ONLINE CAMPAIGN - THE THRACIAN WARS

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

I wondered if there was interest in setting up an online campaign game which allows players a chance to meet and war game in a longer more strategic structure.

The idea I am playing around with is 4 to 6 players spread over two sides who are placed on an abstract grid map of my design. Each player begins in a starting position with a set amount of monies from which to purchase an initial troop roster. Various geographical and settlement features will be positioned on this grid map - mountains, rivers, forts, towns, etc - and an overall strategic aim will be provided.

Players then move a set number of grids each turn based on an allocated points system which will reflect the troop composition of each army and aim to co-ordinate and hold/defend/capture key features on the map. Armies may divide so that one player may have several columns on the map or move to combine with another player in seizing or attacking enemy positions or forces.

Occupation of key locations will earn players either money bonuses to upgrade troops /buy troops/upgrade fortifications, etc. making strategical decisions key to a long term victory.

Any forces which occupy the same or adjacent grid to an enemy force must meet online and fight the battle. This will make working together key to one side or the other emerging victorious!

The aim here is to introduce a strategical level to online gaming in terms of rewarding players with ongoing money or troops to place in the field.

My initial idea is to play out the Gothic/Roman wars in Thrace prior to the Battle of Adrianople which saw Valens and 2/3rds of the army from the east perish. I am seeing a smaller 2 or 3 player Roman force husbanding its troops in the initial stages which must win back key strategic locations against a much larger but relatively less elite barbarian horde which will field Goth, Alan, Hun and other foederate troops. Romans in the south and the Goths in the north and middle of the map.

Would anyone be interested in this idea? It will take some setting up in terms of designing the grid map and allocating money and troops to create a balanced game and also in terms of player commitment as the online component needs to be carefully co-ordinated. This is in a sense a step towards a more serious war game as husbanding resources, etc. directly affects what troops can be bought to bear in battle online!


Roman

Julianus Flavius
Julianus Heraclius


Gothic Hordes

Antiochos VII Sidetes

[The10thLegion]

Buddy, I have the TFT forums which need a campaign to keep them going. Or in AI diplomacy terms...



Our Terms
We will give you our forums
We will give you some recruits
We will recruit more members
Accept or we will attack

Our Demands
Please do not attack
2 rep points every 2 months

[Antiochos VII Sidetes]

I might be interested. It sounds like an intriguing concept, and I have been away from Invasio Barbarorum for far too long a time.

[julianus heraclius]

Ah, this brings me back to the old days when I looked over a large map on my wall, and pushed painted lead figures around a table. I'm in!

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

That's great to hear, guys. I am working on a campaign map at the moment - which will feature around 16 towns and cities with connecting roads and passes.

There will be the following features:

Each city will provide a recruitment bonus and a money bonus to allow you build armies up to strength but these points will be exhaustible.

Occupied cities will allow you access to certain armament fabricaes so that after a minimum number of turns you will be able to equip field artillery and/or siege weapons. Roman armies will 'buy' these at a cheaper rate than the Goth war bands.

Scattered around the two provinces of the campaign map will be Villas - a 1 turn occupation of the square which holds the villa will provide foraging and money bonuses to supply moving armies. Romans will have access to the locations of all villas but the Goths will only know of those within their foraging zones, determined by how much cavalry is in each separate war band.

A certain number of Roman occupied forts will be positioned on the campaign map to act as supply-dumps. These will provided fodder only and are of free access to Roman units but must be captured by Goth units - the troops in these units are non-transferable and are of low-calibre limitanei status.

The road system will speed campaign movement but is block-able at certain pass points through the Heamus and Rhodope mountains - the Succi pass being a famous example. Romans or Goths who occupy a 'block' zone gain major advantages which will allow them to hold the pass against superior numbers.

Armies: each army group or war band will move a set number of zones per turn. Those with more than 75% cavalry will increase that number. Army groups or war bands will be able to forage off the land up to one zone in all directions. Those with 75% cavalry or more, two zones. Each zone will provide a number of points which will go towards a balance needed to maintain health and numbers while on the march. Armies or war bands in cities cease to require a foraging tally. Failure to maintain the foraging quota will cause your army group or war band to lose men in an attrition rate.

