Horde Wars Session 01 - Braunstein over Chrysopolis, Round 1

My re-entry into regular RPG play was borne out of two desires. First, I wanted to play again. Second, I wanted to use it as an opportunity to spend quality time with my children. To give some context to that, I have a lot of children, way more than the American average, and several of them are still incapable of reading. So beginning in January of 2023, I started up again as a DM. To date, only the oldest three of my kids have joined in on my "main" AD&D 1E campaign (well, technically, we're playing Adventures Dark & Deep, an AD&D 1E variant). But I have adult players in that group as well and the kids tend to play second fiddle, following the lead of the adults. I wanted to give them an opportunity to play and shine on their own. Enter: Horde Wars Basic.

When I first heard Dunder Moose's interview with Blackwall, I was intrigued at the faster pace of combat. This was something my kids had complained about in the past: that combat can be a bit of a slog (admittedly, I probably need to up my game in AD&D combat speed). So I bought the game yesterday and I helped them create some Horde Wars characters.

Here's what we ended up with:

• Andromeda, a Female Elven Archer & Assassin
  
• Dungeoness, a Female Human Red Wizard & Monk
• Fant, a Male Elven Thief & Archer
• Logen, a Male Orc Viking & Warlord
• Ulrik, a Male Dwarven Grey & White Wizard 

Later that night I plowed through the rest of the rules. It was a delight to be able to finish an RPG rulebook in one sitting.

Then today I began thinking about how to get this "kids only" campaign started with a Braunstein. I was unsure whether some of them would be able to grasp the idea, especially the younger ones. But I was determined to just see how it would go. At first, they were a little weirded out by the idea of working against each other, but I asked them to trust me... and here's what happened.

I started working on a "frontier" area using the advice from Alexander Macris' excellent Arbiter of Worlds book (which itself is really cribbing from Gygax, just fleshing it out a bit more). I decided that the center of attention would be a newly found ruined city of the Old Empire called Chrysopolis. Nearby Chrysopolis is a mysterious, very large Hedge Maze where the hedges seem impervious to being cut down (they grow back very quickly) and also to fire, which doesn't seem to cause them to burn. Just beyond the Hedge Maze is the Obsidian Tower, whose entrance doors are magically locked. No one knows what's in there. Chrysopolis itself is mostly in ruins, but the Elves have set up a fortified area in the northeast part of the city. Meanwhile, Orc Vikings and the Dwarven Goldhammer clan have secretly set up their own frontier forts and covet Chrysopolis for themselves, willing to attack it if necessary to take the fortified area and thereby gain control of the ruins. Meanwhile, the Assassins' Guild and the Thieves' Guild are looking to take advantage of the situation to make money. Thus the factions were set up.

Faction leaders are probably easy to guess, but here's how they were set up:

• Andromeda, second-in-command of the Assassins' Guild, tasked with making money by floating the potential of assassination contracts to the Elves, Orcs, and Dwarves against their rivals.
  
• Dungeoness, chief advisor to the Elf Lord in charge of Fortified Chrysopolis, tasked with defending Chrysopolis from any invaders.
• Fant, second-in-command of the Thieves' Guild, tasked with making money by floating the potential of theft and subterfuge contracts to the Elves, Orcs, and Dwarves against their rivals.
• Logen, second-in-command of the Orc Vikings, tasked with taking Chrysopolis.
• Ulrik, second-in-command of the regiment of Goldhammer Dwarves, tasked with taking Chrysopolis.

I gave the Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs each 120 "guard" level troops and 2,000 marks. I gave the Assassins' Guild and the Thieves' Guild 20 trained assassins and thieves respectively and 1,000 marks.

I also had a secret NPC faction: Agrippa the Vampire Lord, operating from the Obsidian Tower, with 240 Skeleton Warriors at his command. 

After introducing the basics of the scenario, we rolled for turn order (d12, of course!) and then I took orders from them in turn. At the beginning of each players' turn I informed them of the relevant details for the faction. The Orcs, Dwarves, and Elves were informed of their leaders' objectives and told that the other factions are operating in the area (other than the obvious fact of the Elves holding Chrysopolis). In addition, they received offers from the Assassins' Guild and the Thieves' Guild for contracts to assassinate or thieve respectively.

Dungeoness got to go first. She had it in her head that she needed to retake some of the ruined sections of Chrysopolis from the Beasts and Monsters lurking there. I knew this would be a fatal mistake, but I figured I'd let her suffer the consequences rather than warn her. She gave orders to send half her troops to attempt to recapture a 1/3rd mile x 1/3rd mile of Ruined Chrysopolis just to the west of Fortified Chrysopolis. I took her orders, and then proceeded to the next player. I figured I'd take all orders first, and then resolve them in a sensible order from there.

Fant was next and since he hadn't received any contract requests he decided he didn't really need any contract requests and he would just go rob the Dwarves. He went all in, ordering all 20 of his thieves to their fort, Fort Thargarom, and he himself accompanied them.

Andromeda was next but also had not received any contract requests. She decided to wait and see if she got any. I made a note that after everyone else, I'd revisit with her and if she ended up with zero requests.

Logen was next. He decided to go nearly all in on a straight-up attack on Fortified Chrysopolis. He ordered 100 of his Orc Guards to go attack it and take it if they could.

Finally, Ulrik decided to hire the Assassins' Guild to assassinate the leader of the Elves in Chrysopolis. After working out the price with Andromeda, this was arranged.

