Hostile Realms wargames rules and... Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen!

 For any of you not familiar with it, the original story (Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen)  was by the late H. Beam Piper, and is a great yarn. The basic premise of the series is that Calvin Morrison, a Pennsylvania State Trooper, is accidentally caught up in a paratemporal transport device, and deposited in a Pennsylvania contemporaneous but parallel to ours, radically different than here-and-now, because of the impact of events that went differently than in our own time-line, chief among them being that the great Aryan migrations went East across the Pacific land bridge rather than West into Europe and the Middle East. The technological level of the timeline is roughly equal to that of the late 1500’s. In the particular sub sector that Calvin finds himself thrown into, a theocracy has developed based upon the closely held secret of Gunpowder composition and manufacture. The House of Styphon has ruthlessly used it’s stranglehold on Gunpowder, as well as its resultant great wealth, to manipulate kings and kingdoms for their benefit and profit. Calvin arrives in the beleaguered Kingdom of Hostigos, under attack by the allies of Styphon. Dubbed “Lord Kalvan” by the Hostigi, he brings his 20^th century knowledge to bear, and sets up manufacture of superior gunpowder (which is called “fireseed” in this setting), as well as introducing other innovations. In addition to frustrating the machinations of Styphon’s House, he makes an undying enemy of the priesthood by revealing the Fireseed secret to all the nations, free, as well as confiscating the vast wealth of the temples of Styphon in the territories of the kingdoms he defeats.

John Carr, himself a wargamer as well as an established author, has written a number of excellent sequels to the original story: “Great King’s War”, “Kalvan King Maker”, and  “Siege of Tarr-Hostigos”, "Fireseed War", and "Gunpowder God".  The battle to be fought on the tabletop, The Battle of Ardros Field, is taken from the third book. A lot more information about the books, Kalvan’s world, and H. Beam Piper himself, along with ordering information is available at John’s Website, hostigos.com.  Here are some images of the new books, in order (I hope!):

and the original paperback, still in my collection:

    After suffering a series of stunning reverses, Styphon’s House has pulled out all the stops. They have recruited, bribed, and otherwise assembled the biggest army ever seen in Otherwhen North America, the “Grand Host of Styphon”, in order to defeat the “usurper” Kalvan once and for all. Composed of troops using a great variety of combat styles, and driven by Roxthar, Chief Investigator (think the Spanish Inquisition, only worse) and High Priest of Styphon, the stage is set for a battle of epic proportions.  (A slightly different version of this report is posted at John's  Hostigos.com  site under "Wargaming").

Roxthar bearing a burning brand to assist in motivating the subjects of his “investigation”, and a typical High Priest of Stytphon, living off the fat of the land!

The Battle of Ardros Field

We had a great turnout  for the game, run at Historicon in Lancaster, PA, in 2008. I think we had about 10 players.Here my Band of Brothers 2^nd edition co-author, Ken Baggaley considers his deployment.

He and his son, Brian, had the Styphoni right wing. This consisted of Ros Zarthani mercenaries (think Late Romans or Byzantines) and the very tough Ros Zarthani Knights (think Teutonic Knights, in this case a Military Order that is part of the military arm of Styphon, the other part being the Temple Guards). Joe and Barry can be seen re-hydrating after the intense work of setting up the game whilst looking on as the Sacred Squares of Hos Ketmos (think Spanish Tercios) complete their deployment, supported by the Halberd armed Temple Guards on the ridgeline.

View of the Right wing of the Grand Host of Styphon!

Here is a long view of the table, with the Styphoni Left flank also completing final deployment. The walled Villa to the front of Kalvan’s line is fortified and crammed with heavy guns, destined to take a heavy toll from the enormous but densely packed Sacred Squares opposite them, which advanced upon the Villa with  ponderous slowness.

The Left wing of Kalvan’s army, including half of his Royal army (represented by English Civil War type troops) as well as the Pricely army of old Hostigos and the relatively primitively armed Uthori infantry (mostly crossbows and halberds). The generals of the Left wing appear confident in their deployment, designed to maximize their considerable advantage in firepower, don’t they?

An earlier playtest suggested that Kalvan's forces needed fewer numbers but better firepower, so I tweaked the stats a bit for this game.

