The Promised Land

[Nero]

Preface: I will not be playing this game, as I will be the war judge. This game is intended to be a fusion of the Hegemony’s lax warfare system, the Kingdom’s structured environment, and the political cutthroat-ness of both (:)). The rules aren’t overwhelmingly complex, and there’s a clear objective, and a way to actually win. This game is more about gameplay than realism, so saying something isn’t realistic isn’t a legitimate argument point on the thread.

Note, though, that for this game my word is law. If you don’t like the outcome of one of your battles, too bad. I’m likely going to feel bad for having to be like that, but it’s really the only way to ensure that the game doesn’t devolve into a shouting match. However, regardless of past differences and rivalries, I will remain impartial in my judgment to the best of my abilities.

If you get eliminated from the game, try not to be too pissed off at either me or the other players. If the game goes well I might be willing to do another one.

 

********* This game is to be treated as a work in progress. All build times, rules, limits, and bonuses are subject to change at any time, in the interest of good gameplay. For example, if it turns out the army bonus for holding the promised land is too large, then it will be adjusted accordingly. Don’t get mad if some of your armies disappear because of a rule change.

 

The Promised Land

 

Story: Your tribe has scratched out a living for centuries off the desolate landscape of mountains, hills, deserts, and marshes. There’s never enough food to eat, never enough wood to build, never enough iron to forge, and never enough clean water to drink. The only thing that has kept your people alive is the long lost myth of the promised land, handed down from generation to generation. A tale of a long lost oasis, full of rich farmland, clean rivers, thick forests, and deep mines. For centuries your tribe has migrated, always searching for this lost land, and now you finally know where it is. Across stormy seas lies this mythical land. But, there is trouble, as other tribes have come seeking this land as well, and it is not large enough to share between one another. Only one tribe can flourish and prosper in the promised land, and your people are intent on making that tribe them.

 

Starting off: You start off in a single region on the map, one not connected to the main sea. Your lands are poor, so you can only manage to muster a single army. The goal is to conquer one of the coastal regions and hold onto it for as long as it takes to gather the resources to build a harbor, build a fleet, and then take the promised land.

 

Turns: Turns will be done when I have time. Hopefully I can keep it 1 turn = 1 day, but since I’m not a robot there may be trouble with that. It’ll be worked out though. If the turns get too erratic, I will wait for as long as I think is reasonable for every player to get their orders in.

 

Victory: Victory will only be achieved through military might. There is no cultural conquest, since there are no resources to build giant structures for others to awe at. There’s no diplomatic victory, since this is a dog-eat-dog world, and you’re in it for the prosperity of your tribe.

To achieve victory: You must hold the promised land for 15 years (15 days IRL).

 

 

Warfare

 

Army Structure: Armies are made up of 50,000 soldiers. You cannot have more armies then you have regions (exception: the promised land counts as 4 regions). If you end up with more armies than regions you hold, then your army disappears (they starve to death since every region but the promised land sucks balls at producing food). If you have the additional 4 armies that the promised land grants and you lose the promised land, those 4 armies disappear. The maximum number of armies you can have is THREE (3) unless you hold land in the promised land. Holding the promised land raises your army cap by 4. So, even if you control every region on the map but the promised land, you can only have 3 armies; but your rival who holds the promised land can have 4. If he controls 3 other regions outside the promised land he can have 7 (which is the true army cap). It takes 5 years to build an army (but you can build as many at a time as you like).

Troop types: There are 5 troop types:

Swordsmen

Spearmen

Cavalry

Archers

Chariots

 

The combat system works on a very simple rock-paper-scissors (err, gun, dynamite) formula.

Swordsmen

-Beats spearmen, archers

Spearmen

-Beats chariots, cavalry

Cavalry

-Beats swordsmen, archers

Archers

-Beats spearmen, chariots

Chariots

-Beats swordsmen, cavalry

-You can only have THREE (3) troop types in an army, an entire army of a single troop type, or two of one type and 1 of another. (basically just mix around and play with different armies). It takes 1 year to change your army around (say if you have an army of cavalry + swordsmen + chariots, it’ll take you 1 year to change to cavalry + spearmen + archers). Army changes have to be announced publicly. KEEP TRACK OF THIS STUFF YOURSELF, since I can’t be arsed to do it.