Certain zones carry higher foraging points than others: low-level farmland and river deltas have high points, scrub land, pasture land and mountainous regions carry low points, for example.

We can play the campaign over a single season - late Spring and Summer, so I think we can ignore seasonal affects but I may think about introducing weather aspect which might slow army movements down - hot weather or torrential rain, for example.

At the moment, I am seeing four main bands or groups one each side - scattered around the campaign map to reflect the rough historical positions in that final campaign which lead to the battle of Adrianopolis.

2 main Roman groups - one south at Constantinople and one west at Nis, with two smaller hit-and-run groups somewhere in the mid-region and east towards Marcianopolis.

4 main Gothic and allied war bands in the north, east and west of the campaign map. One of which is a predominately cavalry arm of Alan, Hun and Goth horse.

The Romans will begin with high points in terms of foraging. The Goths will begin with a mid to low level foraging tally.

Players on each side can split and ally troops as they wish to create different size armies.

Players can also switch sides if they want but only contingent upon being offered and accepting gifts from the other side - foraging points or money or hard-points like cities or towns.

These are all rough ideas - please feel free to chuck in suggestions or develop any or all of the above!

Hopefully, I can upload the campaign map in the next few days - it won't reveal all the points of interest as I think it might be good to hide some surprises!!!!

[Antiochos VII Sidetes]

Most excellent!

[Julianus Flavius]

I'm in. can i please please go as a Roman faction???

[Antiochos VII Sidetes]

I'll take whatever is necessary.

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

OK - I'll post faction lists updated in the first post - as referee, I won't be fielding a side but will moderate moves and points and also introduce unexpected events (hehe)!

Antiochus VII Sidetes, can I put you down as Roman or Goth?

[The10thLegion]

I don't care what I get but, again do you want the use of our TFT subforums?

[julianus heraclius]

Can I be roman please.

EDIT: Can I please remind people that for of us to be compatible we need to ensure that we have the same patches etc.

[Antiochos VII Sidetes]

I'll be...Goth. I'll see if I can teach the naughty Romans a lesson!

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

Great - updated first post!

I think we'll use these forums at the moment, 10th Legion, until I see how much interest this generates. But thanks for the offer.

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

OK - grid map almost finished and will be posted online soon. I'd like to get at least 2 more players involved so if anyone knows someone else who might be interested- give them a shout! Thanks!

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

Here's a wonderful resource list for army compositions and tactics in a wargaming context:

http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/armies/II65a.html

http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/armies/II80a/index.html

and some background.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_War_%28376-382%29

[Valentinian Victor]

Here's a wonderful resource list for army compositions and tactics in a wargaming context:

http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/armies/II65a.html

http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/armies/II80a/index.html

and some background.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_War_%28376-382%29

As a player of both DBA and DBMM table top ancient wargaming I would say buying copies of book 2 of the DBMM army lists would be very useful for players of this campaign as it contains a much fuller army list breakdown.

[The10thLegion]

Aenima and Selifator probably...

[Antiochos VII Sidetes]

I'm feeling lonely on the Gothic side...

[The10thLegion]

Why not have a divided 6 part Roman empire? Kind of like Constantine's time just with 6 emperors?...

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

OK - the main campaign map is (crudely) done - please don't expect a work of art or anything - this is merely a schematic to help us move armies around and play online battles in a more realistic wargaming context!

SOME BASE RULES -

I will be moderating each turn so each player PMs me their moves and troops dispositions and I will calculate what happens so don't worry too much about having to do maths or stay on top of minor details, etc.

I will post the result of each turn as a sort of campaign AAR - so you will be playing 1 of 4 historical leaders and I will be roleplaying a little in the AAR - again this is just to add flavour and immersion BUT in the AARs may be little nuggets of information which may help you strategise so read them carefully!