Here is Kalvan’s Center, Reserves, and right wing, with their Generals. These guys don’t look nearly as confident of their situation, do they?  More Royal Infantry, the  afore mentioned guns, and assorted mercenaries comprise the Center, while Queen Rylla and Sarask of Sask hold their forces in reserve on the ridge. On the far right is the Uthori Cavalry “Iron hats” plus the princely infantry and cavalry of Nostor and Kyblos. The numerous small cards seen on the table have the statistics for each unit and leader. The color of the base is the same for all units of a command group, as well as the leaders. While a bit less scenic, these cards greatly facilitated play.

Hostile Realms, by yours truly, was published in 2009 and uses (essentially) the Initiative system of Brent Oman’s Field of Battle. That is, the opposing Commanders in Chief (in this case Great King Kalvan and Captain General Phidestros, commander of the Grand Host) dice off against each other using their Leadership Die (LD). Kalvan was rated the best possible, D12+1, while Phidestros merited a competent D10. The difference in scores is the number of cards that each side will be allowed to turn and act on for that phase, with the high scorer choosing to go first or second.

As a rule, the Hostigos forces tended to have better Command Group and Wing Leaders, although this was not universally true. Again like FoB,  each time a MOVE card is turned, ALL the Command group leaders for that side roll their individual Leadership Die against an opposing six sided die. A LD roll of 1 means no movement for that Command Group on that card. Otherwise, a difference of up to 3 means one Move segment for that command, a difference of 4, 5, 6, or 7 results in 2 move segments, and a difference of 8 or more grants 3 segments. If a Command Group wins 2 or more segments, they can use one of them to change facing or formation, and some types (like Pike Blocks and most Cavalry) can use such a segment to resolve Melee (hand to hand combat) immediately. The Wing Leaders were permitted to re-roll for ONE of their command Groups on each card at the discretion of the player.

The battle opened with Kalvan winning the first die roll (actually, I think he won almost all of the rolls the entire game). With his main strength being firepower, and the enemy being mostly out of range, he opted to let the Grand Host of Styphon (GHS) go first, rather than risk turning RELOAD cards that would be wasted with the enemy out of range. The right wing, under the command of Brian and Ken Baggaley, had very good leaders and excellent LD rolls. It stepped off to the attack with alacrity, while the Sacred Squares in the center lumbered slowly forward. On the left of the GHS, the leaders were rather poor and rolled many “1’s”, and were thus unable to take effective action. When the initiative passed on to Kalvan’s forces, they were fortunate to turn a number of RELOAD cards, both artillery and small arms, and, the enemy now coming in range, their fire caused devastation among the serried ranks of the Sacred squares, as well as the perhaps over boldly handled Ros Zathani cavalry.

Insult was heaped upon injury when the forces of Hos Hostigos turned the one BRILLIANT LEADER card in their deck, declaring it another Infantry Relaod card, thus allowing the Royal foot of their Left  to mow down more of the Ros Zarthani cavalry, their bows proving a poor response to the highly accurate Musket fire of the enemy. A MOVE card followed, and the infantry of the Left formed a salient to enfilade the hapless Ros Zarthani. Seizing the moment, the Kalvan’s elite Royal Cavalry galloped forth in a hell for leather charge upon the weakened Zarthani Kataphractoi, firing their pistols as they closed. Although their ranks had been thinned by the earlier musketry, the Kataphractoi seemed delighted to finally have an enemy that they could actually fight. Their heavier armor (and superior die rolling) promptly routed the Royal Horse, and they went streaming for the rear. Indeed, in this game each time an (on paper, excellent) Royal cavalry regiment charged enemy horse, it was soundly defeated. Maybe the Lance isn’t obsolete yet after all! Despite the failure of their Cavalry, the continued deadly firepower (and hot dice for firing) lead to the Left Wing of the Hostigos army soundly defeating the forces of Styphon, the entire wing eventually retreating off the boardcafter it ran out of Morale chips and then flubbed an Army (wing) morale check by a large margin.

Meanwhile, the Hostigi Right wing got off to an initial fast start, winning a number of cavalry melees against the princely forces of  Ketemos and its supporting troops. Kalvan’s right wing actually advanced rather aggressively, in part because the quality of the Leaders on the Styphoni left left almost as much to be desired as there poor die rolls! Then, realizing that the friendly troops were getting awfully close to the Enemy, the high priest of Priest of Dralm cast the powerful Level 4 spell, “Lightening Storm” upon the opposition. It did a moderate amount of damage to the troops within its 12 inch radius, but was not decisive. This spell represents a stratagem used by Kalvan in the book. He had selected the battlefield carefully, and dammed up a substantial stream, the water of the resultant lake being hidden behind the ridge line he occupied. At the right moment, the dam was to be blown, releasing a torrent of water, trees, rocks, and mud upon the enemy. 

