. Using the campaign map supplied in the rule book possible areas and owners are: North Wales (Welsh) Cheshire (Hotspur) Powis (Welsh) Shropshire (Royalist) Staffordshire (Royalist) Herefordshire (Royalist) Worcestershire (Thomas Percy) A medieval atlas or similar work should allow you to choose suitable cities or castles within each region and main communication routes. I suggest county towns and the old Roman roads and main rivers as starting points. It is likely the Royalists can recruit substantial reinforcements elsewhere and probably bring them in through Staffordshire although Herefordshire is also a possibility. Hotspur too may receive more troops in this case through Cheshire. The two Welsh zones can also be reinforced from off map. The French could appear randomly as allies to either the Welsh or Hotspur, or may divert Royal reinforcements, e.g. by raiding the south coast. The Scots may also appear randomly, probably as allies to Hotspur, but they may also raid Percy lands to the north and divert rebel reinforcements. If Hotspur is doing well the Scots may decide they don't want their immediate neighbor getting too powerful, conversely if Hotspur is struggling they might decide it's a good time to settle old scores! Hotspurs Charge Going the opposite way in size how about a skirmish or role-playing scenario? "Hotspur gazed intently over the battlefield and swore. The battle had been all but won. The enemy vanguard was in rout, its leader, Stafford, dead. The King's Standard fluttered temptingly less than half a mile away. All that lay between him and that jumped up Bolingbroke were fleeing remnants of Stafford's troops. If he only had a few minutes to reform his pursuing troops victory would be his. But the threat of Prince Henry's force against Hotspurs outnumbered right wing denied him that time. There was only one hope. Hotspur glanced over to his comrade Earl Douglas, then gestured to his small group of personal retainers. He lowered his visor, couched his lance and charged into the confusion of figures in front of him ...................." In essence Hotspur has to hack his way through to the Royal Standard and kill the King which will hopefully cause the Royal army to disintegrate, before Prince Henry's attack causes Hotspurs army to flee. Here are a few suggestions on how this might be done, using your favorite rules for small scale actions be they skirmish rules or role playing rules. Again these are just untried ideas for a solo game that need to be developed more fully but solo gamers are good at that sort of thing aren't they? The key to the whole thing is what I have called the "Army Status". Since this game is from Hotspurs' viewpoint, this will run from a best value of +10 at which point the royal army flees to -10 at which Hotspurs' army disintegrates. At +6 the royal army is demoralised and Hotspurs' automatically gains +1 status each turn it remains at 6 or better. At -6 or worse the rebels automatically lose 1 status point per turn. During the game the status will change as a result of "off table" events rolled randomly and by Hotspurs' actions. Most off table events decrease army status as Prince Henry starts to overwhelm the rebels although occasionally things may improve e.g. if Henry is wounded. Hotspurs' actions will try to increase his army status by killing or capturing noblemen particularly the king and his standard bearer. The riff-raff are just in the way and have to be despatched as quickly as possible to allow him to get on with the real job. At the start of the game the Army Status is +3, after all the King's right wing has been broken and the Earl of Stafford killed. There will be three sorts of troops, Men at arms (including nobles) who may be mounted or unmounted, Bowmen, and other foot. There will be 4 troop grades: elite, veteran, average and poor. You will need to convert these descriptions to whatever is appropriate for the combat rules you are using. Not all men at arms are nobles. Nobles may be either minor or major. Hotspur has about 700 yards to cross to reach the king's standard, divided into 20 bands of about 35 yards each. Hotspur will start by entering band 1, the king's standard is on band 19. Each turn mounted troops may move a maximum of 3 bands, men at arms on foot move 1, other foot move 2 but must stop and fight in any band that contains hostile forces. Visibility is severely curtailed by armour, dust and the fog of war with a maximum range of 3 bands. Anything beyond that disappears and in the case of troops probably won't be there if you come back. Hotspurs' retinue comprises 2 elite major nobles (Hotspur and Douglas) + 1D6 other mounted troops. Dice for the grade of each on 1D6 (6 sided dice in case you don't know). 6 = elite, 4,5 = veteran, 3,2 = average, 1 = poor. At the start of each turn roll for what is happening elsewhere on the battlefield on 1D6: 1,2,3,4 Royalist making good progress against rebels, subtract 1 from army status. 