Hedge Lords
For your services to King Alkabar in the conquest of Thornland, you have been granted a castle on the western marches. This rugged, mountainous borderland, known as the Hedge, is riddled with Thornish holdouts, the native Squelsh barbarians, and unusual magic and monsters.
Your county is what you can carve out. Pick a spot for your castle, create your lord, and put your stamp on the Hedge! The game involves raising armies, sending them out and conquering neighbouring areas, growing your county, tile-by-tile, and defending it from encroaching monsters.
This game is can be played competitively or co-operatively, feel free to make whatever arrangements before or during the game with the other Marquesses and Marchionesses as you see fit.
The game will start when we have at least one castle in each of the four eastern sectors.
Stuff You Should Look AtMarquess/Marchioness [Name]
Background: (Pick from Background list below - no two players can have the same background)
Castle Name:
Castle Location (Anywhere from 13-15, not adjacent to another castle)
Border Colour: [Red/Green/Blue/Yellow/etc]
Army: 3/10
Defence: 10/10 (if it reaches 0 and your castle has 0 units left defending it, you lose)
Wood Production: 0
Recruitment: 0
Gold: 5
Income: 1
Debt: 0
Features: [Pick 3 castle features from the list below and update stats accordingly]
Forts (location, defense 5/5, armies assigned): n/a
Artefacts: None
Equipment: None
Special Units: None
Features
Defence
Moat: +6/6 defence
Tower: +4/4 defence, increase maximum army size by +1 (can be bought up to four times)
Keep: +3/+3 defence, your last defender cannot be killed during a siege until your defence is less than 3.
Resources
Mustering Yard: +1 recruitment (+1 army size per turn, up to your max)
Barracks: Increase maximum army size by +3
Coppicing Grove: +1 wood production
Marketplace: +1 income (+1 gold/turn)
Knowledge/Production
Library: Each turn you will learn about an artefact or site and what sector it was last known to be in.*
Bowyer's Workshop: -1 wood required for making bows.
Shipyard (coast only): -2 wood required for making ships. Boats hold +1 army.
Backgrounds
Each background is unique, so check what other players pick when you choose one
Noble: +5 starting gold and your title is Count or Countess.
Hero: Start with a random artefact
General: Start with +3 armies
Spymaster: Start with ten random squares within your castle's sector and the sector immediately west of it already scouted.
Thornish Defector: Start with +1 army, +1 siege equipment and knowledge of the closest Thorn fort
Squelsh Exile: Start with knowledge of the closest two settlements and a distant Unusual Site
Useless Relative: You're a relative of King Alkabar, your title is Prince or Princess. Start with +20 debt and +1 additional castle feature.
Bone Reckoner: Start with 1 skeleton and 1 skeleton archer unit. (Skeletons do not count towards your maximum army count but must be sent on assignments with living armies to guide them)
Master Builder: Start with +3 stone.
Naval Captain: Start with +2 boats
Armourer: Start with two equipment (2 bows, or 2 siege weapons, or one of each)
*the location is rolled twice and the closest is picked, so libraries are more likely to reveal closer artefacts/sites, but all knowledge is public.
Each turn you can perform actions from the following. Duplicate actions are allowed. Actions with [A] require armies. Unassigned armies will defend your castle. Actions with [D] happen during your turn and won't appear in turn reports.
1. [A] March
2. [A] Scout
3. [A] Patrol
4. [A][D] Build a fort
5. [D] Build equipment
6. [D] Repair castle
7. [D] Expand castle
8. [D] Buy/sell resources
9. [D] Dismantle
March
Choose some number of men from your army to seize an adjacent zone next to your county borders (diagonal squares are adjacent). Sea-only zones can't be marched on (though they can be marched through as if you owned the square). Boats and ships are needed to expand over water.
Expansion will reveal any special resources, forests, or other sites.
If the site is occupied, expanding into it will likely result in a fight. As such, expanding into unscouted territory can be risky!
You can assign seige weapons when attacking forts and castles, they are expended whether the attack is successful or not. See Combat below.
Scout
Assign one army to scout any unexplored area within three squares of your border: the scout will reveal the contents of every tile it passes through. If it reaches an occupied tile, it will return home with a report. If it reaches a hill, it will give a land report of adjacent territories (though they won't know what features the land contains or whether it's defended). A scout will pick up any unguarded treasure it finds on its journeys.
Boats or ships can be given to scouts to pass through a number of squares before scouting (see Travel below).
