I first learned about Dungeons & Dragons when I found issue #12 of The Dragon in the fall of 1977, when I was 13. I loved this issue, and read it enthusiastically, buying every issue of The Dragon I could find from then on. I found it at Kids, the chain toy-store which also doubled as a hobby shop in the Viewmont Mall in Dickson City Pa, near Scranton. The Rankin Bass animated version of The Hobbit was going to come out around Thanksgiving of that year, so I made a point of reading The Hobbit, and then The Lord of the Rings, so I would know the story before hand. I was already familiar with miniature wargaming, having been introduced to that a year or so before when, in the Scranton Public Library, I came across Donald Featherstone's Battles With Model Soldiers and then Joseph Morschauser's Wargaming In Miniature. Now with Tolkien, and D&D/The Dragon, I was embarking enthusiastically into Fantasy Miniature Wargaming.
The first set of Fantasy rules I bought was The Ringbearer published by The Little Soldier. I loved that little green pamphlet with those wonderful simple rules! I began buying miniatures, primarily the wonderful Heritage/Custom Cast Fantastiques, my all-time favorite Tolkien based miniature line. I still hunt them on Ebay to this day, trying to get the ones I could not get back in the 70's. Also, much appreciation to Michael Thomas of Classic Miniatures for selling me many of these figures, as well as Heritage Fantasy, Heritage LOTR from the Ralph Bakshi movie, Heritage Dungeon Dwellers, and others.
I will note that the 70's were such a wonderful period for gaming history. There were so many of these small pamphlet style wargaming/role playing books on the racks and shelves, along with so many incredibly cool miniatures on the racks and shelves. I spent so much paper route and scout camp money on these wonderful rule books, magazines, and figures. I'm glad I bought so many of them, but also regret the ones I missed. I had the Blackmoor and Greyhawk supplements, along with Classic Warfare and the Orginal boxed Empire of the Petal Throne in my hands in the 70s and decided to not buy them! There were dozens of John Carter, Warlord of Mars figures on the rack at Kids in 77 and 78, but I didn't know what it was (aside from some bizarre science fiction mythology) so I didn't buy any. A friend introduced me to the Burroughs Mars books in 1980 and I loved them, still do! But it was too late for the figures, they were gone from Kids and out of production. Happily, later on friends gave me copies of OD&D, Blackmoor, and Greyhawk, I bought digital copies of Empire of the Petal Throne (including the original manuscript), and have been buying the John Carter figures from Michael Thomas and on Ebay. So, don't listen to that old saying, sometimes you can go home again!
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Thanks Michael! Heritage John Carter of Mars Green Martian, I think this was an unreleased variant. I painted him up and modified him a bit to be Tars Tarkas, John Carter's good friend. It's great that Michael is making such Old School miniatures available again through his company, Classic Miniatures.
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After thoroughly researching Dungeons & Dragons in The Dragon, I went to order a copy from Dave Weber, who ran the Main Hobby Shop (the other hobby shop in my area). I told him I wanted to order Dungeons & Dragons, meaning the original edition, which was the only one out at the time (at least in our area). Dave told me they were coming out with a new version, and recommended I wait a little bit for it (so I did). So I almost started playing with Original Edition D&D, but instead started with Holmes Basic, which was the new version Dave was referring to. I absolutely love Holmes Basic D&D! It's my all time favorite edition, so Dave's advice was very solid.
I began playing Holmes Basic in the fall of 1978 with a good friend. We took turns DMing and playing, I also continued to use The Ringbearer for some small battle scenarios. In the summer of 1979, I read Gary Gygax's article in The Dragon #26 called "D&D, AD&D, and Gaming." In this wonderful article, Gary told the story of the history of D&D and how it was created. He talked about the Chainmail rules he helped write, and about how D&D evolved out of them. So, I ran out and bought a copy of Chainmail, which I still have to this day. I can't remember if I ordered it from Dave at The Main (most likely), or if it was on the rack at Kids.
I loved Chainmail, thought it was great, and used it a bit. However, role-playing games had eclipsed Miniature Wargaming for me, and put the wargaming on the back burner, something I very much regret. In the long run I have found Miniature Wargaming to be more fun and rewarding than role playing games, though, yes, I did have a bunch of fun with RPGs. As the 80's went on, I tried some other miniature rules, most notably Battle System, and Chainmail became a cool book on the shelf that I looked at every now and then.
