Military Organisation of the Keep on the Borderlands

Or, 'Can I do KotB for Oathmark?'

Part of the motivation for starting the Keep build was obviously to play more games with suitable terrain. The Keep is a framework for building some things - a Chapel, a Tower, an Inn, a Fountain as a kind of village centrepiece in the market square...

But also, wargames need armies. I started to wonder if the Keep could also provide a framework for troop organisation.

As with many things about the Keep, the 'force organisation chart' is very complicated. There are, listed for the actual compliment of the Keep proper (not including the guards of the Jewel Merchant or the fanatical Guild guardsmen or anything), 238 'soldiers' of varying kinds and 10 what might be thought of as 'officers' or heroes.

But my idea of organising these as Oathmark units was sadly dashed. Or at least, much more complex than it seemed at first thought.

40-42 of the troops (it's not quite clear what two 'men-at-arms' are actually armed with) are equipped with pole-arms. These, perhaps, could be organised into 'Linebreaker' units for Oathmark - Human heavy infantry with 2-handed weapons.

However, Linebreakers are equipped with 'heavy' armour; only 4 of the Pole-arm troops are wearing plate, and 12 definitely are not wearing heavy armour at all, as they are listed as wearing leather armour. The 24-26 remaining men-at-arms with pole-arms are listed as wearing chain. This potentially could be classed as heavy armour; in that case they could make up units of Linebreakers with the plate-armoured troops (30 all together could potentially be split into 2-3 units).

That would leave 12 lightly-armoured, pole-armed men-at-arms. That's not a unit-type that exists in Oathmark, unfortunately. The situation would be worse if chain is deemed 'light' rather than 'heavy'; in that case, only 4 of the (potentially) 42 pole-armed troops would be able to make up a unit - at least, if they kept their pole-arms. Most of these also have access to hand-axes or swords and shields, so could potentially provide 38 bodies for 'Soldier' units, with light armour (ie chain or leather) and shield, and sword or hand-axe. That would already be nearly two full units, which sounds like it would be a good start to an Oathmark Human army.

On top of that there are 54 chain-clad men-at-arms with crossbows and probably 46 men-at-arms with longbows (6 are just listed with 'bows' but all the other men-at-arms with bows have specifically longbows). This means there are 100 troops in chain with different types of bows.

If chain is heavy armour (see the Linebreakers above) then these 100 troops are not a legal troop-type in Oathmark. There are no heavy-armour Human troops with bows (there are no specific crossbow, longbow, shortbow units for Humans in Oathmark, just units of Archers with light armour and bows, and unarmoured, bow-wielding Rangers; all the various various crossbow and longbow contingents from the Keep would just have 'bows'). If the chain-clad troops can be classed as 'Linebreakers' (heavy) then the chain-clad 'Archers' (light) can't be legal for Oathmark, and vice versa.

Even if the chain-clad Archers are considered 'light', there are still 100 of them. This would give 5 units of Archers, as maximum unit size is 20. However, Oathmark has a limit of 4 units of any one troop type, so even accepting them as 'light' would disqualify 20 of them from being in a legal Oathmark army.

Whatever the classification of chain, the further 32 plate-wearing crossbowmen are automatically illegal under Oathmark rules, as there are no 'heavy' archers.

So, the best we can do so far is 30 Linebreakers and 132 disqualified bowmen in heavy armour along with 12 disqualified light-armoured pole-armed troops, or probably 38 lightly-armoured Soldiers and 80 (4 units of) Archers, also in light armour, and at this point only 52 disqualified archers, and a few 'heavy' troops that can't make a viable unit (the 4 actual plate-armoured, pole-armed troops).

After that, there are 32 men-at-arms with plate, shield and sword. These are a perfectly legal heavy infantry type, 'Warriors', the heavily-armoured version of 'Soldiers', and could make up two 16-man units of this type (or a 20 and a 12, etc).

That is (30+[12]+[132]+32=206) or (38+80+[52]+{4}+32=206) where brackets denote [illegal] or {probably unviable} units. Categorising chain as 'light' armour saves many more troops at the expense of dispensing with the pole-arms.

The remaining 32 troops are cavalry. 12 are heavily-armoured in plate armour, and carry swords and shields. In Oathmark, Human Heavy Cavalry is usually thought of as using spears or lances but their equipment categorisation is 'Hand Weapon'. It is perfectly possible to field these troops, though the maximum size for a cavalry unit is 10. Perhaps attaching three of the 'officers' and fielding three units of 5 Heavy Cavalry would be an option. Of the 20 remaining, 18 of the cavalry have chain and crossbows, but again there is the problem of armour and crossbows, but even more acutely than with the infantry - whatever chain is classed as, there are no mounted archers with any armour in the Human list. The remaining 2 cavalry troops are described as lightly-armoured couriers. It could however be reasonable to put these 20 cavalrymen together and make two units of Cavalry with light armour.

As it stands the troop-types in KotB are not a great fit for Oathmark but a relatively-simple solution would be swapping some crossbows or longbows for pole-arms, particularly, or sword and shield when not possible. Given that the maximum number of lightly-armoured archers is 80, the 'current' number of 132 archers is too high for a viable Oathmark force, whatever their armour type. The 52 unviable troops are divided between 32 plate-clad and 20 chain-clad troops. The 32 in plate could take up some of the abandoned pole-arms to become Linebreakers (with the four actual plate-and-pole-arm troops), and the remaining 20 could join their sword-and shield, chain-clad brethren to be another unit of Soldiers.

This would give something like the following list:

3 units of Soldiers - light (chain or leather) armour, sword or axe, shield - 58 (+1 officer)

4 units of Archers - light armour, crossbow or longbow ie 'bow' - 80

2 units of Warriors - heavy armour, sword, shield - 32 (+2 officers)

2 units of Linebreakers - heavy armour, pole-arm - 36 (+2 officers)

2 units of Cavalry - light armour, shield, hand weapon - 20

3 units of Heavy Cavalry - heavy armour, shield, hand weapon - 12 (+3 officers)

The majority of the officers or other 'heroes' in the Keep are unproblematic - seven of them, from the three corporals to the Castellan himself - are armed with swords and shields and wear heavy armour. There are also seven units with heavy armour in the proposed list. Perhaps the Castellan leads one unit of Heavy cavalry, a Captain the second and a Corporal the third; the Bailiff leads a unit of Warriors and a Corporal the second; and the remaining Captain the first unit of Linebreakers and the last Corporal the second. There are at least 40 pole-arms in the Keep, as 40 (or possibly 42) are armed with them in the original list, and I only have 36 'Linebreakers'. There are enough pole-arms for anyone joining the unit, such as the Corporal, to be armed with one. The Sergeant, who wears chain (and therefore, probably light) armour, could join a unit of Soldiers. 

But this is not the only possible way to slice the organisational pie - just a first, reasonable-looking pass. I'm sure I could tinker greatly with this list, if I ever get any games in anyway. One problem with it is that I have magicked up a few extra warhorses. There are only 30 in the Keep, according to the original list, along with some riding horses; I have somehow managed to conjure 15 Heavy Cavalry and 20 (Light) Cavalry without a problem, which is perhaps slightly cheating, given the constraints I have set myself. On the other hand, Human Cavalry in Oathmark are not noted as riding 'Warhorses' specifically, so perhaps it doesn't matter. The heavier horses are prioritised for the Heavy Cavalry and the last line of (Light) Cavalry has lighter horses, perhaps.

