Trektek
Happy Necromancer
Game Economy
Actions
There are two types of action in the game, free and paid. Free actions consist of movement, attacking and such, while paid are things like advancements, building settlements or recruiting units.
In total a nation can take as many free actions a turn as they can manage while they are limited to three paid actions per turn. You can not increase the number of paid actions you may take each turn.
Resources
The standard game currency, resources are more than just money or food, they are absolutely anything that a nation would consider useful. These are generated by settlements, trade routes and advancements such as mines, farms etc. They are then used to pay for further advancements, settlements, unit recruitment etc.
Population
In previous versions, population was a currency used to recruit units. Now however, it generates the maximum amount of units you can have in your army. Once your maximum population is hit, you can no longer recruit units.
Tokens
Some units, strengths and traits can result in custom tokens being generated. In these instances it is important that you are keeping track of them for when they are being accrued and spent.
4. Actions
Free Actions
-Attack
When you want to attack an enemy unit, make sure you are on the same hex as the enemy. Post order is used to determine if an attack occurs. For example, player 1 posts that they are moving their army and then player 2 posts afterwards that they are moving to player 1’s original square to attack. This would not take place as the army has already moved. If player 2 had posted first however, player 1’s movement action wouldn’t take place until after the combat takes place.
-Diplomacy
This sets up communication with a nation you have made contact with on the map. This can be NPC nations or PC nations. You can have as many diplomacies running at the same time as you wish.
-Exploration
Any tile on the map can be explored and will spawn a quest in Discord for you to try and complete. Rewards can vary in size but there is always a risk that something could be wrong. Powerful items, strong heroes...all these await you in explorations. You can only declare one exploration a turn.
-Movement
This is what enables your units to move on the map. Units may only take one movement action each per turn.
Paid Actions
-Advancements
These are things to help move your nation forward. So for example doing an advancement for improved mining techniques might result in an increase in resource gains for each settlement. Think of them as research advancements and buildings that you would find in any standard RTS.
-Building
This is the building of settlements, specialised buildings or wonders. Settlements come in multiple forms which you can find later. Specialised buildings can provide sizable buffs but for a higher cost than advancements. While wonders are massive in cost but provide rewards that can surpass even nations strengths.
-Recruitment
This is the recruiting of units to the cause to help either defend one’s lands or take the fight to an enemy.
-Upgrading
This is the upgrading of settlements, advancements or armies.
-Forced March
A single unit or army may move up to 3 additional spaces (up to its maximum movement) but suffers -1/-1 for each space it moved additionally. This penalty lasts until the end of the turn and does not count towards the debuff cap. A unit or army can only be affected by this once per turn.
-Add, Change or Cancel a Policy
You may add a new policy, change or cancel a current one.
5. Movement
Each unit in the game has a movement value. This is how many hexes it can move each turn. So for example a unit with M: 2 would be able to move up to two hexes in a turn as a free action.
A unit can also then pay for extra movement using a paid action which would allow it to move up to one hex more. In theory a player could use all their paid actions for a total increased movement of three.
Units attempting to move over difficult terrain are at half movement. If this would reduce their movement below 1, they must use a paid action to move across it. An army may only use one paid action to move if it involves difficult terrain.
If a unit is moving on a tile with difficult terrain on it, as long as it is moving in a direction not obstructed by the difficult terrain, it may use full movement. Difficult terrain is classed as forest, mountains and blighted tiles.
The image below should help make it clearer.
6. Units and Recruitment
Units are broken down into the below key types:
• Troops
• Elites
• Legendary
• Monsters
• Characters (Heroes and Leaders)
• Non-Combatants
Troops are your cheapest, bog standard units that will more than likely make up the bulk of your forces.
Elites are more highly trained, often specialised units, that can provide a boost in combat situations.
Legendary units are expensive but very tough and hit very hard.
Monster units are just that, big, powerful creatures or machines that can deal a lot of damage but will always have a weakness.
Characters are the most powerful units in the game and each is unique in nature. Heroes can only be acquired through explorations, high level advancements and quality roleplaying which Trek may decide to reward a player with a hero. Leaders are the single most capable unit in the game and each nation can only have a single leader at a time. Their death can have ramifications for a nation, particularly those who have allowed their order and happiness to reach low levels.
Non-Combatant units do not take part in combat and often have specialised purposes such as helping build settlements quicker. If they are ever on the same tile as an enemy unit unaccompanied by a friendly combat unit, they are immediately destroyed.
Each unit has the below stat line:
T: Tier - What tier the unit is
M: Movement - How far a unit can move
HP: Health Points - How many successful hits a unit can take before dying
Att: Attacks - How many dice a unit rolls when attacking
Off: Offence - Used to determine hits in combat
Def: Defence - Used to determine hits in combat
Sv: Save - More advanced units can accrue a save which may be rolled against successful enemy hits in combat
Unit tiers define the level of training they have had, the level of exposure to battle and their overall capability. The higher a unit's tier, the better they are than their lower tiered brothers. This can sometimes mean increased stats or maybe even additional or improved traits. Units can be tier 1 to 3.
In addition to the above, units have a minimum of one trait. This is where they can be differentiated from all of the other units in the game and to try and make them unique. Most of the time these will be used for additional stat increases but we are more open to, and actively encourage unique, flavourful traits.
There is a special unit type called mercenaries which can be recruited as a free action, directly to an army or friendly settlement. The cost of mercenaries vary but unlike standard units they have an upkeep cost while still costing towards your population cap. These costs will be included with the mercenary units details.
