Levy & Campaign Fest: A Look at Current and Upcoming Titles in the Series from SDHISTCON…All From My Desk

Finding My First Online Convention

One thing I love to do when I get into something new is research. I like to visit online forums, Twitter, YouTube, and Google to inform myself about whatever it is that I’m interested in. Board games and specifically historical board games are no different. I remember vividly sitting on the balcony of my daughters’ dance recital waiting to start when an ad for SDHISTCON Spring Deployment 2021 came across Twitter. Seeing it was 100% online piqued my interest. I decided to give it a shot. Being introverted and an online-only Con sounded much less intimidating allowing me to be as active or passive as I wanted. One positive to come out of the pandemic was the push on using technology to connect people. Online conventions are one of those new connections.

SDHISTCON knows how to do it

What I found at that first Con is that the passion and high-quality programming that the team puts on is top-notch. I’ve attended three more since and all have been equally rewarding for me. For the cost of $5, it is borderline criminal how much good time you will have. I discovered many titles that I hadn’t heard of and connected with many designers as well. All SDHISTCON events are very welcoming to newcomers. In fact at my second event, COIN fest last summer, Harold Buchanan met with several of us. We finished an introductory game of Cuba Libre and he came just to chat about how we enjoyed the game and the system. Something I thought was very cool!

So when I saw a while back that SDHISTCON and staff were putting on another one-day online fest dedicated to the Levy & Campaign series I immediately knew it was something I was going to sign up for.

Levy & Campaign

If you are new to the scene allow me to tell you about the system let me elaborate. The series is designed by Volko Ruhnke, designer of COIN Series, Wilderness War, and Labyrinth. The name of the series comes from two very distinct phases of the game. Levy – the phase in which you must build your supplies, raise troops and rally lords (and their vassals) to your banner. Following that phase you get the Campaign – where these armies march, fight, and siege cities.

The hallmark of this series is the focus on how the armies of the time were not standing armies. Kings paid lords and their subjects to form an army for a limited time. Then actually moving and fighting only slow and expensive, but hard to command and maintain cohesion. Much of the game is about managing limited supply and keeping your forces in the field before they disband to return home.

Needless to say, the game took off very quickly similar to the COIN series. Many designers have looked at the system and seen how it can apply to other conflicts of the period. Another positive side effect of the pandemic was that many of these folks looked online to find new ways to connect. Discord proved to be a platform for the ultimate crucible. Many L&C fans and would-be designers now make up a vibrant online community. This community currently has over a dozen ideas in various states of design. The projects have taken an almost artist commune style approach. Here everyone shares ideas, and innovations and can get feedback from the community.

LC Fest – Why Now?

With the continued interest in Levy & Campaign, SDHISTCON teamed up with these designers to bring this one-day event. I mentioned there are currently five L&C titles (two released and three more on P500), that have been announced as of today. However, there are five more that are far enough in development to have playable demos. This online convention was a case of peeking behind the curtain into the designer’s workshops for all these games. Boy, what a peek it was!

The Day’s Events

Almoravid

The first event I attended was hosted by Volko himself and featured a guided playthrough of Almoravid, the second game in the series. Almoravid tells the story of the Christian reconquest of Spain from Islamic Moors in 11th Century Spain. This game features a lot of similarities to its older brother Nevsky with a few differences. The weather here is not nearly the factor. Southern Spain and good Roman roads make travel easier than Russian winters. However, the big change involves the Taifa politics of the day. The Moors would often pay off tributes to the northern Christian kingdoms to avoid military intervention. Unfortunately, this was an incentive for Christians to wage war upon the Taifa kingdoms. The result is an interesting bit of politics injected into the system. I’m oversimplifying but trust me when I say it was time well spent.

This would also be a good time to describe how beautiful the game looks even on Vassal. Both Nevsky and Almoravid have some of the best-looking and functioning Vassal modules I’ve seen and are worth a look for sure.