Though several of the officers and 'heroes' of the KotB garrison have magical weapons, this would not really be permitted in Oathmark. Oathmark has a system for unit officers that allows special characters to be the commander of a unit, but there are limits to how many of these special characters can be taken, and only these special characters can have magical weapons or equipment. It is likely that a standard Oathmark force-organisation chart would only allow 3 or 4 of these 'officers' to be special characters. The others would just be normal representatives of their unit-type. Perhaps the Castellan and Bailiff could be considered as 'Captains' in Oathmark terms and the two Captains in the Keep would be considered 'Champions'; or perhaps the Castellan would be considered a General, and the Bailiff and one of the Captains (probably the one leading the Linebreakers in the example above) would be Oathmark 'Champions'. The other two officer/hero-types that might be considered are the Castellan's Elven advisor and Clerical scribe; these may be considered as spell-casters in Oathmark terms (neither, I think, would be allowed to wear armour in this role). They somewhat stand outside the normal 'force organisation'.

This, of course, pre-supposes emptying the Keep and engaging an enemy on open ground. And what enemy? Well, in Oathmark terms, maybe the enemy should be the inhabitants of the Caves of Chaos. That would be an entirely different beast in terms of force-organisation, and will require much thinking about...

Not Building a Chapel

A while back (link here), I had an idea for trying to build some of the buildings in the Keep on the Borderlands. I started - at least, as far as trying to do a mock-up of one of the buildings. My idea was to start with the Chapel (building 17 on the Keep floorplan). This, I was certain, was a good start. I thought I could use it as a free-standing chapel or temple building if I needed such a thing for gaming. A chapel is always useful, right? My plan was to do it in a style that would more-or-less fit medieval Europe, a Warhammer-y fantasy early-modern Europe analogue, could be in Middle-earth with a bit of squinty side-eye, would serve as an old chapel in more modern Victorian sci-fi-ish gaming, or could even be a non-ruined building in the 41st Millennium, if they have non-ruined buildings. A generic stone hall-type building of vaguely religious bent - that could cover a lot of genres of gaming. Re-using anything to do with wargaming always seems like a good idea to me (I don't have infinite space or money, so anything has to be potentially able to serve a variety of functions), so, enthused with the idea that it would fit with almost anything I was likely to do, I embarked on the planning process.

It was not a good start. 

I'm going to quote from the description of the Chapel in the module:

"This building has a peaked roof two stories tall; the interior is one large room. The altar is located at the eastern end, with a colored glass window (worth 350 g.p. intact) above it; the window is 20’ tall and 8’ wide."

This was all fairly understandable, I thought. Looking at the map, the Chapel is 60' long and 20' wide, with doors at the west end. So far so good.

Excerpt from the plan of the Keep in The Keep on the Borderlands (c) TSR/Wizards of the Coast

I got into a bit of a flap about what a 'peaked roof two stories tall' meant however. Did it mean the roof was two storeys tall, atop a building of unknown height? Did it mean the building was two storeys tall including the roof? These speculations came back to haunt me later, but I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm pretty certain it was intended to mean, 'a peaked roof that makes the building two storeys tall at its peak' (the quotes obviously are in American English but I'm British, a 'story' to me is a told narrative, the floor of a building is a 'storey'). On this interpretation, I just need to know what 'two storeys' means. I decided that to keep things simple I would treat each storey as 10' (though I did flirt for a while with 12' - see below for 1:72 v 1:60).

This gave me the basic (in-game) dimensions of the building - 60' by 20' by 'two storeys' = 20'.

But what does this look like in practice?

I have generally applied a 1:72 or sometimes1:75 scale to my gaming involving miniatures. Both D&D and Warhammer use Imperial measurement, so I assumed that 1"=6' (one inch = 6 feet/72 inches). This after all was the scale of minis back in the day - if 25mm = 1" (it doesn't but close enough) then a 1" or 25mm mini represents a 6' (72") person. All well and good, that's 1:72. Later I decided that 4mm might equal 1', but as I never got round to building anything related to that scale it didn't matter. My D&D playing never really got to the 3rd Ed+ 'battlemat'-style of play (maybe that was 4th Ed, I don't really know) so I didn't do the 5' square thing that became very popular. I'm an old-school-10'-blue-squares-kinda guy.

So, how to convert 10' squares into terrain? It never bothered me before, I just made what I had and hoped it would kind-of fit. But now I was making a model to a pre-existing plan, based mostly on 10' squares, and occasional descriptions to fill in details.

I spent a lot of time going backwards and forwards between 1"=6' and 1"=5'. I should not have bothered. The sheer faff of trying to 5/6 or 6/5 everything was a baffling ordeal. I decided in the course of the planning for this build that from now on, 1:72 be damned, 1:60 is the way to go. 1"=5' and that's an end to it. I think this is the scale of the D&D battlemats so that's good... though the Keep in plan is 365' north-south - if I ever get the whole thing built, that will be 73", which is an inch over 6 feet; at 1:72 it would 'only' be a shade under 62", or 5-foot-2. But even though it increases the size by 6/5, it's so much easier to work with 1'=5" so that's what I decided would be the scale. And will be for all future builds I do that concern minis (and why would they not concern minis?).

So I decided on a scale, and started with a model-of-my-model. I have some foamcore - I bought it quite recently for building models, but have not used it yet, so thought I would use it for this build. But before I started hacking up my foamcore I thought I would plan out the build in cardboard just to see if it looked right. I can get cereal-box card out of the recycling, so I decided rather than jump straight in with the somewhat expensive foamcore (more expensive than 'free', anyway) I might as well build a test model to make sure I was happy.

So, I went back to the description. OK, questions about the exact meaning of 'two storeys' aside... peaked roof... well, that's pretty clear isn't it? It's not a flat roof; the roof is not a single slope from a higher wall to a lower; it's not a barrel-vault. Fine. I can work with a peaked roof (probably easier than working out how to do a vaulted roof). It doesn't say if it's a moderately-steeply-peaked roof, as in a more 'Gothic' style of architecture, or if it's a shallower angle of roof, a more 'Romanesque' style that you might find in Ravenna, let's say (which, though not so well represented on game-boards, is something of the model for Gondor, for example, both in Tolkien's imagination, and in terms of the visual language of Jackson's films). So I thought I would explore both. These are two of the potential designs I came up with for the west (entrance) end, based on 'two storeys' being 20' (bear in mind I've now gone from 1 square = 10', as in the plan, to 1 square = 5' = 1", for modelling purposes).

'Gothic' and 'Romanesque' (Classical?) west elevations

But the description also mentions a stained glass window, 20' tall in the east end. But the whole building is only 20' tall (ie, two stories) isn't it? Maybe I'm getting my storeys wrong. 2&1/2 inches? 3 inches? This moves my 10' storeys to 12'6" or even 15'.

I can't change the storeys that much. That would make everything far too tall, I think. Maybe I could make the walls of the building two storeys, with the roof on top of that? So I started playing about with elevations for the east end. There's no indication that there's any kind of internal differentiation; in fact, in the description it says 'the interior is one large room' - no mention of subdivisions or towers or anything. So my assumption is, the east and west elevations must match. Therefore, I need to find an elevation that works at the east end, with the window, then take out the window and add the doors for the west end. Simple. These are two of the elevations I came up with (there was a third intermediate form with a 45° pitch) - now abandoning any idea that 'two storeys' meant the total - it had to be the hight of the building without the roof... maybe... because I couldn't see how the stained-glass window could start at ground-level, it had to be raised somewhat, surely?

Potential east elevations

So, this is where I got to with the elevations. I took the (perhaps arbitrary) decision that the window would start 10' up the wall. Suddenly the building was not 20' tall, but 35' tall, in order to accommodate a 20' tall, 8' wide window. And, the Romanesque version at least looked like it would be 30' to the top of the wall - that was starting to look like three storeys, and that without the roof.

But it got worse. Consulting the plan again I realised that the Chapel butts up against another building at its east end - the end with the window. Checking against the description of location 4 - the Stables, which are the building immediately to the east - one finds this information:

"4. COMMON STABLE: This long building is about 15’ high, with a 3’ parapet* atop its flat roof, so that it can be used in defense of the gate. The gateside wall is pierced for archery..."

