Akamar Herald Year One Issue Four

This issue saw the first posting from one of the participants.  Ray was fortunate when he drew the event card that gave ten talents to anyone who had not melded a country. Because events are resolved first during a turn, Ray got the money and was then able to meld two countries.  The updated campaign map showing the current alignments is below.  I just found out how to enlarge the images in a blog post and have gone back to enlarge the campaign maps in the other postings.

THE AKAMAR HERALD

Mysterious envoys from another land have provided financing to those opposed to the Grand Confederation and the League.   Amounts donated were as large as 10 talents.   Rumors are that their leader is an elderly man of enormous girth.

In a splendid ceremony Prince Nicholas has been crowned ruler of the Aquilan Empire.   The prince has been noted for his extravagant nature.   He has even gone so far as to build a magnificent palace in Saiph named the Swillissaire Schloss. 

The following was received recently:

To the Editor of the Akamar Herald:

The rumors you are printing about unrest in other county's merchant houses are wholly unfounded. Indeed, as of the time of the visit of the Phoenician Merchants, no other country had a functioning merchant house!

Perseus merely collected its fair share of profits from trading ventures conducted within its territory. I beg you reconsider your inflammatory language. Such oratory is not conducive to peaceful relations amongst neighboring States.

Respectfully,

Brown Dort

PLAYER	KEN	RON	MIKE	RAY	HAL	GARY	DISCARD
TREASURY	4 talents	12 talents	2 talents	14 talents	13 talents	13 talents	MUSCA 6
MELD	MONOKEROS 6		HYDROS 1,6	SAIPH 6			FAT MAN
	PESUS 2		MUSCA 5,4	AQUILA 4			PISCIS 10
	HOROLOGIUM 8		KAELUM 1,5				PHOENICIAN
	ERIDANUS 8		KETOS 1				KETOS 6
	ARGOS 6						DISEASE
HAND	3 cards	10 cards	4 cards	7 cards	8 cards	8 cards	piscis 2

Akamar Herald Year One Issue Three

During his turn Mike staged a political coup taking over one of Ken's countries

THE AKAMAR HERALD

Trade mission from the Phoenetians arrives.  Due to the high import duties charged by Perseus no one else was able to profit from their arrival.   This has led to increased unrest amongst the merchant houses.

Rival League formed.   The countries of Musca, Kaelum, and Ketos have formed a new league to counter the Grand Confederation.   The new league promises greater freedom of trade to all who join it.

Hydros changes allegiance and joins the new league.   Overruling the Monks of Nabbach, Inwahr III has decided that it will be more profitable for his country to leave the Grand Confederation and join the Alliance.

PLAYER	KEN	RON	MIKE	RAY	HAL	GARY	DISCARD
TREASURY	4 talents	2 talents	2 talents	3 talents	3 talents	3 talents	PISCIS 10
MELD	MONOKEROS 6		HYDROS 1,6				KETOS 6
	PERSEUS 2		MUSCA 5,4
	HOROLOGIUM 8		KAELUM 1,5
	ERIDANUS 8		KETOS 1
	ARGOS 6
HAND	3 cards	10 cards	4 cards	8 cards	8 cards	8 cards

Below is the updated map showing control of the countries.

Akamar Herald Year One Issue 2

Ron had the second turn for the first year.  One of the cards he drew was an event.  When an event card is drawn it is played immediately and then placed on the discard pile.   Any cards in the discard pile that are below an event card cannot be chosen when drawing cards.  Ron drew another card to replace the event card.   It is possible for a player to draw more than one event card in a row and they must continue to draw cards until they get one that is not an event.   Since Ken was the only player with melded countries the event card was played against one of his countries.   Due to certain restrictions on some of the event cards, there is a possibility that a player will have to play an event card that is not good on one of their own countries.   Ron chose not to meld any countries and put his discard on the top of the discard pile.   Players must discard one of the cards they hold at the end of their turn.

The campaign was run via email.   I would contact a player when it was their turn.   They would tell me what  cards they wanted to draw from the deck and/or discard pile, and inform me of their decisions for their turn.    This prevented other players form knowing what they held in their hand.   Items of general knowledge were then published in the Akamar Herald.   The second issue is as follows:

THE AKAMAR HERALD

KING TMOSIC OF PISCIS HAS SUCCOMBED TO THE EFFECTS OF A RARE DISEASE.  SHORTLY AFTER JOINING THE GRAND CONFEDERATION KING TMOSIC FELL ILL.  PHYSICIANS WERE UNABLE TO FIND A CURE FOR HIS AILMENT.    WITH NO CLEAR SUCCESSOR TO THE KING, THE COUNTRY HAS DISOLVED INTO CHAOS AND IS NO LONGER A MEMBER OF THE CONFEDERATION.