5 No effect. 6 Roll again : 5,6 Royalists encounter setback add 1 to army status, 1,2,3,4 no effect. If Royalists encounter setbacks on two successive turns, the rebels add 1 to army status each turn until a turn where "Royalists make good progress" which cancels the automatic +1. Each turn Hotspur moves he must dice for what is in any "unknown" bands. Number of forces in band = 1D6 - 3, so a roll of 1,2,3 = none, 4 = 1 force etc. Owner of each force, in bands 1 to 6: hostile on roll of 5,6 otherwise friendly Owner of each force, in bands 7 to 12: hostile on roll of 4,5,6 Owner of each force, in bands 13 to 18: hostile on roll of 2,3,4,5,6 Owner of each force, in bands 19, 20: always hostile. Now roll for composition of each band : 1 = 1D6 other foot 2 = 1D3 archers 3 = 1D6 archers 4 = 1D3 mounted men at arms 5 = 1D6 foot men at arms 6 = 1D3 Nobles. For nobles roll again 1,2,3 = on foot 4,5,6 = mounted A 3 or 6 shows one is a major noble. The major noble is "the king" if a further 6 is thrown for enemy troops. You will also need to roll for the troop grades either individually or on a group basis. It is assumed if you enter a band containing an enemy you will enter hand to hand combat after one round of missile fire from any archers. If you have bowmen you can try and shoot them from up to 3 bands away as long as you have a clear shot but this will probably take longer. Friendly troops will follow Hotspur, but only while he remains with them. If he leaves them behind or tries to send them ahead they will wander off elsewhere. So only mounted troops are likely to be much help for more than a turn or two. For each minor noble killed or captured + 1 status points. For each major noble killed or captured + 2 status points. If the "King" is killed/captured roll again, 6= the real king , + 2 status point every turn from now on: 1,2,3,4,5 = decoy king, treat as minor noble. Of course you will lose the same amount of points for friendly casualties. On band 19 as well as any random encounters you will encounter the king's standard bearer and another "king", both of whom are major nobles plus 1D3 minor nobles. This "king" is the real thing if the roll of 2D6 is higher than the number of turns you have made to reach this point. If you still haven't won or lost by this stage you have one last chance on band 20. If a group of nobles is encountered here it includes a "king" with the same chance of this being the real thing as band 19. If after all this you still haven't lost or won then you have ridden right through the whole army. The battle has obviously degenerated into a vulgar brawl and the only thing for a true knight to do is withdraw until another day when an opponent of sufficient quality is prepared to face you. Looking back all this seems very long winded, with many dice throws for which I apologize. However it is only a heap of suggestions and could probably all be condensed onto a single sheet of paper with a couple of percentage tables. I suspect that such a presentation would be incomprehensible without further explanations. In addition I wanted the different factors that could be included to be shown separately giving people a better chance of tinkering with any bits they don't like, or adding things I have omitted, e.g. terrain effects altogether although only the "standing crops" seem to have been important on the day. Some final thoughts As you will have seen from my account I don't have any historically correct figures. However I am sure most major suppliers will have suitable figures listed as "Late 100 years war". For a cheaper option if you just want a quick dabble Irregular Miniatures have a "Medieval and Feudal" range in 6mm as do Heroic and Ros. Alternatively you can always use the plastic 100 years war range in 1/72 from Revell. The bulk of the armies will be from the English set with mounted knights and foot nobles from the French. The only problem here is the number of bowmen required as each English set only provides 8. Airfix have reissued "Sherwood Castle" which contains plenty of bowmen from the old "Robin Hood" set plus knights etc., again in 1/72 scale. The set is about £10 and also contains the castle itself, but this always struck me as more suited to 15mm. Finally on the cheap figure front Prince August used to sell molds for foot and mounted knights and men at arms, but not any really suitable bowmen. Well that about wraps things up. Who cheered? I have enjoyed myself and I hope at least some of you out there have too. I would be pleased for any feedback, either through LW or direct. After all having done it once I am tempted to try again and tell you all about it unless I am told otherwise. Shrewsbury: Part 1 Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #111 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1995 by Solo Wargamers Association. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com