As per my promise here is the basic format to the game which will be given to all the players (about 8 have signed up so far.
18TH CENTURY IMAGI-NATIONS CAMPAIGN
ORGANIZATION
The game is organized around the rules and the fluff.
THE RULES.
The war game will be organized around the central element of the table top battle to be held at my place once a month. The tactical rules to be used will be Mon Dieu!!! Tout Saif un Sixe! or Oh God! Anything but a Six! The game will be set in the 18th century. The format of the games will be the Army and Detatchment System embodied in the rules with which you all are by now completely boringly and crushingly familiar.
For those not in the know this means that the maximum forces on either side can be an army and a detachment (sometimes called a Brigade). All armies are identical in numbers and types of units, and are five line infantry regiments, two elite infantry regiments (which can be either a Grenadier or Light Infantry Regiment, or six stands of SCUM which are individual skirmishers), one regiment of Dragoons, four regiments of heavy horse, four regiments of light horse, two heavy guns, two light guns, five wagons, and 10 officers (one rated 4, two rated three three rated 2 and four rated 5. Detachments or Brigades are identical across nations, but vary as to type. GENERALLY they have four regiments of type (infantry, cavalry, artillery, etc., one regiment of dragoons and one wagon, one rated 2 officer and 2 rated 1 officers.
The presence of these strategic units is governed by an allowed maximum table top force of two, only one of which can be an army. Thus, one army and one detachment, one army, two detachments, or one detachment are the only allowable forces on either sdide. Thus a very small battle would have one detachment on either side, and a large would be one army and a detachment.
Play is governed entirely by the gamers present at the game. Each player will have a hypothetical country assigned to him. However only SOME of the countries may be active, as determined by the umpire (usually no more than 4). Each sovereign of that country has a personality assigned to him from a list of 36 possibilities. These personalities will take effect ONLY when the country is inactive or the player who has that country is NOT present at the game. If he is that sovereign s personality is set aside and he may play it as he wishes. If he is not present the umpire will consider that set aside personality in determining the response, if any of the inactive monarch.
Players can have additional personalities as they wish, and may play as generals, admirals, diplomats, counsellors, great land ownders, merchants, fops, churchman, businessmen, officers, peasants, courtesans or whatever they wish and desire. These are cleared with the umpire.
The activated monarchs run the game by first deciding what their intentions are and submitting these in complete English sentences, twenty words or less, on a small tiny post-it, to the umpire,
who will compare them all and determine what the result will be. He will then configure the table top battle and all will have at it.
EXAMPLE
Pete Zaria, King of Land O Goshen writes on his Post-It, I want to hold a tour of inspection of my troops to make sure they are up to snuff.
Newt Rogina King of Bad Zu Wurst writes: I want to Attack Jackson Jill s country.
Helen Highwater of The Princessipate of Saxe Burlap und Schleswig Beerstein writes: I want to ally with the Pasha of Panacea, and form a marriage allianace by marrying one of my sons to one of his daughters, allowing us to hire his corps of War Elephants.
(The umpire will return this post-it and tell her that her that it is way too long, to cut it down to 20 words). The responds with I want make a marriage alliance with Panacea so my army can use his corps of War Elephants! The umpire says Ok, but Helen is confused a bit about the period and there ARE no War Elephants in the game however it s a humorous idea, and he might just let there be for the sake of yuks.
Jackson Jills of The Gulag Archipeligo writes I want to attack the country of Floridanica (a non player country, figuring to get an easy victory).
The umpire will then cross reference these and tell Pete that he is quite satisfied with the shape the army is in and they are ready for anything.
He will tell Helen that the marriage alliance is made, but that Panacea is has no war elephants. Helen says Oh I thought it was an ancient game! However the umpire tells her that the personality of the monarch is one of extreme obsequeousness and tractability and that he has instructed his scholars and scribes to search out the records and attempt to find out what they were and form a corps of them to please the Great Queen from over the water who has so graciously consented to align herself with our poor, miserable, backward… blah blah blah…
Jackson Jill will be informed that he has declared War on Floridanica and sent his fleet out to engage the enemy fleet and sweep them from the seas, but that the Bad Zu Wurstians have invaded and are at this very moment advancing on his capital, Gullagin s Island, and so it is now time to go to the battle at hand where an Army and a brigade of Bad Zu Wurst under the King himself, Faustus the Grump, is attacking his lone army under General Cuspidor.
