Slitherine

BALTIC CAMPAIGN AD 1735

Final Rule Set (Updated 23.10.25)

The Campaign, designed to play battles with the “Age of Reason” mod, is set in the Baltic area and starts in the year 1735, involving the participation of five Nations: Denmark, Poland, Prussia, Saxony and Sweden.
The purpose of the game is to collect the major number of Victory Points (VPs) that will be awarded taking care of the number of controlled Provinces, the level of Internal Stability and the number of current Minor and Major Fortresses.

Each Nation has:
- an Internal Stability, initially set at 6 and which can vary from a minimum level of 0 to a maximum of 10 / if the Stability drops to a level of 2 or less the Nation cannot launch Attacks,
- a Treasury, initially set at 60,000 Thalers / if the Treasury goes negative (e.g. – 10.000 Th.) the Nation loses 1 Internal Stability Level and a Taxation or Requisition Action is immediately mandatory at the first available occasion,
- three Provinces, each characterized by a specific terrain, as follows:
o Denmark: Jutland (agricultural), Zealand (agricultural) and Holstein (wooded),
o Poland: Mazovia (hilly), Polesia (agricultural) and Lithuania (wooded),
o Prussia: Brandenburg (hilly), Pomerania (agricultural) and Prussia (hilly),
o Saxony: Saxony (hilly), Eastphalia (wooded) and Neumark (hilly),
o Sweden: Smaland (hilly), Gothland (agricultural) and Livonia (agricultural),
- a specific Army, taken from the “Age of Reason” mod and appropriate to the period during which the Campaign is fought:
o Denmark: Danish army list 1733-1763,
o Poland: Polish army list 1733-1753,
o Prussia: Prussian army list 1733-1763,
o Saxony: Saxon army list 1722-1755,
o Sweden: Swedish army list 1722-1757.

The Campaign takes place over six Turns, each of them representing 2 years, divided into:
- an Orders Phase, during which four Actions are allowed per every Nation, each different from the other apart from Attacks, that can be launched twice if the Nation has already enacted the Military Reform Action,
- a Combat Phase, during which battles are fought.

ORDERS PHASE

During the Orders Phase, Nations will take turns gaining priority according to the following schedule, ensuring no state is at a disadvantage:
Turn 1: DEN / POL / PRU /SAX / SWE
Turn 2: PRU / SWE / POL / DEN / SAX
Turn 3: SAX / DEN / SWE / PRU / POL
Turn 4: SWE / PRU / SAX / POL / DEN
Turn 5: POL / SAX / DEN / SWE / PRU
The 6th Turn will be opened by the player with less VPs, followed in ascending order by those with more VPS.

ACTIONS

The Actions are the following, and their effect is produced immediately:

• Taxation: The Nation collects 30,000 Thalers from its citizens losing 1 Internal Stability level.

• Requisition: The Nation collects 55,000 Thalers from its citizens losing 2 Internal Stability level.

• Fiscal Reform: The Nation gains 7.000 extra Thalers for every future Taxation or Requisition losing immediately and once for all 3 Internal Stability level.

• Propaganda: The Nation gains 2 Internal Stability level by spending 15.000 Thalers.

• Minor Fortress (1): The Nation fortifies one of its fully or partially controlled Provinces by spending 20,000 Thalers / the construction is forbidden if the Province is already under attack during that Turn / Minor Fortresses downgrade a Tactical Defeat to a Marginal Defeat for the purposes of conquest but don’t affect the other effect of the Battle / after a Strategic or a Tactical Defeat a Minor Fortress is ruined and disappears.

• Major Fortress (2): The Nation fortifies one of its fully controlled Provinces by spending 35,000 Thalers / the construction is forbidden if the Province is already under attack during that Turn / Major Fortresses downgrade a Strategic Defeat to a Tactical Defeat and a Tactical Defeat to a Marginal Defeat for the purposes of conquest but don't affect the other effect of the Battle / after a Strategic or Tactical Defeat a Major Fortress is degraded to a Minor Fortress and remains in the hand of the defender unless the Province is fully occupied by the enemy who, in this case, conquers the asset.

• Upgrade Fortress: The Nation upgrades a Minor Fortress to a Major one by spending 15.000 Thalers.

• Truce: Once per Turn, a Nation may impose a truce on a neighboring Nation that hasn’t yet attacked it during that Turn by paying 10,000 Thalers to the enemy / a Truce can be imposed only once per campaign against the same opponent.

• Military Reform: The Nation gains the possibility of launching two Attacks per Turn by paying 15.000 Thalers.