The different numbers can be decided upon by each player accordingly. Terrain doesn’t have much effect on combat, as I wanted to keep the combat relatively simple so that I’m not bogged down as Arch was during the Hegemony wars.

 

Fleets:

Basics: Fleets are a bunch of ships. They’re necessary to transport your people across the sea to the promised land. You can only have 2 fleets at one time (no fleet limit bonus for the promised land). 1 fleet can only transport 1 army. If the fleet is destroyed at sea with an army on board, the army is destroyed (your people are idiots that don’t know how to swim). Fleets take 5 years to build, just like armies, and two can be built at one time.

(Trial – Might be removed later) Advanced Fleets: When a fleet is built, it’s ½ transport and ½ military. However, you can mix your fleet so that you have a fleet that is 1/1 transport ships, and 1/1 military. It’s kinda risky, as if your transport fleet is attacked, it has a 99% chance (yay pulling statistics out of thin air) of being destroyed. However, an attack on a standard fleet (half n’ half) with an entirely military fleet is a lot more likely to succeed.

A fleet sitting in port is not invulnerable. Actually, it’s the exact opposite, so having a fleet with no military ships to protect it is a very dangerous move.

**Note: This may be removed later as it might just be a major annoyance for me to keep track of.

 

Army Movement: Armies move 1 region per turn. The exception being that if your army is entirely cavalry/chariots, it moves at 2 per turn (balanced by the fact that a single troop type, spearmen, beat both cavalry and chariots). Post your army locations on the thread (since armies are horrendously hard to hide, and there is no “ninja” troop class). Also, post moves in the thread, unless you’re planning a surprise attack (those go under attacks anyways, though, so will be PM’d to me). Surprise attacks have a high chance of failing and leaving your army in a worse position than before, so keep that in mind (I’ll roll a dice). They give you a nice bonus if they succeed though. Armies are represented on the map by your tribe’s flag. 1 flag = 1 army.

 

Battles: Battles are fought between armies. There are no citizen militias to rally to the defense of a region, and no peasant uprisings to repel invaders. If someone attacks one of your regions and you don’t have an army there, they take it (so don’t build walls unless you’re prepared to have an army sit there and defend them). However, if someone attacks one of your provinces and one of your armies are there, there is a battle weee. I’ll determine the victor of the battle, depending on strategy, disposition of forces, available defenses, and however much I have been drinking at the time. If you lose, you lose. If you win, yay. If an army is defeated, it is destroyed, there are no survivors (the play dead tech is around 100 years away still).

There can be battles between multiple armies in a single region, as well as three-way (or 4 way depending on how kinky you are) battles.

 

Building: I’d be extremely wary of building any sort of static defenses anywhere, considering that because of the army limitations, it’s very likely that a wall you construct will be a wall you will later need to assault. However, you can build a few things to help defend. Earth palisades give you a slight bonus for defense, and don’t take too long to build (5 years – keep track of it yourself and don’t cheat). Wooden walls can be built, those take 10 years. And finally stone walls can be build, but those take 20 years. Keep track of the times yourself please, as the game isn’t “make Dusty go and search through a bunch of old posts” (if you can’t find the post where you started construction, then it’ll be assumed construction wasn’t started at all). Walls and whatnot have to be announced publicly, as it’s impossible to hide something like that. Harbours have to be built before you can build a fleet (and a fleet has to be built before you can take the promised land). Harbours take 5 years to build (so theoretically you could just wait for a neighbor to complete his harbour and then zerg rush him [or her] and take it, saving you the resources and time). Once a structure has been built (wall, palisade, harbour) it cannot be destroyed. Once the construction has completed, post the icon on the region of the map you built it.

A good idea for keeping track is to make the post, and then write down the date the building will be finished somewhere (notepad doc, the profile notes on tif, hell, you could even use one of those weird old things called…payper? Papper? Eh whatever, it comes from trees).

 

Alliances: This game is a FFA. However, I can’t impose any sort of an alliance rule, as people will do as they will. Just keep in mind that there can only be 1 victor, so someone who you form an alliance with is liable to attack you if you get too weak.

 

Tl;dr

-Build armies

-Take coastal regions

-Build ports and fleets

-Take promised land

-Hold the promised land for 15 turns

(Insert kill, maim, backstab, and murder between every step as needed)

So yeah, that should cover it all. Good luck.

