Continuing our detailed exposition of gameplay in Nevsky—Teutons and Rus in Collision. Part 3 covers storming an enemy garrison—including our first closeup look at the nature of forces and fortifications in the Levy & Campaign system. Part 1 here. Part 2 here. Note: All images below are playtest images, not final art.
We are within the Campaign portion of the 40-Day game turn. The Teutons have their final Command Activation, which will be Hermann, currently Besieging the Russian border Fort of Izborsk.
Hermann issues the final Teutonic Commands of the first 40 days.
Storming a Besieged Fort
Hermann clearly would like to wrap up the Conquest of Izborsk Fort before Gavrilo—lurking nearby at Pskov—might interfere. Forts are the smallest Fortifications depicted on the Nevsky map. Izborsk is undefended by anything more than its inherent Garrison. And Hermann has already prepared additional Siegeworks. Storming the Fort should be a tidy affair….
Knocking at the gates of Izborsk.
Hermann uses the first two of his three Actions to haul up some supplies from Dorpat and Odenpäh, then Commands his Forces to Storm Izborsk.
Consulting the game chart showing various Fortifications, we see that a Fort has the Capacity to hold just one Lord within it. We also see that a Fort is protected by Walls 1-2 and an inherent Garrison of a single Men-at-Arms unit armed with Crossbows (with -2 to the Attackers’ Armor). Conquering a Fort grants the victor a single Conquered marker for one Victory Point (1 VP), plus Spoils of one each Loot, Provender, and Coin if Sacked.
To play out the combat, we slide Hermann’s mat out to the side of the game board to face his enemy—in this case just a Garrison unit. Alternatively, we could leave Hermann’s mat in place and just put his Lord cylinder in the combat area of the table. We would then mark the combat Locale on the map with a round Storm marker, to remind us where Hermann is fighting. As a third alternative, for such an apparently simple combat situation, we might just roll dice and apply the effects.
Since we are sliding Hermann’s mat over for our illustration, we take along his attached Converts Capability card that is tucked under the mat, even though this card will not affect the combat: several Capabilities do affect Battle or Storm, so this card placement is just a matter of habit.
We also take the two gray Siege markers at Izborsk and place them in the combat area, immediately in front of Hermann’s mat. These Siege markers represent works prepared just outside the walls of the Fort—trenches, covering structures against archery, scaling ladders, perhaps a siege tower or siege engine, or even a mine dug under the wall. Hermann’s Forces will receive protection from these Siege markers, counterbalancing the protection that the Fort’s Walls will give the Garrison.
The combat Array for Hermann’s Storm of Izborsk.
With Hermann’s troops ready to Storm the Walls, let’s have a look at what they can do. The game’s Forces chart shows the various types of unit pieces, whether they Strike with Melee or Archery or both and how many Hits they cause, whether they get Armor or Evasion Defense rolls, and a few other details such as how various Capability cards might augment them. In practice, these unit characteristics quickly become second nature to players.
Units in combat Strike the enemy, generating a certain total of Hits. The enemy units then have the possibility to cancel Hits with Protection such as Walls or Armor. A unit that takes a Hit that is not somehow canceled is Routed. Routed units on a mat slide below the line into a Routed area, while Routed Garrisons are simply removed.
In each Round of Storm, units get to Strike in a particular Initiative order, as listed below. Arrows and bolts are faster than legs, so Archery Strikes before Melee; and within that, Defenders get to shoot first at the oncoming Attackers. Izborsk’s Crossbowmen will get the first shot of the Campaign!
We see from the Forces chart that the Men-at-Arms of a Garrison have Archery x1/2, with ‑2 to enemy Armor. Their Archery Strike will generate Hits equal to ½ Hit per unit, rounded up. One Men-at-Arms unit times ½ rounds up to a total of one Hit.
Before the Attackers assign that Crossbow Hit to a unit, their Siegeworks may protect them against it. Siegeworks have the same effect as a Fortification’s Walls; the more Siege markers, the better the protection. Two Siege markers, for example, act as Walls 1‑2. The Besiegers will get to roll a die for each Hit they are taking, and each roll of 1-2 in this case will cancel one of those Hits.
There is one Archery Hit, so the Teutons roll one die for Siegeworks 1-2. Note that the Crossbows -2 to Armor is irrelevant here: these are Siegeworks, not Armor. The roll is a 4, outside the 1-2 die roll range: the Siegeworks fail to cancel the Archery Hit.
Details of the Defender’s Archery Strike.
The Teuton player must now assign this one Hit to one of Hermann’s units. The player takes a slight risk and chooses the Knights unit. Knights have a better chance than other units of sustaining the Hit with their higher quality Armor—as well as of remaining on campaign after the Storm, should they Rout.
Per the Forces chart, Knights have Armor 1-4. The Garrison Men-at-Arms’ Crossbows -2 against enemy Armor means that the top of the Knights’ Armor die roll range of 1-4 is reduced by two, to become Armor 1-2. Note that Crossbows’ -2 modifier affects only Armor, so it would have no effect on, say, Unarmored Militia: their Unarmored Protection roll range of just 1 would remain just 1.
The Teuton player rolls against the Knights’ Armor modified by Crossbows to 1-2 and gets lucky with a roll of 1. Hermann’s Knights are well-enough armored and stalwart to carry on the fight despite the Crossbow bolts flying at them.
