(If you happen to be one of my players, please do not read this thread.)


I admit, I am not happy with King Brian in Twilight. Or rather, I should say I am not happy how ineffectual King Arthur is. This is after the Grail Quest and Germination, so Arthur should be restored to health, not a senile and sick old man. The latter I could accept as an excuse to why Brian is able to raid Logres as often as he wants, always successful and getting away. But not if Arthur is supposed to be back to health. The same thing could be said about Cornwall: Arthur doesn't seem to care one whit that Cornwall came within quarter of a mile of conquering Camelot during the Grail Quest.

So, what to do about those things?


Well, in our campaign (we are now in the end of 560), I decided to GM it thusly (juggling some events around):

Background: Sir Kay was made the Duke of Normandy during the Roman War. The Duchy had been reconquered by the French by 530 whilst Kay was busy in the North and in Ireland, but by mid-530s Kay was back with an army and Normandy was added back to the British possessions. While a peace with France was made, the Duchy's status remained a sore point for the French King.

554
Grain Quest begins

555
Invasion by Cornwall beaten back, skirmishing in Jagent. Sir Kay dies during the quest (we ignored the Arthur's less-known sons and storylines connected to them), and the French King uses this as an excuse to repossess the Duchy of Normandy. Given that everyone is busy with Cornwall or the Grail Quest, the French conquest of Normandy progresses quickly.

556
Skirmishing in Jagent continues; the continued Wasteland and lawlessness means that most knights stay home to take care of their lands.

557
Grail Quest over, Germination, Arthur restored. Army is sent to subdue Cornwall, but Brian's invasion of Cheshire causes the army to split to take care of both threats. Cornwall counterattacks the other half of the army, and the use of gunpowder grenades proves decisive in disrupting the army and destroying the siege engines. Without the siege engines, the army cannot take the castles that are garrisoned by Cornwall.

558
Now with three enemies - Cornwall, King Brian and France - Arthur decides to see if Cornwall and France can be negotiated with without the effort and expense of sending in the army. A small army with ships is sent to smack King Brian around, but this fleet encounters a sudden storm as it passes Surluse (Brian's Queen is a reputed sorceress, and in our campaign, she turned out to be Morgan Le Fey; yes, I know in the legends they are two different people but I didn't feel like introducing YET ANOTHER sorceress queen). The fleet is shipwrecked and Brian's sea reavers attack the survivors along the coast, causing heavy losses.

559
King Mark is ready to deal (those mercenaries are costing him a fortune), and agrees to pay reparations and give the secret of the gunpowder weapons to King Arthur. Furthermore, he is offering knights and a second siege cannon for the campaign in France, should it be needed. Turns out that it is; the French King is trusting that his army will be able to defeat the British this time. King Arthur levies ship money (tallage) to finance the building of a new fleet, but after conferring with his RTKs, decides to send a small army over to Normandy to try and capture a foothold (many of the landowners there are Britons who invaded with Sir Kay a generation ago or their descendants), rather than giving the French a year to prepare. The gambit works, and thanks the Cornish siege cannon, city after city falls to the British. The French army, although outnumbering the British, finds out what grapeshot does to a cavalry charge, backed up by Cornish grenadiers (even though many RTKs feel that using such weapons is not really cricket...). Meanwhile, King Brian takes over Northern Ireland.

560
King Arthur crosses over to France with the main host. The French, who already lost to an army one third of the size, hasten to negotiate a peace, which ends up with France divided between the French princes, Normandy part of Logres, and Ganis and Benoit as independent kingdoms. Meanwhile, King Brian attacks Gomeret and conquers Anglesey, as well as several coastal forts down the shoreline towards Estregales. Raids happen as far as Bristol. However, the campaigning season is over before the army returns from France, giving King Brian some time to consolidate.

561
King Arthur sends an army to liberate Cambria, backed up by the recently constructed fleet. The army besieges and reduces the occupied castles one by one, whilst the fleet fences with the more nimble longships of King Brian. Beaumaris proves a bit of a challenge and the siege drags on for months, over the winter.

562
The fleet concentrates in Hantonne and Portsmouth to load in a large army that is planned to go against Brian this year. However, news arrive that Brian is raiding the eastern coast (Anglia, Essex) and that the Angles and Saxons are in revolt! The army is hastily sent to suppress the revolt, thus pushing back the invasion for another year.

563
The Great Betrayal distracts everyone from Brian.

564
Army busy in Ganis.

565
Mordred makes a deal with Brian.


Granted, the other option would be to simply let Arthur steamroll over Brian and be done with it. However, the above is what I think I will go with. Whilst it is true that in it, Arthur doesn't actually manage to take care of the problem of Brian, it does show Arthur as someone who is trying to address the issue and, save for the Great Betrayal, would have dismantled Brian's kingdom stone by stone in 563. Or even before had he not been busy smacking France into submission 559-560. Brian's successes here are less 'free lunch': he raids Cheshire and Cambria while Arthur's armies are busy with other threats, and in Anglia and Essex, he has plenty of local recruits. The raids to Lindsey and specifically to Gloucester are dropped. But most importantly than just Brian's successes, Arthur is doing SOMETHING about it, rather than just sponsoring tournaments and partying on, whilst ignoring this pirate king who is raiding his kingdom and making his army look like a bunch of snail-paced fools (they are always late): that is Cheshire, Gomeret, Lindsey, Anglia and Gloucester that are basically 'Brian shows up, wrecks things up, the army comes in too late and just shuffles around' (exception being Gloucester-Clarence, where the army shows up but is rendered more or less ineffectual by the magic on Brian's side).


