There’s a medieval campaign in being ‘twixt Bob Hurst (in Texas) and Don Bailey (in Colorado). Both contenders send me their moves via e-mail, I fight the battles in solo style, and tell them of the results. In effect, all they do is move ‘Army Points’ around the map, and I do all the rest. It keeps me busy during rainy days.
The campaign map is a 10x10 grid of 100 squares, as shown. Each side has three armies, valued at 700 Army Points (AP), 800 AP and 900 AP. Capturing the towns will yield additional AP for raising a fourth army, but until then, the two sides only have a total of three tokens to move.
The AP values were gotten via a profoundly complex and involved analysis of the troop types available in the boxes in which I store my 25mm medieval figures… the analysis is extremely historically accurate, and the army list reflects the medieval soldiery available in September of the year 1342, at 9:00 PM. There’s another complete listing for October of that year, but for now, I’ll stick to September.
In short, there are five types of troops, each with its appropriate battle factor, which I termed Vulnerability.
- Unit : Vulnerability
Mounted knights : 8
Foot knights : 10
Men @ arms : 12
Archers : 14
Untrained foot : 15
Note that the big guys, the stronger units, have a smaller Vulnerability level than those below them. This shows up in combat… for example, if 6 stands of men @ arms is in contact with a 6-stand unit of foot knights, the chance of the two units scoring on each other is:
- 6 men @ arms stands x target vulnerability of 10… 6x10, or 60 percent chance of a successful strike by the men @ arms
The foot knights, in striking back: 6 stands x target vulnerability of 12… 6x12, or 72 percent chance of the foot knights successfully scoring.
Jak
Both Hurst and Bailey set out their three armies, and it turned out that their 900 AP armies were both located near the town of Jak. If an army is 3 squares away from an enemy force, there’s a 40 percent chance it learns of the enemy’s presence. Two squares away, and the percentage is up to 70 percent. Adjacent forces automatically know of each other’s whereabouts.
I diced, and determined that both 900 AP armies were aware of the proximity of the other side. The Bailey force made for Jak, but was intercepted by the Hurst force, and so we had the first battle, near the town of Jak.
I’ve got to fight these battles solo, and so I don’t want the table too full of figures. For the Jak battle, the following number of stands opposed each other.
| Unit | Hurst | Bailey |
|---|---|---|
| Mounted knights | 4 stands | 4 stands |
| Foot knights | 8 | 7 |
| Men @ arms | 6 | 7 |
| Archers | 6 | 7 |
| Untrained foot | 8 | 7 |
In effect, there were five units per side, each composed of about 6 or 7 stands. Archery range was 20 inches, and units could move 10 inches at a time, so the two armies closed rapidly. Prior to the battle, I diced (30 percent chance) to see if any units would start off-board… the only one to do so were the Hurst men @ arms.
I expect, during this campaign, to go through five or six different sets of medieval rules, and in this first cut, I used a card system for determining when the sides moved. There were 6 cards in each side’s deck and they were alternately drawn:
- 1 card All units are active
1 card All but one unit is active
2 cards All but 2 units are active
1 card Archers may move and fire
1 card Mounted and foot knights may move forward
The system I described above for combat, using as an example men @ arms versus foot knights, was also used for the firing procedures. For example, when the 7 stands of the Bailey archer unit fired at mounted knights, the calculation was
- 7 stands firing x target vulnerability of 8, or 7x8, giving a 56 percent chance to impact.
Key Factor
The key factor in the battle was the Military Capability (MC) of the two opposing commanding officers. Each started with 80 points, and lost 5 points when the side lost a melee, or when one of their units took, and failed, a morale test.
When the MC was reduced to 50 points, the commander diced to see if he retired from the field. This first test was at the 40 percent level. Each subsequent test, triggered by additional losses, added 10 percent to the initial percentage.
The Hurst commander was Sir Brett of Sloan, and Sir Brett’s forces were taking it on the chin, losing more than the opposing force. Sir Brett took, and passed, his 40 percent test, and a moment later he took, and passed, his 50 percent test, and a moment later, he took, and passed, his 60 percent test. But this couldn’t go on forever. Eventually, statistics caught up with Sir Brett, and he failed his 70 percent test.
But he hung on long enough so that the opposing commander, the Earl of Flaw, also took… and did not pass… his 50 percent test.
The result was that both armies retired simultaneously. Of his 900 AP initial force, Sir Brett had lost 240 points, while the Earl had lost 140 points. In tossing dice for both parties during the melee procedures, I must admit that my dice throws for Sir Brett were horrible… he lost 6 melees quite rapidly… that was why his Military Capability quickly went down to the 50 level, and he started testing before his opponent.
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© Copyright 2000 Wally Simon
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