Mighty Empire ruleset

[Gardelin]

This is a set of rules I've wrote some time ago, after reading the offical rules that comes with the set. To put it shortly, they sucked. So, I decided to make my own, inspired by the TW series, Heroes of might and magic and Civilization.

So, here's the first part covering the mighty empire map.


Armies

The armies are, of course, the staple of every strategic wargame, and these will generally be the most common units appearing on the map. An army is basically an army list, represented by a single model on the map. The armies will range from sizes of 250, 500, 750 and 1000 points, and can be recruited from cities. The limit of the size is only there for the models sakes, and you can have any number of 1000 points armies on the map, using only 1000 points worth of models. This limit can be changed, of course, and is only there as a minimum. More on how the army rooster and recruitment works later.


Movement

An army can move one tile per turn over normal terrain, such as plains, fields and woods. Since the tiles are hexagon shaped, this also had to include rivers.

If the army consists of only cavalry, you can move twice across plains and fields, but only once through woods. You can however, only fight once per turn.

You can move normally to a tile with swamps and mountains, however, you must pass a 4+ test to move away from them. Additionally, an army including any sort of siege weapons can't pass over mountains and swamps.

Others who move about the map are agents and raiders, which I'll get to later on.


Conquering and fighting

If an army moves across neutral or enemy ground, they conquer it, simple as that. Ground belonging to your allies you do not conquer, quite obviously. When a piece of land is conquered, you'll begin to gain upkeep from it the next turn.

All players move at the same time and such, there is two different kinds of engagement. If the armies moved into each other at the same time, you'll play a Meeting Engagement scenario. If you attack an army that did not move, or to another location than your tile, you play a Pitched Battle scenario.

You can also opt to ambush your opponent by laying in wait. Only armies consisting of 500 points can do this however, as the larger size would give away their position. If anyone attacks you while doing this, you play an ambush scenario. Ambushing might not sound that effective, but when done right, it can be devastating.

More on the different scenarios later.


Raiders

Other than the different faction's armies, there's also bandits and raiders moving about and generally being a pain in the arse. These guys spawn randomly at the end of each turn. On a 4+, 1-3 raiding parties of varying size will appear. The sizes range from 125, 250 and 375 points. The numbers and sizes of these parties will scale depending on the number of players.

They appear ion a random neutral tile and will move in a random direction every turn. Any tile they walk on will return to a neutral state, making these random goblin bandits a major nuisance. They are however, quite cowardly and will always flee from an army with a higher points value.

There will also be present a number of raiding parties in the unclaimed cities and keeps on the map.


Agents

These guys are the various diplomats, spies and assassins controlled by each faction. An agent will, similar to the TW series, be represented on the map with a fitting model. These guys can move two tiles per turn, but can never conquer anything. More on what these guys actually do in a later section.


And that is all the rules for movement on the map, along with some other basics. It may be a bit boring and basic, but it's just something you must get out of the way before moving on to the more interesting parts.

[Makarova (M.I.A)]

This sounds like a fantastic outlay for a campaign-based game. It really gains a lot by the sheer simplicity and basic design, overcomplicating things is probably a mistake in games like these.

One question though, if everyone moves at the same time, how do you avoid "PC knowledge"? It seems like there'd be a lot of waiting time with both players looking at their options, and then finally one of them will be brave enough to move an army but that move will instantly be countered in some way by the other player. Sort of like opportunistic chess. Will that really work?

Same thing with ambushes, if I see you laying an ambush why would I attack you?

[Gardelin]

The "move at the same time" was a bit of a concept idea that was added to not give the player taking the first turn an unfair advantage. And also to enable Meeting engagement scenarios. If this was a computer game I'd have everyone to assign orders at the same time, then move. However, that's simply not practical. I'll have to think about that.

The ambushes were originally intended to be "invisible", as you'd remove the ambushing model. But I have the feeling that the instant that happens, all players would memorize that spot and not walk on it. If you have multiple ambushing armies, playing as Wood elves of Beastmen, the player might even forget that he has ambushing armies out there. The ambushes right now are a bit of a hit and miss. If you place them at the right point, the enemy will have no choice but to walk into it.

Any ideas on how to improve both these points would be welcome.

[Makarova (M.I.A)]

For the ambushes, something inspired by 40K strategics might work. Ergo, you pay a points value to set your army as "ambushing" somewhere within your territory, or somewhere within the vacinity of where the unit was. I'm not sure, but something should be possible to figure out.

For movement.. maybe if you write down your movements secretly and then all move at the same time? Not all that time-consuming and very intense!

[Gardelin]

As for ambushing, the recruitment system wouldn't allow it. It would also allow you to "fast travel" armies to other places of your kingdom.

