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[notquitethere]

Heretics of Hexland 4: Hex Redux
A game of colonisation for 3-6 players

Sign-ups open for a turn-based colonisation game in a fantasy world. Each player controls a rival expedition from a civilisation of their making. Each expedition is made up of one species that is beholden to a heresy. These civilisations vie for control of Hexland. If you want an idea of what this looks like, check out the last game. Think of this as a mixture of Civilisation, Small World and Diplomacy.

Game basics: The aim of the game is to achieve the most victory points. Victory points are typically gained by expanding and conquering hex tiles. Doing this requires actions; a player can take as many actions as they have population. Thus, the game is about expanding, while protecting one's ability to grow their population through harvesting crops.

Spoiler: Civ Creation Sheet (click to show/hide)

Civilisation Name: [this can be whatever you like]
Colour: [Choose your preferred colour for your civilisation's borders]
Heresy: [pick from the list below. This gives you a special action.]
Species : [pick form the list below. This changes the way one rule works for you. You can pick the same heresy or species as someone else, but not both so have a look at what other people have picked.]
Population: 2 [This starts out at 2 unless something else says otherwise.]
Population Range: 1-2 [Unless stated otherwise, you have population minimum of 1 + the number of cities you control, and a population maximum (cap) of the number of 1 + territories + cities you hold, so 1-2 at the beginning.]

Spoiler: Heresies (click to show/hide)

1 - Heterodox
The tolerant Heterodox embrace diversity and cultural interchange, believing that the truth is a prism that splits enlightenment into many beams.
Favoured Terrain: None
Victory Bonus: +2 points for every civilisation alive at the end of the game.
Co-opt - For this turn only, gain the species power of any other species currently in play.
Season: All (can only be used once per season)
Cost: 1 action
Mimic - For this turn only, gain the favoured terrain of one other civilisation currently in play.
Season: Any (once a season only)
Cost: 1 action

2 - Shaker
They like to sit and tremble in awe at the world.
Favoured Terrain: Mountains
Victory Bonus: +1 point for any mountain tile you own
Stonestep - Expand into an unclaimed mountain tile.
Season: Summer, Fall (once per season only)
Cost: 1 action plus the defense of the tile minus 2 (ordinarily, 1 action)
Raise - Convert a non-mountain land tile you own into a mountain.
Season: All
Cost: 2 actions.

3 - Aquatic
They worship the dead Leviathan, and foresee the waters reclaiming all land.
Favoured Terrain: Lakes
Victory Bonus: +1 point for any owned lake tile
Deluge - Channel as many rivers as you like around one land tile that you own. Deluge can only be done once per turn.
Season: All
Cost: 1 action
Marshland - Turn any land tile you own or neighbour that is surrounded completely by both rivers and ocean tiles into a lake. This allows lake tiles next to oceans (usually impossible). If the tile is already a lake, turn it into an ocean tile instead.
Season: All
Cost: 1 action

4 - Levellers
They believe the Final Age will be ushered in only when all the world is completely levelled, one vast empty wasteland.
Favoured Terrain: Desert
Victory Bonus: +1 point for any owned desert tile
Scorch Earth - Convert a non-mountain land tile you own into desert.
Season: All
Cost: 1 action
Brutal Raid - Raid and Raze a neighbouring field or plains tile at the same time (i.e., the tile turns to desert and is no longer owned by anyone, you gain +2 actions for razing and +2 actions if that tile had a field on it). You cannot conquer a tile on the same turn as you brutally raid it.
Season: All
Cost: 2 actions

5 - Bountiful
They believe that the world is already a paradise and they intend to keep it that way.
Favoured Terrain: Forest
Victory Bonus: +1 point for any owned forest tile
Forage - Gain +1 population from a forest tile. Cannot be used more than once on the same tile in the same season.
Season: Summer only.
Cost: 2 actions
Fecund - Convert a plains tile you own or neighbour into a forest tile.
Season: All
Cost: 2 action

6 - Arid
The Arid, survivors of doomed battles with the Leviathan, hate the ocean and call upon arcane powers to eradicate it.
Victory Bonus: +1 for any owned non-ocean and non-lake tiles that were ocean or lake tiles at the start of play.
Favoured terrain: None
Reclaim - Change a neighbouring or owned ocean tile into a desert tile.
Season: All
Cost: 2 actions
Shore up - Remove all rivers bordering a single neighboring or owned tile.  This counts as an improvement action.
Season: Summer, Winter
Cost: 1 action

