Introduction to the campaign

One of the best wargame campaign histories I have ever read was Al Karasa 5-part "Marnon Campaign" series that appeared in The Courier magazine in 1982-83. As the introduction to the series described it -

This article launches an exciting series by Al Karasa based on a hypothetical, historically plausible invasion of Christian Marnon by the Tatars. These articles will include a narrative of the campaign itself, relevant historical information about medieval warfare, bibliographic tips on books and rules for the medieval period and construction guidelines for castles and other works to enhance the realism and look of historical miniatures wargaming.

Why was the series so good? It had everything from a ripping narrative to lots of very practical advice on running a campaign. Inspired I had to do my own solo version of the Marnon campaign.

The historical basis for the original campaign was the Baltic Crusades in Lithuania, Prussia and Poland during the 13th century Mongol incursion into Eastern Europe. Since my armies are based on the 3rd Crusade in the Middle East I have moved the island of Marnon to the western Mediterranean off the coast of the Levant around 1190 CE. The Tatars have become Saracens but everyone retains their noms de guerre. Our old friends the Duke of Bentwood, Prince Henry and Toghrul Khan are all here.

THE RULES USED TO RUN THE CAMPAIGN

Campaign Rules

The campaign was run using my free campaign management software - Berthier.

You can read how the campaign was set up in Berthier here.

Tabletop Rules

Battles were fought out on the tabletop using a modified version of Neil Thomas's Ancient and Medieval Wargaming rules. You can read about the modifications used here.

THE ISLAND OF MARNON

The origin of the Marnon map was the map board from Avalon Hill's Wizard 's Quest game (circa 1979). It's such an evocative map I purchased a copy of Wizard 's Quest on eBay just for the map board alone.

I developed a hand drawn outline version of the map to use as the basis for my campaign. Marnon has 6 regions further subdivided into 6 shires each. Unlike the original campaign that used area movement based on shires, my campaign ignores shires other than to use them to give names to battles and localities.

REGION TERRAIN TYPE

Golden Dunes Desert

Whispery Meadow Open

Misty Forest Forest

Field of the Fallen Open

Ancient Forest Forest

Crystal Mountains Hills/Mountains

There are 8 castles on the island but not all are currently occupied by Marnian forces at the start of the campaign. The castles form the basis for strategic objectives for the campaign. They provide infinite supply to their occupants. Think of them as markets and the focus for the local economy. If campaign units are not in a castle then they will eventually suffer ongoing attrition.

However I didn't want the campaign to become a game of sieges so I've adopted some rules to force battles rather than sieges.

• When an enemy moves into an adjacent square a castle will be besieged. When this happens I turn off the castle's infinite supply in Berthier and replace it with a limited supply value. So a besieged force will suffer attrition unless it gets out of the castle to fight off the besiegers. (The besiegers may also be suffering attrition.)

• Sieges can also be resolved by using Berthier's combat resolution function to represent a storming attempt by the besiegers. If the castle is only occupied by militia units then the defenders will get a force multiplier of 2, however if there are professionals in the castle this becomes a 3 multiplier. Combat causalities in the function have been set at a modest 10%. This encourages castles to be stormed if weakly defended.

THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND

The Duke of Bentwood is the nominal ruler of the Duchy of Marnon. However his ancestors had usurped control of the island from the traditional royal family of whom Prince Henry is the current representative. Prince Henry has been banished to the Castle of Dunes in northwest Marnon in a bid to keep him far away from the centre of power. Consequently there is ongoing friction between the Duke of Bentwood and Prince Henry with the later tending to look to his own benefit in any crisis.

The island is also home to the Templar and Hospitaller military orders. The two orders strangely enough seem to be firm friends on Marnon and occupy Flintcastle together. The military orders have no feudal allegiance to the Duke of Bentwood but will support him if he takes quick and decisive action against the Saracens. Otherwise they are likely to take matters into their own hands to get at their traditional foe.

A number of "obedience tests" have been set up with Berthier to reflect the political circumstances. On receiving orders from Bentwood, Prince Henry and the Military Orders will test to see if they follow Bentwood's request or act otherwise.

The Saracens will be outnumbered on Marnon if just raw numbers are compared. This has enforced a unity of purpose on the Saracens and Toghrul Khan is fully in command.

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