Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game

Solo Wargaming AI Engine

Malcolm Yates
April 2020
MESBG Solitaire AI
Introduction

This document is a guide that provides gaming rules and suggestions to assist anyone who wishes to
play the GW MESBG solo. This guide should be used in conjunction with the Isildur’s Bane Rules Hack
that provides suitable mechanisms for the game phases (especially Priority), and use of Might, Will
and Fate.

The basic problem with solo (solitaire) wargaming, is that you lack an opponent! This guide seeks to
address that by defining mechanisms to define what a group of figures will do within a game, based
on their current objectives and surrounding situation. I use these rules to drive both of the armies in
my games, but you could just use them for the ‘enemy’ force.

This is not an exact science, and so you may well decide to modify and adapt these principles to suit
your own requirements.

My goal was to produce a system that still makes use of the core MESBG rules, rather than just using
my miniatures with a different set of rules (e.g. Lion Rampant or THW etc.). Also note that the
Isildur’s Bane Rules Hack does not use Heroic Actions, but I decided that they are such a key part of
the MESBG system, that they needed to be used.

You will need a deck of playing cards and a D12 dice to play following this guide, and obviously two
suitable armies.

Setup and Terrain

The first part of any of our MESBG games is to setup the board, and select the Scenario. I have
adopted a type of game based around the DC Hobbit League ‘Chaos in Arda’ game, and the standard
Capture and Control Scenario, that I think gives a generic balanced type of game.

Identify all your available terrain pieces and assign a red playing card to each one. This is my current
list:

1. Copse
2. Large Ruin (Osgiliath gateway)
3. Large Ruin (Osgiliath arches)
4. Medium Ruin (Gothic corner)
5. Medium Ruin (Dwarf ruin)
6. Small Ruin (Osgiliath steps)
7. Small Ruin (Dwarf corner)
8. Long wall
9. Long wall
10. Fence
J. Wagon
Q. Wagon

Divide the playing area into 1’ squares, so on a 4’x4’ board you will have 9 locations.
Use red cards for actual terrain pieces available
Add in the same number of black cards.
Deal one card per 1’ square and place the selected terrain piece, or none for a black card. This
should give you approximately half of your board with random scenery placed on it.

Place 5 objective markers. One in the centre, and one in the centre of each quadrant of the board.
Number the central objective 1, and the others 2-5.

Army Composition

This guide assumes you are playing a matched play game - 400 points works well, as you’re moving
both armies so effectively playing 800 points!

Objectives

For each army roll a D6, 1&6 are the central objective, and 2-5 are the outer objectives. This is the
objective this army must attempt to capture.
An objective is captured if the army has more figures within 3” of the objective marker than any
enemy in the End Phase.
Once an objective is captured, the dice should be rolled again to determine the next objective for
that army.
If a hero is killed, then remaining members of the group should attempt to reach other friendly
groups.

Deployment

I decided that a type of Maelstrom of Battle deployment provides a more random element to the
game starting conditions, which is a good factor when solo wargaming. By this point the player
knows which objective each army is initially focussed on, and therefore the initial movement onto
the board of each warband can make use of the ‘Action after group activation’ detailed below.

Define board entry points at 1’ intervals along each board edge. Use the relevant sided dice for the
number of entry points. So for a 4’x4’ board, there are 3 entry points per side, and therefore you
need a D12 dice.

Roll a D6 for deployment priority (1-3 Evil, 4-6 Good)

Roll the entry point dice for the side with priority. Deploy the strongest warband at the defined entry
point. Then alternate warbands per army in decreasing strength order. If a warband has already
deployed at the specified location, then roll again.

Master of Ambush: The dice roll may be modified by up to +2 or – 2, or re-rolled.

Victory Conditions

The game ends once one army is broken.

