The Campaign
As the Great Rebellion starts and England descends into civil war, the country is divided between the King and Parliament. For the purposes of the campaign, the regions of Britain are as follows:
South-West: Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset Agricultural or Hilly
South-East: London, Surrey, Kent, Sussex
South: Wiltshire, Hampshire, Berkshire
Anglia: Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire
Central-East: Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire
Central-West: Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire
Mid-East: Rutland, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire
Mid-West: Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire
North-East: Northumberland, Durham, North & East Ridings of Yorkshire
North-West: Lancashire, Westmorland, Cumberland, West Riding of Yorkshire
North Wales: Anglesey, Caernarfonshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire Hilly or Mountains
South Wales: Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Brecknockshire, Glamorganshire Agricultural or Hilly
Highlands: Inverness-shire, Ross-shire, Morayshire, Argyll Hilly or Mountains
Lowlands: Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, Lothian, Dumfriesshire Agricultural or Hilly
Each Region has a Mood that reflects its Sentiment to either the King or Parliament. Generals that win battles in a region will swing its Sentiment towards their cause, ultimately resulting in one side prevailing over their adversary. For ease of administration, Royalists score negative points and Parliamentarians score positive points.
A win scores 1 point, with an additional 1 point for each complete 15% victory margin, so winning by 14% gets you no bonus, 15-29% 1 point, 30-44% 2 points, etc. (these values may be tweaked as the campaign progresses). The Sentiment in the region is adjusted by the battle score. For example, a Parliamentary 20% margin would result in +2 sentiment, a Royalist 20% margin would result in -2.
The relationship between Sentiment and Mood is as follows:
0 Neutral
+/- 1-2 Weak
+/- 3-5 Moderate
+/- 6-9 Strong
+/- 10-12 Fervent
Positive is Parliamentarian, negative is Royalist as mentioned above. Mood scores overall points: Weak (+/-1), Moderate (+/-2), Strong (+/-3), Fervent (+/-4).
Unless noted otherwise, the terrain for each region is Agricultural. Where alternatives exist, it is the defender's choice each turn and they should advise their Commander-in-Chief accordingly.
The Armies
Each army has a Commander-in-Chief (CiC). Unless a team decides otherwise, this role will be fulfilled in rotation, with each member commanding for one turn in alphabetical order. I will not have any command turns as I will have to collate the orders of each team which could be open to abuse.
Turn Sequence
Each year will consist of two turns, Early and Late, and there will be a battle in each region each turn. In this particular campaign, each player has a home region where they will always fight one battle and one 'away' force that will be assigned each turn by their CiC.
i. Each player must PM their CiC with their 'home' and 'away' army lists that must be available in the game year e.g. a Royalist player in 1642 could select Royalist Edgehill 1642 and/or Royalist 1642-1643.
ii. The CiC will assign each player's 'away' army to one enemy region. This list will be PM'd to me and I will collate and publish the challenges. Additional bonus point options (see below) will be added to the orders that the CiC sends to me.
iii. Each player must set-up their 'away' battle, play their challenges for the turn and report the result on this thread.
iv. I will update and publish the scores, ushering in a new turn.
Parliament
Ulysisgrunt, deadtorius, iandavidsmith, rbodleyscott, shawkhan2, Waldorf, Warlord
Royalist
Aryaman, Blathergut, cavehobbit, Doyley50, ironclad, keyth, turenne
Challenges
As mentioned above, I will publish the challenges giving details of Region, players and armies involved. Challenges should be Open Battle, Medium Force and Medium Map.
Bonus Points
A region that is Strongly in favour of a faction gives that faction 100 bonus points; Fervent regions give a bonus of 200. Bonus points can be carried over from turn to turn but their efficacy reduces with age - you cannot always rely on yesterday's victories... Saved bonus points automatically lose 20% per season and an additional 10% for any points deficit from the previous season (if any). For example, if your faction scored 8 total and the opposing faction 10, you would lose an additional 20% of saved bonus value.
Using Points
Points can be used to increase army strength to a maximum of +200 for any one region. If used in the region that gave the bonus, they may be deployed at the start of the battle, otherwise Reinforcements should be chosen. Points can be 'donated' to other regions as follows:
- adjacent friendly-controlled region at 100% value
- adjacent enemy-controlled or neutral region at 50% value
- linked friendly-controlled region at 50% value (i.e. a path of friendly regions can be followed without having to cross enemy or neutral territory)
More than one region can donate points to a donor region as long as the final bonus does not exceed 200, e.g. two fervent regions could donate a total of 400 bonus points to a region that will only get 50% of the value for a total of 200 points.
Espionage
A Commander-in-Chief may add a note to his dispositions saying something along the lines of 'Using epionage this turn'. This costs 100 bonus points and allows the CiC to swap two generals that are no more than two spaces apart after the dispositions have been received.
Propaganda
With a campaign of pamphleteering, speeches and 'friendly advice' to those who may know different, a Commander-in-Chief may reduce (move toward zero) the score of one battle from the previous season by one point. Only results of 1 or 2 can be affected; changing 1 to 0 costs 300 points and changing 2 to 1 costs 600 points. The players' scores will always reflect the actual result but the Country Mood will be affected by the misinformation campaign.
A Final Note
Following discussions on this thread about unwilling opposition and terrain oddities while accepting that we are playing to win (and I think late 1642 has seen plenty of offensive action!):
i. I am happy for a match to be restarted if both players agree that the terrain will make a conclusive/interesting battle unlikely. As we are all gentlemen here, even the Parliamentarians
, I trust we can all see the other player's point of view.ii. I can't tell people how they should play their game, but Open battles should be that. Going on an all-out defensive at the back of the map can be a bit dull for your opponent; see note (i) above if you feel that the terrain is just going to kill you!
iii. Related to (ii) above, anchoring a flank on a map edge with non-light troops is also a little dull.