7. Combat
All combat takes place using D10’s. Attacker offence values are compared against defender defence values with the roll being modified accordingly. For every two differences between offence and defence, increase or decrease the requirement by one. If offence 0 is fighting defence 0, a 6+ is required to hit. Offence 2 versus defence 0 would be 5+ with offence 0 versus defence 2 being a 7+. The best roll a unit can hit on is a 3+ with a 10 always being classified as a hit.
Combat is rolled for by the GM team in private to help keep the result secret from players. This is to provide some semblance of excitement for all players around the result.
Initiative tier decides the orders in which attacks are made with all units in their base state taking place at the standard initiative tier. This means that all units get to make all of their attacks. However, some units may have +1 to their initiative tier which would mean they would attack before all units on the standard initiative tier. This means, if they were to kill an enemy unit, they would not be able to attack back.
In previous games we allowed entire armies to be buffed to a higher tier but this made battles very one sided, very quickly. As a result, no more than 25% of an army can have an increase or decrease to this initiative value. Units that have a self inflicted reduction in initiative due to their own trait, do not count to this 25% limit.
In addition, units can be buffed and debuffed by various traits and abilities. Units can only ever increase or decrease their offence or defence by a total of +3/+3 or -3/-3. For example, a unit may have advancements totalling +2/+2 while a leader unit may give +2/+0. While combined this would make +4/+2, it would only provide +3/+2. The extra +1/0 isn’t ignored, but instead means that a point of debuff against their offence would be ignored.
On the flip side, if an army provided a total debuff of -4/-2, they would only inflict -3/-2 against their opponent. However, the extra -1/0 would cancel out any extra buffs the other player has like mentioned above.
Certain buffs and debuffs that occur are not factored into the above. For example, a unit is -1/-1 for each point of paid movement it uses in a turn. This does not factor into the above limits as it is a clear player choice on a risk reward basis. Unit traits that only affect that unit and nation strengths and weaknesses also do not count towards the limit.
8. Capital and Settlements (Include order and happiness)
The Capital of a nation is the base of its government and the home of its people. Its prosperity has an effect on the entire nation and its capability to grow. To represent this your capital and all other settlements have levels. The level of your capital will impose restrictions on what your nation can accomplish with the following being unlocked.
Advancements:
Level 1: Level 1 Advancements
Level 3: Level 2 Advancements
Level 5: Level 3 Advancements
Units:
Level 1: Tier 1 Units
Level 3: Tier 2 Units
Level 5: Tier 3 Units
Trade:
May only have trade routes equivalent to the level apart from level 5 where there is no limit
Total Number of Settlements:
The number of settlements you can have in addition to your capital is equal to your capital’s level. However, settlements captured through battle do not count.
Beyond this settlement levels also impact your resource generation as well as population capacity which in turn affects how many units you can have. The type of settlement also has an impact so consult the chart below:
9. Sieges
Combat declared versus a settlement works multiple ways. First we will look at undefended settlements (those without moveable units).
Capital/Standard/Military: Must have the minimum number of units required mentioned in the settlement section. If this is met then the settlement falls.
Farming: Undefended farming settlements fall the instant an attack is declared.
When moveable units are in a settlement things get a little different in that combat rolls take place. The attacker can either attack outright or declare a siege. Attacking outright works as standard combat however the defenders may receive bonuses to their defence from the settlement they are in.
When declaring a siege, the attacker's army must remain on the tile to ensure the siege holds. For each turn a siege is held, reduce the defender's defence bonus by 1. When the defence bonus reaches zero then combat occurs as normal but the defenders have no defensive bonus from their settlement. The defender can choose to counter attack at any point however they will lose the defensive bonus completely.
If the sieging army moves for any reason during a siege, the siege must start from the beginning.
If the sieging army wins the combat then the settlement falls.
Settlement Falls
When a settlement falls an attacker may choose one of the following options:
Capture: The settlement's ownership moves to the attacker.
Raid: The settlement's owner remains the same but the attacker gains resources equal to XD10 where X is the settlement level.
Raze: The settlement is reduced to ruin and in essence no longer exists. The defender loses XD5 population where X is the settlement level. This should be considered a terrible act in terms of the RP as it is the slaughter of innocents and will reflect how others might see your nation.
10. Advancements
This is the development of new research or the building of new structures which help to push a nation forward. It could be the discovery of new irrigation techniques which helps to drive resource production forward or it may be the creation of a new military training base to make soldiers more efficient.
Advancements take 1 action and cost 20 resources. Each advancement can be upgraded to level 2 and level 3 where the cost of actions and resources is either doubled or tripled. Seeing advancements through to level 3 can provide bonuses you might not get if you stick to level 1 advancements
When you use an advancement, it applies to your settlements.
This will be the action you most likely take the most. It may seem daunting, however it really isn’t that difficult, especially if you tie it into your posts.
Example:
-Advancement: The Human League discovers techniques to better improve mining. -20 Resources
Trek will then let you know what the upgrade provides when he posts his update. If you speak to Trek or Sully beforehand they can help you out with the bonus, especially if you were hoping for it to go in a particular direction. So using the mining improvements, it would be likely that the bonus would be resource related however you may want it to unlock a new unit instead. All you would need to do is message either of us and upon acceptance you would then post with the agreed benefits added to your post.