And let us go to the battle.
THE FLUFF
Everything else is fluff. The lead up to the battle at hand will be composed by the umpire, who will write the battle reports (though individual players are allowed to give their hand at writing incidents and their own versions. Which is more authoritative is a matter of opinion. This will be published in the game newsletter. The umpire files contains all the resources and things the gamers can use which will be presented to them as needed, however the basic fluff that they all have is the basic outlines of the states. These have sovereigns with personalities, but also have national advantages and special rules governing them to flesh out the system and give it local color. As Pooh-Bah says Merely corroborative detail intended to give artistic versimilitude to an otherwise drab and unconvincing argument.
ACTIVE COUNTRIES
The Princessipate of Princess Trixie of Saxe Burlap and Schleswig Beerstein. The state s
special advantages are a militia system which allows one free detatchment of militia at any battle, thus giving them some extra, but virtually worthless troops, and a frei-korps of small and quite elite troops available in the more field and stream areas of the country. Her personality Imagine a flightly 17 year old Valley Girl put on the throne, and fanatically interested in shopping, shoes, boys, boy toys, and shopping.
The Kingdom of Bad Zu Wurst- The state s special advantages are crack troops which give them a +1 to all their tactical values and that Faustus the Grump is a military genius which allows his forces to chose the entry points and deployments points flanks and battle set up on table top battles. His personality is as his monnicker suggest a dyspeptic and melencholy person whose disagreeable nature and stomach troubles are always inflamed by his brother Humberto who is every bit a military genius as he is, but with whom he ends up in inevitable squabbles and acrimonious accusations of who mother loved best.
The Gulag Archipeligo- The states special advantages are barbarian allies only available to them, which are quite good, but a bit hard to handle. They also have the ability to sack enemy towns laying them waste and devastating the countryside. The other special ability is that much of the country is a vast howling wilderness, and an invader must have a wagon detatchment with him to keep him supplied. The Sovereign of the Country is Empress of all the Gulag s Gutrina IV. In the Archipeligo depression, melencholy, and despair are almost genetically universal. Typical poetry by the national poet Feodor Pushpin goes like.
The village burns,
The Cossacks Come
The Dog is dead.
At least tonight, we eat.
Gretchen is the wife of the former Tzar Pickup Andropov. She is a Princess of Saxe Burlap und Schleswig Beerstein, a cute perky, chubby little woman who bakes cookies, and scrumptuous meals, throws parties, is continually happy and chipper, always optomistic, loves kids and dogs, and has bake-sales and quilting bees to help the poor and the army. Her over-the top cheeryness has driven many Gulagians to take the gas pipe, and even the great Pushpin is made even more despondent and depressed by her antics. This of course makes her beloved by all Gulagians. Her husband Pickup has been confined in a monastary because of his constant playing practical jokes on his courtiers.
The Land O Goshen- The national advantages of this country are that it can maintain an unlimited number of victory points, AND it has control of the Philosophes a bunch of intellectual freeloaders and bull throwing artists who can gum up the courts of foreign monarchs. No, they aren t spies, just terrible bores who gas on for hours they know nothing abut and prevent people from doing real, useful work, (like plotting pogroms, wars, internal developments, and useful pursuits. The Sovereign of this country is King Leonidas X, who is the laziest monarch you ever saw. He doesn t want to be king and insteads wants simply to dally with his mistress and avoid all work. He prefers the quiet and contemplative life, and intimate little bits of domesticity. He has, in pursuit of avoiding all work, and has a secret ministry which provides doubles for the king who the ministers rush around attempting to get to sign important edicts and documents, only to find that they have a False Leonidas . The king has in this become a master of disguise, being able to assume almost magically at will the guise of a groom, or a servant, a wandering courtier, a scullion, a chamber maid, or a chamber pot.
Otto
snapped some photos of games he didn't get a chance to play in at Council of Five Nations.
