Helvetica Campaign Update: Wherein I Name the Tribes and Determine Their Attitudes Towards Riesling

Earlier this week,  I rifled through some back issues of Lone Warrior, looking for an article on a colonial campaign I recalled reading.

The article in question, Dhunda Revisited by Kevin White, appears in issue #178. In the article, Mr. White expounds on a system wherein his country is divided into five tribal areas and how he determines their attitude toward the British, as well as the means by which those attitudes change.

There's more - it's a long article by Lone Warrior standards - including a supply mechanism, which I may or may not adopt (another article in the same issue, by George Arnold, reminded me that each of us has a different tolerance for the details included in a campaign; too many fiddly bits can sap the inspiration).

In any case, I set about creating the lizard folk tribes and their territories for the entire island. This was done by tracing the existing map and then demarcating and labeling the territories on the new map.

The names I have given below are not the tribal names in their native tongue but short hand names given by the original explorers of the island in the 1790s. The indication of Hostile, Neutral or Friendly followed by a number has to do with their current opinion of Riesling.

Northern Tribes - All formerly allied with Sauvignon-Blanc

• Slitherin - Hostile 4. The shaman of the opening conflict of this campaign was a Slitherin. Of course.
• Serpentors - Hostile 3.
• Cobra La - Neutral 3.
• Cobra Kai - Neutral 3.

Central

• Zartanians (formerly allied with Sauvignon-Blanc) - Neutral 2.
• Dragon Fist (allied with Riesling) - Friendly 4.

Southern Tribes - All allied with Riesling

• Ornithromyans - Friendly 4.
• Unch-unch-unch - Friendly 3.
• Saurons - Friendly 3.

The scale for attitude is based on Kevin White's system of card draws as follows (from most friendly, Friendly 1, to most hostile, Hostile 4):

1. Friendly 1
2. Friendly 2
3. Friendly 3
4. Friendly 4
5. Neutral 1
6. Neutral 2
7. Neutral 3
8. Neutral 4
9. Neutral 5
10. Hostile 1
11. Hostile 2
12. Hostile 3
13. Hostile 4

Major victories for the Riesling forces shift all attitudes towards Friendly, while major losses shift all attitudes towards Hostile (to quote Mr. White, "None of the tribes will want to be allied with someone perceived as weak.")  Minor victories or setbacks have little effect on the broader sentiment, but will effect the specific tribes involved.

Another Page from Featherstone : The Riesling Order of Battle on Helvetica

In the first Battle for Helvetica (see the Campaigns link at the top of the blog), I had a very fluid roster of who was in charge of what. 

For this campaign to maintain control of the island, I decided to set out my officers and NCOs in advance, as per Featherstone in the Domestic Wargaming  and Personalized Wargaming chapters of Solo Wargaming and again in Personalized Wargaming in Advanced War Games: Ideas for Wargaming.

The chart was created in LibreOffice Writer, using the drawing tools. The lines appear somewhat jagged in the picture, but are not that way in the document - a result likely due to the process of converting it into an image. It took some 2  hours to create the chart itself, with most of the time figuring out how to fit it all on one .page, and another hour or so to pick all of the names. Only a small handful were identified in the previous campaign.

The names are a taken from German and Austrian (and I think one Bavarian) philosophers, scientists, mathematicians,  composers, political theorists and anarchists. 

For the organization generally speaking, I relied on the rather broad strokes painted in Soldier's Companion and some research conducted online before the start of the original campaign. If I recall, there was no Regiment No. 129 in the Prussian army of the late 19th century which is why I chose it (certainly there was no Helvetica Regiment!). As this is an Imagi-nation, I'm not going to get too worked up about how accurate I am, in any case.

You will notice (if you click the image to enlarge it and then squint a bit) that Heidegger is actually a Lt. Colonel but is referred to as Colonel. He is in fact, the Lt. Col of Regiment No. 129, but is in charge of the combined forces on the island and is thus has the responsibilities of a Colonel.

I hesitated filling in all of the names in advance but figured it would save me time later.

The only corporals (Gefreiter) not identified are those of the Helvetican Feld Kompanies. This is because this is a position held by a native lizard warrior loyal to Riesling and their names are somewhat convoluted when translated to English from their native tongue. They are often quite gruesome as well (you may recall the Sauvignon-Blanc lizard scout, "he who eats the eyes of his enemy").

I do wonder if I shouldn't make a separate blog for Helvetica and any related campaigns but I'm not sold on that idea yet.

Helvetican Messiah: A Space: 1889 Soldier's Companion Session Summary

You can read the setup for the following engagement in this post.

Major Carnap, valued for his expertise in linguistics as for his military mind, was the officer tasked with travelling with Zug 13 (of Carnap's own 7th Kompanie) to find the lizard shaman attempting to foment rebellion in the northern tribes, formerly in allegiance to Sauvignon-Blanc.

They approached the first village from the south, along a "road" (not much more than a wide cart path, here and there "paved" with flat stones) constructed in an attempt to increase trade with the tribes by the Sauvignon-Blanc government, .

The police force entered the village and encountered much apathy, but no hostility nor sign of the shaman.

Choosing to avoid, for now, a point between the dense jungle to his North East and the village just beyond, Carnap led his men down the westward fork of the road. Unfortunately, this was another prime ambush location and in fact, it turned out to be just that.

A fierce battle ensued, but the well trained Riesling force repelled the attackers.

Carnap noted Feldwebel Hankel's fine accounting of himself in bringing down several of the lizard folk handily. Their numbers reduced, the attackers faded back into the dark shadows of the thick and twisted jungle.

The village to the North West proved to be unfruitful as the first. Rather than return by the road to proceed to the North East village, Carnap led his men across the brush and marsh. As they approached the third and final village, and the likely hiding place of the shaman, the platoon formed line.

This was to be of little help as the ambushing force which had earlier fled, had not done so in fear, but in an effort to regain surprise.

Again the battle was hard fought, and this time, Carnap's patrol was forced to fall back in disorder.

 However, his skill as a commander allowed him to rally his troops, advance and reform into a firing line before the lizards knew what hit them, literally. The lizard folk were shot to pieces before the few survivors disappeared again.

To the surprise of all concerned, the third village was not the hiding place of the shaman. Somewhat confounded, the march back to the fort was ordered. 

As the platoon passed the previously avoided jungle, lizard bowman unleashed a concerted attack.

Whether through the rush and excitement of battle or inability, their arrows were of no consequence and soon Carnap's men pushed the ambushers back.

The shaman present, they continued to press on after the tribesmen. Although the platoon suffered some loss (12.5% of the platoon), they routed the lizard shaman and his surviving warriors.

Because they failed to kill or capture the shaman, this counts as but a minor victory for Riesling. It remains to be told whether or not the shaman can rebuild his force and whether or not his message of revolt will spread among the northern tribes.

In the meantime, Colonel Heidegger (promoted after the final battle against Sauvignon-Blanc and the loss of Colonel Dietrech), back in his HQ at Gutenberg (see map), has received word from Major Kant, of 6th Kompanie, now stationed at the fort at Port Guillaume Le Roy, that some ranchers and farmers in the fertile grounds West of the city have been organizing resistance to Riesling's control of the island.

On top of this, the southern tribes, loyal to Riesling, have been clamoring for control of additional land to the north, at the expense of the northern tribes already there.

Heidegger has his hands full.

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For those wanting mechanics to appear in the narrative, I will post a follow up on what worked and what didn't. - JY