Well I've finally started giving these some thoughts and alot of my 'road blocks' seem to have melted away by the application of KISS and the 'startling discovery' of a new specialist deck 'Siege-Fare' (I'm surprised you all couldn't hear the sound of palm on forehead) and the 'realisation' that all that needs to be played on the board is 'the final assault', all the rest can be covered by board set up. The downside for this is designing the specialist cards......

My last big issue is the board and fort creation. I'm leading toward two maybe three castles and having them as scenarios though I'd love to have that flash moment and sort out a 'balanced castle design' setup too.

Chris

Tell me more, tell me more, did you get very far...in creating the rules that is. Enquiring minds need to know.

Intrigued,

Sir Volkar

Well my creative musing got hammered by a nasty work deadline, my other half being ill and both daughters being ill....

but I have been working on creating a pretty looking hex background for the castles to go on though I have failed miserably to find a program / website with castle designed on that I can work with. I like running with ideas but my art, my art is well 'less promising' (if anyone knows of anything I'll gladly yoink it, the best I came across was the Call to Arms 3 castle creator but it bounces on my computer..).

I'm pretty happy with the specialist cards which will hopefully add a little suspense to the whole affair.

Chris

Right here's some of my ideas.

Effects of walls has been uped from the rampart terrain, it now provides +1 bold, prevents first hit on troops on top of the wall from ranged fire
(excluding direct damage lore spells such as Fireball) and blocks line of sight for troops behind them, forces attacking troops to pause before
assualting troops on top

Siege Specialist cards and Siege master:
Each player chooses three cards as a basis, for each Lore Master given up to 'Siege Master' you get 2 additional cards at random, if you have siege
master at level three all specialist cards will gain Lore symbol as a success.

Tunnel / counter tunnel -
Attacker plays the tunnel card and declares the target wall section. If defender doesn't declare counter tunnel then attacker rolls a number of
dice equal to level of Siege Master +1, any sword on shield will collapse the section of wall. If defender plays counter tunnel then each player
can declare more Tunnel cards if they wish and then roll a number of dice equal to Siege Master +1, who ever rolls the most swords on shields wins
this subterrainian war. If the dice rolled draw then compare number of cards declared, if still tieing then the defender wins. A collapsed wall
blocks line of sight but offers no bonus bold. Tunneling can go under moats but unless the moat is crossed then the breach can not be stormed.

Pontoon (ladders)<SE> / boiling oil-
Boiling oil, defender rolls number of dice equal to level of Siege Master +1, Inflicts damage on matching shields, sword on shield and removes 1
level of bold when calculating retreats.
Pontoon (ladders) Assualting troops may cross moats (this card can alternatively be used to allow troops to assualt troops on top of walls without
pausing), you will need to place terrain onto the board to show where the card is in effect.

Effective bombardment
target wall section, seige engine <SE>, pontoon Archer shield and roll a number of dice equal to level of Siege Master +1, if any come up with sword on shield the target is destroyed. Troop units can not be targeted by this card as they move to fast.

Archers shields <SE>
Block line of sight protecting troops behind it (defenders can place these atop walls leading to a secion of wall that is immune to missile fire until the archer shield is destroyed)

New 'Creatures' aka siege engines take 1 lore council space

Siege tower -
Moves 1 hex per turn, provides +1 bold, and blocks line of sight, and reduces damage done by 1 to troops in the same hex. Allows troops to attack defenders on wall next to the tower without pausing.
Battering Ram -
Moves 2 hexes or 1 and battles. Reduces damage done by 1 to troops in same hex. When attacking Roll a number of dice equal to Siege Master +1; A gate is destroyed with any sword on shield. A wall section will be destroyed with a Critical Hit

All siege engines <SE> are destroyed by Critical hits.

Board setup
Defenders deploy anywhere within the walls of the castle and troops retreat to the most secure area (which will be noted on each castle)
Attackers deploy in the first or second rows along the long edge on either side of the board and retreat to the nearest side.

use CTA deck cards to determine what troops are available to each side

Defender 2 3 4
Attacker 3 5 7

Defender removes 2 red, 4 blue or 7 green miniatures from any besieger unit to reflect desertions / illnesses in besiegers camp
Attacker either has
1 breach or two moat sections filled in and remove 1 blue figure and 2 green figures
OR
1 red, 2 blue and 5 green figures from any unit

Stuff still to do:
do game maps
have deployment / creation rules for castles
make cards
How the heck to get this to fit in with my campaign rules
oh yeah playtest

Thoughts and comments welcome

Chris

Elberon said:

Hi Elberon! As usual, your work is promising! Mind you if you throw in some suggestion, only as a source of inspiration? Brainstorming, everyone?

I too was toying with some ideas about siege battles from some time, now. My main issue with many ideas on regard of this is how the inner working of a siege battles are different from those of the open clashes Battlelore is built around, with its formations and grand maneuvres to retain the bold status, or the fact that a castle assault risks to become, ideally, very static: engage the ramparts, see if you pass them, repeat; it could be very frustrating for the immobilized defender too.

An approach I was contemplating to resolve the issue is inspired by videogames and movies, mainly by the great massacres from LOTR, Gondor and Pelennor, especially. I think that a siege could be represented by a series of terrain tiles closed by walls, obviously, where a unit could move as per the monster rules (ye ordered out of section), and the defender coud benefit of all the advantages usually given by ramparts (and only the defender: he plays as the hometeam!); the city (more than castle) tiles are dotted by POVs (here the videogame part) that grants Victory Flags and bonuses too for the defender: the Cathedral, the Castle, the Barraks, the Market, etc... This could make for a tense defense even when the attacker will break in: the defender will have to go back and forth on a large area, and thing could go very grim and gritty, on the streets. POVs tiles could account for special events too, like shortage of rationes, fire, peasant revolt, faminine, pestilence and all the pictoresque things medieval warfare, real or fictionale, want represented (here the cinematic part, hence the LOTR quote). Everyone has his fun moments, so!

As for the material... more or less a year ago I blamelessy ripped from pics on BGGsome city tiles of Carcassone, and photoshopped them into Hexagonal Tiles. The look of them blend quite well with Battlelore, IMHO, and the assonometry of them consent to build a castle fully enclosed by walls whatever side you watch it! Unfortunately, I did not upload them minding copyright issues (well, it was fan-production without wanting cash, after all, but...) and the crash of my external HD take the modified pics with it (bye bye)...

By the way: another approach could imply, off cours, ripping off other game mechanic: on BGG I heard of this new pretty promising siege game, Stronghold, who could be of some usage... It has "default" goblinoid on the assailant side, but the cubes for representing them are colour coded.. there are three types of them, it seems... mmmh, somewhat reminiscent of something...

Hope I've been of some help! Keep up the good work! Byez!