[Nero]

Maps & Icons

 

[hide=Regional Map] [/hide]

[hide=Terrain Map] [/hide]

Harbour Icon:

Earth Palisade Icon:

Wooden Wall Icon:

Stone Wall Icon:

[Nero]

Res. You can post now.

 

Also, if anyone is looking for flags, I compiled a huge amount of them for a different game (Mount&Blade), and they can be downloaded here: http://www.mbrepository.com/file.php?id=1420

 

(and around 1276 others)

[VEGHATERMEATLOVER]

Fantasitically designed, this is basically what tip.it kingdoms should've been before it was overwhelemed with complexity.

Otherwise, this looks fantastic and seems to involve a lot of strategy, i'll probably join.

 

is the promised land in the middle?

[Seraphi]

I'll reread rules later, I only scanned them for now, but it looks interesting. I think I'll probably play.

 

Hex, I think you're still missing the point of kingdoms.

It was supposed to be complex so that players would actually have to think long and hard about their tactics.

(kingdoms may still start if somebody can get the program for free "Somehow".)

[RpgGamer]

If I find the time, I'll play this as well. Juggling Hegemony and NationStates is pretty difficult at the moment as is. But if things clear up, than I'll certainly put my time toward this.

[archimage_a]

The only problem I see is that the regions are staggered so one person might have to only capture three regions to get the promised land and another might have to capture 5.

I think that is called first come, first serve.

 

Well, I thought about it, but no. I just don't think it quite has the appeal required. I mean for the most part you will be waiting for stuff to be done....and waiting...and waiting. The battle engagements seem too simplistic(as is the way with Rock-Paper-Scissors) and will just lead to people building an army to stop/fight their neighbour, since they can both change their army one after the other you could even have a running conversion all the way up to the final second...ebay style.

 

Also, if you were terribly smart, you would get to the promised land and then create a death dot(a stack of troops which can defeat anything). So the last 15 days would be terribly drawn out, unless people united and threw 5 or more armies at it...Then who would win out of the a three way? Since the two victors couldn't occupy the same territory...

 

The walls thing sounds good, but what is the point? Since everything is going towards the middle build a wall to protect your outer provinces, or even your harbour provinces is fairly pointless, since once you get across you can build a harbour there and sacrifice your colonies. I mean spending 20 years and tonnes of resources on something that isn't really worthwhile doesn't seem terribly good.

Also can they(Walls) be destroyed? If so how?

 

Not to put too much of a dampener on it because it would be cool if it worked=)

[archimage_a]

....Which Hegemony have you been playing? Strategy came into it in the last 0.0000001%. For the most part it was "troops, forward march!"

[archimage_a]

Would it not just be easier to create a tactical level roleplay? Ie have a battlefield and move your troops around on that, rather than continents.

 

Set piece battles, thats what they are called.

[Seraphi]

We didn't fail, we just couldn't buy the program.

RPG found it for free, but I don't usually download stuff like that.

[archimage_a]

How about we split ground troops into three tiers?

Good idea

 

Melee:

Spearmen --> Swordsmen --> (something else) --> Spearmen

Macemen?

 

Cavalry:

Lancer --> Cavalry Archer --> Chariot --> Lancer

Melee-Range-Cavalry? What about Knight, Wolf Rider and Chariot

 

Melee --> Cavalry --> Ranged --> Melee

Not sure about this, if they were confined to one class it would make the gameplay more dynamic. Instead of just switching to face each foe you would need to build separate armies.

[RpgGamer]

We didn't fail, we just couldn't buy the program.

RPG found it for free, but I don't usually download stuff like that.

 

 

:wall:

You mwan that was it and you didn't download it? For christ sake. I'll download it if it gets this game going.

[archimage_a]

Ah right, I get you, I thought you were talking about converting your army from Range to Melee and such. If you just meant triangle of attack then that is different.

[Nero]

The only problem I see is that the regions are staggered so one person might have to only capture three regions to get the promised land and another might have to capture 5.

I think that is called first come, first serve.

 

Well, I thought about it, but no. I just don't think it quite has the appeal required. I mean for the most part you will be waiting for stuff to be done....and waiting...and waiting. The battle engagements seem too simplistic(as is the way with Rock-Paper-Scissors) and will just lead to people building an army to stop/fight their neighbour, since they can both change their army one after the other you could even have a running conversion all the way up to the final second...ebay style.

