Survivor Tournament Ruleset - ver 0.5.2 (alpha stage):
Setup Round:
An arbitrary number is chosen for every player's starting bank amount in buying a starting army. For the sake of clarity lets say this is 14k. Handicap modifiers can also be introduced here. (i.e. Phil is just too good compared to all the other players, he will only play with 90% of the starting amount). All players choose a faction type (Rome, Ptolemy, etc.)
All players make initial army puchases, units are selected, spending up to the starting bank amount. This may be for more than 20 units. They may also choose not to spend all of their starting money. Additional to this there is also one unit who is the faction leader. He is not part of the initial army cost. He is also upgraded +2 experience chevron's and +1 armor, +1 weapons. Likewise there is one general unit allowed to lead your army. He is +3 experience, +2 armor, +2 weapon. The general may be lost in battle, but to lose your faction leader is sudden death (checkmate).
After army units are chosen it is revealed to all players each opponent's army composition. Verification is also made that army composition is within budget and there are no objections from the other players.
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Territories:
Every faction starts with a specified number of territories;
The Capital Territory. Therein resides the faction leader (aka the King, in chess terminology), and a walled city. The city walls may be upgraded in a long game. More on this later. The capital cannot be attacked unless the attacker alreadly owns one of the defender's minor territories.
Minor Territories. These are open ground, pre defined and matched to the home faction's ecology. At best a fort may be built here (house rule). I would suggest either two or three minor starting territories. For an opposing faction to attack the capital, he MUST own a pre-determined number of the defending faction's minor territories.
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Economy:
Territories; Each Capital territory owned is worth 20% of the starting bankroll (2800), every minor territory held is worth 5% (700)
Maintenance; Each army unit has a maintenance cost every turn; 10% of the purchase value. Additional to this, refit and retraining costs are calculated in too; (i.e. a Macedonian Phalanx unit is comprised of 80 men, initial cost was 1500. In the previous battle 33 men were killed. A replacement man costs 18.75 x 33 = 619)
Weapons and Armor; These upgrades also cost money. They also increase the maintenance cost of the units. In our previous example a Macedonian Phalanx costs 1500, tier 1 adds an 8% increase in cost (1620, 162 per turn maintenace), additional upgrades increase in price exponentially. Previously purchased army units can be returned to the capital and be refitted.
Experience; This can not be bought. For each successful battle where that unit had 20 or more kills they increase +1 in experience. There is no additional per turn maintenance cost.
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Order of Play:
The order of play as follows starts with the initial set up round. After each player has chosen a faction, purchased his starting army, all players are verified to fully understand the starting composition and indicate they are ready to start the game.
Movement Phase; Troops start in the capital, but then may be moved into any owned minor territory. They may also choose to attack an unowned minor territory, or another player's territory. I thought perhaps player order, but I believe now all players should announce their intended movement within a set time (for example, there is a 24 hour movement time limit, a followup 24 hour conflict resolution time limit).
Conflict examples;
- Two or more players wish to attack the same territory. Any players may be allowed to withdraw their army, including the current territory owner. They may also be allowed an alternative attack on another territory of the defending player. If there are more than two players wishing to attack the defending player and nobody will yield the field this will be scheduled as a free-for-all battle.
- The defending territory owner is also allowed to bring reinforcements from his capital to the minor territory he is defending.
- At most I think a player should only have to fight two battles per round. My way of resolving this is only to have two minor territories at the beginning of the game. Needs ammending…probably via play-testing.
Battle Resolution Phase; All games are announced, scheduled and resolved. I envision most of them will be 1v1, but I can see where there may be instances of free-for-all matches. Please remember, collusion between two or more players against a third party is to be avoided, and only one player may own the territory at the end of the battle phase.
Economy Phase; Time to lick your wounds, pinch your pennies, and re-group after your hard won (or lost) battles. This is where you add up all your territories owned, and add the amount to your bankroll. Then this phase is where you retrain and upgrade your men, repair/upgrade your capital. And purchase new units, placing them in the home capital. If you have units where you have lost men they must either be retrained, retired and removed from your pool (saves you maintenance costs), or they may be retired to the capital until you have the funds to repair them.
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Original Post:
Hello All,
I'm thinking about trying to get some more of my friends interested in the Total War series. And I was contemplating playing a short LAN tournament with them some night. Since I'm also a bit of a board game geek I was thinking about playing it via a Risk style campaign. i.e. players own territories and fight over said territories.
I was thinking perhaps Western Europe and the Mediterranean or something. Keep it small. It could actually be played on a real board or just via paper. Since I'm familiar with the battle editor I'm also contemplating keeping all the battle stats too and building each army before the battle. Some ideas I'm tossing around;
* Run what you brung - it would be more of a "survivor" mode. Each player would have persistent armies, that could be replenished with new troops based upon territories one holds. I think this would resolve certain balance issues too because price of units in game be damned, we can set our own price. Not only that we could set "maintenance costs". For example elite units like elephants could have a cost 30% of total purchase price each turn, or something like that. I think that would keep elites from getting too spammy.
* Heroes - With the battle editor one has nearly complete control of the battle configuration. Including general's name, star rating, etc.
* Post Battle Resolution - one key is to keep the game moving. I'm trying to figure out what happens to severely damaged units post battle. I'm leaning toward one of two ideas (or a combination of the two). A: Pay X amount to repair a unit to full strength, if you can't afford to that unit is disbanded. B: damaged units of the same type can be merged.
* There would be no fog of war, but some of the other stuff like assassination attempts, sabotage could be abstracted. Maybe roll dice, or something.
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Anyway, this is just something I'm rolling around in my head. I'm thinking something like this has to have been played here. Does anyone remember a tournament like this being played. I've looked around for weeks now but haven't found anything. Likewise, I'm looking for opinions on what people think of a tournament like this?
I think my first goal will be to put together a rule book and maybe shoot for a tournament date of New Year's Eve/Day.
