Book of War Battle Report

Tonight I played a short game of using Delta's Book of War rules. I was introducing one of my D&D players to the mass combat because my group will be taking part in a siege in a few weeks. You can see we have some very fancy miniatures.

It was a sunny day. Not at all a good day for goblin light infantry to be battling some pikemen over a nearly 60' wide bridge. That wasn't going to stop my collection of 120 goblins from charging 100 pikemen.  

Here is the initial charge. Note that the goblins are being supported by 20 light archers on a hill.
Also there are 20 peasants having a picnic by the pond in the distance.

The Pikemen were supported by 40 archers. They fired into the goblins as they charged. The goblins started to feel less sure about their charge as they faced down the pikes on the other side of the choke.

My wife is very happy that she has the upper hand over my goblins.
Luckily no units had a movement of more than 12" because
our tape measures are all at the house we are renovating.

Discretion is often the better part of valor. The goblins try to head for a nearby wood to negate the advantage that the pikemen have in the open. But alas, they are chased and cut down without mercy. My archers also rout after taking losses.

The goblins flee past the peasant picnic.

 only 10 goblins escape the pikemen. The archers rally but decide that running off the table is in fact the best course of action (not shown).

The Witherhelm Campaign Synopsis

Here is a quick overview of the Witherhelm Campaign So far:

1 The Fall of Witherhelm Stronghold

The party wakes up in a dungeon in their underpants. They are in the basement of Witherhelm Stronghold. The door to their cell has been unlocked. Outside a peasant uprising is taking place. They loot the stronghold. They sneak around. Some of them die. They find the sick baron, Dorf Von Sedge, who has been living off their blood and kill him in his bed. They talk to a scary wraith at the top of the stronghold who kills Barney, the peasant revolutionary. They then fight the Plague Doctor and the surviving adventurers make it to the tavern and get drunk. An invading army from Brock Thickstone come in and subdue the populace. Peter Von Posthumous is the new Castellan.

Deaths: Fulray the 9th , Barney the Rampaging Villager, Hodor the Cleric, Valaracus Moonthunder the Magic-User

2 The Tomb Of Norvin Brun

The party hears rumors of a cool ancient tomb. They hire a guide and go investigate. The find ghouls and exposition. They almost die to a cove mule. They find the identity of the wraith (his name is Harhagbes), some gold medalions, and some exposition in a book. There is also a cool dragon corpse and a crazy dwarf named Norvin digging in the darkest recesseses of the tomb. He is being taunted by a wight. the party decides to leave.

But they come back, with a crew of dwarfs and some speculators, Werbin Blerman and Hyrm Blackmun, to excavate the dragon corpse and sell it. The party however is being followed by some mercenaries. They have a fight where they lose some valued members and some valued NPCs. They capture Blackleaf the leader of the band. She works at the stronghold. The party is sad and betrayed. The party hangs out while the dragon is being excavated and then travel to Clargarser to sell it. Blackleaf escapes.

Deaths: Vern the Dwarf

3 The Backstory Interlude

The party decides to go on a picaresque adventure and talk to NPCS. They travel to Clargarser and meet Gnupo the gnome. They find  out that Clargarser is a totalitarian shithole, ruled by Clargarser and the wizard Raglom. There is also a Cleric named Radagast somewhere, who does not have a very good reputation.

They then travel to Thickstone's demesnes and complain about the assassination attempt. Thickstone says it must have been an administrative error or something. The party travels back to Witherhelm with a letter of introduction to Peter Von Posthumous

Deaths: none

4 The Murder Mystery

The party finds out that Blackleaf has been locked in the dungeon for trying to kill the party. She maintains that she did it at Peter Von Posthumous's orders. Then people start dying. The party is accused of murdering Peter Von  Postuhumous. Stirge get loose in the stronghold; accountants are murdered. Tuns out a doppelganger working for Raglom had infiltrated the keep. The party saves the day and are heroes. Blackleaf is the only NPC above level 1 left so she becomes the new castellan.The party finally gets the stirge mask and a cool magic sword.

Deaths: Sonya the fighting-(wo)man

5 The Stirge Hole

The party is hired by Blackleaf to investigate the cave with all the stirge in the basement.They find a secret hide out used by the Plague Doctor and maybe someone else. they find the secret trap door and the trapped chest. A hireling get promoted to PC after the death of the cleric (poisoned by trapped chest) they explore the secret trap door and find a huge natural cave complex and then a kobold lair. They kill the kobolds with the stirge (using the stirge mask) and fight the kobold king. They get treasure and return to the surface. Then they go and get drunk. The stirge hole was weird.

Deaths: Rodoh the Cleric

6 Winter Break

The party chills out but it looks like Clargarser and Raglom plan to attack Witherhelm in the spring. Why? Is it related to the wraith? What is the deal?

Book of War: Stirge Swarm Unit

The Stirge adapted for The Book of War by Daniel Collins:

Unit	Cost	MV	AH	HD	Notes
Stirge Swarm	8	24	4	1	Flying, Full after killing 2 units (-1 to hit), no movement cost for turning

Stirge Swarms fight under the magical control of another figure. While under control stirge swarms need not make morale checks regardless of losses. If the controller dies or otherwise loses control, The stirge will attack the nearest unit until killed or full; once full they will leave the battle field.

