The Waltrop Campaign / Day 1 + 2

This is how our campaign map looks like after two days of gaming. So what happened?

The Greeks from Saganakia, also called the Aquarians, who started shipwrecked in hexagon 61, moved up the beach. They didn’t encounter monsters and were able to occupy hexagons 51, 50 and 41. In hexagon 32 they met the Greeks from the island Kalimera who have their camp there. The two commanders had a short conversation.

-Γεια σου.

-Γεια σου. Πως σε λένε;

-Με λένε Σπύρος, εσένα;

-Ηρακλείδης.

-Ωραίο όνομα!

-Ευχαριστώ, Σπύρο! Πώς είσαι; 

-Δεν ειμαι και πολύ καλά σήμερα.

-Γιατί; Τι έχεις;

-Ειμαι πολύ χάλια σήμερα.

Heracleides was able to convince Spiros, the Aquarian, to join his army and explore hexagon 31. There they encountered a group of Orks. The Greeks had never seen such horrible creatures before. The Orks probably thought the same about the Greeks.

We simulated the battle that ensued with a 36 point game of HotT. I played 22 points of Greek hoplites and Thracian riders:

Spear General (C-in-C), 8 Spears, 2 Riders

Sven played 12 points of peltasts and psiloi:  

Hero General, 3 Shooters, 2 Lurkers

Krüger played two battle groups that were 24 and 12 points strong, using these elements:

Warband General (C-in-C), 6 Warbands, 1 Hero, 3 Beasts

Hero General, 4 Riders

(I was so busy counting the other players’ elements that I forgot to count mine. I ended up with 22 points, instead of 24 points. And the same happened to me the next day.)

We placed a couple of large rocks, some rough terrain and a waterhole on the board. We decided to play without a stronghold. Krüger started to deploy his troops and put his large battlegroup on one side of the table and his small battlegroup on the other side.

Since warbands are very good against spears, Sven and I decided to field the spears against the riders and the lighter troops against the warbands. Our plan worked and we won the game. So the Greeks under the command of Heracleides were able to occupy hexagon 31 which gives them access to fresh water.

On day 2 of the campaign Spiros, who was in a better mood now, convinced Heracleides to explore hexagon 40. He wanted to look for a base camp for his army. There they discovered an Ork village. Krüger told us the locations of the other Ork villages: hexagons 20, 68, 78 and 38.

We placed tropical forests and some rocks on the battlefield. Krüger was the defender.

Krüger’s large battle group (24 points): 

Warband General (C-in-C), 7 Warbands, 1 Hero, 2 Shooters

His small battle group (12 points):

Hero General, 4 Beasts

My army (22 points):

Spear General (C-in-C), 7 Spears, 2 Riders, 1 Shooter

Sven’s army (12 points):

Hero General, 4 Shooters

The armies deployed more or less in the same way as on the first day and we used the same strategy. We fielded our spears against Krüger’s beasts and our shooters against his warbands.

There was a moment in the game when Krüger thought he would win. He got very nervous and started to chew on my DBX ruler.

We lost 2 spears, 1 rider and 2 shooters. Krüger lost a hero, 3 warbands and 4 beasts, thus loosing the battle for hexagon 40 and a village on the campaign map.

The village was occupied by the Aquarians under the command of Spiros.

Campaign Map

Here is a map I made for a campaign. It shows the northeastern coast of Waltrop. As you can see, I like old school hex maps.

The Statue

Heracleides and two of his officers discuss a statue they discovered on the beach of Thassikos Chorios. (Or Waltrop how the natives call it.)

Heracleides: "There are three forms of art: 1. Art that depicts things that are real, like plants and animals. 2. Ornaments which please the eye and 3. everything which has its source in human imagination. The first form of art is the best, the last the worst."

Officer 1: "Let's hope the creature depicted here does not exist, Heracleides!"

Officer 2: "And doesn't live on this island!"

(The miniatures on the picture were painted by Simon Bradley and Steve Dean as a commission.)

