The Hamlet of Kragg: A CHRONICLES OF BLOOD Battle Report

The Maradon troops advance. Glythwyl cries out to his archers: "Bring down that ogre!" One of the elves has a shot, and he wounds the ogre, while the other elf archer moves for a clear angle. The other Jhanakai troops reposition to face the Maradon attack. The infantry advance forward and out to both flanks to draw the assaulting Maradon soldiers into a kill zone for the elf archers. Stunned by the the wound he has received before even engaging in battle, the ogre turns tail and flees the field.

[Game note: there was only a 1 in 8 chance of an ogre morale failure – a seriously lucky break for my forces on turn one].

Turn 1: An elf archer shoots the ogre.

Turn 1: The ogre flees.

The Maradon forces continue advancing despite the loss of the ogre, pressing into the elf archers' kill zone. One of the archers succeeds in wounding a Black Band mercenary, while the Jhanakai infantry complete their deployment on the flanks. The wounded mercenary also panics and flees, leaving the Maradon warband two men down before they even make contact.

[Game note: again I'm ridiculously lucky, as there was only a 1 in 6 chance of a morale failure for the mercenary].

Turn 2: The barbarians demonstrate on the left flank; a wounded Black Band mercenary routs.

Since the disciplined Jhanakai warriors hold their ground and wait, the Maradon warband pushes on despite their early losses, and are just shy of contact, when the elf archers shoot once more. Both archers target the remaining Black Band mercenary, and both hit. The two arrows are enough to kill him outright. Meanwhile, the barbarians on the Jhanakai left flank pull back, in an effort to avoid mêlée contact and to continue drawing the Maradon troops into the kill zone. On the right flank, Glythwyl and his elf warriors charge the Maradon soldiers facing them, wounding two. But one of the elf warriors takes a wound himself. With three of their men down, things are looking grim for the force from Maradon.

Turn 3: Glythwyl takes on a Maradon soldier.

Turn 3: Elf warriors double-team their enemy.

The Maradon captain finally charges into combat with the barbarians, but she is unable to do any damage. Her soldiers on that flank also engage, but are ineffective. Meanwhile the Maradon soldiers on the opposite flank continue to fight the elves, but it is they who take a loss, as the injured Maradon warrior on that flank takes another wound and is killed. Suddenly, however, hope springs up for the diminishing Maradon company – an additional Black Band mercenary comes charging onto the battlefield. Perhaps he is a courier, or a scout from another detachment. Who knows? But his help will be welcome in this fight, if only he can reach his comrades before it is too late. Meanwhile, the elf archers shoot to no effect, and in the mêlée on the left flank, a barbarian and a Maradon soldier each take a wound. On the right flank, Glythwyl slays his opponent, and, with no more enemies on that flank, his warriors turn and begin a rush to reinforce the left. The wounded Maradon soldier on the left flank now panics and runs away.

[Game note: the first random event of the game – reinforcements for the enemy force. Also, once more, the morale rolls are not kind to my automated opponent, who again had only a 1 in 6 chance of failing morale.]

 Turn 4: Mêlée on the left flank, with the Maradon captain in the thick of it.

As the clash between Maradons and barbarians continues, another barbarian is slain. The newly arrived mercenary rushes toward the fight, but he will be too little too late. The elf archers are again completely ineffective, but Glythwyl and his warriors continue to press toward the left flank. Seeing their position is hopeless, the remains of the Maradon company withdraw from the field.

Turn 5: The elves rush to reinforce the left flank.

Reactions to the Chronicles of Blood rules: These are a great set of rules. In addition to its no-nonsense structure, I find that the system runs very smoothly. One thing I like, and which did not occur to me in my initial read, is the high luck factor, which actually works quite well in a solo game. In this case, I was the one who got absurdly lucky (no force could withstand three failed morale checks). But the reason I say this is a good thing, is that had the luck been reversed, I would have been CRUSHED. Which means that the system can definitely beat you (even if it didn't turn out that way in this game), and any solo system aspiring to success has to be able to beat you. I think my battle plan of avoiding mêlée engagement and trying to draw the enemy into a kill zone for the archers was sound. But I have no illusions – I won this game because luck was on my side, and I certainly don't expect to have that sort of good fortune every time around!

