I cleaned up the garage

Besides the wargaming room, I also have my paint corner in the garage. Today, when cleaning up most of the garage, I also cleaned and reorganized my paint corner. It's not really only a paint corner, it's also the holding pen for lots of the "gaming stuff" that doesn't go in the wargaming room.

I was pretty satisfied, and then the mistress of the house came in. "I thought you were going to clean up? This still looks like the same heap of junk as before!" "You don't understand! I cleaned up and reorganized things, I didn't get rid of stuff. Big difference!" Some people will never understand the mind of a wargamer!

Riots in Lowenheim (5)

We concluded our last post with this event: The Magicians' guild feel their old rights of living in the city are endangered. Why? Who is their leader? What's the connection between the magician's guild and the history of the city?

Since Johannes Mercator predicted the omen of the planetary conjunction, and now has the ear of the Landvoogd, it seems that the magicians feel their influence on the affairs of Lowenheim is in danger. So let's work on that story arc a bit. A conflict between the old forms of knowledge (i.e. magic) and the new forms (i.e. science) seems like something that could give rise to some fights in Lowenheim (which is what we want!). 

So how many wizards/magicians do we need in the guild? I already have a wizards' tower (see also my posts on painting and assembling the tower) in the city, surrounded by a magical garden. Three wizards seems like a good number to live in such a tower.

So let's give them some names and personality characteristics, using the same system we had before and based on Tony Bath's Hyboria campaign, and adding some additional details. I keep all the numbers in a spreadhseet for now, but I won;t repeat them here. The names are inspired by "De Rode Ridder" adventures, a comic book series popular when I was a kid. Think about them as the Flemish Prince Valiant.

Kerwyn Mandragora, Grandmaster of Colours.

Verdal Balok, Keeper of the Secret Knowledge of Illis-Thran.

Bahaal Trismegistus, Arch-Conjurer of the Fifth Circle.

=========

For centuries the Trigonometros, the triumvirate of wizards living in the Tower, have advised the rulers of Lowenheim. Three is their number, and three it always be, according to old lore and ancient tradition. They live in the Tower, which is surrounded by a garden full of weird and mysterious creatures and plant. Inhabitants of Lowenheim rarely wander there, although all know the wizards control the beasts and probably no harm would be done. But the living horrors are sometimes a bit too weird for ordinary humans to cope with.

The road from Lowenheim up to the Wizard's tower.
(Never mind the Christmas lights :-))

The road through the magical garden is filled with strange plants and creatures ...

... perhaps the results of experiments gone wrong?

After it became clear that Johannes Mercator had foreseen the planetary conjunction, and he interpreted it as a bad omen, the Landvoogd apparantly is inclined to listen to this newcomer in lieu of the respected and ancient Trigonometros.

"If we are not careful, our influence will wain!" said Kerwyn Mandragora.
"Indeed, we must act, and crush this dangerous new science. After all, we know what's best for Lowenheim!" answered Verdal Balok.
"What can we do? Shall we risk open violence? Or rather stealth and deception?" pondered Bahaal Trismegistus.

The Trigonometros assembled in the Wizards' Tower

"Let's go the roof and wee what we can do!" shouted Kerwyn Mandragora. "Our position of power is in danger!"

A view from the Tower, over the Guard Barracks, towards the tower of Johannes Mercator.

A view towards Lowenheim

=========

Let's update our table of events for the week 3, with altered sections in colour. I still want to keep the events as "open" as possible, but of course tune them a bit towards the evolving story arc.