Patrol
Assign an army to any two adjacent squares that you own without a castle or fort. They will patrol the squares. Patrolling armies are less defended than fortified armies, but it can still be a good way of defending your territory. Boats or ships are needed to patrol over water. Any attackers that attack a patrolled tile will face the patrol in defence. If there is an adjacent fort, the patrol will retreat there as soon as they are outnumbered (including before the first round of attack).
Equipment
You can spend:
2 wood to gain 1 bows
2 wood to build 1 seige weapon
2 wood to build 1 boat
8 wood to build 1 ship
Each siege weapon spent gives you +1 to attacking castles.
Each boat transports 2 armies, up to 2 squares
Each ship transports up to 10 armies up to 5 squares
Each bows can be equipped to a unit to make them archers: they gain +1 to combat rolls during sieges, but can be killed with a 5 outside of sieges
Boats and ships are lost if the accompanying armies are wiped out.
Forts
You can spend 5 wood to build a fort on a square in your county. You cannot build a fort on a tile which already has a feature (a fort, quarry, mine, etc). Assign at 1-3 armies to man the fort. They will defend that fort each turn. Boats and ships may be assigned to fort (or indeed a castle) to allow fort defence across water. Additional armies can always be assigned to a fort (up to the maximum of 3), and armies assigned to a fort do not count to your maximum army size. Armies can be reassigned from a fort if you have capacity in your castle.
Forts give +4 defence at base. You can repace wood for stone in the construction of your fort, giving +1 defence for each stone spent this way.
Forts are a great way to keep hold of your territory. Armies assigned to a fort are reservists: they can either be set to defend the fort, or patrol adjacent squares. They cannot be sent to scout or march.
Repairing/Expanding
You can repair the defence of a castle by spending 1 stone for +1 defence to its maximum. You can repair the wood of a fort, up to 5 defence, otherwise stone must be used. (e.g. a fort is at 3/8 health, you would need to spend 2 wood and 3 stone to fully repair it.)
You can gain new features for your castle by spending 10 stone per feature.
Buying/Selling
You can sell any 2 resources for 1 gold, or buy any one resource for 2 gold.
Resources: wood, armies, stone
Dismantling/Destroying
- You can dismantle a castle, gaining 2 stone, +2 stone for each feature. If it is your last castle, you will be eliminated.
- You can dismantle a fort, gaining 1 wood, and, if the fort has more than 4 wall health, 1 stone.
- You can spend 3 stone to fill in a mine permanently removing it.
- You may flood a quarry, turning it into a water tile that spills across its border.
- You may burn down a forest or village. Converts the tile into a blank space. +20 chance of Squelsh retribution (+50 if it's a holy site.)
- You may spend 10 stone to wall up a lair, preventing it from spawning new units (if it were captured by monsters etc.).
At the start of each turn, you gain +1 wood for each forest, +1 army size for each village, +2 gold from each mine, +1 stone from a quarry. Your castle may also produce extra resources. Recruitment = + army. Income = + gold.
Players are responsible for tracking their own resource gain and expenditure.
Taking Turns
Turns usually last 36 hours, but can be longer at the discretion of the GM. Players are encouraged not to edit their turns too much as it creates more work and makes it more likely that mistakes will be made in the update. The GM reserves the right not to notice that an edit has been made and work with an earlier version.
Catching Up
If a player misses a turn, on their next turn they may collect all the resources for their missed turn. The each of their scouts may have two scouting runs, to somewhat make up for lost time. Library research happens as normal even if a player doesnt' submit a turn.
Timing Out
If a player misses two consecutive turns then they may be timed out. Their castle falls into ruin (it takes 3d6 damage), and is taken up as a lair (roll twice on the monster table). Any forts they owned are reverted to the Thornish (1d3), taken over by Squelsh (1d6), or become lairs (equal random chance). All other lands revert to their former use, with ? placed on the map as new inhabitants may move in. Any artefacts and resources they stockpiled are left in the castle, along with any monster units they owned (which revert to the wild).
A non-exhaustive list of types of site:
Castle/fort: This is a stronghold and men from a castle or fort. Adjacent patrols can retreat here.
Forest: Gives you 1 wood at the start of each turn.
Village: Recruitment gives you +1 army at the start of each turn.
Hill: Scouting and expanding onto a hill also reveals the terrain types of adjacent squares. Hills give forts and patrols additional defense (-1 attacker combat roll).