So the parapet (leaving aside the notion that it's only 3' high for now, that can't mean what it appears to mean) is used for defence, and is on the opposite side from the Chapel. But the whole building is still 15' high and has a flat roof. The side that is adjacent to the Chapel is 15' high.

Now there is no possibility that the window starts below the level of the building immediately to the east of it, that is absurd - unless the window predates the stables, and the latter was constructed against the wishes of the Chapel authorities... I could go with that but it seems pretty far-fetched, and I don't want to waste time explaining that the building 'mistake' isn't my mistake, it's part of the history of the castle. So the window must be at least 15' above ground level, and add a further 20' on top of that, and it can't go right the way to the roof, there must be some clearance at the top... and that would put the bottom of the window on the same level as soldiers fighting on the roof of the stable, risking them toppling into the window if they were injured up there...

The simplest solution to the whole problem is to assume that the building itself was 'two storeys' - that is 20' - and the roof was on top of that, and also, that the height of the widow was included in the roof and not the height of the building (ie, the bottom of the window was also at 20').

So I came up with the following elevation...

West elevation with 'tall' roof

Gone was any notion I could do a 'Romanesque' version of this. I could just about sneak a 'Gothic' arched window under a steeply-pointed roof; the possibility to do the same with a rounded window on a roof with a shallow pitch would have meant walls 40' (four storeys, not two) high.

So this is what I went with - a 45' high, 20' wide, 60' long Chapel, with the window taking up almost the entire height of the roof, starting 20' above ground-level. It was the only way I could see to get all the pieces to fit.

And it looked rubbish.

The whole thing was a daft, spindly thing that was far too tall (and long) for its width. I hated it.

I can only assume that Gary Gygax never build cardboard models of all of this (or maybe he did and he thought it looked OK - which is fine, we all have different appreciations of aesthetics). Either way... this was a success, in that I didn't waste the foamcore (it's still in the loft in its pristine state, and I'm still playing with cardboard), but also, a failure in that I didn't get a model chapel either for my 'Keep' gameboard or for anything else.

So I shelved the plans until I came up with a solution.

My favoured solution at the moment is, there is no stained-glass window. Maybe I will revisit this sometime and see what other solutions I can come up with but if - and it's a big 'if', now - if I build the Chapel, I will probably do it without the window. It's the only way I can see to make it work. And in that case, I might do it in a Romanesque style for two reasons. The first is that I like the look of it (I went to Ravenna on a college trip in 2010, it was absolutely amazing, architecturally and historically) and don't see it on many gaming boards; and the second is that I still have plans to drop the Keep into northern Gondor (as I first hinted at nearly a decade ago here) and see what happens. In that case, the Ravenna-ish feel of the Romanesque frontage might be more appropriate.

And that is where I left the Chapel, and for a while, the task of building the various locations in the Keep.

So, then, I tried to build a tower...

Creating a random world

I like random tables - even more so if the table has already been integrated into some sort of system that produces results with only the touch of a button or very minimal inputs.

I'm a big fan of the generators over at Donjon. There are loads of them - maybe 200 in all. Finding myself at something of a loose end, I decided to use some of them to start creating a campaign setting. I generally rely on some well-worn tropes myself, so let's see if Donjon can shake me up a bit.

I want to sketch out a region - something like the map of north-west Middle-Earth so beloved of us Tolkienists. A bunch of kingdoms and whatnot that border or are at least close to each other.

The first thing I want to do is generate some countries. Donjon doesn't have a country-generator but does have a 'Worlds and Planes' sub-head in the 'Locations' generator (here). All the location-generators produce a list of 10 outputs. That can be my stand-in for realms (or I guess occasionally smaller entities like cities); the first pass produced this raw output:

1. Ithon, an ancient world of wooded hills and storm-wracked seas, illuminated by a golden sun. The world is primarily populated by dwarves, with a few gnomes.
2. Tironde, an ancient realm of shadowed jungles, desolate wastes, and azure oceans. The realm is primarily populated by dwarves, with smaller numbers of other races. The dwarves of Tironde are ruled by a nobility of angels.
3. Briandoroth, an ancient realm of rugged hills, misty glens, and azure oceans. The realm is primarily populated by humans, with a few dwarves.
4. Ombalin, a medieval plane of broken hills, shadowed forests, and decaying swamps. The plane is mostly populated by humans, though with large numbers of other races.
5. Male, a malevolent plane of rough-hewn canyons and oceans of mercury, beneath a fiery sky. The plane is primarily populated by demons and efreet. It is also the location of the Fane of Eternal Night, a bastion of insane cultists and warlocks.
6. Falone, a primordial realm of smoldering hills and icy seas, beneath a sky of perpetual storms. The realm is primarily populated by demons and gargoyles.
7. Londolin, a primal plane of eroded hills, shadowed valleys, and desolate deserts. The plane is mostly populated by elves, though with large numbers of other races.
8. Cali, a walled plane of storm-wracked mountains and tangled forests, beneath an azure sky. The plane is the prison of an ancient gold dragon, bound by adamant chains.
9. Aris, an abyssal realm of volcanic mountains, dark canyons, and rusting battlefields. The realm is primarily populated by demons and ogres. The denizens of Aris are at war with invading devils.
10. Tirastir, a fallen plane of ashen forests, haunted mires, and seas of acid. The plane is overrun by vast armies of minotaurs and goblins.

Because this is not in fact a generator of realms, I have to do some minor conversion-work. So... Ithon, a realm of Dwarves... Tironde, a jungle-waste realm also populated by Dwarves (probably to the south of the other, the climate seems very different)... Briandoroth and Ombalin, human realms... Male (pr. MAH-lay), a fiery demon realm with its own point of interest, the Fane of Eternal Night... another demon realm (probably northern given the weather) called Falone (pr. Fah-LOW-nay)... Londolin, an elf-realm... Cali, a small walled and mountainous pocket-realm, which is the prison of a dragon... Aris, a mountainous realm where demons war with devils... and Tirastir, a land under the control of Minotaurs and Goblins, which formerly belonged to someone else. That looks like a good start.

I didn't have a map in mind but this is more 'proof of concept' than anything else. I'll see if I can get them to fit on this blank version of the LotR map (from here):

Not my map, of course.

Just going by description, and resisting the urge to put an evil realm where Mordor is (of course I ended up putting a second evil realm there) produces a map like this:

Map with new country labels

That seems quite pleasing. Perhaps Cali should be limited to the extreme north-west of Mordor but for the moment I'm happy enough with that as a rough guide.

A new iteration of the location generator - this time, using 'Towns and Cities' in the Settings tab of Random Locations - produces the following settlements:

1. Elfeld: Population 8200, primarily human, some halfling. The city is a tangle of narrow streets and row buildings. It is ruled by a tyrant, the human lord Rewalt, though a consortium of guildmasters is the real power behind the throne. Elfeld has seen better days, and swarms of vermin run through its streets.
2. Badun: Population 1900, primarily human, some halfling. The town is defended by a strong stone wall and gatehouse. It is governed by a noble aristocrat, the halfling lord Chury Reeve. Badun is known for its monuments and shrines of long-forgotten gods.
3. Glaney: Population 1800, mixed elf and other civilized races. The town is defended by a series of arcane wards. It is governed by a consortium of wealthy merchants, known as the Jade Senate. The Abbey of Angels is a common destination for religious pilgrims.
4. Keford: Population 140, mixed human and kobold. The village is encircled by a crumbling stone wall. It is governed by a noble aristocrat, the human lord Wine. It is said that a gang of slavers works out of the Hunter's Cask.
5. Bilgunulb: Population 6500, mostly dwarf, some human. Most of the city is delved into the sides of a mountain. It is governed by a court of aristocrats. Many of its residents wear iron scale vests, a local fashion.
6. Alderklif: Population 9800, primarily dwarf, some gnome. Most of the buildings are constructed from massive stone blocks. It is governed by several wealthy merchants, led by a female dwarf named Nainarv. Many of its residents wear nightsilk cloaks, a local fashion.
7. Llantwy: Population 780, primarily elf, some human. The village is defended by arcane wards. It is governed by a noble aristocrat, a female sphinx named Lili. The most prominent tavern in the village is The Viridian Axe.
8. Idarbekkr: Population 720, mixed dwarf and halfling. The village sits upon an island in the middle of a lake. It is governed by a mayor, a male dwarf named Amin. Idarbekkr was recently struck by plague, and tormented ghosts haunt its streets at night.
9. Nutithorp: Population 74, primarily dwarf, some gnome. The thorp is dominated by a single tall tower. It is governed by a reeve, a female gnome named Rida. Nutithorp is the home of a legendary hero, a female sorcerer named Duri.
10. Khurukthol: Population 50, mostly dwarf, some gnome. Most of the village is delved into the sides of a volcanic outcrop. It is governed by the priests of the village temple. Khurukthol is the home of a legendary hero, a paladin named Tori.

