Better battles in Kingmaker / by Dr. P.H.S. Hatton

I think Kingmaker (see Phoenix 5 for strategic article on) is a
wonderful game of diplomacy but not at all interesting as a wargame. So
I was intrigued to notice that the sizes of retinues existing in the
game are catered for in Ed Smith's miniature rules "Wars of the Roses"
(Skytrex) - p.3 especially. Forces are divided up into Men-at-Arms
(dismountable), Longbow men and Billmen; also some household knights and
cannon if one wants them, as well as the mercenaries. I am certainly not
advocating miniatures but with these statistics and rules, a Kingmaker
battle could be fought out on (say) the "Yeoman" map board with whatever
counters are to hand.

One objection strongly urged is that the time taken over such a 'battle'
would be intolerable to the non-combatant players. In practise, however,
I suspect that the presence of royal pieces on the battlefield or
elsewhere thinly guarded would generate frantic activity by all players
while battle raged. I would suggest that forces like '200 troops within
2 squares of London' be composed half of feudal levies and half of
regular troops in due proportion. If garrisons stay put as in the
regular game, their composition is immaterial. However, more
tentatively, I favour some more innovations: that half a garrison can
accompany the town's owner; that bishops travel with a train of 30 and
archbishops with a train of 50 drawn from the town of their diocese.
that royal pieces have a bodyguard, say 50 for the senior surviving of a
house, 30 for a cadet. If one does any of these things, one needs to
know the composition of a garrison - my suggestion would be that a third
be feudal levies (immovable), two-thirds regulars. Obviously, plague
does not affect garrisons in the original game, I suggest it removes
half of those present. How much of a problem their replacement is
depends on how long the game lasts (how many contingency cards are
played).

To get really radical, I favour simultaneous movement, one card per turn
(not one per player), that their instructions be not magic carpet
movement but rather a binding commitment to move in that direction until
instruction fulfilled. Lastly, I can't get used to these nobles rising
from the dead. I would prefer them to stay dead. I know the son
succeeded to the title but on that logic all four younger generation
royalty should be fathering away like mad. Now that is a variation I
won't pursue!

I am not trying to lay down 'Alternative Scenarios for Kingmaker' rather
to start discussion on how the battle element might be improved in order
to make it a War of the Roses.