• Attack: By paying 20.000 Thalers, the Nation launches an offensive operation from one of its Provinces towards a neighboring and connected enemy Province, generating a battle / the starting Province mustn’t be already under Attack during that Turn / if the starting Province isn’t fully controlled, it can be used as the base of an attack only towards the other half of that Province, in order to consolidate the control of it / the neighboring Province mustn’t be already under attack by another Nation or having been used by its owner as the starting base of an Attack played earlier during that Turn / if a Province remains territorially disconnected from the homeland it can be used as a starting base of Attacks only for attempting to fully conquer the Province itself, if only partially controlled, or towards Provinces that allow reestablishing a connection with the homeland.

• Counterattack: By paying 20.000 Thalers, the Nation launches an offensive operation from one of its Provinces that’s been attacked that Turn, towards the Province from which the attack is coming / the Counterattack generates a twin battle whose outcome is determined by the overall result of the two battles, summed up together, as explained further on.

• Reinforcements: By paying 7.000 Thalers the Nation gains the chance of adding 100 pts. to his army for a previously selected Attack taking place during that turn.

• Garrison: By paying 7.000 Thalers the Nation gains the chance of adding 100 pts. to its army for a defensive Battle fought in the selected province during that turn / the effect doesn't apply to already launched Attacks.

COMBAT PHASE

During the Combat Phase, the offensive operations resulting from Attacks generates large-scale Open Battles (with 2000 pts. each for the attacker and the defender), fought on the terrain of the targeted Province / the defender can choose to fight instead an Encounter Battle, that is a large-scale Open Battle (2000 pts. each for the attacker and the defender) fought on a map 26 squares wide and 34 squares high, designed to simulate the unexpected confrontation of two marching Armies that suddenly discover each other at close range.

Battle Outcomes
• Draw: Both armies exceed a 48% rout threshold.
• Marginal Victory: The winner’s routed units are between 1% and 13% fewer than the loser’s (e.g. 41% - 51%).
• Tactical Victory: The winner’s routed units are between 14% and 26% fewer than the loser’s (e.g. 27% - 52%).
• Strategic Victory: The winner’s routed units are at least 27% fewer than the loser’s (e.g. 22% - 50%).

In the case of a Counterattack the result will be determined by summing up the outcomes of both battles, each of them giving the following point values:
• 0 points for a Draw
• 1 point for a Marginal Victory
• 2 points for a Tactical Victory
• 3 points for a Strategic Victory
The outcome will be determined based on the point difference between the two Nations:
• If the difference is 1 point or less, the clash is considered a Draw.
• If the difference is 2 points, the clash results in a Marginal Victory.
• If the difference is between 3 and 4 points, the clash results in a Tactical Victory.
• If the difference is between 5 and 6 points, the clash results in a Strategic Victory.
The winner will be considered to be the attacker.

Consequences of Battle
• A Draw has no consequences.
• A Marginal Victory grants the winning Nation 8,000 Thalers, taken from the loser.
• A Tactical Victory grants the winning Nation 12,000 Thalers, taken from the loser, and 1 Internal Stability level / the defeated Nation loses 1 Internal Stability level / if the winning Nation was the attacker, it conquers half of the targeted Province.
• A Strategic Victory grants the winning Nation 16,000 Thalers, taken from the loser, and 1 Internal Stability level / the defeated Nation loses 1 Internal Stability level / if the winning Nation was the attacker, it fully conquers the targeted Province.

CAMPAIGN CONCLUSION

At the end of every Turn each Nation’s strength is evaluated based on the following Victory Points (VPs):
• 200 VPs for each fully controlled Province
• 80 VPs for each half-controlled province
• 60 VPs for each Internal Stability level
• 40 VPs for each Major Fortress
• 30 VPs for each Minor Fortress

The Nation that at the end of the Campaign has the most Victory Points is declared the winner.
If two or more Nations are tied, the one with the richer Treasury will prevail.
If the Treasury is the same, each of these Nations will be proclaimed winner ex aequo.

This is the updated starting map of the campaign

The Baltic is in flames.
Denmark, Poland, Prussia, Saxony and Sweden are ready to move their armies to claim supremacy in the region, searching for good generals to lead them.

Come on Gentlemen and join the fray!
Just express two preferences in descending order and it will be possible to assign its leader to each Nation.

As far as I'm concerned, I would likely choose this way:
1) Prussia
2) Sweden

I have a few questions and suggestions
1. Attackers should have a little more money, otherwise battles will be very static and it will be difficult to win during an attack (my suggestion is 2100:2000 during a normal battle, and 1600:1500 during an encounter battle.
2. The issue of attacks
a) (...) or having been used by its owner as the starting base of an Attack played earlier during that Turn
b) the starting Province mustn’t be already under Attack during that Turn
- in my opinion, this restriction is unnecessary. It will lead to blocking the possibility of attacks on provinces.
3. Fiscal Reform: The Nation (...) losing immediately and once for all 3 Internal Stability level. - does this mean that the maximum stability of this country will now be 7 (normally it is 10)?
4. Can the same action be performed twice during a turn (for example, propaganda twice)?