There are a lot of Dwarf settlements (5 mostly-Dwarf settlements) here, and as one of the Dwarf realms, Tironde, isn't even on the map, I guess they're mostly going up in the North-West in Ithon. Then there are 3 mostly-human and 2 mostly-Elven settlements that can go in human and Elf realms. I left the generator on default but you can use drop-down menus to change the sizes, culture and race of settlements (and the castles I do in the next step) to only generate villages of Aztec Halflings or towers of Sumerian Monsters (and a huge variety of other potential combinations) if you want something specific.

So, those default 'Castles' from the Settings tab:

1. Caer Atangrod: This round tower has elegantly carved stone walls and a yellow tiled roof. The male lord of the tower is an elf named Ebor, and it is defended by elven warriors and fey creatures. The tower is overgrown with flowering vines.
2. Castow Castle: This tower sits in the fork of a river. The male lord of the tower is an old paladin named Swalda, and it is inhabited by an order of priests and monks.
3. Dewold Stronghold: This small tower has battered stone walls with defensive battlements. It appears deserted, but is inhabited by a poor beggar named Warder Gare.
4. Barad Caigri: This large tower sits upon the banks of a stream, spanned by a wooden bridge. The female lord of the tower is an elf named Hyana, and it is defended by a small company of mercenaries.
5. Kadu's Deep: This small walled castle has strong stone walls, engraved with runes of strength. It appears deserted, but is inhabited by kobold thieves led by a boss named Naidara.
6. Argarson's Deep: Most of this small walled castle is delved into the side of a mountain. It appears deserted, but is inhabited by a vampire named Vittela. The castle has several forges, and its courtyards are filled with smoke.
7. Minas Anthir: This fortress complex sits upon an island in the middle of a lake. The male lord of the castle is an elf knight named Anthir, and it is defended by expert elven archers.
8. Narvi's Hold: This round keep has thick stone walls, engraved with runes of strength. The female lord of the keep is a young dwarf named Narvi, and it is defended by tough dwarven warriors. A secret door in the cellar opens into tunnels and mineshafts.
9. Minas Matu: This small keep has thick wooden walls and defensive earthworks. The female lord of the keep is an elf mage named Matu, who secretly serves Aleon, an ancient demonic goddess.
10. Barad Comi: This square tower sits upon the banks of a stream, spanned by a wooden bridge. It is in disrepair, and totally deserted. The tower once belonged to a wizard, and its walls are engraved with runes of power and sorcery.

There's a good mix there and I can, between the settlements and the castles, see a bunch of potential plot-hooks developing. What are the secrets of Barad Comi, and who seeks them? What is Warder Gare's story? What are the aims of the monks of Castow Castle? What are the histories of the various strangenesses of the settlements? How do this fit into the greater stories of the realms I generated first, with their forgotten gods, wars of devils and demons, and invading goblins under the leadership on Minotaurs?

Afterwards, I generated a few more other settlements because the 10 I had didn't seem to be covering the map much. But they offer even more by way of hooks and mysteries.

1. Kefield: Population 6900, primarily human, some elf. The city is defended by a stone wall and a nearby castle. It is governed by several powerful sorcerers, led by a male elf named Ducio. Kefield is said to be haunted by the ghost of a wandering adventurer, cursed by a Goddess of Destruction..
2. Chaford: Population 570, mixed human and elf. The village sits upon a granite outcrop, accessible by a single road. It is governed by a council of elders, led by a male human named Amer Nere. Chaford was recently struck by a divine curse, and the air smells of blood.
3. Blidun: Population 770, primarily human, some other civilized races. A series of low stone walls divides and encircles the village. It is governed by an arcane sorcerer, a male human named Wulfa. It is rumored that strange shadows are cast in the village square at night.
4. Pegrove: Population 430, primarily human, some halfling. The village is defended by a wooden palisade. It is governed by the priests of the village temple. Pegrove has seen better days, and swarms of vermin run through its streets.
5. Miwold: Population 22000, primarily human, some kobold. The city is defended by magical constructs and wards. Two factions struggle for control of the city, a senate of elected representatives and a court of aristocrats. Many of its citizens are tattooed with a strange symbol.
6. Agag: Population 650, mixed kobold and other monstrous races. The village is built around the ancient ruins of a temple. It is ruled by a monstrous tyrant, a lich named Lurtzog. Agag is the home of an infamous villain, a female necromancer named Thildamerc.
7. Teestone: Population 10200, mostly human, some elf. The city is defended by magical constructs and wards. Governance of the city is shared by a consortium of wealthy merchants and several wealthy aristocrats. Teestone is infamous for its thieves' quarter.
8. Einond: Population 560, mixed elf and human and half-elf. Most of the buildings are constructed from living trees. It is governed by a council of elders, led by a male elf named Mosa. Druids gather at the circle of stones on the solstice.
9. Vididalr: Population 62, mostly dwarf, some other civilized races. Most of the buildings are constructed from massive stone blocks. It has no local government. Vididalr serves as a military outpost, and its citizens are armed.
10. Boobluff: Population 160, mixed human and halfling. The village is dominated by a single tall tower. It is governed by a council of elders, whose weekly meetings often turn into drunken brawls. Boobluff was recently struck by plague, and many of its buildings stand empty or in ruins.

A very different mix of races - 7 predominantly human, 1 Elf, 1 Dwarf and 1 Kobold, which look easy enough to slot into the existing geo-political landscape (there are Kobolds mentioned in a few other places, perhaps they are on the borders between Goblin Tirastir and Goblin Ombalin... perhaps teh Kobolds were the previous inhabitants of Tirastir even). Again, hooks abound. What is the cause of the strange plague at Boobluff? Who is the goddess that cursed the adventurer of Kefield? What have the inhabitants of Chaford done to deserve their strange curse? Many things that the PCs can get their teeth into.

And that is the basis for constructing this new continent. 10 countries, 10 variously-sized castles, and 20 settlements. OK, I haven't got a whole world out of it, and I could only place 9 realms on the LotR map, but in principle I could just do something like this multiple times and populate greater areas. The least-satisfactory part I think is using the 'Worlds and Planes' generator for kingdoms and other realms. It's a bit clunky, but works tolerably well. It certainly require a bit of editing; descriptions of different sorts of suns etc. are not necessarily applicable to different regions of the same continent but there could be magical or just meteorological reasons why the atmospheric conditions might be very different across a large area (though in the output I generated I can't see anything too egregious). I'm not sure if there are any real alternatives. Not that I have found on Donjon anyway. But I'm pretty happy with it as a test-run of world-building.

Back to the Labyrinth with Labyrinth the Adventure Game

 Well it's a long time since I've been here... how are yous doing?

