Post by Admin Bob on Feb 2, 2023 19:34:21 GMT
Warfare Rules
Warfare in this game will be done via umpire (admin) guidance. That is to say, players will give orders to their units, which umpires will interpret and then set up against the opposition's order. For players to fully understand this system, there must be a certain set of base assumptions that all be acquainted with. In this game, these base assumptions are those of medieval warfare, which shall be laid out in this rule section. In the end, the umpire always has the last say over what works and what does not work, and he shall endeavor to offer advice and clarifications to the players so that they can understand the consequences of their orders, without giving any player a special advantage.
In this game, medieval warfare is understood as to be centered around the power of heavy cavalry, so called knights. Knights, soldiers dressed in heavy armor, can fight both on horse and on foot, but normally fight on horse. As a coherent unit, knights represent the deadliest opposition on the typical battlefield, and the charge of a unit of knights can break even the most dedicated opposition. Technologically and doctrinally then, the game can be tied to the middle 1200’s.
Knights are not however invincible. They find their opposites in well trained and well led infantry with spears, or they face difficulties in fighting on dangerous or disadvantageous terrain. While a unit of knights should be expected to break almost any infantry on an open plain, forests and other such disadvantageous terrain should be carefully considered as it disperses the power of the knights. Other such terrain include hills and mountains, where knights are increasingly ineffective, with mountainous terrain representing the absolute limit of cavalry's power. Heavy cavalry, while quite strong, was not invincible. Charging headlong into dedicated or well-prepared opposition could prove fatal.
Heavy cavalry is however rather rare on the battlefield, and represents a huge resource investment for any kingdom or polity, and as such it is more common to see common infantry and archers on the battlefield. Infantry, in many variants and forms, can be effective or useless, depending on the circumstances and their quality. Militia drawn from local villages, armed only with farming tools, should not be counted on for anything besides perhaps distracting the enemy. Conversely, professional mercenary forces can be counted on holding the line for a certain amount of time, even against difficult foes. Archers, both of the bow and crossbow variety, mostly come into play at the beginning of a battle as both sides skirmish attempting to draw an advantage. While there is historical precedence for archers winning battles outright, these battles came in extremely advantageous terrain or circumstances, and as such players should not consider an army made up of only longbowmen to be capable of anything but being charged down.
Medieval battles were not terribly complex tactically. Once a unit was given the order to charge, it was hard if not impossible to recall such a charge. As such, when players order a charge, they should consider that unit engaged until it either wins or breaks. Organized retreat could be very difficult under the best of circumstances, and calling a retreat would often lead to disorder. In some circumstances, retreats and orderly reformation can be done, especially if one side has a cavalry advantage over the other. Conversely, ordering a retreat when your enemy has a cavalry advantage is often going to lead to defeat.
Casualties on the battlefield can be quite steep, and those who do not fall in battle can be pursued after a battle and killed there. The exact numbers remain up to the umpire, but it should be expected that if a force is entirely routed it can lose a majority of its strength. Battles are in this way very decisive if one side has a cavalry advantage.
As is now rather typical of our games, units will be represented in two ways. First the unit type will designate what sort of unit it is (Heavy cavalry, light cavalry, etc) and is then followed by a strength/morale/experience indicator. Some units, such as levy, will be chronically low on all three indicators, and they shouldn’t be expected to get any better any time soon. Other units, such as heavy cavalry, will always have higher indicators, and therefore be more effective on the battlefield.
Warfare, as the game progresses, may change as technology or tactics change. Moreover, heavy cavalry will not always be the answer to the tactical conundrum, and when it comes to sieges, you best have brought some infantry.
Strength from the land, land from strength.
On levies
Agricultural tiles, emanating from cities, produce a yearly levy that can be called upon for campaigns. This levy will mostly consist of poor farmers, and a very small cadre of elite warriors, known as knights. The knights will be the core of your army, and represent the cream of the crop of your nobility. The levy will mostly be an added bonus to them.
Every farming tile provides 10 light cavalry, which through a city upgrade can be transformed into heavy cavalry. From the game's beginning, every player can turn 50 light cavalry into 50 heavy cavalry, but must build armories to increase this cap. Each farming tile also provides the possibility to raise a levy of 50 low-quality but still useful peasant infantry. This costs 10 florins per hex, a non-recurring cost that can only be done once per turn, per hex. There is therefore an advantage in having as much arable land as possible.