1. The Landvoogd makes an important announcement as a result of the planetary conjuction seen in the sky. What is it? What is the result on the morale of the inhabitants of the city? [1]
   
2. A trade caravan arrives. Who is the trader? What does he or she hope to sell or trade in Lowenheim? What news does the caravan bring? [1]
   
3. The people living in the slums are starving. They form a mob and will go looking for food. Why now? Where will they look for food? Who is the leader of the mob? (==> skirmish wargame) [1]
   
4. The guards (along with the tax collector) go out collecting the new taxes, but a fight ensues. In what quarter of the city? Why is there a fight? (==> skirmish wargame) [1]
   
5. The Magician's guild feel their old rights of living in the city are endangered. Why? Who is their leader? What's the connection between the magician's guild and the history of the city? The Magicians plan an attack on Mercator's tower. How will they do this? Night or day? Ground, air, tunnels, spells? Using their magical creatures, or do it more stealthily? Who will come to the help of Johannes Mercator? (==> skirmish wargame) [3]
   
6. One of the other scholars (besides Johannes Mercator) living in the city makes a strange discovery that is of some importance. Who is he or she? What discovery? How will it affect the city? Good or bad? Physical discovery or new knowledge? What does it mean for the tension building up between the scholars and wizards? [3]
   
7. One of the animals escapes from the Magician's zoological garden. What is the animal? Where does it go to? Intelligent or stupid? Rampage or not? What are the consequences? (==> skirmish wargame) [1]
   
8. A murder takes place in Lowenheim. Who is the (important?) victim? Will there be a trial? What's the judicial system in Lowenheim? [1]
   
9. A drunken party assembles on the streets outside one of the inns (why?), starts shouting and destroying things. The city guard has to come in and restore the peace. (==> skirmish wargame) [1]
   
10. Johannes Mercator is now even more popular than he was before. What are his plans for the future? What does he want to gain from the current situation? [2]
    

So, let's roll a D10 ... a 3! The people living in the slums are starving. They form a mob and will go looking for food. Why now? Where will they look for food? Who is the leader of the mob? (==> skirmish wargame)

Interesting ... so now we have a game on our hands!

Riots in Lowenheim (4)

In our last post, we rolled for an event, and the result was "An omen is seen in the sky. Good or bad? What is it?".

I was first thinking about the archetypical comet, but then of course we have the Great Conjunction between Saturn and Jupiter a few days (December 21) from now. Apparantly, Johannes Kepler himself also predicted conjunctions and linked them to certain events in history, e.g. the star of Bethlehem. So it seemed only fitting the omen in the sky as seen from Lowenheim is the great conjunction!

Now to decide whether it's a good or bad omen. Since we want to stage a wargaming campaign, with potential sources for conflict, the omen probably should be bad. But let's roll a D10. 1-7 is bad, 8-10 is good ... the result is a 5. A bad omen! Let's say the omen will foretell that strive and unrest will arrive in the city as the result of raising the taxes by the Landvoogd ...

Let's also introduce a character who saw this omen and interpreted it. Inspired by the planetary conjunction and Kepler, I want to use my Gerardus Mercator figure. But it's going to be Johannes Mercator, a combination of Gerardus Mercator and Johannes Kepler.

Now, how I generate some personality statistics? Ever since roleplaying games, we have zillions of ways to generate characters and give them abilities and traits, and there have been plenty of suggestions in wargaming rules as well, albeit focused on military commanders and generals. But let's use the system from the venerable Tony Bath, as described in Setting up a Wargames Campaign:

So rolling a few D6's, we get:

• General Disposition: 3 - Average
  
• Morals: 3 - Drink & Women
  
• Generosity: 5 - Open-handed
  
• Loyalty: 6 - Totally Loyal
  
• Appearance: 5 - Handsome
  
• Popularity (this is computed as the average of all of the above): 4 - Popular
  
• Intelligence: Outstanding Intelligence (I rolled this as the maximim of 2D6, since our charcater is a scholar)
  
• Activity: 3 - Average
  
• Martial Aptitude: 2
  
• Political Aptitude: 2
• (Martial and Political Experience also were handled seperately by Tony Bath based on games played).

We still need an age, so let's roll 8D10, which can give a range from 8 to 80. Total rolled 35.

