First Triarch Wars – setting up

One of the benefits of running a campaign, with no parallel to any historical events, is the ability to invent characters, situations, events and overall incorporate elements that will directly and indirectly help in the adjudication of current events as happen during the campaign.

The initial steps were already taken and I aimed for a simple two factions conflict within a defined geographic area which I had a clear idea of, given I created the map before.

Taking my hobby time I remade the map into the digital era and added more elements, locations, river names, altered some I did not like much or were not favourable to the idea I had in mind.

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The map is but a part of a big world map of course and the area we see is a peninsula named Caligo, home to the Vella Rem Respublica, a very old and ancient City State republic of kingdoms founded almost three thousand years ago.

Three regions make the Respublica – Caerula to the North, Ipses in the center and to the South, Rubri Mons. The kingships – Caerula Throni and Rubri Regnum are administrative ranks, not geographic dominions, so in truth any location can be held, in all its capacities, by all the “kings” and over ruled by the Respublica as a whole.

The system is not perfect and went through innumerable convulsions throughout the three thousand years but the antiquity of the Vella Rem Respublica is a statement in itself. We will leave the “world atlas” to a different project ( if ever! ).

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Back when I started the initial ( defunct ) Caligo campaign I tried to describe each location with the intricate system of levels and supplies ( of materials, manpower and animals ) which did not end up correctly to the tactical level I envisioned.

This time around I established only 3 levels and flat scores with no possibility of upgrading the locations albeit the conflict sides can adjudicate actions to influence their local officials ( remember that all locations belong to the Respublica and not to any of the parties ).

Locations will be the fundamental supplies of recruitment points and victuals to support the armies in the field. And wagons.

I decided to make Wagons mandatory. Each being able to transport abstract supplies for every 4 foot units -or- every 2 mounted troops including chariot types -or- every 1 elephants/beasts unit. So, for example, a force consisting of 4 foot troops and 2 mounted MUST also have a baggage of 2 Wagons, but this level of bureaucratic paperwork is not the most fun thing to do in a campaign thus the reduction of it to rudimentary level of Baggage and Costs should be manageable.

I must confess that no campaign can be achieved without a time tracker of some sort, in whatever shape, thus I needed a calendar and knowing that the lore could try to override my reasoning I went the lazy way and generated one using the fabulous help of donjon.

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An entire cycle is made up of 10 months, most of 35 days, except the Deluge Months, each of 40 days.

• Annia, the first of the cycle
• Hosidis
• Trebla
• Cannin
• Blossia, Deluge month
• Herius
• Orosa
• Fadus
• Deciana
• Viator, Deluge month

Each week lasts for 9 full days starting with Pinsurs, followed by Luletis, Mansis, Tos, Vetas, Cubrus, Jupontus, Diuntur and Ropinus.

Tos is the Augurs day, when the citizens consult the divination and hold communal celebrations.

There’s only two seasons in Caligo ( and the continent mass it is part of, but other civilisations may give other names of course ), the Tempers, the temperate season, and the Deluges, the rain seasons. In fact the region produces several harvest seasons per cycle ( year ) which are signalled by alignment of stars and other celestial bodies. Every Wanderers Gather event signals a harvest.

Several other calendar events always take place. Fireballs, Shooting Stars, Comets and Auroras, Eclipses and Meteor Showers. This became an interesting prospect to use as signals for certain campaign rules such as supply checks, triggers for unique events, auguries omens, etc.

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You may make a copy of the calendar for your own use

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Armies

One of the things any wargamer wants to do immediately is to populate the map with armies.

I did it the random way by placing all the generals pieces in a bag. Each side counting 16 that would, at draw, be placed two spaces from a location.

This represented all the Cohorts stationed in the peninsula and all starting with the same order of battle albeit not the same Army Points – some quartermasters are more efficient than others.

After drawing all the commanders and populating the map I rolled Army Points for each using a combination of dice: 1D20 + 1D12 + 2D10 + 1D8 + 6D6

Each force then had to spend score to assemble the core units needed.

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Once all 32 armies were setup I had to come up with names. With plenty of RPG fiction names generators I wasn’t short of options and usually the warhammer universes yield a good mix of references so used a few different names generators for both the fantasy and sci-fi variants with the spread shown below.

Any extras needed during the campaign will be generated in the same form so we never run out of options. One of the interesting aspects of running a campaign is the intricacies of characters that may be needed as the armies commanders contact local officials, or an agent performs something. Generating a name for them lends them important and makes the campaign rather personalised.

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What next ?

There must be a hierarchy within the parties. Not every commander is a military and many are from administrative backgrounds, most being political representatives in the Respublica assemblies, and for a seamless and organised management of the forces some will be the ones calling the shots in the big scheme of things, while others are more competent ( or incompetent ) in managing a smaller force which can only perform certain types of actions, while the main Commanders will be able to issue more types of actions and orders.

In essence an army will be made of several forces, but forces can be used in their individual capacities within their immediate zones of control ( not ZOCs !!!!! ).