Thursday 11 March 2021

The Kirschkrieg Campaign

After a break of over a month doing some of my other hobbies and enjoying at times some wonderful Springlike weather, it's now time to get back to some wargaming. I've had several ideas for campaigns and games bubbling away and I've been working on them, even whilst away from the games table. 

Out of the ideas I chose to bring forward a simple Rebels & Patriots campaign, that I've been meaning to do for quite some time. Now I have some books on how to set up campaigns as well as the Two Fat Lardies 'Dawns & Departures' pdf for use with 'Sharpe Practice II'. So a day or so ago I dug out the latter and after a quick perusal, I had created a simple ladder campaign that can be seen below:

 

 
The 'Dawns & Departures' pdf has lots of great ideas within it and if you want, you can go into an awful lot of detail in setting up your campaign and running it. However I wanted something more simple and so opted for a ladder style campaign, as this would be easier for me to run solo using the 'Rebels & Patriots' rules. Despite it's simplicity, there is a lot more to it given the way the terrain is generated, so each game in each square is never the same, which is good. Also I will be using my usual narrative approach to drive things and see where it takes me. Simples!
 
Background Fluff
Incursions are a constant problem along the Ruthenian - Moravian border. Lately the Moravians have been making raids to steal the famous Ruthenian cherries, to flavour their vodkas, which has somewhat miffed the Ruthenians, who love nothing better than a glace cherry tart for their pudding. With the stakes so high, both sides have upped the ante and dispatched their best commanders to the border...
 
Commanders
I rolled for the Officer's traits as per the rulebook and came up with the following, which helped create the narrative for the campaign;

Ruthenian Rittmeister Radetsky (Battle Scar +5 Honour)
An experienced officer, he has been somewhat overlooked for promotion, either due to lack of the right family connections, or possibly due to some faux pas at the Grand-Duke's Valentine's Day Ball. However he is too good an officer for the Ruthenian's to ignore, so has been quietly sent to the border to deal with the cherry rustling that is causing concern at court.

Moravian Major Molotov (Officer's unit may re-roll one failed hit per Turn)
As the Quarter Masters brother, he is ideally placed to gain such materiel as required for the incursions into Ruthenian territory, leading to several successful raids and good hauls of cherries. Both brothers benefit from this as their cherry cocktails are famous throughout Moravia, even enjoyed as breakfast by the Margrave himself.

Scenario
This has already been chosen and is almost ready to go, but more of which in another post. Until then stay safe and I hope you enjoy the campaign.

14 comments:

  1. An R&P campaign? I will be watching!

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    1. I thought this might interest you Jonathan;)

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  2. Always interesting to following a campaign, as much for the mechanics as anything else and interesting to see your use of R&P, which has been getting a lot of exposure on Jonathan’s and Matt’s blogs.

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    1. Campaigns, especially simple narrative driven ones, bring so much more to the table IMHO. The mechanics ares pretty simple, as I don't feel the need to add lots of levels of complexity, especially when it's a solo campaign.

      R&P is a great game and I really enjoyed being actively involved in playtesting. As mentioned I've wanted to run a campaign for some time, to really get the most out of the rules re: the officer's development.

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  3. Love the background to this David. I’ll be watching with interest.

    I hear that in the Ruthenian taverns they’re singing this song:
    https://youtu.be/hz4mIn3swD0

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    1. Thanks but not sure who David is;). I hope oyu enjoy my humble efforts. I'll listen to the song later once all the family is awake!

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    2. David! Did I say David? I meant Peter. 😢

      Sorry Steve. Put it down to lack of sleep. 🤦‍♂️

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    3. No problem at all as I've done the same thing too!

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  4. Nice idea and I do love a good story, we’ll see how it develops👍

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    1. Thanks Matt and I hope the story and campaign give the results in terms of fun that I'm aiming for.

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  5. Interesting post Steve, having now sorted my gaming space I am thinking about something similar D&D is great but as you say sometimes something more similar is better, I like the terrain generation and blinds in Platoon Forward which helps with the table layout.
    Cheers
    Stu

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    1. Thanks Stu. D&D, Mordheim etc are great but the extra effort makes it hard for the solo gamer. Currently the KISS principle is working perfectly well for me. Platoon Forward etc are also good options for terrain generation, which often throw up interesting challenges.

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  6. Looks like it could be very entertaining Steve. If I had any available space I would quite like to run a solo campaign like this myself . Looking forward to following the escalating border clashes

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    1. Well I hope it will be entertaining Keith, or I'm in for a dull campaign;). Luckily in 10mm the game can be played on a 2' square board, which means minimal interuption to family life, which is good.

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