So we have Johannes Mercator, a fairly young scholar, popular with the ladies, rather generous, loyal to the city council and the Landvoogd, but not so politically smart. Sounds like a real professor! :-)

==========

It was a few months after the Landvoogd raised the city taxes. Johannes Mercator was in his study, when he predicted there would be a grand conjunction of the planets Saturn and Jupiter. He redid his calculations, and he was certain - the conjunction should take place a few days from now. Surely this was a bad sign, and he knew when it happened he would be summoned to explain the sighting.

 

Johannes when he predicted the Saturn-Jupiter conjunction.

Finally the did come. Johannes went outside and make a careful drawing of what he saw in the nighttime sky. Lots of people on Lowenheim witnessed it as well, and there was amusement, mingled with a light panic.

Johannes Mercator outside his tower and house, looking at the sky.

The conjunction as drawn by Johannes Mercator
(source: actual drawing by Johannes Kepler of a Saturn0Jupiter conjunction)

The Landvoogd summoned Johannes and demanded an explanation of what the omen signified. Johannes told him that raising the taxes would lead to unrest, and that there would be conflict in Lowenheim!

==========

Now we can update the table of events for week 2. Obviously, event #10 is removed, and we go over the others whether they all still make sense, but we add some details here and there based on the developing story. New = coloured.

1. The Landvoogd makes an important announcement as a result of the planetary conjuction seen in the sky. What is it? What is the result on the morale of the inhabitants of the city? [1]
   
2. A trade caravan arrives. Who is the trader? What does he or she hope to sell or trade in Lowenheim? What news does the caravan bring? [1]
3. The people living in the slums are starving. They form a mob and will go looking for food. Why now? Where will they look for food? Who is the leader of the mob? (==> skirmish wargame) [1]
4. The guards (along with the tax collector) go out collecting the new taxes, but a fight ensues. In what quarter of the city? Why is there a fight? (==> skirmish wargame) [1]
5. The Magician's guild feel their old rights of living in the city are endangered. Why? Who is their leader? What's the connection between the magician's guild and the history of the city? [1]
6. One of the scholars living in the city makes a strange discovery that is of some importance. Who is he or she? What discovery? How will it affect the city? Good or bad? Physical discovery or new knowledge? [1]
7. One of the animals escapes from the Magician's zoological garden. What is the animal? Where does it go to? Intelligent or stupid? Rampage or not? What are the consequences? (==> skirmish wargame) [1]
8. A murder takes place in Lowenheim. Who is the (important?) victim? Will there be a trial? What's the judicial system in Lowenheim? [1]
9. A drunken party assembles on the streets outside one of the inns (why?), starts shouting and destroying things. The city guard has to come in and restore the peace. (==> skirmish wargame) [1]
10. Johannes Mercator is now even more popular than he was before. What are his plans for the future? Wjat does he want to gain from the current situation? [2]
    

 So, let's roll a D10 to see what will happen in week 2. We roll a 5: The Magician's guild feel their old rights of living in the city are endangered. Why? Who is their leader? What's the connection between the magician's guild and the history of the city?

Lots to think about during the coming days ... but something immediately comes up. The magicians are angry and worried because Johannes Mercator gets the credits for predicting the omen ...

Riots in Lowenheim (3)

Having a large collection of magazines AND an index to look up relevant wargaming articles published over the last 30 years or so, is a great advantage, W.r.t. my planned story about Lowenheim, I did a quick search and came up with the following:

• Wargamers' Annual 2015 has an article "Rioting in New Alexandria", which references the original "Rioting in Alexandria" scenario from 1970 which I also mentioned in my last post on Lowenheim. This time, the riots are set in 19th century Britain, and some ideas are given on how to generate and control mobs, how to use barricades in a wargaming scenario, etc.
• Secrets of Wargame Design #1 (2012) , a collection of articles written by Wally Simon and edited by Russ Lockwood, outlines an ancient city fight.The city map is divided in gridcells, and one unit (and buildings) occupies one grid cell. Attacking units fight their way across the city.
• Miniature Wargames 201 (Feb 2000) has an article "Pompey in Alexandria". Two armies (Romans under Ceasar/Pompey, Egyptians under Achillas) are fighting each other in Alexandria, and resupplies are brought in depending on certain areas conquered. Random events are included as well.
  
