The Lohwand Campaign - a Cosmology

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

I'm thinking I will likely use a mix of rules, depending on the situation. For example, for a small frontier battle I might use Saga: Age of Magic. So I think unit sizes of 8, 12 or maybe 16 for that.

But I also hope to use the Armatura rules I've been tinkering with. I have had a pile of 4" x 5" MDF pieces that I picked up cheap at a convention in the States, it must have been maybe as many as ten years ago, as I'm pretty sure the vendor was Gale Force Nine before they were absorbed by Battlefront. IIRC. From a bin of off-cuts intended as movement trays.

After sitting on them un-used for so long I want to use them for something so they are the basis for my units. I plan on using square or rectangular bases for units, and round or oval bases for singles, or small groups. Regulars will be in even numbers, irregulars in odd numbers.

Here is one of my Tharkallan cohorts, three bases, with six figures per base. Organized in the manner of a Roman century, Centurian at far right, front rank, and Signifer in the middle. The Optio and Cornicen will be behind the ranks.



This will be a cohort. I am making it look like a century for show. I think the figure ratio works out at 1:24. Obviously fighting large battles at 1:24 is crazy, so I will have to bathtub things a bit. I am not planning on building ten cohorts per legion but would like to build maybe three or four cohorts for a couple of legions at least.

For cavalry, the legions will have their little Equites Singularies attachment. Because I am making  Regulars based in even numbers, these will be two bases of two mounted figures, so slightly understrength. I am going to have other cavalry as well; the Tharkallan Empire is not a straight-up version of "Rome" so there will be a Cavalry Corps, ala the Lunar Empire in Glorantha. I want there to be a Heartland Corps as well, but I haven't figured out exactly how that will fit into place yet. I think the Cavalry Corps units will have three bases of two figures each.

Other regulars will be based similarly, i.e. Greek Phalanx of six figures in two ranks of three. I'm thinking four bases ranked two by two to represent each sub-unit of a Phalanx. Tribal units will be five or seven figures per base, with three to six bases per unit, up to three bases wide and then two ranks deep. Tribal cavalry will have three figures per base, two bases per sub-unit. Chariots will be on a single rectangular base.

Elephants I'm not sure about. Maybe they will get an oval base to represent single animals, or maybe they should be rectangular representing three to five beasts, with Elephant escorts on the base as well.

Most artillery would be on square bases, with the odd one on round - like the Cannon Cult, which are unique weapons.

I'm mounting the figures with magnets so for large battles I might use single bases as DBA/DBM style elements.

Another option I am considering is fighting battles by areas. Maybe have a tactical map, and work out the initial attacks on that, but then fight say the cavalry flank battles on the table first, then do the center, with any flank attacks at the appropriate time. If I can work out a proper way of coordinating it it would triple my effective table size (which is actually pretty limited!)

Lastly, I'm almost ready to show some painted figures(!) I finally figured up how to paint orange, decided I didn't like Romans - even Not-Romans - in orange armour and so switched to having orange tunics, crests and shield backgrounds. I decided on Gunmetal for the armour which turns out to be quite blue in colour, but this is OK as I saw a show about Elizabethan "blued steel" armour that I quite liked the look of, and so "it works for me", as they say. 

I've also been starting to convert so Tusk Riders as a mercenary unit. Tusk Riders are another Gloranthan influence, being half-trolls who live in the Stinking Forest and have a cult centre at the Ivory Plinth. In Lohwand, the Ivory Plinth is somewhere deep in the forest of Rist to the west of Imther, and north of the Tharkallan Empire. Some Tusk Riders will just be raiders, but some will serve as mercenaries if their price is met. 

I am making them using suitably scaled wild boars as mounts and a mix of bodies and heads and arms for the riders.

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Finally got around to making another blog post. I have been doing stuff - research mostly, on Ancient Rome and Celts, and the Punic Wars - with also a bit of thinking about basing. And I've actually made some small progress on the miniatures front. But nothing to show yet!

(It's pretty boring: cutting out magnetic sheet to stick in the hollows under the XForce figure bases.)

And even now I don't know if there is much point in posting as Norton's has seen fit to label my Lohwand blog as a "Known Malicious Site"! I've submitted a dispute but I note in their list of options as to what to label the blog as there is no "hobby related" option, nor "wargames", nor "miniatures".

Anyway, on the assumption that they will unchain my blog once some minion has reviewed my complaint, here is my latest blog post:

The Merchant Princes of Umbar

Umbar being my proxy for Carthage, hence all my research on the Punic Wars.



The areas bordered in light blue are Umbarite possessions.

https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2020/11/lohwand-merchant-princes-of-umbar.html

[King of Umbar]

Hi.

