Most books going over the "Back of Beyond," the conflict in Central Asia and Mongolia in the 1920's, have a background piece that covers the ten-thousand foot view the campaign. It's a good view for an interested party to start, because if descend down onto the bloody battlefields themselves, one has trouble discerning the atrocities of the various sides, and the moral high ground might only be a shovel-full more of dirt.
Sinister Laboraties, in collaboration with Rattrap Productions, published their third sourcebook with Contemptible Little Armies 3rd Edition (CLA) as Back of Beyond. It properly covers the conflict at the 5,000 scale, admitting some horrible details with bloody mechanical efficiency, while allowing a vibrant background for campaign play with a wide variety of forces.
When dealing with settings, both historical and fantastical, the one thing that really piques my interest beyond playability and multiple factions, is the idea of effective campaign play. Warhammer 40,000 has a wide variety of armies great for one-on-one play, but group and campaign play seems to bog down.
The first twelve pages covers background, including the Russian Civil War, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Tibet, Chinese Turkestan in enough details to whet your appetite, along with a bibliography to expand your research.
There are six pages of army lists and troops, just stats and special abilities, that fans of CLA can easily put into their games.
The bulk of book is the listing, breakdown, and explanation of the armies available. Nineteen possible armies are presented, with variations available:
Outside true fantasy skirmish games, Mordheim, original Necromunda, and Frostgrave, it's difficult to assemble something with a long range story with multiple players. Back of Beyond seems to handle it with style.
The ultimate goal in the campaign rules is to have one army reach the city of Kashgar first. Even if you don't wish to use a map, a simple grid can be used to document the twelve steps towards victory. A step is made by either conducting battles and making your army travel by forced march (a 50/50 proposition in the Central Asian weather). Casualties and forced march results in prevent units from appearing in future engagements, or may make them delayed deployments.
In addition to the prepared scenarios from the main rules is the ability for baggage and looting to take place. So, beyond a traditional ambush, forces hit the limited supply lines (re: pack mules and camels), sustaining the rival army.
The other new rule they add is that for individual characters. Hearkening back to the days of Chainmail with unnamed masses and unique, evolving characters leading them, you can pick a variety of characters to supplement your army. They can certainly help you, but they are also independent, so they could get separate, they could get lost, they get captured (and executed), they could even join a rival army. There's twelve characters in total, which makes unique painting opportunities
Twenty-five bucks for a 45 page book is not a great deal, but since I'm interested in the topic, each page seems far informative than a book double its size.
On the Five Gnome Gaming with the Gnomies Rating System, I give Back of Beyond four out of five gnomes.
Back of Beyond for Contemptible Little Armies is available in print and pdf through Brigade Games.
Sinister Laboraties, in collaboration with Rattrap Productions, published their third sourcebook with Contemptible Little Armies 3rd Edition (CLA) as Back of Beyond. It properly covers the conflict at the 5,000 scale, admitting some horrible details with bloody mechanical efficiency, while allowing a vibrant background for campaign play with a wide variety of forces.
The first twelve pages covers background, including the Russian Civil War, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Tibet, Chinese Turkestan in enough details to whet your appetite, along with a bibliography to expand your research.
There are six pages of army lists and troops, just stats and special abilities, that fans of CLA can easily put into their games.
The bulk of book is the listing, breakdown, and explanation of the armies available. Nineteen possible armies are presented, with variations available:
- Bolsheviks
- White Russians
- Czech Legion
- Baron von Ungern-Sternberg's Asiatic Cavalry Division
- Regular Chinese Warlords
- Regular Chinese Bandits
- Tching-Kai
- Mongolian Tribesmen
- Ngoloks
- Basmachis
- Japanese Army
- Central Asian Bandits
- Afghan Army
- Army of British India
- Turkish Army
- Tibetans
- Army of God (a unit of Indian Muslims)
- American Army
- Dinosaurs Hunters (let's call these guys the "fun" factor who could fall into the conflict
The one great thing of the Back of the Beyond is the wild, varying armies with weird rules, including in battle desertion, and the fact that it distinctly states that two like armies CAN fight each other. History is chock full of confusing storylines.
Outside true fantasy skirmish games, Mordheim, original Necromunda, and Frostgrave, it's difficult to assemble something with a long range story with multiple players. Back of Beyond seems to handle it with style.
The ultimate goal in the campaign rules is to have one army reach the city of Kashgar first. Even if you don't wish to use a map, a simple grid can be used to document the twelve steps towards victory. A step is made by either conducting battles and making your army travel by forced march (a 50/50 proposition in the Central Asian weather). Casualties and forced march results in prevent units from appearing in future engagements, or may make them delayed deployments.
In addition to the prepared scenarios from the main rules is the ability for baggage and looting to take place. So, beyond a traditional ambush, forces hit the limited supply lines (re: pack mules and camels), sustaining the rival army.
The other new rule they add is that for individual characters. Hearkening back to the days of Chainmail with unnamed masses and unique, evolving characters leading them, you can pick a variety of characters to supplement your army. They can certainly help you, but they are also independent, so they could get separate, they could get lost, they get captured (and executed), they could even join a rival army. There's twelve characters in total, which makes unique painting opportunities
Twenty-five bucks for a 45 page book is not a great deal, but since I'm interested in the topic, each page seems far informative than a book double its size.
On the Five Gnome Gaming with the Gnomies Rating System, I give Back of Beyond four out of five gnomes.
