Decline and Fall Campaign

[Ironclad]

How about Roman kidnap/assassination attempts on barbarian leaders and the consequences when they backfire (Adrianople anyone?).

Could lead to an interesting battle where a barbarian army is limited to 2 or less generals or they are of lower quality.

[Blathergut]

Am I actually running two armies? Franks at the top of the map and Ostrogoths in the middleish??

[TheGrayMouser]

Am I actually running two armies? Franks at the top of the map and Ostrogoths in the middleish??

Yup, but only one army out of your two can be in Roman lands at a time.... Go east young lad! (just kidding Ironclad )

[Ironclad]

Am I actually running two armies? Franks at the top of the map and Ostrogoths in the middleish??

Correct. Its not just the Romans who get to juggle.

[Blathergut]

Do you want to keep it to just the 5 of us? I thought of making deadtorius my gothic cousin and ordering him around. Let him fight any goth battles if/when they happen.

[Ironclad]

Am I actually running two armies? Franks at the top of the map and Ostrogoths in the middleish??

Yup, but only one army out of your two can be in Roman lands at a time.... Go east young lad! (just kidding Ironclad )

You're Stilicho and I claim my reward.

[davouthojo]

You guys can deputise others to fight battles, but lets keep the main players to 5....easier to coordinate....

[Blathergut]

Yep..that's kinda what I meant. I'll do but if he'd like to be the goth general, he can do the battles. Adds a bit more personal flavour to things but keeps the mechanics simple.

[davouthojo]

Sounds good

couple more:

*Do romans start at 0 prestige? Yes
* I assume gold for the Romans is unlimited? Yes, but it costs prestige every time they pay
**can barbarians fight eachother? (cant see how it would be any benefit now, perhaps if they end up attempting to pillage the same province?) Not initially...
**can Romans fight eachother? Not initially....
** can i pay a barbarian to go away and invade the other Roman (or vice versa, which is what they did historically)
You can pay them anything, any time for anything - only the $100ks payments need to be announced, not the other terms. The only enforceable part of the deal will be the delay before re-raiding if they return to the homeland

[Blathergut]

Can shameful payoffs be made to barbarian hordes sitting in their homeland? Or does it have to be to hairies occupying Roman lands?

[Blathergut]

you just answered

[davouthojo]

Some more:

* Those rebellious armies look too big given the overall strength of the Romans? Possibly...maybe 300-500 would be better

* During a rebellion shouldn't the Romans be allowed temporarlly to form a third field army of smaller size if required? This one I'd rather keep simple - the purpose to limit the romans to 4 armies vs 3 was that they should be stretched thin, but capable of winning anywhere they want

* What about frontier forces to supplement the field armies?

* That emergency levy - how is it generated? You declare it during the admin phase, pick the army to add it to and suffer the prestige loss

* What about beefing up a provinces resistance to pillage by using resources to build fortifications?

What do others think? Don't want to tilt balance too much, or layer up complexity that doesn't add enough to "fun"

[Blathergut]

Play a bit and tweak as things go along.

[Ironclad]

I see that the starting Roman armies can have superior cavalry, mediums and lights but not heavy infantry. That may be too much of an opening disadvantage as well as ahistorical. How about allowing a 50% limit on superior heavies in that prestige zone?

In another campaign using ROR armies a 50% superior limit proved very limiting for Romans although in that one it applied to cavalry as well (admittedly the latter were less important in those earlier armies).

[davouthojo]

I see that the starting Roman armies can have superior cavalry, mediums and lights but not heavy infantry. That may be too much of an opening disadvantage as well as ahistorical. How about allowing a 50% limit on superior heavies in that prestige zone?

In another campaign using ROR armies a 50% superior limit proved very limiting for Romans although in that one it applied to cavalry as well (admittedly the latter were less important in those earlier armies).

OK, but in that case, I'll expand it to a 50% limit on superior HF and MF - I want you to have some reward for hitting 10 prestige - which I expect you'll do early. The challenge will be staying there.

[davouthojo]

The second post are the agreed rules......though they can be re-edited at any time!
Have incorporated ideas so far. Are any of you lawyers by profession btw.....if not you should be!

Suggest we suck it and see....I reserve the right to change rules to close any loopholes or anything that doesn't work...

PM me your army strengths and locations then we can declare a green light

[petergarnett]

We the little people of the forests have not invented lawyers as we still have plenty of wood to burn

[Blathergut]

Maybe colour-code the armies on the map to players to make it a bit easier to remember who's commanding what.

[davouthojo]

Nice idea, will colour code the map

Final additional rule (I was getting worried about the cumulative effect of attrition on the romans)
Romans fighting in BORDER provinces can choose to receive 4-8 FREE Poor Limitanae (are these a help or a hindrance?). Treveri or Constantinople receive 100 point extra reinforcements - these must include the 8 poor Limitanae!

These troops may refuse to leave their fortified towns and join the field army as the situation deteriorates.....

[Blathergut]

So, unless the Roman armies are somehow banged up, the hairies will be fighting 100pts less than the Romans in most battles?