 

Also, if you were terribly smart, you would get to the promised land and then create a death dot(a stack of troops which can defeat anything). So the last 15 days would be terribly drawn out, unless people united and threw 5 or more armies at it...Then who would win out of the a three way? Since the two victors couldn't occupy the same territory...

 

The walls thing sounds good, but what is the point? Since everything is going towards the middle build a wall to protect your outer provinces, or even your harbour provinces is fairly pointless, since once you get across you can build a harbour there and sacrifice your colonies. I mean spending 20 years and tonnes of resources on something that isn't really worthwhile doesn't seem terribly good.

Also can they(Walls) be destroyed? If so how?

 

Not to put too much of a dampener on it because it would be cool if it worked=)

The way it would work is that even if you had the promised land and managed to build enough armies, you still wouldn't be strong enough to take on everyone. And since you can only win by taking the promised land, everyone will be attacking you.

 

As for sacrificing your colonies after taking the promised land, yeah, you could do that. But if you lose the promised land you have no regions, and so you're eliminated from the game.

 

Hm, maybe 3 years to change an army then?

 

Death dot? Promised land can only hold 4 armies, and so if two people attacked you with their two fleets in armies then you'd be pretty much on even ground. If 3 people attacked then you'd be outnumbered. The victor would be decided by me or randomly I guess.

 

What's the point in walls? Exactly. They're just a little addition. No buildings can be destroyed.

 

Otherwise you could completely make yourself invlunerable by making your 3 armies Spearmen Swordsmen and Cavalry.

Swordsmen, Swordsmen, Spearmen would beat it.

Battles would be about strategy as well, so if you say: "I attack with my army" I'll just assume they're going to march in a straight line towards the enemy and then engage. But if someone actually makes up a battle plan...

[Seraphi]

We didn't fail, we just couldn't buy the program.

RPG found it for free, but I don't usually download stuff like that.

:wall:

You mwan that was it and you didn't download it? For christ sake. I'll download it if it gets this game going.

I just worry about things like that, they're used for viruses all the time.

[Nero]

We didn't fail, we just couldn't buy the program.

RPG found it for free, but I don't usually download stuff like that.

:wall:

You mwan that was it and you didn't download it? For christ sake. I'll download it if it gets this game going.

I just worry about things like that, they're used for viruses all the time.

Avira, AVG, McAfee, Kaspersky ?

[Seraphi]

I have Norton also.

You see why I'm worried?

[Nero]

We didn't fail, we just couldn't buy the program.

RPG found it for free, but I don't usually download stuff like that.

:wall:

You mwan that was it and you didn't download it? For christ sake. I'll download it if it gets this game going.

I just worry about things like that, they're used for viruses all the time.

Avira, AVG, McAfee, Kaspersky ?

<-- Has Norton.

 

*cries self to sleep*

 

EDIT: Also maybe we should add a little terrain? A lot can be changed by having high ground etc.

The thing was I didn't want to have to work out all the little bonuses and whatnot

+5% for hills

+10% for mountains

+5% for scythed chariots

+5% for bodkin arrows

+5% for tempered steel swords

etcetcetc

I'd probably get overwhelmed and lose track of it all anyways.

 

If it turns out that the game is really boring without all the little additions then it'll be modified. Right now I'd like to start with the system as it is, sort of the bare bones so as to see what needs tweaking, removing, or adding.

 

Btw Norton sucks.

 

--

 

Game starts Monday, so make a post if you're willing to take part.

[RpgGamer]

Shotgun bottom left hand corner!

[VEGHATERMEATLOVER]

Sorry, did it before you.

 

[VEGHATERMEATLOVER]

Dusty, what happens when we hold the promised land for 15 years? the person who did it gets a point or we have to stop the game?

[VEGHATERMEATLOVER]

I agree with the concept but won't it be hard, with new players coming and going?

[VEGHATERMEATLOVER]

OMG! OMG!

I had an idea but it was to complex :L

 

otherwise, yeh - I support.

[Nero]

Hm, seems like a good idea, I'll edit the region map sometime today.

[RpgGamer]

Thank you for marking my spot Hex, now please choose your own (first post beats picture)