The Imaginary Island Waltrop

When the king of Kalimera sent an expedition to the island Chourmi to found another colony, the island Waltrop was discovered. It looks like a big fish. In fact, Waltrop, or Thassikos Chorios how the Greek call it, is a Karubi island that had somehow drifted 9400 km eastwards to the Mediterranean Sea not long ago. The Greek explorers under the command of brave Heracleides decided to land their ships on the beaches in the northeast of the island and to set up their camp there.

The Karubi Island Dox Dox

Krüger and I have talked a lot about playing an orcs versus wood elves campaign on one of the Karubi islands, using HOTT and Warhammer as rule sets.

Sven plans to come to Berlin a couple of times this year and wants to bring his freshly painted goblins. So it makes sense to kick off the Karubi island campaign with a HOTT mini-campaign, involving 2 tribes of orcs & goblins and my elves.

I drew a map of the island Dox Dox.

1 Kachelaj Oxib Tzuk - the largest forest on the western side of the island. It's where the elves live.

2 Kachelaj Imul - rabbit forest.

3 Suq - a large area of swamp. Giant mosquitos and Labyrinthodonts live there.

4 Kachelaj Jamaril - a very large forest on the eastern side of the island. Jamaril means "peace" in the language of the human population that lived on the island long before elves and orcs arrived. Actually it isn't such a peaceful place any more, if it ever was. Ruins of ancient temples are scattered throughout the jungle. Some of these are still used to summon old gods and demons.

5 A tribe of orcs & goblins under Krüger's command.

6 Juyub Labal - the bad hills, also called "the pumpkin hills" by the elves.

Now here is the problem. The elves who like to live in forests settled in the west where they found 2 small forests. The orcs on the other hand, who prefer mountain caves, settled in the east, but in the east they found a large area of tropical forest and only 3 small hills (Juyub Jamaril). It would be best if the orcs moved to the west and the elves to the east, but instead both parties defend their territory and try to conquer the whole island.

Sea Animals with Two Legs

Apparently last week somebody googled "sea animals with two legs" and found my blog. I suppose he or she was very disappointed which is not my fault. It's really Google's fault, but I don't want to disappoint anybody, so I asked my daughter to draw a sea animal with two legs.

Lina says her drawing depicts a transformer gold fish. Unfortunately it has five legs. Anyway, with all the information I have about this at the moment and my limited knowledge of GURPS, I tried to come up with GURPS stats for the creature.

If you think my description of the transformer gold fish, a sea animal with five legs is inaccurate or can be improved in any way, please let me know.

ST: 20   DX: 10   IQ: 3   HT: 12

HP: 20   Will: 10   Per: 12   FP: 12

Speed: 5.5   Move: 5

Dodge: 8   DR: 1

SM: +2

Punch (13): 2d-2 cr

Habitat: Salt-Water Aquatic, Tropical Forest

Range: Atlantic Ocean, Karubi Islands

Traits: Amphibious; Bad Temper; Discriminatory Smell; Doesn't Breathe (Oxygen Storage); Extra Legs; Horizontal; No Fine Manipulators; Pressure Support 3; Subsonic Hearing; Vibration Sense; Wild Animal.

Skills: Brawling-13.

Well, it is a transformer fish. So it should be able to transform itself into something. With Shapeshifting (Alternate Form). Into a gold fish? Some kind of two-legged garden gnome? I don't know.

Are you happy now, person who googles "sea animals with two legs" and finds my blog?

Dungeon for Lina and Hendrik / Level 1

I was in Dortmund for three weeks, tidying up my parents' house. One night I wrote a dungeon adventure for Lina (5) and Hendrik (3), my two older kids. (Joaquín is too small to play dungeon adventures, I guess. He just turned one.)

Before I left, I asked them what characters they want to play. Lina wants to play princess Blume, a girl with magical abilities who knows three spells: Fire, Lullaby and Glitter. (I suppose glitter is helpful if you are in a dungeon and forgot your torch.) Hendrik wants to play prince Marmelade, equipped with bow and arrows. They are the children of the king and queen of the island Kalimera.

