Welcome to the Wars of the Celestial Lord.
The game is loosely inspired by the Three Kingdoms period of Ancient China, as well as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel by Luo Guanzhong.
Strategy : Move your armies across the map to conquer territories and bring glory to your name and to the Celestial Lord.
Intrigue : Conspire against other players to remove them from power and take their cities.
Diplomacy : Ally and betray your fellow generals.
Roleplay : Play as a general, meet fellow generals and their emissaries or go on the field and fight them.
Before you decide if you want to join or not, a bit of a warning : this game requires dedication, if you cannot sacrifice an hour every day to play this game, it is better that you abstain from joining.
Background History
For hundreds of years the Celestial Kingdom has known peace and prosperity. Many races were part of it and traded peacefully, living their lives happily. And one day it all changed. One hundred years ago, barbarians from outside the empire invaded en masse, butchering people, destroying and razing entire cities, enslaving the population and tearing the empire apart, brick by brick.
Dulled by hundreds of years of peace, the empire's soldiers, wizards and priests did not last long and land was quickly lost to the invaders. In the span of a hundred years, they managed to advance as far as the capital of the Celestial Kingdom. In desperation the last rampart of the ravaged empire held a very long siege of many years. And one day the siege ended. Led by young and talented generals, guided by wilful tacticians, the few elite armies that remained broke out and smashed the besiegers. Then they drove on and took back the surrounding four cities.
After that the Celestial Lord, ruler of the empire, summoned them to him and said :
"You have done well in saving us and the Empire. Now we have great expectations of you. While our person and the capital is safe, the empire must be retaken and rebuilt. We shall give you a few hundred elite soldiers and you will each go and take one of the ancient cities. From there you shall raise an army and drive the barbarians away, thus bringing back the era of prosperity our ancestors lost so long ago, when we were not yet born into this world. We shall help you as well as we can."
The generals saluted, and each chose a city from which each would rebuild the broken Celestial Empire. They took some troops with them, and after a long travel and a long battle, took their new cities.
What happens after, is up to you...
The General
Each player gets to play the role of a General, one of the heroes of the empire who are driving the barbarians back (and building their own estates in the same process). The General is the one who commands all armies and has power over life and death of the common people. Your General, while talented, is far from invincible and, should he fall, will be replaced by one of his family, who is less talented, but at least can hope to achieve the same level of success.
How to create your General ? First, provide a description of how he is physically and mentally (a name is nice to have too). While the empire's armies are composed of humans, generals can be of any race (feel free to create your own). The choice of a race is purely cosmetic. After that, you have 12 points to spread among the following statistics (each ranking from 0 to 10) :
Tactics : Your ability to formulate correct battle plans as well as to adapt your plan to the unexpected.
Combat : Your personal battle prowess. How good you are when you go into the fray to fight your enemies. Armies also like to be lead by good fighters, which increases their morale. And the odds of having a one-on-one duel against an enemy Hero are quite important too.
Leadership : How good you are at organising people under your command, and at giving speeches. This determines how many Units an Army led personally your General can have.
Speed : You knowledge of the lay of the land. Determines how fast you, or an army led by yourself, moves.
Nobility : How people regard you. Are you loved or hated ? This helps have better rewards when accomplishing the Celestial Lord's orders (and have easier orders) and decreases the chances of a barbarian army attacking you.
You can also have certain special abilities, each costs one point :
Healer (wounded soldiers heal each turn), Magician (you can use magic), Engineer (better siege tactics), Priest (can call upon the gods for help or guidance), Celestial (you are of the Celestial Lord's family and may issue orders to other generals as well as refuse orders from the Lord).
If you have an idea for an ability you want to have, you can ask. It may be granted if it is not overpowered.
Once that is done, choose your starting city, and you are ready to go.
Heroes
Heroes are special talented people. They may have the same stats and special abilities as your General. Heroes can lead armies as well as Generals do. To have heroes, the best way is to follow the Celestial Lord's orders and you might get a hero as a reward for finishing a task successfully.