Example:
-Advancement: The Human League discovers techniques to better improve mining. Unlocks Mining Unit. - 20 Resources
You would then just follow up by posting the new units profile for people to see. Again, this would all be discussed prior to your post.
Special advancements may be unlocked by exploration and could require multiple turns to unlock.
11. Diplomacy
Once you have shared a tile with another player whether it be units or settlements, you can start conducting diplomacy with them. This will occur on Discord so that it doesn't interfere with the playing thread. You can agree to trade deals, pay for units to act as mercenaries or set up an alliance.
12. Exploration
One unit/stack across your entire nation per turn may explore a tile you are on. This can lead to resource bonuses, extra units or when exploring specific map locations, special interactive RPs on Discord with Trek. In these instances rewards can be huge, but so can your losses. Even a bare tile is worth exploring. In the event of getting a Discord event, your unit(s) will be stuck there until it's completion.
It is always worth it to explore. Each nation can only explore once per turn.
13. Strengths, Weaknesses and Policies
These are the key cornerstones of a nation and help represent your nation's uniqueness mechanically. Strengths and weaknesses are strong, nationwide effects that can show a nation's technological prowess or maybe a significant inability to deal with the cold. Ultimately these need to make sense above all else. If you don't know what to put as an actual bonus that's fine, put what your nation is good and bad at and the team can help create something for you. These cannot be changed and you start with three strengths and two weaknesses.
E.g. Stone Flesh: All units receive a 9+ save.
Policies are like an additional strength and weakness but they do not provide as much of a positive while still giving fairly solid penalties. A nation can have three policies active at a time but the following rules apply:
14. Nation Sheet
Below is the CS to apply for the RP. For your benefit there is an example below the template so please take a look at it. If you need any help then please do not hesitate to ask, we're here to help!
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Nation Name: (Simple)
Colonizer or Native : (Choose which one and then two bonuses from the below)
Capital City: (Simple)
Nation Flag: (Picture required but if struggling get in touch with Sully)
Government: (Do they have an elder council? Democratically elected officials? Crazed dictator?)
Leader: (A few lines or paragraphs on your countries leader and who they are)
List of Races: (What races make up your nation? Humans? Elves? Etc)
List of 3 Story Characters: (Possible 3 characters that will get focus within your nation’s story.)
Temperament: (Is your nation peaceful? Aggressive? Militaristic? Money hungry? Etc)
Religion: (What are your nation's religious beliefs? The more detail the better)
Preferred Region: (Does your nation like living on the coast? Mountainous areas? Grasslands? Etc)
End Goal: (What is your nation's ultimate goal? This will help us create your nations quest line to unlock a unique buff)
Policy: (Select from the preselected list or create your own. Bonus will be confirmed by GM. Comes with a negative that is provided by the GM. Start with 1 but can have up to 3 active during gameplay)
Strengths: (What three things is your nation good at? We will create in game buffs to match your choices.)
Weaknesses: (What two things is your nation weak at? We will create in game debuffs to match your choices.)
Starting Units: (Use the unit creation rules to create up to two basic units and one elite. You start the game with three basic and one elite on your capital.)
Name: (Warriors, soldiers etc, whatever you like)
Type: (Troop, Elite, Legendary)
Tier: (Starting units are always Tier 1)
M: (Movement value on the map, default 1)
HP: (How many successful hits to kill, default 1)
Attacks: (How many dice to roll when this unit attacks, default 1)
Off: (Units Offense modifier, default 0)
Def: (Units Defence modifier, default 0)
Trait: (What is special about the unit? Heavy armour? Quick? Special tactics?)
History: (As long or short as your want, provide a background to your nation.)
15. Example Sheet
Nation Name: Mikhail’s Mercenaries
Colonizer or Native : Colonizer: Extra 50 Starting Resources, Two Ships
Capital City: Base Alpha
Nation Flag:
Government: General Mikhail and a small council of his Commanders
Leader: General Mikhail broke away from his home nation of Vladistok and formed his own mercenary organization. He decided to bring it to the new lands of Hortencia to sell his services to the highest bidders. Both a somewhat shrewd businessman and brilliant tactician, he stands to make him and his people rich, even as they carve out their own lives on this new continent. Mikhail is 6’5”, muscular, with a dark black goatee and short cropped hair. He wears a grey military uniform with his faction’s sword and shield emblazoned on the top right corner of his shirt
List of Races: Mostly Humans with some Orcs and Ogres in the mix
List of 3 Story Characters: General Mikhail- Leader of this mercenary nation, he is having to deal with all the rigors of running his own large scale mercenary company. With his many years of experience, this commander of warriors has what it takes on the battlefield, but does he have what it takes to run a nation?
T’Okren- An Orc warrior that joined up with Mikhail’s Mercenaries in hopes of becoming rich and reaching Honored Warrior Status within his Clan. His homeland no longer had the opportunities to become an Honored Warrior, but as this is a new and dangerous land, perhaps he can complete this task.
Isabella- A disgraced Doctor that has found her talents of use with the new mercenary company. They don’t care about her past and she doesn’t like to bring it up. But this place and this new land, is an opportunity for a fresh start away from the Old.
