(From the Chronicles of Lauromia). "In the month of Libra the 5th Umak reached the Grand Nest of the Betivs and defeated the clans in open battle. But Tzak and many of his minions escaped and hid in the bowels of the earth so Rilian laid siege for a month until the 2nd Umak arrived. Then Miraz took command and ordered the combined forces to assault the tunnels where the lizards were hiding."

In many fantasy universes one or more races live in underground towns. The commonest type of subterranean dwelling is the Tolkienian cavern or the archetype D&D dungeon, usually inhabited by dwarves, orcs, goblins and gnomes. Another variety is described by Martin Hackett's "Fantasy Wargaming" where marsh-dwelling reptilians live under swamps. Details of these constructions are not given, but are assumed to be similar to the Viet Cong tunnels, if a little more damp. In Lauromia only these two types occur, but possibilities in other worlds include ice caverns and ant hills in the desert.

Whatever the nature of the tunnel, an assault on an underground habitat is not an operation to be undertaken lightly as demonstrated in The Hobbit. When the elves and humans besieged Lonely Mountain, a straight forward attack was deemed impossible because there was no surrounding wall to breach, only the Front Gate where the defenders were waiting. Should the attackers have managed to force their way in, they would have been faced with attacking room by room, passage by passage. A description appears in The Lord of the Rings when Gandalf and his party were pursued by orcs through the Mines of Moria.

Unlike Tolkien's Middle Earth, assaults on underground cities are carried out by the dominant military power of Lauromia on a regular basis because this is the only way to defeat the evil lizard clans who dwell in the Twin River Country. The elves, hereditary enemies of said reptilians, have experience in underground combat and train special troops for this type of warfare. Hence it has been necessary to write rules specifically to fight these battles. The basic design is that of a player controlled force in a campaign situation assaulting tunnels occupied by non player forces.

The Rules

1. A grand nest consists of ten hexes laid surface up in a circle of seven with three added anywhere on the rim. This is the type of tunnel in swamps as described above.

A cavern starts with a half-hex entrance and one hex, surface down, connected to it. Five more hexes will be added to it. This is the type which most fantasy gamers will be familiar with.

The sides of a hex are 1.5" long for standard 15mm HOTT units. The actual design on each one is up to the player, but with a wide selection. My set has a mixture of one to three exits with one in two having grand nest shafts leading to the surface.

2. Deployment in a grand nest is by odds on each remaining defender being in a particular hex. In a cavern one unit defends the entrance, the rest are randomly deployed as in the grand nest. Example: There are two defenders and three hexes, therefore there is 2/3 chance of a defender being in the first hex entered. Excess defenders appear in hexes which were occupied by defenders destroyed by the attackers and are now unoccupied by both sides.

3. Occupation limits per hex are one attacking unit plus one attacking sneaker unit and one defending unit plus one defending sneaker or lurker unit. With the exception of defending lurkers, units may only be heroes, blades, clerics, hordes, magicians, shooters, sneakers, spears and warbands; all of which count as foot. Every two mounted units may dismount to fomm a foot unit of any of the above types.

4. Movement: a tactical move is from 1 hex to another. If in a grand nest and there has been flooding then a unit may only move on a 4+ AFTER being ordered to move.

5. When an attacking unit enters an unexplored hex in a grand nest turn it over and place it so that one tunnel connects with a visible tunnel in any turned up adjacent hex, or as turned over if not.

When an attacking unit enters an unexplored hex in a cavern roll 4+ on D for each tunnel to continue into a new hex; exception if there is only one unexplored exit left and one or more unlaid hexes, then that exit must continue into a new hex.

6. When an attacking unit enters a new hex, explored or unexplored, roll D6, 1= a lurker unit in the form of a trap or local wildlife ambushes the attacker. A defending unit in the hex will fight in support of the lurker. The lurker may not be replaced by the defender if it flees.

7. Combat: grand nests are treated as good going for any except magicians and caverns as good going for any. There is no distant combat. No unit may support another except a sneaker can support any other unit, and a defending unit can support a lurker. All units are destroyed instead of fleeing or recoiling; exceptions: lizards in grand nests, gnomes in cavems*. These may recoil along tunnels into any empty hex or displace friends along tunnels.

* In effect, natives of a particular type of tunnel are not automatically destroyed. Other losers are. Tough, but this is dirty business and only the best survive.

8. Hordes can only be regrouped in hexes which are empty, or contain lurkers.

9. A little fudge may be in order if there are not enough hexes for the defenders. Assume that the attackers have not mapped the city properly and there are outlying tunnels in the fomm of added hexes.

SNEAKERS. Fighting in tunnels is just one role for sneakers. In Lauromia they have also been used in surprise attacks to seize super castles and well defended cities. No assassinations of enemy leaders have been planned because there seems to be a code of conduct against this, but that could change! Their recruitment has been strictly controlled as rounding up a few amateur dungeoneers and calling them a unit does not in my opinion make them sneakers. Except for a few independents working for a craft guild, they are limited to the army of the Arborean Empire, the local equivalent to the Romans (who in my view are the good guys). I liken a unit of sneakers to the gaming teams in Voodoo Park by Niven and Barnes. Each team consisted of a number of magic users, fighters, scouts and techs and were led by a loremaster. The whole was greater than the sum of the parts, but the loremaster often sacrificed individuals to achieve a victory for the team.

This article was delayed going to print due to a hiccup in my campaign. Most play-testing of rules is run in concert with actual historical events. The original plan was that the Arborean forces would take out the gnomes' HQ under Wolverton Mountain then spend a few happy months digging up lizard grand nests. In reality events turned out to be very different! In two decisive battles the gnomes and some of the lizards managed to destroy one third of the elven armies and the entire allied amazon contingent. Without the manpower and political will to continue the war, the leaders of the Arborean Empire were forced to eat crow (a local delicacy), surrender some territory and sign a three year truce with the forces of darkness! Come back Crassus, all is forgiven!

Bibliography

JRR Tolkien: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings

L. Niven and S. Barnes: Dreampark: The Voodoo Game

P. Barker: HOTT