Units
Units are your soldiers. They are of four different types : Infantry (swordsmen or spearmen), Archers (archers, crossbowmen or slingers), Cavalry (horsemen), and Flyers (people mounted on eagles). Each has its strengths and weaknesses. Infantry is strong against Cavalry, Cavalry is strong against Archers and Archers are strong against Infantry. Flyers have no special weaknesses or strengths. Each unit represents about 100 soldiers.
There is a limit on how many units a player may have, based on his cities.
Each has a movement speed (in tiles per turn), listed below.
Infantry 1
Archers 1
Cavalry 2
Ships 2
Flyer 3
Units have also different levels of battle training : Green (drafted people, barely trained), Regular (have fought and survived), Veteran (have fought and survived often), Elite (among the best), Elite+ (high morale, tough and hardened).
Units can also have special training depending on the city where they were produced.
Marines : are adept at fighting on ships.
Mountaineers : can move through mountain tiles.
Hillmen : are adept at moving and fighting in hilly terrain.
Deserteers : know how to survive in a desert.
Foresters : can find the special trails in a forest that can help move quickly.
Armies
An Army is a grouping of units under a single leader (Hero or General). All Units within an Army benefit from the leader's abilities.
If all Units within an army have the same ability, then the Army has it as well. For instance, all units must have Mountaineering to cross mountain tiles if they are within an army.
Settlements
There are settlements on the map, they are what produces and maintains your armies. Each settlement can maintain a certain number of units depending on his size and level of development. The levels of development and number of units that can be maintained by each level are listed below.
Outpost 1
Hamlet 2
Village 3
Town 4
City 5
Metropolis 6
Lord's Capital 10
An Outpost, Hamlet or Village can only produce Infantry, Archers or Cavalry but with no special abilities. No flyers either. A Town can make ships and has a guild that gives special abilities to armies. The guild is determined by the surrounding terrain. For instance a settlement in a forested region makes Foresteers. A City can make Flyers.
Cities grow when they are allowed to by the Celestial Lord. City growth is awarded depending on achievements of the controlling General.
Feel free to name a city however you wish.
Movement
Each army has a certain number of Action Points to move each turn. This number is equal to the speed of the slowest unit in the army + the speed of the fastest Hero in the army.
Diagonal movement is not possible. The minimal distance an army can move is one tile, even if the above calculation gives less AP than required to move to the next tile. Mountains are impassable without Mountaineer units. Water is impassable without ships (which are automatically given to an army when it leaves a coastal city by water).
If a unit tries to move through a terrain other than a plain, it is slowed down by the terrain if it doesn't have the right special ability.
If an army moves through a desert, it must end in a tile next to a water source, or it will die of thirst. If the army has the Deserteer promotion, it can end a turn anywhere in a desert without risk of thirst.
Roads require only 2/3 AP to move. That is, you can move 3 tiles of road with 2 AP.
Army Speed = slowest unit speed + hero speed
Combat
Combat is handled in a simple way. If two armies end a turn next to one another, they fight (unless the owners specify they don't fight). The outcome of the fight depends on the number and type of troops involved, ability of heroes and generals, various special abilities, and a lucky dice roll. The outcome will be given at the time of the turn change.
After the battle, it is likely there will be wounded soldiers. Wounded units must be moved to a city to be taken care of.
Sieges happen in the same way, except that they might take a bit longer.
Diplomacy
Feel free to send messengers to other generals. Simple messages are relayed by magic and are instantaneous and can be sent at will (but not necessarily safe, players with the right ability can try to intercept messages). If you wish however to send a messenger with a gift, you will have to move it the normal way (with the risk of being raided, so take a unit or two with you).
From time to time you will also receive orders from the Celestial Lord, which you should obey. Of course you can disobey orders, if you are ready to take the risk.
When communicating, please send me a copy of the messages.