A few years back, when everybody was getting into the Old School Revival, I decided that I wanted to take up Miniature Wargaming more properly, and do it like I should have all those years ago. I brushed up and restudied Chainmail, and looked at many other miniature rule sets that are out there. I found Chainmail to be my favorite. It has a delicious blend of simplicity and complexity. Simple enough to learn and use easily, with enough complexity to have a varied and interesting game. A great blend of fun playability and a good amount of "realism". I also discovered that I really prefer to do my Miniature Wargaming Solo. I can set up my terrain table as I see fit and play at a nice leisurely pace, visualizing the action and story of the game as it unfolds. I can play a turn (or part of turn) when I have an hour or two during an evening, or I can play several turns on a Saturday afternoon, however the mood strikes me.
So, for my first posting in my Chainmail blog, I will feature such a solo game that I played recently. The setting is "Middle Earth-ish"......
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An Account of The Battle of Drugannion Field
The Dark Lord has sent out a raiding party of evil soldiery from a stronghold in Mirkwood. This company consists of orcs, an Olog-hai troll, some skeleton warriors, and the Evil Wizard Smarrdag. Their mission is to cause mayhem in the lands under the protection of the dwarven kingdom to the north. In response to the raiders, a small army of dwarves marches forth from an outpost, one of the many that ring the lands under the shadow of the Lonely Mountain. The dwarves are also aided by allies who have offered to come with them. There is a small unit of Noldor (High Elves), that have journeyed east far from their home in Rivendell. There is also the Fire Wizard Alethea and her apprentice Daerya. The human Hero Grymtar has also offered the skill of his sword arm by coming along with the small dwarven army. Along the route of march they are joined by a unit of Centaur women from the eastern forests. They are highly skilled archers. These centaurs have gotten word of the evil invaders and are eager to keep them away from their homeland, so they join forces with the army of goodly warriors.
As the two small armies draw nearer to each other, they split up to some degree. The centaurs go off from the main body, aiming to to scout the surrounding area for the orkish army. The forces of evil have sent out some small bands of marauders to cause random chaos. This sends out a false distraction to the centaurs, leading them off from the main body of the dwarvish army, but also lessening the strength of the evil forces to some degree.
At last the two armies clash at Drugannion Field, a noted pasture land for kine and oxen of the local herdsmen.
Here the good forces are arrayed with the dwarves on the right, and their High Elven allies on the left. The Hero Grymtar is on the extreme left flank, while the Wizard Alethea is behind the left wing of the army.
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In the distance can be seen the approaching orc army. A unit of the orcs supported by the Troll is breaking off from the main body, heading out across some rough ground to attack the right wing of the Goodly Forces. The Evil Wizard Smarrdag is located behind the right wing of the orc army.
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The great-orc Anti-Hero Kraang leads the right wing of the orc army into action.
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Kraang springs forward to join in single combat with the human Hero Grymtar.
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The evil wizard Smarrdag casts a cloud kill spell and sends it towards the dwarves.
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Alethea casts a haste spell onto the right wing of the dwarven army, and they race into battle with the oncoming orcs and troll. The haste spell gives them twice the number of attacks on their foes for a couple of turns.
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Some of the hasted dwarves race forward to engage the orc archers, who rolled lower on their moves and lagged behind their heavy infantry. I use variable movement, rolling dice for the units. It makes things more interesting and unpredictable, and in a way accounts for fatigue without having to keep track of it. If a unit rolls high for a move, they are feeling revved up, and/or well-rested. If a unit rolls low, they are hesitant or fatigued and need to rest up by moving slowly for a while.
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Alethea casts a fireball at Kraang's great orc unit and kills a bunch of them. I use the Spell Complexity chart on page 33. It keeps magic users from being too powerful without resorting to all the complex methods that AD&D resorted to that involved lots of record keeping. It makes the game more exciting too, "will my wizard make the roll and get that spell off?" I never liked the line of thought of "the spell goes off automatically and the target will take some kind of damage even if they make their saving throw." Or, even worse, automatically killing loads of enemies with no to-hit roll and no saving throw. No wonder some magic users got out of hand in some campaigns. From what I hear, they still do, even with all the complicated rules to keep them in check......
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Kraang battles Grymtar while the Noldor charge the remnants of Kraang's unit.
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The troll and orcs engage the dwarves on the dwarven right flank.
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The orcs archers failed their morale check when they battled the dwarves, and fell back quite a ways. Here they are starting to head back to the battle. In the distance we can see the High Elves continue to push at the evil army's right wing. The High Elves have taken a bit of damage from Smarrdag throwing a fireball at them that did not hit them squarely. also, evil reenforcements are coming onto the battlefield in the form of a unit of skeleton warriors, animated by the dark sorcery of the Dark Lord, who has a reputation of centuries as a Necromancer.
