Where Beagles Dare...

The following was posted on the old FW site and was cobbled together from various posts in the forum.

First posted 01 April 2007

The first rush of exploration\conquest.

The results from the first three rounds of the campoon campaign.

Nations of the Campoon

From the old Furness Wargamers website, a Campoon run under the Warmaster Ancients ruleset, and played out at the Railway Club.

First posted - 06 February 2007

Being a list of the nations, and the lunatics who ran them, at the start of the Great Campoonian Landgrab.

Nurgle Wipeout

Another Campoon map turn, and with Martin absent the Nurgles headed for a wipeout as all three of his 'friendly' neighbours ploughed into them.

Mark has withdrawn to his island in preparation of him being missing the next few weeks. His position on the mainland was pretty much untenable now.

Paul seems to think he in a good position but his capital is vulnerable to a quick march from Matt. Even I could get there unmolested but I don't have the strength to take it so I have been harrasing Dave's borderland from my new base. If Matt goes into Paul's territory I'll might go raiding there instead.
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Three Way Warriors

The big three way Campoon battle was the main event this week. Martin was turning up late so his forces were to appear on a random flank if he manged to turn up in time. Due to the size of the armies involved the battle was fought at half points. Mark's and Paul's forces being about equal, and Martin's at about half the others strength.

Strangely enough the night started off with a bit of a dungeon crawl, as the key to the door to the cellar had snapped a tooth forcing an expedition thru perilous secret passages in stygian darkness, our only light coming from magic stones of glimmer (mobile phones), The one light switch for the cellar being on the other side of the locked door. Despite the dodgy key I somehow managed to unlock it from the other side making life a bit easier for all the players queuing for terrain.

With the terrain now available the field for the epic battle was set with Mark surprisingly placing his piece of high ground on Paul's side of the table giving him the advantage of an almost complete ridge to deploy on.

From Campoon 3

Mark's forces also an early set back when a series of bad roles caused his cavalry to retreat from skirmishers and caused a domino effect of failed morale checks amongst his troops. Paul stayed on his ridge and patiently waited for his opponents to recover.

At this point Martin turned up and prepares his forces, nominally allied to Paul's, on the flank. Due to the starting position it would take a few turns for his force to get into a position to attack anyone. His allegiance remained undeclared but his move was occurring simultaneously with Paul's.



So the three way battle is concentrated around the one hill, after Mark sacrifices his leader to pin Paul's main force. The Nurgles strike (as anticipated) from behind trapping Paul's forces and eventually forcing the survivors off the table.

So some how, thanks mostly to Martin's nurgling, Marks managed to get the 'victory'

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Also managed to fit in a game of Munchkin, which I just managed to squeak the win after everyone else failed to convert when at level 9. Commendation must go to Baldy who managed the most impressive Munchkin I've seen in a long time, even surpassing Martin's effort in last months game.

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Winging It

Year 5 pre-season and first two turns played out, with the prospect of a three way pitched battle next week!

From Campoon 3

A siege started at the other end of the continent between Paul and Mark, with a bit of Martin's Nurgle thrown in. After a few failed storming attempts by the joint Paul-Martin forces, Mark decided to do the slightly bizarre thing of torching his own city! leaving the three forces in a smokey field ready for the big fight.

I'm taking this year a bit passively by doing a bit of exploring by ship to the harder to get parts surrounded by what remains of Jim's now dormant empire.

Got a bit of fortune in the previous winter phase as I rolled 'bad' and got the results that non of my razed villages recover. My buffer zone with Dave S remains intact!

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After the quick map moves a small game of Wings of War was played. Just a straight four player dogfight. Allied Sopwith Camel and Nieuport 17 vs Albatros DVa and a Fokker DVII. No 'bangs' in the deck and using altitude rules. Players could select any plane from the single seater mini's, Matt the Camel, Paul the Albatros, Me the DVII, and first time player Martin the Nieuport.