Turns
Each turn lasts 24 hours IRL and 1 week in-game. At the time of turn change, I will announce what has been happening everywhere.
Map
Everyone has been waiting for it, so here is the map. It is extra huge, for extra blood.
-2 -2 -1 -1 -0 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4
5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5
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Y
Key
Terrain
≈ sea / ocean / river / oasis / lake
▲ high mountains
^ hills
. plains / savanna / tundra
~ hot desert
♠ forest / jungle
= road
Ownership
% Celestial Lord
# Barbarian
1-7 Settlement size
The game will begin as soon as we have at least 5 players. As long as there are barbarian cities, other players can join in the fray. To join, post your General, choice of starting city (on a first come first serve basis, only barbarian cities can be claimed) and a letter which will represent your cities (uppercase) and armies (lowercase). Feel free to ask questions or give suggestions. And remember, don't join if you don't have the time to play.
FAQ
Q : Can any city be claimed at the beginning, even the remote ones ?
A : Yes, the Celestial Lord let you borrow Flyers to get to your chosen city
Q : How many Units can a settlement produce in one turn ?
A : One Unit per settlement per turn. So if you only have one settlement, you can only produce one Unit on that turn. Units can also be produced when a city is besieged, at the same speed.
Q : What about secret plans ?
A : If you want keep something secret from other players, PM it to me. I will tell you what I need to know and what you need to do. After that, pray it succeeds.
Q : How to build roads ?
A : You need an Imperial Edict to do so. These are issued by the Celestial Lord.
Q : How do I accomplish certain special objectives ?
A : Usually hints are contained within the orders. If you are still lost, contact me either by PM or on IRC (I am on irc.newnet.net as Istrian, query me)
Q : How to scout ?
A : If you are in range of an army (close enough to be reached within two turns by your army), you ask me (PM or IRC) and I tell you how much your scout managed to gather.
More Background Info
On the Celestials. Celestials are people who were born with the Mark of the Heavens upon them. The mark is visible to priests and a few gifted people. It is acquired at birth and some people might live their whole lives without knowing about the Mark (and courtiers certainly don't want lowly peasants at court). The Mark is not hereditary, though often children of Celestials are Celestial themselves. It has also happened that Celestials with non-Celestial children will ask the priests to lie about the fact, usually to protect their family honor.
The Celestial Lord always has the Mark. The title of Celestial Lord is not herditary by law, but by tradition the eldest child of the Celestial Lord will be Celestial Lord. Of course, at times there were rebellions from Celestials who wanted the title.
On Wizards. Wizards are people with a certain gift for using the elements. Their powers are very subtle and usually involve changing the weather, talking with animals or creating rockslides. They can also enchant items. One of the most common enchantments is creating trinkets to help people communicate over long distances.
In Imperial society, wizards are rare and very reclusive. They usually live far from cities, in mountains, in forests or close to the sea where they can meditate on their powers. Wizards are usually self-taught, but some have been known to take apprentices. Not that it helps of course, since learning wizardry usually involves long hours of meditation.
On Priests. There are many deities existing within the Celestial Kingdom. Most of them reside in what is called the Celestial Realm, from where they watch mortals, seldom meddling in their affairs. Priests are people who are able to communicate with the gods and who can interpret signs sent by them. Priests are revered in Imperial society. They live in monasteries, either within cities, or hidden in easily-defendable places.
On Barbarians. Barbarian is a generic name given to those who invaded the Celestial Kingdom a century ago. They are of many races, ranging from humans, to small rat-like creatures and huge man-eating ogres.
Divine signs seem to show that they are creatures who were cast out of the Celestial Realm into the Mortal Realm for some kind of transgression. Or perhaps they are here to test the worthiness of mortals. In any case, dealing with barbarians is regarded as the worst kind of crime, much worse than killing someone, warranting immediate death.
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Topic: Wars of the Celestial Lord - a game of intrigue, strategy and roleplay (Read 22115 times)