This is Albion: a Custom Tabletop Wargame

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Nation Focus: Kingdom of Caledonia

The origins of the Kingdom of Caledonia are a contentious topic in the Eire Republic. Born out of a self-styled monarchy that seized power in the Skye Cluster and initially backed as an insurrection movement by the Anglian Commonwealth, the Kingdom formally declared its secession from the Republic in response to the perceived betrayal of its leadership over allowing Aes-Sidhe to 'contaminate' their society. The irony however is not lost on its citizens or nobility in later years: for all of the Kingdom's rhetoric back then about alien interference, it has certainly benefited from retaining many boons from early exchanges with the Duatha, including a robust Songblade tradition that it stubbornly clings to as its own.

Of particular note, the Kingdom's most recent monarch, Queen Scáthach III, has endured multiple scandals within her own court regarding her additional status as one of the most powerful songblades alive.

There was however a kernel of truth to the early Kingdom's early rhetoric. Whilst inheriting much of the Republic's early developments in association with the Duatha, the vast majority of known Duatha enclaves within their combined space lie outside of the region that would later become the Kingdom. With constant attacks from Maeves and Liir in addition to Fomorians, the locals within the nascent Kingdom's borders could ill-afford to make the same differentiation between the Aes-Sidhe factions as a matter of principle. Today, it is only the systems along the border with the Republic that can be said to have close to amical relations with local Duatha, as they are otherwise nowhere near as trusted as they are in Republic space. Similarly, the limited exchange also hampered the adoption of subdermal implants and beam weapons in the Kingdom's armed forces, which often instead makes due with increased aggression and more conventional wargear.

As a nation whose military traditions were punctuated by asymmetrical warfare at its inception, the Kingdom tends to favour the use of small but well-equipped mobile forces that are capable of infiltrating into enemy territory and wreaking havoc through the element of surprise and violence of action. While no less capable of more conventional means of warfare than their peers in the Confederation, the Kingdom's way of war planning has served them well in undermining those of the Anglian Commonwealth in what later became the Umbrian March, with Commonwealth forces learning to dread the sound of Caledonian bagpipes from unexpected angles of attack.

Kingdom of Caledonia Special Rule: Skye and Shadow
- Albion Officers taken as part of a Kingdom of Caledonia army may each upgrade 0-1 members of their retinue into a Songblade Battle Bard;
- Albion units taken as part of a Kingdom of Caledonia army gain a +1 bonus to their Movement and Attacks values during a turn in which they perform a Charge action;
- Albion models taken as part of a Kingdom of Caledonia army gain the Fleetfooted (1) special rule if they do not have any variant of the Lumbering (X) special rule, or increase the value of X by 1 they already have a variant of the Fleetfooted (1) special rule;
- Albion infantry, cavalry and monster models taken as part of a Kingdom of Caledonia army may gain the Scout special rule, or gain the Pathfinder special rule if they already have access to the Scout special rule, for 15% of their base cost (rounding up). Models that already have access to the Pathfinder special rule gain a +1 bonus to their Intelligence value instead.

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A nation overview of the Kingdom of Caledonia, drawing on historical and folkloric inspiration from Scotland, with some of their rules reflecting the infamous "Highland Charge". Their origin as a breakaway region from the Eire Republic is loosely drawn from the Gaelic people who raided and settled in what would become modern day Scotland, and whose Latin name Scoti would be forever associated with the land and its people. Of similar note, Scáthach is the name of the Scottish warrior-woman in the Ulster Cycle who trained the Irish warrior hero Cú Chulainn on the Isle of Skye.

 

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I suppose this would be as good a time as any to talk a little about how I intend for opposing forces to deploy on the table.

After the scenario is determined in a given game of This is Albion, a player assigns each of their units to one of three groups: Reserves, Spearhead, and Main Force. This is done with all units before the first model from either player's force is set up on the table.

Reserves
Pretty self-explanatory, Reserve units are not set up during the Deployment Phase of the game and instead arrive from off the board edge in later game turns. Reserve units also include units the player intends to Outflank or Deep Strike, as well as Aerospace units (who must always be assigned to Reserves regardless of any scenario rules that state otherwise). Barring any doctrine or scenario rule that states otherwise, up to 50% of a force's units (rounding down) may be assigned to Reserves.

The specific rules for bringing a Reserve unit onto the table are currently a little extensive given the edge case natures of Outflanking, Deep Striking, and Aerospace units, but suffice to say that a Reserve Roll is always performed for each Reserve unit at the end of each Game Turn, which if successful means that that unit is ready to move onto the table in a later Movement Phase at its Initiative Step. In layman's terms, you roll a d10 and add the turn number along with other modifiers that might apply. If the result is a 9+, the unit is ready to move onto the table as early as the next Movement Phase.

Spearhead
Representing your force's forward elements that act as both screens and guides for other units on the march, Spearhead units functionally allow you to deepen your Deployment Zone, which is usually 6-12" deep from a board edge. Only units with the Scout or Pathfinder special rule may be assigned to Spearhead.

How this is done is in the Advance Party step of the Deployment Phase of the game, which consists of players deploying their Spearhead units wholly within their Deployment Zone and then performing a free Movement Phase with them, with the caveat that they are not allowed to charge (in This is Albion, charging is done in the Movement Phase). This Movement Phase may end normally when all Spearhead units have been activated, or when one Spearhead unit moves within range of an enemy Spearhead unit (range depending on whether they're in Line of Sight or not - 12" when in LoS, 6" when not).