On field armies and raising troops
It should be noted that you must state your intention to summon your forces before campaigning season begins. Assembling a medieval field army was a large undertaking, and many wheels had to turn to make it all function, as such you cannot summon an army from nothing. Conversely, you can raise an army if your lands come under attack during the campaigning season. This army will however not be able to venture outside your own borders, and will entirely exist to defend your own lands.
Kingdoms may also raise additional forces through financial payment, but this is quite expensive. Generally, Kings either raise their own forces or they hire mercenary bands to instantly augment their forces. Mercenary bands come with a set amount of troops who are of good quality, and as such will be a tempting way to start a conflict, unless your rival recruits them first.
Specialist troops, outside of mercenary bands, primarily come from your castles, which are the seats of power of your nobles. Every castle unlocks at least one ‘Man-At-Arms’ regiment, essentially a component of a standing army. This can be either: Heavy Infantry, Archers, Pikemen or Heavy Cavalry. Every level of the castle dictates the maximum size of the M-A-T regiment, going from 100 at level 1, to 300 and 500 at level 2 and 3 respectively. Players can choose to divide up the 100, 300 and 500 units into at minimum 100 man sized squads of various equipment, that is to say at level 2, you could recruit 100 archers, 100 heavy infantry and 100 pikemen. As Heavy Cavalry is generally more expensive, one Heavy Cavalry trooper counts as 2 (so 50 heavy cavalry would count for a 100 regular M-A-T)
Cities can raise 200 light infantry, consisting of loosely coordinated soldiers equipped from their own pockets, only a fragment better than the untrained peasant levy from the fields. Cities at level 2 provide heavy infantry, while cities at level 3 provide pikemen. To clarify, you can choose what to recruit out of these units, so a level 3 city can recruit 200 light infantry OR 200 heavy infantry OR 200 pikemen.
Unit types:
Light Cavalry - Lightly equipped cavalrymen that bring their own horses. Often fight with sword and shield or spears. Can dismount during a battle if necessary, but cannot remount effectively.
Heavy Cavalry/Knights - Heavily equipped cavalrymen that bring up to four horses per person, attended to by a squire. Equipped with a lance, sword and shield, and other high-end equipment. Takes an especially brave formation to face the charge of a group of knights. The epitome of medieval combat. Can dismount during a battle if necessary, but cannot remount.
Light infantry - Soldiers usually equipped with leather armor, sword and shield, or spears. Not commonly well trained, and represents a minimum effort in equipping and fielding a force.
Levy Infantry - The soldiers generated from agricultural hexes. They are poorly armed, poorly led and have very little staying power on the battlefield. Only in great mass against similar opponents is levy infantry worth much.
Heavy Infantry - Soldiers usually equipped in extensive mail armor, using sword and shield or spears. Often represents a well-trained contingent on which you can anchor a formation. Can be expected to stay on the field during a fight.
Pikemen - Specialist infantry equipped with cavalry killing equipment. Long spears or pikes, as well as requisite armor. Ideal on the defensive, but not worth much on the march. Their strength comes from a tight formation and the discipline to stay under duress.
Archers - Skirmishing infantry lightly equipped with leather armor. Comes equipped with bows, longbows or crossbows. Should not be expected to fight off anything but other archers. An essential part to any army that wishes to maintain tactical supremacy.
While this game is not necessarily based on the classic danger triangle (Horses beat archers beat infantry beat horses), it should be supposed that there are core inherent upsides with each kind of unit. Pikemen, for an example, should be expected to work better against heavy cavalry than against heavy infantry and so on.
Movement and engagement
At the admins discretion, battles can either be fought using a battle map, or via text description. Using a map will be for bigger battles, as they are time consuming to make and update. The way two forces engage each other is dependent on their movement on the overall map. If two players move to the same hex in the same month, it is a meeting engagement where neither side has an advantage in maneuvering for terrain. However if one player enters a hex while the other defends, the defending player will have more leeway in deciding where the battle takes place. When two forces meet it does not necessarily mean there will be a battle, as one side can choose to disengage and move away from the area. However, if this force is distinctly lacking in cavalry in comparison to the other force, it may suffer attrition as a consequence of harassing attacks by the enemy cavalry. Players can choose to return to the hex that they arrived from, but will be unable to move the next month.