Temperament: Militaristic and Money Hungry as befitting a mercenary nation
Religion: There is no uniformed religion and its members are able to worship whatever gods they like as long as it doesn’t interfere with the job
Preferred Region: Coast due to Colonizer status
End Goal: Become the premiere Mercenary company on the continent and become very, very rich
Policy: We have the Numbers: When training units, Mikhail’s Mercenaries are able to train a second batch in the same group without using an extra action. However, this action is cost +half cost
Strengths: Intense Training: Due to the harsh training regimen for all his forces, they gain +1/+1 in addition to their normal starting stats
Harsh Weather Training: Mikhail’s Mercenaries special in training in all types of weather. All units are not affected by any normal weather penalties.
All Terrain Training: Mikhail’s Mercenaries serve with training in all kinds of environments. They don’t suffer movement penalties from the environment. Still suffer other effects from Blighted lands though.
Weaknesses: Mercenary Forces: All of his units, being a part of this mercenary outfit, cost more due to their high level of training. All units are cost and a half in price
Poor Trading Skills: This Mercenary Group isn’t very good at trading and only gains half Resources from Trading Routes
Starting Units: (Use the unit creation rules to create up to two basic units and one elite. You start the game with three basic and one elite on your capital.)
Name: GreenHorns
Type: Troop
Tier: 1
M: 1
HP: 1
Attacks: 1
Off: 0 (1)
Def: 0 (1)
Trait: Alternating Fire: When Standing next to at least 1 other GreenHorn, gains +1/0. Does not stack.
Name: Trappers
Type: Troop
Tier: 1
M: 1
HP: 1
Attacks: 1
Off: 0 (1)
Def: 0 (1)
Trait: Traps Galore: Before the start of battle, for each trapper roll a d10. On a 7+, for each success, 1 enemy unit is trapped and unable to participate in the current battle. (Note, after the battle, they are free to retreat or attempt to attack again. They are not captured by the Trappers and are merely incapacitated for that current battle)
Name: BlackShirt
Type: Elite
Tier: 1
M: 1
HP: 1
Attacks: 1
Off: 1 (2)
Def: 1 (2)
Trait: Battle Hardened: Blackshirts gain a save on an 8+
History: Mikhail’s Mercenaries started as a distant dream to the soldier Mikhail of Vladistok. He soon grew weary of his home nation, a place that seemed to mistreat their soldiers and hold them as disposable, throwing away the soldiers into the meat grinder of battle, while keeping those soldiers of a noble background, safe and sound out of harm’s way.
The man had had enough. He took with him other like minded individuals and founded the core group that would be the beginning of their mercenary organization. It wasn’t long before they started taking jobs, their numbers growing after each successful mission.
He knew that it was time. Gathering up the other Commanders, the newly christened General had called them so they could hear the new plan for their organization. They would be gathering up on two ships that he had purchased and head to the new world, the continent of Hortencia. Other nations have gone there to colonize, and there were natives as well. It would be the perfect opportunity for them to strike first and gain ground, becoming rich in the process of becoming the number one mercenary organization operating on the continent.
Rules and Generic Terms
Starting Bonuses
The below is the list of starting bonuses options for natives and colonisers. We won't use the full lists but will need to get them down to what we think is reasonable for both. Choose two from the list. Those in Bold are recommended, but not required:
Starting Bonuses for Native Nation:
Starting Bonuses for Colonizers:
Initiative
This is the order in which units attack in combat. All units in the same tier will be able to make their attacks even if they are killed by another unit in the same tier. However, if a unit from the first tier kills a unit in standard, the unit in standard will not be able to attack.
Limits
Capital
The Capital is the single most important of your settlements and ties into many aspects of what you can do based on the level of your Capital:
3 - Receive free action on a 9+ roll of D10 each turn
2 - Receive free action on a 10 roll of D10 each turn
1 - +25% resource production
0 - Everything fine
-1 - -25% resource production
-2 - -50% resource production
-3 - Random settlement revolts and forms new NPC nation
Happiness
3- Gain a free random advancement from the people
2- Gain a free random unit from the people
1- Gain a free Resource Gain from the people
0- Everything is fine
-1- Lose Resources from Disgruntled workers
-2- Random unit defects or disbands
-3 Random settlement revolts and forms a new NPC Nation
Morality
Combat
Actions
There are two types of action in the game, free and paid. Free actions consist of movement, attacking and such, while paid are things like advancements, building settlements or recruiting units.
In total a nation can take as many free actions a turn as they can manage while they are limited to three paid actions per turn. You can not increase the number of paid actions you may take each turn.
Resources
The standard game currency, resources are more than just money or food, they are absolutely anything that a nation would consider useful. These are generated by settlements, trade routes and advancements such as mines, farms etc. They are then used to pay for further advancements, settlements, unit recruitment etc.
Population
In previous versions, population was a currency used to recruit units. Now however, it generates the maximum amount of units you can have in your army. Once your maximum population is hit, you can no longer recruit units.
Tokens
Some units, strengths and traits can result in custom tokens being generated. In these instances it is important that you are keeping track of them for when they are being accrued and spent.
4. Actions
Free Actions
-Attack
When you want to attack an enemy unit, make sure you are on the same hex as the enemy. Post order is used to determine if an attack occurs. For example, player 1 posts that they are moving their army and then player 2 posts afterwards that they are moving to player 1’s original square to attack. This would not take place as the army has already moved. If player 2 had posted first however, player 1’s movement action wouldn’t take place until after the combat takes place.
-Diplomacy
This sets up communication with a nation you have made contact with on the map. This can be NPC nations or PC nations. You can have as many diplomacies running at the same time as you wish.
