Hi,

I made a campaign a little while ago that I've just been sitting on so I thought I'd post it on here for everybody to have look at!

It's in the style of Middle Earth in Flames but focuses more on the Fellowship's journey rather than conquering fortresses.

Feel free to ask any questions if I need to clear anything up - I already know it probably needs to include more races but at the mo it's nice and balanced and represents the films (rather than the books) quite well!

The links are for a .docx version for Word 2007 and a .PDF - if you have the option go for the .docx as it's better quality. Both include a printable A3 map and two checklists at the end.

http://www.mediafire.com/?r1ah1686t5w8v4b - .docx version

http://www.mediafire.com/?c8i5xmucbae8xq5 - .PDF version

Enjoy!

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My Expanded Siege Rules: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=33177

wow incredible, and it downloaded really quickly which was a lovely suprise.

in all the reading i did i did not find anything i didn't understand.
fantastic work, well done!

Very nice, Excellent

Hi Jacob, thanks for posting those links! I had a read through, very impressed with the layout and the content moreso! Definitely more appealing than other LOTR campaigns i've seen in my time. A campaign revolving around the Fellowship and the War of the Ring (not the GW system) looks great fun and I'll be looking to give it a go next year at some point. I really like the decoy idea and the Lesser Heroes rules! Might I suggest a few changes, they may not take your fancy but worth a discussion

Objectives
Putting a 20 turn limit on the hobbits seems a major disadvantage for the good side. Might it be better to change the objectives to

The Good side must move into contact with Mount Doom to win
The Evil Side must capture the One Ring to win
After 20 turns any other event is a draw


Participants
As you mentioned, there are a few races and armies missing, but to be honest Dwarves and Goblins aren't thrilling to game with anyway The army points total for good (300) and evil (400) seems rather low so if I were personally playing this i'd double the army totals. A 600-800pt match is about normal and allows players to take all sorts of monsters and maniacs!


Battles
"Allied armies may move onto the same space, but one fortress (Helms Deep, Minas Tirith etc) cannot hold more than two armies of defenders." - in the films Haldirs army arrives, whilst in the books Imrahil and the Southern Fiefs turn up. Personally I'd allow for multiple armies to defend a fortress.


Killing Armies
Can you explain the difference between an army that dies and an army that loses a battle. I thought it might the same until I read this at the bottom of the section
"A one-life army remains in play until it loses a game, not until it dies."

Also what happens to armies when they lose a battle?


The Fellowship: Movement
It would be cool if you could split the Fellowship in any way possible, but up to three groups. That way you could have any number of possibilities!


The Fellowship: In Battle II
Spawning on a 4+ (50/50) seems a bit harsh although I like the idea Boromir doesn't get a second chance, I'd quite like to see the entire Fellowship make it through unhurt! Could it possibly be a tiered approach where it's for instance a
3+ ... 1st spawn
4+ ... 2nd spawn
5+ ... any further spawns


The Fellowship: Powers and Events I
Really like the Ent special rule although if I were doubling the points values of the armies I'd make it Treebeard and 4 ents


Evil Powers and Events
Double the 200 points value of Harad/Rhun
Also regarding the Mumakil, rather than as a replacement, why not have it as a special rule for instance on turn 15, the Mumakil could spawn in Southern Ithilien???


Automatic Defences
I would use points values rather than specific characters or numbers and I would 'double them' so...
Minas Tirith – 300pts
Edoras – 150pts
Helms Deep – 100pts
Lothlorein – 150pts
Rivendell – 200pts
Minas Morgul – 200pts
Barad Dur – 200pts
The Black Gate – 200pts
Isengard – 300pts
Dol Guldur – 100pts


All in all, not very much I'd change, basically just increasing the campaign size so you can have larger battles. I would like to know what happens to armies that lose battles. I'd assume they are automatically destroyed and then respawn in the turn after next but as I mentioned earlier the 'one life army' rule contradicts this..

All the best!

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The Southern Fiefdoms: http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=21928

Hi,

I definately agree about the objectives! I don't know why I didn't just put that in the first place!

The reason I didn't have higher points values is because I think the Fellowship would just get destroyed if they had to fight a 600 point army alone. The idea was meant to be that the Fellowship could win a breakthrough mission with minimal casualties or they could be split up and used as support to sway the advantage in favour of the Good armies in 1 vs 1's.

The fortress statement wasn't clear; "Allied armies may move onto the same space, but one fortress (Helms Deep, Minas Tirith etc) cannot hold more than two armies of defenders." - this was meant to mean that there could be two armies within the fortress and any others would have to arrive as reinforcements. This was mainly to honour the films and the books such as the elves arriving but also to encourage reinforcements (think Eomer at Helms Deep) and balance the game! Although I guess there is no real long term advantage to holding up in a fortress...

