Teaser: RECONQUISTA -- FOG II Campaign - idea in the works

[Rico]

Had some time this weekend... developing a campaign with nearly identical simple rules and concepts as the Long Live The King FOG Medieval campaign - possibly to kick off once the latter is completed. (if there is interest)

This one is fought in FOG II Wolves At the Gates DLC. -- once the inevitable Crusades Expansion to FOG II Medieval comes out, it could continue using that carrying on into 12th and 13th Century.

Campaign is set during the early days of the Reconquista ... a simplified scenario set in the time when the Muslim Caliphate of Cordoba weakened and splintered into various small emirates and even city states called Taifas... allowing for the belligerent northern Spanish kingdoms to start the long fight to reconquer the Iberian peninsula.

So this one has 6 factions:
The Christian Kingdoms of Leon, Castille and Aragon/Catalonia (the politics of the period were labyrinthine, so LOTS of simplification necessary.)
The Muslim Taifa states of Bajadoz, Sevilla and Valencia

(for simplicity sakes going with mostly English names for places and regions)

Teaser image -- map still in development.

 

[Badger73]

@Rico - I'm up for this and would be happy to play as Aragon, Leon, or Oviedo if this should come to fruition.

 

[olaf]

Muslims for me. "Are we the baddies?" ;-)

 

[olaf]

Are we going to get some nice ribbons for this @Badger73 ?

 

[Badger73]

Are we going to get some nice ribbons for this @Badger73 ?

That's a good question for @Bootie or @Ithikial and about ribbons in general. I'm not a Site Supervisor anymore. I suppose I could pick up doing award administration if someone authorized what ribbons to award and who should receive them though.

 

[Rico]

The first draft of the map has been completed -- some solo campaign playtesting on my side to iron out any kinks... like I said, same basic rule set as the Long Live The King FOG2 Medieval campaign -- difference at start is that ONLY the Christian Kingdoms have initiative markers at turn 1.

 

[Rico]

Playtest 1 completed ... I use dice to decide each factions moves, attacks and resolve battles -- a few rules and a couple of map refinements in the works.

Anyway -- the Taifa of Valencia wins big in this one ... crushing both the Kingdoms of Aragon and Castille (Castillian armies at one point being beaten back from the gates of Valencia), lots of tit for tat between Bajdoz and Leon with the latter coming out on top but essentially being left the last Christian kingdom standing in the top left corner of Spain... Taifa of Sevilla kept getting beaten back by Castille and never opted for turning on it's neighbour Taifas and so remained pinned down in the centre...



Rules update:
If you lose your CAPITAL province and continue the fight "from exile" in any remaining of your provinces (like Castille above in BURGOS) -- you can still fight battles, but you must use AUTO SELECT for your armies when setting up your FOG2 battle.

Rules update:
When you capture an enemy CAPITAL province, you earn TWO initiative counters.

 

[Rico]

Playtest 2 -- different outcome ... Aragon with early success by destroying the Valencia Taifa and being by far the strongest power by Turn 6 -- but then Castille and Sevilla formed an alliance of convenience and turned on Aragon.
Bajadoz fought back Leon into a corner, narrowly being defeated in front of the walls on LEON.

In the end Bajadoz and Sevilla quietly tied for first place (Sevilla by betraying Castille and recapturing TOLEDO on the last turn with a sneak attack)

 

[Rico]

So this is the final, revised version with the set up at the start of the campaign:



I've switched to a map zone system instead of the links -- makes it less cluttered with a larger number of regions and connections than the FOG2 Medieval Long Live The King campaign.
The rules are basically the same as the Medieval campaign with some minor specific rules additions.

Also added TEN 'Mountainous Regions' to the map: Santiago, Asturias, Castille, Pamplona, Burgos, Aragon, La Mancha, Granada, Galicia and Porto.
(battles in these regions have to be fought with Mediterranean Hilly or Mountain maps.

The setting at the start is that the powerful Caliphate of Cordoba has broken up into smaller Taifa States ruling Al Andalus: Bajadoz, Sevilla and Valencia.

This gives the Spanish Christian kingdoms in the north (Leon, Castille and Aragon) the chance to go on the offensive and try and reconquer the Iberian peninsula from Mulsim rule.

(Note: There were a LOT more Taifa states, so we limit it to three for simplicity sake -- also leaving out the small Kingdom of Navarre which would have been in the Pamplona region of the map.

At start the Christian Kingdoms each start with TWO INITIATIVE MARKERS and can use only ONE per turn for the first TWO turns.

The Muslim states start with NO INITIATIVE MARKERS -- and then can start earning them by winning battles against the attacking Christian or from TURN 2 ONWARDS if they have no battles that turn.

This means that Christian forces CANNOT ATTACK any Taifa HOME regions until TURN 3.

NOTE: During this period, the Christian Kingdoms and the Muslim Taifas spent as much time fighting each other as fighting their respective infidel enemies. Even someone like the Spanish national hero El Cid spent a good time of his military career fighting as a mercenary for Muslim rulers.
SO alliances, back-stabbing and betrayals in the quest for dominance of the region is pretty much encouraged.