Thanks for your interesting suggestions, gribol!

About them let me stress, first of all, that these new rules are the result of a lot of thinking and some extensive testing made while the other campaign was running in order to maximize the fun and get rid of what wasn't working.
That said, I'm open to every modification that can further improve the game.

So, regarding the single issues:
1- Major Attacks (+200 pts.) were eliminated because they proved really unbalanced and it seemed to me that the majprity of players really didn't like them. This is the reason only Standard Attack were retained, where every general fight with equal armies. Initially I envisaged two more Actions intended to give a little advantage to the attaccker or the defender.
They were:
Garrison (-7.000 th. / +100 pts. x a defensive battle eventually played in the indicated province during that turn / it applies only to attacks that aren't still launched, meaning the Action could be just intended to discourage the enemy to target that Province)
Reinforcements (-7.000 th. / +100 pts. x one specific Attack during that turn)
I skipped them thinking players didn't want to play uneven battles but, if I misunderstood the overall feeling about it, we can leave the Attack action to be played with equal pts and adding these extra Actions to allow players to "customize" their armies when deemed necessary.

2. The idea of excluding from enemy Attacks a Province that's already been used during that turn as the base of an Attack is necessary, from a rationale point of view in order to avoid that a Nation may expand toward a new province winnig its Attack while losing the base of attack, altering its territorial compactness in a unhistorical manner.
The problem you properly mention, is substantially avoided by the fact that this time each Nation has 3 Provinces, not 2, and only the Nations playing as 4th or 5th during that Turn could find themeselves limited.
Anyway, I think we can totally resolve the issue by re-introducing the possibility of a Counterattack from the Province already targeted by the Attack itself, as if was previously possible with the so called Mutual Battle mechanism.

3. The Fiscal Reform causes the Internal Stability to drop of 3 level only when the Action is played, not affecting the maximum, that remain fixed at 10. So, if played during the first turn, it means decreasing the Internal Stability form the initial level of 6 to 3.

4. Actions cannot be played twice in the same Turn, except Attacks, that can be played twice when a Nations has enacted a Military Reform. This was already clearly stated in the rules, at the end of 1st paragraph, when detailing the "Orders Phase" content.

In conclusion, gribol, I agree to add the "Garrison" and "Reinforcements" Actions to allow a customization of the armies and to re-introduce the CounterAttack move, in order to not penalize the Nations playing at the end of a turn.

In addition to what was noted above, after reviewing the rules, I would also be of the opinion:
1) to retouch the map, as attached down here, so as to ensure that all the Nations border with three opponents and are in contact with 3 foreign provinces (except Sweden which remains in contact with only two nations, but can border with a third if it conquers half of Lithuania or if this Province is conquered by Prussia),
2) to eliminate the capitals from the game, since their positioning on the map leads to large disparities in treatment between players, with some being more easily feasible of attacks than others.

New map

1. The garrison and reinforcements look interesting. I think it would be a good initiative.
In my opinion, battles with equal resources will always favor the defender, and the game will be very static.
[However, this is an additional action—which affects the action limit—so you have to consider whether anyone would use it].
2. I think the mutual battle was a good solution.
3. Ok.
4. Ok, I wanted to be clear.

Additional proposal: To create more chaos and drama, I propose connecting the provinces of Smaland or Gotland with the province of Pomerania.

I am interested:
1) Denmark
2) Poland

gribol wrote: ↑Mon Oct 20, 2025 10:32 am 1. The garrison and reinforcements look interesting. I think it would be a good initiative.
In my opinion, battles with equal resources will always favor the defender, and the game will be very static.
[However, this is an additional action—which affects the action limit—so you have to consider whether anyone would use it].

Additional proposal: To create more chaos and drama, I propose connecting the provinces of Smaland or Gotland with the province of Pomerania.

Maybe, considering that the defender has the chance of building Fortresses and launching a Counterattack, it could be fair to give the Attacker a little advantage of 100 pts.
In this case, however, I would retain in the game only the "Garrison" Action, to avoid that the Attacker can mount a sort of the old, unwanted Major Attack (characterized by a positive differential of +200 pts.) using the "Reinforcements" Action.
The new Action (Garrison), on the other hand, wouldn't significantly impact on the player's strategy because everyone has 4 Actions to play, which is a considerable number.