I have also updated the Stirge Mask entry rules for using in mass combat.


Also Purple Worm Hero Unit:

Unit	Cost	MV	AH	HD	Atk	Dam	Notes
Purple Worm	60	12	5	2	1	1	On hit roll of 6 swallows man sized/ cavalry heroes whole, instantly killing. Burrow

Purple worms can burrow underground. While burrowing, purple worms cannot be attacked by other units, can move through other units, and ignore the effects of terrain

In the Beginning There was the Word and the Word was an Underutilized Rule: Alignment Languages

I want to talk about alignment languages. You probably ignore them. I used to ignore them. Everyone you’ve ever played with probably mostly ignored them.

Alignment languages are cool now. Let me tell you how to use them.

I am going to assume that lawful and chaotic are the only alignment languages. In a Holmesian game you could have four or five alignment languages but adding more alignment languages really dilutes their power. To encourage their use you want 

1. Alignment Language as a Lingua Franca or Pidgin

Mechanically they provide a reason why a lawful guy would be adventuring with a chaotic guy. The chaotic guy can bargain with the monsters. Used like this they reinforce the idea that you can have more types of encounters than just fighting everything. Taken together alignment languages and reaction rolls provide the mechanical reasons why combat should not be the default encounter type. If you want to avoid developing an elaborate personality and backstory for every kobold limit the expressiveness of alignment languages (this will also make it so that alignment languages don't make learning other humanoid languages pointless). 

Bardak eyed Krogdor with suspicion. His instinct told him to beat their heads in but there were too many of them.

No one in the party spoke goblin. He was going to have to hear that sound.

They hung back at the edge of the torchlight, scampering and gesturing obscenely to no one in particular. One of them was gyrating. Bardak imagined that the goblin’s undulations were wafting the foul goblin stench directly into his nose. The situation was tense

Krogdor stepped forward and began to speak in foul guttural tones, then in high piercing tones. Krogdor’s voice then careened wildly from low to high. It was disgusting and absurd.

The Goblins spoke back. It was a cacophony.

Krogdor nodded and turned to Bardak, “they want thirty gold and for you to spit on your holy symbol. Then they’ll let us pass.” Bardak almost boiled over. “Also,” Krogdor continued, “they offered one of their number as you concubine.”

Krogdor pointed to the gyrating goblin.

This was too much to bear. Perhaps the language of chaos was useless after all. Why had he befriended Krogdor, a man who at the end of it all longed for the total destruction of the Universe. Where had the other one went? Mudfish. He was more nihilistic then even Krogdor; perhaps he had absconded or defected to the goblins.

“EEYYYAAGGGHGHGHGHGHGHGH!” A scream erupted from behind the goblins. Then another scream erupted - this time from a goblin.

Mudfish was covered in green blood, an expression of orgiastic glee on his face. Negotiations had failed. Chaos had won. Mudfish had decided for everyone that most of them would die today. The Universe was collapsing starting with this fetid underground tunnel. The goblins were elated even the dead one appeared to smile.

The goblins set upon Mudfish they were all going to die...

Ok, So maybe it doesn’t always work out, but the point is alignment languages can be used to widen the types of interactions that the party can have with monsters.

2. Alignment Language as Liturgical Language or Language with Inherent Spiritual Power

This is how I treat the languages of Law and chaos in my games. Lawful and Chaotic appear on scrolls and magic items. They send a chill down the spine creatures that come near the script. Creatures are hesitant to speak alignment languages because they impose ideology as much as they convey information. This makes alignment languages important but not omnipresent in a campaign. Player will know that something is special and important when they see or hear an alignment language.

“Would that our tongues were perfect enough to pronounce its profound consonance.” Thought Bardak. His pronunciation had gotten better and his faith had gotten stronger. He could command the wounds to heal and freeze a man in place with the power of The Word of Law. But, that was nothing compared to what he know held in his hands.

He was now with another quieter less impulsive group. They had made their way down into an antediluvian temple of law.

He was fondling a beautiful mace engraved with a prayer to The Justice Maker. Reading it his mind began to resonate with the item. The Word itself created discipline obedience and order. If only the words could be pronounced, the whole of everything could be brought to heel. Alas it was only through his devotion The Grand Architect that he could even hold the words in his head.

Mudfish couldn’t even bare to look at the weapon. He closed his remaining eye. The power of the Law and the Word was too bright. Yes, Mudfish had made it. Krogdor wasn’t there. He didn’t make it.

The Mace did not stop. The writing was singing inside Bardak and the writing commanded him to subjugate chaos. Mudfish ran but he could not out run justice. He was punished for his crimes and for his refusal to submit to the Universal Order. The mace was pleased. The Word was pleased. It had found a home in Bardak.

Please don’t take these examples to mean that alignment languages are only good for derailing the game and causing intra-party strife.