 

PLAYER	KEN	RON	MIKE	RAY	HAL	GARY	DISCARD
TREASURY	2 talents	2 talents	3 talents	3 talents	3 talents	3 talents	KETOS 6
MELD	MONOKEROS 6
	PERSEUS 2
	HOROLOGIUM 8
	HYDROS 6
	ERIDANUS 8
	ARGOS 6
HAND	3 cards	10 cards	8 cards	8 cards	8 cards	8 cards

The loss of Piscis created a gap between the western countries and the eastern countries that Ken controlled.   This would prevent Ken from moving armies from one end of The Grand Confederation to the other unless by sea.

Akamar Herald First Issue

The following is the first issue of the Akamar Herald.   The first part provides news of events during the campaign.   The last part lists the countries controlled, the amount of money left in each player's treasury, and cards available to be chosen from the discard pile.  Ken made a bold play for his first turn, taking control of seven countries.   Many of the cards he melded only had political control values.  He was gambling that the other players would not be able to meld enough cards to make a political coup of a country he controlled or a military conquest by melding a country with a card that had an army and conquering one of his from a neighboring country.   If he held onto all his countries he would have an income of 21 talents for the second campaign year/round of turns.   Players without a country would only receive two talents of income.  

THE AKAMAR HERALD

GRAND CONFEDERATION CREATED              

The countries of Monokeros, Perseus, Kaelum, Eridanus, Syrma, Hydros, and Horologium have announced the formation of a confederacy.   A statement from the confederation’s spokesperson, K. Mackie, announced the formation of the confederation early this year.   “It is hoped that all other nations will respect the integrity of the confederation’s members.  Those who would seek to invade the territory of the confederation will be met with force.”        

MERCENARIES AVAILABLE FOR HIRE       

The mighty ships of Wu are available to assist any who seek to secure their merchant fleets from depredations of others.                                                                                  

                                                                            

PLAYER	KEN	RON	MIKE	RAY	HAL	GARY	DISCARD
TREASURY	2	3	3	3	3	3	WU
MELD	MONOKEROS 6
	PERSEUS 2
	HOROLOGIUM 8
	HYDROS 6
	SYRMA 6
	ERIDANUS 8
	PISCIS 2
HAND	3 cards

 

Ken purchased an additional card for two talents in addition to the two free cards that he would normally receive from the deck.  After melding the above countries he discarded the privateers of wu.

The campaign map with Ken's name added to the countries he controlled.  Except for the two island nations his countries are all connected.   This would allow armies from any of those countries to be moved from one end of his empire to the other, combine forces, and attack an adjacent country in one turn.  Ships would be needed to transport armies to attack or attack from an island nation. 

The Vela Campaign

Several years ago I ran an Ancients campaign with a touch of fantasy added.   This was for a local club in the Central Valley.   There were six players/teams for the campaign.   These represented different factions vying for control of the various countries of the region.   Each country had a number of cards ranging from 6 to 12.   The cards had different symbols or combinations of symbols representing political power (needed to control a country), armies, navies, fortifications, and/or sources of money.   The deck of cards also included mercenaries, great generals, events and special items.   The teams were dealt a set of cards too start with and had some money (talents) also.   They could obtain additional cards from the deck and/ or discard pile (if still available).  

The players took a turn in sequence with each round of player turns being one campaign year.  During their turn the players could meld cards to control a country,  stage a political coup against another players country if they felt they had enough political power to overthrow the current government, invade a single country belonging to another player, or do nothing.  Each country they controlled provided them with additional income.   If drawn from the deck, event cards were played immediately and a replacement card was drawn from the deck.

The 81/2 x 11 campaign map is shown below:



 

I also had a more detailed map showing all the minor towns and additional terrain details on a 2 foot by 3 foot hex sheet.  The following is a section of the more detailed map that was not available to the participants showing the area near Akamar.  Akamar is the capital city of Kaelum.  This map had been used in another ancients campaign that I had run several years before and had been modified to include larger hexes composed of the smaller ones.

 

The campaign took about 11 months to complete and covered five full campaign years and ended on the second player turn of the sixth year when a special event card ending the campaign was drawn.  During the campaign fortunes ebbed and flowed.   A player/team could go from being the most powerful to the weakest and then regain a stronger position.   In some ways it was like the current television series "Game of Thrones".  

