Welcome to the Wars of the Crusading Lord.
The game is based on the game
"war of the celestial lords"Strategy : Move your armies across the map to conquer territories and bring glory to your name and to the King.
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
Most of the occident has been conquered by an invading army of Saracens. In almost a century of warfare, they pushed as far as even laying siege on Gareth, the greatest city of the occident and the Vatican.
In what was believed would be a last stand, the army of King Brin the Great of Gareth, lead by young, but talented generals, pushed the Sultan back, stopped the siege on the Vatican, saving Pope Ucurian XII, and retook several cities on their way.
Through the death of the old Sultan, the Saracen empire was thrown into disorder, and now the time has come to strike back.
As a reward for their great deeds for the nation and the church, those young generals have been risen into nobility, and are now rulers over the cities they conquered.
What happens from there, is up to you.
The General
Each player gets to play the role of a General, one of the heroes of the Nation who are driving the Saracens 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). After that, you have 14 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, and how many of them will benefit from his other stats.
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 King's orders (and have easier orders) and decreases the chances of a Saracen army attacking you.
Piety : How the church regards you. Are you a man of god, or a heathen? This helps have better rewards when accomplishing the Pope's orders (and have easier orders), but increases the chance of having a saracen army attack you.
You can also have certain special abilities, each costs one point :
Healer (wounded soldiers heal each turn), Engineer (See resources), Bishop (a member of the vatican, may issue orders to other generals as well as refuse the Pope's orders), Royal (you are of the King's family and may issue orders to other generals as well as refuse orders from the Lord), Connections (has connection to spy networks. The info is not always reliable or useful, but better than nothing).
If you have an idea for an ability you want to have, you can ask. It may be granted if it is not overpowered.
Also, choose a letter (a normal letter, not some obscure altcode symbol) to represent you on the map
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 King's or the Pope's orders and you might get a hero as a reward for finishing a task successfully.
Units
Units are your soldiers. Each unit represents about 100 soldiers.
There is a limit on how many units a player may have, based on his cities.
Unlike in the last game, all units start as the same type, including both infantry and archery. To advance their chances, resources can be used to supply them in special ways.
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.
Order Knight: has special combat training, fighting better.
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, but with no special abilities. A Village can make ships. A Town 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 may open a monastery of an order, when the General has the title allowing him to do so from the Pope or the King. Units trained in such a monastery start at regular experience, have better morale and fight better.
Cities grow when they are allowed to by the King or Pope. City growth is awarded depending on achievements of the controlling General.
Feel free to name a city however you wish.
When taking a city from the Saracens, the size is reduced to 1, as most of the heathen populance will be decimated.
When taking a city from a fellow general for example, the size will only be reduced by one. After that, one may decide to loot the city, and further reduce it's size by 1, and use that wealth to increase the size of a city of your choice.
Some, but not all cities may have access to certain types of resources.
Resources
A city that has access to special resources, may use them to equip a unit with them. During the time it takes to equip the unit, it may not move away from the city.
Resources may also be traded. The receiving party will receive the resources at once, but equiping a unit with it will take the number of turns specified to do so. The trading party will not be able to equip another unit or trade another resource before the ammount of turns usualy used to equip a unit has passed.
Iron: A city that has iron can equip a unit with armor. Doing so takes 2 turns. An armored unit receives fewer wounds and casualties during battle.
Horses: A city that has horses may equip cavalry. Doing so takes 1 turn. A cavalry unit has 2 action points, thus moves faster.
Gunpowder: A city with gunpowder may equip canoneers. Doing so takes 3 turns. A canoneer unit receives large bonuses during sieges, and deals large damage against the enemy morale
In case your general is an engineer, or has a hero engineer under his command, the engineer may be stationed inside a city. That gives the city access to:
Crossbows: Equiping a unit takes 1 turn. A crossbowunit deals normal damage against armored units.
Siege equipment: A city that stations an engineer will receive defencive bonuses during a siege, and a sieging army lead by an engineer will receive bonuses during a siege.
Muskets: In case an engineer is stationed inside a city that has gunpowder, he may use 3 turns to equip a unit with muskets. Like crossbows, they deal full damage against armor, and lik canons, damage against enemy morale.
All equipment can be combined, except for horses and canons. This makes it possible to create heavy cavalry equiped with muskets, if you have the resources.
Equipment may be foraged from defeated enemies, but only few of it will be in useable condition. One will have to defeat 3 enemies with the desired equipment before one can equip a unit with the foraged items.
Unless of course, the enemy unit surrenders without a fight, in which case the equipment will be fully useable.
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 sent via carrier pidgeons. 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 King, the Pope, or a high ranked noble/bishop under them, which you should obey. Of course you can disobey orders, if you are ready to take the risk. In case your orders are conflicting, find a solution...or not.
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
The map will be made once I know how many players are joining.
-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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|≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈..≈♠♠^^^^≈≈♠♠♠♠.♠♠♠♠▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲≈≈≈≈▲▲▲▲♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠.♠♠|
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|≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈♠♠..≈≈ררר♠..≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈.♠ררר≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ר1ר~~≈≈▲▲▲▲▲▲~~~|
-10|≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈♠♠..≈≈ר1ר≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈..ר1ר≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈~~ררר≈≈≈~~▲▲▲▲▲~~~|
|.≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ררר≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ררר≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈~~~~~~~~~▲▲▲▲▲▲~~~|
|..≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈..........≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈~~~~~≈~~~~▲▲▲▲~~~|
|~...≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈.............≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ררר≈≈~~~~~~~~~~~~~▲ררר~~|
|~~~......≈≈≈≈≈.......................≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ר1ר~~~~~~≈~~≈~~~~~~ר1ר~~|
-15|~~~~~....................~~~~~~.........~~~~~~~~~ררר~~~~≈~~~~~~~≈~~~ררר~~|
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ררר~~~≈~~~~~~~~≈~~~~~≈~~~~~≈~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
|▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲ר1ר≈~~~~~~~~~~~~~~≈~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
|▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲ררר▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
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Key
Terrain
≈ sea / ocean / river / oasis / lake
▲ high mountains
^ hills
. plains / savanna / tundra
~ hot desert
♠ forest / jungle
= road
Ownership
% King
ר Saracen
╬ Pope
1-7 Settlement size
The game will begin once we have enough players, looking for about 10.