The adventure starts in the royal kitchen. The cook needs olives to make a greek salad but doesn't dare to go into the cellar where they are stored. He is afraid of mice. (Musophobia.) He already sent the kitchen boy but the kitchen boy didn't return. So now he asks princess Blume and prince Marmelade, our two brave heroes, to fetch some olives for him. They are always up for an adventure and go down the stairs.

1 At the bottom of the stairs, they encounter a cat. The cat asks: "Which animal walks on 4 legs in the morning, on 2 legs at noon and on 3 legs at night?" The cat will follow the heroes around. It likes to be stroked.

2 A room full of stuff. Chests and baskets. Plates and pots. Potsheds. An old fisher net. A flute. A lyre, missing a string or two. A large shield covered with dust. A rolled up carpet.

3 A large room used to store white and red wine in amphorae. Alex, the kitchen boy, lies on the floor and sleeps. He snores in a scary way. He sounds like a giant insect. If princess Blume and prince Marmelade manage to wake him up, he will notice that he lost the keys, the cook gave him, and panic.

4 Another storage room, measuring 3m x 3m. One door is open, the other locked. More chests and baskets filled with stuff. If the prince and princess take a closer look, they will notice that there are traces of animals everywhere. The room seems to be the dormitory of large rodents.

5 The door to this room is locked. Looking through the keyhole, prince Marmelade and princess Blume can see 5 giant olives on legs, wearing red sneakers, and a pickled red pepper and a couple of giant tomatoes, also on legs, also wearing sneakers. As soon as the door is opened, the vegetables will try to get out and run away.

6 Another locked door, another 3m x 3m room. (I like 3m x 3m rooms, don't know why.) There is an opening in the floor, leading to level 2 of the dungeon with a ladder. A foul smell comes from down there.

7 This room is used to store cereals. It has 3 doors. The door to the west is open, the other doors are locked. Two very large mouse-like creatures are bend over a sack eating wheat. They are about 2 meters long and fat. They have grey fur and pink little hands, much like human beings. Taken by surprise, one of them picks up the missing keychain from the floor and runs for the door to the north to open it. (The creature stole it from the kitchen boy while he was sleeping.) The other dire mouse grabs a broom to defend itself. The creatures will try to escape to room 6 and go down to the second level of the dungeon, taking the keys with them.   

8 I think, Lina and Hendrik will like this room, especially if I use props. There is a beautiful little box on the floor, filled with cookies in the form of islands. On one cookie, it says "The Karubi Islands", on another: "You need to pass the pillars of Hercules, sail to the west and south for many days, fight the mighty sea scorpion, go on for 7 more days and if Neptun favours you, you will find the Karubi Islands."

The Karubi Islands

Evidence of an ancient culture, which collapsed more than 500 years ago, is scattered throughout the jungle. Several ruins of pyramids and other religious buildings with depictions of frog-like beings, double-headed snakes and krakens have been discovered.

About 100 years ago, elves migrated to Nitz Oxib Tsaq and started to populate the island. The elven population is organized into city states. Three major city states are currently fighting for political dominance.

Nitz Oxib Tsaq is mostly deforested by now, ancient temples have been razed and the indigenous human population has been driven away, enslaved or killed.

Not much is known about Matzatit Binel Ja ("pineapple beck"). There are rumours of large green creatures lurking in the jungle, deadly hunters and servants of old nameless gods.

Six hundred years ago, a large elven fleet was lost in the Atlantic Ocean on its way to India. The survivors of this expedition have recently been found on Wazimu and Dox Dox. They have been cut off from civilization for too long. Savage and hostile, they worship primitive gods and have formed alliances with the horrible creatures native to the Karubi Islands.

In the north-east of Dox Dox, several Orc and Goblin tribes are said to have their territory. It's not known if these tribes are allies or enemies. It is known however, that they are at war with the elves.

If you go to the Karubi Islands, which is not recommended, take a surfboard, try to avoid Elves and Orcs and don't get lost in the jungle.