Multiplayer rules thread

[Gazius]

Me and a friend are playing out a Great War. Since it's just the two of use, we haven't developed any rules for 'cheats' or such, or other pathetic tactics, just go on and take your battle, if that's how it plays out, that's how it plays out. Here's a set of rules and equations.

1) The basic concept is to simulate a border conflict between two states.
The key factors are gaining initiative, capturing enemy territory and avoiding excess casualties.
The winner is whoever captures enemy settlements and/or reduces the enemy army to the point they can no longer fight.

The game is played with always even forces, on a random or mutually agreed set of maps, using calculated point victories to determine success.
Screenshots of the final result screen (win/lose, men fielded/men lost) must always be saved for stats.

2) BEGINNING: BORDER CLASH
The game begins with a small border incident where very small forces (1000 points) clash with each other sparking a war.
Whoever wins the border incident will take initiative and be on the offensive; the loser will take the defensive.

3) FORCE SIZES
For the next battle, and all subsequent battles, the size of forces is determined by the following formula:
[number of points used in previous battle] x [fraction of winning forces surviving during previous battle] x 2 + 1000 points.
So, for example, if the first battle was fought with 1000 points, and the winner started with 100 troops of which 60 survived...

1000 x 0.6 x 2 + 1000 = 2200 points
if in the next battle 40% of the winner's troops survive -
2200 x 0.4 x 2 + 1000 = 2760 points

the logic behind this: since we're playing a border war and not an empire-killing war, if the forces are successful then the winning side would be inclined to escalate the conflict, but if they fail they won't be very eager. The losing side, of course, would always send enough forces to match.
There's also a nice balance, because unless the battles are hugely decimating pyrrhic victories (which should be discouraged), the war will grow gradually.

4) SUBSEQUENT BATTLES: OFFENSE/DEFENSE/ASSAULT
As noted above, the winner of the initial border clash goes on offensive.

If the attacker wins this battle, he goes on to assault an enemy village, to be captured as the first step to victory. If the defender wins, it goes back to a field battle with both sides attacking to decide initiative.
This is true of all field battles in game: if the attacker wins them, he advances. If the defender wins them, it reverts to a meeting fight to decide initiative.

The game's "map", if the attacker should advance) is as follows:

field battle (border clash)
field battle (advance)
SMALL VILLAGE (no defenses)
field battle (advance)
LARGE VILLAGE (no defenses)
field battle (advance)
FORT (light wall)
field battle (advance)
SMALL TOWN (palisade)
field battle (advance)
LARGE TOWN (palisade)
field battle (advance)
SMALL CITY (wooden wall)
field battle (advance)
LARGE CITY (wooden wall)
field battle (advance)
CAPITAL (stone walls, time for siege etc.)

Once a village/town/etc. is taken, it has to be recaptured. A defending player has to go back through the list and recapture any settlements lost before advancing into the enemy's territory the same way.
In actuality, of course, unless one side sucks - the war isn't likely to get very far, which is kind of the point.

THERE IS ONE CAVEAT - RETREATING:
A defender may decide to not face the enemy in open terrain and instead retreat to the nearest village/fort/city to force the enemy into an assault - that way the field battle is skipped. Not recommended but possible for strategic reasons (making the fight more costly for the enemy).
Likewise, when an attacker captures a village/town etc., he may choose not to advance and stay in the village/town - in which case the defender automatically reverts to assault and tries to recapture it. May also be strategic - again, to try and inflict more casualties on the enemy army.

5) CASUALTIES
For every 'war', there will be a casualty limit for the player.
This limit can be agreed on between the players - the recommended number is 10,000. If a player (or both players) runs out of this limit, victory can be decided...

6) VICTORY
Winning the 'war' can be done in one of the following ways:

-Capturing the enemy capital (unlikely)
-Advancing into enemy territory (i.e. capturing villages/towns) or remaining on neutral ground and killing more than the limit (e.g. 10,000) enemy troops while losing less than that

otherwise, the conflict is considered a draw if both players run out of troops on neutral ground, or the attacker runs out of troops on enemy ground, in which case victory can be achieved by...
-Winning a final battle

7) FINAL BATTLE
The final battle is a tie-breaking measure that occurs when either the battle is a draw on neutral ground or an attacker runs out of troops but has captured enemy settlements.
In this case, a final battle is triggered. A final battle will always be a meeting engagement in a field, with maximum forces committed - to be specific, the force setup for the final battle will always be [number of points in previous battle] + 15,000.

Whoever wins the final battle will be declared the winner of the war, irrespective of settlements lost or captured - a peace agreement will be signed in their favour.

[Pharnakes]

I like this, very nice

[NeoSpartan]

Hey at what time do you guys usually are available to play?????? I usually play EB from 12am-3am Eastern Standard Time (US).


It will change next month when I start working a late-night shift for UPS.

[bovi]

I'm not very often on, but when I am it's usually 19-23 CET.

[NeoSpartan]

I'm not very often on, but when I am it's usually 19-23 CET.

dumb question.... What is CET???

[Pharnakes]

Centeral european time?

[Pharnakes]

Hmm, could do with a bump, I think, and possibly even sticky if some moderator is in a good mood for once.