IT RETURNS!
That's right, it's a Countries at War clone!* This one is heavily inspired by Master of Magic, . The short version is that everyone starts out with dark ages technology at best, but that magic has recently returned to the world as well (as a tech option). I think by now we know pretty much how this goes.
*Though after this many modifications, it's getting hard to tell.
Fluff/OOC Thread here:
OOC/Fluff ThreadBackgroundIn ages past, the world was scattered tribes of all the races. Great wars were waged over the promise of power and one by one all the races were conquered. Under the Imperial rule, the land prospered. Old feuds and hostilities between the races were almost entirely forgotten.
Nearly 200 years of peace made the Empire complacent, giving rise to
an overwhelming urge to explore beyond the horizon. An urge so great and powerful that the Emperor himself ordered the entire standing military force to spread out from the island nation in all directions. The exodus was seen as a strange action by the peasantry, but after so much peace no one was truly afraid of anything happening.
Weeks passed, then months, and finally after several years of no news being heard the people grew restless. The obvious need for new leadership was apparent to all, though who should lead was not. With all the major nobility missing in action, the petty bickering of bygone years returns as if it was never gone.
It's now been 10 years since the initial in-fighting started. The land is not the prosperous Utopia that it once was. Every half-ripe person with a tongue sharp enough to gather a few men together has risen to stake a claim for the Throne and to leave their mark on the land. Whether that mark is a bloody smear on a battlefield or the one causing that bloody smear has really yet to be seen.
Game Related Information
1. All countries/groups start out at the same level, with £500 in cash, a starting income of £500 (from a Palace) 1 Scout, and 4 Light Macemen Divisions (regardless of whether they have the resources to build more). New players get a bonus income of £50*(Number of turn since the game started) for their first 10 turns. You do not have to pay income on the macemen for your first turn.
2. Alliances can be made and broken at will.
3. Land units only have two movement points, air and sea units have varying amounts. Moving from one region to the next costs one movement point. Ships can move on both coastal and sea regions. Travel on roads costs half a movement point.
1. Battles are conducted in part by the random number generator. Units are paired up and a score between 1-100 is determined for each unit involved in combat by rolling 3d100 and dividing the score by 3. This provides a Gaussian distribution that favours most final scores being in the region 40-60.
2. Individual bonuses to attack and defense are added to each side's score. Someone must always be the aggressor in a situation (i.e. they moved into a territory to attack it) and will gain any bonuses to attack. The defender will gain any bonuses to defense.
2a. The combat engine will automatically pick those units with the best advantage to the attacker to engage in combat that the defender cannot counter effectively. Even if a tank is your best general unit, if the defender has anti-tank weaponry the game may send infantry instead because their finalised bonus to attack is higher after taking into account defensive advantages.
3. If one unit beats the other unit's score by 12 or more, the losing unit is destroyed and the winning unit is able to fight again. If victory or defeat is by less than 12, both units are wounded and unable to fight for the remainder of the battle.
4. Whichever side still has active, undamaged units when all combat is over is the winner. All damaged units on the losing side are destroyed at the end of combat unless they are able to retreat (see 5).
4a. It is possible for both sides to end on a stalemate in which both sides' units are all wounded. In this situation, whoever won the last round of combat (however slight a win that may be) counts as the winner.
4b. Although the winning side retains its units, wounded units remain unable to compete in combat for the entire next round as this time is spent healing.
5. Wounded infantry units on the losing side of a battle have a 20% chance of retreating to a neighbouring friendly territory (or nearest friendly territory within their remaining move, if it is not adjacent). Flying units and cavalry have higher retreat chances. There is also a 5% chance (modifiable with technology) of the victors capturing wounded units intact. NB: This applies equally to neutral units, who may retreat to other neutral territories to bolster their defences.
5a. Naval units have a 30% chance of retreat and 15% chance of capture.
5b. Certain units (e.g. pirates, slavers) increase the capture chance vs enemy units.
6. During naval (ship-to-ship) combat, infantry and cavalry units may not normally take part in the combat and are confined to being passengers due to the special requirements of fighting at sea. Amphibious units, ranged units, naval units, casters and flying units may all fight normally during these combats.
1. Units normally become available on the turn after they are bought. Units generally have regular maintenance costs attached to them per turn.
2. Mercenaries can be bought on the same turn, but cost twice as much. Unless a mercenary company comes to you to make a specific offer, you can only buy units that you have the technology to build.
3. Units can be upgraded to other units of the same or similar type (e.g. spearmen to swordsmen, slingers to archers, archers to musketeers, light cavalry to heavy cavalry but not spearmen to cavalry or archers to dragons). Upgrading units costs 125% of the difference between the two types.