Morning Coffee

The hallmark of any SDHISTCON event is the morning coffee hour hosted by Harold Buchanan. A very relaxed and informal chat where Harold will call out designers and personalities and talk about the day’s events as well as ask questions of the listeners. Discord is helpful here as interesting questions from Harold could be shared online. Questions about medieval movies and games spawned a lot of simultaneous discussion on the text channel.

It was also fun to see a lot of familiar names such as fellow content creators ZillaBlitz and The Boardgame Chronicles as well as all the designers in one place.

The Morning Coffee sessions are always a good primer and a way to get pumped about the rest of the day. The biggest problem I had was figuring out what sessions to hit. My strategy going in was to jump around to as many different sessions as I could to try and maximize my learning.

Lauria

Next up for me was a demo of Lauria: War of the Sicilian Vespers, 1282-1284. I really wanted to see this game. It is the first in the series to involve a heavy emphasis on the Naval aspect of the period as well as Naval combat. This was a really fun session to take a look at.

Most of the action involves Naval movement and/or combat as most spaces are coastal. An exciting aspect of naval combat includes the aspect of grappling. Naval combat of the time included range attacks at distance, and an effort up close to try and grapple other ships with hooks and ropes. This allowed crews to board enemy vessels and fight in melee combat to finish off the crews. It was definitely an interesting thematic change to the system that I look forward to seeing a move of in the future.

Meet the Designers

The last short but extremely packed presentation of the day was a very cool and interesting session where we got to hear from the designers. Hosted by Volko, he took the time to talk about the history of the system. He then went chronologically through each of the titles that were in attendance.

Here is a sneak preview of the upcoming titles:

• Hauteville: The Conquest of Apulia & Calabria, 1049-53 by Antoine McNicoll. This game centers around a Norman invasion of Italy in the 11th century. The interesting and exciting part about this game is that it is the first 4 player game in the series as there are 4 different factions in this one. Our hobby could always use more multiplayer wargames so this is very exciting to me for sure.
• Seljuq: Byzantium Besieged, 1068-1071 by Justin Fassino. How can you not love that title? This game will feature a Roman vs. Turk showdown. The Turks of the time had many raiding parties harassing the border settlements and cities on the Byzantium border. I’ll cover this one in a bit, but needless to say, it looks to deliver on its promises
• Monfort: Albigensian Crusade in Southern France, 1209-1213 by Garret Monaghan. I didn’t get to spend much time with this title, unfortunately, but the topic sounds very interesting. A crusade in Europe vs. the Middle East and a focus for the crusader of constant manpower issues really makes this one sound like a keeper
• Inferno: Guelphs and Ghibellines Vie for Tuscany, 1259-1261 by Enrico Acerbi and Volko Ruhnke. This is the next game on P500 in the system. For those of you backers, it sounded like it has hit the printer as of the day before the convention so hopefully, we’ll see this one before the end of the year! This title takes place in the rich Tuscany with many fortifications and promises to have a lot of factional gameplay some treachery and rebellion that players will have to manage as well as the typical L&C issues. I know I need to check my P500 to make sure this one is on the list
• Lauria: War of the Sicilian Vespers, 1282-1284 by Mark Greenwald. As mentioned previously this title has a large focus on naval combat of the era. Historically it has strong ties to Inferno and even some to Monfort and Hauteville. This era also sees increasing use of mercenary armies vs loyal vassal armies which adds another cool wrinkle to the game
• Henry: The Agincourt Campaign, 1415 by Joseph Schmidt. This is another title recently added to the P500 list. What makes this title look very interesting is that it is geared toward a much smaller and more focused game newcomers friendly. While we didn’t see a ton about it, this title also will include a full solo mode. Historically this covers the famous campaign of Henry V as he campaigns throughout France. Needless to say, the small size and playtime have this one very high on my list currently!
• Žižka: Reformation & Crusade in Hussite Bohemia, 1420-1421 by Petr Mojzis. Again another title I didn’t get to spend much time with but talk about one of the coolest settings of the bunch. Žižka was a famous one-eyed general that led the Hussite Revolution which angered the pope. However, Žižka famously was never defeated in battle and rallied a mostly peasant army that fought impossible odds. I looked up a little online after the convention and it really makes me want to read a lot more on this famous but rarely mentioned military leader from history.
• Plantagenet: Cousins’ War for England, 1459 – 1485 by Francisco Gradaille. This game covers the famous War of the Roses civil war for the English Crown. It also is on P500 currently and is another game to have strong political ties inside the game as each side of the Lancasters and Yorks fight for political control as well as military control.

