From: Erich Schneider Subject: Re: A Mighty Fortress... In article Doug Murphy writes: >Can anyone share a synopsis of this SPI game? It's a pretty simple game of the diplomatic, military, and religious conflicts during the time of the Reformation (the game covers 1532-1556, IIRC). It _requires_ six players: England, France, the Hapsburg Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Papacy, and the Lutherans (the Schmalkaldic League). Hex map, divided into areas large ("France", "Ottoman Empire") and small ("Franche Comte", "Augsburg" (a single hex city-state!)). Germany features the famous "patchwork" of tiny states. The military mechanics are very simple. You have fleet and army counters. Both have a combat value of 1. All terrain has a movement cost of 1. There's a regular CRT and a siege CRT for attacking cities. Units have ZOCs but you can pull out of them at the start of your turn. Fleets can ferry around armies. The Lutheran and Papal players have missionary units ("Jesuits", in the Papal case), which have tried and untried sides. One can convert areas to another religion by having a missionary unopposed in them. If an opposing missionary is present, though, you have to defeat it in "theological debate", using a special CRT for this purpose, which can result in exile, imprisonment, or the dreaded "burnt at stake". The advanced game adds money to the equation: cities generate income, but wars are expensive. If you move any of your pieces you lose a third of your whole income, and if you engage in belligerent action, you lose it all! In addition, you have to pay on a per unit basis for them to attack and defend. The intent is to force periods of peace where you build up a cash reserve to fund the periods of war, where you spend it. The advanced game also features rules to resolve the divorce issue of Henry VIII. Each player has their own unique victory conditions, of which one randomly chooses from a set for the advanced game. Mostly they involve military occupation of places (England wants to take back northern France, for example). The Papal and Lutheran players get points for converting (or reconverting, for the Pope) areas to their religion. There are also some cross-player conditions to force certain historical cooperation; the Lutherans lose points if the Turks take Vienna, for example. It has its problems, both with rules ambiguities and with the "broad brush" syndrome. I see it as a foundation on which to build a better game for those really into this period (like me). Three major things I would like to do are (a) come up with a better economic system, (b) figure out a way to "automate" England since her role is limited and kind of boring (plus it's hard to find 6 players!), (c) come up with a better way of handling the various neutral states (this motivated by looking at _Europa Universalis_). -- Erich R. Schneider erich@bush.cs.tamu.edu http://bush.cs.tamu.edu/~erich Caltech UG '91 (Darb/Scurve), currently a grad turkey at Texas A&M....