Not a great photo, but to the left is a priest of Galzar, the War god, in his wolf headdress.  To the right is a Priest of Dralm, the All-father.

Despite this artifice (and a few lesser “Hailstorm” spells subsequently, which had very little effect upon the minions of the Gunpowder God), the forces of Styphon gradually rose to the occasion.  Their own Priest of Galzar “Blessed” several of their remaining cavalry units, and this seemed to have a most salutary effect, gaining the upper hand in a series of hotly contested melees.

Before long, they had soundly trounced the troops of Hos Hostigos, there being none of the crack Royal Infantry to hold it all together. That left the center…

The nearly unstoppable Sacred Squares of Hos Ketemos (Tercios) took a a heavy pounding as they slowly advanced across the field, one Tercio suffering 14 stands loss and STILL passing a Morale Challenge!

Fortunately for the forces of King Kalvan, the Center command ran out of Morale chips just before the Sacred Squares came within range of  Kalvan's battle line (the commanding general couldn't manage to win more than 1 move segment on a Move card). With the victorious Hostigos left flank sweeping down upon them (after the Styphoni right wing failed their Army (Wing) Morale check big time, the game was declared a victory for the forces of the former uptime Pennsylvania State trooper. All hail Great King Kalvan… and Down Styphon!

If you've never read this classic H. Beam Piper story, I would highly recommend it to you, as well as the excellent and much lengthier sequels by John Carr, himself a wargamer (see Hostigos.com for information).

I thought the Hostile Realms rules worked very well, especially for a game with about 70 units a side (and about 1500 figures total). Huge thanks once again to Joe and Barry for all their hard work setting up and taking down the game, as well as assisting the players with the rules. Both of you were indispensable!  Thanks alos to the members of the Hartford (CT) Area Historical Gaming Society (HAHGS) for their earlier playtest of this massive Battle back home!  In fact, here's a few more pics from the first playtest of the game with the HAHGS guys...

Barry, who was my chief local playtester, looks up some modifiers.

Broad view of the filed. This battle had so many units and leaders that the labels on the table, while not the most attractive thing in the world, were necessary to both identify the units and give their stats and command structure (all leaders and units in the same command have the same color label holders). 

The action is general, and... here are the Generals!

Hostile Realms Combat Tables, etc

For reference and those interested in the rules, here are all the key tables from the rules. Yes, there are quite a few of them, but they are quite easy to use once you play for a short while!

Movement Distances (in inches)
Unit Type:	Road Column	Skirmish, Whirling Mass	Battle Order	Pike Block	Battle Line	Hedgehog
Light Cavalry, Fliers	18	14	--	--	10	--
Extra Heavy Cavalry	12	--	8	--	6	--
Other Cavalry	16	--	10	--	8	--
All Infantry	12	10	8	8	6	None
Elephants and similar	12	--	--	--	6	--
Lt. Chariots (Heavy)	14	--	--	--	8 (6)	--
Heavy War Engine	8	--	--	--	--	--
Light War Engine	12	--	--	--	3	--
Heavy Guns	8	--	--	--	--	--
Medium Guns	10	--	--	--	2	--
Light and Organ Guns	12	--	--	--	3	--
Camelry	14	12	--	10	8	--
Beasts	14	varies	varies	--	varies	--
Character (Foot, EHC)	12	--	--	--	10	--
Character (other Mtd.)	16	--	--	--	14	--

Shield Wall reduces movement 50%. Boots of Speed increase move distances 50% Routers move at Road Column rate.

Movement in Class IV terrain – Modified Difficulty Die vs D8
Modifier	Down 3	Down 2	Down 1	NC	Up 1	Up 2	Up 3
Troop Type	War Eng., XHvy Cav.	Cavalry, Mounted Characters	Dense Shock Infantry	Infantry	Skirmish Infantry	Characters on Foot
Formation	Hedgehog	Pike Block	Battle Line	Whirling Mass	Battle Order	Skirmish, Town	Road Column
Terrain Type		City Wall: man-made	Water, Swamp, Hill	Wood/ Hedge
Activity			Entering	Crossing	Exiting