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Kraang's unit failed a morale check when battling the Noldor and fell back. Here an orc unit from the center shifts to help them.
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The skeleton warriors march forward.
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The unhasted part of the dwarven army, consisting of great axe wielders and archers, march up to join their hasty friends.
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The orc archers shoot arrows at the dwarves across the rough terrain.
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Both sides have taken heavy casualties on the dwarven right flank. The dwarves try to maneuver around their foes.
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The dwarvish great axe unit crest a rise and prepare to hold it against the advancing orcs.
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Some of the orcs in the center have taken some damage from one of Alethea's fire balls (I mark hits/damage with red pom-poms from Hobby Lobby. They catch the eye and are reminiscent of blood.) Smarrdag's cloudkill has been sluggish, not getting good movement rolls. He has also been busy casting other spells and has not been able to concentrate much to drive it forward. It basically ends up being a big, deadly(but easily avoided) obstacle.
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Noldor and orcs battle it out. The blue gleam of their magic swords reflects fear in the orc's eyes as they swing their scimitars in desperate combat. In Chainmail the Armoured Foot classification is technically supposed to be for men-at-arms types in plate armour with great weapons. In my fantasy battles I use the Armoured Foot classification for most dwarves, high elves, and elite mannish units(Edain, Numenoreans, Men of Gondor & Arnor), keeping in mind that their excellent weapons and armour would make them tougher/more deadly than Heavy Foot.
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Kraang and Grymtar battle it out. I handle Chainmail Heros and Anti-Heros in this way: they each fight as 4 combatants, so they make 4 attacks each turn. With this line of thought, they also take a total of 4 hits. With each hit they lose an attack. So, in this picture Kraang has one hit left and can only make one attack. Grymtar has 2 hits left and can make 2 attacks. Kraang attacks and defends like Armoured Foot. Grymtar attacks as Armoured Foot and defends as Heavy Foot.
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A view of the left wing of the battlefield from Alethea's point of view.
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A view of the center and right wing.
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The orcs battling the Noldor fail a morale check and fall back one move. Then Alethea lands a fireball on them. Alethea would like to thank Leonard Patt for inventing the Fireball Spell!
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The dwarven great axe unit defending the rise take heavy casualties from the attacking orcs, but also deal out some damage too. The dwarven archers come up in support, draw their swords and join in the melee, wrapping around the orc unit.
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The Forces of Good receive reenforcements in the form of the Centaur Archers, galloping up to aid in the battle.
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The Noldor join Grymtar in battling Kraang, but the Anti-Hero manages to whittle them down before he himself is slain (or, it looks that way to them....).
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As they race forward, the Centaurs look for a good spot to join in the battle. The dwarves have killed the troll, and have driven back the orkish left and center, killing many but taking heavy casualties in the process. The successfull dwarven center drives forward, seeking to slay the evil wizard Smarrdag.
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On the dwarven left wing of the battlefield, the skeleton warriors are pressing forward. The surviving Noldor fall back to protect Alethea, while Grymtar, having but one hit left, and like a true Hero, strides forward to battle the skeletons by himself. The knuckles of his sword hand are white as he deals out fell blows against his undead foes.
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Grymtar falls valiantly in battle(slain?), and the skeletons press forward. The Noldor brace themselves for the assault and Alethea prepares a spell.
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Meanwhile, Smarrdag has put up a Shield spell (my own spell, not in the Chainmail rules) to protect against Alethea's Fireballs and Centaur arrows. His orc archers are desperately defending him against the oncoming dwarven assault. The youngest and fastest Centaur, Maeylee, darts forward around the shield to do some split move archery in the hopes of putting an arrow through Smarrdag. Sadly she fails, but returns safely to the rest of the Centaur unit.
Smarrdag will go on to kill a bunch of the dwarves with Lesser Lightning Bolts (a modification on the standard Lightning Bolt spell). The dwarves fail their morale check and are driven away. However, Smarrdag sees that the battle is rapidly going downhill for his side. He orders the orc archers to do "a tactical withdrawl" with him.
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Alethea will severely damage the skeletons with a Fireball, and the Noldor with destroy the remainder of the skeletons. The Centaurs severely damage the small remnant of the orcs remaining on that wing of the battlefield and they retreat in haste.
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Likewise, in the center, the Dwarven infantry and archers heavily damage the orcs there, and the surviving orcs flee the battlefield. The Forces of Good have triumphed over the marauders of the Dark Lord....for now.....
I had a great deal of fun with this simple, solo scenario. There is more to come!
Fight On!!!
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