Solo Wargaming – Example Playthrough (Pic Heavy)

In the context of a solo narrative campaign, one unit of orc scouts did succeed in breaching the pass. The warning signal had been given however, so local villagers would be alert to the possible threat. This present opportunities for several types of skirmish or role playing level games. Does the local town council dispatch trackers to seek out the orcs? Do the orcs undertake guerrilla warfare against the human military? Do they raid farms and hamlets and if so, do a group of plucky 1st level adventurers take up arms to stop them?

And as stated previously, there is now either a very weak point or open breach in the defensive line for the human kingdom. This would need to be addressed or exploited by nearby forces. Finances may need to be sourced by the human kingdom to raise a new force to defend the pass, or troops pulled from somewhere else to plug the gap. This in turn would weaken other points in the kingdom’s defensive line.

Ok, keeping track of both armies and using a rules system and force (orcs) that I was out of practice with I missed a few things. not sure I made animosity checks every round, and I forgot that the orcs could declare a Waagh to have the whole army advance. Access to siege weapons would have greatly benefitted the orcs – if they had an option to shoot back against the human fusilier detachment it would have greatly changed the complexion of the game. The warlord should have perhaps brought up warmachines and then abandoned them once the pass had been taken. having the giant deploy on the right flank and avoid the bottlenecks on the road would also have been effective.

I felt that the trap counter mechanic worked well, although the damage may need to be beefed up to make it an actual threat to the larger units I prefer to field.

Given the army overarching orders and letting them play out seemed to work well. Aside from manoeuvring light units like the archers, huntsmen or pistoliers there was no real need to deviate much from the initial strategy.  I will note however that this may have been due to the human faction essentially being on a defensive posture for the whole game. had both forces been of an aggressive nature than working through both sides of manoeuvring the armies would have become more challenging/engaging.

Thanks for reading along and hopefully this assists in clarifying or giving context to Part 2 of the Solo Wargaming article series.

Any questions with regards to the approach I took please add a comment and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as I can to clarify. Cheers!