7 - Vile
These ne'er-do-wells have dedicated their life to destruction and suffering.
Favoured Terrain: None
Victory Bonus: +1 point for every time a civilisation is wiped out.
Sacrifice - Reduce your population by one (down to your minimum population: if you have three cities and five population, you can only sacrifice once). Gain two additional actions for this turn only.
Season: All
Cost: 1 action
Enslave - Conquer a hex and gain +1 population at the end of your turn instead of losing population (when you conquer, your pop cap always increases anyway).
Season: Summer and Winter
Cost: 2 actions + defence of the terrain

8 - Builder
The Builders seek to urbanise the world, turning all in a citadel pointed towards eternity.
Favoured Terrain: None
Victory Bonus: +1 point for any city tile you own.
Tower - Build a city on a land tile (of any kind) you own. Your population must exceed your minimum population to Tower. This action can only be performed once per turn. A tile cannot be Razed and Towered in the same turn.
Season: All
Cost: 1 action
Industrious Improve - Take one Improve action.
Season: Spring, Winter
Cost: 0 actions (once per season only)

9 - Hollow
The Hollow know that they are nothing but their own rejection of what repulses them. One day everything wrong will be outside of them and they pave their way towards this.
Favoured terrain: None
Victory Bonus: +1 victory point for every tile in the longest contiguous chain of tiles with fortifications on them, regardless of tile ownership.
Raise the Wall - Fortify two adjacent tiles that you own.
Season: Spring, Winter
Cost: 1 action
Memory of Wholeness - Place a fortification on any tile which previously had a fortification.
Season: All
Cost: 1 action


10 - Apostate
These are the heretic's heretics, splinter movements that have strange beliefs and little coherence.
Favoured Terrain: None
Victory Bonus: None
Apocryphal Dogma - When you choose Apostate, pick two actions belonging to any other heresies (say, Brutal Raid and Deluge). These are your actions and they have the same restrictions as normal.

Spoiler: Species (click to show/hide)

1 - Human: Start with population of 3, a population cap of 3 and a minimum population of 1.
2 - The Doge's Men: River lines give +1 defense when defending.
3 - Ents: Forests do not offer a penalty to expanding.
4 - Beetleswarm: When one of your tiles is conquered, attacker loses one more population than usual (usually two population).
5 - Spiders: Can Improve all year round.
6 - Monkeys: Can Raid fortified tiles.
7 - Antmen: Antmen fortifications give +2 defence to the tile.
8 - Vultures: -1 action (minimum 1) required to conquer desert tiles and desert tiles give +1 defence when occupied.
9 - Djinn:  Can Grow on desert tiles      
10 - Merfolk: Ocean tiles that you don't own have 0 defence when expanding or conquering.
11 - Parakeetkin: Can grow fields in forests.
12 - Trolls:  Mountain tiles are +1 defence when occupied and -1 defence when conquering and expanding.
13 - Swine:   Harvesting a tile reaps double the population increase.
14 - Letterbeasts: Can expand in Spring.
15 - Impossibulls: Can cease to exist: on any of your turns you may take your victory score. All tiles you occupy are now uncontested and you leave the game.
16 - Poults: Can build cities on fields and grow fields on cities on plains without destroying either.
17 - Ghosts:  Ignores fortifications and city defence when conquering and fortifications aren't destroyed on conquering.
18 - Mabbling Monks: Once per turn, one of their Heretic actions costs one less action to play (minimum 0).

The game takes place over five years, after which the New Age will begin, as all heresies agree. Each year is made up of four seasons (spring, summer, fall, and winter), and each turn takes exactly one season. (So each player gets 20 turns in the game). On your turn you may take a number of actions equal to your population number. Increasing your population mid-turn doesn't give you additional actions for that turn. You have a maximum population equal to 1 + the number of tiles you control + the number of cities you own. You have a minimum population equal to 1 + the number of cities you own (your population can't be forced beneath this number).

On your first turn, pick a coastal embarkation point that is on land and not next to a tile owned by another player. Embarking doesn't cost an action.

Spoiler: Actions Explained (click to show/hide)

Types of Actions
All actions cost 1 action unless otherwise stated.
Grow: Convert a plain tile you own into a field tile. (You cannot grow in the same tile as a city.)
Harvest: Convert a field tile you own into a plains tile. Gain +1 population.
Expand:  Take over a neighbouring uncontested territory. This costs +1 extra action per defence of terrain (rivers are ignored).
Conquer: Take over a neighbouring contested territory. This costs +1 extra action per defence of terrain. Both the conquered region and the conquerors lose 1 population, to a minimum of 1. All fields and fortifications in the conquered hex are destroyed.
Dismantle: for one action do one of:
Remove from a tile you own one of: a fortification, a city.
Convert a field you own into a plain without harvesting
or Abandon a territory you own, turning it into a neutral territory.
Raze: Turn an owned plain or field into a desert, this tile ceases to be in your ownership at the end of your turn. Any city or fortification present is destroyed. Gain +2 actions for this turn only.
Raid: Turn a field tile you neighbour into a plains tile. Gain +2 actions for this turn only. A fortified tile cannot be raided. You cannot raid then conquer the same tile in the same turn.
Improve: Change a tile or river line or create a terrain feature, as follows:

