Winning the Campaign
The campaign runs for a maximum of six rounds or until two players or less control any regions, whichever occurs first.
In the event of only one player controlling all 17 regions at the end of any round, he is of course the victor in
The Boiling Cauldron campaign.
If two players are remaining, they will fight a
Final Battle (or more, if needed) for victory in
The Boiling Cauldron campaign. If, at the end of the six rounds, there are three or more still remaining, the two players controlling the most regions (and if a tie, the ones controlling the westernmost region) will fight it out in this Final Battle.
Map and Regions
The map over nine-century Britain consists of 17 regions, each with a specified culture affecting which armies to use in attacks and defences.
Two regions that share a
land border between each other are considered
adjacent. Furthermore, all
coastal regions are considered adjacent to each other.
All regions except
Hwicce, Middle Anglia, South Anglia,
West Anglia are coastal.
Cultures and Army Lists of Regions
- Deira, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Lindsey, Middle Anglia: Vikings.
- Bernicia, Hwicce, South Anglia, Sussex, Wessex, West Anglia: Late Anglo-Saxons (without Mountable Fyrd).
- Strathclyde: Early Scots.
Starting the Campaign
Regions will in alphabetical order (
Bernicia, Deira, ...) be randomly allocated to players, with each player receiving a roughly equal share of controlled regions at start. (For example: with three players participating, two will control six regions each and one five regions, etc., to make up the 17 regions.)
Attacks
Each player makes one attack per round, with the player having the best casualty difference in a battle in the previous round going first, etc. (For the first round, however, the player that was last to be randomly allocated a region in the above fashion will be first to attack in round 1, etc.)
Attacks can be made from any controlled and non-attacked region (”
attacking region”) upon any uncontrolled and adjacent region that is not already involved in any other attack this round (”
defending region”), provided however that every player can be attacked only once in a round and in turn cannot attack the player that has already attacked him that round. Given this, if a player has no attack possibility in a round, he will need to forfeit his attack that round.
Battles and Outcomes of Battles
Force Size and Map Type
Battles are fought using the
The Boiling Cauldron module as
Open Battle, with
1600 versus 1600 FP (Large) on a
40x32 (Wide)
North European Plain map over a maximum of
24 turns.
Main Army
The attacker uses the army list of the attacking region’s culture as his main army, and the defender the army list of the defending region’s culture as his main army.
Allies
The
attacker must use as allies the army list of a culture (other than that of the main army)
if the number of controlled regions with that culture and adjacent to the
attacking region is higher than the corresponding number of each other applicable culture (i.e., controlled and adjacent).
The same applies to the
defender, albeit with reference to the
defending region instead.
The attacker or defender will use
no allies at all if there is no such sole culture (e.g., because of two or more cultures with the highest number of applicable regions).
Outcomes of Battles
A battle is won through routing the enemy, i.e., being first to inflict 60+% casualties or inflict 40+% with a 25+% casualty difference.
Gaining and Losing Regions
The victor gains control over one or more of the loser’s regions, the number of regions equalling the casualty difference (in percent) times loser’s number of controlled regions at start of the round, always rounded upwards to nearest integer (e.g., 36% of 3 regions = 1.08 => 2).
The victor determines which regions to be gained, provided that such regions must
primarily be the attacking region or the defending region,
secondarily the loser’s regions adjacent by
land border (to the attacking region and/or the defending region) and not involved in any attacks or gained this round, and
finally any other of the loser’s regions adjacent to the attacking region and/or the defending region (whether land or coastal). No other regions can be gained.
Draws result in no change of region between attacker and defender.
A player who no longer controls any regions has lost and is irrevocably eliminated from the campaign.
The Final Battle
A Final Battle is fought using the
Dark Ages Britain v1.7 module as
Open Battle, with
1600 versus 1600 FP (Large) on a
40x32 (Wide)
North European Plain map over a maximum of
24 turns.
Each of the two players freely selects army lists for his main army and allies from among the cultures of the regions that he controls. The use of allies is
compulsory, if more than one culture is controlled. The players are allowed, but do not need, to select the same army lists in different Final Battles.
A Final Battle is won through routing the enemy, i.e., being first to inflict 60+% casualties or inflict 40+% with a 25+% casualty difference.
If a draw, another Final Battle will be fought (again and again…) until a victor has emerged.