An army can typically move 5 hexes a month. For players going on a campaign, they must at turn start or as close to campaigning season as possible, declare the route they are taking. If they encounter an enemy or other obstacles, they can change their route. Every month, the admins will advance the armies on a map available to them, to keep track. Roads can be constructed and maintained that double the speed of your armies. These are listed under the peace rules.
At the beginning of the game, until further notice, players will only be able to field one army at a time unless it is a garrison army. That is to say, when you go on campaign, you cannot split up your forces into multiple prongs, they must stay as one coherent army.
It should be noted that castles exert a "zone of control" around each castellum in a circle. That means that armies are not able to pass by a castle without besieging it. Use this to your advantage when it comes to planning defenses.
Siege Rules
To besiege a castle or a town, your army must enter the hex in question. Armies that have settled in for a siege do not conform to the normal campaign rules, and will be considered static.
The system is rather straightforward. Each static defensive position has a siege-point pool arranged like this:
Castle level 1: 60
Castle level 2: 120
Castle level 3: 300
City level 1: 20
City level 2: 40
City level 3: 60
When an army begins a siege, it will roll 1D20 for every month it spends besieging. The number rolled is added together as the months go by. Once the siege rolls equal or go above the siege-point pool, the siege is considered over, and the castle/city/village is taken. Every three months the siege will roll an event roll, which can increase or decrease the siege-point pool. The roll is 1D20, if the roll ends up between 1-5, 10 siege points are added. 5-10, 5 siege points are added. 10-15, no siege points are added. 15-20 5 siege points are deducted. Narratively this mirrors sallies, mining/counter-mining, disease, hunger, and so on.
Armies can continue sieges through winter months, outside the traditional campaigning season, however this will impact the army severely, and should only be done in extremis. For every month the army spends outside of the campaigning season in siege, it loses 10% of its total number. ¨
An army must be at least 300 strong to besiege a position.
Peace making
A conflict between two sides must eventually come to an end. This is usually done by signing a peace deal between two sides. To avoid one side being entirely wiped out in a single war, there is a limit to how much you can claim in a peace deal (unless you have the requisite trait). Players can claim up to 10 points of territory in a peace deal per war, based on the same rate as when the hexes were picked at game start, that is to say:
Plains, Forests, Swamps, Hills: 1 point.
Any Hex with a resource except Au or Ag: 2 points.
Any Hex with Au or Ag: 5 points.
City or castle: 10 points
Peace deals can vary in how long they count for, but do beware that breaking a treaty of peace is seen as a great sin by the Church, as all treaties of peace are signed before God.
Mercenary bands:
Mercenary bands are available for hire upon the construction of a mercenary office in any city or castle you own. Mercenaries can only be hired per turn, so their contracts must be renegotiated at the end of a turn. Furthermore, mercenary bands must be hired at the beginning of a turn, as they must prepare and travel to your location. They can be expected to march alongside whatever other forces you have when campaign season starts.
The Trusty Brothers - 300 Regular Pikemen - 300 florins.
Knicked Knives - 300 Regular Light Infantry - 250 florins
Flighty Ones - 150 Regular Light Cavalry - 300 florins
The Northern Brotherhood - 300 Regular Heavy Cavalry - 1000 florins
The Righteous Crew - 100 Regular Light Infantry 100 Regular Heavy Infantry - 500 florins
The Marsh Spirits - 300 Veteran Archers - 400 florins
Band of Faces - 100 Veteran Light Infantry - 300 florins
The Forest Band - 200 Regular Archers - 300 florins
The Constructors Brotherhood - +5 to Siege rolls - 500 florins.
The Genoan Company - 150 Veteran Pikemen - 500 florins.
Brotherhood of Hillmen - 100 Regular Light Infantry - 150 florins.