Now, since the leader of the Elves wasn't technically Dungeoness (she was second-in-command to an Elf Lord), I was very curious as to how this would affect the intrigue of the situation. In the background of all of this, I'm prepared for one or more of my players' characters to die, but I think it will also be interesting if they can be "pushed together" into an uneasy adventuring group, after the Braunstein, with some incentives for not being a total "get-along gang."

Finally, my NPC faction, Agrippa the Vampire Lord, was going to send 80 Skeleton Warriors to oppose the Elves encroaching further into Ruined Chrysopolis.

At this point, I started carrying out the orders.

Dungeoness's Elf Guards advanced into Ruined Chrysopolis. Using the random encounter tables, I determined that her troops went up against first Squeakers and then Shadow Scorpions. She managed to defeat the Squeakers handily, but after suffering the loss of 14 Elf Guards, she retreated from the Shadow Scorpions. As a result of her retreat, I decided that the canny Vampire Lord would decide to not have his Skeleton Warriors press upon Fortified Chrysopolis, but simply withdraw to the Obsidian Tower.

But how did I do mass combat? I simply used a 1:20 scale and treated each 20-troop platoon as a single unit, pitting the Elf Guards against the Squeakers and the Shadow Scorpions. The Squeakers and Shadow Scorpions had fewer than 20 in their "platoons," so I reduced their HP proportionately. Damage to "HP" of a platoon was used to proportionately reduce the size of that platoon.

Meanwhile, Fant's thieves went into Fort Thargarom. I had them roll a Sneak skill and then had each of the six platoons of Dwarves roll a Senses check to detect them. Five out of six failed! So I ruled that the thieves got in and stole some money. How much? I had Fant roll a d12 and multiplied the result of three by 100 - 300 marks! But that sixth platoon of Dwarves caught them leaving and combat ensued. Rolling for random distance, they began at Extreme Distance from one another. I didn't worry about whether or not this made total logistical sense, I just ran with it. In any case, since these were the two youngest players, they basically just ran at each other until their ranged weapons were in range and started shooting at each other. The thieves prevailed, slaughtered the Dwarf platoon, and escaped with the money... but not before losing 9 thieves themselves.

After this, Andromeda's mission to assassinate the Elf Lord commenced. She decided to send four assassins. I used the same method as I did with Fant's thieves: I had her roll a Stealth skill for her Assassins (which were modified Thieves from the Characters chapter of Horde Wars Basic, replacing the Thieves' Backstab Maneuver with Deathstrike from the Master Assassin character). She rolled high and the Senses check from the three remaining Elf platoons in the city all failed. As a result, her Assassins managed to sneak up on the Elf Lord. He also failed a Senses check and they surprised him! A long combat ensued and the Elf Lord managed to kill two of the Assassins, but they proved too much for him in the long run and he was killed! With a successful mission, Andromeda collected her 500 marks from the Dwarves.

Finally, it was time to carry out Logen's orders. I ruled that they took place at more or less the same time as the 60 Elf Guards were out trying to retake parts of Ruined Chrysopolis. This was horrible news for Dungeoness, who only had 60 Elf Guards (three platoons) to defend Fortified Chrysopolis from 100 Orc Guards (five platoons). Logen took one platoon of his Orc Guards and commanded them to try and bash down the gate. The other four platoons he ordered to fire at any Elves on the walls around Fortified Chrysopolis. Since Dungeoness hadn't given any orders about troop deployment to guard Fortified Chrysopolis, I had her roll a 1d2 to see how many platoons were up on the wall. She rolled a 2 so I ruled that she had 40 Elf Guards (two platoons) up on the wall and one platoon down on the ground. Meanwhile, the Orcs rolled a high Stealth check and the Elves rolled a bad Senses check, so the Orcs got surprise in attacking Fortified Chrysopolis.

In the end, the Orcs managed to take Fortified Chrysopolis with fairly minimal losses. Logen lost one whole platoon and part of another, but the two Elf platoons on the wall were both completely lost in ranged volleys, and the final Elf platoon fled. I had Dungeoness roll an Intuition check, which she passed, and as a result she had the foresight to send a message to the Elf troops returning to Fortified Chrysopolis in order to warn them and regroup with the one platoon that fled, meeting up in the nearby village of Eymethyr.

Finally, since the Elf Lord was dead, I had Dungeoness roll opposed Influence checks with another high-ranking Elf. She lost, so Dungeoness remains an advisor to a new commander of the Elves.

Back in Fortified Chrysopolis, I had the citizens roll a morale check to see if they would resist their new Orc overlords. They failed. As a result, Logen declared that he intended to enslave all the Elf citizens and make them work for him (my reaction was to laugh that my young son would make them slaves right away... maybe it's not really funny but I was tickled by the audacity of it).

At the same time, Dungeoness is plotting her revenge and plans to hire out the Assassins to assassinate Logen. We shall see!

With that, we had to finish our Braunstein for the evening. We only completed one round, but it was eventful, it worked, and despite their initial misgivings about working against each other, the kids all said they loved it. We will work out a second round of the Braunstein tomorrow and continue to go through it day-by-day until there is an undisputed "victory condition" of some kind. How it all plays out is anyone's guess, but I couldn't be more pleased with the way it started.

This was my first time ever running a Braunstein style of play. I also had no idea how the kids would take to it. To be sure, their strategies were pretty crude and direct... but since that was true of all of them, it wasn't terribly unbalanced after all. It was amazing to have kids leading troops into these daredevil situations and experience successes and heartbreaks. Best of all, no one had their feelings hurt and everyone had a great time.

Can you run a Braunstein with little children? Turns out: yes, you can! You absolutely can!