Campaign Systems - World Conquest - The Basics |
Written by Jean Marcel l Impétueux | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tuesday, 16 November 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I have strived for the last few years to come out with an open, strong campaign system. I had come out with a version which has now been marked outdated. After taking it back to the drawing board, I have found myself with a success! A few tweaks will always be needed, of course, and I intend to edit this article as it comes up from questions asked by players, but besides that I would like to present to you "Campaign Systems - World Conquest". A Campaign System for territory/map conquering. Before any of the reading, I would suggest on working on a map. A good idea is to take a map in our cartogrophy section on this site and divide the land and seas up which u wish to use for your campaign needs! A good example for a map would be this one here made by Uther Di Asturien: http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r314/In_da_funk/Kislev_v25.jpg
The Basics Instruction & Rules Manual
Basic Operations The Map that has been displayed for you by the GM has been divided into ## territories (## Land territories and ## Sea/Ocean territories). The game on the map takes place in turns. 1 turn is equal to # week(s) and battles are fought at the end of the week. The army size you require is 500+ points for all purposes. Actions Every turn each player generates Turn Actions. Turn Actions are a set number of actions including Military, Diplomatic, and Land Attack Actions that you, as a leader, can perform during your turn to better your territories. The number of actions you generate each turn depends on how many territories you have based on the chart below.
* All numbers may vary based on the number of territories the map holds or the number of players involved. Land Attack Actions may be traded for Military Actions. Action Choices There are 10 different choices you can make during your turn for actions and each has its own category based on the type of actions above. All the actions will be explained throughout this rule set. Military Actions •1. Recruit Land Units •2. Move an Army •3. Declare a Supplementary Action •4. Defensive Actions •5. Repair Walls & Towers Diplomatic Actions •1. Declare a Trade Action •2. Make an Alliance •3. Break Ties •4. Diplomatic, Political, & Other Actions Land Attack Actions •1. Declare a Land Attack Currency To accomplish tasks in the game, like any good lord knows, you must have money. All the territories on the map generate some form of gold whether it be based on strategic use, farming quality, city trades, natural resources, the land type category the land falls under in the game, or other reasons noted by the GM. The GM of the campaign will be the only one to know all the values of the territories while the players will only know the income of the territories they hold. Currency is very simple in the game. 1 Gold is equal to 1 Point for recruiting purposes; so a 1000 point army is 1000 gold. In fluff 1000 points represents 1000 soldiers. Otherwise the gold value for purchasable items and units will be listed in this rule set. All prices throughout this rule set are subject to change based on the size of the campaign. Territories Just like Actions, all territories have their own category they fall under which gives a general feel for the value of the land. Every map is different so the categories will vary but the majority will follow the following categories: •1. Open •2. Landmark •3. Chokeholds •4. Outpost or Trade Post •5. Village •6. Small Town •7. Special Location •8. Large Town •9. City •10. Large City •11. Huge City •12. Citadel •13. Capital Out of these, Outposts or Trade Posts, Chokeholds and Landmarks have Special Abilities. Outpost: Outpost towers will warn you of oncoming enemies and forces the opponent to deploy first. You may also deploy a single unit in the outpost. Attacks on a land with an Outpost also play the "The Watchtower" Scenario in the 8th edition rulebook. All army point sizes and restrictions are to be ignored in the scenario listing. Chokeholds: Attacks on a land with a Chokehold play the "Battle for the Pass" Scenario in the 8th edition rulebook. All army point sizes and restrictions are to be ignored in the scenario listing. Landmarks: Attacks on a land with a Landmark play the "Hold the High Ground" Scenario in the 8th edition rulebook, but replacing the hill with the appropriate landmark type. All army point sizes and restrictions are to be ignored in the scenario listing. Faction Leaders Every empire needs a leader, this game includes it. You must pick one character out of your army, give him or her a name, set him or her up with equipment, and make sure he or she doesn't go over 450 points. The equipment you give the leader is set up that way until they die unless the GM decides otherwise. No special characters are allowed to be chosen. The Faction Leader follows all normal rules and restrictions as an army does. If your Faction Leader participates in a battle, he or she must be the general and counts for victory points as normal. When the Faction Leader fights in a battle, he or she does not cost any points or percentages out of your point allotment for the army. In the event of the Leader's death, you cannot go through with any actions until a new Leader is put in place; it costs 1000 gold to do so. It may be the son or daughter of the previous ruler, it may