Houses of Atlantis
This is a turn-based strategy game oriented around abstracted, large-scale combat and diplomatic negotiations. You, the player, will take control of one of the five noble Houses of the land of Atlantis, using everything at your disposal to claim the throne for your House. At the same time four others will be seeking to do the same; you each have your own reasons for seeking ultimate control, and there can only be one victory.
IC roleplay is encouraged but not required. So, this was inspired by a wonderful old game called Battle for Atlantis. I’ve tweaked things a bit, made it a bit more complicated, but it’s still similar.
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The Game:Atlantis is composed of 13 territories constituted from 57 provinces, as well as the Capital which is a special province. Your goal is to control every province, either through outright conquest or careful negotiation.
Province types:-The Capital: This is a special province, the only one which is not part of a larger territory. Every 25 turns an election is held, in which each of the House heads (players) will cast votes to determine the owner of the Capital for the next cycle. More on this later. The Capital offers an addition 2d6 to the defender’s rolls, except when the attacker is also the owner. It also produces 2 armies per turn.
-Cities: There are 13 major cities in Atlantis. Each city offers an additional 1d6 to defensive rolls. Cities produce 2 armies per turn. In addition, if the owner of a city controls its entire territory, an additional army is produced per turn for every two non-city provinces in the territory, rounded down.
-Provinces: All non-city, non-Capital provinces. They offer no defensive bonuses and produce 1 army per turn.
-House Keeps: Each player must select a province they control (except for the Capital) by the fifth turn within which to place their Keep. A player’s Keep adds a defensive bonus of 2d6 to the selected province, as well as generating an additional 1 army per turn. If an enemy House captures your Keep, they gain all associated bonuses. A Keep cannot be moved or removed. Upon initial placement of the Keep, the province in which it is placed gains 6 armies.
Armies:These are your combat force, presented as raw numbers. They are produced as the final action of each turn, and are used to attack and defend territories.
Combat:Combat is initiated within your submitted turn. You can attack from each province once per turn, and can only attack adjacent provinces. Multiple provinces can attack the same target. If a province is captured by one attack, any subsequent attacks on the same province from the same player will be automatically canceled, though attacks from third parties will continue. Causeways provide adjacency between provinces of different islands.
Combat is modeled with the d6. In a combat turn, the attacker and defender roll
1d6 for every five armies on the attacking and defending territory, in addition to any relevant defensive bonuses. Army count is rounded down to the nearest multiple of five. The totals are deduced from the forces of the respective provinces.
If fewer than 5 armies are present, roll 1d6.
If an attacker eliminates all defending armies, they capture the province they have attacked, provided that they have at least one army remaining. Occupation is detailed in the turn breakdown section.
Non-combat movement:Each turn each player can make
ONE non-combat movement for each army, transferring armies from one province to another, adjacent province under their control. Any number of armies can be involved in this movement. Causeways provide adjacency between provinces of different islands.
In other words, any given army can only be moved once per turn, save for armies which are moved before attacking. For example: Player 1 has 4 armies in province A and 5 armies in province B. They move 3 armies from A to B. If they then move armies from B to C, they can move at most 5 armies. However, if they attack from B to D, they can attack with all 8 armies.
Capital Elections:Every 25 turns (including the initial turn) the players will convene to elect one of their number to the position of Regent.
Players cannot vote for themselves, and they cannot abstain from voting. Votes, like other elements of turns, can be PMed, though of course you can also post your vote (or what you claim is your vote) in this thread. Voting occurs before the rest of the turn.
The Regent automatically gains control of the Capital. They are granted 2d6 + 10 + [election number] armies on the Capital. From the second election onward, if the House in control of the Capital is not elected to the Regency, their armies on the Capital (if any) are moved to their House Keep, or to their nearest occupied Keep if their own Keep is occupied, or to their nearest city if they control no Keeps, or to their nearest territory if they control no cities or Keeps.
The Regent is exempt from the 2d6 defensive roll if they are attacking the Capital in an effort to retake it. As this implies, the Capital can be taken like any other territory.