One though I had would be that an ambushing army would automatically attack any army that's on a tile in base contact. This would make the ambush a bit more mobile as they cover more ground.

I don't know about movements. While I do like that idea in theory, there would be a lot of note writing involved anyway. But, that might be a fair price to pay for the added tactical aspect and the intensity of it.
It'll probably not take more time than sitting around and waiting for other players to finish as you would with the turn based system anyway.

I think I'll give it a go.

[Gardelin]

Updating time. This part will be about the players economy, cities, castles and such.


Income

At the start of each turn, you will manage income and upkeep. It is fairly simple, to ease the amount of counting needed each turn.

You will gain 25 gold crowns for every land tile with no city, castle or mine upon.

You will gain 50 gold crowns for every mine in your control.

You will gain 50 gold crowns for every city in your control.

You will gain 100 gold crowns from your capitol. More on the capitol later.

You will have to pay 25 gold crowns for every 250 points of troops you have.


If you cannot pay an army, it will disband. However, if an army stands on a city or castle tile, it will count as being garrisoned, which means that you won't have to pay for it's upkeep. It will also be the army defending these settlements should they come under attack.


The capitol

The capitol, the centre of the kingdom's government. Or what passed for it during medieval times. This is typically the most well-defended and developed of your cities, simply because it is what you have held the longest.

Should your capitol fall to the enemy, you will have three rounds to transfer the government to another city, otherwise the kingdom crumbles and you lose the game. More about what happens when losing the game later.

To transfer to another city, you will have to pay 250 gold crowns for expenses. This will allow you to continue the game and it also raises the new city's income to 100 gold, just as your old capitol.


Settling and constructing

It is expensive, but not impossible to settle new places, creating additional cities and castles. While it may be a bit unrealistic, at least as far as the cities goes, this was added to make the gameplay more diverse and not grant certain victory to whomever grabs the most neutral cities.


Castles

Castles can be built anywhere as long as it is within your territory, even in mountains and swamps. Though if you have seen Monthy Python and the holy grail, you'll probably avoid the swamps...

A castle costs 1000 gold to build and will be a place to garrison troops, defend important locations and with an upgrade, even resupply your armies.

After constructing a castle, you may build additional buildings within to improve it's functionality. These buildings cost 125 gold each and one can be built every turn.

Grain storage: This will add large storages of food, allowing your troops to survive sieges for decades. While having a grain storage, the castles defenders can not be starved to death, which is an option for besieging attackers.

Siege workshop: This gives you a free siege weapon (if you have the model) to be used to defend the castle in a siege. The siege weapon may be anything short of a hell cannon, and may be placed either in the courtyard or in a tower.

Conscription field: This allows you to retrain your armies at the castle. I will go into detail of what this means in the "Recruitment" section later.

Lastly, a castle may be expanded into a city, if it meets all requirements for this, which is the same for settling cities.

This will cost you 1250 gold, plus an additional 125 gold for every building you constructed in the castle. When doing this, the new city will start of with all the previous buildings in the castle with the addition of the "Inner citadel" building.


Cities

To settle a city, first you will need 2000 gold. Then you must find a tile within your control with a village on. Obviously, this will require a fair distribution of village tiles when building the map, or at least a semi-fair. You must also control all tiles around the village tile.

This makes settling a new city a bit of a hassle, and sometimes you will get screwed over just of the terrain setting. In that case you'll just have to find new ground to conquer. I wanted to make cities a big thing, so that you won't just build a few to increase your income.

As with castles, you may construct additional buildings at the cost of 250 gold per building.

Walls: The city will have stone walls, towers and a gatehouse when playing the "City siege, part 1" scenario.

Inner citadel: This is basically a castle within the city, giving the defenders one last point to retreat to. This will allow you to have stone walls, gatehouse and towers when playing the "City siege, part 2" scenario.

Wizard's tower: This will allow you to recruit heroes with magic levels in the city. It will also allow your heroes to purchase magic items.

Grain storage: This building act the same way as the castle variant. You can't be starved to death in a siege.

Conscription field: If playing the scenario "City siege, part 2", this building will give you an additional core infantry unit of 25 or less models strong. If playing WHFB remake, the unit will be limited to 6 points of equipment per model. This represents a citizens militia that is hastily assembled in a dire situation. The unit will fight in the battle and then disbanded.

Beastmaster: This will allow you to recruit monsters larger than an ogre and also to give your heroes monstrous mounts.

Army barracks: With this building, you will be allowed to recruit twice as many troops than normal.

Siege workshop: This will allow you to field siege weapons in your armies.

Merchants guild: This gives you an extra 10 gold of income for every other city you and all other allied players you have trade agreements with. More about this in diplomacy.

