Subject: Re: Kingmaker variant From: Don Hessong on 7/18/02 4:54 PM, Don Hessong wrote: > Alan > > A while back I posted some hasty thoughts about a KM variants. I later refined > them, but still have not had the opportunity to play test them. You can place > them on Grognards if you want. > > Don > > ---------- The first one was parliament only. This one is a group of other rules for various purposes. ---------- Here are my Kingmaker variants (not including the parliament variant which is in a separate file). This simplifies some things, makes some of the tweaky rules more consistent, should shorten the game a little, but primarily the purposes are to reduce the stalemate problem and the hiding out problem. Warning: not play tested yet. Set-up Evenly deal out all the town cards first (adding one town card for Plymouth or removing Carisbrooke to make an even multiple). [My house rule to balance the Crown deck draw as the game progresses - one person will not get stuck with a lot of town cards.] Deal out more than the usual 36 initial crown cards. [Optional rule modified to compensate for added Crown cards in below variants and/or speed up the game.] Each person is assured a minimum of 2 noble cards - not just one. [My house rule for play balance.] Commission Writ cards may be used to commission any other noble in your faction to go to a revolt/raid in place of the called noble. One card per noble. A Noble may not be substituted for if he is unable to answer the summons himself. [Official Optional Rule then tweaked to reduce the effects of randomness.] Event Cards Use two event decks rather than one. [Keeps people from card counting plagues too easily.] Add 10 more free moves and 10 more writs. [Gives people more control and better chance to call parliament.] Add 2 more "Parliament may be Summoned" cards. 4-1 Talbot/Howard 3-1 Roos/Bourchier [Better chance to call parliament.] Add 4 more "Storms at Sea" cards. 3-2 Pole/Percy/Audley 5-4 Holland/Hastings 2-1 Grey/Clifford 4-1 Stafford/Berkley [Harder to hide out at sea when combined with below variant rules.] Add the advanced rules Event cards but; "French siege" only means Capt to Calais and French mercenaries go back into Crown deck. "Irish Revolt" only means Lieutenant to Ireland and Irish mercenaries go back into Crown deck. (The Cpt. and the Lt. always respond to their calls unless at sea or under siege. It is assumed they have their own ships available.) "revolt in Wales" as stated in rules (add Duke of York to Stokestay). "Plague in Calais" and "mercenaries go home" as stated. "parliament must be summoned" not used. [Official Advanced Rules with minor tweaks for ease and consistency.] Crown Cards Add the advanced rules Crown cards but; Make French mercenary card 50 rather than 100, but have two of them. "French siege" means mercenaries go back into Crown deck - otherwise, use like any other mercenary card. Adding one Irish Kern card of 50 to deck. "Irish Revolt" means Irish mercenaries go back into Crown deck - otherwise, use like any other mercenary card. "Capt of Calais and "Lieutenant of Ireland" as stated above. Le Lucas ship used normally. Using Plantagenet nobles as stated in the Advanced rules. [Official Advanced Rules with some tweaks to get more troops in the game and for ease and consistency.] Add in two more sets of the standard mercenary cards but take out all Saxons. [To make players more aggressive, and the game more battle oriented. With added ships below, should help prevent people hiding out away from the main island. Note this may not ne an ideal thing to do, given that it will change combat ratios.] Ships 5 new ships added; John of Ireland (Waterford) Thomas of London Anne of Colchester Mary of Bristol Katherine of Southampton [Due to the added troops and to prevent people from hiding out away from the main island.] [Note these ship are like the ships on cards in the stnadard componants. They have a capacity of 100. 5 may be too many - so you could try 3 or 4. If you're not up to making new cards and counters, try doubleing the normal capacity of the standard ships in the game - or just double the capacity of the 100 class ships.] You may combine land and sea movement on the same turn. No counter (noble or ship) can move more than five actual spaces including land and sea. Loading/unloading costs one movement (unless both the nobles and the ships start/end the turn in the port). [Faster movement without being excessive.] 