Hex Map Campaign

This is a simple hex-map based, multiplayer campaign system for *Oathmark*. There are a lot of more complicated campaign systems out there... and this is not one of them. Nor does it want to be. Essentially, this is just about trying to fill in the most squares on a map as fast as you can. That's it. There's no real resource managment, there's no harvesting, there's no trade system, heck... Honestly, there's just not much too it. But you get to move tiny little flags around on a big map, get to play lots of games of *Oathmark*, and (maybe) get the bragging rights of having conquerored the (fake) world. What more do you really need? The campaign is fought over a hex map, made from something like the [Hexton Hills](https://www.hextonhills.com/) tiles from Graven Guild (as seen in the attention grabbing click-bait pic) or [Mighty Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mighty_Empires) tiles from Games Workshop (which have been out of print for decades and cost a king's ransom on eBay). You can also just draw one on paper, like some sort of caveman. Set up the map in any way that all players find suitable, perhaps taking turns with each player adding a tile from a set of tiles or maybe just having one player acting as the Referee running things setting up a map in advance. You might even consider using a map from a fantasy novel, roleplaying game, or even the real world and dividing it up into hexes. The size of the map is up to your group. Ideally it should be about 10-12 tiles per player at the smallest and no more than 18-20 tiles per player at the largest. The larger the map, the longer the campaign will last. Each player will have one (1) special tile known as their Homeland Tile. These tiles should be placed as far apart from the other Homeland Tiles as possible, ideally one in each corner of the map in a four player campaign. **Tile Types** The exact types of tiles you use are impossible to predict and will no doubt vary widely from on player group to the next. To keep things simple, we'll classify tiles into five broad categories: Homelands, Open Ground, Settlements, Difficult Ground, and Oceans. *Homelands:* These tiles are your capital city, royal citadel, wizard tower, spawning grounds, UFO landing site, or whatever else is appropriate for your faction. Every player starts with one Homeland tile, no more and no less. It takes four occupation points to control a Homeland Tile. (Even better, use my ideas for [*Oathmark* Siege Battles](https://www.reddit.com/r/Oathmark/comments/1kdd572/oathmark_siege/) and try to capture the defender's Homeland tile that way!) *Open Ground:* These tiles represent grasslands, rolling hills, light forests, and basically any "nice bits" of wilderness as appropriate for your campaign's setting. It only takes one occupation point to control Open Ground. *Settlements:* These tiles represent civilization in some way, be it villages and towns or military forts. Somebody lives here... and that someone may or may not want to be ruled by your Empire. It takes two occupation points to control Settlements. *Difficult Ground:* These tiles represent mountains, vast marshlands, dense forests, or essentially any "nasty bitz" of wilderness as appropriate. It takes three occupation points to control Open Ground. *Oceans:* Are just what you think they are. These tiles cannot be occupied. You'll have to go `round. You will be fighting against other players for control of these tiles, I recommend using small flags or colored push-pins representing each player. As occupation points are scored, put a flag for the appropriate player on the tile. **Campaign Year** The campaign is broken up into a series of turns referred to as the "Campaign Year." During the Campaign Year, the group will work their way through a series of steps called the Sequence of Play, explained below. It is advisable to coordinate your group outside of gameplay, through a shared group e-mail, a Discord chat, internet forum, or sending hand-written letters carried by homing pigeons Whatever works best for your group. **Sequence of Play** **1. Events** **2. Challenge** **3. Battle** **4. Conquest** The Events Phase and Conquest Phase will generally move pretty quickly. The Battle Phase will take the longest, as you will need every player in the campaign to play one or more games. You'll need to coordinate with your group as to how long everyone has to get their games in and discuss amongst yourselves how to handle "no shows." My advice would be to give everyone two weeks to play their games during the Battle Phase before moving on to the Conquest Phase, but you do you. **Events Phase** Starting with the player with the smallest Empire, each player makes one roll on the Kingdom Events Table (Bane of Kings, p. 28) and applies the result to their next battle. If your group has a Referee running things, they may opt to roll for each of the players and inform them of the results instead of having each player roll them. **Challenge Phase** Each player must issue a challenge to another player, starting with the player with the smallest Empire. The challenger and the player they challenged (the "defender") must fight an *Oathmark* battle in the Battle phase. A player who has been challenged cannot issue a challenge that round - his army is already committed to battle. If a single player is challenged by multiple opponents, he or she will need to play multiple battles. Challenges should be made publicly, either in front of the entire group in person or through a shared e-mail, Discord, forum, or whatever other medium your group is using to communicate. There is no "in game" benefit from wording your challenge in a manner that is suitably "in character" for your faction. But this sort of role-playing tends to amuse the Dice Gods and they will surely smile upon your Activation Rolls in the coming battle. If a single player is challenged by multiple opponents, he or she may opt to declare a Team Battle. The defending player will subsequently battle both challengers in a single game of Oathmark. Give each of the challengers half the amount of points the defending player has for their army in the coming battle. **Type of Battle** *Raid:* If the challenger controls no tiles that border the challenged opponent's Empire, they may mount a Raid. The challenger may attack any tile in the defender's Empire except their Homeland. If the challenger wins the battle, their army does not score any occupation points the tile they attacked, but the defender loses one occupation point. If the defender wins the battle, there is no change. *Expansion:* A challenger may choose to attack an unoccupied tile that border's their own Empire and no other Empire, this is called Expansion. The defender's forces represent scouts, a trade caravan, an army on the march to some other front, or some other force that happened to be in the area for some reason. If the challenger wins the battle, their army scores two occupation points on the tile they attacked. If the defender wins the battle, they score one occupation point. *Incursion:* If the challenger and defender both control tiles that border an unoccupied tile, the challenger may launch an Incursion. The defender's forces represent a border garrison, scouting party, or even an army launching an incursion of their own. Whichever party, challenger or defender, wins the battle will scores one occupation point on the tile. *Invasion:* If the challenger has any tiles that border the defender's tiles, they may declare an Invasion. The challenger may attack any tile in the opponent's Empire that borders a tile the challenger controls, except their Homeland. A Homeland tile may only be declared the target of an Invasion if the defender has no other tiles remaining. If the challenger wins the battle, their army scores two occupation points on the tile they attacked. If the defender wins the battle, they may score one occupation point on any one of the challenger's tiles that bordered the attacked tile. **Battle Phase** Play a game of *Oathmark*, as normal, starting with the Muster Your Army sequence (Core Rulebook, p. 155). Remember that under the rules, the entirety of your Kingdom is contained in your Homeland Tile. So don't worry about things like "occupied territories." **Conquest Phase** After all the challenges have been resolved and all battles have been fought, count how many tiles are controlled by each player. If any one player controls more than half (round down) of the tiles in the map, that player is declared the winner. Likewise, if at any point, one player has managed to occupy the Homeland tile of every rival player, that player is declared the winner. If no winner has emerged, record how many tiles each player controls during this campaign year. The player with the smallest Empire will issue the first challenge in the following campaign year; the player with the second smallest Empire will issue challenges second; and so forth. If two players are tied for smallest Empire, break the tie by looking to see which of the tied players had the smallest Empire during the previous year. If your group has a Referee running things, they may opt to perform these calculations themselves and update the group accordingly by e-mail, Discord chat, or hiring a wandering troubadour to compose a song celebrating the glorious victors and mocking the ignominious dead. Your call. Once the Conquest Phase is finished, if no winner has emerged, start the next Campaign Year with the Events Phase.