The Black Eagle War

10 May, 2025

The War Machine mass combat rules presented in the Companion Set¹ and Rules Cyclopedia² have always struck me as overly abstract and thus incapable of providing the necessary breadth of options for the players to fully flex their tactical skills. It's reasonable to argue that the authors themselves saw the need for more in-depth tactical rules, since Battlesystem Fantasy Combat Supplement³ is mentioned as an option in GAZ12: The Golden Khan of Ethengar and explicitly required in X10: Red Arrow, Black Shield⁴ module. The second edition⁵ of this wargame was published in 1989 and greatly improved and streamlined the rules and ease of converting from (A)D&D combatants' statistics to wargame troops.

For these reasons, when the time came to run The Fall of the Black Eagle scenario presented in the Dungeon Masters Companion¹ (pp.61-62), I decided to convert the whole affair into Battlesystem 2e. The War Machine statistics presented in the scenario give some important information for this:

• # of troops — divided by 10 gives the number of Figures
• Avg-level troops - helps to determine Hits value
• Maximum damage/round — helps to determine AD (attack dice) value
• Average AC — helps to determine AR (armor rating) value
• Missile and Mounted troops — helps to further separate different troop types
• Average movement — divided by 10 gives the MV (movement) value

Non-human troops' statistics are taken straight from the Battlesystem's Appendix II: Troop Type List. If you want to introduce Heroes and Commanders into this scenario, you can use the Level of Leader and Leader ability bonus to determine their Battlesystem statistics.

Contents

• Battlesystem troops
• Battle of Sisak
• Battle of Wulfolde hills
• Battle of Sukiskyn
• Battle of Xitaqa
• Results
• Experience
• Further suggestions

Battlesystem troops ↩

Grand Duchy of Karameikos Forces

* Hired on player characters' money.

Total Ducal Army points: 902 originally, 1022 with Thyatian pikemen mercenaries — who never saw battle (see Battle of Sukiskyn).

Black Eagle Barony Forces

Total Black Eagle Army points: 949.

📝 NOTE: To add extra flavor to the humanoid forces, consult the Goblinoid Tribes of Karameikos⁶ article at Pandius.

Marching Speed

The easiest way to determine how far the unit can move in a day is to use the MV value of the troops (MV * 2 = Miles per day on Clear terrain), modified by the terrain:

• Broken terrain — forest, hill, desert, mud, snow
• Difficult terrain — mountain, swamp, jungle, ice, glacier

Additionally, unit size penalties from The War Machine rules can also be used:

Since we were playing on a 3-mile hex map, the decision was made to use the following simplified system instead:

• Daily movement points = MV value
• Trail movement cost (3 miles) = 1 point
• Clear terrain movement cost (3 miles) = 2 points
• Other terrain movement cost (3 miles) = 3 points

Battle of Sisak ↩

• Date: Fyrmont 3, AC 1003
• Location: Sisak, Westron road
• Terrain: Light woods, stream, village fields

Forces

Specularum-based ducal troops rushed to intercept the main Black Eagle forces at the village of Sisak (see "In the Dread of Night" adventure in the Dungeon Magazine #24⁷, pp.6-24) east of Radlebb keep.

Ducal knights met the attackers at a strategic chokepoint past the Clearwater River ford, while the infantry covered the flanks, stationing in the village fields. Black Eagle knights had performed a successful charge and engaged in melee, while the small but mobile unit of horse archers attacked the eastern flank of the ducal forces, but were quickly decimated by a precise barrage of longbowmen. Meanwhile, the bugbear unit approached at the western flank, using the forest as cover from the arrows. Ducal guards crossed the river to meet them in melee combat.

Ducal knights suffered heavy losses from the charge, but held their ground, forcing the Black Eagle knights to retreat and regroup beside the sole surviving unit of the horse archers' unit, preparing for a counter-attack. At the edge of the forest, bugbears, greatly reduced by the heroic sacrifice of the ducal guards, were met by the longbowmen and eliminated entirely.

Ultimately, the ducal forces had suffered heavy losses but routed the remaining 30 knights who fled from the battlefield. This first victory had shaped the flow of the whole war by successfully protecting the western front, allowing the remaining armies to focus on humanoid tribes approaching Kelvin.