4. Any technological advances (e.g. improved armour) are automatically applied to units on the same turn they are researched. Unless specified, this has no extra cost. This does not apply to advances that provide a new unit entirely.
5. Ground troops can entrench for a +8 modifier to defense, but need one turn of detrenching before they can do anything else.
6. Island-hopping within an ocean zone is acceptable, but ground-based invading units without boats or planes suffer a -8 modifier to attack.
7. Crossing through enemy territory to attack another territory beyond requires you to 'mask' the enemy forces there. You must send an equal number of troops into the intermediary territory to 'tie up' the defenders; three spearmen will work as well as three heavy swordsmen (though they may not survive the attack). Once the defenders are tied up, the rest of the army can move through. Whether or not your masking forces capture the territory does not affect the success of the masking action.
8. Crossing through neutral territories (i.e. not owned by players) will require you to either mask movement as above or bribe the country with £500 to ignore your passage. Crossing through player countries is a matter of negotiation between players.
9. Some units can cross through neutral territories without penalty (e.g. caravans, spies). These units may or may not be able to cross through enemy territories as well without needing to be masked, but will usually have a chance of being discovered.
10. With a few exceptions, only infantry and heavies are able to capture territories. Ships may not capture territories. Most air units may not capture territories.
Heroes are a special type of unit consisting of a single character of reknowned skill and leadership. They do not fight individually as units but are instead attached to other units in battle to provide leadership bonuses to attack and defence, amongst other potential benefits. If all other units in a battle are wounded, killed or otherwise incapacitated, heroes will be captured by the enemy side rather than fight.
The exception to this rule is fights between individual heroes. Whenever led units clash, there is a good chance (50%) that the heroes of both sides will meet in single combat first (using their general offensive/defensive bonuses as their attack/defence scores, plus any single-combat specific bonuses). During this sort of single combat one or both heroes may be wounded, killed or escape the battle unharmed. Once single combat has been resolved, heroes still able to lead will return to their units and continue the battle as before.
Heroes are quite difficult to kill. When a led unit is wounded or destroyed there is only a very slight (0.5%) chance that the hero unit will die, though a larger chance that it will be wounded (10% if unit wounded, 50% if unit destroyed). Wounded heroes are captured at the end of play if the enemy side proves victorious in the battle. If the hero unit escapes the destruction of its former led unit unscathed it will immediately attach itself to the next-strongest unit and lead that instead.
Captured heroes will work for the capturing side once they have spent a turn healing from their wounds. Wounded or undefended heroes left in a territory that is conquered will also convert to the conquering side.
Initial Hero units may be purchased for £600 by a side, have an upkeep of £30 and grant a general leadership bonus to offense and defense of +5 to any units they are stacked with. Heroes have 2 move, or the move of whatever unit they are stacked with, whichever is higher.
Single Combat Mechanics: Single combat lasts for three (hidden) rounds, during which both heroes attack each other once per round. Heroes have a hidden 'hits' stat which replenishes at the start of a turn (nominally maxed at 3); each successful hit in single combat reduces this stat by 1. This carries through between single combats in the same game turn, so it is possible for a hero to survive the first couple of single combats unscathed and be wounded in the third.
When all hits have been expended for a hero, he is either wounded or has a chance of being killed. This chance of killing is higher than for ordinary combat, but still low (2%). It is possible for both heroes to be wounded or killed during combat, as it is possible for both heroes to score hits on their opponent whilst being hit themselves.
Research is blind. Until you discover a technology you do not know in advance how long it will take to research it. Each turn, research being invested in will be checked against a roll of 1-100. If the result is lower than the research threshold (see below formula) the technology is researched.
Threshold: £ spent / 1000 * base cap
i.e. If the base cap is 70 and you spend £1000 on research, the roll must be 70 or lower to succeed. If the base cap is 70 and you spend £500 on research, the roll must be 35 or lower to succeed.
Every turn that £500 or more is invested into a technology by anyone, the base cap will rise by 1. For every £150 above £500 invested into a technology (in one sitting), the base cap will increase by a further 1. Each side that masters the technology will permanently raise the base cap by 10. Once 5 sides have mastered the technology, it will enter the Public Domain and become available to all sides.
Technologies are split loosely by whether they are Pure or Applied. Pure technologies are often required to research new Applied technologies but may have little practical application. They are usually easier to research. Applied technologies almost always have a direct application (hence the name). There is no predefined technology tree, but it is reasonable to expect newly proposed technologies to follow a logical progression. If you try and research a technology that is too advanced, you may end up researching a prerequisite for it instead.