Assassins guild: This will allow you to hire assassins.

Academy: This will allow you to hire diplomats.

Spymaster: This will allow you to hire spies.

Tax collector office: This will give the city an extra 20% of base income, meaning that normal cities will give 60 gold and the capitol gives 120. Trade income is not counted to the 20%.


Recruitment

This will cover the recruitment of both armies, units within armies and agents of different kinds.

You can recruit troops in any city, providing you have enough gold and the city is not currently constructing a building or is under siege. In one turn, a city can raise 250 points of troops. With the army barracks building, this increases to 500. These points may include anything, providing you have the right building for it. You may not, for instance, recruit a monster unless you have a Beastmaster building in the same city.

Also, if an army suffers casualties, you may retrain the units in any city or a castle with the right building for half its recruitment cost. This will restore any casualties to units and it will also allow you to modify the army list to include whatever you can recruit in that city.

The hiring of agents is similar to the hiring of troops, however, you can always hire an agent, no matter what is happening to the city. The recruitment cost for the agents are the following.

Diplomat: 50 gold

Spy: 75 gold

Assassin: 100 gold

You may hire as many agents as you wish, but you have to pay them both for the initial hiring, and then for every agent roll they attempt to make. Agents do not pay any upkeep however.



And I think that about covers the stuff you pay for, or get paid for. Next up will be all about agents.

[Machine Gun Kelly]

I've actually played lots of board games where movement starts with a turn where everyone writes order on a sheet of paper. After that you move everything at the same time. Usually it works just fine, and doesn't take much time.

[Gardelin]

I like the idea in the early campaign, but it might be a bit annoying to do this every turn if you have five-six armies in the field, together with all your agents. But I am going to test it out next weekend, when we'll hopefully begin our campaign.

[Machine Gun Kelly]

Lancelot games released a tabletop medieval game in the late 80th, where you used the written order system and you had lots of troops in it. It worked fine and writing orders where easy.
What is importand would be to make some standardisation sheet so every one do it the same way. It will minimise rule debates during the game.

[Shostak(AWOL)]

This looks like a great system! I'd really enjoy playing it.

[Gardelin]

Great to hear! Be sure to read the next update, which will be about agents, my favourite part of the game.

[Gardelin]

Right, update time. The date for the campaign start is growing near, so I though I'd get the rules updated and posted as soon as possible.

This part will be about the different agents that will be in the game. When an agent is recruited, you get to move them around, as stated in the movement section. When they have reached their target, you get to make a roll, for whatever task they might undertake. After this roll, you must pay their employment cost again to have them undertake another task. If not, the agent will abandon your cause and seek employment elsewhere. Agents are also able to gain experience, which will be covered later.


Diplomats

Diplomats are used for, what else, diplomacy. They are the only way to forge alliances, form trade agreements and pacts with other players. They can also be used to coerce both allies and enemies to doing what you want. Finally, they may also attempt to bribe the enemy generals.

To form a pact, alliance or trade agreement, you simply negotiate with the other player once the diplomat have reached the leader. Both players may put offers or demands into the agreement and nothing is rolled when doing this.

If forming an alliance, the players will be allied. They may move around on each others territory and may fight battles together.

If forming a pact, the players will be neutral, or allies for the time being. This is useful when you don't trust the other player and don't want him to take advantage of open borders.

Having trade agreements mean that you'll gain more income from the merchants' guild, as detailed in the building description. You may have trade agreements with any player, even your enemies.

To attempt to coerce another player, roll on the table below if it is an ally. This is mainly to either get troop support, or economical support. Just a fair warning, while the ally must follow the roll result, they must not like it.

2. The negotiations went bad, and the diplomat enraged the ruler. The alliance is broken and may not be reinstated until 5 rounds have passed.
3-5. The negotiations were inconclusive.
6-8. Your ally agrees to help defend your borders from attackers. They must send 1/4 of all their forces to your borderland. The troops may either leave when you let them, or when there is no real threat.
9. Your ally agrees to help defend your borders from attackers. They must send 1/2 of all their forces to your borderland. The troops may either leave when you let them, or when there is no real threat.
10-11. Your ally agrees to attack your opponent. They must send 1/4 of their armies to attack. The troops may retreat either if the enemy is crushed, or the superiority of the enemy is overwhelming.
12. Instead of sending troops, your ally decides to help you economically. He must send all of the next income to you, after paying the necessary upkeeps.


When sending the diplomat to an enemy, roll on the chart below. This is mainly used to stall the enemy, either to build up a defence or to prepare an attack.