The Albatros hung back for awhile as the Camel and Fokker engaged each other, both inflicting damage. The Nieuport spent its time climbing up an altitude level. Eventually the Albatros came in and gained a tailing advantage, only for his guns to jam.

From Furness Wargamers

The Camel was the first to go down, but unfortunately in trailing the Camel the Albatros left itself vulnerable to the Nieuport, which managed to shoot it down after inflicting nine damage in a close up shot.

With both the Nieuport and DVII badly damaged we agreed to break off the engagement and claim our separate kills.
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Thin Pink Line

Campoon reaches the end of year 4.

The Thin Pink Line of Nurgledom continues to be hard pressed but still has a number of strong armies to populate the forts.

Not much activity on my part. Brief skirmish with Dave S, played out with the battle cards\tables. A draw so only minor casulties on both sides. I continued to burn a couple more villages.

Mark has almost withdrawn completly off the main land. Only his city by the sea left. Jim seems to of quit again.

The Money:
Matt - 24 gold
Mark - 25 gold
Tel - 19 Gold
Paul - 33 Gold
Nurgle - 10 Gold
Dave - 22 Gold
Jim - 20 Gold

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After the Campoon moves it was back to more of Paul's Mecha, as he continues to tweak his downloaded rules to suit his style more. i.e. Total Chaos.

From Furness Wargamers

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Board Again

With the Campoon Battle going on elsewhere in the hall instead played a couple of boardgames. A game of Metro and a few games of Sequence brought to the club by John in one of his irregular visits.

Martin was confident of winning Metro as 'beginners luck' should of favoured him, unfortunately he failed to take into account that there was another beginner involved to steal his Mojo and win the game. Martin trailed in badly in last place.

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The Campoon battle as expected turned out to be one-sided.

From Campoon 3

Mark ended up on the wrong side of a bad beating from Paul, losing around 1000pts of troops and it could of been worse if Paul had had some cavalry present. For someone who hates the Warhammer Ancients rules Paul always seems to do OK.

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There is a bit of a Magic the Gathering renaissance going on at the club as a top level player has moved into the area and is getting some of the 40Kers\Fantasy mob involved. And after a few mass battle games of Magic Phil got out his Pit Fighter stuff.

Hopefully a full house for Campoon next week as Jim is back in action.
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Burn Time

A late post about last Tuesday. Two players missing (Jim and Martin) so we went ahead with Campoon anyway. The dormant empires were played as if Independents, i.e. Each Village\Fort\City had a garrison so people could not just walk in and grab land.

In the conclusion of the winter phase I finally get to build my long sort after Fort at the peninsula's choke point.

Year 4 commences.

Matt continues to expand unhindered making up for the territories that were cut off at the end of last year as his lackeys, Dave S and Mark, continue to buffoon around.

Mark and Paul finally confront each other with Nurgle Jam in between. The battle to be fought next week looks like it will be one sided in favour of Paul.

From Campoon 3

The activity near my borders plus the new found strength of Jim's villages caused me to quickly rethink things and change targets. First I burnt down a couple of my own villages to act as a firebreak between my armies and Dave S's whose main army had just lost its baggage in its failed initial assault on one of Jim's villages. Then I moved into Dave's territory proper, also burning along the way.

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After the map moves the remaining players staying got to play with Paul's Mechs using some rules he picked up on the Net. Humans vs 30ft tall Aliens.

From Furness Wargamers

Paul was comended in being albe to get everything into a single bag, the buildings beinging stackable.



A very random game with cards being fired around left, right and centre,
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Year 3 Ends

EMail update from Dave M based on the final turn and the off season events of year 3 as played out on Tuesday.

