Rules specific to Lords Campaign 24

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Rules and Notes

(Last updated 17th May 2016)

Modifications & Clarifications for Lords 24

The section below is intended to be a place where all the modifications or clarifications applicable to Lords 24 are listed. Also see the latest newfax for the most up to date modifications.

Click to go to the following issues below:

Noble Houses (Update T73)

Papacy and Religious Primacy Rules (Update T73)

Non-Player Nation Rules (Update T81)

Mercenaries (New T43)

The Spoils of Victory (New T44)

Leaders

New World Results

MAXTAX

Rules Version

Communicating with the GM

Mapping Sea Zones

New World/Australia Tribal Rules

Map Notes

Nomenclature

Horde rules issues

Requests from the GM (that would make his life much easier)

Retirement Ratings

Cultivation Costs

General Reminders

Upgrading and Re-Equipping Troops

Build Charts

Port Areas (Modified T43)

Feudal Allies

Re-equip Troops Action

DP Assistance

CCR Clarified!!

More Clarifications!!

 

Leaders

Leader conditionals in case of invasion:  If a situation occurs in which a nation is invaded and the capital or homeland is threatened, and the leaders of that nation are off doing other stuff, what happens? Do they return to save the nation? To deal with this situation and so as to avoid any chance I might resort to "second guessing" a player, I do the following: I make a combat stat check for each leader to see if they return with their troops to the capital to try to defend it. Otherwise, they continue on with whatever orders they had been originally given. The king will automatically return however. Note that all of this applies *only* in those cases where the player has not given conditional orders for their leaders. 

Leader precedence: In those cases where there are multiple leaders with armies fighting together, unless otherwise specified, the main leader will be determined by rank. Thus, the main leader will first be the king (if present), then the heir, then the princes in (descending) order of age. After that (if there are only Lieutenant type leaders) then the one with the highest combat rating will be in charge. 

Historicity: Sometimes, when you get new leaders, I will give them names that are historical. This can sometimes happen even if you give them names, since I feel it adds something to the game. If you *really* want to give your leaders non-historical names, that's fine, I guess, just let me know. Also, just so you know, names that are clearly dorky, well, I reserve the right to modify them slightly so the game just doesn't seem silly.  

New World Results

This is the news for the Old World. The New World is run currently not open for play. 

MAXTAX

MAXTAX is in effect, it is set at 1.5. this means that regions and cities with more than one owner (for example, if an Open Nation, a Religious Primate, and a Religious Order all have some status in the region or city) would proportionately share the tax and NFP revenues of the region/city up to the maximum tax setting.

Rules Version

Lords 24 is run using the Lords of the Earth, Base Rulebook, version 6.3.5

Communicating with the GM

Please send any and all Lords24 correspondence to lords24gm@ymail.com

Mapping Sea Zones:

According to the rules, "Each Sea Zone that is not adjacent to a controlled port or region, or within the nation's trade range of the same, is unknown." Furthermore, each Open Ocean Arrow, Hostile Sea Zone, and Inter-Island Arrow, even if within the trade range of your nation, is also unknown.  This means that they must be explored (mapped) in order to be traversed or for trade to be conducted across them. 

However, in Lords24 there are some exceptions and clarifications:

  • All Islamic nations automatically have knowledge of the shortest sea route to Mecca from their capital provided it is shorter than the land route to Mecca. I.e.: If the land route to Mecca is shorter than the sea route, an Islamic nation doesn't get any automatic knowledge of the sea path to Mecca. However, if the sea route is shorter (in AP cost to get to Mecca) then the sea route will automatically be mapped. For example, the Emirate of Sa'na automatically has maps of the Red Sea even though they don't have a city or region adjacent to it.
  • All nations in Europe and those bordering on the Mediterranean have maps to all the European sea zones that border the Atlantic (i.e.: from the Norwegian Sea to the Gates of Hercules) as well as to all Med sea zones. Otherwise, normal strictures apply (see above).

Once you explore a sea zone successfully, you will gain "rutters" (maps) for it. Your stat sheet will list the sea zones you have rutters for under "player notes."  Exploring is usually a multi-turn endeavour, and can often result in the death or disappearance of leaders and units - so be prepared. 

New World/Australia Tribal Rules

The New World and Australia, although sparsely populated, are not uninhabited. Most of the regions listed as (-/-) are, in fact, the ancient and hereditary lands of various wandering agrarian and hunter/gathering tribes. From the vast plains of North America where the Cree and Blackfoot hunt, to the deep Amazon where the elusive Nambicuara hide, there are ancient and powerful tribes.

These tribes all have distinct and often very large geographic tribal lands in which they wander, trade, and hunt. If players can find them, and successfully DP them, they may join the players empire. If they do, they will have a few tribal points and a small number of troops.

Note: These are not horde positions! They will not explode out to wreak havoc. The new world is generally underpopulated, and tribes will generally avoid contact with others. There are always new grasslands to graze and game to hunt elsewhere.

However, you should be forewarned: tribes do protect their lands. Colonies in unpopulated regions may infringe upon ancient tribal lands, prompting the tribes to retaliate against such a colony. This is more likely if a tribe feels it is being squeezed onto smaller and smaller extents.

As players, you have two ways to activate tribes: successfully conducting diplomacy on to Full Allied or Friendly status (other statuses have no effect), or having a player take one on as a position.