EDIT: Obviously there are people who have already played through this period of GPC, so feel free to post your own experiences of King Brian's raids here. :)

I admit, I am not happy with King Brian in Twilight. Or rather, I should say I am not happy how ineffectual King Arthur is. This is after the Grail Quest and Germination, so Arthur should be restored to health, not a senile and sick old man. The latter I could accept as an excuse to why Brian is able to raid Logres as often as he wants, always successful and getting away. But not if Arthur is supposed to be back to health. The same thing could be said about Cornwall: Arthur doesn't seem to care one whit that Cornwall came within quarter of a mile of conquering Camelot during the Grail Quest.

I agree that Arthur being so ineffectual post-Germination is rather... unsatisfying. On the other hand Arthur's weakness in this period does help explain why so much of the realm backed Mordred when he rebelled.


559
King Mark is ready to deal (those mercenaries are costing him a fortune), and agrees to pay reparations and give the secret of the gunpowder weapons to King Arthur. Furthermore, he is offering knights and a second siege cannon for the campaign in France, should it be needed. Turns out that it is; the French King is trusting that his army will be able to defeat the British this time. King Arthur levies ship money (tallage) to finance the building of a new fleet, but after conferring with his RTKs, decides to send a small army over to Normandy to try and capture a foothold (many of the landowners there are Britons who invaded with Sir Kay a generation ago or their descendants), rather than giving the French a year to prepare. The gambit works, and thanks the Cornish siege cannon, city after city falls to the British. The French army, although outnumbering the British, finds out what grapeshot does to a cavalry charge, backed up by Cornish grenadiers (even though many RTKs feel that using such weapons is not really cricket...).

Interesting idea but if Arthur has gunpowder weapons and the will to use them won't that really change how the Arthur-Lancelot conflict plays out? (e.g. There will be no indecisive 15 week siege of Joyous Garde if Arthur's army has cannons and thus no Papal negotiated truce.)

I agree that Arthur being so ineffectual post-Germination is rather... unsatisfying. On the other hand Arthur's weakness in this period does help explain why so much of the realm backed Mordred when he rebelled.

Partially agreed. However, if you look at the map on GPC p. 376, almost all of Logres stays loyal to Arthur, only the Saxon areas (minus Hampshire) join with Mordred. Mordred's main support comes from the Saxons, Malahaut and the North, as could be expected for an Orkney, with some Cambria thrown in. So I am not actually worried too much about this; Arthur's overlordship over those areas was quite tenuous to begin with. In fact, my Mordred will be making a devil's bargain with Brian to raise troops against Arthur's return, since he is not able to trust Logres.



Interesting idea but if Arthur has gunpowder weapons and the will to use them won't that really change how the Arthur-Lancelot conflict plays out? (e.g. There will be no indecisive 15 week siege of Joyous Garde if Arthur's army has cannons and thus no Papal negotiated truce.)

Again, not a problem for me as such. The cannon foundry program is ongoing, but the Cornish had YEARS to make up ONE working cannon. So I can easily pick any or all of the following:
1) The Camelot Cannon Works is not ready yet.
2) The Cornish is not lending their ONE big siege cannon (they sided with Lancelot on p. 367 map).
3) The new cannons are few and still temperamental, and tend to blow up after ten or so shots -> not enough to smash down Joyous Garde's walls. (Why this hasn't happened with the Cornish siege cannon? One big reason is that it tends to be used ONCE and then it is days or weeks until it is used again. During this siege, the artillerists might be trying to shoot as many times as possible -> barrels are heating -> failures happen more often. Or it might just be luck: it has been used only a few times so far that the PKs know about.)
4) Lancelot leads a sally to spike/blow up the cannons.
5) The siege doesn't last that long.

There is another little alteration I am making; there won't be the Battles of Joyous Garde. Instead, those battles take place in Benwick, where Lancelot is able to gather and provide for a larger army.

EDIT: Also, I should point out that this was one point that the PKs in the Round Table were pushing for, that the secret of the gunpowder would have to be shared with Logres, if Cornwall wanted peace. So an example of the gameworld changing a bit one you have a big enough lever to push it with. :)

Thanks for the comments, though. Helps me to think about any plot-holes that the players might otherwise stumble upon. :)

I have my own concerns about Brian, though for a different reason (and one that stems more from my own take on the Twilight Period).

This is influenced by T. H. White, but I see the period between the Grail Quest's completion and the beginning of the civil wars that destroy Arthur's kingdom as unmarked by external threats to the kingdom. There are no more outside invasions, no more dragons, giants, robber-barons, and other enemies needing to be hunted down and fought. The land is at peace at last - and the knights are bored and restless, with no outlet for fighting except for tournaments (which are becoming increasingly more ceremonial pageants than "substitute battles"). There's no one to raise a sword against - except each other. And, in this frustration of idleness, the old feuds and rivalries start to awaken - such as envy of Lancelot's fame and prowess, bitter memories of all the times he's unhorsed you in the lists, and a thought of "If only we could get rid of him - and how convenient that he's carrying on an affair with the Queen that could provide a noble-sounding pretext for getting rid of him."

If there's a dangerous warlord raiding the kingdom, then the knights have someone to fight against, and the excitement of finding a way to bring Brian down will distract everyone from the factions and rivalries at court. With none around, the knights will be moping about Arthur's court in a "Fie on goodness!" mood, lacking employment, longing for a real fight - until the discontent rises to the surface and breaks in 563.

If there's a dangerous warlord raiding the kingdom, then the knights have someone to fight against, and the excitement of finding a way to bring Brian down will distract everyone from the factions and rivalries at court. With none around, the knights will be moping about Arthur's court in a "Fie on goodness!" mood, lacking employment, longing for a real fight - until the discontent rises to the surface and breaks in 563.

A very good point.