Well, this is not a Multiplayer Campaign, but a new and different idea for a MTW game that goes beyond a single battle.
It is something like a Role Playing Game, where players take on the role of mercenaries or bandit captains. The underlying concept is that a game master (acting as a rich merchant) will set up missions for the mercenaries and the bandits have to stop them. Whoever wins will gain some florins and can use these to build up and improve his individual army.
Below I have written what could develop into something like a manual for this game. It is still pretty much in draft form now, but I hope it is good enough for everyone to understand how things could work and I will edit and modify it as I go along and get more ideas and suggestions.
The first paragraph is intended to set the scene :
Introduction
It is the late medieval era, the dusk of Chivalry. The great war is finally over. It has lasted for many years and left the European countries in desolation. Many noblemen have lost their lands and are now struggling to pay for the upkeep of their castles. As Chivalry is beginning to decline, the cities are emerging as the new political force and power is shifting to the burghers and merchants. Finance and trade become more and more important, and so does the protection of streets and trade routes.
In the aftermath of the great war, bands of unemployed soldiers are roaming the land in search for a new way to earn a living. Many are hiring out their services as mercenaries but others are taking to the woods and join the groups of bandits, which are ambushing the traders and merchants.
In this world I will take on the role of a rich merchant, who has to send money and goods to various cities across the country. I will hire some peasants or other servants to carry the goods and will be looking for soldiers to escort them. The players of the game can choose to act as either bandits who try to capture the goods or mercenaries who will get paid to protect them.
Basic concept
Players enter the game with a starting capital of, say, 3500 florins for which they can equip their initial army. In the course of the game various battle scenarios or "missions" will be announced (perhaps on a weekly basis) which will give those who sign up for them a chance to earn more money. With this money they can cover their maintenance costs, increase their army and improve it with new weapons. Eventually, as they gain fame and fortune, they can rise in society and establish themselves as Mercenary Lords or Robber Barons.
Rather than just buying a new army for each battle, the players will have their own personal army, which they build up and develop throughout the game. A players list will be set up in this thread, which shows the current army of each player as well as other info, such as florins in treasury, army upkeep cost etc. Roleplaying can also be a great part of the game and, beyond the simple mercs/bandit division, many other ways for interaction or diplomacy can develop.
Battles and missions
The gamemaster announces the battles as trading missions. For example a scenario could be set for one mercenary and one bandit involving the transport 100 boxes of silk (worth 10 florins each). The mercenary will take his army plus 100 peasants to carry the goods. The bandit will try to intercept him. Both players meet online and start the battle.
The mercenary will win if
he defeats the bandit (obviously)
or his peasants manage to reach the other side of the map.
The bandit will win if
he defeats the mercenary (obviously)
or he kills, captures or routs the peasants off the map.
Even if the bandit gets defeated, he will still get some florins for each peasant he managed to kill or catch.
(N.B. I realize that due to the way MTW works, a battle may well end with a victory of the mercenaries and the peasants still routing in the middle of the map and it may be hard to tell if they could have been rallied or not if the MTW-game had not stopped. To avoid lengthy arguments between players, the gamemaster may have to judge the final outcome on a case by case basis, looking at the replay of the battle.)
After the battle the surviving units will fill up their ranks again. This is no problem, for after the great war there are many unemployed and desperate soldiers looking to make a living. They will be happy to be take up into a unit for no extra pay, as long as they can look forward to some money at the end of the month.
However, a unit which has been completely eradicated in battle and whose standard has fallen, can not simply be replaced. That unit is lost and a new unit has to be recruited from scratch.
Signing up for missions
Missions will be announced on this forum and the first player(s) who sign up for them get the mission. There may be simple 1v1 missions, or bigger events involving several mercenaries and bandits allying together. The payment for the mission (and the value of the loot) will be announced and so will the map details (map, season, timelimit etc.). The gamemaster will also say who has the attacker's side, but that serves merely to define the deployment position. In general, the mercenaries have to set up roughly in the back half of their deploy area, so they will have some space to cross and can't go half the distance just by deploying up front.
Other general settings for all battles are :
Standard Unit Size, Morale on, Fatigue on, Limited Ammo on, Restricted Camera on.
To give every player a chance to get a mission and avoid "sign-up-camping", I was considering letting players only sign up for one mission at a time. However, as it can sometimes take quite a long time for the players to arrange meeting up for a battle, that rule seems cumbersome and slows the game down. So for the current game players are allowed to sign up for multiple missions, but for their second and third mission should only choose those which have been open for a week or so.
Recruiting and maintaining your army
Recruiting is simply done by letting the gamemaster know which units you want to recruit. Some care and forward planning should be given when recruiting troops, as the men which you hire are likely to be with you in many battles. Units, which have become obsolete, can of course be released from service in order to reduce maintenance costs. But don't expect to get any of your money back (the men will probably have spent it all on their first free evening in the tavern).
Prices are those of the unit selection screen.
You can buy any upgrade you want.
We may re-consider that if we think we need to balance the game better, but to make things simple at the start I would go with that.
The max 4 rule applies.
i.e. no more that 4 units of a single type, so we don't end up with armies of 16 CMMA v4.
You can buy upgrades now or later.
i.e. if you find you have some money to spare you can buy your men some new swords or shiny armor.
Or just give them a big bonus to increase their morale and they will fight harder for you.
Maintenance costs are those of the Single Player game for v0 units.
More experienced men expect better pay. So there is a 20% increase on maintenance cost for each valor point.