Mine: A mine gives +2 gold each turn.
Quarry: A quarry gives +1 stone each turn
There are other unique sites with more unusual effects.
You can only attack squares which are adjacent to your borders, unless you are passing through water first, or another Hedge Lord gives permission for you travel through his or her county. They may wish to do this so you can break a siege, or attack a mutual enemy.
Mountains block direction of travel across squares (often on a diagonal). So long as you have the necessary boats or ships, you may take pass through any body of water even if you don't own the squares. The water squares don't count towards scout square limitation, but the coast land is neither scouted not attacked.
Example: Marquess Malecky owns T13 and everything west of it is unoccipied. He decides to use a boat to travel two squares to T11, ignoring the shore territory, to send a scout up from T11, S11 and R11. Later, he sends an army in a boat to attack T11 in much the same way, ignoring the squares in between.
You may additionally give any resources (in trade or otherwise) to other players. Gifts arrive immediately.
The game ends when every land square is a part of a county or when no more squares can be contested or when all but one player is defeated.
Surviving players will be ranked on how big their county is and how low their debt is.
Scoring:
+10 for each land square in the county joined up with your main castle
+1 for each land square not joined to your main castle
-1 for each gold of debt
A player is eliminated if their castle is conquered and they have no armies remaining. Any armies they had out scouting, on patrol, in forts, on the march etc., can be used to beseige their castle and take it back. If a seige is currently underway, these outside troops can either try to break the seige and attack as a normal combat from the outside (with nowhere to retreat back to) or they can fight their way through to behind the lines, suffering an attack from the seiging army with any survivors moving into defence.
Player allies can assist in retaking a castle, but if none of the original player's armies are remaining and they have no castle, then that Marcher Lord is defeated.
While a player has no castle, they are considered a roving force: they take no resources from features, but they still have access to any resources or equipment they owned (assumed to be smuggled out by loyal servants). Once the last army dies, any remaining resources and equipment are left at the final battlefield. Roving forces can still take resources from terrain they own, and may still buy and sell in order to maintain an army. The roving force can only increase their number of armies through villages and purchases if their force is below 10 armies. All units should be assigned an action that puts them somewhere on the map, as any unassigned units will be lost to desertion.
Scouting and expanding into unexplored tiles creates a tile generation, which starts with a roll on the Terrain Type table, which can lead to other rolls. You don't have to read all this if you want to just be surprised.
Terrain type
Roll 1d8 for ee, 1d10 for ww-e:
1-2. Marshland. Roll on terrain feature with +1
3-4. Hill. Roll on terrain feature with -2. -4 if adjacent to a mountain.
5-6. Forest. Roll on terrain feature.
7-8. Village. 1d4-1 Squelsh barbarian units defending
9. Lair. Roll on monster table twice. Lair has a hoard of 2d6 gold
10. Unusual Site. Random unique unusual site.
Terrain Feature
Roll 1d8.
-3--2. Gold Mine. Reroll on this table with 1d8.
-1-0. Quarry. Reroll on this table with 1d8.
1. Thornish Fort: 3+1d5 defence (with 1d4 damage if unoccupied). 1d4-1 Thornish armies (each drop 1d2-1 gold on death).
2-3. Easy Monsters (roll 1d4 on monster table)
4. Monsters (roll 1d8 on monster table)
5. Squelsh Barbarian Ambush (2d4 Squelsh Barbarians, they attack first if not seen before. Squelshmen Barbarians always rampage with poor defence: you and them both get +1 to combat rolls meaning fatalities more likely on either side.)