The next step in the Initiative order above would be Attacker Archery (step 1.b.). But Hermann has not brought any archers with him, so we move on to Melee by the Fortification Defender (step 2.a.).
The Defending Men-at-Arms unit Strikes with one Hit. The Attackers’ Siegeworks protect against Melee just as against Archery – they represent the preparation of towers, ladders, or other implements helpful in physically storming the walls, or in countering the defenses that make it more difficult to come to grips with those inside. In this case, the roll of 5 exceeds the 2 Siege markers, so this Protection has no effect. The Teutons must assign the Hit to an Attacking unit.
Hoping to shield their less robust units, the Teutons throw the Knights first into the breach. This time, they are thrown back: a roll of 5 falls outside the Knights’ 1-4 Armor Protection range. They Rout – the player slides the Knights piece on Hermann’s mat back behind the line, into the Routed area.
Hermann’s Knights Rout during the Melee with Izborsk’s Garrison
Despite that setback, the Knights’ sacrifice makes way for the rest of the army to come to grips with the Garrison. We are now at the Initiative steps in which the Attackers get to Strike in Melee (2.b. and 2.c.; that the Attacking Horse is Striking before the Attacking Foot is irrelevant here, because all Fortification Defenders have already Struck). The five remaining Attacking units, per the Forces chart, Strike for a total of 4½ Hits, rounded up to five Hits (start at the circled A in the illustration below).
Forces Storming the Fort Strike in Melee and Rout the Garrison.
These five Attacking Hits must first get past the Fort’s Walls 1-2. The Russian player rolls five dice – 5, 4, 5, 3, 2 (letter B in the illustration). Only the last of the five rolls falls within the Walls 1-2 range, so the Fort’s wooden walls have cancel only one Hit, leaving four Hits that the Russians must assign to the single Garrison Men-at-Arms unit.
Men-at-Arms have Armor 1-3 (letter C). The Russians roll four dice, one for each Hit against the unit – 1, 1, 6, 5. The Armor negates two of the Hits, but the other two Hits are more than enough to Rout and remove the single Garrison unit. Izborsk falls!
To review what we have just done, backing out from the Initiative sequence that we looked at above with a pink background, here is the section of the Battle and Storm player aid sheet covering a Round of Battle or Storm.
Further down that aid sheet we find aspects of ending a Battle or Storm relevant to us now, as shown below (the righthand sections refer to Storm). A side loses a Battle or Storm when all its Forces Rout, so the Besieged Defenders have lost. Izborsk will be Conquered and Sacked.
First, though, Hermann’s Routed Knights must roll to see whether they have taken so many casualties—or become so dispirited—that they are not longer effective on this campaign. Such Loss rolls are against each Routed unit’s inherent Protection range, in this case, the Knights’ 1-4 Armor.
The Teutonic player rolls one die: a 6! The player must remove the Knights piece to the pool. Hermann’s expected tidy capture of Izborsk has cost him his best warriors!
The Routed Knights check for Loss—on an unlucky roll, they are removed from the campaign!
On the bright side for Hermann, he now receives the credit for his Victory as well as the Spoils. All Fortifications in the game, plus key Trade Routes, are worth Victory Points (VP) as shown on the Fortifications chart as well as by the number of borders around a boxed title at that Locale on the map.
Forts are worth one VP. The Teutonic player places one black (for the Teuton side) Conquered marker at Izborsk and places the black circular Victory marker at 1 on the Calendar. Izborsk will not function as a Teutonic Fort.
Hermann has Conquered Izborsk.
Finally, Hermann Sacks the Fortification, obtaining Spoils: Loot, Provender, and Coin each equal in number to the VP value of the place. Had the Fort Surrendered to Hermann’s Siege, the necessary Terms would have denied the Conquerer these Spoils; but Hermann’s troops have paid the price in blood and so claim their rewards. The player adds a Loot marker, a fifth Provender, and a Coin marker to Hermann’s mat.
Hermann has reached the end of his Command card’s actions. Only the usual matter of Feeding, Paying, and Disbanding remains—as Hermann did fight. As silver lining of sorts, the Loss of his Knights did diminish the number of troops that he must Feed to just few enough (five units) to require only one Provender instead of two. The player removes the fifth Provender just taken in the Sack, leaving four Provender on Hermann’s mat.
The Teutonic player now has an opportunity to pay Hermann to extend his Service. Loot can be used to pay Lords only at Friendly Locales. Hermann at Izborsk is in Russia, but the status of the Fort as Conquered by the Teutons makes the Locale Friendly to him. The player could spend either or both the Loot and the Coin to shift Hermann’s Service marker on the Calendar by one box each to the right, to help ensure that Hermann stays in the fight.
The player declines to spend any Assets now. Spending Loot can extend the Service all several Lords present; the Teuton player will wait until Yaroslav has rejoined Hermann and give them both the Loot then. With regard to the Coin, Hermann can always spend Coin on himself in a future Pay step if required; the Teutons may need the Coin for Yaroslav instead, so better to hang on to it for now. No Disband is called for at this time, so Hermann’s Command is over. His mat appears as below.
Spoils of War.
We have completed our detailed run through the Storming of a Fortification. In Part 4, we will observe Gavrilo’s riposte and how Lords go at one another in open field Battle!
Articles in this Series: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5
Author: Volko Ruhnke
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