Re-unification – an epic, themed WRE PBM

[econ21]

********************EDIT: THE SHORT VERSION *****************************

Game settings: VH campaign, M battles. Large units. Timer on. Patched to 1.6. Bugfixer 3.02.
Optional setting: brigand_spawn_value 50 pirate_spawn_value 60 [1]

House rules

1. The campaign ends when we conquer all starting WRE and ERE provinces[2], plus Tingi (43 target provinces). The game will award victory sooner (34 provinces), so choose to play on. Game ends in Summer 476 AD though.
2. Non-target provinces cannot be garrisoned at the end of a turn.
3. Target provinces cannot be enslaved or exterminated.
4. The following factions should not be eliminated: Celts, Berbers, Allemanni, Saxons. But if their last province is a target one, they are fair game.
5. Only full strength units, first cohorts or ships can be retrained.
6. The only buildings in target provinces which may be demolished are religious ones.
7. Play a full reign and try to choose a faction heir in his 50s, where possible following the hereditary principle.

The Order of Play
(Apologies for bumping people down one)
1. Simon Appleton
2. Mount Suribachi
3. TinCow
4. Dutch_guy
5. Zomby_Woof
6. Simon Appleton
Tricky_Lady (TBC)
The Emperor (TBC)

Explanatory Notes:
[1]Edit the file descr_strat.txt in:
C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\bi\data\world\maps\campaign\barbarian_invasion
to change "brigand_spawn_value" to "50" and that for pirates to 60.
This will reduce the spawn of rebels and pirates to 20% of the original version.
If individual players don't want to do this, they don't need to. But I hate fighting smelly rebels.

[2]WRE provinces: Eburacum, Londinium, Tarraco, Salamantica, Carthago Nova, Corduba, Carthage, Lepcis Magna, Burdigala, Avaricum. Samarobriva, Arles, Massila, Colonia Agrippina, Augusta Treverorum, Augusta Vindelicorum, Mediolanium, Ravenna, Rome, Tarentum, Syracuse, Caralis, Carnuntum, Aquincum, Salona
ERE provinces: Thessalonica, Sirmium, Constantinople, Ephesus, Ancrya, Caesarea, Tarsus, Sinope, Antioch, Sidon, Philadelphaea, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Cyrene.
Tingi is the Berber capital and used to be part of the Empire; we want it back.

********************EDIT: WHAT FOLLOWS IS OLDER INFORMATION***************

Anyone want to play in an epic story-heavy WRE BI PBM? The emphasis will be on trying to produce good write-ups rather than blitz the game. Ideally, I’d like the thing to run close to the maximum length of a BI campaign (100 years?).

Anyone can sign up, but it is not necessarily first come, first served – I will oversee the campaign and may give priority to those who have produced good write-ups in the past. If people do not take up their reigns promptly, they may lose their position in the ranking in order to keep the show on the road.

Here are some suggested rules:

1) Play a full reign: To allow people to get into character, players will play for the entire reign of an Emperor. To stop this being too onerous and to allow more players to participate, I propose players ensure the faction heir is in his 50’s when the faction leader dies. To this end, players may want to save every turn so they can reload their last turn and chose a new heir if the designated one was too young or too old when the Emperor dies.
2) Have fun!: Players are encouraged to role-play the game and exploit story-telling opportunities. They need not always write from the perspective of the Emperor – they could follow a specific general who catches their eye or even an ancillary. They could get their generals to do something quixotic if it is in character for that general (or seems like fun). But they should not to leave successor players in very difficult situations (e.g. by disbanding the entire army or withdrawing entirely to Britain etc) and should work towards the general theme of the campaign, re-unification.
3) Re-unification: The overall theme of the campaign will be re-unification of the Roman Empire. To this end, players should aim to conquer all the ERE starting provinces and hold every last one of their starting WRE provinces. I am not sure if holding all WRE and ERE provinces alone is sufficient for a WRE victory, but it is close. I will check later on and produce a specific list of the provinces needed to meet WRE victory conditions.
4) Respect the frontier: As a corollary of the re-unification theme, players are not to try to hold any provinces that were not originally parts of the WRE or ERE. They may pillage them, but should not leave a garrison there. The idea here is to work within the frontiers of the Empire. Historically, there were presumably reasons for the frontiers being where they were – logistics, guerilla warfare etc. – and a WRE campaign that is won by just picking up some weak barbarian provinces would be too short to get an epic PBM going (someone won in 380AD on VH/VH).
5) Friends, Romans, countrymen!: Players should not exterminate any towns that start under Roman rule (WRE or ERE). The theme is re-unification, not fratricide. Players may exterminate barbarian towns, but may not hold them. Even these exterminations should be done sparingly, for role-playing reasons (e.g. to avenge the loss of a city or army) – not as a quick exploit to pre-empt the AI building up its armies or to get some easy money.
6) Don't kick the underdogs: Players should not wipe out the weak non-horde barbarian factions – IIRC, Celts, Berbers, Allemanni and Saxons. This is to better simulate the ever-present “frontier” and the threats posed by smaller tribes neighbouring Rome.
7) No Vandals here!: To try to keep the economy tight, players should not disband any buildings for cash. They may freely dismantle religious buildings in order to manage religious discontent or convert populations to a favoured faith.
8) No dirty peasants: No peasant units may be recruited or retained. They are too cheap as garrisons and anyway, that is what the limitanei and foederati were for.
9) Game settings: The campaign will be on VH campaign, M battles. Large units. Timer on. Patched to 1.6. I think we should probably adjust the settings to reduce the rate of spawn of rebels and pirates, as they are tedious to fight – I’ll look into this.

List of players (in no particular order):

Simon Appleton
TinCow
Mount Suribachi? (TBC)
The Emperor? (TBC)
Dutch_Guy? (TBC)
Tricky_Lady? (TBC)

Please post if you would like to play and also give a preference for your order in the list of reigns (first turn, early, mid-game, end-game).

I think TinCow is happy to go second. I am happy to go first, but someone else might enjoy that too – the first few turns of WRE are very tense and fun, especially under the above rules.

We all have real lives to attend to, but ideally I’d like people to play out their reigns within a week of coronation and to post write-ups at most a few days later. If they cannot do that, they should ask for a later reign and let someone else take their place.

Any volunteers?