Armies that lose a battle miss a turn and then respawn on one of their own starting territories on the roll of a 4+ - eg a Rohan army loses a battle in turn one, on turn three they roll a dice, the result is a four or more so they may re-enter play from either Edoras or Helms Deep. The 4+ rule seems harsh but it was mainly to allow Frodo more time to reach Mount Doom as I think the Good side would have to win several battles in a row to keep Mordor at bay if four armies were spawning there every other turn. Maybe I should introduce a tiered system like 5+ on turn 1 then 4+, 3+ etc.... Not knowing exactly when an army will respawn could also encourage players to gamble- run quickly past Minas Morgul and hope they don't respawn or play it safe?

I guess there is no clear distinction between losing a battle and dying. I would say that if you won the battle with one army that's fine. But maybe if you won with two armies and lost 50% of your troops one army should have to respawn? And if you lose in any way you always have to respawn.

Again, I agree with the tiered system for respawning the Fellowship - but it doesn't mean they are perminently dead if they don't roll a 4+, it means they have to roll again next time so maybe it should get harder as they die more not the other way around. The only way a Fellowship member can die perminently is to lose two battles - one for the Fate, another for Wounds. On our playtest with this version we lost Sam, Aragorn and Boromir as well as all the lesser heroes whilst pretty much all the others lost their Fate but the Good player did win... Wasn't me unfortunately...

I like the idea of a one life Mumakil army (one-life means they can lose one game, if they do they are perminently dead.) but I think it would have to be balanced with a Good power... Can't think of one right now...

I think your right about the automatic defences - it also means that the player could pick named heroes. But I think that the points should go down after several battles - Theoden would lose his Fate eventually which would represent a gruelling amount of sieges, maybe taking fifty points from the defender's auto defences after every battle would achieve the same result...

Thanks for the great feedback everyone!

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My Expanded Siege Rules: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=33177

Ah I understand it better now! Cheers, I guess it would be pretty tough for Frodo and co to break through 600pts lol

Thanks for clarifying the Fortress and respawning questions. Despite what I said earlier the tiered system might just confuse things, 4+ is simple enough to use. I would treat different armies separately so for instance if two evil armies are fighting against one good army and evil win refer back to the requirements of the scenario. But as you say it could alternatively be when 50% of the combined force is destroyed it requires one army to respawn.
I
So if the Fellowship lose a battle with some dieing in gameplay do they all need to respawn? And if they fail the 4+ then do they get to keep rolling in subsequent turns? Also do only the ones that died in battle lose their fate points for subsequent games or do all the characters that respawned lose their fate? I'm guessing just the ones that died right?

Well the good side has access to a one-life Ent force however there's no reason why the good side can't have a Fiefdom one-life reinforcement type army.

What happens if a named hero dies and he's part of your automatic defence force, but that side wins? Does he just lose his fate and remain in the army?

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The Southern Fiefdoms: http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=21928

f the Fellowship lose a battle they need to respawn like everybody else - so yeah, they have to roll a 4+ and if they fail they can continue to roll for subsequent turns. If the Fellowship is split up obviously only the ones that actually took part in and lost the battle need to respawn. Regardless of whether they won or lost if a named hero (including Fellowship members) dies they lose their Fate, but if they won the battle they don't need to respawn. You should find that the Fellowship will often lose but not die - this is why I put turn limits and different objectives in, if it was to the death everytime they wouldn't last very long!

Applying the rule above, if a named hero is in the automatic defence force but dies and wins the battle they would lose their fate and the enemy armies would have to respawn. With it being an auto-defence force they don't continue on as or with an army,they just remain at the fortress ready to be picked next time (albeit with no Fate). To clarify, all armies can be re-picked before every battle - adds a bit of variety.

That's a Good point about the ents, I could make the ents a little easier to get - maybe three turns and can be gotten by either Gandalf or Merry and Pippin - and then I could make the evil side have to keep Ithilien clear of Good forces for three consecutive turns anytime from turn ten to allow a one-life Mumakil army to spawn there. Sounds good!

Thanks again for the feedback!

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My Expanded Siege Rules: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=33177

Ah excellent! That clears up pretty much all my questions. You've answered them well sah!

The automatic defence force is a good idea, it reminds of the Star Wars Battlefront II game, whereby in the conquest campaign the defending planets always had a defence force. I take it the auto-defence force replenishes their numbers from surrounding towns after a battle it wins for instance? It would be quite confusing if players had to keep track of casualties and remaining numbers etc

3 turns sounds better and definitely include the Merry and Pippin rule, it was they who awoke Treebeard after all

You could have a generic rule from turn 10, something around the lead up to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, a coming together of armies etc. So in turn 10 Evil gets a one-life Mumakil with up to 150 points and good can spawn a one-life Fiefdom army from Dol Amroth for say 300 points. Not really a fan of waiting 3 turns, but i've been told I am impatient!

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The Southern Fiefdoms: http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=21928