The Lohwand Campaign - a Cosmology

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Taking a stab at population densities...



Explanation here:

https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2021/01/lohwand-nemedia-province-tharkalla-part_13.html

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

The latest tinkering with my Armatura rules has yielded some big changes:







https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2021/01/lohwand-armatura-ver-50.html

Latest post:

/quote/
Here is the latest iteration of my Armatura rules, version 5.0, though as you can see I need to do some more edits. (I got confused as to how many versions I had made and discarded.) Some changes to both front and back.

For one thing, I changed the rules for Army Morale. I realised I was referencing rules that were not on the sheet, which kind of defeated the "all-the-rules-on-the-cheat-sheet" objective. It possibly fails that in other ways; I need to vet it again to be sure.

I also changed a couple of the Command Actions, and have gone through and made sure that I used the same format for abbreviations throughout.

The morale test has changed as I finally realized that it didn't need to be an opposed test, and was probably better that it wasn't. I've tried to add a mechanism to allow the Saxon Fryd to pursue fleeing (retiring) Normans out of their formation. Not sure yet if it works.

And I'm thinking that Staff Slings probably should only have a ROF of 1.

Under Armatura each unit, be it a cohort, squadron or warband, has three primary traits: Virtis, Disciplina and Labor. Virtis is its combat ability, Disciplina represents discipline and morale, and Labor is the unit's engineering skill. A unit may also be designated as having an Exceptional Leader.

There is assumed to be an overall commander, with sub-commanders in charge of left and right wings, and any reserve. Commanders have another trait called the Tactics Rating. (I tried to find the latin translation. I thought it would be "Tactica" but it seems not to be the case. Or maybe my Google-Fu is weak!) This rating determines the number of cards in their hand. It is assumed all officers have the rating, but it is only determined when relevant. i.e. if a centurion were promoted to command a detachment.

I need to sort out the "Well Led" and "Exceptional Leader" designations b/c I notice they are overlapping somewhat.

/end quote/

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Fixed some stuff...





Almost there? 

https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2021/01/lohwand-armatura-ver-6.html

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Finally! Something to show off that isn't just a digital map or background fluff!



In my Lohwand campaign the Swan Knights of Dol Amroth are much like their LOTR counterparts, only they are not elves or half-elves. They are my version of the Knights of Malta: they have an island with a fortress and ride the waves seeking their foes in their war galleys. Only their foes are not Muslims in this case, but rather pirates.

And like their historical versions they are not above a bit of piracy themselves...

https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2021/02/lohwand-swan-knights-of-dol-amroth.html

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Wasn't happy with my first design, so had another go:

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Third time lucky!? I realized belatedly that I have the ship sailing the wrong direction in the square (foot) banners. I think it should be facing towards the banner pole as in the other flags.

Here is the fixed version:

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

And so the mapping continues, with Dunland and the Exiles:



And I've just spotted an error! 

https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2021/02/lohwand-dunland-and-exiles-mapping.html

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

When I started my Lohwand campaign I had intended to leave out elves and dwarves and the like, particularly orcs and goblins. But fairly quickly I decided I wanted Tusk Riders, who are half-trolls. These are Gloranthan trolls, by the way, "Uz", not those that live under bridges. I have relented even further since and arrived at the above chart showing the main races.

So, most civilized and most intelligent are the Vadhagh, which are Corum's race from Moorcock's Corum series (and possibly also Elric's race.)

The Mostali (Gloranthan Dwarves) are next in line with high civilization levels and high use of technology and science (= intelligence.)

Then come the Mabden (i.e. Mankind, using the term from the Corum books.) They are reasonably civilized with Empires and Kingdoms, but with some primitive, tribal cultures as well. They have some technological or sorcerous ability, reading and writing, mathematics, etc. At the most civilized levels, at least.

Then come the Uz (Gloranthan Trolls.) Not quite so intelligent, at least not in the way of using technology or the niceties of civilization, but not stupid either; they can be cunning and wily strategists, but tend to emphasize force over other means. Some species, such as Cave Trolls are very beast-like.

The Aldryami (Gloranthan Elves) are next. They are the basically plants, some very intelligent, others mindless, but all distinctly on the "wild" side.

Last are the Morlocks, an off-shoot of the Mabden race. As barbaric as in The Time Machine, with cunning to match Gollum.

More at the blog...

New blog post: https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2021/03/lohwand-races-of-lohwand.html

[Seditiosus]

not to be knitpicking, but this is a very confusing way of displaying the axes. it seems to imply, that the gradient from barbaric to civilized is on the x-axis, while in reality it is on the y-axis...  (basically barbaric would be 0 on the coordnates, while your upper limit is civilized..)

I like what you do here though. and this visualization certainly has its uses. just well. usually it would be displayed in a different way (the positions stay the same).  looking forward to more details from lohwand.

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Thanks! I threw the axis on at the last minute.   

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

basically barbaric would be 0 on the coordinates, while your upper limit is civilized

Actually, no, that is not correct. The axis are meant to indicate the medians but ignore them if they confuse things.

Example, to the Greeks the Persians are "barbarians", when in fact both are civilized cultures. Scythians might be considered more barbaric than either, and tribes from Papua New Guinea on the other hand are certainly more barbaric than all of them. The technological advances of the Romans might make an argument that their civilization is farther to the right than the Greeks.

On the Intelligence vs Mindless axis the PNG tribesmen are certainly not mindless as they have all the survival skills they require, they are however, fairly low on the axis. Greeks and Romans would be somewhat higher. The Scythians are somewhere in the middle. We don't know of any Scythian philosophers, for example.

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

After a long time not posting, an update at last:



Mapping a few of the "Heartland Provinces", plus a few neighbouring regions:





Full post here:

https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2021/06/lohwand-mapping-tharkallan-empire.html

Also, a smaller post I snuck in a while back, on river names:

https://lohwand.blogspot.com/search/label/Rivers

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Latest version of the rules post here:

https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2021/08/armatura-x.html





I've already spotted a couple of more "tweaks"...! 

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

A realization that I wanted large battles has led to a rethink about scale!

https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2021/08/lohwand-tharkallan-legions-revisited.html

I'll keep working on the 60mm figures for small battles, skirmishes and Gangs of Rome style games, but for the large battles I am switching down to 15mm scale figures:

[Little Odo]

Looking good so far.