New Mercenaries:
Allah's Holy Shields - 300 Regular Light Infantry - 250 Florins
The Tartar Band - 250 Regular Light Cavalry - 460 Florins
Archers of the Endless Sands - 200 Veteran Archers - 250 Florins
Warfare in this game will be done via umpire (admin) guidance. That is to say, players will give orders to their units, which umpires will interpret and then set up against the opposition's order. For players to fully understand this system, there must be a certain set of base assumptions that all be acquainted with. In this game, these base assumptions are those of medieval warfare, which shall be laid out in this rule section. In the end, the umpire always has the last say over what works and what does not work, and he shall endeavor to offer advice and clarifications to the players so that they can understand the consequences of their orders, without giving any player a special advantage.
In this game, medieval warfare is understood as to be centered around the power of heavy cavalry, so called knights. Knights, soldiers dressed in heavy armor, can fight both on horse and on foot, but normally fight on horse. As a coherent unit, knights represent the deadliest opposition on the typical battlefield, and the charge of a unit of knights can break even the most dedicated opposition. Technologically and doctrinally then, the game can be tied to the middle 1200’s.
Knights are not however invincible. They find their opposites in well trained and well led infantry with spears, or they face difficulties in fighting on dangerous or disadvantageous terrain. While a unit of knights should be expected to break almost any infantry on an open plain, forests and other such disadvantageous terrain should be carefully considered as it disperses the power of the knights. Other such terrain include hills and mountains, where knights are increasingly ineffective, with mountainous terrain representing the absolute limit of cavalry's power. Heavy cavalry, while quite strong, was not invincible. Charging headlong into dedicated or well-prepared opposition could prove fatal.
Heavy cavalry is however rather rare on the battlefield, and represents a huge resource investment for any kingdom or polity, and as such it is more common to see common infantry and archers on the battlefield. Infantry, in many variants and forms, can be effective or useless, depending on the circumstances and their quality. Militia drawn from local villages, armed only with farming tools, should not be counted on for anything besides perhaps distracting the enemy. Conversely, professional mercenary forces can be counted on holding the line for a certain amount of time, even against difficult foes. Archers, both of the bow and crossbow variety, mostly come into play at the beginning of a battle as both sides skirmish attempting to draw an advantage. While there is historical precedence for archers winning battles outright, these battles came in extremely advantageous terrain or circumstances, and as such players should not consider an army made up of only longbowmen to be capable of anything but being charged down.
Medieval battles were not terribly complex tactically. Once a unit was given the order to charge, it was hard if not impossible to recall such a charge. As such, when players order a charge, they should consider that unit engaged until it either wins or breaks. Organized retreat could be very difficult under the best of circumstances, and calling a retreat would often lead to disorder. In some circumstances, retreats and orderly reformation can be done, especially if one side has a cavalry advantage over the other. Conversely, ordering a retreat when your enemy has a cavalry advantage is often going to lead to defeat.
Casualties on the battlefield can be quite steep, and those who do not fall in battle can be pursued after a battle and killed there. The exact numbers remain up to the umpire, but it should be expected that if a force is entirely routed it can lose a majority of its strength. Battles are in this way very decisive if one side has a cavalry advantage.
As is now rather typical of our games, units will be represented in two ways. First the unit type will designate what sort of unit it is (Heavy cavalry, light cavalry, etc) and is then followed by a strength/morale/experience indicator. Some units, such as levy, will be chronically low on all three indicators, and they shouldn’t be expected to get any better any time soon. Other units, such as heavy cavalry, will always have higher indicators, and therefore be more effective on the battlefield.
Warfare, as the game progresses, may change as technology or tactics change. Moreover, heavy cavalry will not always be the answer to the tactical conundrum, and when it comes to sieges, you best have brought some infantry.
Strength from the land, land from strength.
On levies
Agricultural tiles, emanating from cities, produce a yearly levy that can be called upon for campaigns. This levy will mostly consist of poor farmers, and a very small cadre of elite warriors, known as knights. The knights will be the core of your army, and represent the cream of the crop of your nobility. The levy will mostly be an added bonus to them.
Every farming tile provides 10 light cavalry, which through a city upgrade can be transformed into heavy cavalry. From the game's beginning, every player can turn 50 light cavalry into 50 heavy cavalry, but must build armories to increase this cap. Each farming tile also provides the possibility to raise a levy of 50 low-quality but still useful peasant infantry. This costs 10 florins per hex, a non-recurring cost that can only be done once per turn, per hex. There is therefore an advantage in having as much arable land as possible.
