I wrote these rules because I was not happy with the rules I had for running long lasting campaigns (called God sims in computer games) where the military aspects held only an equal importance with economics, politics and cardboard characters. I had tried Tony Bath's Hyboria rules, which are explained in the WRG book Wargames Campaigns. I found that these were fine if you devoted a lot of time to running the campaign and no time to playing in it yourself. As a soloist, I wanted to be part of the action. I also tried John Bennett's Gussie rules, which were better, but I could not believe and accept the economic rules, where you had to cut the timber & make the trade cart before you could move any raw materials from the site of origin! This was too detailed for the effect I wanted.
I also wanted to have a set of campaign rules that were tightly integrated, especially where the characteristics of the non-player characters were directly useful (or unhelpful) in terms of the rules of the campaign. These rules have eight characteristics for any non-player character, each of which has at least one specific effect in the campaign rules.
A final requirement I had for the rules were that they should state when a war started, why it started and what the strategic objectives were. They should also describe how a war ended. I have yet to find any set of rules other than these, which adequately address these points of a campaign. These represent the first attempt that I know of anywhere to tackle these items, and I am not yet wholly satisfied with them. If any reader has any better ideas, please write in to Lone Warrior with them.
The rules that follow are the result of my attempts to write campaign rules that I was happy with. I hope that you find them useful too. They are intended for DBA or HOTT Ancients campaigns and have been play tested for this type of game. They could easily be adapted to other ancients games, by exchanging the term "elements" for "units", and adjusting the building costs of the units to match the points cost differences between the different unit types in the rules that you use, keeping within the range of costs I have used.
I found it easier to organise the campaign by having three manila folders for each country. One for the character sheets, one for the country maps, and one for all the other notes, such as financial records, army details, potted histories etc. Each set of three folders is kept in a document wallet colour coordinated with the colour representing that country on the master map. Finally all the country wallets, together with the master map, yearly notes sheets and blank forms are kept in a satchel or briefcase, to keep the whole campaign tidily organised. Then when running those countries which are using one year turns, only those folders belonging to countries making these moves need to be kept handy, the others can be filed away until the next five-year turn.
Any one who wants a full set of rules, can down load them from my website at ww.wjohnson.freeuk.com.
I would appreciate any comments on the rules, which should be submitted to the editor in the form of a letter. Any proposed amendments or major comments should be submitted to Kenn Hart as an article for Lone Warrior. Please let me know how you get on with the rules. If Kenn agrees and does not consider it a waste of space, I could submit an article to Lone Warrior giving an example of how the rules have been used in practice, and explaining the application of the rules to "real life". Would any one like to read such an article?
[Will, this is the 'Hand to Mouth' editor, who is constantly on the look out for items to fill Lone Warrior. I may look as regal as a swan above the water, but believe me underneath my feet are paddling like mad! Send, send, send! Kenn]
More Civilized Campaigns
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