2. The negotiations went bad. Real bad. The diplomat is executed.
3. The diplomat loses two fingers and is violently sent away.
4-7. The diplomat manages to come to agreement on a minor pact, which may or may not be beneficial. If you pay 2D6 gold to the other player, he may not attack your lands within two rounds.
8-9. The diplomat has successfully managed to stall the enemy. They may not attack your lands within two rounds.
10. The diplomat has successfully managed to stall the enemy. They may not attack your lands within three rounds.
11. The diplomat has successfully managed to stall the enemy. They may not attack your lands within four rounds.
12. The diplomat has formed a temporary alliance with the enemy that lasts for five rounds. During this alliance, the enemy may not move onto your territory. You may, however, move on theirs.


Finally, should the negotiations go bad, or you simply have an abundance of gold, you may attempt to bribe the enemy general to get him to disband his forces. To bribe, count the average Ld of the enemy army. This is done per model, and not per unit. So if you took those 60 goblins because you had 120 points to spare, you might suffer for it. The enemy must now take a Ld test on this value. If they succeed, nothing happens. If they roll insane courage, i.e double ones, they lynch the poor diplomat in a patriotic (or homicidal) rage. Should they fail the test, you may pay their army upkeep times the result of the Ld roll. For instance, if a human army with a value of 500 pts with an average Ld of 7 rolls an 8, failing, you may pay their army upkeep (50) times the Ld roll result (8), you may pay them 50x8=400 gold to have them disband.

You might also bribe a neutral army. This is done the same way, but instead of disband, they join your faction as freebooters. You may control their movement and any owned tile, except for yours, they walk on will return to a neutral state. They may also fight the enemy as if they were one of your own armies. However, they may not fight other neutral bands. This was mainly put in so that there won't ever be a problem getting enough minis to the battles. Which is the same reason that you can't get the enemy army to join your faction.


Spy

Spies are used to infiltrate enemy armies and settlements, spreading lies or do acts of sabotage. Spies will both collect information on enemy movement and cause general chaos and irritation to the enemy.

Spies may attempt to infiltrate an enemy army to both spy on the movements or give the commanders false information and orders.

2-4. The spy is discovered and killed by the guards while trying to infiltrate.
5. The spy didn't found out anything.
6-7. The spy is unable to relay any false orders to the army, but he did manage to find out the move orders they received. The enemy player must tell the army's next move instead of keeping it hidden.
8. The spy turned the commander's map upside down. The army moves in a random direction next turn.
9. The spy falsified a number of orders from the grand marshal. Move the army in a random direction the next two turns.
10. The spy managed to impersonate an important messenger and had time to properly change the message. Move the enemy army in any direction you want the next turn.
11. The spy ambushed a royal messenger and managed to copy the royal seal. The "king" orders half of the troops to disband.
12. The spy have incapacitated the enemy general and managed to impersonate him. You gain control of the army for 1D6 turns. The army cannot conquer territory in your name, but it may abandon it's own territory by walking on it. The army cannot attack it's own troops as well, since the soldiers would suspect that something would be very wrong. You may however, order the troops to disband.


In addition to infiltrate armies, spies may also infiltrate cities in order to sabotage important buildings, by the use of either fire or a healthy supply of gunpowder barrels.

2-4. The spy is discovered and thrown into the dungeons.
5-6. The spy is unable to reach the intended target.
7. The spy misses the target in the dark, damaging a civilian structure instead. The enemy must pay 50 gold for reparations.
8-11. The spy blows up the intended target, heavily damaging the structure. The enemy will have to pay 125 gold for reparations, or be unable to use the building. If the walls were sabotaged, it will be the gate that's blown up, not the entire wall.
12. The spy not only blows up the intended target, it is also obliterated from the face of the earth. The building must be replaced entirely.

Infiltration difficulty.
Depending on certain conditions, it may be more difficult to infiltrate a place. The spy receives a -1 penalty if attempting to infiltrate the capitol or the faction leader's army. If infiltrating the faction leader, the spy may also never roll a 12.

Assassin

The assassin does what they do best. Kill people in cold blood. These murderers are the only ones able to kill other agents and are also able to stage assassination attempts on generals and other ranking leaders.

2. The assassin was killed and was stupid enough to have some of his gold on him. The enemy adds 2D6x10 gold to the treasury.
3-4. The assassin is detected and killed.
5. The assassin fails to detect the enemy leader.
6. The assassin fails in even getting close to the target, and returns some of the payment as compensation. Add 75 gold to the treasury.
7. The assassin kills a random, very important looking champion, believing it was the enemy leader. Remove one random champion from a unit. If you don't have a champion, remove a soldier.
8-11. The assassin got detected by its mark and must now fight a duel to the death. The assassin is equipped with light armour and two weapons and uses the profile of a standard hero. The mark, if a hero, fights without armour and only one of his weapons. If the mark was a spy or diplomat, use the normal racial profiles, armed with a hand weapon.
12. The assassin succeeds in quietly slitting the mark's throat. With an accompanying satisfying gurgling sound.

