Progress Of The Bogavanian/Fezian/Beerstein Campaign And The Next Battles.

 The 'Bogavanian Alamo': Hex 50 The Bogavanians ans Beersteiners have held their own for two days of battle but now they are increasingly threadbare. The saving grace is the moat (not physically depicted so far) which makes it more difficult for the Beersteiners to assault.

In the Second Battle of the Two Armies the Bogavanian and Fezian assaults (outside the castle) were beaten back with heavy losses. On the Northern end of the castle the Bogavanian and Fezian heavy infantry were defeated by a combination of pike and Lobsters. The Fezian mounted archers managed to kill a few pikemen until they were, in turn, shot down by the Beersteiner longbows. Even General Etheba was killed. The assault against the Beersteiners on the Southern end was also unsucessful except for the Hillmen taking down the mounted crusaders before they to were destroyed.

Now the remnants of the Bogavanians and Fezians shelter in the castle. They are as follows:

Fezia:
Warrior priest, Moonduc

20 Heavy infantry

6 Plate cavalry

Bogavania:
Prince Vucic
13 Heavy Infantry
21 Matchlocks
10 Matchlocks

Beerstein:
Prince Sigel

18 Pike
16 Pike

24 Longbow

16 Matclock
15 matchlock

18 matchlock

11 Mtd Knights
10 Great Swords
14 foot crusaders

Beerstein Expeditionary Force under King James arriving from the South:
King James

10 Mounted Crusaders
7 Lobsters
13 Mounted Archers.
24 Hillmen 
18 musket
2 Cannon
Wizard Pobis level 0 (reduced by magic misfire).

Scouting Force:
8 Mounted Bow

Meanwhile a Beersteiner superior force has arrived in H 182 to besiege the Bogavanian capital and its king. (More on that later). 

Another Beersteiner force has arrived at a Fezian castle in H166 and found it abandoned and so occupied it.

A lobster unit escorted Aztec POWS to Aztecia with the hope of encouraging rebellion but were unsuccessful.

REBELLION IN CASPIA

However, there are yet more woes for Fezia. We took our dice rolls for rebellious areas and Mat faces a rebellion in the desert land of Caspia in H 151. The rebels consist of 1 Elite Heavy cavalry (Romans), 1 Heavy cavalry (Greeks), 1 light infantry, 1 Heavy infantry and 2 catapults. The leadership and any wizards or priests are as yet unknown.

Caspia is in the remote South East of Fezia and held no garrison, The name is a tribute to Frank Perry and his son Ross as well as his friend Ken Gillings who played wargames with mixed era and imagi-nations. A country much fought over was Caspia ( no relation, as far as I know, to the Caspia of CS Lewis).Frank and Ken were playing these games from the 1920s onwards and Ross was a founding member of Plastic Warrior magazine. He and Ken wrote some great articles in PW in issues 2, 3 and 9. Frank wrote The First and Second Books of wargaming as well as two novels based on the wargames.

END Of THE CAMPAIGN?

Mat and I agreed that a campaign would go for eight moves and then we would roll dice to see if it continued. I think Mat better hope it finishes soon as his main forces appear to have been greatly reduced. We  can assume that the campaign ends because some other border with Beerstein is threatened or some seriously inclement weather is approaching. To claim his territory my forces need to have been in it uncontested for two moves. This means if the campaign ends before this I have to abandon even my occupation of his castles!

Rebellions may continue after a campaign ends, giving Mat a potential opportunity to deal with them or not; it will be up to the dice gods. If he doesn't the rebellion can spread. One thing though, Caspians are closely affiliated with Patrans (a Hellenistic/Egyptian/ Roman society) so the potential for an invasion of Fezia's South is high. We don't know yet who we will be fighting next campaign as foreign forces may be tempted to intervene.

A NOTE ON CASUALTIES

At the end of a battle casualties for each unit are counted and half are returned for next battle, one quarter if that army has left the field for another hex. However, this applies only to units that have some men left. Destroyed units never get men back. This works realistically. First the destroyed unit doesn't have unharmed men to deal with the wounded and the enemy are likely to brain them. Secondly, this gives an incentive to save depleted units from destruction as the player wants to use them again. For example a unit which has two men left when it started with twenty, gets nine back.

Obviously, some detailed paper work is needed and I use old large desk diaries for this as well as my blog record.