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Hi.

What say Ye, oh King? 

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

I've started detailing the Kingdom of Umbar, following Tony Bath's lead and starting with the government and the Noble families that lead the nation.

I've come up with a concept for the government structure, and made tables of surnames and first names (male and female).

You can view the results here:

https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2020/11/lohwand-umbar-in-detail-part-1.html

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Finally! Something tangible in the way of progress!

My latest blog post highlights my magnetic basing scheme using magnetic sign scraps and a biscuit tin (and some ace bases from Litko and Warbases).

https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2020/12/lohwand-back-to-bases.html

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

I'm back thinking about the Tharkallan Empire from my Lohwand Campaign. Today I worked on the list of Emperors. Previously I had posted a timeline in which the provinces had been added to the Empire. This adds a bit more to that timeline.

In part 1, I have a list of Emperors. In part 2 I will flesh out the information about them. I am borrowing heavily from Greg Stafford's The Fortunate Succession, background information for Glorantha.



https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2020/12/lohwand-tharkallan-emperors-list-part-1.html

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Today I moved onto the Solar Empire, Dara Happa. Once a great, world-spanning Empire, Dara Happa traces its history to the First Sunrise, over 120,000 years ago (by their reckoning.)

I'm still borrowing for Greg Stafford's The Fortunate Succession.

See the list here:

https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2020/12/lohwand-dara-happan-emperors-list-part-1.html

[Blackwolf]

Great stuff! Glorantha fan since 1980

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

I have just uploaded an expansion to my Thakallan Emperors list, with capsule descriptions of each Emperor. There are 27 in all, stretching back 605 years.

Please note that this is very much inspired by Greg Stafford's Glorantha, specifically the Lunar Empire and his work The Fortunate Succession wherein he details the Lunar Emperors. I've taken the names and some of the other concepts and transplanted them into my Lohwand Campaign, making changes or expansions as necessary.

Its possibly a bit long, but can be found here:

https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2020/12/lohwand-tharkallan-emperors-list-part-2.html

Here is the map of the Empire:



and here is my Emperor's list, as previously posted:

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

A partial muster of the Tharkallan Legions - aka Imperial Roman legions - and Auxiliary Cohorts:



The text is here:

https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2020/12/lohwand-mustering-tharkallan-legions.html

60mm Imperial Roman figures by Expeditionary Force (XForce).

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Wow, has it really been 31 posts? And so much more to do! 

I've got a half a dozen figure conversions on the go: Swan Knights, Tusk Riders, EHC or SHC, Oliphants, War Tigers of Pan Tang, War Rhinos - I can't keep up.

Progress is slow though. It's not easy sculpting boars teeth into the sides of a boetian helmet, even if it is 60mm scale. Nor is it implanting tusks into the wearers mouth. Similarly I have a perfect swan-crested helmet for my Swan Knights but as I look at it I wonder if the eye-slits aren't too high? More conversion...

I've spent a lot of time just on bases and magnetically mounting the figures, the idea being to reduce the number of overall bases I have to buy.

And I've spent a lot of time working out the background for the various nations. Been making massive progress on that front. The sources that have been helping with Dara Happa and Tharkalla are also helping with Umbar, Carmenia, Turan and Saird, possibly others. Yes, they are THAT interlinked! 

Great fun so far! 

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

The map detailing has begun!

https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2021/01/lohwand-mapping-tharkalla-and-its.html



Each small subdivision is labeled Xx.y i.e. P1.2 which means Prefecture #1, Estate #2. In Tribal lands the notation is T1.4 i.e. Tribe #1, Clan #4.

The actual names take up too much space and will be shown in the records.

Each subdivision is meant to also regulate map movement, being the distance the slowest element in almost any army (i.e. ox cart) can travel in a 10-hour day. This is assumed to be around 25 km.

I realize that the sub-divisions are irregularly shaped, but my assumption is that there are easier and harder routes through each area: roads, easy meadow valleys, hills, marshes, etc. Naturally this information is too granular to be shown on my maps.

I am also intending to apply movement penalties to areas of hills, or mountains. Infantry and cavalry elements will move faster, of course.

Here is my Map Key:



I haven't yet defined what the populations are of the different city types; I will be using POP, an abstract characteristic used in the Pendragon RPG. I will also be using Pendragon's fief system to generate each nations finances, each Estate, of Clan fief being run like a Pendragon manor.

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

A short post adding some stats and a tiny bit of fluff to my Tharkallan Legions:

https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2021/01/lohwand-fleshing-out-tharkallan-legions.html

Also a map, to remind people of the locations:

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Nemedia Province, Tharkallan Empire:

https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2021/01/lohwand-nemedia-province-tharkalla-part.html