Assassination difficulty.
Some places are more difficult to reach than others, And some people are more watchful than others. The assassin gets a -1 penalty for assassinating someone in a city, a -2 penalty for someone in a castle and a -2 penalty for the faction leader. This penalty stacks with the others, so the faction leader in a castle would be -4.


Experience

Agents who perform their craft well will receive experience, making it easier to perform future missions. For every natural roll of between 8-12, the agent gain an experience point, to a maximum of 3. For every point, you will get +1 on all rolls with the agent.

Additionally, if you can no longer afford to pay an experienced agent, it will seek employment elsewhere. Any player may employ the agent in question, by hiring him like you'd hire a normal agent.


And I believe that was everything. If you have any ideas of another agent that should be in the game, please suggest. The agent line-up right now is a bit limited and I'd love to add more of them.

[Gardelin]

Right, update time. The date for the campaign start is growing near, so I though I'd get the rules updated and posted as soon as possible.

This part will be about the different agents that will be in the game. When an agent is recruited, you get to move them around, as stated in the movement section. When they have reached their target, you get to make a roll, for whatever task they might undertake. After this roll, you must pay their employment cost again to have them undertake another task. If not, the agent will abandon your cause and seek employment elsewhere. Agents are also able to gain experience, which will be covered later.


Diplomats

Diplomats are used for, what else, diplomacy. They are the only way to forge alliances, form trade agreements and pacts with other players. They can also be used to coerce both allies and enemies to doing what you want. Finally, they may also attempt to bribe the enemy generals.

To form a pact, alliance or trade agreement, you simply negotiate with the other player once the diplomat have reached the leader. Both players may put offers or demands into the agreement and nothing is rolled when doing this.

If forming an alliance, the players will be allied. They may move around on each others territory and may fight battles together.

If forming a pact, the players will be neutral, or allies for the time being. This is useful when you don't trust the other player and don't want him to take advantage of open borders.

Having trade agreements mean that you'll gain more income from the merchants' guild, as detailed in the building description. You may have trade agreements with any player, even your enemies.

To attempt to coerce another player, roll on the table below if it is an ally. This is mainly to either get troop support, or economical support. Just a fair warning, while the ally must follow the roll result, they must not like it.

2. The negotiations went bad, and the diplomat enraged the ruler. The alliance is broken and may not be reinstated until 5 rounds have passed.
3-5. The negotiations were inconclusive.
6-8. Your ally agrees to help defend your borders from attackers. They must send 1/4 of all their forces to your borderland. The troops may either leave when you let them, or when there is no real threat.
9. Your ally agrees to help defend your borders from attackers. They must send 1/2 of all their forces to your borderland. The troops may either leave when you let them, or when there is no real threat.
10-11. Your ally agrees to attack your opponent. They must send 1/4 of their armies to attack. The troops may retreat either if the enemy is crushed, or the superiority of the enemy is overwhelming.
12. Instead of sending troops, your ally decides to help you economically. He must send all of the next income to you, after paying the necessary upkeeps.


When sending the diplomat to an enemy, roll on the chart below. This is mainly used to stall the enemy, either to build up a defence or to prepare an attack.

2. The negotiations went bad. Real bad. The diplomat is executed.
3. The diplomat loses two fingers and is violently sent away.
4-7. The diplomat manages to come to agreement on a minor pact, which may or may not be beneficial. If you pay 2D6 gold to the other player, he may not attack your lands within two rounds.
8-9. The diplomat has successfully managed to stall the enemy. They may not attack your lands within two rounds.
10. The diplomat has successfully managed to stall the enemy. They may not attack your lands within three rounds.
11. The diplomat has successfully managed to stall the enemy. They may not attack your lands within four rounds.
12. The diplomat has formed a temporary alliance with the enemy that lasts for five rounds. During this alliance, the enemy may not move onto your territory. You may, however, move on theirs.


Finally, should the negotiations go bad, or you simply have an abundance of gold, you may attempt to bribe the enemy general to get him to disband his forces. To bribe, count the average Ld of the enemy army. This is done per model, and not per unit. So if you took those 60 goblins because you had 120 points to spare, you might suffer for it. The enemy must now take a Ld test on this value. If they succeed, nothing happens. If they roll insane courage, i.e double ones, they lynch the poor diplomat in a patriotic (or homicidal) rage. Should they fail the test, you may pay their army upkeep times the result of the Ld roll. For instance, if a human army with a value of 500 pts with an average Ld of 7 rolls an 8, failing, you may pay their army upkeep (50) times the Ld roll result (8), you may pay them 50x8=400 gold to have them disband.