Inspired by a Facebook post from Dyson Logos about a Spirited Away-inspired game - Yazeba's Bed and Breakfast from Possum Creek Games https://possumcreekgames.itch.io/yazebas-bed-breakfast - I thought I'd say something about a non-D&D game I played a little earlier this year, and want to play more of.

As anyone who’s read the blog will know, I'm a massive fan of the movie Labyrinth (links to posts about Labyrinth specifically, and discussion of 'portal fantasy' where Labyrinth comes up, are here, here, here and here, and there are couple of unpublished posts too, which maybe I should look at...), so I decided to get my hands on the ‘Labyrinth – The Adventure Game’ RPG from River Horse Games - https://www.riverhorsegames.com/products/rh_lab_005. I'm going to do a little review of it here.

Dust-cover of the rulebook, (c) River Horse Games

 

First off, the book is very nicely produced. The illustrations are spot on, the maps are lovely (most of the book is the around 100 adventuring locations, mostly with maps and the occasional elevation drawing), the dice (there are 2d6 supplied with the book) have an owl in place of the one-spot, and for nerdy fans of the film like me the physical production of the book itself is a very pleasing Easter Egg.

The way the game works is that the PCs are an adventuring party and the GM takes the role of the Goblin King, who is forcing them to run through the Labyrinth, because they're trying to get something back from him. It doesn't have to be a kidnapped child, but almost anything else (in the rules there is an example party who are united in their desire to get a favourite hockey-stick back, but other suggestions include a fond memory or a singing voice) seems a bit anti-climactic after 'your helpless kidnapped sibling'. There is a time limit, as in the movie, and the PCs can fail by running out of time.

The Goblin King doesn't have to wear a wig and tight trousers, or do a David Bowie impersonation, but I plan on all three for my next attempt at running this (I don’t know if the wig or the Bowie impression will be worse, pretty sure I can manage the tight trousers).

The PCs can be one of a number of suggested races – human, Dwarf, Horned Beast (like Ludo, though not necessarily reddish-brown, and with the ability to control a particular sort of object, not necessarily rocks), Goblin, Firey (like the fire-spirits in the movie), Worm or ‘Knight of Yore’ – an anthropomorphised animal like Sir Didymus. Not necessarily a fox-terrier, you could be a monkey, a squirrel, a lizard, a blue hedgehog or Sir Reepicheep the Talking Mouse from Narnia, if you like.

Each of these character races is called a ‘kin’, and players are encouraged (once they have a little experience with the game) to experiment with creating other ‘kins’ in collaboration with the Goblin King. An obvious one might be a Fairy, as they exist in the movie, but it’s not hard to think of other potential kins, either imported from other games/properties or cut from whole cloth. Elf, Hobbit, Troll, Tinman, Wookie, Vulcan, Dralasite… I’m sure they’d all work, somehow.

Each kin has certain attributes, called ‘traits’ and ‘flaws’. As well as there being traits and flaws according to kin, such as Worms being very small (which can be either a positive or a negative, depending on circumstance), there are others that characters can choose, such as being good at running and jumping, or being forgetful. This more-or-less completes character creation – there are no ‘stats’ as such, no version of STR-INT-WIS-DEX-CON-CHA, no saving throws, no HP or AC. Just some things the PC may be good or bad at which effect the outcome of determinations.

It might be nice if the rules included some mechanism for establishing a party at the get-go; instead it's sort of handwaved, the party establishes itself out of a shared distrust for the Goblin King and the desire to get some thing or things back, and that's that - it's up to the players to add any more depth or detail.

It's not a crunchy ruleset, resolving around 'rulings not rules'. The mechanics only take up a couple of pages, and basically revolve around the Goblin King deciding the complexity of actions and either they or the player concerned rolling to see if the PCs accomplish them, using one or two dice, depending on whether there's any advantage or disadvantage - if no, roll one die, if yes, roll two and pick the higher or lower depending on advantage or disadvantage, if there are both advantages and disadvantages (someone is helping you climb but you're also clumsy, let’s say) then they cancel out and you go back to one die. The principle is very basic and pretty flexible and can be applied to multiple situations as long as the Goblin King is prepared to give everything a 1-6 difficulty rating.

There are also a bestiary and some tables that can be used to fill in extra detail between the main encounters or create unique scenes, but these don’t quite constitute a ‘dungeon labyrinth design kit’ – it would take a little work, I think, to make into a truly useful tool for extending the world significantly (or using this ruleset for other worlds of portal fantasy – Narnia I think is an obvious possible setting, or Wonderland, or Oz).

In many ways it’s a pretty gentle game (gentler than the variants of D&D I usually play anyway – obviously I tend very much to Moldvay Basic). The book has lots of quirky encounters with a really simple set of mechanics. It's great if you're a fan of the film; loads of things that evoke the setting of the movie, plenty of Easter Eggs. If you're not a fan, but are looking for an encounter source-book, it's also pretty good - you could just raid it for encounters and drop stats in for monsters from your system of choice (easy enough to find equivalents for most monsters I think). It is quite heavily rulings-not-rules so if that's not your way working you may not like that aspect. It’s not quite complete enough, I think, to use as a toolkit for running a million other games, and there’s a certain amount that has to just be taken as being settled without actually being settled (like how the party forms), but as a fan I think it’s great, and for the not-fan I think it could be a useful source of encounters. 9/10 for production and design, 9/10 for content, 6/10 for mechanics, because really I want a full game with enough tools to spin it off wherever I want.

Building on the Borderlands

This is both a reminiscence and a mission statement.

The Keep from the southwest; from the back cover, Erol Otus's evocative illustration, (c) TSR 1980 and now (c) WotC

The Keep on the Borderlands - D&D Module B2 - is an iconic module. Since its first publication in 1980, it's been estimated that more gamers have had a copy of Keep on the Borderlands than any other module, in part because it was packaged with later printings of Holmes Basic, and then Moldvay Basic (visit the wiki page if you like).

That may no longer be true; Lost Mines of Phandelver may have overtaken it, for all I know, but whether it's still number one is not really important. It is an icon because so many have taken that journey that leads to the castle on the hill, at the edge of the forest, and gone on from there to explore the forest itself, and the Caves of Chaos it contains.

It was my introduction to D&D, and to RPGs. I got the D&D Basic Set for Christmas in 1981. Years later, I thought it was Christmas 1980 - but the Moldvay Basic Set wasn't released then, so it can't have been. My brother and I were players, and my Dad was DM in those first sessions. We had a rip-roaring time. I'd forced my brother and my parents to roll up characters, and my Dad had read enough of the rules to grasp that we needed a party to go adventuring, so my brother and I each ran two characters. I ran Eilea, an Elf, and Weredath, a Dwarf, while my brother ran Gilidor and Calorian, two Fighters. We also had along Althan, a Cleric, and Retep, a Thief, who were my Dad's characters. They were somewhere between PCs and NPCs, as my brother and I controlled them. My Dad - through the Captain of the Guard at the Keep - made it known that there were a couple of demobbed men-at-arms that might be keen to sign up for a cut of the treasure, so we were joined by Aluf and Elric, also Fighters. And thus our party of eight went adventuring.

It was amazing and inspiring, and complete carnage. From memory, Aluf was the first of our party to die, but after only a few sessions, many more had joined him. I particularly remember Weredath's death, charging after the 'Bree-Yark!' Goblins, straight into the main mass of Goblinry and their pet Ogre. The rest of the party brought down the Ogre and in the stunned silence that followed, I had Eilea climb on its corpse and make a speech (I'd picked Goblin as her extra language, fortunately enough). "See, dwellers in the Underworld, how your mightiest has fallen! Begone, lest we slay you all!" I don't know if my Dad rolled for that or just ruled that she intimidated them with chutzpah (what's the Elvish for chutzpah? I wonder...), but whatever - it worked, and the Goblins temporarily fled. We took the opportunity to go further into the complex. However, the Goblins were not the only enemies we found down there and between the Goblins, now recovered from their fright, and the Hobgoblins we had also succeeded in riling, the now somewhat-depleted party was outmatched, and not long after that, we made a retreat.

