Bay 12 Games Forum

INTRODUCTION:

A Player (maximum of 12) picks a County, a Color (Red, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Orange, Silver, Purple, White, Teal, Pink, Blue, Grey), creates their Count (read below!) and from there, they must take control of neighbouring lands and declare their own Kingdom.

Only then can they start a campaign to reunite the lands of France, and forge a new Kingdom!

If any Player gets eliminated, another can take their color, pick an independent County, and try their hand in the fight for the throne.

PLAYER COUNTS:

When creating your County, you need to make a Count; he needs a Name and a Positive Trait.
He also has Command Value (CV) randomly set between 1 and 3; you can assign your Count to personally Lead an Attack or Defense to increase the roll result by that value.
If the Attack/Defense they were Leading fails, a Coin Toss is used to determine what happens; on Heads, your Count returns home; on Tails, he dies.
Also, every Turn, a Coin Toss is made; if its Tails, a randomly chosen Count dies 'of natural causes' and a new one is immediately created for the Player; these randomly generated Counts have 1 Positive Trait and 50% chance (via Coin Toss) to get 1 extra Trait, which can be Positive or Negative.

Count's Traits (positive/negative, mutually exclusive listed in pairs):
Conqueror/Weak: +2/-2 to all Attack rolls.
Defender/Unprepared: +2/-2 to all Defense rolls.
Frugal/Hedonist: -1/+1 Grain required when Investing.
Just/Cruel: Pillaging lowers Grain by 1 less/Pillaging lowers Grain by 1 extra.
Rich/-: +5 Grain score.
Shrewd/-: Extra +3 Grain from Trade Routes.
Warrior/Coward: Count CV is increased by 2/Count cannot personally Attack or Defend.

Breton (northwest) Names: Alan, Arzhur, Eozen, Fransez, Jafrez, Konan, Per, Yann
Frankish (northern) Names: Charles, Henri, Hugues, Jean, Louis, Thibault, Philippe
Occitan (southern) Names: Bernat, Guilhem, Odo, Pons, Ranulf, Ramond, Sans

TURN ORDER:

The turns of all Players are SIMULTANEOUS. Orders can be sent through Personal Messages to the GM (Haspen), or if you're not caring about what people see, in the game thread itself.

For your orders to be valid, they must be bolded using the forum bbcode.

A simple example of a Player's turn:

5 Grain to Defend Normandie.
5 Grain to Invest in Normandie.
10 Grain to Conquer Caen.

You cannot edit your orders once you've send the post! Think twice before posting!!

COUNTIES, DUCHIES AND THE KINGDOM OF FRANCE:

The map is divided into 87 Counties, each with its own name. A Player starts with one County. Note that said County can be located in a Ducal territory (underlined).

Your starting County gains the special Capital modifier; Investing in this County costs 1 Grain less, and Defending it gets +5 Grain bonus. You can move your Capital to another County you own by 'spending' 20 Grain; if your Capital has been captured, you can declare a new one for free.

Each Player starts with 10 Grain, which is used to support their forces when conquering and defending, and can be used to invest into states so that they generate more Grain.

To create a Duchy, one must control a Ducal territory (underlined) plus minimum of 3 Counties adjacent to it. Some of the Ducal territories have more than 3 Counties adjacent to them, allowing for some wiggling room when it comes for planning your diplomacy and conquests.

There's special Grain bonus for being a Duchy: a non-County dependent +5 to your Grain count, and this bonus persists until end of the game (or your early demise).

Your main goal, however, is to unify the Kingdom of France. There are two requirements for this:

First, you must control at least 6 Ducal Territories out of 9 (Anjou, Aquitaine, Blois, Bourgogne, Bretogne, Champagne, Normandie, Toulouse, Vasconie)
Second, you must own PARIS, the French Capital.
Third, your dominion must be continuous.

If no Player fulfills these objectives by end of Turn 20, game ends via Economic Victory; Grain from your Counties only is multiplied by amount of Ducal Territories you own. The Player with highest score is declared winner.

INDEPENDENT COUNTIES:

Non-Player Counties will always dedicate themselves to defense of their borders, meaning that 10 Grain will always be spent on Defense. PARIS, the capital of previous Kingdom, is well-developed and defended, and can afford 20 Grain instead.

The independent Counties will never use Grain for Conquests, nor they will Invest Grain to improve their economy. Fools, all of them!

GRAIN AND INVESTMENTS:

Grain is used twofold; to supply soldiers fighting abroad or defending the states, or to improve the economy of the state.

If you do not dedicate any Grain to defense of a province, any opportunistic Player can simply walk their well-fed soldiers into it and automatically take control of the state!
The more Grain you dedicate for defense, the greater chances of repelling the enemy. Same with conquering your neighbours; the more Grain you set aside for the conquest, the greater chances of success.

You can also Invest your Grain in a County that you control. Each County at start lets you use 10 Grain per Turn.
For each 5 Grain Invested into a County, the County will provide you with 1 extra Grain, starting from next Turn.

Example: You have 90 Grain, and your county, Bourbon, provides you with 15 Grain. If you invest half of your Grain, 45, into Bourbon, this will raise Bourbon's Grain output to 24 (15 + [45/5=9] = 24).

The maximum amount of Grain a Province can reach is 30.

CONQUESTS, DEFENSE, AND THE DIE OF WAR:

Once you decide to conquer some of your neighbours, you must know that each combat is resolved using a d10 die. You can only Conquer Counties adjacent to the ones you control.

Combat formula is simple: d10 + Grain = your number. If you roll higher than the opponents' defending force, you win and the County is yours!

HOWEVER! The maximum of Grain you can dedicate to a single Attack or Defense command is 30.

Example: You decide to conquer County of Tours, and dedicate 19 Grain to the task. County of Tours can afford to dedicate only 12 Grain for defense of its borders. You roll is 6, their roll is 4. 19+6 = 25, 12+4 = 16. County of Tours loses the fight and its lands are now yours!

If a County is attacked by more than 1 Player at once, the Grain spent on Defense is spread as equally as possible with any leftover spent against the Player with highest amount of Grain dedicated to the conquest.
If a County is defeated by more than 1 Player at once, the control of the County falls into the hands of the Player that dedicated more 'raw' Grain into the County's Conquest. In case of draws, a Coin Toss decides the victor.

Once a County is conquered, inevitably there will be looting, pillaging and destruction at hands of victorious soldiers. The Grain output of the County is thus HALVED, and the new owner of the devastated land will need to re-invest into it. This can lead to Devastation:

Devastated Counties are those Counties that have 0 Grain output; it is not possible to launch attacks from Devastated Counties, and one must first Invest in them to be able to launch attacks from it in the next Turn.

TRADE ROUTES:

If you are adjacent to another Player by sharing a land border or a coastline, you can establish a Trade Route with them. This requires both Players to declare establishing a Trade Route with each other through the commands they send.

A Trade Route provides +5 Grain to both Players' counts, and prevents the two Players from attacking each other.

To stop trading, simply notify the GM about your wish to do so when sending orders. (remember to specify which trade route you wish to cancel if you have several!)