Victory points are awarded as follows:

3 points for each objective captured

1 point for wounding an enemy hero
2 points for killing an enemy hero
3 points for killing the enemy leader
3 points for breaking the enemy army.
Game Mechanics

The game mechanics follow the phasing, Priority, Move/Shoot, and Might/Will/Fate mechanisms
defined in the Isildur’s Bane rules hack.
Activation groups may contain any number of figures where no figures are more than 4” apart. So a
complete warband could be a single group. This differs from the core Isildur’s Bane definition, as I
generally like to keep my warbands as discrete units.

Action after group activation

An activation group should move to fulfil the assigned objective, or towards other friendly warbands
if the group hero has been killed. Movement should make use of terrain and available cover to
provide the best advantage over enemy groups. This is where the player has some discretion on how
each group fulfils its objectives!

Possible actions:

Identify the nearest enemy unit – this is a little subjective! The group must have line of sight to the
enemy. It would also be illogical for one group to march across the front of a friendly unit that hasn’t
activated yet.

If the nearest enemy is out of the groups’ shooting range (if it has missile weapons) and/or greater
than 2x (the enemies) charge range away. (So generally >12” away for infantry)
Advance full move towards objective

Otherwise it will be one of:

A. Retreat full move

B. Retreat half move and fire
C. Stand (and fire possible)
D. Advance towards nearest enemy half move and fire(including charging into combat if within
range).
E. Advance towards nearest enemy full move (including charging into combat)

If group includes missile weapons then it may perform any of the possible actions. If a group does
not contain any missile weapons then it can only perform actions; A, C, & E.

There are many ways that Solo Wargaming AI rules attempt to give miniature figures the intelligence
to move, shoot and fight. I decided to make use of the ‘Courage’ stat, to provide some level of
expectation of what each group may do in a certain position, but also add in a random element too.

Identify the highest courage value of any figure in the activation group, or a hero that is within its
‘stand fast’ range from any member of the group. This should be a value from 2 to 7. Add D6 to this
value, giving a new range of 3 – 13. This is the command value
Based on the distance from the nearest enemy, and the command value, the activation group should
perform as defined in this table.

Within < 2x charge range Within charge range

shooting
range
Activated Not Activated Activated Not activated
Stronger Weaker Stronger Weaker Stronger Weaker Stronger Weaker
A 3 5 - 4 5
B 4 6 - 3 5 6 3
C 5 7 3 4 3 6 3 7 4
D 6 8 4 5 4 7 4 8 5
E >7 >9 >5 >6 >5 >8 >5 >9 >6
Shooting:

Shoot at any target in range, based on the following priority:

Leader
Mounted Hero
Monster
Cavalry
Hero
Banner
Spear support warrior
War horn
Warrior

Notes:

Full movement will be the lowest for the whole group. So a cavalry figure will keep pace with
infantry if it is in the same activation group, unless charging an enemy in range.

A group that is charged and at least 1 figure ends up in combat MUST counter-charge the attacking
group.

Charging into combat should be done in the most advantageous deployment of combats and
supports.

Combat Actions

Special Strikes will always be used when possible.

For Stab and Piercing Strike roll a D6, and only use these actions on a 4+ result.

Shielding must be used if possible when a single figure has less attacks than it’s enemy, unless a
Heroic Defence was used.
Heroic Actions

Always determine the action desired, and then use the Isildur’s Bane ‘Might, Will and Fate’ rules, to
see if the action happens.

Heroic March

To be used to move towards a numbered objective quickly. This can only be used once per objective.

Heroic Move

Not used

Heroic Resolve

N/A

Heroic Accuracy

Not used

Heroic Shoot

Not used

Heroic Combat

To be used if the hero’s combat has more attacks and a higher fight value than the enemy, including
spear supports. There must also be another enemy to fight after this combat.

Heroic Defence

To be used if the hero’s combat has less attacks than the enemy.

Heroic Strength

To be used when neither Heroic Combat or Strike are required, but to wound the enemy would
require a 6/4+ To Wound roll or above.

Heroic Strike

To be used if the Hero has a lower or equal fight value in the combat. This takes priority over Heroic
Combat.