On field armies and raising troops
It should be noted that you must state your intention to summon your forces before campaigning season begins. Assembling a medieval field army was a large undertaking, and many wheels had to turn to make it all function, as such you cannot summon an army from nothing. Conversely, you can raise an army if your lands come under attack during the campaigning season. This army will however not be able to venture outside your own borders, and will entirely exist to defend your own lands.
Kingdoms may also raise additional forces through financial payment, but this is quite expensive. Generally, Kings either raise their own forces or they hire mercenary bands to instantly augment their forces. Mercenary bands come with a set amount of troops who are of good quality, and as such will be a tempting way to start a conflict, unless your rival recruits them first.
Specialist troops, outside of mercenary bands, primarily come from your castles, which are the seats of power of your nobles. Every castle unlocks at least one ‘Man-At-Arms’ regiment, essentially a component of a standing army. This can be either: Heavy Infantry, Archers, Pikemen or Heavy Cavalry. Every level of the castle dictates the maximum size of the M-A-T regiment, going from 100 at level 1, to 300 and 500 at level 2 and 3 respectively. Players can choose to divide up the 100, 300 and 500 units into at minimum 100 man sized squads of various equipment, that is to say at level 2, you could recruit 100 archers, 100 heavy infantry and 100 pikemen. As Heavy Cavalry is generally more expensive, one Heavy Cavalry trooper counts as 2 (so 50 heavy cavalry would count for a 100 regular M-A-T)
Cities can raise 200 light infantry, consisting of loosely coordinated soldiers equipped from their own pockets, only a fragment better than the untrained peasant levy from the fields. Cities at level 2 provide heavy infantry, while cities at level 3 provide pikemen. To clarify, you can choose what to recruit out of these units, so a level 3 city can recruit 200 light infantry OR 200 heavy infantry OR 200 pikemen.
Unit types:
Light Cavalry - Lightly equipped cavalrymen that bring their own horses. Often fight with sword and shield or spears. Can dismount during a battle if necessary, but cannot remount effectively.
Heavy Cavalry/Knights - Heavily equipped cavalrymen that bring up to four horses per person, attended to by a squire. Equipped with a lance, sword and shield, and other high-end equipment. Takes an especially brave formation to face the charge of a group of knights. The epitome of medieval combat. Can dismount during a battle if necessary, but cannot remount.
Light infantry - Soldiers usually equipped with leather armor, sword and shield, or spears. Not commonly well trained, and represents a minimum effort in equipping and fielding a force.
Levy Infantry - The soldiers generated from agricultural hexes. They are poorly armed, poorly led and have very little staying power on the battlefield. Only in great mass against similar opponents is levy infantry worth much.
Heavy Infantry - Soldiers usually equipped in extensive mail armor, using sword and shield or spears. Often represents a well-trained contingent on which you can anchor a formation. Can be expected to stay on the field during a fight.
Pikemen - Specialist infantry equipped with cavalry killing equipment. Long spears or pikes, as well as requisite armor. Ideal on the defensive, but not worth much on the march. Their strength comes from a tight formation and the discipline to stay under duress.
Archers - Skirmishing infantry lightly equipped with leather armor. Comes equipped with bows, longbows or crossbows. Should not be expected to fight off anything but other archers. An essential part to any army that wishes to maintain tactical supremacy.
While this game is not necessarily based on the classic danger triangle (Horses beat archers beat infantry beat horses), it should be supposed that there are core inherent upsides with each kind of unit. Pikemen, for an example, should be expected to work better against heavy cavalry than against heavy infantry and so on.
Movement and engagement
At the admins discretion, battles can either be fought using a battle map, or via text description. Using a map will be for bigger battles, as they are time consuming to make and update. The way two forces engage each other is dependent on their movement on the overall map. If two players move to the same hex in the same month, it is a meeting engagement where neither side has an advantage in maneuvering for terrain. However if one player enters a hex while the other defends, the defending player will have more leeway in deciding where the battle takes place. When two forces meet it does not necessarily mean there will be a battle, as one side can choose to disengage and move away from the area. However, if this force is distinctly lacking in cavalry in comparison to the other force, it may suffer attrition as a consequence of harassing attacks by the enemy cavalry. Players can choose to return to the hex that they arrived from, but will be unable to move the next month.