6. Treasure (roll on hoard table). Roll again here.
7-8 Empty
9. Bog Hag (accompanied by 2d2 Bog Cats who prefentially take hits for her. Will curse anyone who fights her: while she lives: -1 income, -1 recruitment, -1 wood production, -1 stone production, to a minimum of 0 each)
Hoard
Roll 1d6
1. +1d4 stone
2. +1d5 wood
3. +1d6 gold
4. +1d3-1 stone, +1d3-1 wood, +1d3 gold
5. Thornish deserters: +1d3 armies
6. Artefact. Roll on artefact table
Monsters
Roll 1d8
0. 1 Bloodsinger (has an artefact, if undefended, will flee if fails to win counterattack and if unoccupied zone adjacent)
1. 1d4+1 Wolves (if any are killed, the rest will flee to an adjacent unoccupied zone if possible)
2. Bog Cat (attackers take -1 to combat rolls, failure to defeat the Bog Cat turns the terrain into Marshland, it gains +1 combat rolls in Marshland)
3. 1d4 Wisps (at most, 1 wisp can be killed in a single attack roll)
4. 1d4 Rampaging Boar (attacks first two times in a row)
5. 1d2 Bone Reckoner (each accompanied by 1d4 skeletons fighters and 1d3-1 skeletal archers (+1 attack/defence in sieges, can be killed with a 5 outside of sieges), crumble if unaccompanied)
6. Giant (equivalant to 3 armies, destroys defence on a 2-7 when beseiging, drops 1 wood on death)
7. Dragon (equivalent to 5 armies, always attacks first, drops 3d6 gold on death)
8. Horde: roll twice on Monster table with 1d8-1.
Unusual Sites
- The list is unknown to Alkabrian invaders, though with scouting or learned sages in libraries, more knowledge may be gleaned.
Artefacts
A random unique artefact is selected. Artefacts must be assigned to a specific army to be used during a turn. These are known artefacts, but there are many more yet unknown to the Alkabrian invaders:
- Shield of Earth - The army wielding this is considered to have +1 defence at the start of every combat, as if they were siege defenders.
- Bloody Standard - +1 to attacker's combat rolls
- The Pellucid Orb - +1 to scout travel distance
- Verbian Tusk - Summons 1d2-1 Rampaging Boars at the start of each combat
- Shimmering Coin - +2 on rolls that determine gold amounts
Ordinarily, attackers attack first, then defenders attack. If a fort or castle is being attacked, a siege happens instead. If there are special units, who is killed in an exchange is usually randomly assigned.
Normal Combat
Each player army unit rolls 1d8:
5-8+: -1 enemy
Then each enemy army unit rolls 1d8:
6-8+: -1 player army
This exchange continues until either the defenders are all dead, or the attackers withdraw. The attackers withdraw to regroup if at least half their number die in an attack.
Attackers have the superior advantage here: the Alkabarian marcher lords are well armed and trained compared to most opposition they face in the Hedge. Attackers kill enemy units on a 6-8 if the enemy is also a Hedge Lord.
Sieges
If the fort or castle has at least one defence:
Each attacking army unit rolls 1d8:
5-7: -1 defence. 8+: -1 defender
Then each defending army unit rolls 1d8:
7-8+: -1 attacker
If there are no defenders alive, the fort or castle is taken. High walls are great equalisers, and so the rolls are the same regardless of whether it's player or enemy factions defending in the siege. Unlike regular combat, each round of combat in a siege lasts a turn. Attackers may always withdraw or send more armies and equipment to a siege between turns. Player characters may choose to break a siege, sallying forth on their turn, treating the attack as a normal combat.
Repairs, improvement construction, and resource gain from features cannot occur at a castle that is being beseiged, and forts may not be repaired. Armies in a castle or fort when attacked cannot be reassigned to anything other breaking the seige while they are beseiged.
After all the players' turns have been processed, each of the following happens in this order:
- Any dragons revealed have a repeating 1/2 chance of flying to a random adjacent square. When they stop, they will attack whatever is there and, if surviving make their new home. If they encounter monsters, they will instead join the monsters peacefully.
- For each Squelshman a Hedge Lord has had killed, there's a 1% chance of a reprisal attack. The attack will be 2d4 Squelshman targeting a random square bordering unclaimed land. Undefended land will be lost. More than one lord can suffer reprisals in a round (the chance is calculated separately for each Lord), with the most hated Lord attacked first and then on down.
- Undefeated, unseiged Thornish holdouts will gain +1 size. If they have in excess of 3 units in a fort, they'll attack the nearest random county square in force (if successful, up to 3 survivors will return to the fort). If the square was just conquered, they will fight the force that took it.
- Undefeated lairs and monster-controlled forts and castles have a 1/3 chance of gaining more monsters, rolling on the monster table
- If ten monster units (or allies of monster units) are present in any one square and they aren't besieging it, they will march on the nearest player-owned castle or fort unless stopped by intervening patrols (if they defeat or scare away a patrol, they will keep marching). Any monster that they meet on the march will join the horde!
- If monsters are besieging from a previous turn, they will continue the siege, possible joined other marching monsters.
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Topic: Hedge Lords - Medieval Fantasy 4X game - COMPLETED (Read 29544 times)