TERRAIN EFFECTS ON MOVEMENT AND COMBAT
Class	Description	Order Effect	Move Effect	Fire Effect	Melee Effect
I	Open	None	None	None	Up one die type if opposing unit only is in Class I.
II	Broken ground, hill, low wall, creek, light woods	None	Stop at contact Chariots only: ½ speed	Down one die type for firer.	None
III	Forrest, steep hill, high wall, house, hedgerow, stream, breach in fortifications	All except Skirmish Order and Characters lose Command; PB, MC, HC, EHC: Disordered on entry Others: no effect.	Stop at contact, then ½ speed (Skirmish Order, Characters full speed). EHC, War Wagons, Engines of War treat as Class IV. Chariots may not enter or melee into Class III.	Down two die types for firer.	Down one die type for Attacker.
IV	Dense wood, villas, shallow river, rough hill, trenches	All lose Command; Characters, Skirmish: no effect MC, HC: Disordered. Others: Unformed.	Stop at contact. Roll Terrain Difficulty Die Half speed for all. PB, EHC, War Wagons, Engines of War, and Chariots may not enter or melee.	Down three die types for firer.	Down two die types for Attacker.
V	Uncrossable mountain, Fort, Impassable water or cliff, bridge, etc.	Impassable to all.	No move, other than by road.	As above.	No melee.

MISSILE FIRE TABLE: Adjusted DV for Fire vs. Target D6
	Down 3	Down 2	Down 1	NC	Up 1	Up 2
Firer’s Angle			Inferior Position	Frontal	Rear	Flank
Firer's Status	Hero Firing	Champion Firing	Disordered, Unformed		Fliers firing from above
Firer’s Formation	Road Column	Battle Order	Skirmish, Whirling Mass	Battle Line, Town
Firer's Total Wounds	3+	2	1	None
Range		Long	Medium	Short	Point Blank	Point Blank - Guns
Cover of Target	IV or V	III	II	I (open)	Inferior Pos. #
Target Formation	Character (If not attached)	Shield Wall (frontal only)	Skirmish, Town	Battle Line, Whirling Mass	Battle Order	Road Column, Pike Block, Hedgehog
Dexterity of Attached Character				Impaired, Basic	Advanced	Expert
Relics		Shield of Might	Magic Shield		Magic Arrows	Arrows of True Flight
Armor Quality*		Extra Hvy.	Heavy	Medium	Light	None

*Note that gunpowder weapons treat all targets as having No Armor!

# Inferior Position = in a stream or ditch against units behind same; Downhill; Enemy charged downhill.

Nominal Losses	Skirmish Fire Effect Upon Target Unit					Challenge Die Type
		Unformed	Disordered	Wounds	Morale Chip
1 Wound		Yes	No	None	No	D4
2 Wounds		N/A	Yes	None	No	D4
3+ Wounds		N/A	Yes	1 Wound	1 lost	D6

Missile Ranges (increase 50% for Bow of Strength)

Weapon	Point Blank	Short	Medium	Long
Simple Bow	0 - 1"	1 - 2"	2 - 3"	3 - 6"
Advanced Bow	0 - 2"	2 - 4"	4 - 6"	6 - 8"
Long Bow	0 - 2"	2 - 4"	4 - 8"	8 - 12"
Repeating Crossbow	0 - 1"	1 - 2"	2 - 3"	3 - 6"
Light Crossbow	0 - 1"	1 - 2"	2 - 3"	3 - 6"
Heavy Crossbow	0 - 1"	1 - 2"	2 - 4"	4 - 8"
Pistols	0 - 1"	1 - 2"	2 - 4"
Handgun	0 - 1"	1 - 2"	2 - 4"	4 - 6"
Arquebus	0 - 2"	2 - 4"	4 - 6"	6 - 8"
Javelins	0 - 1"	1 - 2"	-	-
Darts and Spear-throwers	0 - 1"	1 - 2"	2 - 3"	-
Grenades, Hand Bombs	0 - 1"	1 - 2"	2 - 3"	-
Pilums, Throwing Axes, etc.	0 - 1"	-	-	-
Sling	0 - 1"	1 - 2"	2 - 4"	4 - 8"
Light War Engine	0 - 2"	2 - 4"	4 - 8"	8 - 12"
Heavy War Engine	0 - 2"	2 - 4"	4 - 8"	8 - 16"
Ribaldequin (Organ Gun)	0 - 6"	6 -12"	-	-
Sakers (Light Guns)	0 - 6"	6 - 12"	12 - 18"	18 - 24"
Culverins (Medium Guns)	0 - 9"	9 - 18"	18 - 24"	24 - 32"
Bombards (Heavy Guns)	0 - 10"	10 - 21"	21 - 28"	28 - 36"

Units firing while mounted are restricted to Point Blank, Short, and Medium ranges.