Drain: Remove a single river line that borders a tile you own. If a lake tile has no river tiles next to it, it turns into a plain. Deforest: Turn a forest tile you own into a plains tile. Build City: Build a city on plain or favoured terrain you own. To do this, you must have a population number greater than your minimum population. Fortify: Increase the defence of a tile you own by +1 (a tile can only ever be fortified once, and conquered terrain loses its fortifications) Irrigate: Turn a desert tile that you own into a plain if it is bordered by a river line . Channel: Create a river line on a border of one of your tiles that joins an existing river line. A river line cannot form the border between any tile and an ocean tile. If a non-mountain tile is completely surrounded by river lines, it turns into a lake.

Actions for Each Season
Spring   -   Grow, Improve, Raze, Raid, Dismantle
Summer - Conquer, Expand, Raze, Raid, Dismantle
Fall   -   Harvest, Expand, Raze, Raid, Dismantle
Winter   -   Conquer, Improve, Raze, Raid, Dismantle

Spoiler: Playing, winning & turn sequence (click to show/hide)

The winner is the player who's civilisation has the most victory points at the end of the game among the players who are still alive. Victory points are calculated as the number of land territories owned, plus any bonus points given by the player's heresy.

In any given round, players take it in turns to act. The turn order is decided each season in order of population number (lowest first), with ties broken by species+heresy order (heterodox humans first, apostate ghosts last; in case of tie, the lower species wins). A player has a number of actions equal to their starting population (if they increase their population during a turn, it doesn't give them more population to use that turn). If their population is decreased earlier on the season, they will have less actions, but this won't reset the turn order until the end of the season.

E.g. The Purple Nation has five population, the Red Civilisation has four population, and the Yellow Domain has three population: In winter Yellow goes first and conquers two Purple territories. They both lose two population. Even though Purple now only has three population (and only thus only three actions), they will still act after the Red, as the turn order is set at the start of the season.

Spoiler: The Map and Key (click to show/hide)

When selecting a tile to act on, just give its number (e.g. Expand to 12, raze 43, build city on 28).

Terrain types
Desert
Colour: Beige
Defence: 0

Plain
Colour: Light green
Defence: 0

Field
Colour: Yellow
Defence: 0

Forest
Colour: Dark Green
Defence: 1

Lake
Colour: Light Blue
Defence: 1
(If a non-mountain tile is completely surrounded by rivers, it turns into a lake. If a lake tile has no river lines bordering it, it turns into a plain)

Mountain
Colour: Grey
Defence: 2

Ocean
Colour: Dark Blue
Defence: 3
(Oceans do not count towards terrain victory points. An ocean tile that is surrounded by land turns into a lake tile. An Ocean tile cannot be fortified. Ocean tiles do increase population cap like any other tile.)

Terrain Features

City
Shape: Three towers in the colour of the civ
Defence: +1
(Cities add +1 to the base population of a civ. E.g. a civ with three cities can never fall below population 4, no matter how many times they're raided or no matter the number of conquests they are a part of.)

Rivers
Colour: Light Blue
Defence: +1 when conquering civilisation has to cross the river to enter the hex
(Rivers are in between borders)

Fortification
Colour: Same colour as the controlling Civ.
Shape: Shield symbols, the number of which represent the strength of the fortification (usually 1)
Defence: +1

Turns will be processed at the end of each season. If a player does not submit an action within 36 hours of the last turn, their go may be taken by the mod. If a player is skipped twice in a row, they may be replaced. When (as in the early game) your turn couldn't be constrained by the actions of players earlier in the turn cycle, feel free to submit your actions for the season out of turn. As a strict order of action resolution is maintained, feel free to edit your season's action if someone earlier in the turn order posts their action after you. Actions are always submitted publicly, but players are allowed to communicate privately if they wish as well as in-thread. It is possible to end the game prematurely through diplomatic resolution. Any queries, feel free to ask.


Starting Civs

Spoiler: NQT - The Leviathan Electorate (click to show/hide)

Civilisation: The Leviathan Electorate
Colour: Maroon
Heresy: Aquatic
Species: Doge's Men
Population: 2
Population Range: 1-2
Turn Order: 5
The Electorate are in self-imposed exile from the city state of Sinua after their preferred Doge, the Leviathan, was defeated. They hope to use their superior canalcraft to create a new watery stronghold.

