I remember way back in the day (it was a Wednesday, by the way...) I had an idea for the Mongols to take part in a hotseat game... basically it would be all the other nations in the world versus the dreaded Golden Horde, which was player-controlled.

Obviously the Golden Horde under human control seems nearly unstoppable. However, if the other human factions are united in their cause, they should have the force necessary to win. The big issue for them is coordinating all of their attacks against the Mongols together. Each faction might have only one or two stacks of troops that they could afford to spare. If you lose those troops in battle (and you will) then you need to be able to spit out some more and sail back over there and continue the fight.

Certain things would need to happen in order for the game to be fair:

1. The Crusade mechanic renders this entire game meaningless because you could easily overwhelm the horde with stacks of maintenance-free troops being spat out by all nations for 10 turns. You cannot use the crusade function, and if one is called, you cannot join.

2. No taking of settlements with spies opening the gates.

3. "Big Evil" faction only gets to start with one province, but unlimited money and more troops than you can shake a stick at (approximately equal to what the Mongol Horde starts with in the game). The one province handicap means that having all that money is meaningless because you won't be able to begin replacing your troops as fast as the other nations can destroy them, or make their own.

4. "Big Evil" faction might begin with the Volga-Bulgar region, Baghdad, or the Jedda region. Not sure which would be best. I think Volga-Bulgar.

5. Directly gifting territories is not allowed. You may trade 1 province for 1 province at a time. (eliminates easy solve of every nation giving most of their territory to England, who then is already bigger than the Mongols by a factor of 10. The challenge is derived from group planning and coordination.... think of this like the Rebel Alliance versus the Galactic Empire, or many independent civilizations repelling the Borg Collective.)

6. Gifting money is not allowed, not even during province trades or under any other circumstances.



This would take a little time to set up, and I am not entirely sure I have the skills necessary to set it up. I might need some more experienced GM help, maybe even a little modder's help. Some advice on how to make sure it is a fair game would be lovely.

Thoughts/comments?