** For Kalvan Games:
 Musket range bands are PB 0-3", Short 3-6", Medium 6-9", and Long 9-12"
 Rifled Musket Range Bands are  PB 0 - 4.5", Short 4.5 - 9", Medium 9 - 13.5", Long 13.5 - 18"
Kalvan's troops are Up 1 for firing small arms and artillery for his superior gunpowder

Reloading Organ Guns

Should an Organ Gun roll a natural die score of "1" when firing and the target D6 roll is a 4, 5 or 6, the guns explode and are removed from play!

Counter Battery Fire by War Engines & Guns

1 – 2 Hits = War engine/Gun is unformed.

3 – 5 Hits = War engine/Gun is disordered.

6 – 8 Hits = War engine/Gun is disordered and suffers a wound.

9+ Hits = War engine/Gun is destroyed. Remove the unit from the table.

Melee Resolution – Both sides roll Modified Melee dice
Modifier	Down 3	Down 2	Down 1	NC	Up 1	Up 2	Up 3
Situation	-3 wound difference	-2 wound difference	-1 wound difference	Equal Force	Initiate Melee, Superior #s
Terrain or Position		vs. IV	vs. III	Equal/ vs II	vs I; Favored Terrain	Flank	Rear
Unit Formation	Road Column		Skirmish	Bat Line, Town	Battle Order	Pike Block	Hedge hog
Unit Condition		Disordered	Unformed		Superior Position	Berserkers
Interaction & Deployment	Beasts, Mtd. vs. Pike (frontal only)		Cavalry vs. Elephants, Beasts or Hedgehog		Polearms or Spear vs. Mounted or Beasts; Superior Weapon	Cavalry vs. Chariots
Strength Attached Character				Impaired, Basic	Advanced	Expert
Enemy Armor		Extra Heavy	Heavy, Shield Wall	Medium	Light	None
Relics		Shield of Might	Magic Shield		Magic Sword	Sword of Might

Note that Artillery/War Engines and unwounded Champions (having only 2 Wounds), and Heroes (having only 1 Wound), will count the modifier for -2 wound difference or -3 wound difference respectively, when fighting an unwounded (4 Wound) unit. Pike Blocks ignore the first wound for this purpose.

Pike Blocks count as two units for the purpose of the Superior Numbers modifier, and resolve melee differently.

Pikes and Polearms always get the Up 1 for initiating Melee against Cavalry, never the other way around.

Superior Weapon: For infantry vs. infantry and cavalry vs. cavalry melees - Weaker weapons are to the left:

For infantry: 1.Improvised 2.Sword 3 Spear 4 .Polearm 5. Pike

For cavalry: 1. Improvised 2. Sword 3. Spear 4. Light lance 5. Heavy lance

A few situations do not require a Melee card, including flank and rear attacks, attacks upon Disordered enemy units, cavalry attacking Skirmish Infantry. Otherwise, a Melee card is required to initiate Melee combat. Cavalry, Pike Blocks and some infantry in Battle Order can use a Move segment as a Melee card when winning two or more segments.

Pursuit ChecK – Morale die (UP 1 if attached Character) vs. D6

Exceptions to Pursuit Checks: The following circumstances will cause a unit not to make a pursuit check.

1) Another unrouted enemy unit is in contact with the unit 2) Another unrouted enemy unit is within 1/2 move distance of the checking unit. This is half the movement distance of the checking unit, not the enemy unit. This can be in any direction. 3) Unit is a Character, War Engine, Gun or in Hedgehog formation. 4) Unit is behind CLASS II or higher linear defensive position. (i.e. walls, earthworks, etc) 5) Defeated unit is a Character. 6) Unit is immune to Morale Checks. Such units do not check for Pursuit, unless otherwise specified.