Ladies and Untermenschen Nurgles,
Scores on the doors for end of year 3 on the sunny island of campoon.
After a year of high drama, famine, plagues and long walks home, this is what everyone has left

Matt, 'King of the Catamites'
3002 Army Points, 10GP to spend
Mark, 'Lord of the Fraggles'
4519 Army Points 25 GP to spend
Tel, 'Lord of Places No-one Wants'
2450 Army Points 20GP to spend
Martin, 'The Nurgle of Itchee Bottom'
3422 Army Points 19GP to spend
King Jim, 'Keeper of the Holy Ruler'
4506 Army Points, 22GP to spend
Paul, 'Lord of the Cunning Plans'
4297 Army Points, 26GP to spend
Dave, ex-Catamite
4127 Army Points, 14GP to spend

Dave has now taken over Dave's position as Dave will be away for a month, and Dave's former lands have turned barbarian depite him being a (now former) vassel of Matt. So I didn't attack into Dave's lands in the final turn as he's not in control: Dave is! Clear?

During the Winter phase I've lost a large army due to a plague hitting my capital; but at least I have a reasonable amount of money. Matt has lost troops and income due to Dave cutting off a limb of his Empire, but this has not stopped both of them sneaking into a corner to discuss next turn, something Matt also did with Mark. Don't think any other alliance blocks exist just yet, but if they do happen then I can see a World War occuring.
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Return of the Jim

Returned to the Campoon to find that Jim had reversed his decision to quit and is back in the land grab.

My territory survived intact but a barbarian incursion during winter knocked my income back. Also I've now got an unwanted fort after Mark (who I gave pre-written instruction to) misinterpreted the location of the peninsula's 'choke point'.

Dave S is now an underling of Matt (Grima to Matt's Saruman or, probably more appropriately, Smee to Cpt. Hook), and combined together they split the continent of Nu Campoon in two.

Positions: Year 3 Turn 3

From Campoon 3

Southern View


Turn 5 Positions


After this turn a couple of battles took place. One between the Nurgles and Paul after the Nurgles got sick of running away. The second between my Triangles and Dave M's Sassinids, as I put three armies against his one.

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The Battle

Tel's Triangles 2800pts (based on Shildwall Wessex)

vs

Dave M 1400pts (Sassinids)

Starting positions


The Wall of Ceorls, trimmed with a line of Huscarls and Thegns. When Mark mentioned that we were a slow moving wall we pointed out that walls don't generally move at all.



The Triangles slowly push them off the board as not a single meelee took place, only some consistant sniping.

The hit and run tactics did knock down the Triangle forces a bit but the solid wall restricted the cavalry and with no more room to maneuver they left the field but only after mulling a trial charge of one of the numerous Shieldwalls.

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End of Turn 5


Due to absentees next week (including myself) the campaign will be given a miss.
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End of Empire

Jim has quit the Campoon and his empire is now gone, or rather turned barbarian.

Message from Dave M

Executive decision made with respect to the dissolution of the Elastic Empire.

Barbara the Barbarian and her chums have leapt in to the breach and declared a New Barebrained Empire. All of Jimbiscuss' remaining territories will turn Orange. Any army entering these territories will roll on the independent settlements table, but add 1 to the dice roll.

The Barebrain Empire have rejected all diplomacy as just 'man talk' and will not player will be allowed to send diplomatic missions to the empire, or part thereof

This helps my position out quite a bit as it means I've only one direct opponent (Dave M) in the area and I've now got a nice buffer zone of Barbarians between me and the next nearest opposition (Dave S). This makes a mass landgrab whilst I'm away less likely. It also removes one of only two Empires who currently have fleets besides myself.
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Year 2, Part 2

(Still Tuesday!) After the previous battles it's back to the map for some more Campoon moves.

I decided on a defensive posture and attacked into Jim and Dave M's lands; razing four villages (two of each just to be fair) to the ground in the process. Jim I attacked by the land bridge\bottleneck, Dave via an amphibious assault. Managed to burn a path to Dave's capital but I decided not to have a pop at and we both agreed a (temporary) truce.

Matt and the Nurgle continues to face off as Matt recovers the lands that the Nurgles had took off him the previous year. Eventually an agreement was reached and Matt turned back to hitting Dave S's now undefended Maginot Line.