-Exploration
Any tile on the map can be explored and will spawn a quest in Discord for you to try and complete. Rewards can vary in size but there is always a risk that something could be wrong. Powerful items, strong heroes...all these await you in explorations. You can only declare one exploration a turn.
-Movement
This is what enables your units to move on the map. Units may only take one movement action each per turn.
Paid Actions
-Advancements
These are things to help move your nation forward. So for example doing an advancement for improved mining techniques might result in an increase in resource gains for each settlement. Think of them as research advancements and buildings that you would find in any standard RTS.
-Building
This is the building of settlements, specialised buildings or wonders. Settlements come in multiple forms which you can find later. Specialised buildings can provide sizable buffs but for a higher cost than advancements. While wonders are massive in cost but provide rewards that can surpass even nations strengths.
-Recruitment
This is the recruiting of units to the cause to help either defend one’s lands or take the fight to an enemy.
-Upgrading
This is the upgrading of settlements, advancements or armies.
-Forced March
A single unit or army may move up to 3 additional spaces (up to its maximum movement) but suffers -1/-1 for each space it moved additionally. This penalty lasts until the end of the turn and does not count towards the debuff cap. A unit or army can only be affected by this once per turn.
-Add, Change or Cancel a Policy
You may add a new policy, change or cancel a current one.
5. Movement
Each unit in the game has a movement value. This is how many hexes it can move each turn. So for example a unit with M: 2 would be able to move up to two hexes in a turn as a free action.
A unit can also then pay for extra movement using a paid action which would allow it to move up to one hex more. In theory a player could use all their paid actions for a total increased movement of three.
Units attempting to move over difficult terrain are at half movement. If this would reduce their movement below 1, they must use a paid action to move across it. An army may only use one paid action to move if it involves difficult terrain.
If a unit is moving on a tile with difficult terrain on it, as long as it is moving in a direction not obstructed by the difficult terrain, it may use full movement. Difficult terrain is classed as forest, mountains and blighted tiles.
The image below should help make it clearer.
6. Units and Recruitment
Units are broken down into the below key types:
• Troops
• Elites
• Legendary
• Monsters
• Characters (Heroes and Leaders)
• Non-Combatants
Troops are your cheapest, bog standard units that will more than likely make up the bulk of your forces.
Elites are more highly trained, often specialised units, that can provide a boost in combat situations.
Legendary units are expensive but very tough and hit very hard.
Monster units are just that, big, powerful creatures or machines that can deal a lot of damage but will always have a weakness.
Characters are the most powerful units in the game and each is unique in nature. Heroes can only be acquired through explorations, high level advancements and quality roleplaying which Trek may decide to reward a player with a hero. Leaders are the single most capable unit in the game and each nation can only have a single leader at a time. Their death can have ramifications for a nation, particularly those who have allowed their order and happiness to reach low levels.
Non-Combatant units do not take part in combat and often have specialised purposes such as helping build settlements quicker. If they are ever on the same tile as an enemy unit unaccompanied by a friendly combat unit, they are immediately destroyed.
Each unit has the below stat line:
T: Tier - What tier the unit is
M: Movement - How far a unit can move
HP: Health Points - How many successful hits a unit can take before dying
Att: Attacks - How many dice a unit rolls when attacking
Off: Offence - Used to determine hits in combat
Def: Defence - Used to determine hits in combat
Sv: Save - More advanced units can accrue a save which may be rolled against successful enemy hits in combat
Unit tiers define the level of training they have had, the level of exposure to battle and their overall capability. The higher a unit's tier, the better they are than their lower tiered brothers. This can sometimes mean increased stats or maybe even additional or improved traits. Units can be tier 1 to 3.
In addition to the above, units have a minimum of one trait. This is where they can be differentiated from all of the other units in the game and to try and make them unique. Most of the time these will be used for additional stat increases but we are more open to, and actively encourage unique, flavourful traits.
There is a special unit type called mercenaries which can be recruited as a free action, directly to an army or friendly settlement. The cost of mercenaries vary but unlike standard units they have an upkeep cost while still costing towards your population cap. These costs will be included with the mercenary units details.
- You may only recruit a number of mercenaries equal to double your capitals level per turn.
- You cannot recruit mercenaries onto a tile that has enemy units on it.
- They must have at least one friendly unit with them that isn't a mercenary unit or they will disband.
- If at any point you end up with negative resources while having mercenaries, the mercenaries will disband.
7. Combat
All combat takes place using D10’s. Attacker offence values are compared against defender defence values with the roll being modified accordingly. For every two differences between offence and defence, increase or decrease the requirement by one. If offence 0 is fighting defence 0, a 6+ is required to hit. Offence 2 versus defence 0 would be 5+ with offence 0 versus defence 2 being a 7+. The best roll a unit can hit on is a 3+ with a 10 always being classified as a hit.
Combat is rolled for by the GM team in private to help keep the result secret from players. This is to provide some semblance of excitement for all players around the result.
Initiative tier decides the orders in which attacks are made with all units in their base state taking place at the standard initiative tier. This means that all units get to make all of their attacks. However, some units may have +1 to their initiative tier which would mean they would attack before all units on the standard initiative tier. This means, if they were to kill an enemy unit, they would not be able to attack back.
In previous games we allowed entire armies to be buffed to a higher tier but this made battles very one sided, very quickly. As a result, no more than 25% of an army can have an increase or decrease to this initiative value. Units that have a self inflicted reduction in initiative due to their own trait, do not count to this 25% limit.
