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Old 11-25-2020, 10:35 PM   #1
David Johansen
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Default Valkenburg Castle

There's an old SPI minigame about a deposed prince trying to retake the ancestral castle from the orcs and dragons who infest the dungeons beneath it. Now, this prince has been making good money in the hired sword field and has a small army with him but his budget is not unlimited. The game revolves around a three level dungeon map and counters representing numbers of troops. The breadth of a battle line is a major factor in determining casualties with open rooms becoming killing grounds. I played it solitaire a number of times and always found it challenging and interesting, which is more than I can say for some of the games in that line.

Anyhow, it was an interesting and different take on the tactical dungeon crawl. So, I was thinking about how to deal with a couple hundred retainers in Dungeon Fantasy. Sure, there's ally groups from GURPS and the cost of hiring and feeding such a crowd can be prohibitive, but assuming our heroes have amassed some ill gotten wealth and hire a mercenary company how do you keep the game interesting?

Can choke points and tight maps keep the scope of the combats playable? What are reasonable stats for a Dungeon Fantasy man at arms? Can you hire a smaller elite force or do you have to recruit and train them up to that level yourself. Will the local desert tribesmen take in your wife and son when you are dead and gone? What type of dungeon ecosystem will support two or three hundred orcs? Can Dave find and scan his copy of the map and superimpose a hex grid on it? Can he legally post it or link to it? How did Valkenburg Castle come out so interesting and City States of Arckyl come out so dull and boring? Would a Dungeon Fantasy campaign set in the City States of Arckyl be equally dull and boring?
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Old 11-26-2020, 01:58 AM   #2
Balor Patch
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Default Re: Valkenburg Castle

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Johansen View Post
What are reasonable stats for a Dungeon Fantasy man at arms?
Dungeon Fantasy 15: Henchmen has 62 point Guards, a full spectrum of 125 point character templates, and rules for hirelings and henchmen.

You might also be interested in Microgame 18: Lords of Underearth which has squads fighting in a geomorphic dwarven complex.
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Old 11-26-2020, 10:01 AM   #3
Bobcloclimar
 
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Join Date: May 2018
Default Re: Valkenburg Castle

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Originally Posted by David Johansen View Post
Can Dave find and scan his copy of the map and superimpose a hex grid on it? Can he legally post it or link to it?
Boardgamegeek has some images of the maps (including some recreations for a digital-tabletop release), which seem like standard square-grid dungeon layouts. Guessing at the scale (12 characters/square in some sort of formation), I imagine you could blow it up and convert to 1-yard hexes fairly easily.

FWIW, looks like it's available on W23 as a scanned PDF.

Last edited by Bobcloclimar; 11-26-2020 at 10:06 AM.
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Old 11-26-2020, 12:17 PM   #4
David Johansen
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Default Re: Valkenburg Castle

huh...Task Force, not SPI. I must be getting old.

That's cool that they have some of the old games available on e23. I wonder if they're releasing more of them.
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