Chronicle of Loa

While I am playing in the Talomir Tales campaign I had an opportunity to play test some rules for simulating table top battles in RRtK. Why would someone want to you ask? Well because there are 39 countries in Talomir and it would be difficult to manage the whole continent and game out every battle.

At Talomir Tales, Ruarigh has been slowly expanding the nations involved and having some of us from the Yahoo group play out the battles. Other nations just remain in stasis. So I thought, why not take eight nations from around the Loa peninsula and have them fight out their part in the time line from the Spring of 986 to the present (Spring 993). I also had an idea to restart a campaign from 20 years ago, but that is for another post altogether.

So for this exercise I will be looking at the nations of Barylistan, Demeskeen, Eskelin, Kurinthia, Malohades, Riata, Sortium and Zamba. The majority of the mechanics for determining who is at war and preparing for battle are straight from the Rally Round the King (RRtK) rule book. It is the simulation of the battle itself that is part of the new mechanism, but it is very much in line with THW principles and procedures.

In the Spring of 986 both Demeskeen and Zamba felt that Barylistan's Shah was too weak to defend his realm and attacked savagely. Barylistan chose to ignore the invasion from Demeskeen and concentrate their forces on the invasion from Zamba. With their superiority in light, fast troops the Zamban army out scouted the Barylistanis but had to engage them in the hills. The Barylistan general ws up to the task and gained a minor victory. The battle had raged and swirled with many captains and heroes captured on both sides. Zamba conceded defeat and peace was imposed until the Winter of 986. Barylistan was now the hated enemy of Zamba. Demeskeen, meanwhile, occupied the province it had invaded.

Red for external borders, green for internal borders.

In the Summer of 986 Barylistan turned its attention on the invaders from Demeskeen. Demeskeen had a slight edge in scouting but Barylistan turned the tables and put the Demeskeni on the defensive. They met in the hills and the Barylistani army was victorious, although a few mages were captured. This season also saw Malohad invade Sortium and Zamba attack Kurinthia. The Malohad army had a huge scouting advantage with some Wind Maidens they had forced to do their bidding. Luck however was not with them as General Alexios drew them into hilly terrain and scored a major victory for Sortium. The General was captured but exchanged back to sue for peace as the Malohades had lost their stomach for fighting. Zamba, some think misled by their Brethren Mercenaries, attacked Kurinthia. They out scouted the Kurinthians but met in hilly terrain again. The Kurinthians gained a major victory and Zamba sued for peace, which will last until Summer 988. Kurinthia is added to Zamba's list of hated enemies.

The Fall of 986 saw Demeskeen, Malohad and Zamba recruit more troops to replace their losses. Eskelin saw it as their duty to civilize Kurinthia and invaded. The tribesmen of Kurinthia were no match for the Knights of Eskelin who won a major victory. Kurinthia sued for peace which will last until Fall 988. Demeskeen's light cavalry out scouted Barylistan but they had set up a defense in rough terrain. Barylistan scored a minor victory and kept Demeskeen from further inroads into their country.

During the Winter of 986 there is some kind of Magic Flu that causes the death of mages in Barylistan, Demeskeen and Kurinthia. Over the Winter Demeskeen thinks better of it and sues for peace with Barylistan. There will be an enforced peace until Winter of 987. Barylistan is the hated enemy of Demeskeen.

So the status quo remains except for Eskelin's gain in Kurinthia. I'm sorry that the narrative is not quite where I want it to be but I have been sitting on this for far too long and wanted to get it out there. The Land Battles mechanism itself is quite simple and gives believable results. What I am getting bogged down in are the regular rules for campaigning. I think once I make index cards or some such thing to track the kingdoms, life will be easier. Shuffling through the notebook is confusing at best.

This has also re-invigorated me to work on a Talomir map project I let languish for over a year. (Sorry Ed and Paul).