Dave S had decided to try and relieve the territorial pressure on himself and continue with his full scale invasion of Jimland. Slowly crawling forwards as Matt continues to take territories off him back near his heartland. Jim, being absent, couldn't really do much about it.

Mark finally completed his seaborne invasion of the mainland only to find that the Nurgles had got there first and built a prefab city. It didn't stay in Nurgle hands for long as the ensuing siege wiped them out. There is now a nice clear area for Mark to expand into.

Paul quietly expands in the corner not upsetting anyone. He'll have to eventually as he is running out of virgin territory to conquer.

With only two moves left before 'Winter draws on' there does not seem to be much room for battle other than a Dave vs Jim rematch, with Dave now having the forces of an additional army available to tilt the odds.

Unfortunately I have no photos of the current positions as the batteries went dead in my camera.

The big problem for me is that I am away for the next two club nights, so there might not be much of my peninsular left when I get back. Will be leaving some instructions behind to try and limit the damage.
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Normans Nurgling

Campoon Battle 2

Matt (1500pts Normans)

vs

Martin the High Nurgle (1500pts Picts)
(actually played by Dave M due to Martin's absence)

The Field of Play

From Campoon 3

The Nurgles outnumber the Normans quite heavily on the ground, but apparently the Normans have some 'panzers' available.

Nurgles Advance, Normans Encircle


The terrain is not really to the Nurgles advantage. There is also another Norman Cav circling around just south of the picture.

Panzerblitz Arrives


The Cavalry finally hits sending whole ranks of dead Nurgles crashing to the ground. The Normans manage to penetrate into the rear area, and if not for the time limit being reached could of crushed the remaining Nurgle forces. As it is the Nurgles don't come off to bad (but are still forced to retreat on the map).

End tally: Matt lost around 120pts, The Nurgles around 500pts. With the new rules for replacements being implemented (actually they are the ones that were used in the LoTR campaign) this could be reduced for both side quite a bit.

[Disclaimer: I have no idea why Martin refers to all his armies as Nurgles as there appears to be no connection with proper Warhammer Nurgles other than their implied vileness\smelliness. He's used Garden Gnomes as Nurgles before now.]
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The First Battle

The first real battle of the Campoon.

Jim (1500pts - Late Romans) vs Dave S (1500pts - Caphilates)

First time for Jim using this rule set, Dave's also a bit rusty. The moves have been dropped down to centimeters from inches and some Warmaster based figures used as they were the most readily available. The rest of the Campooners were either looking on or trying to get their Army Lists sorted.

(The strange blob\void in the middle of the photos is in fact a foam hill with unique light reflecting properties.)

Initial Setup looking from Jim's side

From Campoon 3

The hill\blob is the main terrain feature placed right in the middle of what, due to the scale change, is a large battlefield. Dave tries to overload on one side of the hill but the terrain still favours Jim's more mobile forces.



Unfortunately Dave's cavalry gets caught up amongst his other troops as Jim's cavalry and archers clears the other flank.



A Ding-dong battle occurs in the middle as the two main blocks of troops remain locked together. Dave's dice rolling lets him down as he should of clearly won at least a couple of the deadlock melee rounds.

The final positions


And so Mullah Dave ends up losing the battle big style despite having the chance to cut his losses earlier on. Dave still has another army available in the neighbouring hex so a early rematch is a distinct possibility.
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Winter of the Flea(s)

The Campoon continues into the first winter phase and then into the first turn of the following year. Army Lists are still being clarified (given that not everyone has WH Ancients, the books are only available once a week). Despite being in a Viking like position I've gone against type and have selected to go Anglo-Saxon.

The Diplomacy and Espionage segments were both let downs, with non of the major independents joining sides, only Mark got a good result as the final independent city on his island joined him to give him complete control of the island, which is now derogatorily referred to by the others as 'Walney'. The only Espionage was a hoard of agents going paranoid trying to capture non-existent spies.

The temporary absence of Martin meant that his lands entered dormant mode, where in effect they all become neutral for this turn, except his capital with his armies inside. A similar thing is to happen with Jim next week in his absence.