• Miniature Wargames 212 (Jan 2001) features "Escape from Constantinople", set right after the siege in 1453. The idea is that you try to escape (with a single figure) through the ruins of the city. The city is generated on the fly, and the whole scenario is more akin a dungeon exploration that a wargame between 2 massed armies.

There are probably a more relevant articles, but the selection above already gave me some additional ideas on how to run the games in Lowenheim.

==========

But anyway, let's start the story ...

Lowenheim is governed by the local Landvoogd. He has raised the taxes a few months ago, for "expenditures that will benefit the great city of Lowenheim". However, not everyone agrees, and something is brewing ... 

As I outlined earlier, I drew up a list of events that could happen and that evolve the story in interesting directions ... once an event is determined, the details will be fleshed out. Along with each event, I also listed some who/why/where/... questions as a reminder to further develop the event. One event will take place every week (game time, not real time). After all, the people in Lowenheim still have their daily lives to worry about as well ...
(The number after each event indicates in what week it was first included in the list, naturally, this is a 1 for all events).

1. The Landvoogd makes an important announcement. What is it? Why now? What is the result on the morale of the inhabitants of the city? [1]
   
2. A trade caravan arrives. Who is the trader? What does he or she hope to sell or trade in Lowenheim? What news does the caravan bring? [1]
3. The people living in the slums are starving. They form a mob and will go looking for food. Why now? Where will they look for food? Who is the leader of the mob? (==> skirmish wargame) [1]
4. The guards (along with the tax collector) go out collecting the new taxes, but a fight ensues. In what quarter of the city? Why is there a fight? (==> skirmish wargame) [1]
5. The Magician's guild feel their old rights of living in the city are endangered. Why? Who is their leader? What's the connection between the magician's guild and the history of the city? [1]
6. One of the scholars living in the city makes a strange discovery that is of some importance. Who is he or she? What discovery? How will it affect the city? Good or bad? Physical discovery or new knowledge? [1]
7. One of the animals escapes from the Magician's zoological garden. What is the animal? Where does it go to? Intelligent or stupid? Rampage or not? What are the consequences? (==> skirmish wargame) [1]
8. A murder takes place in Lowenheim. Who is the (important?) victim? Will there be a trial? What's the judicial system in Lowenheim? [1]
9. A drunken party assembles on the streets outside one of the inns (why?), starts shouting and destroying things. The city guard has to come in and restore the peace. (==> skirmish wargame) [1]
10. An omen is seen in the sky. Good or bad? What is it? [1]

Rolling a D10 ... a "10"! So let's start fleshing out this event ... (to be continued).

Post-edit: it just occurred to me that we have a great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn later this month, and that conjunctions were seen as omens ... let’s use that instead of the classic comet!

Reading material for the Christmas days ...

Yesterday a small package arrived by mail, containing the following:

I like both series of publications very much. The Wargamers' Annual provides nice articles, lots of images. I started buying the first issue when it was first published, and of course all of them are also included in the magazine index.

The "Refighting History" series is a bit outside of my immediate historical period of interest (never say never though), but it's hugely inspirational for how to organize and run your own games.

Le Nouveau Napoleon est arrivée!

After the Napoleonic Christmas disaster, a new Napoleon arrived today. Once more, he will be up in our Christmas tree!

Vive l'Empereur!!!

