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View Full Version : Marching to battle at Rouen - with Syagrius



Sir Pramalot
03-19-2010, 06:42 PM
My players are fast approaching the invasion of France and the Battle of Bayeux. As has been mentioned in another thread, the GPC states that any players who decide to follow Syagrius from Bayeux to Rouen are considered traitorous dogs and are out of the game. However, I realise the GPC cannot cover all possibilities, leaving me to expand on the material it presents, and in this instance I'm going to give my PCs the chance to carry on the campaign. Madoc and Roderick will still return home, but they will offer the PCs a free choice on whether they do likewise. Partly because, having helped Merlin recover Excalibur, they have been given more say in their own destiny, and partly because, well, I want them to. One of my PCs is a Roman so I know he is going to find it very hard to just up and leave.

If they do decide to stay, their primary PCs will be out of the main campaign for a year. They will stay France, travel to Rouen and then have to survive the winter until returning home (I'm saying no channel crossings in the winter months). They all have younger brothers, so from a game point of view, this will not affect next year's events and it will give their backup characters a run out.

What I'd like some input on is this - what should they face in, or on the way to Rouen? The tidbits in the GPC offer the following; Claudas has never been defeated in battle (so he must be a good commander, or a lucky one), Syagrius loses the battle at Rouen (so it needs to be tough, but not too tough to guarantee a TPK), Claudas pops up later on (so I need to keep him alive), and Syagrius has his army waiting for him in Rouen (Roman troops I would imagine). I have yet to use BoB in open play yet, so what would be a good battle size here, and for enemies should I be using a modified Saxon army? The French army in BoA seems more refined than Frankish barbarians.

Spoonist
03-19-2010, 07:39 PM
Regarding the BoB tables, I would have all the high results like knights from the refined table and the mid to low from the barbarian table. This so that there is a narrative difference between the elite franks and their conquered troops the gauls/gallic.
That way the PK when back in a couple of decades see the narrative change.

Also make a few heraldic shields and stuff so that you can quickly establish som frankish villain families for later use.

Channel crossing should depending on your mercy not be available during spring either, unless they can flee to saxon lands and go by longship from there to kent.

If you want to you might want to put in some neat stuff from history regarding the franks. Like them being newly converted to christianity so you still have the dual setup and tensions. etc

You should also establish things that seperate the franks from the saxons, occintians and gallic.
Like throwing a bunch of these on them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisca
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franks#Strategy.2C_tactics.2C_and_equipment

Atgxtg
03-19-2010, 09:53 PM
Like throwing a bunch of these on them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisca


;D. I ran this battle (Bayeux) a couple weeks back, and gave the Franks some franciscas. Basically, I had them do javelin damage, but with a range of something like 7/14/21 yards. When the PCs went up the ladders and over the wall, a few of them got some tossed at them. No one took any damage through their armor, but they certainly got the Pcs attention.

Spoonist
03-20-2010, 09:40 AM
Ah, my ruling is that for each hit to the shield by a francisca is a -1 to your weapon skill until you change shields. After a while it ads up.

Also remember that the merovingians are deceitful, traiterous kinslayers who are not to be trusted. For the narrative they should be painted as fierce warrior culture, to the extent that they shave their necks and wear their hair in a knot on the top of the head to better fit the helmet. (Historically this is stretching the truth but its a great narrative).
http://images.google.se/images?sourceid=navclient&oq=&rlz=1T4ADRA_enSE363S E363&q=Suebian%20Knot&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=sv&tab=wi

The franks are so fierce that the saxons in saxony pay them weregeld. Which is a nice thing to remember come anarchy when saxons demand tribute from the britons.

Sidonius_Apollinaris (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidonius_Apollinaris)
on the crown of whose red pates lies the hair that has been drawn towards the front, whilst the neck, exposed by the loss of its covering, shows bright. Their eyes are faint and pale, with a glimmer of greyish blue. Their faces are shaven all round, and instead of beards they have thin moustaches which they run through with a comb

Spoonist
03-20-2010, 08:52 PM
Here you have some background on Clovis...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9JBexElLUQ&feature=channel

Atgxtg
03-20-2010, 09:06 PM
Here you have some background on Clovis...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9JBexElLUQ&feature=channel


Wow! They had Youtube back then! ;) ;D

Spoonist
03-21-2010, 07:26 PM
Here you have some background on Clovis...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9JBexElLUQ&feature=channel


Wow! They had Youtube back then! ;) ;D

The enchantment of the franks you know. :o

Atgxtg
03-22-2010, 04:09 AM
Here you have some background on Clovis...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9JBexElLUQ&feature=channel


Wow! They had Youtube back then! ;) ;D

The enchantment of the franks you know. :o


Are you being frank with me? ;)