Fielding a Hostile Realms army

This is part of a series of articles I've been writing on converting Piquet's Theater of War campaign system for use with Hostile Realms, Piquet's fantasy rule set:

• Part 1: Campaign deck conversion
• Part 2: Campaign Roster creation
• Part 3: Campaign Playtest Turn 1

Now that we have the campaign roster established and you know how many units are on campaign with you, it's time to talk about how to determine which units are in a particular battle.

Theater of War uses a Piquet Army Characterization Deck to select the units.  You could also use a poker deck.  Special Effect cards have the following effects:

• Stratagem (4 each) - Remove random enemy Effect card.
• Army Effect (4 each)) - Pick any one slot for your army.
• Infantry Effect (4 each)- Pick any one infantry slot for your army.
• Artillery Effect (4 each) - Pick any one character or engine of war slot for your army.
• Cavalry Effect (4 each) - Pick any one cavalry, beast, or large creature slot for your army.

Force Size cards are worth their normal value (4 each of values 2 through 10).

In this example, we'll assume the army is Battle Group of Size 3 vs. an enemy Battle Group of Size 3.   The Middle Kingdom player has no Advantage Level based on his Battle Card hand.  We'll use the Campaign Roster I created in the last Hostile Realms article for the Middle Kingdoms:

*Champion General
*Hero Sub-commander
1. Household Knights
2. Household Knights
3. Household Knights
4. Feudal Knights
5. Feudal Knights
6. Feudal Knights
7. Feudal Knights
8. Sergeants
9. Sergeants
10. Crossbowmen
11. Crossbowmen
12. Hand-gunners
13. Mountaineers
14. Civic Militia
15. Civic Militia
16. Archers of the Guard
17. Mountaineers
18. Civic Militia
19. Civic Militia
20. Ribaldequin organ gun
21. Minotaurs
22. Shire Archers
23. Rex Champion Upgrade
24. Jhone of Orc Hero Upgrade

25. Priest

The player pulls 3 cards for his campaign roster size.  He draws a 5 (Roster 1-10), Cavalry Effect, 2 (Ignored because his Battle Group is Size 3), 7 (Roster 11-20), Stratagem, and a 9 (reduced to a 5 because the roster only goes from 21 to 25). 

The total number of units is 17 (5+7+5).

Since a Stratagem was drawn, the player can take away one of his opponent's random Effect cards.  I use the Cavalry Effect card to pick the minotaurs since I'm pretty sure there will be plenty of cavalry chosen randomly from the list.

So now it's time to pick 16 random units (the Minotaurs are already selected).  I use poker cards assigned to each unit.  The results:

Mountaineers
Ribaldequin organ gun
Shire Archers
Crossbowmen
Priest
Household Knights
Rex Champion upgrade
Feudal Knights
Civic Militia
Household Knights
Hand-gunners
Civic Militia
Feudal Knights
Jhone of Orc upgrade
Crossbowmen
Household Knights

Interesting Army.

The Rex will lead a mounted command of 3 Household Knight units and 2 Feudal Knight units.

Jhone of Orc leads a foot command of an organ gun, 2 Crossbowmen units,  a Civic Militia pike block (2 units), 1 Hand-gunner unit, 1 Shire Archer unit, and 1 Mountaineer battle order unit.

The Priest leads...wait for it...a Minotaur unit.  I can only imagine what the back-story is behind that command.

And there you have it.  I built this army while drinking a Bushmill's on ice with a few cards and a calculator while the wife watched the Real Housewives of Wherever.

A fun army with a King who is a master of jousting and personal combat, but a commander of unknown quality leading a command of the brashest, best-equipped and wealthiest knights of the Middle Kingdoms.

A young female hero who was raised as a child by Orcs, but now rallies the common infantry of the army with her Blessed Banner.  The center of her command is a solid pike block of townsmen.

And a mad priest who has emerged from the wilderness with a group of minotaur converts.  Hmmm.

Welcome to the wonderful campaign world of Hostile Realms.  It won't match up against the art and printing quality of Games Workshop, but there's magic in this book.

Next Hostile Realms campaign article...Making a campaign map.