Magic, for all extents and purposes, is a form of technology.
Burning the Books: It is possible to completely eradicate a technology you know within your territory, provided that technology has not entered the public domain. Doing so erases the technology from your records and sets back the research cap by 10 for anyone else trying to research it, and reduces the number of sides that possess it (making it harder to get into the public domain). To get the technology back, you will have to research it again from scratch.
Any units or buildings constructed with the lost technology will remain intact, but no more can be constructed without the lost tech.
Money is important. Not only do you have to pay to raise armies, you have to pay to keep them going as well. Also you might decide to actually invest in the land you conquer, if only for a laugh. Each territory provides revenue per turn, representative of the wealth of the region. Conquering new territories is an easy source of new revenue, but existing territories can be invested in to improve the economy of the region as well.
Basic investment is just putting money into improving infrastructure, funding businesses and generally improving the lot of the futile peasants that inhabit your demesne. Basic investment improves the economy, producing revenue equal to one tenth of the total invested amount. Basic investment can only raise revenue to a cap of £250/turn (after investing £2500). This cap can be raised by research. Income from basic investment is referred to as 'basic income'.
NB: A player's starting country begins with no investment, but the Palace building grants them £500/turn. This income does not count towards the cap from basic investment.
Buildings can also increase revenue. Some will increase revenue by a flat amount, others will add a percentage of the basic investment revenue. Buildings such as granaries and mines tend to contribute in this manner. Generally only one building of the same type is permitted per territory. Buildings may additionally be restricted by infrastructure (see Industry below).
Resources can be found in some territories. The main use for resources is that resource-specific buildings (such as farms or mines) can be constructed in that territory for extra revenue. Some resources (such as iron) are actually downright necessary for weapons production - if you do not have it or have access to it, you cannot produce the units dependent on it.
Trade
Trade can be conducted between player countries that are at peace and agree to a trade treaty. Players in a trade treaty receive 10% of the other player's total income (before trade bonuses) in trade per turn. This 10% is a bonus and not subtracted from the trading partner's income. It is possible to have multiple trade treaties; e.g. if Albia has trade links with Bulmeria and Cattan, Albia will receive a bonus of 10% of both Bulmeria and Cattan's total income before trade, whilst Bulmeria and Cattan will each receive a bonus of 10% of Albia's total income before trade. Trade treaties also give both sides access to the other side's resources for the purposes of unit construction etc.
To enter a trade treaty, a trade route must be established. Provided any of the territories of two player countries are joined either by roads or are adjacent to one another, a trade route can be established automatically. Otherwise, sending a caravan from one country to another can establish a trade route in addition to the normal benefits of caravan journeys.
A caravan sent to another territory to conduct a trade mission will generate £300 per territory distance from the originating territory to the destination. e.g. A caravan sent to literally the next territory over will generate a £300 lump sum. A caravan sent to a destination 5 territories away will generate £1500 in revenue. Crossing ocean territories via ship count as 3 territories/ocean region for the purposes of calculating revenue (i.e. if you cross 2 land regions and 2 ocean regions, it counts as crossing 8 territories and you gain £2400 in revenue). Travelling the 'long way round' will not gain any more cash upon arrival - you will only gain money based on the shortest distance the caravan could have travelled, taking into account blockades and enemy empires in the path.
Caravans travel at a movement rate of 2 and can pass through neutral territories without requiring masking or bribery. Caravan missions can only be sent to player territories. Caravans from a particular side cannot have one of their own side's territories as the final destination (internal trade is presumed to be free). Successfully destroying a caravan, on the other hand, will net you £800 free of charge.
NB: A single unit may be attached to a caravan as a caravan guard. Passing through neutral territories with a caravan guard will incur a charge of £50 per caravan+guard. If you mount an invasion with troops posing as caravan guard, the neutral territory will immediately attack your 'guards' on principle, even if they are not the country being invaded.
Trade Routes & Blockades
It is possible to blockade trade routes of an enemy nation by placing armed troops in the path of the route, forcing it to take a different direction. If a land-based trade route or sea-based trade route is completely blocked from reaching its destination, the trade route collapses; a land-based route will not switch automatically to a sea-based route or vice-versa. Portions of a trade route which cross land or sea will not change their docking points in response to a blockade, so blockading the port or bay of such a route is a good way to prevent the route from functioning. Taking a territory by force will also blockade a route, as trade routes cannot pass through your territory without your permission.
