The Royal CryptoArmy campaign of the Great River March 22, 1623 - December 1623
How to play a Gamemaster (GM)
Judging the fates of half of our lands and troops requires a suitable inspiration, so I decided to do it on the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn. As the pundits have certainly noticed, the Great River has been inspired by this narrowish piece of water separating the people with a peculiar language in 2 parts, because of the strategic importance of the "end of the navigable body", which a Foreign Power has claimed.
Gamemastering is an art, and art is such that can be liked and disliked. Instead of just writing the story, I open now the whole process of how the story was gained. This is for a few purposes:
- To convince all that GM work is rigorous evaluation of circumstances and probabilities, and can be trusted.
- To be open for praise and criticism and proposals of alternative courses of events that might have been possible with the same roll.
- To teach the other admins, because the administering of more and more detailed actions (Kingdom level - Duchy - County - Estate - Farm) requires more GM's; it is impossible for the development of the game engine to keep up, and some things just require human work.
My style, especially as I am a player myself, is to make the rolls in what I call "need to know basis". This is to minimize the privileged information that I have, but others do not, even if they analysed everything that is publicly available. Usually I delay the rolls until the result can be published immediately.
16 rolls of d20 were needed, and an earlier roll that has not been disclosed yet is included as well for 17 total. It took 45 minutes to go through the war and peace negotiations, while sipping some Pannier with lightly roasted flounder.
To be able to follow the campaign, first I beg you to read the previous reports. Then: the locations are marked with codes. (A) is the most downstream and (E) most upstream :
A - Place called "Mouth of the River", "Threestone", "3-stone" and "Paldiski", a Swedish preparation site.
B - The site of the Final Battle.
C - Where NF forces met the river when coming from the north.
D - Stonehaven preparation site and camp. Previously used for NF, Tavastia, Petrichor river crossing to the north where they dispersed.
E - Believed to be the location of the Swedish preparation site "Gustaf Adolfsburg".
1. What happened to the Earl of Stonehaven?
1/20
Uh oh. If we did not have the explicit result that "nobody died when Stonehaven camp surrendered", this would have been one. So, instead: "The Earl said (in IRC) that he had been out surveying some land. So when he came back to the camp at dusk, he was met with a musket shot, he fell from his horse, was wounded from the shot and captured by the Swedish. Character:Health was reduced. The Swedish said that he was mistaken for a thief who are a nuisance.
2. GA treachery roll - did he fake the peace/alliance proposal?
14/20
No. GA is acting honestly and in good conscience.
3. Riga regiment awareness - how did they participate in the action?
20/20
When NL regiment went to the north last summer, the Riga regiment naturally sent a detachment to spy their every action. However the NL regiment seemed so quarrelsome and unprofessional and conducted peacefully towards the smaller garrison in (A) Threestone, the detachment finally dropped guard totally, leaving the guarding of NL regiment to the Threestone garrison and returned to the town Riga where it is much more fun to spend Christmas. No word reached them in time for anything else.
4. GA Threestone (A) reinforcement - when the ice melted, was the first thing coming huge reinforcements from Sweden proper?
19/20
No, nothing arrived. Perhaps he needs his troops elsewhere.
5. Swedish Middle Force (the 80 troops in Stonehaven camp (D)) aggression and focus?
11/20
With a small number they would have force-marched to (A) and captured it back, and high number would have made them go back from where they came. This time the result was interpreted that they stay where they are but 1/4 of the troops is sent back to the east, perhaps they were just to ensure the favorable result in capturing the Stonehaven camp (that surrendered without fight).
6. Swedish Middle Force formation?
19/20
High roll indicates that their objective was to prevent river-crossing, so they dispersed along the River. Small would have been to find a hedgehog defence position against CK assault. (It was chosen that the high roll is a worse decision for them and better for us, because units fight 1-on-1 and our units are weaker. Low rolls are by convention "bad" for the "friendly actor".) So after sending 20/80 of the soldiers to (E), the rest were dispersed between (B),(C),(D), and Zechariah with his RRF was preventing them from going south but too weak to attack them until the Main Army came. (Zech had known of the plan to send Main Army when he left.)
7. North Face Company initiative?
18/20
The Duke had sent orders for the Company to leave the preparations and come back. Even twice. The "initiative" is a general roll where the worst results in NF-style extreme conditions mean that the whole troop perished (and the fun is to make up the story how). Middle results would mean that they are ok, but not got the message, or delayed or whatever. 18/20 means that they arrive nicely at the scene right when needed, rested and ready, only a little bit west (C) from where they aimed at (D), because of navigation mistake.