be the ruler brought back from the dead, or it could really be anything you, as the player, can think up. Every Man for Himself In a free for all game it is exactly as it sounds. Every player is playing for the right to be the leading faction over any other. Of course there are other ways of leading the world in peace and harmony, which are perfectly plausible, but unlikely as greed will almost always overcome any circumstance. You start alone with your capital in the midst of a city or another specified territory type as but a Lord who is unknown, rising up to the cause and building a force. Claiming the land around it must be the first step. Alliances can be made and Empires forged amongst them on your own terms between players or they can crumble as a clever plot to wreck the despicable enemy from within. Never underestimate the importance of your home, though. It is very important you don't let any other players hold your capital above all else. You have the option to change capitals at will. Winning and Losing You can win if you own all capitals and control at least 60% of the territories, declare world peace (everyone is an ally and all agree to end the game in a truce), or control all territories. If the players wish, of course, in the event of one player owning all capitals and controlling 60% of the territories, they may keep playing the game forming the Resistance against the new enemy Empire with what lands and forces they have left. If a player has no territories left, they are dead and out of the game. Starting Turn On your first turn you begin with the capital city, not the land around it though, your leader, and #### men inside the capital. In some cases you may begin with more than this. This depends on the GM's will. Order Forms/Turn Reports The GM will supply you with a report every turn which will display the territories you hold, the number of men in them, their worth in Gold, where your leader is located, current on-going missions, and a list of your available actions. You will also get an Order Form; it is your duty as the player to fill it out with your current turn's actions that you wish to proceed with and give it back to the GM at the latest of the day before the evening the battles would normally be fought on. Turn Action Rules Military Actions Recruit Land Units Building an army is one of the simplest things you can do. Armies can only be recruited from small towns, large towns, cities, fortresses or castles, and your capital. In some cases you may be able to recruit elsewhere in areas that are special or even based on the race you have chosen. You can recruit in several places in a turn if you so wish to, as long as you have the money and Actions to do so. Don't forget that 1 Gold is equal to 1 Soldier and 1 Soldier is equal to 1 Point. An army must be a minimum of 100 men in size; when fielded this army will be represented by its number of men in points, so a 100 man army will be a 100 point list which will cost you 100 gold. When the number of men becomes too high for you to field an army, it will be scaled down, explained later in the Declaring a Land Attack section. Newly recruited units may not act the turn they have been recruited. Move an Army You may want to move your troops around the map to bolster the defences in other areas of the map. It's simple enough to do and there are only 4 basic rules for moving an army that you must follow: •1. You may only move an army once during a turn and the army may only move one territory a turn. The territory must be adjacent unless otherwise specified. •2. Any amount of troops may move with an army. •3. You may move more than one army a turn but it will cost you multiple actions. Crossing Waters You may also cross large bodies of water using the Move an Army action. There is a cost to pay the sailors for risking their lives on open sea, but even so - some may decide to pay it. The cost is 500 gold for every 1000 points/men you wish to transport across the water. You may also use this method of transportation via the Declare a Land Attack action against an enemy territory that you can cross over the water to. Locations available for sailing from and to are determined by the GM. Declare a Supplementary Action During the game you will find out that in some cases you will draw during a battle, neither side shall win the fight; it will be up to you and your opponent to either continue fighting it out over the territory or to retreat. In this event you might have troops at an adjacent territory willing to throw their lot in and risk their lives to help the soldiers out in battle. You may declare a Supplementary Action to move an army from an adjacent territory into a territory that is fighting a continued battle that was a draw from the turn before. You may also declare a Supplementary Action to move an army from an adjacent territory into an allied territory or enemy territory that contains an ally that is fighting a continued battle that was a draw from the turn before. By doing so, you give up the right to claim the territory, but it helps out your ally. Defensive Actions A defensive action is used to build up the defences in your territory if you expect an attack on that turn for short term use. There are a number of defensive actions you can do which are long term as well.
Other short term defensive actions can be thought up by the players and will cost what the GM instructs it to. This cost is whether you are attacked or not. Short term defences last 2 turns.
