Dawns & Departures in the Desert.

Following on from the latest outing for Claude, I thought it was high time I put him into a formal campaign setting, having purchased the campaign suppliment for Sharp Practice 2 over Christmas, I figured this would give me the push to get some more game and painting time in and allow players to consider more than just the game in progress.

The plan is for the various club players to take on the role of Claude in the club games whilst I run the Ottoman's. Team Claude can decide on their initial force make up and their efforts will be documented here. While the Ottoman mission will be held in camera.

Having diced for the misson - Ensign Claude Cannard gets landed with the task of Intimidation.

There are times when the gloves need to come off, and this is one of them. The peasants in the
region have not shown sufficient loyalty to your cause and are suspected of actively assisting the
enemy. Your mission is to burn every sixth house in any inhabited Area to the ground to show who is
master in these parts.

VICTORY CONDITIONS
The Claude can claim a victory if he completes his mission in all inhabited Areas. He can claim partial victory based on the number of Areas he deals with. The umpire can claim partial victory based on the number of Areas saved from the enemy’s vengeance.

Dawns and Departures contains three Geographical Tables for Northern and Southern Europe together with North America, I needed to adapt these to give the true feel of the Middle East so I created the following table to enable the terrain to be generated.

Middle East
Dice	Road Area	Adjacent Areas
2	Dunes	Desert
3	Dunes	Dunes
4	Village - Watering Hole	Desert
5	Desert	Desert
6	Desert	Sparsely Cultivated
7	Oasis	Ancient Ruins
8	Sparsely Cultivated	Dunes
9	Village - Watering Hole	Oasis
10	Desert	Desert
11	Dunes	Dunes
12	Dunes	Village - Watering Hole

When it comes to any encounter the table is divided into six equal zones and the terrain below is rolled for. The defending player places the terrain in any one table Area of his choice, placing this wherever he likes within that square Area. The defender takes his choice, this continues until all key terrain is placed.

Dawn and Departure has a niffy feature in that now the defender may move one single terrain piece. When done, the attacker may do the same, but may not move the last piece that the defender moved.

Watch your opponents face when that Strategic Hill is moved out of reach of your forces.

Again I adapted the terrain layout to suit the Middle East and my own collection.

Middle East
Terrain	1	2	3	4	5	6
Desert	Open Ground	One Small Hill	One Small Hill	Open Ground	Open Ground	Palm Grove
Dunes	Two Large Hills	One Large Hill	Stoney Ground	Two Small Hills	Well	One Small Hill
Oasis	Small Hill and Palm Grove	Palm Grove	Oasis	Open Ground	Hovel	Small Palm Grove
Sparsely Cultivated	Two Enclosures	One Small Hill	Farm	Hovel	Enclosure	Palm Grove
Village - Watering Hole	Two Small Buildings	Two Large Buildings	Two Enclosures	Palm Grove	Palm Grove	Mosque
Ancient Ruins	Open Ground	One Small Hill	Egyptian Ruins	Open Ground	Egyptian Ruins	Palm Grove

With the mechanics sorted. On to the terrain for Claudes mission.
Claude starts at the bottom centre square and will need to cover plenty of ground if he is to cover his mission seeking out every building in the local area.

Dunes	Oasis	Desert
Dunes	Village Watering Hole	Sparsely Cultivated
Ancient Ruins	Oasis	Desert
Sparsely Cultivated	Desert	Dunes
Desert	Dunes	Desert
Desert	Village Watering Hole	Sparsely Cultivated
Ancient Ruins	Sparsely Cultivated	Oasis
Sparsely Cultivated	Desert	Dunes