Riots in Lowenheim (2)

To continue my initial thoughts on "Riots in Lowenheim", here's some more prep work I did:

• The idea would be to list 10 (or more) story arcs, the simply roll a die and see what happens. Details for fleshing out each story arc will only be filled in when that possibility actually shows up. So I might have "A trade caravan arrives at the gates", but unless that event is rolled, I will not specify or think about details. I think it's much more fun to colour in the details based on what has already happened rather than work with a detailed list.
• Of the 10 events, roughly 1/3 to 1/2 should lead to some form of armed conflict, such that a smallish skirmish game can be played (solo).
• The event list will be updated each time, because either some events will no longer make sense, or new possibilities will present themselves.
• Having played wargames and roleplaying games for over 30 years now, I have a huge library of gaming books, which I can source for ideas. Too easily we simply buy something new in the hopes of matching our interests of the moment exactly, but the wheel has been reinvented too many times already. Over the weekend, I (re)read "Irillian", a series of articles published in White Dwarf magazine during the early 80s, as well as books on running wargaming campaigns written by Tony Bath and Charles Grant, specifically the sections on how to generate personalities for campaigns. I also took a look at the scenario "Coup d'Etat" in one of Grant's scenario books, which was based on a article "Rioting in Alexandria" which appeared in Slingshot (Society of Ancients) in 1970. I still have to browse through my magazine index to see of anything that might be useful turns up.
  

To be continued ...

Napoleon met his Waterloo

I have reported our Napoleon Christmas ornament before.

Today, when setting up the Christmas tree, he came to his end. Now to find a new one ...

Christmas City

A few days ago I set up my fantasy city, with the purpose of running some solo skirmish games.

When I came back in after having done some work in the garden, I was surprised to find my cityscape being illuminated with Christmas lights. "I thought it would be a nice Christmas village like that!" was the answer. Fair enough. Now I have to think about how to handle my solo games ...

Riots in Lowenheim (1)

I finetuned the lay-out of Lowenheim (see this post) just a little bit. My plan is now to run some (solo) games in the city, based on the idea that various factions within the city want to seize power. I have a vague idea of using a list of "events" that might happen, each with a probability assigned. A die roll will determine what event will happen, with some events resulting in an actual skirmish game. After the event has resolved, the list of probabilities might get updated and events removed from or added to the list.

E.g. I might have:

1. Citizens in the slums have food shortages and attack the inns in search for food.
2. Magicians openly criticize the current ruler.
3. Scholar invents new more efficient weapons for the city guard to use.
4. Taxes are raised throughout the city.
   
5. ...

Whenever an event is rolled for, I will work on that event in a bit more detail by inventing personalities etc. Then, the event list will be updated. The simplest would be to have 10 events at most, and simply rolling a D10. I still have to think about this some more, but we'll see.

Anyway, as a first stage, I divided the city in several quarters: the slums, the middle class areas, the merchants, the rich and government quarter, the magicians, and the scholar. 

Top view of Lowenheim

The different quarters of Lowenheim

Funny Halflings

The new issue of Miniature Wargames arrived in my mailbox today. It was supposed to have a free sprue of Wargames Atlantic Halflings, but I got something else instead ... ;-)

These don't look like halflings? What are they? Turns out these are "Deathfields Grognards" ...

The team began with a core of Napoleon’s Young and Old Guard from Waterloo and later were reinforced with troops from the Western Front of the Great War and decades later from the jungles of Vietnam. Over the centuries, their shared French language and culture (and trades by owners) have brought them together as a combined team on the Death Fields circuit. Even after centuries, the elite members of Les Grognards go to battle with the cry: “Vive la France!”
(from the Wargames Atlantic website)

LOL. Who comes up with these backstories?

Not to worry. Useful for the bits box and the conversions ...

ADDENDUM, Dec 31: I received a replacement sprue from John Treadaway, the editor of Miniature Wargames. Many thanks!

Fantasy City

During the past couple of days, I suddenly felt the urge to bring out some of my old fantasy buildings and build a cityscape. I might even run a solo game in it over the coming Christmas holidays using the One Hour Skirmish Wargaming rules. Perhaps I should revive my old Lowenheim setting again (a city game that used much of the scenery in today's setup). We'll see.

Here are some preliminary photos, but the city still needs to be spiced up with inhabitants and some more smaller scenery elements.