Other long term defensive actions can be thought up by the players and will cost what the GM instructs it to. This cost is whether you are attacked or not. Long term defences last until the end of the game unless they are burned down or destroyed by an enemy. As you can see, the Long-term defences are done in tiers. You require Tier 1 to build Tier 2 and Tier 2 to build Tier 3. In addition to this, you may only have one Tier 2 and one Tier 3 defence per a territory; some may already include a Tier 2 or Tier 3 structure. You may destroy any of these that have been built freely of your choice. Repair Walls & Towers During the course of battle you will have your walls attacked and your towers crumbling before mighty war machines. It will always cost to repair them or rebuild them entirely.
Diplomatic Actions Trade Actions If the GM wishes for it, every faction may generate its own resource. These resources can be compiled together to make special units in the game that can further your chances for victory. You receive 5 of the trade resource a turn from your capital plus 1 for every additional territory you own. You may use a diplomatic action to attempt to trade with another player for resources. If you lose your capital you can no longer produce this resource and the opponent who has taken it now produces it. Make an Alliance Simply put you can use 1 Diplomatic Action to send a detailed Alliance Request to another player to make ties with them on whatever grounds you wish to negotiate over! Just keep the GM in the loop about what the grounds are in the end! Breaking Ties If you aren't a cad and a backstabber, you'll break an Alliance the honourable way! You can use 1 Diplomatic Action to send a detailed Alliance Annulment to an Allied player to call the Alliance off. Just keep the GM in the loop about what the grounds are in the end! Diplomatic and Other Actions Every turn your diplomatic actions can be spent on diplomatic or political actions or other actions which can include anything your mind can think of from promoting a soldier to a general within your army for his services rendered to sending a diplomat or emissary to someone; from dispersing your money about to the people to make them happy with you as their leader, to burning cities down to the ground. It is your choosing, but the GM holds the right to dismiss actions which he or she believes to be too outrageous or conflicting. Many of the success or failure rolls for some more complex actions will consist of a roll on a D10. Land Attack Actions Declare a Land Attack As simple and straight forward as it sounds. You have specific actions allotted to the amount of attacks on land you can do during a turn and spend 1 to declare an attack. You may not move an army and attack with that army in the same turn. Fighting the Battle In the result of a Victory, the enemy's army, or what is left of it, retreats to the decided adjacent territory or to a castle in the territory. If there isn't an adjacent territory, it is assumed the army has been crushed by the weight of your soldiers. In the result of a Defeat, your army retreats back to the territory it originally came from. If it is no longer under your control then the army routs to the nearest adjacent territory under your control. If there isn't one, your army is crushed. Sieges Attacking Castles, Citadels, Capitals, and Huge Cities will result in the need for siege battles. If the castle has been built there by a long term defensive action, you will siege it as soon as you attack the land. For citadels, huge cities, and capitals already in place it is assumed that they are made to be a much grander size in comparison and will take two turns to take. The first turn of attacking would be to claim the lands around the castle and the second attack declared would be the siege. If you are attacked in a land that has a citadel or is a huge city or a capital, you may retreat to the castle, handing the surrounding lands to your enemy by free will. Factions that claim the lands around a castle but do not own the castle cannot recruit in the territory, but the gold income is split in half and dispersed between the two armies. The army inside the castle may in fact recruit an army from the populace. They may also use the action Declare a Land Attack to sally forth from the castle and meet the enemy on the battlefield instead of behind the walls of a castle. A castle, citadel, huge city, or capital includes 3 towers and short walls joining them. Scaling down Armies which are too large to represent on the battlefield, like say a 10,000 man army versus an 8000 man army, will be scaled down and all the points killed will be worth more than normal as in the scaled down version every 1 model represents a set number of men! For this example, the set number will be 2000 points. The 10,000 point army is divided by the set number of 2000 points. This equals to 5. Every single point is now worth 5 points, so if the 2000 point army takes 400 points of casualties, they actually lost 2000 men. To bring the scale of the battle down to the tabletop to be as equal as possible, you now take the 8000 point army and divide it by 5. The 8000 point army will be represented by a 1600 point army where every point is equal to 5 points. Both sides are now evened out and may fight at this ratio. If any army size goes lower than 100 points than it loses half of its men and the rest automatically retreats to an adjacent territory controlled by the player. If there isn't one, naturally the army is crushed; there were simply too many soldiers to even imagine. Routing and Fleeing on the Battlefield Units which flee off the table do count towards victory points, but they are off the battlefield and considered alive for game purposes. Units which have been caught during the battle while fleeing are captured by the enemy. The player may then choose to kill them outright, release them back to their opponent, or ransom them for a cost determined by the player holding the men which, if the player wishes, can be negotiated. If the battle is going badly enough, sometimes generals just wish to turn tail and rout the army. At the beginning of turn 5, regardless of whose turn 5 it is, any player may call a rout. If