You might also bribe a neutral army. This is done the same way, but instead of disband, they join your faction as freebooters. You may control their movement and any owned tile, except for yours, they walk on will return to a neutral state. They may also fight the enemy as if they were one of your own armies. However, they may not fight other neutral bands. This was mainly put in so that there won't ever be a problem getting enough minis to the battles. Which is the same reason that you can't get the enemy army to join your faction.


Spy

Spies are used to infiltrate enemy armies and settlements, spreading lies or do acts of sabotage. Spies will both collect information on enemy movement and cause general chaos and irritation to the enemy.

Spies may attempt to infiltrate an enemy army to both spy on the movements or give the commanders false information and orders.

2-4. The spy is discovered and killed by the guards while trying to infiltrate.
5. The spy didn't found out anything.
6-7. The spy is unable to relay any false orders to the army, but he did manage to find out the move orders they received. The enemy player must tell the army's next move instead of keeping it hidden.
8. The spy turned the commander's map upside down. The army moves in a random direction next turn.
9. The spy falsified a number of orders from the grand marshal. Move the army in a random direction the next two turns.
10. The spy managed to impersonate an important messenger and had time to properly change the message. Move the enemy army in any direction you want the next turn.
11. The spy ambushed a royal messenger and managed to copy the royal seal. The "king" orders half of the troops to disband.
12. The spy have incapacitated the enemy general and managed to impersonate him. You gain control of the army for 1D6 turns. The army cannot conquer territory in your name, but it may abandon it's own territory by walking on it. The army cannot attack it's own troops as well, since the soldiers would suspect that something would be very wrong. You may however, order the troops to disband.


In addition to infiltrate armies, spies may also infiltrate cities in order to sabotage important buildings, by the use of either fire or a healthy supply of gunpowder barrels.

2-4. The spy is discovered and thrown into the dungeons.
5-6. The spy is unable to reach the intended target.
7. The spy misses the target in the dark, damaging a civilian structure instead. The enemy must pay 50 gold for reparations.
8-11. The spy blows up the intended target, heavily damaging the structure. The enemy will have to pay 125 gold for reparations, or be unable to use the building. If the walls were sabotaged, it will be the gate that's blown up, not the entire wall.
12. The spy not only blows up the intended target, it is also obliterated from the face of the earth. The building must be replaced entirely.

Infiltration difficulty.
Depending on certain conditions, it may be more difficult to infiltrate a place. The spy receives a -1 penalty if attempting to infiltrate the capitol or the faction leader's army. If infiltrating the faction leader, the spy may also never roll a 12.

Assassin

The assassin does what they do best. Kill people in cold blood. These murderers are the only ones able to kill other agents and are also able to stage assassination attempts on generals and other ranking leaders.

2. The assassin was killed and was stupid enough to have some of his gold on him. The enemy adds 2D6x10 gold to the treasury.
3-4. The assassin is detected and killed.
5. The assassin fails to detect the enemy leader.
6. The assassin fails in even getting close to the target, and returns some of the payment as compensation. Add 75 gold to the treasury.
7. The assassin kills a random, very important looking champion, believing it was the enemy leader. Remove one random champion from a unit. If you don't have a champion, remove a soldier.
8-11. The assassin got detected by its mark and must now fight a duel to the death. The assassin is equipped with light armour and two weapons and uses the profile of a standard hero. The mark, if a hero, fights without armour and only one of his weapons. If the mark was a spy or diplomat, use the normal racial profiles, armed with a hand weapon.
12. The assassin succeeds in quietly slitting the mark's throat. With an accompanying satisfying gurgling sound.

Assassination difficulty.
Some places are more difficult to reach than others, And some people are more watchful than others. The assassin gets a -1 penalty for assassinating someone in a city, a -2 penalty for someone in a castle and a -2 penalty for the faction leader. This penalty stacks with the others, so the faction leader in a castle would be -4.


Experience

Agents who perform their craft well will receive experience, making it easier to perform future missions. For every natural roll of between 8-12, the agent gain an experience point, to a maximum of 3. For every point, you will get +1 on all rolls with the agent.

Additionally, if you can no longer afford to pay an experienced agent, it will seek employment elsewhere. Any player may employ the agent in question, by hiring him like you'd hire a normal agent.


And I believe that was everything. If you have any ideas of another agent that should be in the game, please suggest. The agent line-up right now is a bit limited and I'd love to add more of them.

