PvP mechanics brainstorming thread

[econ21]

But only those who do not have the chancellor on their side grow weary of war?

Yes, it's the trade off for getting those five extra units.

It seems heavily in favor of those who plot first to have the chancellor on their side first and simply exaggerates the issues we already have.

You are right that having the Chancellor on side is still likely to be a big help (although not so much if many settlements are against him, leaving him with no florins after they have drafted their men). And it is true that the advantage from the Chancellor will grow over time due to war weariness of the rebels. However, it surely does not exaggerate the issues? At least, not exaggerate it compared to the current rules (maybe you are comparing it to some other proposed rules?).

Suppose you don't have the Chancellor on your side, would you rather:
(a) be able to pick 5 units per settlement
(b) have the Chancellor give your quota of prioritised units (typically 1-3 per noble), no doubt after he has give the quota to your enemies and no doubt the worst units of their type available, and perhaps never if he has been smart enough to build up an army in advance so he does not need to recruit more than the quotas of his allies.

I still think all involved in the civil war lose 1 unit per settlement that their opponents control to desertion at the beginning of the session, and those involved can acquire one unit from each of their settlements.

That's an interesting idea - why don't you formalise your proposed rules? Then other people can comment. Are you thinking of one unit per settlement as a once and for all? If so, I'd still much rather have the five I am suggesting. Or one unit per turn? In which case, we will all be at (phoney) war all the time.

I am open to discussion on all this. It is true that my system works against a long lasting rebellion and may favour short term phoney wars for recruitment. I am not that bothered about the former problem - five units per settlement is quite a lot and we do want civil wars to be decided without too much delay. On the latter, more thought may be required. Regardless of whiich rules we use, if we do allow some non-Chancellor recruitment in a civil war, it might be prudent to give the GM the power to declare nobles at peace, remove PvP flags etc if he thinks it is being exploited (as a phoney war to raise men).