There’s a lot to be said in favour of using couriers. Obviously most people haven’t time to physically deliver everything to everybody. Also the couriers are set up to do this. They have economies of scale, and boast well trained, well equipped, and enthusiastic personnel, with a ‘can do’ attitude. Hence courier deliver can make an interesting and comparatively economical solo campaign.
Oh and if you like the walker, it’s available from Iliada Game Studio at
https://www.iliadagamestudio.com/product-page/h-a-m-a-l
Now I’m not sure whether it’s just me, but I always seem to have an awful lot of unfinished projects around. At a certain point during a project, I read another book, or see some different figures, and suddenly I’m setting off down an entirely different road. The 15mm army of Carthage is forgotten, instead I’m hastily gathering figures for a Portuguese campaign along the east coast of Africa.
So eventually, even I realised I was going to have to do things differently. So it struck me I wanted a project that I could start small and grow. But the cunning plan ensures that at pretty well any point in the project, I had the figures, the terrain, the rules, to play a game. So I didn’t need to paint a thousand figures before I can even start.
So the courier idea struck me as this sort of project. But you have to be clever. There are various stages.
1) So what’s the setting?
This is entirely up to you, it can be anywhere in recorded history, or far into the future. You could have the courier with a handful of pack donkeys delivering various items to Bronze Age villagers, or a ‘submarine’ delivering supplies to domed settlements set deep in a methane ocean. So really it’s up to you. Ideally you might be able to use some of the stuff you already have, but more importantly it gives you an excuse to buy small amounts of cool stuff you’ve always wanted.
2) And a map?
One simple way to do this is to put a place name into google maps. Chose somewhere you don’t know, and then when you’ve found that on the map, find somewhere really obscure near by you’ve never heard off. Let the map take you down to village level.
When you’ve done that and found an area that is interesting, that you fancy running your couriers through, then screen shot the map. Either keep the original terrain, or tweak the map and add your own terrain. You could even change the names.
With regard to the size of places, the simple way is to roll a d6. This gives you a fair bit of randomness. Alternatively you can tweak things. Take a pack of cards and keep all the aces, (which are 1s) twos, and threes. Then put in one 4, one 5, and one 6. So that is fifteen destinations. Place them at random on the villages or whatever on your map. This is the size of the destination.
There’s a simple rule of thumb. Assuming we’re keeping things small, a community which gets a 1 will have 1 parcel for you to collect and deliver, will have one household, with two adults who can defend the settlement if needed. A community with a 2 will have 2 parcels for you to collect and deliver, will have two households, with four adults who can defend the settlement if needed. This increases, pro rata.
Obviously if you’re doing something in 6mm with larger forces, the community with a 1 will have ten households, the community with 2 will have 20 households.
For movement, a move gets you from one community to the next. (Except in bad weather.)
3) And what needs delivering and collection.
I’ve mentioned about that villages will have 1 parcel or whatever for you to collect. So when you arrive in a village roll two d12 of different colours for each parcel. One colour is the direction you’ve just come from, the other is the way you’re going. The biggest dice decides the direction. The score on the dice is the number of communities the parcel has to travel. If when working out where the parcel is going you come to a ‘fork in the road’ toss a coin to see which way the parcel needs to go. If the two d12s have the same score, there isn’t a parcel.
4) Parcel size and payment.
I’ve kept the parcels vague. In the Bronze Age example, it could be a simple cheese. In a more modern example it could be a standard NATO 1000mm x 1200mm wood construction pallet with a carrying capacity of 1.814 tonnes.
But each parcel pays one point per community to get to its destination. So if the parcel has to travel three communities, it’ll pay 3 points. Note that you can do detours, but the parcel doesn’t pay for them.
5) Costs
Costs are per move. It’s OK if you’re doing a community a move but can get expensive in bad weather.
At its simplest a transport unit can carry four parcels and has two handlers. So it might be two men, each leading two pack donkeys, or a truck that can handle four NATO pallets and has a driver and mate.
Each man costs one point per community they travel (Salary and supplies) whilst every move toss a coin. On tails, the truck/donkeys/whatever cost you 1 point. It’s simpler than saying half a point per move and allows for freak unexpected expense.
Extra costs might be guards. The men included in the transport unit are assumed to be armed, whether with a stout stick or an energy carbine depends on the background. It might be that you feel the need to hire extra guards. You’ll pay one point per point of combat power.
6) Increasing your number of transport units.
If you have four points spare you can put it down as a ‘deposit’ for another transport unit. It can join your current transport unit and both will work together.
7 Increasing trade.
There are two ways to do this.
a) Because you’re providing more transport, production and trade grow. Each time you increase the number of your transport units, toss a coin for each community. On a heads it doubles the number of parcels it wants to move.
b) Now you’re playing with the big boys. You can expand your area of operations. Take your pack of cards again. This time you want to keep all the aces, (which are 1s) as well as 2 twos, 2 threes, 2 fours and 2 sixes, and one seven. Then put in one Jack, one Queen, and one King. Keep out the King and Queen, then shuffle the cards and deal randomly into two piles. Add the King to one pile and the Queen to the other. Then extend your map in two directions, and populate them using one pile of cards per direction.