Losses

Battle of Wulfolde Hills ↩

• Date: Fyrmont 5, AC 1003
• Location: South-East of Penhaligon
• Terrain: Light woods and hills

Forces

The united forces of the Kelvin militia, Callarii elves, and Highforge gnomes had assembled at Penhaligon, anticipating the attack of the goblin horde. When the reports came that the goblins had passed the town, continuing their march through Wulfolde Hills towards Kelvin, the army rushed to intercept them at once.

While the gnomes were too slow to meet the enemy in melee, the strategically positioned unit of Callarii elven longbowmen had thinned the goblin ranks before they clashed with the Kelvin militia and elven infantry. The goblins were wiped out, but not without heavy losses.

Losses

Battle of Sukiskyn ↩

• Date: Fyrmont 5, AC 1003
• Location: Dymrak forest near Sukiskyn
• Terrain: Light woods

Forces

The same night, Vyalia elves, who previously had effortlessly crossed the Dymrak forest, met another goblin horde on their approach to Sukiskyn (see B10: Night's Dark Terror⁸). Thyatian pikemen were still on their way through the unfamiliar forest and so did not participate in the battle.

Accustomed to the wooded terrain warfare, the elves had dispatched the enemies with minimal losses, forcing the remainder of the horde to retreat back into the depths of the forest.

Losses

Battle of Xitaqa ↩

• Date: Fyrmont 7, AC 1003
• Location: Near Xitaqa ruins
• Terrain: Light woods and hills

Forces

The orcish army that had crossed the Highreach River near the Xitaqa ruins (see B10: Night's Dark Terror⁸) was met by the remaining forces of the Penhaligon army.

The gnomes, supported by the elven longbowmen, received the main hit from the enemy, but nevertheless held their ground, destroying the last enemy army in its entirety.

Losses

Results ↩

The Grand Duchy of Karameikos was victorious, though both sides had suffered heavy losses. Having insufficient forces to lay siege to Fort Doom, the player characters had decided against the counter-invasion of the Black Eagle barony, at least for the time being.

Experience ↩

Experience points are earned both for commanding a force and for performing heroics. If a PC leads a force, find the number of troops in the enemy force. If the PC wins the battle, the PC gets that number of experience points. The PC gets one-third of that number if the battle is lost.

— Rules Cyclopedia, p.121

The experience gain rules from The War Machine are objectively insufficient and don't even take into account the difference in Hit Dice and special abilities of the opponents defeated. The second edition Battlesystem doesn't have an alternative, but the first edition does, either dividing the total XP value of the defeated enemies between the survived troops (if they are capable of earning XP), and awarding the difference between 25% XP of the killed and routed enemies and 25% XP of the unit losses to the unit commander (down to 0 XP gain) in addition to any XP earned through individual combat.

The Recovering Casualties rule presented there is also quite interesting, allowing for recovery of 2/3 of the "dead" troops (wounded, routed, etc.) and taking prisoner 1/3 of the defeated enemy forces. These recovered figures do not count against the unit commander's XP gain, of course.

As a quicker alternative, you can use the point values of the figures, which are very roughly equal to 50% of the XP value (but don't count on this for all cases). For this simplified method, multiply the unit's total point value by 5 (since each figure consists of 10 combatants, and we need 25% of their total XP). This often isn't correct for the stronger individual figures, but it will do for the common low-HD troops.

• XP Gain by ¼ XP = 4,745 - 1,855 = 2,890 XP
• XP Gain by Points × 5 = 4,750 - 1,975 = 2,775 XP

In either case, I would recommend giving this XP to every player character acting as a unit commander on the field or otherwise.

Further suggestions ↩

Heroes and Commanders

Convert players' characters to individual Battlesystem figures to lead the troops. Note that this comes with the risk of demise and increases the length of playtime. In this case, the DM must introduce the enemy commanders and heroes as well. Note that some spells differ between AD&D and BECMI and thus need to be adjusted accordingly.

Fog of War

The players cannot see the enemy forces and must rely on the scouting reports, boosting garrisons in the towns most likely to be attacked. Obviously, the DM must do the same for the enemy forces, who decide the war plan in advance and stick to it until they get new in-game recon information later. Magical divination and flying reconnaissance units would play a major role in this case.

Sieges

Fortresses and sieges are yet to be tested, but could provide an interesting challenge in tactical and logistical terms. Prepare a collection of suitable castle and town maps to be used if such a situation arises.

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