you rout, 50% of your forces that were remaining survive automatically (calculate how many men that would be), now roll a D6. On a 1-2 No one else escapes. On a 3-4 25% more of your remaining forces escape. On a 5-6 the remainder of your forces that are alive escape the battle! If the enemy has twice the army size as yours, you may rout on turn 1. Multiple Battles Multiple Battles will occur in some instances and you will be unable to play all the battles that week. The turn will be delayed until all the fighting has been resolved. If this takes the campaign into what is supposed to be the next turn, then scenario fights with bonuses will be set up against other players while those who have remaining battles fight as there is always war on all fronts, even if you haven't exactly commanded it. In situations where a territory of a player is being attacked while the player is attacking elsewhere that turn, the player which handed in the orders first gets to go through with the attack that week as the army has left the territory already and assumed to have gone to war ahead of time and the other battle is postponed until they can meet with the other player and fight it out. A clear example is Nation A attacks Nation B. Nation C attacks Nation A. Because Nation A declared he or she was attacking first, they will play the battle against A and B first. The battle between A and C will take place later. Continued Battles are also always a priority over regular attacks, regardless of who handed in orders first. If two armies attack each other on the same turn at the same time, they fight in the middle in defence for both territories. ARS (Automatic Resolve System) If all players agree and there are too many battles to be resolved, there is an Automatic Resolve System in place to handle battles. For every 100 men, you get 1 die that represents those warriors (rounded up if at 50). So an army of 2000 gets 20 dice. They will roll off against the enemy army which works in the same way for them. Troops in the ARS have this profile:
The first army to reach 66% casualties will lose and flee. Undead do not ever flee and will fight until all their men are exhausted or until the enemy breaks and flees. As such, an Undead Army counts as having WS 2. Other Rules & Guidelines Priority The game has a natural priority setting for how the actions are run. Because the system treats all actions as running at the exact same time, there has to be a priority so that when problems come up, it can be solved by priority. The priority listing is as follows: •1. Repairs are made first •2. Units who are moving are then moved •3. Diplomatic Actions are processed •4. Armies who are attacking are then processed •5. Recruiting is then run •6. Any other occurrences are put into action This is the natural order of things in the game. Magic Items There are hidden treasures which one can receive for doing great things, searching for them via Diplomatic Actions, or just by inheritance. Story Updates There will be a fluff background to depict what the reason for the war is for, but the GM may also decide to do turn update fluff pieces as well to further the progress of the war and the politics. The map should also constantly be updated after every turn. Alliances Throughout this rule set we've discussed the uses of alliances in all sorts of forms. Other things should be noted as well. If the grounds of your alliance allow military access to your ally's territories, you can move freely through their land and stockpile forces to help the defence or make use of their ports for building your ships to sail across the country or many other uses. Just don't forget that all these things are open for discussion! Even those who are desperate for an Ally could be talked into paying a set fee every turn for their services, almost like mercenaries! Messaging Other Players You can message other players as much as you want freely, the only thing that should be noted is that if an official Alliance isn't made, certain uses of allies aren't useable. Terrain Always try to get the terrain as close as possible to the field of battle shown on the map. If it can't be done, it can't, but it'd be best. Castles and towns and the like should try to be put together. Victory Points Victory Points between two different scales of armies can be difficult. Victory points for Underdogs will be multiplied by the ratio of the enemy army to theirs. For example, taking our earlier example of an 8000 point army versus a 10,000 point army, you take 10,000 and divide it by 8000 to get 1.25. All victory points scored by the 8000 point army are multiplied by 1.25 to get the final result and compare it to the enemy. Game Factors/Randomizers The GM may employ a randomizer or game factor at his or her discretion, whether it be by choice or by rolling a die. Weather: 1- Fog, You can only see 8 inches around every unit. To be able to fire at an enemy unit or charge an enemy unit, the enemy must be visible to a friendly unit. 2- Clear skies, everything is clear for battle 3- Deep Muck, due to heavy rain in the area over the last few days, the entire battlefield has turned into muck. For this purpose, no units get charge bonuses and charge distances only add a single die instead of two to determine charge movement (Two instead of three for cavalry), as it is difficult to run and get momentum. 4- Windy, all artillery fired is not affected by the wind. The speed of the Wind is decided by the Artillery dice and the direction of it by the scatter dice. All other shooting is affected in the way of gaining or losing distance to their shooting depending on wind direction. 5- Heavy Rain, shooting units have -1 to hit on all rolls for shooting, and they must roll a 4+ to fire if it does not use Ballistic Skill or if using black powder weapons (like cannons or handguns). 6- Blistering Heat, All units at any turn after turn 3 must take a leadership test every turn... failed leadership rolls comes with the consequence that all units have -1 WS and BS and units with failed leadership tests also cannot march. Undead are unaffected by this. Randomizers: •1- Local Aid. Works in the same sense as the card. The GM will determine who gets the peasant rabbles as reinforcements.
