Fantastic Battles adapting the campaign system for solo play -the Second Year

[Wilgut Spleens]

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.


https://wilgut.blogspot.com/2021/05/margana-fantastic-battles-solo-campaign.html

[fred]

Sounds cool.

One suggestion, may be to dice for aggressiveness of a country, to see if they want to attack territories or are happy to defend for a year to build resources? Could be modified by prior year’s success. I find that by rolling dice, you can find out if you had a pre-determined plan, as you may not like the result. And being a narrative solo game you can always override that result!

[CookAndrewB]

Interesting... Any thoughts on whether something like this could be adapted easily for modern wargaming? Skirmish level rules are a dime a dozen, but I have yet to find a decent campaign mechanism.

[Wilgut Spleens]

Sounds cool.

One suggestion, may be to dice for aggressiveness of a country, to see if they want to attack territories or are happy to defend for a year to build resources? Could be modified by prior year’s success. I find that by rolling dice, you can find out if you had a pre-determined plan, as you may not like the result. And being a narrative solo game you can always override that result!

That is an excellent suggestion1 And one that I actually used! I am writing these notes retrospectively and have actually fought three years of the campaign, I am just slow getting round to the writing  of it. The default for all countries is to aggressively attack and subdue theri neighbouring regions. I didn't want to give away too much of Nics game by revealing all the rules though. After the first years campaigning however, the option to consolidate becomes a  thing. I shall write up the next couple of bits over this next week so keep reading to find out what happens!!

[Wilgut Spleens]

Interesting... Any thoughts on whether something like this could be adapted easily for modern wargaming? Skirmish level rules are a dime a dozen, but I have yet to find a decent campaign mechanism.

I would use Dawn and Departures by Too Fat Lardies the campaign system for Sharp Practice which I think can be readily adapted to most eras.

[Wilgut Spleens]

https://wilgut.blogspot.com/2021/05/margana-first-year.html

The First Years Campaigning is over and it looks like it's the Year of the Orc!

[Little Odo]

Ooh, I like that figure - where is it from?

[Wilgut Spleens]

it's a kitbash, head from Hasslefree with greenstuff cowl and Othamrk standard as skull hat, body from Oathmark goblins, leaft arm with severed head from Victrix I think. The dangly bits on the staff stre from Victrix vikings, i will find some WIP pics and post them later
not great pics I am afraid, bit blurry, but give an idea I think of the construction

[Wilgut Spleens]

https://wilgut.blogspot.com/2021/05/margana-second-year.html
The Margana campaign enters it's second year

[LiamFrostfang]

  cool!!!!  love the map layout i stole it!!!

[Irregular Wars Nic]

That's a great looking campaign!

[Wilgut Spleens]

cool!!!!  love the map layout i stole it!!!

Feel free!

[Wilgut Spleens]

That's a great looking campaign!

Thank you, it's a great rule set and a Fantastic system!

[Wilgut Spleens]

https://wilgut.blogspot.com/?fbclid=IwAR1Wxym4KaGlfxDe-t26hVxoRayeoV9_ijQKzgXEFjAXR5FYzq7l1qP0Rro

The Third Year of the campaign and it's looking like being the Year of the Orc!