With regards to the other question I agree with you that the connection of Gothland with Prussia would create more drama, but at the same time, it would alter significantly the position of this Nation, making it subject to attacks from 4 different enemies and, at the same time, giving it the chance of attacking 4 different provinces, while all the other nations subtantially border with only 3 Nations and Provinces.
So I don't think is feasible, but let me have a closer look at the map and I'll find a way to give Sweden a 3rd bordering nation, to equal all the players on every aspect.

snooky51 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 20, 2025 1:33 pm I am interested:
1) Denmark
2) Poland

Welcome on board, Sir!

It's an honour to cross the sword with you!

1. Saxon.
2. Prussian

Lysimachos wrote: ↑Mon Oct 20, 2025 3:10 pm

gribol wrote: ↑Mon Oct 20, 2025 10:32 am 1. The garrison and reinforcements look interesting. I think it would be a good initiative.
In my opinion, battles with equal resources will always favor the defender, and the game will be very static.
[However, this is an additional action—which affects the action limit—so you have to consider whether anyone would use it].

Additional proposal: To create more chaos and drama, I propose connecting the provinces of Smaland or Gotland with the province of Pomerania.

Maybe, considering that the defender has the chance of building Fortresses and launching a Counterattack, it could be fair to give the Attacker a little advantage of 100 pts.
In this case, however, I would retain in the game only the "Garrison" Action, to avoid that the Attacker can mount a sort of the old, unwanted Major Attack (characterized by a positive differential of +200 pts.) using the "Reinforcements" Action.
The new Action (Garrison), on the other hand, wouldn't significantly impact on the player's strategy because everyone has 4 Actions to play, which is a considerable number.

With regards to the other question I agree with you that the connection of Gothland with Prussia would create more drama, but at the same time, it would alter significantly the position of this Nation, making it subject to attacks from 4 different enemies and, at the same time, giving it the chance of attacking 4 different provinces, while all the other nations subtantially border with only 3 Nations and Provinces.
So I don't think is feasible, but let me have a closer look at the map and I'll find a way to give Sweden a 3rd bordering nation, to equal all the players on every aspect.

1. It may work
2. No problem, the game musnt be symetrical. Current map is great.

Well guys,

this is the new map, where each Nation borders with 2 enemy neighbours and 3 foreign Province, so that the initial position is the same for everybody.




At the same time, I'm going to modify the rules according to the conclusion of the discussion with gribol, adding the caveat that if a province is only half controlled, it can be used only as a starting base of Attacks directed to conquer the remaining half of the Province itself.

The 1st and 2nd post of this thread will be edited in order to show the updated rules.

Greetings,

if there is still a space available I'd like to be either Poland or Prussia.

I disagree about the attacker needing an extra 100 points. These battles are full of units that break easily and the armies break much earlier than the core game. I actually think they favour the attacker rather than defender if the plan is sound.

Lysimachos wrote: ↑Mon Oct 20, 2025 3:12 pm

snooky51 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 20, 2025 1:33 pm I am interested:
1) Denmark
2) Poland

Welcome on board, Sir!

It's an honour to cross the sword with you!

likewise

awesum4 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 21, 2025 12:01 am Greetings,

if there is still a space available I'd like to be either Poland or Prussia.

I disagree about the attacker needing an extra 100 points. These battles are full of units that break easily and the armies break much earlier than the core game. I actually think they favour the attacker rather than defender if the plan is sound.

Thanks for joining us General!

Regarding the Attacks, it is really difficult to please everyone but, in this case, taking into account everyone's preferences, they could be kept on equal points, introducing the Reinforcement Action for those who want to try to have a better chance of victory ...

In the meantime, after thinking about it a lot, I created this conceptual map, designed by placing the provinces streched along the Baltic at the center in a sort of circle and the land ones on the outside, which allows:
1) to put each nation in contact with all the others, everyone having access to six foreign provinces except Prussia and Sweden which reaches five, in order to add maximum tension to the scenario,
2) to reinsert the capitals, without any of the players being disadvantaged!

Dear mother of God ....

[P. S. Please dont forget, that I am also in the game
1. Saxony
2. Prussia]

Gentlemen,

taking care of the first choice expessed by each of the players that have already joined the campaign Sweden is still to be assigned.

Is there anyone out there intended to take the honour of leading this powerful nation into the fray collecting the legacy left by Charles XII?

SWEDEN WANTS YOU!!

A couple of questions;

if we use your new map does that mean that many of the provinces are in contact with 5 enemy provinces at the start of the campaign?

What does the Capital do, I think you had an explanation in the original rules but it was removed when when you changed the rules?