[F.K.M]

Sorry that i'm not reading this all right now. It's quite a lot to read for me right now. Are there any special bonuses for taking enemy capitals or beating an enemy and knocking them out of a game?

Any race or side specific bonuses. For instance maybe undead have a bonus for resurrected enemy armies they have killed or skaven and dark elves get bonuses for assassins as they have them already and skaven often infiltrate human society so frequently anyway and are often a myth. Same thing should work with spies. I figure skaven would have trouble with negotiating things though considering they backstab so frequently.

Skaven would build castles on swamps anyway. After all look at skavenblight. I get the feeling orcs might do similar but skaven, orcs and beastmen take castles and pillage and loot more than build themselves. The skaven build tunnels but they steal dwarf holds quite frequently too.

Speaking on the topic of racial stats skaven have an under-empire just as the dwarfs do. Could we give racial stats such as bypassing certain land here and there for a certain amount of gold and a mild amount of danger (like a cave in).

[Makarova (M.I.A)]

Nice to read the updates, can't believe I missed them yesterday!

Everything looks really, really good to be honest. I've seen the outlines of these rules before, but the simplicity and generalisation of the game as it appears now is fantastic and very approachable if you want to play historical or other types of games than WHFB. I think it's much nicer this way, rather than making the specific racial elements a determining factor. Not saying you shouldn't add racial rules, but the game works as a cool general campaign setting without them.

Only thing that crossed my mind is the pacts really.. If you form a pact, do you choose to be neutral/ally? And do you choose the rights and limits of the pact, such as if movement across eath others lands should be allowed? The description is a bit vague.

[Gardelin]

F.K.M : There's no real bonus to capturing the enemy capitol, other than that the enemy suffers from it. But if you beat another player, you will get their entire treasury added to yours, in addition to the land you've conquered.

All different races and some kingdoms have their own racial rules, which I'll get around to post. These are mostly simple, but adds character, especially to races such as undead and chaos.

About tunnelling and underground empires... The earlier version of the game did include tunnelling for Skavens, but it was removed due to very confusing movement, the same reason ambushes were simplified. And also due to the fact that any Skavens troops involved in the campaign would have conquest in their mind, not infiltrating. You could view their part in this as the grand invasion. Maybe on a slightly smaller scale, but still.

While I do like the idea of Skaven and dwarves tunnelling through mountain terrain to pass it easier, it wouldn't be realistic for an army to do. Building tunnels through a mountain would take more time than to go over the thing.

Also, Skaven and dwarves build castles and cities much as everyone else, with the addition that they can build them in the mountains as well. And if you have terrain and models for the settlement to be underground, you can go ahead. It won't receive any other special rules other than that though, but it'll probably be a lot more difficult to fight in.

Makarova: The pacts are a bit vague, yes. But essentially; a pact is just a deal to not attack each other's forces and tread on each other's lands. Something two players would form against a greater threat, even if they don't have any interest/trust in being truly allied.

So, to sum up; No attacking of each other and being allied in battle, but no walking on each other's territory.

I've been a bit busy with, you know, stuff, but since there has been much talk of racial rules, I'll post them this weekend.

[Makarova (M.I.A)]

Thanks for clarifing that, sounds reasonable on all grounds. I like the approach to tunnelling and racial rules as well, looking forward to seeing them.

Totally nicking this for any future campaigns I do.

[Gardelin]

Alright, here comes the racial rules update.

All factions are divided in three categories, order, disorder and the impartial. These names are mostly there for added cheesyness and anyone within the same category are by no means allied by default. There is a reason for it though. Factions belonging to the order may not be allied with factions from disorder. They may still form pacts though. The impartial may be allied with anyone.

Now, all factions have two and sometimes three racial rules, usually one beneficial and one negative.

Order:

The Empire:
State Army: The Empire has one of the few professional armies in the old world and can raise troops more efficiently than others. They only pay 200 gold for 250 points of troops. However, professional troops require payment at the end of each day, and so the upkeep for every 250 points of troops is 10 gold more expensive.
Master Negotiators: Imperial diplomats are world renowned and have extensive academic training. All diplomats begin with +1 experience.


Kingdom of Bretonnia:
Chivalry and Honour: Th lords of Bretonnia uphold their agreements and alliances. They may never betray an allied or pact member (i.e, attack without cancelling the agreement) and if they are betrayed themselves, they may never re-ally or go into a pact with that player again.
Feudalism: The Bretonnian peasants work their backs of for their lords, and eat no more than the bare minimum to keep work next day. The result is a rich nobility and grumbled and starving peasants. Bretonnia will gain +10 upkeep from all non-city non-mine regions.