In addition, units can be buffed and debuffed by various traits and abilities. Units can only ever increase or decrease their offence or defence by a total of +3/+3 or -3/-3. For example, a unit may have advancements totalling +2/+2 while a leader unit may give +2/+0. While combined this would make +4/+2, it would only provide +3/+2. The extra +1/0 isn’t ignored, but instead means that a point of debuff against their offence would be ignored.
On the flip side, if an army provided a total debuff of -4/-2, they would only inflict -3/-2 against their opponent. However, the extra -1/0 would cancel out any extra buffs the other player has like mentioned above.
Certain buffs and debuffs that occur are not factored into the above. For example, a unit is -1/-1 for each point of paid movement it uses in a turn. This does not factor into the above limits as it is a clear player choice on a risk reward basis. Unit traits that only affect that unit and nation strengths and weaknesses also do not count towards the limit.
8. Capital and Settlements (Include order and happiness)
The Capital of a nation is the base of its government and the home of its people. Its prosperity has an effect on the entire nation and its capability to grow. To represent this your capital and all other settlements have levels. The level of your capital will impose restrictions on what your nation can accomplish with the following being unlocked.
Advancements:
Level 1: Level 1 Advancements
Level 3: Level 2 Advancements
Level 5: Level 3 Advancements
Units:
Level 1: Tier 1 Units
Level 3: Tier 2 Units
Level 5: Tier 3 Units
Trade:
May only have trade routes equivalent to the level apart from level 5 where there is no limit
Total Number of Settlements:
The number of settlements you can have in addition to your capital is equal to your capital’s level. However, settlements captured through battle do not count.
Beyond this settlement levels also impact your resource generation as well as population capacity which in turn affects how many units you can have. The type of settlement also has an impact so consult the chart below:
9. Sieges
Combat declared versus a settlement works multiple ways. First we will look at undefended settlements (those without moveable units).
Capital/Standard/Military: Must have the minimum number of units required mentioned in the settlement section. If this is met then the settlement falls.
Farming: Undefended farming settlements fall the instant an attack is declared.
When moveable units are in a settlement things get a little different in that combat rolls take place. The attacker can either attack outright or declare a siege. Attacking outright works as standard combat however the defenders may receive bonuses to their defence from the settlement they are in.
When declaring a siege, the attacker's army must remain on the tile to ensure the siege holds. For each turn a siege is held, reduce the defender's defence bonus by 1. When the defence bonus reaches zero then combat occurs as normal but the defenders have no defensive bonus from their settlement. The defender can choose to counter attack at any point however they will lose the defensive bonus completely.
If the sieging army moves for any reason during a siege, the siege must start from the beginning.
If the sieging army wins the combat then the settlement falls.
Settlement Falls
When a settlement falls an attacker may choose one of the following options:
Capture: The settlement's ownership moves to the attacker.
Raid: The settlement's owner remains the same but the attacker gains resources equal to XD10 where X is the settlement level.
Raze: The settlement is reduced to ruin and in essence no longer exists. The defender loses XD5 population where X is the settlement level. This should be considered a terrible act in terms of the RP as it is the slaughter of innocents and will reflect how others might see your nation.
10. Advancements
This is the development of new research or the building of new structures which help to push a nation forward. It could be the discovery of new irrigation techniques which helps to drive resource production forward or it may be the creation of a new military training base to make soldiers more efficient.
Advancements take 1 action and cost 20 resources. Each advancement can be upgraded to level 2 and level 3 where the cost of actions and resources is either doubled or tripled. Seeing advancements through to level 3 can provide bonuses you might not get if you stick to level 1 advancements
When you use an advancement, it applies to your settlements.
This will be the action you most likely take the most. It may seem daunting, however it really isn’t that difficult, especially if you tie it into your posts.
Example:
-Advancement: The Human League discovers techniques to better improve mining. -20 Resources
Trek will then let you know what the upgrade provides when he posts his update. If you speak to Trek or Sully beforehand they can help you out with the bonus, especially if you were hoping for it to go in a particular direction. So using the mining improvements, it would be likely that the bonus would be resource related however you may want it to unlock a new unit instead. All you would need to do is message either of us and upon acceptance you would then post with the agreed benefits added to your post.
Example:
-Advancement: The Human League discovers techniques to better improve mining. Unlocks Mining Unit. - 20 Resources
You would then just follow up by posting the new units profile for people to see. Again, this would all be discussed prior to your post.
Special advancements may be unlocked by exploration and could require multiple turns to unlock.
11. Diplomacy
Once you have shared a tile with another player whether it be units or settlements, you can start conducting diplomacy with them. This will occur on Discord so that it doesn't interfere with the playing thread. You can agree to trade deals, pay for units to act as mercenaries or set up an alliance.
12. Exploration
One unit/stack across your entire nation per turn may explore a tile you are on. This can lead to resource bonuses, extra units or when exploring specific map locations, special interactive RPs on Discord with Trek. In these instances rewards can be huge, but so can your losses. Even a bare tile is worth exploring. In the event of getting a Discord event, your unit(s) will be stuck there until it's completion.
It is always worth it to explore. Each nation can only explore once per turn.
13. Strengths, Weaknesses and Policies
These are the key cornerstones of a nation and help represent your nation's uniqueness mechanically. Strengths and weaknesses are strong, nationwide effects that can show a nation's technological prowess or maybe a significant inability to deal with the cold. Ultimately these need to make sense above all else. If you don't know what to put as an actual bonus that's fine, put what your nation is good and bad at and the team can help create something for you. These cannot be changed and you start with three strengths and two weaknesses.