Then we were attacked by Bugbears in the woods. I'm sure they took Althan, and maybe Calorian then. Of that party of eight, I think only Eilea and Gilidor made it back to the Keep, with a couple of bags of loot. But my brother and I thought it was great. We'd really enjoyed it and played a lot more in coming years, with various friends, and always from then me DMing - using B2 as the setting often, especially in the first few years.

Anyway - B2 has always held a special place in my heart, as my first gaming setting. That's why I've actually started a new campaign and the first sessions - if they even happen - will be run using Keep as the basis. But I'll talk about those in another post.

These days it seems harder to organise games than it used to. Adults don't find it quite so easy to organise their free time to fit in with other people's free time. This blog isn't just about D&D, though that has been a major part of it, it's also about tabletop wargaming - which usually only takes two. Less dependent on getting a bunch of people together. So when I'm not pondering a new D&D campaign, I often think about battle-games instead.

I'm not a very 'good' wargamer. I'm not very dedicated, usually. I like Warhammer and 40K and Kings of War and whatnot, but I don't play them often. I have loads of rulesets for tabletop battle-games I've never even played. At the moment, that includes Oathmark. But, I'm sort-of determined to try to get some Oathmark games in soon. Definitely this year if I can manage it.

So if I'm serious about getting some games in, I should get my mojo working. I need to build armies - I need to paint minis, and in fact I need to physically turn boxes of multipart kits into troops. I need to create terrain, because I need various things for my troops to fight over.

I'm sure I'll be posting about minis and army-building as well, but this post is really about terrain.

I started looking at cardboard models, downloaded some, printed them out and made some up. I don't know why, but some of the tiles and suchlike started suggesting to me that I could build a tower or a walkway of a certain size. Idly I began comparing them to the map of the Keep, the rest of the castle and its buildings, and the idea of building the Keep came into my head.

I'm not a maniac. I know that is a mammoth undertaking - the Keep, at a scale of 10'=2" is larger than a standard 6'x4' table for Warhammer. Even a table that size is too big for my dining room. But what, I thought, if I can build freestanding buildings with the same footprint as those from the Keep map? Might I be able to use them in my games of Oathmark? If I build the Chapel (17) as a freestanding building, I can use it as a chapel or temple in Oathmark. If I build the Tavern (15) and Inn (14), the Fountain (13), the Bank (11), the Stables (4) and Warehouse (5)... could I not use these to make a 'village' with my other cardboard buildings? And eventually, could I build some walls and towers, to create the Outer Bailey of the Keep?

And if I can do that, can I not create the rest of the walls and towers, and the Keep of the Castellan itself? If I could, then perhaps I'd be able to run games centred on the Keep, using my somewhat limited space to set up either the Outer or the Inner Bailey as necessary?

That's the plan anyway. Of course, as anyone who reads this blog knows (and I know there aren't many of you), I sometimes plan on doing things that never happen. But, this is really no more than 'I'm planning to make some buildings as terrain'. The fact that the buildings will be made to an existing plan will, I am confident, make things easier not harder. I may be wrong of course, I often am about gaming things. But, I expect I will get a certain enjoyment out of it anyway, even if I am wrong. But what's the worst that can happen? I think it's unlikely I'll fail completely. Even if I only build a few buildings, that's a few more than I had before. That's still a win. As long as I get one more building in a state fit for a table, that's still a win.

I shall of course keep readers informed as to progress (if any). There had better be some, I've made a new 'Building on the Borderlands' tag for this. That's how you know I'm serious. Wish me luck! 

More on Giak Army organisation - theorising more units

One of the things I keep coming back to in my fantasy gaming is my Orc and Goblin army, for Warhammer, and later Kings of War (see the 'Raising the Standard' tag to go back over me building parts of it), and now, possibly for Oathmark (for which, I will perhaps resurrect the 'Raising the Standard' tag); and one of the things that feeds into how I think about Orcs and Goblins is the Giak Army List in the Second Citadel Journal. I never had any of the Giak minis (I did have a dream recently that I was searching for some in a second-hand shop, that's how much they've infested my consciousness, even 35 or more years later), nor indeed any of the Lone Wolf gamebooks from which the Giaks come, but I really liked the idea of a huge Goblin army organised into regiments along the lines of the Giak Army List, and it's helped pattern the way I've thought about Goblins, Orcs, and indeed Orks, ever since.

The idea I was pushing towards some years ago (link) - to use build an analogue of the army using Warhammer Goblins to stand for Giaks - will not currently work. Goblins have mostly been withdrawn by GW: in the current 'Age of Sigmar' iteration of Warhammer, there are no Goblin (as opposed to Night Goblin, 'Gitz', or Orc, 'Orruk') infantry units. The only 'Goblins' are what used to be known as 'Forest Goblin Spider Riders', and some Wolf Riders (and there only seem to be 3 of these). There is a limited number of Gnoblars (grey Swamp Goblins that hang around with Ogres) from GW but there is little flexibility in what are basically single-piece sculpts (different heads is your lot here); if I do anything with Gnoblars it will probably be just bulking out other units. 

Perhaps I can find a way to build the army from the current sets of Night Goblins and Orcs that GW is now selling. The Night Goblins I'm considering - there are several options in the Infantry box that might be useful. As to the 'Orruks' - nothing I've seen in the new ranges strikes me as good for the units I'm after. Maybe I can pick up enough old GW Goblins from ebay to build an army, or maybe this will forever remain in the realm of speculation. But, as I'm unlikely to often venture back into a Games Workshop premises to play, maybe the presence of non-GW models might not be a problem and I can do this using Goblins from another manufacturer. Mantic in their Kings of War range (link) and North Star in their Oathmark range (link) both have Goblin Infantry that have weapon options including bows, spears, slashing weapons and some crushing weapons, though it seems the prevalence of the latter is much less than other sorts. North Star also do some Wolf Riders that might serve, as Giaks also ride wolves (they organise their wolf riders into units of 20). These Wolf Riders seem to be compatible with the Goblin Infantry which may increase choices when it comes to weapon swaps etc. And, as I mentioned at the top of the post, I'm building units for Oathmark. A colleague mentioned it had a good campaign system at work one day (there's a very long backstory involving running a quick D&D campaign in our lunchbreaks) and I've picked it up on his recommendation, but not yet fought any battles. It could be a good reason to re-activate the building of a Goblin army anyway.

Mantic also do Wolf Riders, and is also expanding its range of Orcs, which may feed back into this if I go for a mix of 'Orc' and 'Goblin' units. The Riftforged Orcs especially seem suitable (link), as they have a range of crushing weapons and good armour. This makes them something like the militaristic Giaks - but they seem much larger, they're something like WH 'Black Orcs', even larger than the standard Mantic Orc Infantry. Depending on how I sort this, that might not be a problem.

The Giak army list entries are these:

Unit Name:                 Colour:      Symbol:                     Notes:
Gorakim                          Red           Fanged Jawbone        Gourgaz leader
('The Animals')

Konkorim                        Yellow      Bow crossed by           All armed with
('The Hunters')                                 3 arrows                        short bows

Kaggazheg                      Orange       Flaming                        Leader wears
('Fire-Dogs')                                      Dog's Head                   a Doomwolf Pelt

Moggador                      Dark           Crossed                          No Edged Weapons
('The Hammerers')      Blue            Warhammers

Nadul-Nak                     Black          Black Flag                     Dressed in Black
('Nightfighters')

Lajakann                        Grey           Grey Heart &                Gourgaz leader     
('The Stonehearts')                           Scimitar

Ogshashez                      Purple        Serrated Dagger          No Blunt Weapons
('The Throat-Slitters')                                                              No Pole-arms

Nanenrakim                   Light           Black Arrows              All armed with
('The Life-stealers')       Blue                                                   short bows

Orgadak-Taagim            Dull            Human Head              All armed with
('The Humankillers')     Red             on a pole                     Pole-arms

Anyway - the Giak Army List is cool and inspiring. This is about taking that inspiration and going elsewhere with it.

