David R. Moody  - Jan 29, 2009 1:34 pm (#26497 Total: 26638)  
Almost 20 years of pitiless combat! No rest, no sleep like other 
men. And yet the spring wind blows, Subotai. Have you ever felt 
such a wind? . . . For us, there is no spring. Just the wind that 
smells fresh before the storm. 	 

Last night the five of us (Joe Oppenheimer, John Gibbins, Jason Pipes,
Darin Leviloff, and myself) met at Endgame in Oakland and had a go at
Campaigns of King David. It's a moderate complexity game on the fighting
in the Holy Land in the early 10th Century B.C., around the time when
David (the fellow from the Bible who killed Goliath and wrote all those
psalms) was king of Judah. 

The game is quite scalable--Joe had been playing it solitaire, with the
Israelites vs. the Philistines; Darin had played it two player before.
With five, Darin was Judah, Joe Philistia, Jason Aramaia, John Moab, and
I took Tyre/Phoenicia. Each turn is five years. After dicing off for
initiative, you go through a series of 12 impulses, in initiative order.
You never know for sure what action you can take in each impulse, for
they are determined by chits which you draw from a cup at the beginning
of each turn and lay out in order. The first six impulse chits are
flipped face up, so all players know what is coming for the first half
of the turn; the other six are face down, and are flipped after you do
the first six impulses. Some let you gather food or resources from your
territories; some let you draw an Event chit, some let you move and
fight with all your units. etc. 

There is also a diplomatic aspect to the game, and once you break an
alliance, you may never ally with that nation for the rest of the game.
You might make deals for territory, or trade food and resources. Food
and resources are important--each space produces some of each, and you
use them to build/maintain units and fortify cities, fight battles, and
conduct sieges. You never know when you will get them, however; in a
turn you might have a couple Resource and/or Harvest impulses, and end
up quite wealthy. Conversely, you could have one or none, and use up
your resources and food in campaigning and maintaining units. 

Units are of four types: phalanx (probably heavy infantry, really, in
this era), infantry, militia, and chariots. A maximum of four units are
allowed in one space; leaders (only Judah and Aramaia have these,
including King David, of course) can increase this limit. Units are very
slow, usually moving only one space at a time. Chariots can go two, but
their combat effectiveness is reduced in hilly areas (quite a lot of
those about). There's also the Jordan River, which can only be crossed
at a ford, and the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, which are
impassible. Nice map, pretty colors. The counters, while clear and well
done, are surprisingly bland for a Clash of Arms game, but then again
not a lot of color to work with in the Bronze Age, I suppose. 

Combat is extremely bloody! There's a teeny battle board on the map. You
spend a resource to fight, move your units to the Battle Board (and they
have a nice Battle marker to put on the space so you remember where the
fighting is--a welcome addition, as most games with battle boards tell
you to use a coin or spare counter or something). Each unit may roll one
Battle die--10 sider for the phalanxes and chariots (only if in open
ground), 8 sider for the infantry and chariots in hilly ground, 6 sider
for the militia. Roll the dice, add the combat ratings of your units.
Each unit can absorb hits up to the kind of die they roll--e.g. a
phalanx absorbs 10 hits, infantry 8. etc.--then are flipped over. Most
units have two steps, some weak militia have only one. You can play
chits like Ambush, etc., to influence combat. At the end of each round
either side (starting with the defender? I forget) can decide to
retreat. We had few battles like that, so most of ours ended up being
fought to the death. Darin, for example, sent a nice sized (5 or 6 units
w/leader) army to take a city in Edom. He won, but had one half-strength
militia unit left. 

Sieges work a similar way--each city has a defense level from 1 to 3 or
4, and they roll that many 10 siders in defense. There's a Siege Works
chit to reduce that defense value. 

Each power has sudden death victory conditions (usually take x number of
cities beyond what you start with); otherwise the game ends after 7
turns. As an option, you can put Game End chits in the Impulse chit cup,
starting on Turn 4, if memory serves. If one of those is drawn, the game
ends. 

So we set up and had at it. I negotiated a treaty with my neighbor
Aramaia, and tried to make a tripartite pact with Philistia, but the
Philistines, Judah, and Moab all made common cause against us. Jason
opened the ball by marching a strong force under his one leader down the
east side of the Jordan, heading for Ammon. He found out quickly that
Ammon was pretty strong, and fought a bloody battle there against
Ammonite chariots. John, as Moab, advanced south into Edom and also
tried to march north to assist the Ammonites. I helped my ally by
playing a Bedouin raiders chit, sending raiders against Moab (though I
rolled badly). John had to stop and deal with them. 

Meanwhile, Darin took Jerusalem and sent that aforementioned army into
Edom, winning but getting cut to pieces in the process. I left a strong
force on my southern border to watch the Philistines while I sent
another army into a small neighboring territory whose name escapes me,
stomping some militia, fighting and winning a big battle for one of
their two cities. That city surrendered to me thanks to a Siege Works
chit. 

It was a good thing I left an army behind, as Joe's Philistines made a
run at my southermost city. My men beat back his charioteers with some
loss. In a subsequent impulse, Jason sent some troops to help me; I used
them to defeat another army defending their second city, but I was too
weak to besiege it. 

Some more interesting happenings beyond the Jordan. John tried to
paralyze the Edomites (under Jason's control) by playing a chit, but
Jason responded with a Godly intervention chit to stop it. Darin, as
Judah, played one to negate Jason's; I played mine to negate Darin's!
Baal trumps Yahweh; time for King David to write another psalm. Anyway,
John hit Edom with Royal Death, which had the same effect as the command
paralysis thing. More Bedouin raiders also popped up, this time hitting
Jason. 

By that point it was late, and we felt we had gotten a good taste of the
game (and some of us had to get up, go to work, then fight another
battle). So we picked it up, and had Darin demo his two VPG games for
us. I'd definitely be up for another try at the game.