Margana- A Fantastic Battles Solo Campaign

 

Fantastic Battles Campaign Tentative Solo Rules

I have played several games using Nic Wrights Fantastic Battles and they are proving to be great fun. They are fast to play, require some tactical thinking and there is a slightly whimsical element to them that adds to the sense of fun. They are figure and scale agnostic and so I can use my 28mm LotR figures with no problems.

I decided to try the campaign rules. The campaign turns are split in a logical manner into four seasons/phases, spring, summer and autumn are for campaigning, winter is the Diplomacy phase. The map is split into regions “at least four for each faction” The campaign is won by the faction with the most regions at a set time period-4-5 years or by other conditions agreed by the players.

Armies are recruited in the Diplomacy phase based on the number of regions controlled by the faction.

Let there be four nations based on existing armies that I own. Let their names be changed to anagrams. Let them inhabit the four corners of the Tolkienish land of Margana, a strange anagrammatical  place of peoples and characters that almost seem familiar.

Let there be….Harno Vale for Rohan (I had to add the Vale as there is a place called Arno Vale in the town where I live)

Dahar for Harad

Morrod for Mordor

Malthodor for Dol Amroth as representative for the Fiefdoms of Gondor

Let there be seventeen regions.

Let there be four impenetrable areas that prohibit movement.

Let the map be like this

 

Soloing a Fantastic Battles Campaign -While the game lends itself readily to solo play with its Mishaps, limited movement orders, shooting restrictions and variable order of play, the campaign requires some additional rules to accommodate the solo player.

My idea is to take the role of an observer, a chronicler of events and to this end play each side to the best of its ability in the battles, but to use randomising systems to decide each nations strategy.

Victory Conditions

Winer is the faction with most regions after 5 years or can be won by holding nine regions at the end of the campaign year

Strategy Initially the strategic choices are simple. I think there are only three decisions to make for each nation, which force to choose, who leads it and where to invade.

Who Leads?  Warlord or mage lord? D6 1-3 Warlord 4-6 Mage Lord

Which force to choose? I drew up a table for picking the force. I figured the only real choice is whether to buy a small, high quality force or go for quantity at the expense of expertise or a mix of these two extremes.

Roll 2d6 at beginning of year

11+ Call out the Guard! = Must use Elite/most expensive unit. Must have more expensive units than cheap ones

9-10= Best Foot Forward! Must have at least one high end unit. Must have more expensive units than cheap ones.

6-8= On the Fence= can have choice of any units, must be equal mix of expensive and cheap units

4-5= Your Country Needs You! Cannot use most expensive/elite units. Majority 60% + must be spent on lower end troops

2-3 = Rabble Raiser! Must use 80% + lower end troops

Subsequent years successful Warlords will want to keep a winning formula, army remains unchanged. 

Warlords that have lost may want to change strategy, roll on the table with a    -2 modifier if previous army was of higher quality, +2 if it were mostly comprised of cheaper troops.

Where a nation has had mixed results, roll on table with no modifiers.

I realise I may not be able to always adhere to the results of this table as some factions have a limited selection of troops to call upon.

Where to invade is a fairly simple proposition, initially, I simply diced, each season, for which one of the three possible targets each army should attack.

Strategy for subsequent years will depend very much on the situation. There are too many variables to construct a chart at this stage so as a general principle I will rationalise the options available to each nation and roll for the outcome.

Terrain

On the table, placing the terrain is an area which could do with a solo rule or two. Each area of the map is designated a primary terrain type either Rocky, Hilly, Wooded, Wet or Open. Some of it is mixed. Where a region is mixed rolls are made on both tables ie woody and hilly alternating tables each roll.

 

Generating Terrain

For each area 10 bwx10bw or each quarter of the board roll d6

1-2 = no terrain

3-4 = one piece 

5-6= two pieces

 

Then use following tables to decide which pieces of terrain to use

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been completely unsuccessful in attempting to insert tables into blogger so I have taken pics of the tables and inserted them as pics.If any one is aware of how to insert tables into Blogger please let me know!

Placing Terrain-Each quarter of the board is itself quartered. Roll d8 for each piece of terrain place it as per chart

1-2	3-4
5-6	7-8

 

 Orientation. Nominate an “end” of each piece of terrain. Roll a d20 on the table use the top of the triangular element of the d20 to point the direction in which the “end” should face. Alternatively use a random direction spinner.

Randomly decide attacker/defender, randomly decide table edge.

 

 

 

Rivers must always cross the board from one edge to another running through the point on the table where the river was generated. Dice to see which edge of the table the river enters and on and then d6 to see where it exits the table

1 =the edge to the left

2-5=opposite edge

6=edge to the right

 Divide the table into quarters and dice to see where on the table edge the river ends. All rivers have two crossings.

Settlements- Where there are two settlements there must be a road joining them

I think with these simple rules ideas I am now ready to fight my first campaign.

These rules are not definitive and are subject to adjustment!