I think there are similarities between the Giak Army List and the 'Clerical Quick Reference Chart' in the back of Deities & Demigods. In D&D, there is a standard progression of evil humanoids, known as 'KGOHGBO', which stands for Kobold-Goblin-Orc-Hobgoblin-Gnoll-Bugbear-Ogre, and represents humanoid tribal monsters of increasing resilience. Taking the idea of the KGOHGBO progression as being, basically, 'O&G', finding out what gods were worshipped by the various races, and basing units on that, I came up with the following notes towards a new regiments list (formatted as the Giak Army List, listed in KGOHGBO order):

Unit Name:              Colour:    Symbol:                Notes:

Stak-Danakim             Orange     Skull                        Kobolds: Spears

('Orange Spears')                                                          Follow Kurtulmak

Gudjagim                     Grey-       Bloody Axe              Goblins: Axes
('Mighty Ones')            Green                                        Follow Maglubiyet

Naogjatim                    Dark        Unwinking                Orcs: Black Spears
('The Unsleeping')       Red          Eye                            Follow Gruumsh

(Hobgoblins would go here but they worship Maglubiyet along with Goblins)

Staz-Ekug                      Dirty        Triple-                     Gnolls: (no edged weapons?)
('Yellow Punishment')   Yellow      Flail                         Follow Yeenoghu

Hugzakim                    Black       Morningstar              Bugbears: No Edged Weapons
('Smashers')                                                                   Follow Hruggek

Ruzzakim                      Blood       Taloned Hand          Ogres: (edged weapons?)
('The Destroyers')         Red                                           Follow Vaprak

Italics represent my attempts at using the Project Aeon word-lists (English to Giak, Giak to English) to create unit names. In the case of Ruzzakim, I'm translating directly from Vaprak's title, 'The Destroyer'. For the rest, I'm picking some aspect of the deity and running with it. For the 'Stak-Danakim' I'd have preferred some name relating to Kurtulmak's cunning, but cannot find a Giak word that equates to cunning, cleverness or trickery (traits particularly prized by the Kobolds and reflected in their God's nature).

Some classic tropes connected with 'Orc' units in Warhammer (axes and skulls for instance) are in this list connected with Maglubiyet (Goblin/Hobgoblin god) and Kurtulmak (Kobold god) respectively. On the other hand, Gruumsh, the Orcs' one-eyed spear-wielder seems (in Warhammer terms) to be more likely to be a Goblin (particularly Night Goblin) deity, given the prevalence of eye-imagery, and the use of spears, by Night Goblins.

Vaprak and Hruggek are relatively unproblematic - Hruggek smashes things and Vaprak tears them apart. I know Warhammer understands 'Ogres' differently to D&D, but to me, from a D&D perspective, they're still just the biggest sort of Orc (when they're not what Tolkien calls by the name of 'Trolls'). Anyroadup, big Goblins and their smashy god, big Orcs and their vicious rippy god called 'The Destroyer'.

Yeenoghu, the demon-prince who is the Gnolls' deity, is a problem for two reasons. Are Gnolls really bigger Orcs? Maybe. Maybe as much as Kobolds are smaller ones. For a long time I've mentally broken KGOHGBO into two parallel groups - KOGO and GHB. Gnolls are just bigger Orcs. But there aren't really any whip/flail weapons for WH Orcs, nor Goblins neither. Not enough to make units out of anyway, maybe the odd one. Perhaps just having non-edged weapons is enough, if such a thing is possible, given the general lack of crushing weapons for Goblins? Perhaps this could be a Night Goblin unit with some of the weird weapons like nets and the ball-and-chain weapons of Night Goblin fanatics? 

There are no archer-regiments in this list. That's because no KGOHGBO god has a bow as a weapon. 6 regiments mean that I can add two bow-armed units to this list (no more than 25% of Giak units can be bow-armed, at an 'Army' level of organisation at any rate, and they have to be short-bows, so no Orcs with longbows or x-bows in this list).

Giaks group their units (the basic unit, the 36-model regiment/warband, is called a 'dorgar') into divisions called 'zegorim' (which looks like a plural, and elsewhere that just seems to be another word for 'Giaks') which consist of 3 regiments. The way the 25% bows is supposed to work rather fails in the overall list at a sub-army level, however, because no matter how you slice it (9 units, 3 divisions, 1 army) you can't have a 3-unit division with a bow-armed unit in it that is not more than 25% of the total. So the 25% must only apply at army level not division level. No reason I suppose that you can't have the two archer-units in the same division, in that case. But it's not elegant, I think.

Anyway, the DDG list has got me 2/3 of the way to a 'new' 9-unit Giak army list, and two archer-regiments has got 8/9 of the way there, at least in outline. The way I think I shall divide it up is something like...

Orgar Shug-Tanzar or Army-Green-Storm - a favourite army name of mine, named after the 'Green Storm Commandos' in the Philip Reeve books... my 40K Ork army has a unit called the Grub-Dakka Orkyzag, or 'Cunning Attack Green Lightning', as that's the closest I can get in Orkish to 'Green Storm Commando'. I think it's a good name for an orcish/orkish unit. But there's no word in Giak for 'cunning' that I can find as I mentioned in discussing the 'Orange Spears' - and anyway, Giaks are supposed to be grey so maybe 'grey storm' would be more accurate. Unfortunately, there's no word for 'grey' (or gray for that matter) in the English-Giak word-list either... 'Army Green Storm' will have to do.

I'm going to apply certain rules here. The first is that I think that I should assign an independent 1-in-6 chance of a Gourgaz leader to each unit (for using these as 'real' Giaks - in the original list, some Giak units are led by Gourgaz, which are axe-wielding troglodytes); the 2/9 of the original list seem to be around that kind of chance. I found a pic of a Gourgaz, but I no longer know where.

This is an artist's impression of a Gourgaz - by the looks, it is intended as a standee

I rolled 5, 4, 1, 6, 6, 1 for the units I have, then 4, 3, 1 for the as-yet-unknown units; so the units with Gourgaz leaders will be 3 (Naogjatim,'The Unsleeping') and 6 (Ruzzakim 'The Destroyers'), then the final unknown unit, which on balance should probably be another unit with edged weapons (they're certainly easier to come by then bludgeoning/crushing weapons). 

The following assumes I'm using the current Warhammer range of figures...

Unit Name:                Colour:    Symbol:                  Notes:

Stak-Danakim              Orange     Skull                        Orange Spears                              
('Orange Spears')                                                          (Night Goblins with spears?)

Gudjagim                     Grey-       Bloody Axe              Axes
('Mighty Ones')            Green                                        (Orcs with axes?)

Naogjatim                   Dark         Unwinking               Black Spears: Gourgaz leader
('The Unsleeping')      Red           Eye                           (Night Goblins with spears?)

Staz-Ekug                    Dirty        Triple-                       No Edged Weapons
('Yellow Punishment') Yellow      Flail                          (Orcs with smashing weapons?)

Hugzakim                    Black       Morningstar              No Edged Weapons
('Smashers')                                                                   (Orcs with smashing weapons?)

Ruzzakim                     Blood       Taloned Hand           Edged weapons: Gourgaz leader
('The Destroyers')        Red                                           (Orcs with axes/swords?)

(Unknown archer unit)                                                  Shortbows

                                                                                       (Night Goblins with shortbows?)

