Simplicius - Overland Travel

 

Art is Scene from the Thirty Years' War, Pieter Meulener.

Between 1567 and 1633, the Spanish Road saw more than 100,000 soldiers march along her 620 mile length. Sending troops to the Spanish Netherlands proved a logistical challenge for her overlords, who were eager to put down the long and bloody revolt against their rule. While the most obvious route would be through the English Channel, Spain was hostile to France, England, and of course the Netherlands, three strong naval powers in the region. Instead, the Habsburgs opted for a land-based route. They would ship soldiers from Barcelona to Genoa, up through Milan where they could meet with soldiers from Spain's Italian holdings. They would then head north to their Burgundian lands, via Savoy or the Valtelline, and finally onto the Spanish Netherlands. The average journey along this route took 48 days, marching around 13 miles a day; a far cry from a contemporary sailing ship's average of 120 miles per day. The fastest journey along the road occured in 1578, managing around 19 miles a day. In 1635, with the beginning of the French intervention in the Thirty Years' War, the route was cut off at the Alps, and the Spanish fleet was crushed by the Dutch during an attempt to reinforce the Army of Flanders. Never again would Spain project military power in the Low Countries anywhere close to effectively.

The following is a procedure for overland travel for Simplicius.
Humans have a base movement speed of 18 miles per day. The maximum movement speed is 30 miles per day, while the minimum is 6 (one hex).

• +6 if the full company has access to riding horses
• Does not apply when crossing very rough terrain.
• Spare horses may be needed for longer and rougher journeys.
• +6 on well-maintained roads
• -6 through rough terrain (hills, forest)
• -6 in heavy rain or snow
• -12 through very rough terrain (mountains, swamp)
• -12 if a member of the company is unable to move effectively on their own. Examples include;
• deprived characters;
• those incapacitated by stat loss;
• those with all slots full;
• those with missing legs or other disabilities affecting movement;
• This penalty is negated if some form of transportation is provided, such as a carriage.

Some of these may change across a journey; for example horses may die, or a character may recover from a coma. As such, travel time should be calculated per day.

For each day of travel, mark off one ration per member of the company, be they animal or human. A company has a 1-in-6 chance of getting lost when travelling through rough terrain without roads to guide them, or a 2-in-6 in very rough conditions. There is a 1-in-6 chance of a random encounter, rolled each day and night.

An example; the Catholic Company of Trier, a band of 10, are marching south as fast as they can. Their four horses are pulling two carts; one containing supplies, the other containing the now one-legged firebrand Johann and loot from some Lutheran noble they apprehended back in Franconia. They're currently planning to cross the Alps, planning to go through the Valtelline route. This means, unless something changes, they'll move at 18 miles per day; 18 base, +6 for the well-maintained road leading to town, -6 for the hilly terrain. We roll a d6 to check for random encounters during travel, giving us a 1. We then roll to see when on the journey this encounter is; 3 on a d3, meaning the last 6 miles. As they are travelling along a road, there is no need to roll to see if they get lost. We mark down -15 rations; 10 for the humans, 4 for the horses, and 1 for Süße, the bloodhound.

They travel for a day across the Swiss Plateau, hoping to stop at St. Gallen for the night. They cross by a small group of travellers, heading in the opposite direction to them; Catholics from Innsbruck, who are returning from the Abbey of St. Gallen. A quick prayer is exchanged, and tea is shared, before the two groups part ways.

Once in St. Gallen, they trade their confiscated goods for some sturdy mountain horses, one for each member of the company (not including Johann). However, as they are heading into some very rough terrain, they will be ineffective until they are over the Alps. They get a good nights rest before the next leg of their journey, but as they prepare to head off in the morning, disaster strikes; snow! They would now be trudging along at 6 miles a day (18, +6 from roads, -6 from snow, -12 from mountainous terrain); far slower that they would like, and the cold would be bad for their health. They decide to wait out the storm after managing to get lodgings for a few more nights in town; St. Gallen may be a Calvinist town, but the nearby abbey is hopefully close enough to flee to if the locals find out what the Company has been up to.

Join us next time when we look at more trouble the Catholic Company has gotten itself into; especially the less obvious dangers that unprepared travel can get a party into...