8. Tavastia War Braves initiative?
9/20
Orders had not reached them so they continued preparations where they were, totally oblivious of fighting.
9. Had Tavastia camp encountered any Swedes?
20/20
This was important to find out to, for instance, know towards what direction the Swedes that we will soon decisively defeat, would like to retreat in utter disarray and devastation. If they had a camp in Tavastia, sightings would have been likely. The roll resulted in definite information that nobody of the peasants had seen any swedes in a year at least, in any area not in the vicinity of the River.
10. Main Army relocation initiative?
2/20
Oh no. Despite a slam-dunk move of a well prepared, huge and well-armed unit moving in good weather a small distance in a secured area starting from their own capital (with roadless rough terrain being the only possible problem), something can go wrong. What is it?
11. What is Main Army problem?
15/20
The former roll had already determined the approximate severity of the problem, so for this I drafted a list of many possible reasons why the move is delayed. 15/20 corresponded to problems with Rossiyans, so: Rossiyan bootleggers, swindlers, thieves, and even looters have infested the area making the coordination of the move north difficult and the camp needed to be in tight guard by night. In these conditions, a big army is easily slowed more than a small one, especially with a cautious CO (COL from RCA, ready to give his army intact to Zech when they meet by the River - which never happened).
12. What happened when NF force contacted the River?
20/20
Ohh-yees.. shame that there were so few enemies.. The North Face column numbered 50 soldiers and a large number of civilians, and the materiel train. They came to the river (C) seeing a few Swedes there, who panicked at the sight of such a great force from a surprising direction. Their behavior and peasant reports soon confirmed to North Face Company that hostilities are ongoing so in the ensuing action, NF crossed the river, captured some enemies, and made a contact with the RRF so that the River was held as follows:
(A) Still ours because none of the 3 threats materialised (200 BV)
(B) The western end of the Swedish, now surrounded by our larger forces from every side (60 BV)
(C) NF just secured this (110 BV)
(D) Enemy occupies this but with token force (80 BV) only
(E) The strength of the enemy forces here is unknown (need to know principle..)
And in addition in the plains in the south is the RRF (80BV), avoiding battle due to its mobility.
13. Disarm the Swedes in (B)?
5/20
Zechariah saw that the time had come for a push to the west, so deciding (I play Zech so can decide) to ignore the threat in the east (E) and the gaining back of the Stonehaven preparation site (D) and the release of Mooo's people and even the Earl himself, he got as much of the RRF to the west to join the NF Company there for the push towards the river-mouth (A). But there were some Swedes still in (B) that the RRF quickly gained and harassed from a distance. Neither side knew who possessed Threestone (A), both wanted to get there to find it out.
Not having superior mobility, and being 20 troops vs 70, the Swedish CO still did not want to surrender but demanded that if he wins the arranged field battle ("kamp"), he will be let free to go wherever he wished. (It is notable that the CO did not know that Sweden had declared war to us, nor us to them, from his understanding the HKM Eastern Army had acted on their own initiative (to capture Mooo's camp in (D), but very rapidly met with enemy (our) forces from both north and south, making the position disastrous.
14. The Battle: 20 Swedes against The Duke of North Face Company in (B)
16/20
The Swedish were brave at first, some even believed in their victory as they did not know how large our North Face company (a single unit) was. But 50/20 (and a lesser difference in BV) was too much. Once the battle was declared started, the Musketeers started to shoot at the NF forces, who were running directly towards the Swedish line (not possessing firearms, so needing to get to melee). 1*SGT + 2*PTE died of their wounds from the fire and fight, about half of the Swedes were incapacitated before the rest were taken prisoner. 5 functioning muskets were confiscated.
15. Does GA know of the situation in the Mouth of the River when the peace delegation comes?
5/20
Note: Riga was occupied by the Swedish company but because of the earlier roll, they did not have initiative so let our delegation pass without anything. GA does know that the Rivermouth was captured by force, and does not know yet about anything in further east. The sailing ships cannot sail through ice, which had blocked all communications to him until end-of-March and NL Regiment in (A) and RRF (south of C-D), Rossiyan marauders (between Kunda and D) and the readiness in CryptoTown prevented sending messagers that way. The north route on foot would have been too long anyway.