(Unknown archer unit)                                                  Shortbows
                                                                                       (Night Goblins with shortbows?)

(Unknown unit)                                                             Edged weapons?: Gourgaz leader
                                                                                       (Orcs with swords?)

Additional considerations: as two units list 'dark red' and 'blood red' (which I guess is more vibrant) as their regimental colours, they should probably be in different divisions, as should the units using orange and 'dirty yellow', just to avoid the confusion of colours; just because it makes sense, the two spear-units should be in different divisions, and the two archer-units should also be in different divisions. That is the plan... but as I only have the sketchiest ideas yet for three of the units, maybe I can organise the six units I do have a plan for into two divisions and leave the third for now, with the two regiments of archers in that. I have in effect two spear units, two smashing units and two slashing units, and can put one of each into both divisions.

From here I think I can break the units thusly:

First Division -

Stak-Danakim - Goblins with spears (orange)

Ruzzakim - Orcs with swords (blood red)

Hugzakim - Orcs with smashing weapons (black)

Second Division -

Gudjagim - Orcs with axes (grey-green)

Naogjatim - Goblins with spears (dark red)

Staz-Ekug - Orcs with smashing weapons (yellow)

Problems then come because the number of smashing weapons in the various boxes is very small. Building 2 units of 'smashers' will be tricky from any individual range. I am aiming I think for 40 Goblins per 'dorgar'; if I substitute any with Orc models, maybe 30 per regiment would do. The original Giak list has 36-model regiments (it doesn't explain what to do if the unit is led by a Gourgaz however, that's something I will have to think about later). If I'm fielding the army as a 'counts as' rather than just 'inspired by', they really should all be Goblins.

Then, of course, the problem is that any Night Goblins who are not archers will have 'Bad Moon' shields. These come integrally cast with the arms. It is of course possible to shave off the shield designs and paint them appropriately but that seems a real faff, and perhaps suggests I should look elsewhere for my models. Or, I could use the shield designs as-is, and just paint them in the requisite colours. In that case I could just do all of the units, for both armies, with the exception of the units with smashing weapons, as Night Goblins, and paint all of the shields in the required colours - so I have yellow moons, blue moons, purple moons, several colours of green moons etc. It's not an ideal solution though.

Whether any of this will ever exist in the flesh (or at least in miniature form) is unknowable. But I think the Oathmark Goblin Infantry and Wolf Riders are the front-runners for models I might actually obtain in the near future, and I can begin to grind through unit-building. I've sort of talked myself into buying a few boxes of each I think and seeing how I get on with them. Of course, I'm also trying to get this army ready for playing Oathmark anyway. That has certain limits on units - no more than 4 units of one type, as a hard maximum, so whatever army organisation I go for, I can't have more than 4 Goblin Infantry, 4 Goblin Spearmen etc, which will start to impose some further restrictions on what I can and can't field. Whether I get any of the Mantic Goblins (or Orcs), or anything from GW, I'm less sure about. Watch this space, perhaps not too intently; the Army Green Storm is rumbling its way over the horizon... maybe...

Accidental Rohan Army

 Honestly, I'm not quite sure how it happened. I used to have some Lord of the Rings minis. I know how that happened - about, oh, 21 years or so ago, when my eldest was very small, we went to the cinema to watch the first Harry Potter film. While there, we were treated to an advert for the first of Jackson's Lord of the Rings films. Apparently, according to Mrs Orc, both me and Orc Junior sat through it all with stunned and entranced expressions.

Cut to a few weeks later: I saw that Games Workshop and De Agostini had brought out one of those 'collect a magazine every two weeks and in only 700 weeks you'll have a complete scale model of Tina Turner'-style things, but this time it was LotR. The first issue was something like £2 (a very reasonable price), and came with a sprue of Moria Goblins and some paints. Awesome, I thought, I have to get that, Orc Junior will love it.

I was right; at which point (maybe I should have kept my damn fool mouth shut) I said "if you like those, just wait until you see what's in Grandma and Grandad's loft." I knew my old Warhammer figures were up there see. So next time we were up at my parents' place, I got the box down and we had a look through. Lots of Goblins, some Dwarves and humans... not as many Elves as I remembered... but then I remembered swapping some Elves with a friend for some Goblins when I was about 14, which probably explains it. Anyway, we brought it back to the Orc cave and started playing something like Warhammer and also started getting more paints to paint them up.

And of course we started going to Games Workshop. Very quickly, Orc Junior's interest went from Elves and Goblins to Space Marines and Tyrannids. So that's how we ended up playing 40K.

It's also why I ended up buying loads of stuff over the years on ebay. I now have literally dozens of half-started armies for a whole load of games, including LotR (or Battle Games in Middle Earth or Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game or whatever it's called). But I didn't have many Rohan minis - Theoden, Gamling and Eowyn from the 'Heroes of Helm's Deep' set, and that was all, until I got a somewhat random collection of minis in a job-lot. There were half a dozen riders, including an Eomer, and three plastic footsoldiers. Not enough to do anything with, and they stayed in a box for a long time. With a lot of other LotR minis - men of Gondor, lots of Moria Goblins (including the very first ones), various Orcs, some Numenoreans and Eves of the Last Alliance. Some of them, I had an idea that I could do some kind of Game of Thrones tie-in. I have two Boromirs, and as I've mentioned before, I think there's some mileage in a Boromir/Nedd Stark crossover. I know that some people used LotR minis for GoT projects. Some of one the job-lots had had their helmets shaved down and the White Tree armorials scraped of their shields before I got them, I presume for similar purposes. But all told, I didn't have reasonable forces for anything LotR related, and I didn't have any small skirmish fantasy rulesets that I was interested in playing (I was playing Kings of War a while ago, but had built a big Goblin army for that) so they just went back in the box.

And there they stayed until very recently. But, maybe in October or thereabouts I was chatting to someone at work who is also a gamer. For him it's mostly Napoleonics, but he's not averse to pushing the odd Orc around on a table. We were talking about different games, and I was saying I liked games with a campaign-type structure, and also quite liked 'random' things happening (like, monsters that weren't part of either army turning up on the battlefield) and he said that he'd found the Oathmark system interesting for the way it provided some kind of storytelling in the background rather than just every battle existing in a kind of limbo (I paraphrase, but that was the essence of it I thought). Long and short, I decided to get hold of the Oathmark rules.

So now I have Oathmark, and was looking for factions I could apply the rules to. I can no doubt get a few units together pretty easily. I have 20-or-so Numenoreans and about the same Gondorians (with heavier-looking armour) that I could field as a couple of Human units. But I was irritated by the Rohirrim. If only I could make those into viable units - not too difficult, I had both foot and cavalry models, surely it would be easy to find some manufacturer (maybe someone making Ostrogoths or something) to add to the minis I had.

But the scale of the Rohan miniatures (especially the plastics) is on the small side, it seems. A bit of asking around over at the Lead Adventures Forum rapidly rapidly lead me to the conclusion that if I wanted to build a ... let's call it 'ersatz Volkswandrung' army on the cheap, that matched the small force I already had, probably the easiest way to do it was to get more job-lots off ebay.

So, here I am. I know have about a dozen cavalry (in various states of repair) and about 70 foot (again, some broken); this will let me field 20 with shield and hand weapon, 20 with shield and spear, and 20 with bows. These can be added to my Numenoreans and Gondorians, to produce a decent infantry force. The cavalry I'll have to fudge for a little while (maybe I'll get some more, who knows?) but should be able to field something approximating 10 horsemen pretty soon. That seems like a good beginning for a Human army in Oathmark.

But it does mean I have now, accidentally (as I've never really played BGiME) a Rohan army, of a kind. Or I will have, if I get on with the painting. So that's the point of this - another of those 'I'm building an army and going to chronicle it here' posts, and I hope, not the last ... we shall see, but soon, perhaps, there will even be photos.