Now - MOVEMENT

Each player will start in 1 of 4 army groups on the campaign map - all players will not know who or what is in each group - some have larger denarii than the others - this is just to keep it random and to encourage co-operation.

Each army group will move with the following rules:

OVER 50% INF. 2 SQUARES

50% AND OVER CAV. 3 SQUARES

100% CAV. 4 SQUARES.

TRAVEL ON SQUARES WHICH CONTAIN A MAIN ROAD WILL ADD 2 SQUARES IF THE ROAD COVERS 50% AND OVER OF THE DISTANCE TRAVELLED.

TRAVEL OVER MOUNTAINS VIA PASSES VOIDS THAT BONUS AND ALSO HALVES MOVEMENT RATES.


FORAGING

This is a key element and is designed to simulate actual conditions which determined Goth and Roman strategy in this war - the basic concept is that your army group will need feeding as it moves and that the land you move through only has limited resources. Now I can imagine some players might not be enamoured of food logistics (me included!) so don't worry - I will be determining all the maths based on where you want to move and for how long.

SOME BASICS

Each army group carries full rations equal to 5 turns in the campaign game. You will not touch these until you have run out of FORAGING POINTS or FP so these rations are your back-up.

FP COST

1 UNIT INFANTRY = 2 FP PER TURN
1 UNIT CAVALRY = 4 FP PER TURN

FP AVAILABILITY

1 AGRICULTURAL SQUARE (GREEN) = 10 FP

1 GRAZING SQUARE (LIGHT YELLOW) = 5 FP

1 HILL/MOUNTAIN SQUARE (BROWN) = 2.5 FP


RANGE OF ARMY GROUP

CALCULATED AT THE END OF THE TURN'S MOVE:

1 SQUARE AROUND THE OCCUPIED SQUARE (INC THAT SQUARE)

AN ARMY GROUP WITH OVER 50% CAV ADDS ONE THIRD FP TO THE TOTAL.

SO FOR EXAMPLE A ROMAN HEAVY INFANTRY GROUP OF 10 UNITS REQUIRES 20 FP PER TURN ON THE MARCH OR STATIONARY - IT WILL ACCESS 9 SQUARES AND SO GATHER 90 FP WHICH WILL ALLOW IT TO REMAIN STATIONARY ON THAT SQUARE FOR 4 TURNS. IT WILL THEN EITHER HAVE TO MOVE OR EAT INTO CAMPAIGN RATIONS.

A 10 STRONG CAVALRY GROUP WILL REQUIRE 40 FP AND WILL HAVE ACCESS TO THE SAME SQUARES BUT WILL ADD 30% TO THE TOTAL AND SO GATHER 120 FP. IT MUST MOVE AFTER 3 TURNS OR EAT INTO RATIONS AND FODDER.

ONCE A SQUARE'S FORAGING POINTS ARE USED UP - THAT'S IT, GENTLEMEN. MOVE OR DIE!

EXCEPTIONS

A SQUARE WITH A VILLA ON IT GIVES A ONE-OFF BONUS OF 5O FP TO ADD TO CAMPAIGN RATIONS.

ARMY GROUPS WHICH OCCUPY TOWNS VOID ALL FP COSTS

ROMAN ARMY FORTS AND SUPPLY DUMPS PROVIDE ONE-OFF BONUSES OF 100 FP

ROMAN UNITS HAVE FREE ACCESS TO ALL TOWNS, VILLAS AND FORTS.

GOTHS MUST INVEST TOWNS AND FORTS (I WILL DETAIL THAT LATER BUT IT WON'T BE EASY) BUT CAN RANSACK VILLAS AT WILL.


OK - PHEW! - NOW I NEED EACH PLAYER TO CHOOSE 1 TO 4 ON THE ROMAN OR GOTH SIDE AND WE NEED TO RECRUIT SO THAT ALL 8 ARMY GROUPS (SOME ARE QUITE SMALL) HAVE PLAYERS! I WILL THEN RELEASE THE MAP AND WE CAN BEGIN TO CAMPAIGN FOR REAL!