E.g. Stone Flesh: All units receive a 9+ save.
Policies are like an additional strength and weakness but they do not provide as much of a positive while still giving fairly solid penalties. A nation can have three policies active at a time but the following rules apply:
- Once a policy is added, removed or changed, another cannot be added, removed or changed for two full turns after.
- Once a policy is changed or removed, immediately lose the positive effect, but the negative remains for two full turns after.
- Order/happiness penalties remain even after the two full turns have passed.
14. Nation Sheet
Below is the CS to apply for the RP. For your benefit there is an example below the template so please take a look at it. If you need any help then please do not hesitate to ask, we're here to help!
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Nation Name: (Simple)
Colonizer or Native : (Choose which one and then two bonuses from the below)
Capital City: (Simple)
Nation Flag: (Picture required but if struggling get in touch with Sully)
Government: (Do they have an elder council? Democratically elected officials? Crazed dictator?)
Leader: (A few lines or paragraphs on your countries leader and who they are)
List of Races: (What races make up your nation? Humans? Elves? Etc)
List of 3 Story Characters: (Possible 3 characters that will get focus within your nation’s story.)
Temperament: (Is your nation peaceful? Aggressive? Militaristic? Money hungry? Etc)
Religion: (What are your nation's religious beliefs? The more detail the better)
Preferred Region: (Does your nation like living on the coast? Mountainous areas? Grasslands? Etc)
End Goal: (What is your nation's ultimate goal? This will help us create your nations quest line to unlock a unique buff)
Policy: (Select from the preselected list or create your own. Bonus will be confirmed by GM. Comes with a negative that is provided by the GM. Start with 1 but can have up to 3 active during gameplay)
Strengths: (What three things is your nation good at? We will create in game buffs to match your choices.)
Weaknesses: (What two things is your nation weak at? We will create in game debuffs to match your choices.)
Starting Units: (Use the unit creation rules to create up to two basic units and one elite. You start the game with three basic and one elite on your capital.)
Name: (Warriors, soldiers etc, whatever you like)
Type: (Troop, Elite, Legendary)
Tier: (Starting units are always Tier 1)
M: (Movement value on the map, default 1)
HP: (How many successful hits to kill, default 1)
Attacks: (How many dice to roll when this unit attacks, default 1)
Off: (Units Offense modifier, default 0)
Def: (Units Defence modifier, default 0)
Trait: (What is special about the unit? Heavy armour? Quick? Special tactics?)
History: (As long or short as your want, provide a background to your nation.)
15. Example Sheet
Nation Name: Mikhail’s Mercenaries
Colonizer or Native : Colonizer: Extra 50 Starting Resources, Two Ships
Capital City: Base Alpha
Nation Flag:
Government: General Mikhail and a small council of his Commanders
Leader: General Mikhail broke away from his home nation of Vladistok and formed his own mercenary organization. He decided to bring it to the new lands of Hortencia to sell his services to the highest bidders. Both a somewhat shrewd businessman and brilliant tactician, he stands to make him and his people rich, even as they carve out their own lives on this new continent. Mikhail is 6’5”, muscular, with a dark black goatee and short cropped hair. He wears a grey military uniform with his faction’s sword and shield emblazoned on the top right corner of his shirt
List of Races: Mostly Humans with some Orcs and Ogres in the mix
List of 3 Story Characters: General Mikhail- Leader of this mercenary nation, he is having to deal with all the rigors of running his own large scale mercenary company. With his many years of experience, this commander of warriors has what it takes on the battlefield, but does he have what it takes to run a nation?
T’Okren- An Orc warrior that joined up with Mikhail’s Mercenaries in hopes of becoming rich and reaching Honored Warrior Status within his Clan. His homeland no longer had the opportunities to become an Honored Warrior, but as this is a new and dangerous land, perhaps he can complete this task.
Isabella- A disgraced Doctor that has found her talents of use with the new mercenary company. They don’t care about her past and she doesn’t like to bring it up. But this place and this new land, is an opportunity for a fresh start away from the Old.
Temperament: Militaristic and Money Hungry as befitting a mercenary nation
Religion: There is no uniformed religion and its members are able to worship whatever gods they like as long as it doesn’t interfere with the job
Preferred Region: Coast due to Colonizer status
End Goal: Become the premiere Mercenary company on the continent and become very, very rich
Policy: We have the Numbers: When training units, Mikhail’s Mercenaries are able to train a second batch in the same group without using an extra action. However, this action is cost +half cost
Strengths: Intense Training: Due to the harsh training regimen for all his forces, they gain +1/+1 in addition to their normal starting stats
Harsh Weather Training: Mikhail’s Mercenaries special in training in all types of weather. All units are not affected by any normal weather penalties.
All Terrain Training: Mikhail’s Mercenaries serve with training in all kinds of environments. They don’t suffer movement penalties from the environment. Still suffer other effects from Blighted lands though.
Weaknesses: Mercenary Forces: All of his units, being a part of this mercenary outfit, cost more due to their high level of training. All units are cost and a half in price
Poor Trading Skills: This Mercenary Group isn’t very good at trading and only gains half Resources from Trading Routes
Starting Units: (Use the unit creation rules to create up to two basic units and one elite. You start the game with three basic and one elite on your capital.)
