I am longtime fan of the Wars of the Roses and it has always been a wish to create a game that captures the atmosphere of the period. I tried it with M:TW, but after I finished a few units I abandoned it as soon as R:TW hit the shelves. Now I have learned a lot about scripting and I am beginning to believe that I can finally make my wish a reality.

However I am stuck in the conceptual design. I have a few ideas, but before I press on and make it a real project I need to have the ideas thought out resulting in a concept that should work. Below are a few of them:

Interface
I will eliminate the standard user interface of R:TW. Instead there will be 3D objects on which the player can click or which will display information. A book will show events or general information of nobles, a writing feather will show the diplomatic view/options while a sword will enable military view/options.

Game phases
There are no regular turns, in fact the whole game will be played within a single turn. However with the use of scripts there will be turns which probably are divided into phases; political, military

Campaign map
The R:TW map will be replaced with a map a la M:TW since I find the boardgame style much more suiting for the atmosphere. The map will get the look of a parchment map laying on a wooden table. There will be shires and some of them will be divided up to give more options in movement.

Armies
There will be no techtree. There was no real standing army during this period. Instead armies were mustered when needed and disbanded when the campaign ended, which only lasted for a few weeks at the most. If an army is ordered to be mustered it will be created in the shire of the noble, which can then be picked up. As a result of this the opposing factions will need to fight a strategic game in which they try to pick up as many friendly armies while preventing the opponent from doing the same (as it happened in history).
The composition of armies will be set (with perhaps a little randomization) with more powerfull armies having more and better equipped troops. Troops will have their own livery and banners so when you have several nobles you will see their personal regiments on the battlefield.

Fully scripted strategic AI
The strategic AI also gets ditched and I will make scripts that will ensure that the computer opponent can cope with these new rules.

Royal family
The game places you in the role of either the Lancastrian or Yorkist family. You have will have 4 or 5 heirs in your royal family and it is your aim to elimate the entire opposing royal family.

Nobles
The royal army is not very large so you need to depend on allied nobles. To attract the nobles you will need to play a political game. I was thinking that you receive a number of loyalty counters which you can give to the nobles. Once a noble has enough loyalty you can ask him to raise troops once you start a campaign. However the other faction can also place counters. As their loyalty changes they may decide to not answer your call-to-arms or switch sides.

Events
Coronation: to make your heir king you need to move him into the London area. The opposing faction can hinder you by blocking the way with an army. The coronation is important since kingship will you give more loyalty counters.
Alliance with France: this will give the Lancastrian faction the option to flee to the continent. You will also receive French mercenaries.
Alliance with Burgundy; this will give the Yorkist faction the option to flee to the continent. You will also receive Burgundian mercenaries.

Random events
Most boardgames have a stack of cards that introduce random events and this could be interesting to spice up the game a bit.

Evasion
When the situation in England has gone particularly bad, for example after a big battle leaving you with no forces it is possible to evade. The Yorkists can flee to Ireland or Burguny when allied. The Lancastrians can flee to Scotland or France when allied. When in these countries the heir/king can play a political game by encouraging revolts by loyal nobles and once the chance is there he will be given local troops and a single chance to return to England and reclaim the throne.

Battles
The auto-generated maps will also be removed (what am I keeping? ). Instead the battles will all be played on custom maps so they will be far more interesting than the barren wastelands of R:TW. Once a battle has ended a seperate script will tell which nobles have been captured or killed. Captured nobles can be executed (if possible to script). If a noble is dead then he will either be replaced by his son or by a new noble family who is loyal to your faction.
Since you cannot raise armies that easily your situation will be very uncomfortable when you lose a battle. This will make the battles more dramatic as the future of your faction can depend on the outcome.



Hopefully you now understand that this idea is to create something entirely different from the other mods, so you shouldn't compare them. I want to make gameplay similar to that of boardgames so the conceptual design is also different then of the other mods which are primarily about how to fill the factions slots and techtree. I need to create new rules and I ask for your help. Above you could read a few features but it still feels a bit empty and I am still not sure wether it would be worth the effort. So my question to you is wether you could come up with features, rules or other ideas to make this concept more appealing.


Cheers,
Duke John


P.S. Please do not question/comment on the technical issues. I am not really troubled with them as most of them are already tested.