An army can typically move 5 hexes a month. For players going on a campaign, they must at turn start or as close to campaigning season as possible, declare the route they are taking. If they encounter an enemy or other obstacles, they can change their route. Every month, the admins will advance the armies on a map available to them, to keep track. Roads can be constructed and maintained that double the speed of your armies. These are listed under the peace rules.
At the beginning of the game, until further notice, players will only be able to field one army at a time unless it is a garrison army. That is to say, when you go on campaign, you cannot split up your forces into multiple prongs, they must stay as one coherent army.
It should be noted that castles exert a "zone of control" around each castellum in a circle. That means that armies are not able to pass by a castle without besieging it. Use this to your advantage when it comes to planning defenses.
Siege Rules
To besiege a castle or a town, your army must enter the hex in question. Armies that have settled in for a siege do not conform to the normal campaign rules, and will be considered static.
The system is rather straightforward. Each static defensive position has a siege-point pool arranged like this:
Castle level 1: 60
Castle level 2: 120
Castle level 3: 300
City level 1: 20
City level 2: 40
City level 3: 60
When an army begins a siege, it will roll 1D20 for every month it spends besieging. The number rolled is added together as the months go by. Once the siege rolls equal or go above the siege-point pool, the siege is considered over, and the castle/city/village is taken. Every three months the siege will roll an event roll, which can increase or decrease the siege-point pool. The roll is 1D20, if the roll ends up between 1-5, 10 siege points are added. 5-10, 5 siege points are added. 10-15, no siege points are added. 15-20 5 siege points are deducted. Narratively this mirrors sallies, mining/counter-mining, disease, hunger, and so on.
Armies can continue sieges through winter months, outside the traditional campaigning season, however this will impact the army severely, and should only be done in extremis. For every month the army spends outside of the campaigning season in siege, it loses 10% of its total number. ¨
An army must be at least 300 strong to besiege a position.
Peace making
A conflict between two sides must eventually come to an end. This is usually done by signing a peace deal between two sides. To avoid one side being entirely wiped out in a single war, there is a limit to how much you can claim in a peace deal (unless you have the requisite trait). Players can claim up to 10 points of territory in a peace deal per war, based on the same rate as when the hexes were picked at game start, that is to say:
Plains, Forests, Swamps, Hills: 1 point.
Any Hex with a resource except Au or Ag: 2 points.
Any Hex with Au or Ag: 5 points.
City or castle: 10 points
Peace deals can vary in how long they count for, but do beware that breaking a treaty of peace is seen as a great sin by the Church, as all treaties of peace are signed before God.
Mercenary bands:
Mercenary bands are available for hire upon the construction of a mercenary office in any city or castle you own. Mercenaries can only be hired per turn, so their contracts must be renegotiated at the end of a turn. Furthermore, mercenary bands must be hired at the beginning of a turn, as they must prepare and travel to your location. They can be expected to march alongside whatever other forces you have when campaign season starts.
The Trusty Brothers - 300 Regular Pikemen - 300 florins.
Knicked Knives - 300 Regular Light Infantry - 250 florins
Flighty Ones - 150 Regular Light Cavalry - 300 florins
The Northern Brotherhood - 300 Regular Heavy Cavalry - 1000 florins
The Righteous Crew - 100 Regular Light Infantry 100 Regular Heavy Infantry - 500 florins
The Marsh Spirits - 300 Veteran Archers - 400 florins
Band of Faces - 100 Veteran Light Infantry - 300 florins
The Forest Band - 200 Regular Archers - 300 florins
The Constructors Brotherhood - +5 to Siege rolls - 500 florins.
The Genoan Company - 150 Veteran Pikemen - 500 florins.
Brotherhood of Hillmen - 100 Regular Light Infantry - 150 florins.
New Mercenaries:
Allah's Holy Shields - 300 Regular Light Infantry - 250 Florins
The Tartar Band - 250 Regular Light Cavalry - 460 Florins
Archers of the Endless Sands - 200 Veteran Archers - 250 Florins