As you can tell a lot of really cool stuff coming from Levy & Campaign in the coming years. For more info about all of the games mentioned check out this overview page: https://tabletop.events/conventions/sdhistcon-presents-levy-and-campaign-fest/pages/l-c-rules-and-modules

Seljuq

The next session I attended was Seljuq focusing on the Roman-Byzantine Empire’s struggle against Seljuq Turks. I’m pretty new to L&C so I planned to stay lurking in the shadows on this one, however, when the Roman player had technical difficulties I stepped in to finish the campaign section of the game.

An interesting wrinkle in this game is the Roman units that remain on the board that can act as garrison forces. At this point, the Turks would perform many raids and Romans had begun to keep forces ready to be called up in defense. These units can join a city under siege and defend. We played a very bloody game with lots of combat that kept us on the edge of our seats in this one and I really had a good time with my short play of it.

Henry

As mentioned earlier this is a game that I really am looking forward to. The L&C system is a complex system with two very different phases. It can also lead to longer playtimes of titles. Both of those items make getting to the table an issue. This is where Henry comes in. The game has been really expertly crafted to give you that same feeling but with a much more focused game and streamlined rules.

Again I hoped to not have to show off my newb status, but when designer Joe Schmidt needed an extra player I decided to give it a go.

A couple interesting parts to this game is the levy phase is very much simplified where you have Royal Burden points that are used to buy your units and/or cards at the beginning of the game. The other unique aspect is that many of the actions are resolved by an encounter deck. These can be positive and give you a well-needed boost, however, they can benefit the French by giving them extra turns or resources. As always managing your supplies to keep up your sieges and campaign across France is key and like many of the other titles…fighting is TOUGH. Even with the max siege markers down, I took 3 tries to finally capture one city. That said I felt much more comfortable here as a newcomer and the solo system sounds like it is a good addition as well. I look forward to seeing more of this one as it continues in development.

Nevsky

After Henry wrapped up I spent some time checking in on the game that started it all: Nevsky. I had seen a few demos but wanted to see a little more of the game in action. Though I also did take a couple peeks at Hauteville as well. Looking at Nevsky after all the other games were interesting. All of them build from this one and have rules that have gone through some updates along the way. That said the core mechanic of really having to focus on managing your resources and keeping your lords in the fight is still there. It reminded me why I was at the convention and why this system has become so highly regarded in a short amount of time.

Final Thoughts

I had a blast from my desk and it was as I feared. After experiencing the day I feel like I might have started down a new rabbit hole. I can totally see why this system has seen so many people flock to it. It is an interesting way to look at the aspect of the war from this era that has not been represented in our hobby as well. War back then was TOUGH. If you were going to engage in it, you better have your supplies well thought out and make sure to make progress in your campaigns as quickly as possible.

In closing, I hope that this was a helpful recap of the current state of Levy & Campaign. I will say the professionalism and dedication of the SDHISTCON staff are bar none. If you ever get the chance to attend one of their events you won’t be disappointed. The other thing is that the passion of Volko and the other designers is incredible. The forge of the L&C Discord server has been such a shot of adrenaline to this system and with many other ideas floating around, you can bet the games here won’t be the last games coming from this system. So if you like what you’ve read keep your eyes peeled for more future titles in the future! No better time for Provender!