Note: this is very much inspired by the Spearhead special rule from Battlefront Miniatures' Flames of War.

Main Force
Units that haven't been assigned to Reserves or Spearhead are considered to be part of the Main Force. In addition to being allowed to set up within their respective initial Deployment Zones, Main Force units may also set up wholly within 6" of any friendly Spearhead unit, but not within 12" of any objective or the opponent's Deployment Zone, nor within 6" of any enemy Spearhead unit.

Main Force units that are unable to be set up due to space limitations are automatically re-assigned to Reserves, with the caveat that they may not Outflank or Deep Strike outside of a scenario special rule. Should this mean that more of a force's units are in Reserves than are normally allowed, the re-assigned units additionally may not perform Reserve Rolls until the number of units left in Reserves is reduced to the allowed limit or less.

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With these in mind, the order of operations when deploying forces is as follows:

1. Determine Priority
2. Determine Scenario
3. Reserves
4. Advance Party
5. Main Force

 

[ChapterAquila92]

Nation Focus: Umbrian March

Something of an oddity in the Albion Confederation, the region of space now known as the Umbrian March has had a long history of being a disputed borderland between the various Albion nations and Terran invaders, and only relatively recently has it been able to stand as its own independent polity.

Officially beginning its sovereignty as a buffer state between the Kingdom of Caledonia and the Anglian Commonwealth as established in the Treaty of Bannockburn, and enforced by the Albion Confederation itself by way of the ACDF, the March has quite a few growing pains ahead of it. Whilst nominally united under one interstellar government, the colonies in the region largely tend to their own affairs, and as such they're only truly united in the idea that they can forge a future for themselves apart from those who would try to subjugate them. It has been to that end that the March has turned to adopting a barely formalized council of margraves who elect from their number a token representative for international purposes. However, even with some measure of an official military apparatus led by an appointed Lord-Marshal, each colony sees to its own defences all the same.

Compounding issues has been the relatively low overall population in the March compared to the rest of the Confederation, and the overall hostile nature of the March itself. As a region of space where there are exceptionally few habitable planets, let alone terraformable ones, it's far more common for native Umbrians to have been born and raised in domed arcologies and orbital habitats, and as such strict population control has been a particularly drilled aspect of the nascent culture. Compensating for this, the colonies of the March have a very strong tendency to field autonomous robotic units for the purpose of resource extraction and manufacturing to make up for the lack of numbers, in addition to supplementing their heady fleets of exo-suits of both Terran and Albion designs.

It is therefore hardly surprising that the overwhelming majority of Umbrian colonies also take to using automatons as a significant part of their defence apparatus, and in doing so became the perfect proving grounds for local branches of Turing Automated Solutions as a major defence contractor, especially in the Mearce Veil bordering Anglian and Cambrian space.

Almost in stark contrast to such developments, the Jorvik Front on the opposite end of Umbrian space routinely sees Terran interference in local affairs, often in attempts to wrest control of worlds from Albion's sphere of influence. Despite the Terrans' best efforts however, nearly every one of their incursions into the region since the March's founding has not gone without a spike in defectors who go native, adding whatever equipment they "liberate" to the arsenals of the very people they were sent to subjugate.

Umbrian March Special Rule: Mechanized March
- For every Albion Rifle Detachment taken as part of an Umbrian March army, 0-1 non-compulsory detachments in the army may be substituted with an equivalent Terran detachment. This cannot be the army's HQ Detachment, and the total cost of Terran units taken this way cannot exceed 50% of the army's total points cost;
- Albion infantry and cavalry models taken as part of an Umbrian March army may gain the Exo-suit upgrade for 50% of the model's base cost (rounding up), or reduce the upgrade cost to 25% of the base model's cost (rounding up) if it already has access to the Exo-Suit upgrade;
- An Umbrian March army may not take Border World as one of its doctrines. Instead, it must choose two benefits taken from other Human factions (be they Albion or Terran). This benefit otherwise follows the standard rules for the Border World doctrine.*

*This particular benefit may not be taken by other factions using the Border World doctrine.

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I've probably only scratched the surface with the Umbrian March here, but the overall inspirations for the region are the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia, the Danelaw, and the events of Britain's Industrial Revolution among others.

Because of the patchwork nature of the Umbrian March compared to the other Albion nations, it was somewhat difficult for me to conceive of a suitable faction special rule that didn't intrude on other planned aspects of the game (doctrines not least of which). As the de facto "border world" faction though, it made sense to work with one such doctrine, Border World, in mind.

The Border World doctrine, in its most basic form, allows the force to substitute 0-2 of its faction benefits for those of other factions within the same family (i.e. forces from one Albion faction may pick benefits from other Albion factions). The caveats to doing so however are that the doctrine may not be used to take duplicate benefits (i.e. a force may not double-dip on Songblade Troupes), and that the combined number of non-faction units taken in a force as a result of the doctrine are still limited to no more than 50% of the force's total unit count.

As for the Exo-Suit upgrade, in the context of Albion units, this is normally a Grenadier-only upgrade for 50% of the model's base cost that grants the Reinforced Strength special rule, essentially allowing the model to count its Scale value as being 1 higher for the purpose of using Team Weapons and the amount of transport capacity it takes up (or 2 higher if the model has the Tac-Dread sub-type). If purchased for a model, the model also normally gains a +1 bonus to your choice of Movement, Strength, or Armour Rating.