On New Year's Day it is the custom for us to make our New Year's resolutions. Until last year, my previous New Year's Day resolution was made 30 years ago. Last year's New Year's Day I made a resolution that changed my life. I promised myself that I would play more wargames, not just think about it. Wow, what a year I have had. So far I have attended three wargame conventions and played two wargames with other people. Then there are the 20 solo wargames I have played, all in the context of my solo campaign. With 20,000 miniature soldiers, I felt it was about time I started using them.

Legions

In my imagination I sit upon my white charger with crested helmet on my head scowling down upon my legions as they march into battle. In my campaign I started out with the city state of Volci. As I continued I would put myself in the place of Volci's neighbours and see how they would react to its successes. War with Roma was inevitable. Both sides sought allies, and war expanded. After a few inconclusive battles they decided to patch their differences and divide the world between them. At first they were successful. Each added a new conquest to his empire. Both Roma and Volci suffered reverses in their next wars. Then the Cortonan League was born, who's main purpose was to rid themselves of the warmongers who were out to eat them alive.

The Cortonan League first decided to concentrate its forces against Volci but were slaughtered in the battle of the Agulian Pass. The Romans who decided to sit back and see how things turned out, then marched against the League, but were delayed in the siege of Locri which lasted 16 months. Before, this little city state had foiled the plans of the invading Romans. The citizens of this fair city sallied out and slaughtered the besieging Romans the last time. This time they held out long enough to allow the Volcians to conquer the other members of the Cortonan League. As the 1st Consul of Volci, I was happy to live in peace with my Roman neighbors. They took their time to fall on one of their former allies. Though successful in battle, the siege of Clupea ended in disaster - the Roman army was wiped out. It was now time for the Volcians to finish off their major rival. A small detachment was sent out to deal with what remained of the Roman army while the rest of Volci's armies were besieging the cities Roma controlled. Again that small city of Locri held out for almost forever.

Next I decided to see what the other major powers were up to while Roma and Volci were at war. Tarquinii and Roma made a secret treaty. While Roma was invading Clupea, Veii was holding off the Tarquiniians. With the defeat of Tarquinii, Acre decided to take advantage of Tarquinii's distress, and spent the next two years besieging Tarquinii cities. I am also checking out what the other city states have been up to.

When I first set up my campaign maps I was thinking in terms of a hexagonal movement system where each troop type could move so many hexes. When I started my solo campaign I didn't feel like going to all that trouble. What I settled on was a system in which the move was from city to city. An army could move to its target area, fight a battle and assault the city on its first turn. Thereafter each siege turn would last the full turn. Logic was the only rule affecting movement. Also, if an army had to move through rough terrain there was a good chance that that was where the enemy would be lurking. In that case the battle would be fought on their terms.

Siege System

I decided on a simple system for sieges. Each siege turn I rolled a 1D6. It would take a roll of 6 for a walled city to fall or 5 or 6 for a town or fort to fall. If a 1 were rolled, it was time to check for disaster for the besieger. Another roll would be made, that would be how many turns would elapse till the next roll was to be taken, unless a roll of 1 was made, then a 3rd roll would be made.

1,2 = Enraged citizens sally forth and destroy the besieging army.
3,4 = plague strikes, besiegers return with 1/2 their force.
5,6 = siege lasts 6 more turns before next roll.

To keep armies from trying to vastly overwhelm their enemies with numbers, I use a system of Battle Honors. With this a victorious army may raise the morale of one unit that fought gallantly in the battle without paying the extra cost of an upgrade. If the victor was 25% larger than its foe there were no battle honors. Between equal to 25% larger, the chance was 1 in 6; if from equal to half the size, it was 50%; under half size, battle honors were guaranteed. (When I speak of size, I mean points value not number of men). In my basic game year there are 12 game turns. I also made conquered territories worth fewer points to a conqueror than his own, and money and manpower are required to keep them down. A conquered territory should be worth 1/2 - 3/4 of the value of homeland territories.

These are my most important rules. Where other questions come up, I do what seems logical, or if there is a question, I flip a coin. Since I'm the only player in my campaign it works quite well.

To Test

Originally my reason for starting my campaign as a solo game was to test it out before I started a multi-player game. A friend lately suggested that I run it as a play-by-mail game. That sounded like a good idea and maybe some of you have some ideas and advice for me. After finishing an interconnecting set of 9 maps I decided to develop one area.

Now it was time for me to draw up my army lists. Using my collection of miniatures I decided what troop types each culture could use and their cost. I then made some random army generator charts for the non-player states. Next I decided what country I wanted to invade. I would send out spies to report on its armies. I would roll dice to see what military system it used, and determine its actual strength by a roll on the random army generator chart. Then I decided on the forces I would use.

What I found myself doing was checking out the point value of my enemy's army and adjusting my forces accordingly. So I redid the charts, this time without the point values included. It was still possible for me to over analyze the enemy before I attacked, taking the glory out of my battles. Later, I made army lists for all the countries on my map, but to increase the fog of war I came out with Iphicrates Armies of Helas, the ancient equivalent of Jane's Fighting Ships. I now use it exclusively for intelligence gathering about enemy armies. For each country is listed the number of cavalry, hoplites, peltasts, psiloi, if there are any chariots or elephants, or the number of warriors in barbarian tribes. I also find out how many units of each type there are.

The actual army lists are kept in a special location and are consulted only when battle is about to be joined. By the way, there is one barbarian tribe who's army is very large, the only problem is their army is unusually lousy. Also I don't remember which tribe it is.

Random Army Generator Charts

I also designed my random army generator charts so that none of the armies would be the same size. For example, one minor state could have an army worth 500pts while another could be worth 1200pts. I started my game with 1250pts to spend on troops, and I had a major city state. Now that Volci is a good sized empire, it's time to create a few other empires. The creation of a few leagues of minor states may also be a good idea, especially since it was a common occurrence in the ancient world. That brings up another point. On my campaign map are many small and mid-sized states. With these I can wargame their rise to power or just put them together to form larger political configurations as needed.

The wargame rules I use in my campaign are Clash which is put out by Division After Division. We all have our favorite wargame rules, I included the charts to show how I organized my armies. There is no reason why similar charts based upon any wargame rule system can't be made. I also included the army list for the members of the Cortonan League. Compare it with Iphicrates Armies of Helas, then do a little reverse engineering to find the true point values of the different city states.

At that time Volci controlled Agulia, Cos and Teras which gave it +450pts, 1/3 of which were needed to garrison their conquests. That would give the Volci an army of 1550pts to face the Cortonan invaders. The battle of Agulian Pass was a desperate affair. Now my campaign sits in year IX, the Volci control a good sized empire, Acre has completed its conquest of Tarquinii, Macedon has added an assortment of minor states to its empire, and Aegina and the Carnutes have formed a defensive alliance to hold Macedon in check. Game year X beckons. Politics and intrigue, war and conquest lay ahead. It is time for me to mount my charger and lead my legions back into battle.

Happy wargaming, all of you!

CHARTS AND MORE

Iphicrates Armies of Helas and Barbarian Nations
Army Generator Charts: Macedonian
Army Generator Charts: Roman
Army Generator Charts: Greek
Army Generator Charts: Gallic
Army Lists: All four plus "extras"
Ancients Campaign map

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