16. GA response to our accepting of his Treaty without modifications?
12/20
"Thank you." He knows how many assets he has in the east (we still don't), sees riverside (A) in our hands (which he knows from time delay calculations, was captured before the forces doing it could have known of his treaty proposal), knows his overall situation, and can interpret the treaty however he wishes because it was so broad. With a very low number (given that GA is not treacherous as per earlier roll, which would have further complicated the matter), he would have declined the entrance of the delegation based on "CK hostilities" and sent all his 1,000 extra BV from Stockhold alone to clear the river in the same year still. (The low roll would have indicated that such forces exist - now we can deduce from all the rolls that GA might be strong or still in preparation, but a war in the River with CK is not his highest wish. Since he does not abhor war, the hesitation has to be with the River, or with CK.)
17. Is GA quick or hesitating with submitting himself to the treaty (SCI help to us)?
18/20
HKM Gustaf Adolf makes possible all that he can, that we get the following Foreign Power credits starting 1624:
Printing Press 5,000 SCI (total 10k)
Seafaring 10,000 SCI (total 20k)
Engineering 5,000 SCI (total 10k)
He toured the delegation in the Royal Academy of Science and other institutions in Stockholm (which was seen to be a town 1-2x the size of CryptoTown and remarkably similar in other ways as well, except being located at a strategic place opposite to Riga and - depending on conditions - only 1-2 weeks by sail. The town is undergoing a preparation against threats both from land and sea, fortifications, cannons, walls, towers, gates, but these were not discussed).
The delegation gave the valuable gifts including old spirits and Ming China, whose value exceeded the 500*KMT that HKM already had sent to us (the gifts came from HM stores who also took possession of the KMT because "University has no need for it").
Approx 800 sqm of very valuable land was apportioned to be our Embassy site in Stockholm and they promised that master craftsmen will build it against us doing "likewise" to them.
Good that our delegation was so large, because a part of it was now staying in the temporary embassy with The Duke of New Liberty as the Ambassador. A part was left home to relay the info to the King and get the research going, and a further part was sent with Swedish military attachés to the River to declare peace to all the troops there.
The "River Peace Delegation" got to the Mouth of the river easily, and met the Duke of NL Regiment garrisoning Paldiski preparation site (A). They had no way but to accept its return to the Swedes with PRE and NPC intact. The captured muskets were said to have been sent to CryptoTown already (which both sides knew was a lie but we had 200+ BV onsite, the Swedes a few officers and a scroll of parchment with several seals).
Next they met the advancing NF Company right outside (A). They accepted the end of hostilities and Zech sent them to CryptoTown because of their orders to go there anyway. Going to the east, almost no contact to any troops was made until reaching Gustaf Adolfsburg outposts (E). They denied further entry and promised to obey the treaty. Our troops were left occupying the area from (B) to (D). The imprisoned Stonehaven camp had been evacuated to (E) when the fortunes had changed for the Swedes. They were released, no one was missing, and The Earl was alive yet weakened.
Zechariah thought that the peace was fragile. As when, coming back from (E), the Main Army finally started to show up in (D), he decided to stay there over the winter, commanding the Royal 1st Regiment (260+ BV, with 6 sections, 6 cannons, mercs, COL, LTC) in person. He took half of the muskets that had been captured and some horses of the RRF (horses had also been pressed for duty during the campaign) and established a hedgehog defence in Stonehaven preparation site with stationary cannons, aimed at monitoring the Swedish transit of the river (which would quickly freeze, allowing easier sightings of the moves as they cannot be hidden in boats), and securing crossing, and establishing contact with Tavastia camp which was still in hiding. All these included, about 350 BV was now garrisoning the Mooo site, which would be significantly harder to capture the next time...
The rest of the troops were sent home before the winter for regroup and promotions. Following exhortations were messaged:
- The threat of Rossiyans is probably not sanctioned by their leaders, it is just local warlords taking advantage of the unclear situation and at enmity with anyone.
- If possible, the Royal Unicorn could be of use (as NF also had a gold unicorn).
- Please liquidate my Wine & Spirits store. It is fitting for a Field Commander to drink expensive drinks, but not fitting to do business with them. Leave 2,000 bottles for my personal use and send some here for the officers, especially if I must stay here during the Jubilee as well.
17/20
As a result of having the mercenaries around, and the captured muskets as well, and plenty of time for drill and disassemble, a whole 7,500*SCI was gained towards Muskets manufacturing (12,500*SCI left, and Foreign Power credits not used). Also another weapon, Pistol, might be possible to manufacture as well. They could use the same caliber of ammunition. Pistol would be a lighter (in weight) weapon for shorter range, eg. officer self-defence before melee range, or light cavalry who also need to stay away from the enemy line due to not having armor.
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