Combat Power
A transport unit has two points of combat power. The driver and his mate, or the two men leading donkeys, are worth half a point each. After all they’re not warriors. The transport, be it two donkeys worth half a point each (ever been bitten by a donkey) or a heavy weapon mounted on the truck, has a combat value of one. So that makes a total of two.
A warrior/fighter/guard has a combat value of one. Whether he’s got a proper sword and shield and even a javelin, or an assault rifle and a flak jacket again depends on the background.
An enhanced warrior has a combat value of three. This might be a mounted bowman with horse, armour and a sword, or an RPG team of two men.
A nightmare on wheels, has a combat value of five. At one end it’s a chariot with a driver and a veteran archer with a composite bow, both wearing armour. Or it’s some sort of Mad Max Technical complete with fire blasting guitar player.
Problems
There are various issues which can cause your otherwise inspired business plan to fail.
1) Bandits. They will hit you between communities. Roll a d20 and you’ll get a bandit on a 1. For the strength of the bandits roll a d6.
1,2 they have the same combat power as you.
3,4 they have 50% more combat power than you.
5,6 they have double your combat power.
Toss a coin. On a heads you spot them and can avoid them but it means going back the way you came.
2) Protection racket. They will hit you in a community. When you enter a community, roll a d10 and you’ll get a protection racket on a 1. Toss a coin, on tails they have half your combat power, on heads they have the same combat power.
They expect to be paid to leave you alone. They expect one point per transport unit.
If you fight them and lose, they take the lot. If you win toss a coin. Heads, no consequences, tails, for the next three moves you roll for bandits on a d6, not a d20.
3) Competition.
Each ten moves roll a d6 and you get a competitor on a 1.
You’re not the only person in this game. Another transport unit starts operating in the area. It makes more sense if you run that one as well. It might increase trade (See 7a) but you get bandits on a d10 and protection rackets on a d8. If a third competitor arrives, obviously trade can increase but you get bandits on a d8 and protection rackets on a d6. If one of the competing businesses is defeated or ceases trading, then trade stays as it is but the die you need to roll for bandits and protection rackets reverts.
The move after you pass through a community roll a d6 for each potential party, there is a 1 in six chance of there being another parcel wanting collection. For each subsequent turn the chance per parcel increases. So with a community with three potential parties you or another courier visited three turns ago you’d roll three d6 and would get a parcel of each roll of three or less.
4) Taxes and tolls.
These are similar to protection rackets only they’re legal. Any community over 3 might impose a toll. When you enter one of these communities, roll a d20 and if you roll less than or equal to the number of the community it has started charging a toll. The toll is one point per transport unit. Once a community has started charging a toll it will always charge a toll.
Avoiding the toll.
You can bypass the community but obviously you cannot collect or deliver to it.
You can bribe officials. This costs one point (no matter how many transport units) and is successful unless you roll a 1 on a d6. If you fail you are charged double the toll as a penalty.
5) Weather conditions
Roll a d10. On a 1 the weather is bad and it takes you two moves to move between communities. (Remember to pay people for the extra move between communities.) This might be torrential rain turning the road into mud, sand storms, blizzards or a storm in the warp as is appropriate in your background.
If you’ve had a spell of bad weather, when you set out from the next community, roll a d6. On a 1 or 2 the weather continues.
6) Value for money
Once per session of playing this roll a d10, on a 1 you get value for money.
Somebody is doing something with the money they take in tolls. For each point you’ve spent on tolls you can reroll one dice for bandits or protection rackets. Deduct each point spent bribing officials from the points spent on tolls. If the final number is negative, reduce the size of dice you roll to get bandits or protection rackets.
Replacing losses.
If you lose a transport unit
You can put down the points from your savings to get another one.
You can borrow money from the bankers to get another one. They expect one point per transport unit every five turns. One you have paid the banker back eight points, the transport unit is finally yours.
Looting the defeated.
If you defeat a bandit or protection racket you obviously acquire ‘stuff’. This stuff and be sold for half the combat value in points. So defeat two bandits with 1 combat power each and that’s two combat power. So you cash their kit in for 1 point. Note that if somebody escapes off the table you don’t get their stuff.
Scale
Obviously I have started small, and probably at a skirmish level. There is nothing to stop you deciding that a transport unit is several vehicles, and that communities are increased proportionately. Bandits and protection rackets would also increase proportionately.
♥♥♥♥
Another book I did as a campaign you could ‘grow into’ is Hellfire in the City. £2.50 from Wargame Vault in pdf, or from Amazon, £2.50 on kindle or £6.50 in paperback
https://www.wargamevault.com/product/417977/Hellfire-in-the-City
Jim's SF novels and wargame rules 