•2- All is fine for battle.
•3- Unfriendly Conditions (Muddy terrain, mines, bad maps, low intelligence... the army must roll a die for every unit in their army. On a 1 they do not show up to battle)
•4- Chaos Winds become stronger (All wizards roll a leadership test at the start of the game. If passed, they generate a Power Die and Dispel Die without having to roll for it. If failed, they may make no such rolls to generate extra dice)
5-6- Weather affects the battle, consult the Weather chart above. Team Campaigns To play a team campaign, simply replace the "Faction Leader", "Every Man for Himself", "Winning and Losing", "Make an Alliance", and "Break Ties" sections with the following: Faction Leaders & The Council Every empire needs a leader, this game includes it. You must make one character out of your army, give him or her, a name, set him or her up with equipment, and make sure he or she doesn't go over 450 points. The equipment you give the leader is set up that way until they die unless the GM decides otherwise. No special characters are allowed to be chosen. The Leader is an exception to all regular restrictions of an army and is completely independent of any army that he or she fights with, with the exception of his or her status as general. He or she follows the rules for moving and attacking as normal, but may do so freely without it costing actions to do so. If your Leader participates in a battle, he or she must be the general and counts for victory points as normal. There is only one actual Faction Leader. This is chosen by the players on the team. The rest are called "The Council" and have a say in the leadership of the team and work as a normal faction leader. Faction Leaders and Council Members cost 1000 gold to replace and members of a team without a Council member or Faction Leader do not have a say in team discussions as they have no representative. Their armies cannot go through any actions until the Council member is replaced. Playing as a Team In a Team Campaign, teams are justified by the causes the races wish to fight for, but are even for all sides. Usually teams will be paired off into Good and Evil teams, but this is up to the GM. All territories, armies, actions, and gold are shared amongst the members and all count as part of the team. The Faction Leader decides, ultimately, where to put the money and where to move the forces with the help of the Council's support and suggestions. Should the Faction Leader die, one of the Council, decided by the players, will rise to the cause and take the leadership position. The player controlling the Faction Leader who just died may replace the Faction Leader for the regular cost but is now part of the Council. A person part of a team cannot be removed from the team and cannot declare an act of betrayal or leave the team. Only under the guise of the GM is any of this accepted. You will have a single capital, picked out by the GM as well. The capital may be changed at the will of the team. Instead of handing in Order Forms before the evening battles would normally be fought on, the entire team will show up on the evening battles would normally be fought on and isolate themselves in a room together to decide on what to do with their actions, strategizing, and dealing with how to go about dealing with the opposing team. They will get Order Forms anyway containing the necessary information about their faction. After deciding what each faction is going to do, they will appear before the GM who must be present and hand the GM their turn actions which will be processed immediately and battles declared. Winning and Losing You may win by claiming all other teams' capitals and owning 60% of the territories, declaring world peace (everyone is an ally and all agree to end the game in a truce), or control all territories. If the players wish, of course, in the event of one player owning all capitals and controlling 60% of the territories, they may keep playing the game forming the Resistance against the new enemy Empire with what lands and forces they have left. Make an Alliance Simply put you can use 1 Diplomatic Action to send a detailed Alliance Request to another team to make ties with them on whatever grounds you wish to negotiate over! Just keep the GM in the loop about what the grounds are in the end! Break Ties If you aren't a cad and a backstabber, you'll break an Alliance the honourable way! You can use 1 Diplomatic Action to send a detailed Alliance Annulment to an Allied Team to call the Alliance off. Just keep the GM in the loop about what the grounds are in the end! The Turn Action Generation Table is also altered to the following:
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 05 November 2011 ) |