Leadership Test – Modified Leadership Die vs. D6
	Down 2	Down 1	NC	Up 1	Up 2
Unit Condition	Routed	Disordered	Out of Command
Attempting to ...			Assert Command, Rally*	Supersede or Relinquish Cmd.
Nearest Threat		In contact	<1 move	<2 moves	> 2 moves

* Attached Commander gives Up 1 to all Rally attempts. Leader has Helm of Leadership: Up 1

Morale – Modified Morale die vs Wounds, “Other” DD, or Challenge die type
	Down 3	Down 2	Down 1	NC	Up 1	Up 2
Formation		Road Column	Skirmish	Battle Line	Battle Order, Town	Hedgehog, Pike Block
Status or Deployment		Disordered	Out of Command		Shield Wall
Flank Protection			None	1 Flank	Both
Losses this Initiative	-3+ wounds	-2 wounds	-1 wounds	None
Initial Strength		-3 wounds	-2 wounds	-1 wound	Full
Charisma of Attached Character				Impaired, Basic	Advanced	Expert
Nearest Threat		Invol. Inter-penetration	In contact, routers close	<1 move	<2 moves	>2 moves
Relics			Enemy Helm of Fear w/in 12”		Friendly Helm of Blessing w/in 12”

Roll vs. Wounds scored (none D4, one D6, two D8, three D12) for Tactical Moral Check, vs. enemy “Other” Difficulty die for Courage Checks, and vs. Challenger’s die type for a Morale Challenge:

Character w/ Advanced Renown D4 Medium Cavalry, Camelry D6

Character w/ Expert Renown, Light Chariots D6 Heavy Cavalry, Extra Heavy Cavalry D8

Elephants, Heavy Chariots, Beasts D8 Scythe Chariots, Large Creatures D10

* See section 13.1and 13.2 for details of the Tactical Morale Check and Morale Challenge, and 8.1 for Courage!

SPELL CASTING TABLE: Modified CDV vs. D6 or counterspeller’s Modified CDV
Modifier	Down 3	Down 2	Down 1	NC	Up 1	Up 2
Spell level		Level 4	Level 3	Level 2	Level 1
Caster Level			Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4
Range to point of Impact		24 to 48”	12 to 24”	6 to 12”	Up to 6”	Self or Contact
Base Target Magical Resistance*	Extreme	High	Medium	Low	None
Aid		Target w/ Ring of Might	Being Counter spelled; Target w/ Magic Ring		Caster w/ Ring of Power	Caster aided by friendly Wizard

When characters are attached to units, use which ever is higher of character or unit base resistance. Spells that affect all units/characters within an area use the resistance of the most resistant effected character/unit. 

For summoning spells, spells that target terrain and counterspelling consider the magical resistance to be as follows:

Low	Level 1 Summoning Spell	Level I Terrain	Counterspelling
Medium	Level 2 Summoning Spell	Level II Terrain
High	Level 3 Summoning Spell	Level III Terrain	Whole Board
Extreme	Level 4 Summoning Spell	Level IV/V Terrain

MAGICAL ATTACK TABLE: Modified Damage Die vs. D6
Modifier	Down 3	Down 2	Down 1	No Change	Up 1	Up 2
Cover of Target	IV or V	III	II	I
Target Formation		Shield Wall (Frontal only); Unattached Character	Skirmish, Town	Battle Line, Whirling Mass	Battle Order	Road Column Pike block, Hedgehog
Target Armor		Extra Heavy	Heavy	Medium	Light	None
Caster Dexterity			Impaired	Basic	Advanced	Expert

Unattached Characters suffer the full effects of a Magical Attack. Attached Characters are affected as set out in 7.43. Armor is ignored for Spell Seeker, Spell Seeker 2, Vortex, Earthquake and attacks caused by Wizard death (15.6). Casting catastrophe attacks (15.6) ignore armor but consider constitution: Expert down 2; Advanced down 1; Basic no change; Impaired up 1.

Here is a partial Hostile Realms style "Army List" for the forces of Hos-Hostigos:

Hos hostigos

A well organized army with full time Household (Royal) troops. Calvin Morrison, former Pennsylvania Sate Trooper, was unintentionally translated to a parallel time line. Arriving just in time to save the Princedom of Hostigos from its enemies, especially the forces of the “Gunpowder God”, Styphon,  he has risen to become Kalvan I, Great King of the new Greater Hostigos. He is anathema to the priests of Styphon’s house for revealing the secret of the Fireseed Mystery to the world, thus breaking Styphon’s monopoly on "fireseed".  They will stop at nothing to wipe him and his kingdom from the face of the earth!