The Asuryan:
Fading: The high elves are few in numbers, and so, they pay 300 gold for every 250 points of troops.
Elven Riches: The high elves are some of the richest people in the entire world. They gain +25 upkeep from their cities, including the capitol.


The Sons of Grungi:
Master Miners: Dwarven mines tend to be more productive than others. Perhaps because of their obsession with valuable ore. All dwarven mines gain +25 upkeep.
Slow to trust: Dwarves are known to carry grudges to the extreme, and are slow to trust any strangers. The Dwarves may never ally themselves with anyone whom they have not been neutral or in a pact with for at least 8 rounds.
Mountaineers: Dwarven armies gain +1 on the terrain roll for passing through mountains.


Disorder

The Chaos Wastes:
Ruinous Powers: Chaos corrupt and defile any settlement they capture. If a non-chaos player capture a Chaos city, they may not recruit or re-train anyone for at least 2 rounds.
Favour of the Gods: The Chaos Gods enjoy the slaughter of, well, everyone. Chaos armies will gain twice the amount of gold for looting than normal.
(Note that the chaos wastes rules apply to daemons, beastmen and mortals)


The Druchii:
The Cult of Khaine: Dark Elf assassins are some of the most well trained there is. Dark Elf assassins begin with +1 experience.
Numerous: In difference from the other elves, the Druchii does not have increased recruitment costs.
Betrayers: When your entire race are known for their backstabbing, it might be time to stop. Dark elves get -1 on all diplomacy rolls.



The Undead:
Dead ‘uns: Dead men does not require payment. Undeads does not pay any army upkeep.
Land of the Dead: Dead men does not require work. Undeads does only gain 10 upkeep from land tiles and only half from cities. Any cities occupied by undeads counts as having grain storages.
Necromantic Powers: The base of every undead host is a mighty necromancer. The Undead starting capitol begins with a Wizard’s Tower. In addition, should an undead army ever be without a Necromancer it will crumble after the battle.


The Skaven:
Sabouters: Skavens have a long history of espionage and sabotage. Skaven spies begin with +1 experience.
Limitless: The Skaven are seemingly limitless and gain reinforcements faster than the enemy kill them. The Skaven pay 125 gold less for every 250 points of troops they purchase.


The Orcs:
Whaaag!: The classic Orc warband includes killing something and then try find some more to kill. An Orc army gain a “free” move after every battle, enabling them to move again. They may not do this to fight another battle.
Territorial: Orcs are very aggressive and would even look for a fight with their allies, given an excuse. If Orc allies enter Orc territory, they automatically declare war. The war must last at least 5 rounds and cannot be broken by diplomacy.


The Impartial


The land of Tilea:
Intrigues: Tilea is known for intrigues, assassinations and espionage. They are also known as non-trustworthy. All agents paid by Tilea costs -25 gold.
Corrupt: Soldiers of Tilea tend to take any money given to them, not caring where it came from. When attempting to bribe Tilean soldiers, count their average leadership -1.


The Ogre Kingdoms
Mountaineers: Ogres live their entire lives on the mountains. They get +1 on the roll to traverse mountains.
For Hire: Entire ogre clans tend to be for hire to the highest bidder, which does not really ensure their loyalty. Any player may buy their allegiance. For 500 gold, you can turn them from enemies, to neutral. They may not attack the same player in at least 5 turns. For 1000 gold, you can turn them to allies. They may not attack the same player in at least 5 turns.


The Asrai:
Guerrilla Fighters: Wood elves are adept at ambushing travelling warbands, as they have done since arriving to Athel. Wood elves may ambush with a 750 points army instead of the normal 500.
Few in numbers: As with the High elves, the wood elves are few in number, but not due to casualties of war, but rather to having small societies. Wood elves pay 300 points for 250 points worth of troops.


And that was all of the racial rules. If you have any suggestions or if something looks strange, please tell. I'm always looking for stuff to improve the rules.

[F.K.M]

Skaven could use a couple negative modifiers and this is coming from a skaven player. Skaven aren't exactly trustworthy and might fight amongst themselves or betray each other. Skaven are also pretty cowardly. Just a few hints for possible ideas.

I'm liking the ideas though. Adds some flavor to the armies.

Beastmen are also good at ambushing in case you want to add that. It looks like you just grouped all chaos groups together which is ok but daemons have instability and beastmen have rage for civilized nations and can ambush really well.

[Gardelin]

You do bring up a good point. I hadn't noticed that the Skaven were one of the only races with no negative rules. I think I'll add the "Betrayer" rule, same as with the Dark elves.

As for the cowardice of the ratmen, instability of the daemons and beastmen ambush, I prefer to let that speak for them on the battlefield instead. This is mostly stuff that will only show up while fighting a battle, but good points anyway.