Trade routes blockaded in this way technically continue to exist until they are willingly dissolved, but neither side gains the benefit of the route so long as a blockade remains in effect. Once a blockade is lifted (e.g. by destroying the bandits blocking the route or the naval blockade, or taking the disputed territory causing the blockade) the trade route will resume on the same turn.
Blockades tend to work particularly well by sea, as no country is able to control ocean territories directly; ships may be stationed in any ocean territory without penalty, though attempting to station ships in the same waters as an enemy will likely lead to combat.
Roads
Roads may be constructed by engineers. One engineer unit will take two turns to construct a road in a territory. Roads provide a movement bonus (requiring only half a movement point to travel across) and can connect countries for trade purposes.
Industry
Some industrial buildings (e.g. mines, farms, sawmills) can only be constructed in regions that possess the requisite resource. Other industries (e.g. weaving) do not require resources to be constructed in an area. At the start of the game, players may only build one industrial building per territory (i.e. a farm or a weaving guild, but not both). These buildings can be improved through technology without adding additional buildings, but in order to add more industries per territory a player must research technologies that improve the infrastructure of his territories.
Raiding: In addition to simply conquering a territory, you may raid a territory. If you are victorious against all defenders (or there are no defenders), you capture the entire income for that territory's turn. Wounded defenders in this sort of skirmish are not executed at the end of battle. Successful raids also lower the Loyalty of a region.
Loyalty
Loyalty is a new 'hidden' stat for territories. A new neutral territory will generally have a Loyalty of 0. Loyalty may be raised, primarily through constructing different buildings; religious and cultural buildings (entertainment buildings, essentially) will raise Loyalty in a region. Having a state religion will also raise Loyalty in a region. Loyalty has two main effects:
Upkeep Reduction: Happier, or at least more loyal citizens are willing to work for less out of a sense of patriotism. Every point of loyalty decreases upkeep for buildings and units in that region by a certain percentage. Negative loyalty will increase upkeep accordingly.
Subversion Resistance: Certain units such as diplomats will gain the ability to sabotage or convert units or regions over to their side (requires research). High loyalty decreases the chances of success. Negative loyalty increases it.
Loyalty can be lowered through outside intervention. Units such as diplomats can lower loyalty by inciting rebellion amongst the populace. Being raided by neutral troops or rival troops who do not conquer the region will also lower loyalty. Loyalty lost in this way heals after 10 turns, or £350 can be spent per loyalty point lost to recover it.
Newly captured regions have their base loyalty set back to 0, after which bonuses from buildings etc will be re-applied. There is a 50% chance per building for cultural or religious buildings that they will be destroyed if the region is captured by military force. Subverted or traded regions will suffer no such risk.
Some buildings (such as Slavers) will reduce loyalty by their very presence and the ill effect they have on the populace.
Just fill out the form below. You will definitely want to read the maps to get territories. Pick a number for your starting place and name it.
Empire Name:
Leader Name:
Starting Territory:
Colour:
Advice on Strategy
Why not have everyone start out with equal portions of territory (a la Risk) and have them duke it out straight away for conquest? Well, because this is really a 4X game, not a conquest game. You can play it as a conquest game and you can have a lot of fun that way, but there are other routes. It's oversimplifying, but there are essentially three strategies to follow in 4X games:
Momentum/Conquest: Perhaps the simplest strategy and common amongst more aggressive players, this strategy relies on building up momentum with one's war machine; taking some weak territories to get stronger, then using the proceeds from those to hit stronger and stronger countries until you are in control of a large portion of the world. This strategy relies on quick movement and never letting anyone get a rest. It can lead to quick and total victories, but by focusing entirely on one's army one runs the risk of falling behind technologically and economically.
Builder: Builders play a long game. Rather than engaging in rapid expansion, Builders invest in the territory they have, research technologies and turn what little land they do control into both fortresses and economic powerhouses. Only once they have a powerful technological or economic advantage do they tend to venture out to claim more land, which often they will try to improve as much as their initial plot. Builders can be far more dangerous than Momentum players if you meet them late in the game, by which time they will have stacked all the advantages on their side. It may not matter if you have an army of a hundred thousand orcs with spears if they're up against a battalion of giant killer robots.
Hybrid: In short, everything else. A hybrid strategy relies on finding the balance between imperial expansion and perfectionist development. Hybrid players tend to feel the flow of the game and respond, though they will often have an overall strategy they pursue as well.
Territories
Finances
Construction/Recruitment
Research
Troop Movements
Author
Topic: Fiefdoms @ War: Turn 7 (Read 8168 times)