Hos hostigos
Army Characteristics		Difficulty Dice		Magic Characteristics
Relic Divisor	3	Move in Class III/IV	D6	Wizard Aptitude Modifier	+1
		Engineering	D8	Maximum Wizard Level	IV
Leadership Roll	Add 2	Other	D8	Magic Resistance	Low

Sequence Deck Cards for hos hostigos
Basic Deck Cards		Recommended Optional cards
Army Morale	1	Berserker Action	1*
Courage!	1	Confused Withdrawal	1
Engines of War Reload	2	Crushing Missilery	1
Favor of the Gods	2	Engineering Phase	0
Fliers and Light Cavalry Move	1	Heroic Challenge	1
Heroic Moment	2	Ineffective Missilery	0
Leadership Check	3	Levy Apprehensive	0
Lull	1	Look to the King	1
Manna Recharge	1	Naval Phase	0
Maneuver	1	Pillage & Loot!	1
Melee	3	Rally Back	1
Move	3	Stratagem	0
Move 1 Command Group	2	Sneaky Criters	0-1
Missile Reload	3	Superstitions and Omens!	0
Crushing Missilery	1	Uncontrolled Charge!	1
		Undisciplined Advance	0
		Undisciplined Missilery	0
Basic Deck Total	28

Required Optional Cards: Add the Look to the King Card if the Kalvan is commanding the Army

Obligatory Optional Cards: Add Brilliant Commander card if Kalvan commands.

Variable Optional Cards: Take all of the Recommended Optional Cards and randomly draw up to 3 cards depending upon the number of Obligatory and Required Optional cards used. Add the 3 cards to the Basic Deck, making a total of 31.

Note: One less Courage! card and one less Army Morale card reflects the effects of Raxthar’s “Interogation” on the resolve of the troops. Berserker action only if Urgothi troops in army.

Army Rating table for ROYAL ARMY OF hos-hoStigos
Unit	Training Level  [Unit Type]	Formations & [Deployments]		Points		% Army Composition
Royal Foot #1	Elite [Infantry]	BL, BM, HH		Fearsome
Royal Foot #2	Elite [Infantry]	BL, BM, HH		Fearsome
Hostigos Rifles	Elite [Skirmish Infantry]	SK		Fearsome
Mounted Rifles	Guard [Dragoons}	BL		Fearsome
Mobile Force Pikes	Guard [Dragoons}	BL, BM		Fearsome
Mobile Force Shot	Guard [Dragoons]	BL, BM		Fearsome
Royal Cavalry	Elite [Heavy Cavalry]	BL, BM, CC		Fearsome
Hostigos Carabiniers	Elite [Heavy Cavalry]	BL, BM		Fearsome
Queen’s Beefeaters	Elite [Extra Heavy Cavalry]	BL, BM		Fearsome
Royal Light Gun	Elite [Light Gun]
Royal Medium Gun	Elite [Medium Gun]
Royal Heavy Gun	Elite [Heavy Gun]
King Kalvan
Queen Rylla
King Kalvan
Queen Rylla
Harmakros
Phrames
Unit	Weapons	Hits	AQ		Fire		Melee	Morale
Royal Foot #1	Musket, Bayonet	3	Medium		D12		D10	D8
Royal Foot #2	Pike	3	Medium		NA		D10	D8
Hostigos Rifles	Rifles	2	Light		D12+1		D4	D8
Mounted Rifles	Rifles, Sword	3	Medium		D12+1		D12	D10
Mobile Force Pikes	Pike	3	Medium		NA		D12	D10
Mobile Force Shot	Musket, Imp Weapons	3	Light		D12		D10	D10
Royal Cavalry	Pistols, Sword  (2nd for Caracole)	3	Heavy		D6/D10		D12/D8	D8
Hostigos Carabiniers	Musketoon, Sword	3	Heavy		D8		D12	D8
Queen’s Beefeaters	Lance	3	Extra Heavy		NA		D12+1	D8
Royal Light Gun	Light Gun, improvised weapons	3	Light		D8		D6	D8
Royal Medium Gun	Medium Gun, imp weapons	3	Light		D10		D6	D8
Royal Heavy Gun	Heavy Gun, improvised weapons	3	Light		D12		D6	D8
King Kalvan
Queen Rylla
Harmakros
Phrames
Tharses
Verrkan Vall

* = hits vary, see Character rules. Points are calculated as 3 hits to wound (average).

Fire, Melee, and Morale die types for Characters will be further modified by the results of the Character Generation process (section 7.4).

Good gaming to you all,

Peter Anderson