 

There was also a newsletter, The Akamar Herald,  covering news of the campaign, contributions from the players, and background information for the different countries.   I will be posting as many of the campaign newsletters that I still have.   Unfortunately I had a computer disk failure sometime after the campaign ended with the loss of all the newsletters and maps.  Fortunately Ray, one of the participants, had kept copies of most of them.   There are about a half a dozen that are missing.   Those missing are mainly from years three and four.  One of them contained an entertaining story written by the participants of the battle between the Wizard and the Sorcerer Silidon for control of the Misty Isles.  Based on following issues most of them were periods if calm with some event cards and background information on the countries of the campaign. 

 

As the campaign unfolded, some of the campaign characters tales developed a life of their own.  Brown Dort of Perseus was overthrown, went into hiding, and returned to power.   The Sorcerer Silidon developed a reputation for evil deeds.  Several major battles were fought, some in person, and a couple by email.   One of the teams was on the opposite coast of the country as one of our club members had moved there prior to the campaign starting.  

The Nafziger Collection

In 2010 George Nafziger donated his order of battle collection to the

http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/cgsc/carl/nafziger.asp  so that it would not be lost if he passed away.   In addition to the order of battle collection there are a large number of books available from http://www.nafzigercollection.com/  covering armies, tactics, and campaigns from 1300 through World War 2.   Some of the books can be found on Amazon.   I purchased "Soviet Infantry Tactics in World War II" and "Soviet Armor Tactics in World War II" both by Charles Sharp.   Both provide detailed information on the tactics used by the Soviet army in WW2.   Both are well worth obtaining if interested in the actual tactics used by the Soviet army, but the casual gamer would probably not be interested in them.   They ;include information on the spacing between individual tanks and infantry when engaging in combat.   Tanks were to have a spacing of 30 to 50 meters between vehicles in order to allow them to maneuver, while infantry would have about 6 to 8 paces (15-20 feet, 4.5 to 6 meters).   I use 6mm figures (1:285 and 1:300).   At 30 meters for the figure scale this would be 100mm/4 inches per vehicle or twice the width of the 50mm bases I use.  3mm would be about right for 1 vehicle per 50mm base while 2mm could be on a 30+mm base.   I mount three to four infantry figures per base which is close to the minimum distance of 6 paces per man. The spacing for Soviet infantry is similar to that of other armies.   The following site has information on infantry frontages and spacing http://balagan.info/infantry-unit-frontages-during-ww2 http://balagan.info/usmc-unit-frontages-and-formations-in-late-ww2 Steven's site has a lot of scenarios and other information for Crossfire and other rule systems. For modern unit frontages see http://18clovehamhock.blogspot.com/2012/06/warpac-and-nato-unit-frontages.html

Trees, Trees, and More Trees (and rubber mats)

This past week I finally finished adding trees to all of the Litko hexes.  This was an on and off project as I found spare time.  There are about 2000 trees on the 300 hexes.   The 300 hexes would cover an area of about 8 square feet if placed in organized columns.   They have been placed in a slightly irregular pattern to conform to the roads and waterways on the two foot by two foot interlocking rubber mats.  

I got the mats from an Amazon dealer a while back.  They came in a large cardboard box which is great for storing and transporting them.   18 of the mats have waterways in addition to the roads.  The mats are available in different colors, but I got black ones due to the discounted price.   Only one side of the mats is smooth with the other side being ridged.   I had a cheap can of cast off brown paint that I got from Home Depot.   Colored paint is made by adding colors to a can of white base.   At times the person mixing the color will make a mistake, creating the wrong color for the customer and have to make another can of the correct color.   The mistakes are usually put aside in a group and sold at a discount,

I painted the entire surface of the smooth sides of the mats and let them dry.   Next I painted the waterways.  These were offset from the center of each edge by about 4 inches, lining up with the middle of one of the interlocking tabs.  Six of the mats have branching waterways, six have curves that exit at different points, two go straight across from one side to the opposite. two shift from the left to right as they cross (one is at the bottom left), while the last two shift from right to left.  The rest of the mats do not have waterways. 

The roads were taped off with 3/4 inch (20mm) painters tape and are centered on the edge of the mats.  The road pattern varies from mat to mat and tends to conform to the waterways.   White glue was spread on the mats using a one inch paint brush avoiding the waterways.   Mixed green ground foam from Woodland Scenics was sprinkled on the glue, and the excess shaken off to be collected for the next mat.  The mats are another intermittent project that I work on as time permits.  There are nine left to finish.

T