Name: GreenHorns
Type: Troop
Tier: 1
M: 1
HP: 1
Attacks: 1
Off: 0 (1)
Def: 0 (1)
Trait: Alternating Fire: When Standing next to at least 1 other GreenHorn, gains +1/0. Does not stack.
Name: Trappers
Type: Troop
Tier: 1
M: 1
HP: 1
Attacks: 1
Off: 0 (1)
Def: 0 (1)
Trait: Traps Galore: Before the start of battle, for each trapper roll a d10. On a 7+, for each success, 1 enemy unit is trapped and unable to participate in the current battle. (Note, after the battle, they are free to retreat or attempt to attack again. They are not captured by the Trappers and are merely incapacitated for that current battle)
Name: BlackShirt
Type: Elite
Tier: 1
M: 1
HP: 1
Attacks: 1
Off: 1 (2)
Def: 1 (2)
Trait: Battle Hardened: Blackshirts gain a save on an 8+
History: Mikhail’s Mercenaries started as a distant dream to the soldier Mikhail of Vladistok. He soon grew weary of his home nation, a place that seemed to mistreat their soldiers and hold them as disposable, throwing away the soldiers into the meat grinder of battle, while keeping those soldiers of a noble background, safe and sound out of harm’s way.
The man had had enough. He took with him other like minded individuals and founded the core group that would be the beginning of their mercenary organization. It wasn’t long before they started taking jobs, their numbers growing after each successful mission.
He knew that it was time. Gathering up the other Commanders, the newly christened General had called them so they could hear the new plan for their organization. They would be gathering up on two ships that he had purchased and head to the new world, the continent of Hortencia. Other nations have gone there to colonize, and there were natives as well. It would be the perfect opportunity for them to strike first and gain ground, becoming rich in the process of becoming the number one mercenary organization operating on the continent.
Rules and Generic Terms
- In terms of prioritising traits and what trait overrides another, I think we need to get some absolute guidelines in place. Some suggestions below:
- If two traits clash, a D2 roll to decide which takes priority each turn.
- Strengths override all traits regardless.
- Maybe introduce a keyword system so if a unit trait has always in it, then it always applies although to include that word would increase unit cost.
- Another suggestion would be to introduce keywords much like 40k and other tabletop games. This could help with streamlining traits and ensuring fairness. Some ideas below. One thing we could do is limit what X can be dependent on troop level etc and also certain traits could be limited to unit tiers:
- Rend: +1 HP Damage
- Poison(X): Always hit on a X+
- Armour Piercing: Ignore Saves
- Explode(X): Gain an additional attack on a roll of X+. Further attacks only ever explode on a 10.
- Fear: Enemy units can't hit on less than 4+.
- Terror: Enemy units can't hit on less than 6+.
Starting Bonuses
The below is the list of starting bonuses options for natives and colonisers. We won't use the full lists but will need to get them down to what we think is reasonable for both. Choose two from the list. Those in Bold are recommended, but not required:
Starting Bonuses for Native Nation:
- Second starting settlement near capital
- Natives don't suffer movement penalties
- Double number of starting units
- Capital starts level 2
- During Exploration, have a greater chance of a positive effect
Starting Bonuses for Colonizers:
- Mercenary Hut (Revolving door of specialized recruitable mercenary units)
- Extra 50 Starting resources
- Start with two ships
- Start with a free advancement
- Start with two Hero Equipments
Initiative
This is the order in which units attack in combat. All units in the same tier will be able to make their attacks even if they are killed by another unit in the same tier. However, if a unit from the first tier kills a unit in standard, the unit in standard will not be able to attack.
- First
- Standard
- Last
Limits
- Abilities and traits that affect initiative order(increase or decrease) can only affect a maximum of 25% of an army.
- The most that units base stats can be increased and decreased by is +2/+2 and -2/-2 respectively. So if a unit is +2/+2 and an enemy ability means -2/-2 then they in essence cancel each other out.
- Only one advancement can provide one bonus e.g. +1 to trade. This can be upgraded by improving your advancement but you would not be able to have further trade improvements through other advancements. In order to increase that bonus, a second tier or third tier of the advancement will need to be researched
Capital
The Capital is the single most important of your settlements and ties into many aspects of what you can do based on the level of your Capital:
- The maximum number of additional settlements you can have.
- The maximum level of your advancements.
- The maximum amount of resources you generate each turn.
- The maximum number of units you can have.
- The maximum number of trade routes you can create.
3 - Receive free action on a 9+ roll of D10 each turn
2 - Receive free action on a 10 roll of D10 each turn
1 - +25% resource production
0 - Everything fine
-1 - -25% resource production
-2 - -50% resource production
-3 - Random settlement revolts and forms new NPC nation
Happiness
3- Gain a free random advancement from the people
2- Gain a free random unit from the people
1- Gain a free Resource Gain from the people
0- Everything is fine
-1- Lose Resources from Disgruntled workers
-2- Random unit defects or disbands
-3 Random settlement revolts and forms a new NPC Nation
Morality
- By playing into your nation's morality through actions and explorations, gain order. On the flip side, lose order when going against your nation's moral fabric.
- Characters could leave or refuse to join your nation unless you share the same morals.
Combat
- Never hit on less than 4
- No Upper Cap on stats, but only ever benefit from a max of +3/+3 or -3/-3
- Only Leaders and Heroes can have traits that impact all enemy units such as a -1/-1. Other unit types limited to only affecting single enemy types
- Troops
- Elites
- Monsters
- Characters
- Non-Combatants
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