Sunday, July 23, 2023

The Crucible Campaign, A Patron runs a Mass Combat on Week 1

 I have been setting up and starting out as a patron in Hjeuphos’ The Crucible Campaign.  He is a really excellent patron in my game, and I figured I would offer my time as a patron in his game.  I’m playing High Mage Lith Wizard 12, and her companions Moon-Ra wizard 8, and Nofrino Fighter 8.  They are transplants via planar travel from the defunct Blackbird Campaign.  Lith and crew arrived and began assembling troops and followers and took over the empty tower and leadership of the town of Tustvold in the jungles to the west.  Nesly set up, Lith is in her tower assembling her divining coven, the Circle of Sight.  Nofrino is taking his elite H cav and 35 med cav and 40 lt cav on a large patrol around the tower and town, seeing what all is out there in the near wilderness.  The first week of patrolling, they are set upon by a massive brigand horde, over 230 strong!  They descend from the north as Nofrino scrambles to react and warn Lith.


Hjeuphos has a great system of patron and their domains, how they acquire random encounters that affect your settlement.  Without giving all the details, you roll several encounters over a month, then choose 1 that is kind of the most challenging or problematic, and you must use your resources and deal with it either in solo adjudicated combat or some other suitable way of solving the problem.  I figured rolling double 10s on # appearing for the brigands was significant, so I decided to make this my big problem for the month.  I decided to adjudicate it pretty quickly and abstractly using the Portable Wargame rules by Bob Cordery, with a few slight mods.  It went well fun, about an hour.  Plus the batrep.  The writing is a little rough but here it is.  Just a little peek behind the curtain of how patrons operate.  Didn’t think I would be self-adjudicating mass combat in my first 2 weeks of running a patron in the Crucible, but here we are. 


AAR Lith’s battle vs the Brigands (230)


The third week of July Nofrino is out on his first patrol around Lith’s new domain with his elite cav, ranger henchman and 100 cav.  They discover over 200 brigands descending on their jungle terrain from the north and scramble to interdict and call for reinforcements from the keep.



Deployment-  the Brigands are coming from the North, with their lt foot and archers on the right side of the battlefield, and the leadership/ elite cav and the med cav on the left side.  Nofrino’s troops are off the road west of the tower.






Turn 1-  Nofrino wins init and forms a line with his cav and await reinforcements while the ranger goes to the keep with word.  The brigand med cav charges the lt cav and is pushed back, the leader and elite cav charge the med cav and push it back.  The lt foot charges Nofrino’s elites, losing and taking a wound, and also the brigand mage casts lightning bolt as they charge, killing 6 brigands and 6 of Nofrino’s cav. The archers move into the swamp and the other lt foot moves into the jungle.





















Turn 2-  Nofrino wins init again and Lith is told of the battle by the ranger.  The Lt cav flanks the brigands med cav and the med cav charges it also, wounding it twice.  The H. foot charge out of the tower and into the leader elite cav, and the brigands are pushed back.  Then the brigands pike and mage countercharge and the mage casts confusion, Nofrino makes his save but 11 cav fail.  The pike try to wound but are unable to wound the H foot.  Lith casts fly, and Moon-Ra casts a forked lightning bolt at the lt foot destroying them.  The archers move into the jungle.

Turn 3-  Brigands win init and the leaders elite cav goes into the flank of the med cav, wounding, while the lt cav continues to combat the brigand med cav, wounds them and routs them.  Nofrinos med cav take a wound and stay.  The brigand pike and mage go into the H Foot, but are pushed back.  The archers shoot at Lith flying in the air, and hit for 15hp.  Nofrino’s cav takes a wound from the Lt Foot, but Moon Ra casts stinking cloud on them and they are nauseated and taken out.  Lith casts Stone Trap on the retreating mage and he fails the save and is turned to stone.  


  • With that the brigands are combat ineffective and their mage has been captured. the brigand leadership/elite cav, the pikes, and the archers are alllowed to retreat from the battlefield, less than 100 strong.


ok got lucky with treasure, even with half shares, i got 500gp off the bodies, 2000gp, 1000pp, 4 gems 500gp each, and a rod of cancellation.


after the battle, Nofrino's losses are 6 dead elite cav, and 10 dead med cav.


Here’s the Campaign Map, Lith’s domain is the purple border, the battle happened right by the tower and town.





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