Diplomacy:-GM enforcement: I will not enforce any deals
except trades of provinces and vassalization. If you make an alliance with another House, all you can rely on is their word and whatever defensive measures you have taken.
Each player may only trade one province per turn.You are free to do whatever you wish in terms of negotiating, allying, backstabbing, etc. Such discussions can take place either in PMs or in the thread, depending on how concerned you are with secrecy.
For the sake of posterity, if you get up to any major shenanigans, please save the PMs so they can be included in the thread if/when the game concludes..
Disasters:Every 5 turns, 1d6 is rolled and a list randomizer is used to select a province.
1: Earthquake: Lose 10% armies on target province. Forces attacking target province gain 1d6 for 5 turns.
2: Flooding: Target province produces no armies for 5 turns.
3: Plague: Lose 50% armies on target province.
4: Rebellion: 6d6 + 4 rebel armies attack target province. If the attack fails, rebels disperse. If the attack succeeds, the rebels seize the target province. A rebellious province gains the normal army production of the province. Rebels will attack the weakest adjacent province each turn, provided that they have at least equal forces to those of the weakest adjacent province.
Rebels which gain control of a City, a Keep, or three normal provinces will found a new House, which will be given to the control of the player on the top of the waitlist, along with an opportunity to place a Keep.5: Desertion: Lose 20% armies on target province, all rebel provinces gain 3 armies.
6: Quarantine: Armies cannot attack, move into, or leave the target province for 5 turns.
Values will be rounded down to the nearest whole number.
Victory Conditions:Total control of Atlantis, either by conquering every territory or by making a vassalization deal.
A player can, if they feel that they cannot win on their own, negotiate their vassalization to another player. In such a scenario, the vassal retains control of their territory and armies, but cannot attack their major partner. The minor partner’s territory is treated as the territory of the major partner for victory conditions.
There are only three possible finishing positions: Ruler of Atlantis, Vassal, and Executed. Or, alternatively, 1st Place, 2nd Place, and losers.
If you’ve read this far, add a ‘&’ sign somewhere in your “in” post.
Turn Processing:Actions may be either posted on the thread or PMed to the GM (me). If a player both posts and PMs actions, the PM will be the set of actions processed, and will be placed in the turn order according to the timestamp on the PM. They will be processed together, in the order which they were received. Any parts of a player’s actions which are rendered invalid by an earlier player’s actions will be cancelled. For example, if House 2 ordered the movement of 30 armies from Province 23 to Province 24, but House 1 submitted their turn first and captured Province 24, House 2’s troop movement would not take place.
Turn Submission Format:
1. Non-combat movement. Specify # of armies, province of origin and destination.
2. Combat. Specify the province of origin and target province of each attack. Specify the percentage of armies to be transferred to the target province if the attack is successful (or something such as “all but one to target province”). Note that, as always,
I will round down.3. Negotiations. If you and another player wish to trade provinces, state the provinces to be exchanged on each side by number. All armies will be moved from the traded provinces to the nearest friendly provinces. Both trades and vassalization must be requested by both parties, and both actions are irreversible once the turn has been processed.
4. Army production. Automated (meaning I do all the bloody work).
So then, you’ve read the rules, or at least skimmed them a tiny bit.
House colors are:
RED,
GREEN,
BLUE,
PURPLE, and
BROWN. First come first-served for colors.
What I need: Your House name, an "in" of some sort.I used a randomizer to distribute provinces and will post a map with the first 10 cities and 40 provinces colored once I have five players. If it is acceptable for everyone, we’ll go with that. If not, I’ll run another distribution. The final three cities and four normal provinces will be distributed randomly (in two separate distributions, one for cities and one for normal provinces) among the four players not elected as the Regent. For now, here's the blank:
House Solaris - scapheap
House Sirius - McMagma
House Aquarius - Taricus
House Chelmandi - javierpwn
House Nerjin - Nerjin
Author
Topic: Houses of Atlantis: Five-player Strategy :: [5/5] [Turn 3] (Read 6419 times)