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[notquitethere]

THE DARK AGE


In 815 AD, in the long-shattered remains of the Roman empire, the British Isles is at war. Angles, Saxons and Jutes have captured much of the land, fighting the long war against the Welsh kings and savage Picts. Across the Irish Sea, the tribes of Ireland begin to unify... in 50 years the Danes will come, but who will still be standing when they arrive?

This is a historical game set in the Dark Ages of Britain, fifty years prior to the Viking Invasion. Players play one of 6 historic factions: The Anglo-Saxon Mercia, Northumbria and Wessex; and the native Welsh, Picts, and a small Irish kingdom). Each faction has a different goal, and multiple factions have the possibility of winning when the game ends after fifty turns. Now the 50 year mark has passed, Act 2 of the game involves fighting an all-out war against the Danish invaders.

The game is run using Vanigo's Empire Game. You'll be able to build cities, raise armies, and vie for control of the sceptred isles.

Vanigo Tutorial
Player interface
Admin Interface

Sign Ups
Mercia - Rolepg
Wessex - Varee
Northumbria - Evil Marahadja
Wales - Zanz - Squeegy
Ireland - Lemon10
Pictland - Kashyyk
Danes - NQT

Spoiler: Win Conditions (click to show/hide)

For the wincons below: a nation is considered defeated if it has no cities and no units and no reasonable chance of completing its wincon. Ireland is considered 'taken over' by a non-Irish power if they're the only one with size 5 cities and greater on it (and have a size 6 city on it themselves) and Ireland doesn't control more then 50% of the Island.

Irish Kingdom: Take over 80% of Ireland 
Mercia: Defeat the other Anglo-Saxon nations (Northumbria, Wessex) OR Defeat the Britons (Picts/Welsh/Irish).
Wessex: Hold Winchester until the Danes come. You can lose and retake it, but if it's ever destroyed or if it's owned by a foreign nation in 665AD, you'll lose.
Wales: Survive until the Danes come. This means 'have at least one Welsh territory and one Welsh unit alive' in 665 AD.
Pictland: Defeat the Anglo-Saxon Nations (Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex) OR take over Ireland
Northumberland: Defeat the Picts OR take over Ireland

The game can end prematurely if one faction wipes out all other factions, which is also considered a win. Win conditions are only checked in 665 AD and you only can win if you're not defeated.

[Varee]

well a noob here can i join? if so i want wssex

[notquitethere]

Yep, you're good to join. 

I suggest having a flick through the ongoing Vanigo game so you get an idea how this works: you past the text from the Turn link into the box on the Player Interface link.

[Varee]

i was reading to the yet another vanigo game or something earlier so i think i kinda got the basic

[lemon10]

Sweet, looking forward to the start of the game.

If you want to play this without any magical units (which having the reagent inspiration building allowed will cause (not any of the elemental ones, but it will allow the basic wizards and priests)), then you have to mod the game to take out the reagent resource. If you want me to, I'll do it for you.

[notquitethere]

I'd be interested in learning how to mod the rules, but yeah if you don't mind modding out the magical elements, I'd appreciate it.

[lemon10]

Modding the rules is pretty trivial for the most part. For removing you just find stuff in there you don't like and delete it. Similarly you can look at the rules and copy what is there to add nearly anything you want (excluding some hardcoded things like population and labor). After that simply put the file somewhere public on the internet (eg. dropbox) and put that in as the rule set.

There is a single thing that is annoying though: I don't know what the file names for the pictures are on Vanigo's folder, and thus I don't know how to add new special resources/terrain/improvements without recycling existing pictures (eg. ether would be easy to add, but I don't know how to currently add a icon for it if I wanted a natural source for it).

Anyways. Here is the game with all reagent, mithril, pegasus and mana units and buildings cut out. The only exception is that both the healer and the apothecary were kept in (but modded to not use reagent) as they seemed rather acceptable in the real world.

E: I think it would be pretty interesting if the highest teir of units still in (eg. foundry and calvary yard units) were removed. It would make the game tech tree still flatter, which seems like it would be a rather interesting experiment (since you would build up a teir of tech less) as well as meaning that you would have larger groups of weaker units instead of slightly fewer stronger units.

E2: If anyone could find the URL of the pictures used for the games and share them it would be a huge help.

[Kashyyk]

Pictland looks like a nice challenge, so I'll take that if you don't mind?

[Rolepgeek]

Mercia, give mercy, to all who oppose thee~

[Varee]

i got a question, what does unify mean? alliance or take over?

[Rolepgeek]

i got a question, what does unify mean? alliance or take over?

Either, both, neither.

[notquitethere]

In real life the other Kingdoms became vassals to Mercia and then later Alfred the Great forged all the kingdoms into one against the threat of the Danes.

However, as there's no Vassal option (yet!), I just mean take over the territory of (unless someone can suggest a more elegant alternative?). Ireland has to own every Irish tile and the Mercians have to make two other factions give up (maybe allowing them to keep some of their land, but defeating all their cities and armies)

[Varee]

Well can we like form an alliance out of the game? will that count?

[lemon10]

Bump. Just need one more player for the game.

[Rolepgeek]

Well can we like form an alliance out of the game? will that count?

In order for me to win, you have to submit. In the sense that you are no longer truly an independent player. So no, an alliance will not allow me to meet my win-con in that way, unless we ally to wipe out the Britons.

Interestingly enough, though, Northumbria and Mercia can both win, technically, with either of Mercia's wincons. They don't have to have any cities to have taken ireland/scotland, after all, and if the Irish, Welsh, and Picts are dead anyway, Mercia doesn't have to take it.

Mercia is pretty much the "one agains the world" with it's wincons though, as no matter who it makes war on it assists it in fulfilling said wincon.

They're also comparatively vulnerable early game, relative to the two nations nearest it; it doesn't start with any nice labor-producing cities, after all. It might eventually catch up, though.