Midgard - Proposed Setting and Campaign Rules for Albion

 

WFB Albion is illustrated and described as dank, boggy, wet land, with persistent cloud cover. A land of standing stones, moors, crags and fens.

To accommodate this within the framework of Midgard rules, the below adjustments are proposed:

Weather

Scenarios and armies to be chosen as normal. Post deployment and prior to first turn, roll a D6 and consult the weather chart below:

1 - A thick mist has gathered whilst the armies were deploying. Consult the rules on page 94 of the Midgard rulebook. The scenario continues as intended - the fog is a nuisance, but this does not affect the needs for the battle!

2 - The general rain has increased to a heavy downpour. All weapons with the Hels Breath rule fire at half dice. All command tests involving movement through, around or over scenery are always on 2D6.

3 - Heavy Winds. All flying units suffer a -2 ST penalty to movement. All shooting ranges are reduced by -1 ST

4 - Steady Drizzle. Expected, so no effect

5 - Steady Drizzle. Expected, so no effect

6 - Its not raining right now, for once.

Wandering Druidry

Albion has more than enough wandering holy men/hedge wizards to provide for all.

Prior to deployment, each side rolls a D6. 

1 - If an Evil aligned army, a Dark Emissary arrives with beast in tow.

2-5 - Nothing

6 - If a Good aligned, a Truthsayer joins the army, with beast in tow

Neutral armies get nothing. Pick a side or step back.

Truthsayer - Level 2 Hero. CD 2, SD 0, Ar 2, St 2, Rep 2. Skills: Beastmaster, Sorcery, Non Combatant. Spells: Dispel, Protection

Dark Emissary - Level 2 Hero. CD 2, SD 0, Ar 2, St 2, Rep 2. Skills Beastmaster, Sorcery, Non Combatant. Spells: Curse, Wall of Mist.

Fen Beast - CD 8, SD 0, Ar 3, St 5 Rep 1. Skills: Fearsome, Aloof.

Note: Fen Beasts are entirely under the control of the handler. They may not receive commands or Mighty Deeds from other sources, and if the handler if killed, the beast withdraws from the battle immediately. If in combat, it will retreat and disappear.

The Toll of Campaigning

To represent the ongoing effects of being in the field.

Characters

Any character killed in battle needs to roll on the below table:

1 - Properly dead.

If it is considered that the character died a heroic death and was not running weeping for their mother at the first sign of danger, a level 1 character may be generated in their stead, obviously inspired by such reputational legends being witnessed. 

Quite what constitutes a "heroic death" should be considered post game, but only something suitably hardcore will suffice.

2 - Injured. The owning player can make the choice of either not having the character available in the next game, due to recovery, or fielding the character at -1 stamina in the next game.

3-6 - Fine, no ongoing effect

Units

Any unit destroyed in battle needs to roll on the below table:

1 - Shattered and Standards lost. Struck from the roster and no longer available.

2 - In need of recovery. The owning player can make the choice of either not having the unit available in the next game, due to resting up, or fielding the unit at -1 stamina in the next game.

3-6 - Fine, no ongoing effect.

Rewards for characters or units doing well? You survived the battle, thats the reward.

Through Shadow Deep, 1421 - Setting

22rd March, 1421.

The Battle of Bauge has been fought throughout the day, with a confused and fiercely contested melee taking place around the Chapel of Fauborg St Michael and its cemetery, finishing with the English soundly defeated. The day ends with an action by Salisbury attempting to rescue the holdouts of the English army, as well as attempting to recover some of the bodies.

Just before Dawn, 23rd March, 1421, Easter Sunday. 

John de Covham, Baron of Covham wakes from being knocked unconscious during the melee. Sitting up, he finds himself surrounded by the dead and injured. A handful of other survivors are confusedly looking around and attempting to assess the situation and immediate dangers - apart from the French being in the locality, scavengers have descended onto the battlefield to strip the corpses and those too weak to defend themselves.

Amongst the small group of survivors - a mere handful of men at arms and archers - Covham finds himself the senior voice, and the decision is made to strike out and attempt to reach either the English army in retreat, or to make way through to English held territory. All know how dangerous this is likely to be, as they remain in the midst of hostile forces, terrain and locality, but a small party has a better chance of slipping through unnoticed.

Taking what they can from the field for travelling goods, weapons and supplies, the group departs through the thick morning mists as the sun rises, leaving the cemetery before anyone can detect their presence, out into a ruined land.

Cemetery of Soare - Setting

The cemetery of Soare........the city of the dead.........the houses on the borderland.

During the events of '99 and the proximity of the Curs'd City and the dangerous environs surrounding that place, the people found it had become too much to stay there. Whether roaming bands of fanatics, howlers and beasts, or the soil itself becoming corrupted and the water contaminated, they had to move.

In their desperation they chose Soare. Its walls would provide a degree of safety, its environs unpleasant at first, but they would get used to living with the dead. They would have to.

Unpleasant, but practicable............

Soare its'lf is two days journey from end to end on foot, as the crow flies, covering a range of terrain, from the more densely constructed tomb regions, to the open meadows waiting to be built upon but not touched, to the forest encroaching on the Eastern Quarter, to the thickets and mist.

Two days.........by the crow, but the road twists, breaks and splinters. Losing someone is easy and they may never be found, as there are more inhabitants of Soare than just the restless dead..........who knows what beasts have made home in the unmapped sections? The path is long.


The people had no choice. They had to go somewhere...............

20 years on, villages have risen, not entirely isolated, but solitary. Much of the open land has been cultivated.........but the depths still contain dangers.

Let alone should other travellers decide to enter the walls of the grand city.

In past times, the records of Soare construction were lost when the City fell, the reasons why were lost but remain visible to those who care to look upon the ley of the land, the ancient waters found within and the green chapels of the woods.

A determined crusade could clear the walls and create a haven, but who will lead, gather and coordinate the people? They have enough strains for daily life in this strange environ.

There are many entrances to this borderland.