After the winter

From Campoon 3

During the first and only move that night, which not only included people trying to devour the Nurgle but also Dave S invasion of Jimland, leading to the first true battle of the campaign (which actually occurred in a neutral village hex). The rules for ship movement has been clarified and is much looser than the original rules with landings being allowed anywhere.

The Invasion


The End of move 1?


And then it happened! The return of the Nurgle! as Martin showed up and retroactively had his move. Matt was more than happy with this, despite originally being the main beneficiary of Martins absence, as it leads to a chance to bash the smelly one down in combat.

Fisticuffs in the Center

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Year of the Flea

Updated scores from Dave M.

'Campoon II, The Nurgles Slithers Back' - The year of the Flea

Scores on the doors for the end of year 1 on Nu Campoon.

Tel --- 17G --- Army Points = 2000
Jim --- 18G --- Army Points = 1750
Matt --- 12G --- Army Points = 1620
Martin --- 17G --- Army Points = 1700
Paul --- 11G --- Army Points = 1940
Mark --- 21G --- Army Points = 1400
Dave M --- 9G --- Army Points = 1980
Dave S --- 11G --- Army Points = 1550

Tel, Jim and Mark gained an extra Gp for having ships in a harbour.

Given that 1G = 100 army points, it can be seen that Mark isn't as well off as could be expected, but since he is on an island he has pretty much control of the situation. Matt would appear to be worse off in terms of income as he needs to repair his badly depleted armies. In terms of future income\land both Jim and Dave M are well placed as there are plenty of unexplored hexes near them.

What will be interesting is how the two independant empires align themselves. Matt could potentially take both of them, but he will be lucky to get one. There will be a three way stuggle for the southern one between Matt, Dave S and Jim, and a straight bidding war for the northern one between Matt and Dave M.

Also newly distributed is an updated rules book from Dave M, which looks like the original M.E. book but with the magic hacked out and small variations\clarifications in rules. I will still need to ask about ship movement and landing in non-harbour hexes else I will be stuck on the Island with only one direction to go.

The Campoonian counting system also seems to be a little out as I am sure the last campaign was numbered as II as well!
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Return of the Campoon!

The Campoon returns! The irregular series of campaigns organised by Dave M starts a new chapter.

For details of a previous one see the Furness Wargamers site and its news archive and forum.

This time its a variant of the original Mighty Empires being used for the map based side of things.The original rules can be downloaded as a pdf. Warhammer Ancients (rather than Fantasy) is being used to resolve the tabletop battles when they happen.

The Players:
Dave S (White)
Mark (Blue)
Martin the Nurgle (Pink)
Paul (Light Red\more pink!)
Matt (Yellow)
Dave M (Light Blue)
Tel (Light Green)
Farmer Jim (Dark Green)

Our Ancient Army counterparts have yet to be finalised but will come from the standard lists in WH Ancients supplements but without many of the special rules.

Starting Positions

From Campoon 3

Unfortunately allowing us to choose our own colour of counters have made the positions on the map slightly difficult to see. Dave M decided to play a side himself after the photos.

Starting Positions from other side


After 1st Moves


The nations in the 'Pink Zone' are already rubbing up against each other with Matt unilaterally drawing his own borderline on the map to warn off Martin and Paul. During the next few moves a number of armies clashed, with the combats being resolved via the dice, and some lost troops due to lack of supplies and events.

Mark on his island did have a nasty run in with the 'Village People' but conquered the in the end. Dave S has manage to take control of a Maginot Line of two forts, complete with an exposed 'Ardennes' next door.

After Move 5


The penultimate move for the year sees me nearly in control of all my little island but with both Jim and Dave M across the water. An agreement with Jim meant it was safe to take the remaining area next to him, allowing him to have a small enclave on my island.

Years End


All armies had withdrawn back to the hearts of their empires and the winter events had taken place and monies tallied. In terms of money Mark is well ahead with 20 crowns earned from the cities on his private island.
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