100 class ships are captured if they are in an unfriendly port occupied by unfriendly nobles. If no unfriendly nobles present, the ship may leave. Ships belonging to the nautical offices are not captured, but forced to move out to sea one space. [My House Rules to allow capture of ships rather than prevent them from moving.] When "Storms at Sea" occur and ships with passengers are at sea, draw another event card to determine nobles killed in the storm (if present on the ship). [Variant to prevent people from hiding out at sea.] Ships at sea must go when *they* are called to go along with the nautical offices on their calls, unless the office holder is also at sea. Nobles leave ships after docking automatically (announce if in town or in the open). Ships can be loaned, but can only move once per round. Ships at sea, lacking sufficient capacity, or carrying nobles of a different faction are not available to carry nobles/heirs to parliament calls. Ships can be made available by any other player even if not desired by the faction being called. [Clarifications, (mostly) official.] Heirs Killed Risk Roll 2 d6's to determine if heirs killed during combat if present and "storms at sea" if on ship. [Extracted from advanced rules table and modified to put heirs at risk at sea too. Prevents people from hiding out at sea and livens things up a bit. Could make games shorter. 12 = 5% chance / 10 = 10% chance / 8 = 15% chance of death. Choose die roll number before game.] Combat Rather than normal siege you have two options each turn; 1. Assault the town, city or castle which works like battles, but you add the troop strength of the permanent garrison to the defender. 2. Declare a siege, which is resolved the normal way, but not until the following turn of the besieging player. This allows the opportunity for the siege to be lifted by the besieged player coming out to fight in open battle or by other players or by events that call the besieger's nobles away. [AH Variant. The purpose is to make sieging more difficult. It gets too easy later in the game once all the troop cards are in play. Part 2 also reflects the historical reality that sieges took a long time.] An indecisive or delayed assault may become a siege. After a successful siege, the victor is automatically inside the fortified location. [Official clarifications] Now note that there are three types of combat; battle (in the open), assaulting a fortified location, and sieging a fortified location. With regard to all types of combat, the winner does not automatically get all the spoils. Ransom for the life of the losing nobles (and their titles and offices) in exchange for their previously held tradeables (and the losing faction's other tradeables too). If no ransom can be agreed to, the nobles and their tradeables go back into the Crown deck/Chancery. A faction which loses all nobles keeps its unplayed Crown cards. You can ransom the heirs back too. [Official Advanced Rules and clarifications.] Weaker forces may attack stronger forces. (They have no chance of winning and can only hope for an indecisive result. The reason one would do this is in the hopes of killing a noble in the stronger force.) [Official clarifications] Combat is allowed on the continent and Ireland. Due to the unlimited port facilities along the coasts, ships can unload their troops in the open without having to siege a port. Forces may then choose to do battle in the open or not, just as in any other open space. [Normal Rules modified for ease and consistency.] No Refuge Rules Nobles and heirs are available to be called to events as stated in the normal rules except when at sea they can not respond to anything including parliament. [Variant for consistency. Along with "Storms at Sea Nobles killed risk" and "Heirs Killed Risk" variants to prevent people from hiding out at sea.] Trades and Transfers Nobles, offices and titles are never transferable/tradeable. Free moves are not transferable/tradeable. Heirs, bishops and mercenaries are people and therefore must be in the same square to trade/transfer/ransom to a different noble if face up (face down tradeable Crown cards don't have this restriction). Cards given as ransom go to the nobles involved in the battle. Writs, pardons and face up (or face down) ship and town cards are transferable/tradeable regardless of location of the factions. Control of towns, cities and castles not named on town cards is transferable/tradeable, but these can not be awarded to individual nobles and therefore are considered to be controlled by the faction. [Concept of the normal rules modified slightly for ease and consistency.] Towns, Cities & Castles A player can voluntarily allow another faction's nobles to enter his towns, cities or castles. But nobles of different factions can not be located in the same fortified location at the same time (other than during parliament). If a visiting force is asked to leave, they must do so. [My House Rules. It gets really ambiguous otherwise.] Information When a faction has nobles in a square with a town, city or castle he must announce whether they are inside or outside. They are automatically inside after sieges, raids/revolts, embassies and coronation. Cards in the Event deck and Crown deck discard piles are face-up but can not be reveiwed except for the top one. Crown cards in Chancery may not be reviewed. Crown cards in a player's hand that are face down are secret, but must be shown to all players when trades are completed. [Clarifications.] Crown cards in a player's hand that are face up (played) are public knowledge. They are to be announced when played and described when asked. (No sneaking your cards into the game when nobody's looking.) [House rule.]