I have now completed an Excel spreadsheet for calculating support cost, which I can send to anyone interested.
Pay day
At the end of each month it is pay-day for the troops. The money will be taken out of the player´s treasure chest and the appropriate amounts distributed to his men. Thus, it is vitally important that every commander has enough florins available at this time. No soldier will forgive it easily to be left empty handed at the end of the month. This will have a very demoralizing effect and the valor of the unit will decrease by 1. If a unit already has valor 0, it will be so frustrated that it will just leave the service of their master and seek employment elsewhere.
Factions
The factions that can be chosen are those of the Europeans only.
For one reason, the game is set in Middle Europe and it would be strange to have Egyptian warriors robbing the travelers in Sherwood Forest.
The other reason is one of balance. I don't claim to have done extensive testing, but from the few B&M battles I have been able to play, it became evident, that, when it comes to hunting down a group of peasants, nothing can beat a Muslim army full of archer-cavalry. These guys are just too mobile and have too much firepower to give the merchants any chance at all. With a more complex set of rules about which units are allowed and which aren't it may be possible to use all factions, but for now it is easier just to use the European ones.
To be more precise, the permissible factions are :
Danish, English French, German, Itaian, Polish, Spanish, Aragonese, Byzantine and Swiss.
Start small and move up
A rugged bandit leading a group of royal knights to rob the merchants ? Hmmm,...... doesn't sound right.
A young and unknown mercenary setting out to try his luck and gathering the best fighters of Europe behind his banner ?
...... does not fit the picture, either.
So I think some restrictions for the early phase of the game are called for.
While players start as simple mercenaries or bandits, the following units may not be used :
no knights (on horse or foot)
no crusader units
no CMAA
no gunpowder units
But when a player is successful and has earned enough money, he can construct a fortified camp (a wooden castle) for himself and his men. He now becomes a Mercenary Commander or a Bandit Chieftain. With his increased fame as well as the facilities of his camp he will be able to attract some higher quality troops.
With a wooden fort he can recruit
Feudal knights
CMAA
handgun units (but no cannon)
Finally, when a player continues to be successful he can rise to the higher classes of society and aspire to his own castle. Yes, even bandits can have a castle, for unfortunately (or not) this is an age of decline for chivalry and knighthood. Many a nobleman is struggling to find the means to uphold his castle and bears a deep grudge against those merchants who have bought him out of his lands. In their desperation some are ready to turn to desperate measures and would willingly give the hand of their daughter to a young and famous warrior who can pay their dept. Thus a players can rise to Mercenary Lord or Robber Baron and owning a castle will make all troop types available to him.
The costs for constructing a fortified camp or buying your way into nobility is something I have not quite finalized yet. But as a first thought I would imagine that 5 000 florins for a fort and 15 000 florins for a castle could be appropriate.
A change of career
Thinking that you have chosen the wrong side at the start of the game ? Well, don't worry, a change is still possible. Although that may be easy in one direction and more difficult in the other.
For a mercenary it is easy to change sides and become a bandit. All you need to do is say farewell to life as a lawful citizen, gather your men and move off to the woods. If you want to be very perfidious, you can announce your "change of mind" in the middle of a battle and with an evil grin backstab your companion and take a good deal of easy loot with you.
However, keep in mind that for a bandit it can be far more difficult to get back on the path of righteousness. A bandit requires a judge's pardon for his crimes and it is the gamemaster's decision, if such a pardon is granted. This can depend on a number of things: the number of crimes committed, any atrocities committed or the general conduct, quite possibly a sum of Florins paid in repentance and last but not least, the need of the country for more mercenaries to fight the bandits (yes, if times get desperate, a general amnesty may even be issued).
Frequent changes between camps should be avoided. But I hope that the possibility for players to change sides if it will benefit the course of the game can be an interesting and useful option.
The Dungeon
What happens if your career is not going as well as you hoped, if you loose battles, miss opportunities to earn money and find that your finances are in dire straights at the end of the month? You may loose some of your men, you may loose your whole army, and finally, if you are deeply in dept, you may end up being thrown into the dungeon to rot there for the rest of your life.Now things don't really have to be that bad and there may still be ways to rescue you and give you another chance. After all, this is not an elimination-type tournament and if you are enjoying the game you can still be saved to let the fun go on.
However, if a player becomes inactive or non-responsive, the dungeon will be the way to take him off the list and make room for new players to sign up.
The end of the game
Theoretically, the game could be open ended, but who would want to play until everyone has an army of 99k ? So eventually there should be an end date where the winners are announced. Perhaps a good idea would be to use the release date of Rome:TW, because, lets face it, we all will have lots of other tings to do after that.
After the game, the winners of course will be the Mercenary and the Bandit, who have accumulated the most money and the best army. I do however hope that this game will not be all about winning in the end but more about having fun as we get there.
There are no prices for the winners, but there will be new friends to be won, and a lot of fun and excitement for everyone.
Good luck to all,
Nigel Loring June 2004
Supplement
Here are a few useful links that may be helpful for playing the game :
You can upload screenshots to illustrate your battle stories here
You can upload battle replays here.
and download them here.
The log file reader I am using to check the battle logs is here
And finally, to help arranging games across continents, here is a time zone converter.
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P.S.
This is the first update of the "manual" for the game, version 1.1.
I am sure more updates and "patches" will follow as things progress and we find out what works and what doesn't and what good and interesting ideas may still come up.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by [b
.
What do you guys think ? I am tempted to leave it the way it is, but if you think less would be better, now is the time we can still change it.
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