The Dominion series of rules really come into their own if used as part of a campaign since they provide very quick battle resolutions whilst still giving an interesting game. So since I've got hold of Dominion Of Pike & Shot I've been pondering how to do a simple campaign for the ECW. The other day I sketched out a framework, which I've tested out over the past few days and got to a point I was happy to try for real.
I played through a full campaign this morning. It took about three hours, which I reckon is pretty good. I'll save the report for another post, but in this post I'll share the setup and mechanisms.
Originally I was going to use the map from Peter at Grid Based Wargaming's campaign from a couple of years ago, but I decided I wanted one that was simpler. To be honest I'm thinking that, now I've refined the mechanisms, his map would work OK as well, with a few adjustments to the timings of the campaign. But I'll leave that exercise for another day.
The campaign mechanisms are inspired by some used by Peter in the campaign linked above, and also IanH's Skodbac system, which readers of this blog will know I've used for HOTT campaigns a couple of times.
Here's what I came up with.
I drew up the following map. It's not as pretty as Peter's but is functional and I can colour it in properly another day.
As you can see it's split into nine regions. Two of them contain Capitals. Parliament's capital is London (in the South -East region) whilst the Royalist capital is Oxford in the Midlands region. Both sides start in control of two regions:
Royalists: Midlands, South-West
Parliament: South-East, East Anglia
All of the other regions are uncontrolled at the start of the campaign.
The campaign runs from 1642 to 1646, and two battles will be fought each year.
A side wins the campaign if:
(i) The opposing side controls no regions.
(ii) A side controls the region containing the opposing capital and also controls at least four more regions than the other side does.
(iii) At the end of 1646 the side that controls the most regions wins.
How do you play the campaign?
The 1642 year is played out differently to the other years. Randomly determine two of the uncontrolled regions. For each one fight a battle. The side that wins the battle gains control of the region.
At the start of 1643 each side will therefore control 2-4 regions.
From 1643 proceed as follows:
Play at least two phases in each year.
In each phase roll a D6 for each controlled region that is either adjacent to an enemy-controlled region or is adjacent to an uncontrolled region. Some areas may be adjacent to both.
Add 1 to the roll for each enemy-controlled region.
Subtract 1 from the roll if in the previous phase an attack was made from that region which failed to capture the enemy region or if the region was captured via a battle in the previous phase.
A score of greater than 6 are treated as 6. A score of less than 1 is treated as 1.
The region with the highest score is the active region for that phase. If two or more regions have the same high-score then randomly determine which one is active.
The active region will attack an adjacent region.
If you attack an adjacent uncontrolled region then simply place a marker on it to show control. No battle is fought.
If you attack an enemy-controlled region then a battle is fought.
(If playing solo, then roll additional D6 for each uncontrolled region adjacent to the active region. Controlled regions keep the score they rolled when determining the active region. The active region will attack the adjacent region with the lowest score. If two or more regions are tied for highest score then the active region will attack uncontrolled regions in preference to enemy-controlled ones.)
If a battle takes place then it is fought using Dominion of Pike & Shot. Determine the armies according to the random Army generator HERE. Note that the random lists assume that you are using my modified rule for mixed pike & shot units.
To determine attacker and defender both sides roll a D6 and add their total number of mounted units. The side with the highest score is treated as the attacker in the battle. This may not be the side that is attacking the region.
If the side that controls the region wins then they retain control. The active region will get a -1 on the next roll to determine active region (see above)
If the side controlling the active region wins then they capture the region. This region will get a -1 on the next roll to determine active region (see above)
When two battles have taken place the year ends.
At the end of 1646, determine who has won.
In my next post I will post a report of the campaign so you can see how it works.
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