Spoiler: Naturegirl1999 - Ferngully (click to show/hide)

Civilisation Name: Ferngully
Color: Lavender
Heresy: Bountiful
Species : Ent
Population: 2
Population Range: 1-2
Turn Order: 8

Spoiler: Wozzy - Controll Freaks (click to show/hide)

Civilisation Name:  Controll Freaks
Colour: Delicious chocolate
Heresy: Shaker
Species : Troll
Population: 2
Population Range: 1-2
Turn Order: 14

Spoiler: Kashyyk - Principality of Pork (click to show/hide)

Civilisation Name: Principality of Pork
Colour: Pink
Heresy: Builder
Species : Swine
Population: 2
Population Range: 1-2
Turn Order: 21

Spoiler: Shadowclaw777 - Organization of Clucks (click to show/hide)

Civilisation: Organization of Clucks
Colour: Dark Green
Heresy: Builder
Species: Poult
Population: 2
Population Range: 1-2
Turn Order: 24 - 1

Spoiler: Shadowdump - Mad Nomads (click to show/hide)

Civilisation Name: Mad Nomads
Colour: Purple
Heresy: Arid
Species : Mabbling Monks
Population: 2
Population Range: 1-2
Turn Order 24 - 2

[Failbird105]

I could see some shenanigans involving heterodox with impossibulls.

[notquitethere]

I could see some shenanigans involving heterodox with impossibulls.

Perfectly legitimate way to play. In a six player game that would score 12+territory points, which is respectable but not unbeatable.

[Haspen]

PTWing and rules' reading.

[Wozzy]

Will be joining this for sure

[notquitethere]

Good good.

I've made an amendment I meant to make before: the Shaker heresy no longer destroys mountains, and instead gets Stonestep, making it easier to expand into their favoured terrain.

[Naturegirl1999]

Do I put sign ups here or PM you?

[notquitethere]

Do I put sign ups here or PM you?

All signups are public, as players aren't allowed to pick the exact same combination as another player. So please do post your civ, with a name and colour, in the thread.

[Shadowclaw777]

Civilisation: Domesticatia
Colour: Cyan
Heresy: Builder
Species: Human
Population: 3
Population Range: 1-2?


Why is the minimum population of Humans specified if it’s the same baseline as every other species’s population range? Do humans have population range of 1-3 at the start?

[notquitethere]

Civilisation: Domesticatia
Colour: Cyan
Heresy: Builder
Species: Human
Population: 3
Population Range: 1-2?


Why is the minimum population of Humans specified if it’s the same baseline as every other species’s population range? Do humans have population range of 1-3 at the start?

That's right, their range is 1-3. It's mentioned to make clear that the minimum population hasn't risen.

[notquitethere]

Okay, so I'll go ahead and post my combo:

Civilisation: The Leviathan Electorate
Colour: Maroon
Heresy: Aquatic
Species: Doge's Men
Population: 2
Population Range: 1-2
The Electorate are in self-imposed exile from the city state of Sinua after their preferred Doge, the Leviathan, was defeated. They hope to use their superior canalcraft to create a new watery stronghold.

[Kashyyk]

Civilisation Name: Principality of Pork
Colour: Pink
Heresy: Builder
Species : Swine
Population: 2
Population Range: 1-2

[Naturegirl1999]

Civilisation Name: Ferngully
Color: Lavender
Heresy: Bountiful
Species : Ent
Population: 2
Population Range: 1-2

[Kashyyk]

I started looking at the previous game NQT linked, and saw someone else also went for a Pink faction of Builder Swine. Great minds think alike? We shall see how well I do in comparison.

[notquitethere]

Cool, so we have enough players to begin and at least one more slot open. The map can take up to 8, but I prefer to cap it at 6 so that turns don't take forever. Just waiting on a civilisation from Wozzy and then we can start.

In the OP on player's initial civ sheets, I've now listed the turn order number. Each season, the players with the lowest population will go first (so currently, as they have 3 population instead of two, Shadowclaw777 will be last in turn order). To break ties (like when a lot of players have population 2) we use the turn order number. This is the Heresy+Species number, with the lowest number going first.

I started looking at the previous game NQT linked, and saw someone else also went for a Pink faction of Builder Swine. Great minds think alike? We shall see how well I do in comparison.

Haha yeah it's clearly a popular combo. In general, Builder as been the most popular heresy by far (perhaps not surprising for a Dwarf Fortress forum?).