997YK, Summer: Barrakas, Rhaan

Barrakas

Start of turn 5, Barrakas

Storm Lords: first, the easy choice: banner 6 attacks the independent village to the south-west, winning a battle with troglodytes and taking the tile. They could not scout new ground in any other direction, so clearing this village gains them a tile and gives more tiles to scout next turn. Banner 3 tries to scout but bad weather prevents it from moving. Banners 4 and 5 scout west and find a fortress and another independent village; banner 5 will stay in place to block the Sulatar from stealing the tile on their turn. Finally, banner 1 has the hardest choice — if it stays in Searing Heights, it is likely to get attacked again by the Sulatar — and there seems little reason to risk the losses. So they move down to the river, taking another Sulatar village but accepting that the Sulatar will probably move forward again and steal some back.

White Fang Tribe: Banner 2 is staying in the city of Threnal, hoping to defend it against the approaching duergar; it sends out scouts as well, but they get slaughtered by some local tribe. Banner 1 is heading for the city to reinforce the defenders, scouting a village (fortunately not meeting any obstacle, or the city might have been in serious trouble). Banner 4 scouts and moves into a barren mountain tile. Banner 3 searches the barren tile beside the capital — and finds a ruined city. There is a small goblin tribe inside, which choose to join them — +100 points for banner 3.

Side note: I am using the rules for searching barren tiles, originally in White Dwarf issue 131 but also included in the Warmaster edition of the ME rules. I am playing with some local additions though — stuff I wrote down 20 years ago and have had sitting in a file inside my ME box since then. We will see if any of it is any good.

Hammerhead Clan: Banner 1 scouts towards Threnal, finding a barren tile and deciding to move into it despite having no food: getting a foothold close to Threnal in preparation for a siege next year is important. Banner 5 searches the mountains near the capital and finds a gold mine (yes, really). Banner 2 moves ready to cross the river next month, and banner 3 decides to be bold and scouts downriver towards the Storm Lords — and finds a fortress! That is a good forward post for a fortress, a jumping off point for a future attack on either of the eastern empires.

Sulatar: Sulatar banner 5 has been sent on a death march into barren lands — it has no baggage left. So it has to roll a subsistence check, and in keeping with the Sulatar's great luck so far, they roll a 1 — that's D6x50 points lost to hunger and disease. Fortunately I only roll a 2 for that, so -100 points for banner 5. They then scout along the coast and find another barren tile, which they move into (they have to move or stay, so they get to starve again next round either way).

Banners 1 & 2 pursue the retreating humans, hoping to either bring them to battle or retake more villages. And banner 3 moves into the barren tile by the capital, where it can either steal villages next turn or do a tile search.

End of turn 5, Barrakas.

Rhaan

We are heading into autumn in Eberron now, and this is the last move of the campaigning season. This is the last chance to seize territory this year.

Storm Lords: Banners 4 & 5 decide to join up and attack the independent village to the east. This is not optimal short-term, but I know it is rare to get a chance to deal with out-of-the-way independents so I decide they should take the opportunity now. The independents roll 400 points against the humans' 1000 — so no battle report for that one, I resolved it quickly and the humans trampled the independents with only 17 points of casualties.

Banners 1 & 2 scout neighbouring tiles, and stay in place (risking a possible Sulatar advance).  Banner 6 scouts an independent village on the border with the White Fang, and banner 3 scouts a banner highland tile in the Dragon's Maw mountains.

White Fang Tribe: Banner 1 joins banner 2 in Threnal, making a solid defence against the dwarves approaching. Banner 2 tries to scout but the scouts never return. Banner 3 takes losses due to starvation, losing 80 points. And banner 4 searches a barren highland tile without result.

Hammerhead Clan: Banner 1 takes 10 points of losses from hunger (in a barren tile with no baggage). Banner 5 heads back to the capital. Banners 1,3,4 all scout villages (stealing one from the Storm Lords). Banner 2 scouts a barren tile, but the army itself fails to find a spot to cross the river.

Sulatar: Banner 5 takes 20 points of losses from its march through barren tiles. It then scouts a village, making it just about worthwhile (it is a starting point for more scouting next year). Banners 1 & 2 chase the Storm Lords' forces downriver (they choose not to stand against the larger drow force), and banner 3 takes a village on the river back from the Storm Lords.

And that's it for 997YK (game year 1) summer. The winter in Mighty Empires is a whole different thing, so we will get to that shortly. First I will make a separate post with a round-up of how the campaigning season went.

End of summer campaigning.