In 1163 of the Fourth Saeculum, Baldgarth was on the brink of world war. This is that campaign.

Located in what is 1325 Halia, the early Ardean empire along with warrior-chiefs of the Northrons and the oppressed Easterlings fought to throw off the yoke of the Old Ones and the tyrrany of the Mage-kings.

Maybe we start just by asking who wants to play what?

• Undead armies, commanded by Necromancers
• Orc and Goblin armies commanded by Warlocks
• Old One and Neanderthal armies
• Ardean Centurions
• Northron Raiders
• Westerling Guerillas

Alternate/NPC/Neutral groups might include:

• Dwarven Holds
• Elven Woodlands
• Easterling Horseclans
• Southron Slave-Legion Mercenaries
• Dark Elven Barrows

Perhaps these groups might be able to provide special/unique units to the fight

Resources might include:

• Territory - Westerling Serfs/Slaves attached to the land
• Wealth/Gold
• Trade Routes
• Magic/Technology
• Alliances (the Northrons don't necessarily like the Ardeans, and the Old Ones only tolerate the Necromancers and Warlocks)

Dave: Just working off the top of my head:

I know I have at least 120 Saxon infantry, plus some Saxon archers, and then 30-40 Gothic infantry, and 30 or more Gothic/Lombard cavalry, and some 30 Frankish infantry. These guys all are right for the Northrons, so I'd imagine we should have 2 Northron factions at least (it's also why the Spanish game was appealing to me, Visigoths, Vandals and Swabians would all use these guys).

I know I have more than 10 but less than 20 Huns, not enough for any real Easterling army. I have a scattered number (20-30??) of Egyptian and Arabian infantry and 10-20 Carthagian Infantry, again I don't think I could really field a Southron army of any real sort. But I may have more than I think.

For Romans, I have 12 super-heavy cavalry, 10 medium-ish cavalry, and 20 or so lightish cavalry, and at least 60 infantry of various sorts (maybe quite a bit more), at least one solid army, maybe 2.

Of Picts and Irish, I think I have a dozen horse and at least 40 foot, maybe enough for a faction of Westerlings. Perhaps they could be used in combination with the Huns and some of my more generic barbarians to make up the Bastarnae.

Especially once I get my new stuff painted, I could probably field a solid generic medieval army of some sort (20 or so mounted knights, 15-20 long bows, a dozen crossbows, and a random assortment of dismounted knights and soldiers).

I honestly don't know how many Orcs I have. I had 30 on the table 2 weeks ago, and that wasn't all of them. Probably another 20 at least. But, I know I have less than 20 Old Ones. I've got a decent number of skeletons and zombies too.

I'd kind of like to avoid putting Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Halflings, Giants, Dragons or Trolls on the table for this project. I'd like the game to be more of an ancients-surrogate game rather than a full-blown fantasy emulation.

I have a few bolt-shooters, and maybe a catapult or 2. I could put two stone forts on the table. I know I made some siege ladders at some point too.

The fighting would go on for almost 15 years before the factions started to run out of resources to spend on the conflict. If one of the main factions were to lose their capitol, or a time limit is reached the campaign is over.

Since the campaign will stretch over a huge section of land and time, there should be multiple ways to determine the victors of each important battle. Here are some suggestions.

My take is that we use a quick mechanic for some of the large-scale non-important conflicts. Perhaps a single die roll for each unit attacking/defending not unlike Axis and Allies.

I say we use the newest rules available through ACKS mass combat, or use one of the other DND-friendly mass combat systems out there like Battlesystem or An Echo Resounding.

Source Material:

Lord and Master: an old play-by-mail game: Lord and Master