I've never really played a full BattleLore campaign, only single battles. I'm gearing up to play a campaign over the next several weeks, using all of my expansions, including Heroes, Dragons, and Creatures. I plan on writing dynamic battle reports for each battle for anyone interested in following along. I'm doing this for my own entertainment and to showcase how truly cool, dynamic, expandable, and fun BattleLore really is.
Here's the campaign set-up: The campaign is set in the Forgotten Realms of D & D fame, though this is a generic fantasy setting, and anyone wishing to mirror this campaign can use any fantasy setting. I use a very generic but effective battle sheet to set-up my battles. Basically it has blocks I fill in, explaining troop and terrain set-up for a specific region of the battlefield.
Campaign Background: I wanted to create a simple background that pitted one force against another. I did not want to create a complex, pre-thought out campaign, but rather, I wanted the story of the campaign to unfold as I played battle after battle. The background is this: The Zhentarim (an evil organization of the Forgotten Realms setting) has large armies in the regin of Zhentil Keep in the area of the Moonsea. Recently they have demanded a tribute from the boardering Dalelands. Those regions of the Dalelands that refuse to pay this tribute are severely punished. Far to the west, in Darkhold, the Zhentarim fortress in the north of the Heartlands, an evil wizard is amassing a vast army of orcs and goblins to march east toward Cormyr. The Zhentarim hope to conquer all of Cormyr and the Dalelands in this two pronged attack. The first attack will come from the area of the Moonsea and plunge deep into the Dalelands. Once the Zhentarim have a firm foothold in this region, their western counterparts will launch their goblin army, sending them east to crush the mighty kingdom of Cormyr between the two armies.
The first part of this campaign will involve the invasion of the Dalelands. Depending on the outcome of these battles, the Lord's Alliance of the Heartlands and the Purple Dragon Knights of Cormyr will engage the Zhentarim. The Zhentarim armies will be primarily human and goblin, with ample use of creatures and dragons. The armies of the Dalelands and Heartlands will largely be human with occasional dwarven mercenaries. The armies of Cormyr will be largely human, with a focus on mounted knights and longsword knights. I will make occasional use of elves, but I don't plan on making special rules for the elves. I'll just use archer figures, though use of elves will be limited. I want this campaign to use existing BattleLore rules with no house rules.
The First Battle, Battle at Dagger Falls: In the coming days I will give an account of the first battle. The prelude to this battle is as follows: The Zhentarim have been harassing the boarders of the Dalelands, making bold incursions and demanding tribute from the various towns and villages. When a region refuses to pay, the Zhents raid the area, burning towns and villages, destroying crops, slaughtering innocents, and taking prisoners. Across the Dalelands a call to arms is raised, and the men and women of Daggerdale are the first to respond, raising a militia. Rangers of the Dalelands report seeing an advanced contingent of Zhentarim troops advancing toward Dagger Falls. Just south of the Falls lie ancient ruins in a thick wood. Here the militia of Daggerdale makes its first stand against the pillaging invaders.