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The Hamlet of Kragg: Mithril War Scenario for CHRONICLES OF BLOOD

Prologue: The war was dragging on, and casualties were mounting on both sides. The elves of Jhanakai gave better than they got, but in the long term they would never be able to absorb their losses the way the men of Maradon could.

Ambassadors from both Jhanakai and Maradon had been negotiating with the Dwarves of Kabad'zem, but the Kabads were being surprisingly difficult, and were so far unwilling to back either side. Strategists in the elven and human camps began to suspect that if the war did not end soon, the Kabads would wait until both their countries were spent, and then march into the Dran Feldar to take it for themselves, virtually unopposed.

The Jhanakai commanders learned from their spies that to bring its warbands up to full strength, Maradon had begun to hire Black Band mercenaries from the Obsidian Isles, and had also started to recruit warriors from the Ogre clans on the Maradon border.

In response, Glythwyl and the other elf captains had been ordered to make contact with the various Barbarian tribes native to the Dran Feldar. The barbarians did not trust any of the civilized peoples very much, but had always gotten on better with the elves than the others. The elves generally were able to coexist with them, and tended not to destroy the barbarian hunting grounds, or drive the barbarians off of them, when they made settlements in the Dran Feldar. Glythwyl now began to successfully round out his own forces with barbarian recruits.

When the Maradon commanders learned of the barbarians' entry into the war on the side of the elves, they were not above sending in their mercenaries, and even their own men, to burn out the isolated barbarian villages. And so Glythwyl found himself posted to aid the barbarians in the hamlet of Kragg in the defense of their home. It was not long before the first Maradon warband came upon them.

Terrain and Deployment: The scenario is set up on a 90 cm x 90 cm board, representing the edge of the Hamlet of Kragg. The troops begin 60 cm apart.

Image made with free Battle Chronicler software.

Map Key and OB:

Maradon Warband (Blue Circles on Map):
Captain (C)
4 Human Warriors (W)
2 Black Band Mercenaries (M)
Ogre (O)

Elven Warband (Green Circles on Map):
Glythwyl, Captain (G)
2 Elf Warriors (E)
2 Elf Archers (A)
3 Barbarian Warriors (B)

I've set this up as a Chronicles of Blood game (using individual soldiers rather than regiments), where I'll be controlling the elven warband. Terrain placement, other than the edge of the village, was random. Deployment was according to the CoB rules. For some of these models I used existing stats from CoB, for others I created stats.

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Chronicles of Blood: First Impressions

Solo Nexus recently reported the release of the Shane Garvey's Chronicles of Blood solo fantasy wargame rules, published by Crystal Star Games and available at Drive Thru RPG.

I have not yet played with these rules but, after a first reading, I find them full of potential, and I'm eager to give them a go in the near future. The rules have a number of features I like:

• Designed specifically for solo play
• Straightforward simplicity – nothing fiddly
• Relatively small playing surface required
• No requirement to use any particular manufacturer's miniatures
• Little book keeping – just keeping track of hits each unit has taken
• FREE core rules with future $1 supplements planned (as was done for their earlier solo adventure game, Chronicles of Arax)

One other thing that I like about the rules is that while they are written for regiment-sized units, they look like they could very easily be played at other unit levels. For example, instead of saying an Elven Archer Regiment rolls d8 to attack with a range of 60 cm and a move of 15 cm etc., you could just give those same stats to a single soldier and make it a skirmish game. There's nothing inherent in the rules as far as I can see in my first reading that makes them have to be for regiments. I think you could play them without adaptation at pretty much any unit scale you'd like.

When I test them out, I'll use them for skirmish-level fights, probably in my Mithril Wars campaign in place of SBH for a game or two just to see how they work.