To conduct diplomacy on tribes, however, a player must first find them. To do so, they must send one or more leaders (with troops if desired) into the uninhabited regions on an EXplore action. If this action is successful, they will learn of the existence of other tribes, their lands, and their languages. They can also, then, conduct diplomacy on them. Such diplomacy is not easy, however, but if successful will gain the player the tribe as allies or friendly (and their tribal points and troops). These tribal points maybe used to colonize regions within those tribes ancient lands.

Since the new world is divided up into different tribal lands, if a tribe is taken on as a player position, there are some special considerations. They assume the position, essentially, of a tribe on it's tribal lands that is "settling." Thus, they begin with a number of tribal points, and they basic starting position 100 GP and 25 NFP. They must use those tribal points to settle areas or found cities within their tribal lands (which will be made known to the player). After using their tribal points in this way, the remaining tribal land regions of their tribe remain unpopulated (ie: (-/-) regions) and are assumed to be inhabited by the remainder of their tribal members. That is, the members of their tribe that didn't want to become "settled." The player can try later to gain them as allied or friendly, just like they would with any other tribe. (ie: they must EXplore to find them and then conduct DP them.) A player tribe position does not have to pay troop support until after they settle their tribal points (they are similar to hordes in this way).

Note: As per rule 9.10.3, to build tribal points costs 20 GP and 20 NFP for pre-columbian tribal empires. 

Note: these rules are in playtest mode, and if there are game-balance problems with them, they may be withdrawn. I appreciate any and all feedback, critiques, etc...

 

Map Notes:

Official Map Changes: 

The region of Carmania (southern Iran) is Hostile Desert, not Wilderness. 

The southern edge of the Celtic Sea is moved up to the tip of Cornwall, making the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay adjacent. 

The Asiatic province of Kur, on the Amur river, is Kurshin instead. 

The Burmese-area province of Shan is now Wuliang, instead.

The sea zone border between the Tyrhennian Sea and Gulf of Lyons should not line up with the mountains between Liguria and Provence, instead it should be in Liguria province, which makes Genoa on both the Tyrhennian Sea and the Gulf of Lyons. 

The sea zone border between Aegean Sea and Mare Negri should be at Constantinople, which is on both zones.

 

The Moon Cult: 

The Moon Cult is a pagan religion hostile to Southern Amerind, but otherwise identical to it. 

Nomenclature

Turns are currently five (5) years long.

Infantry (200 men = 1 point), Cavalry (200 men = 1 point), Siege Engineers (200 men = 1 point), Warships (2 ships = 1 point), Transports (2 ships = 1 point).

 

Horde rules issues

In the horde rules there are a few things that are awkward. To rectify the most egregious issues, I am instituting a simple change to the way Horde DP is recorded and maintained. Previously, when horde diplomacy was performed, the horde armies themselves might join the active horde and the regions became NT to them for one turn (provided their horde DP worked). However, the region was not recorded as such on their stat sheet. This will now change. There will be, functionally, little change to the rules (as described on 9.10.1 of the Basic Rules) but now, when a horde block joins an active block through Horde Diplomacy, their region will be listed on their stat sheet. It can, after one turn, be affected once again by horde diplomacy. Previously, the region went independent after one turn which allowed a few strange situations to develop.  Of course, if "regular diplomacy" is done on a horde block region, then the region could become a status greater than NT (such as A, F, EA, etc...) just like any other region (although regular DP on horde blocks is notoriously more difficult than one regular regions). If a horde block region is integrated through regular DP into someone's empire it will cease to act like a normal horde block region (i.e.: they wouldn't ever increase or decrease in horde population as long as they are a part of a formal empire). 

Horde Block info

The horde block populations and regions will be posted on the website - please take a gander at them, especially if you're going to be doing any traipsing around the steppes! Nasty surprises might await otherwise...

Requests from the GM (that would make his life much easier):

Order submission: If you have later revisions to your orders, after you've submitted them, please put them into your orders and resubmit the whole thing once again. I find I am bad and keeping track of lots of different emails or note but I am good with keeping track of orders (since I just put all orders in one big pile until I start processing the turn). Thanks! 

Troop builds: When you build troops PLEASE indicate what leader they are for and please indicate clearly when you are transferring troops among different leaders. It's tough having to try and figure out where people are getting their troop totals from. And it really slows down the processing of the turn. Thanks!

Army numbering: Please remember that your army numbers are the same as your leaders numbers. Thus, army 1 is led by leader 1, army 2 by leader 2, etc...if you mix up different army numbers with different leader numbers it is a sure recipe to cause me serious headaches and confusion. Thanks!

 Order Formats: Please use one of the standard forms if at all possible. If plain text (or email) is used, please summarize all expenditures in the builds and investments sections. A variety of acceptable order formats can be found at  http://www.throneworld.com/lords/players/forms/index.html 

Intel Operations: Please specify the target clearly on intelligence operations: for example, CI can be used to defend vs. a specific area of your nation (Government, Intel, Religious, Army, etc.) Many operations failed this turn for lack of specific targets. If you place a “floating” CR operation to cover “any possible leader revolt”, there’s a moderate negative modifier for non-specific target, if he’s then outside your CCR, there’s more negative modifier.

Retirement ratings

You should have on your stat sheet (listed in the player notes section) a phrase like "retire at x%"  This indicates the amount of damage at which you want your armies to call off any attacks. The default is 50%, but you can change it to whatever you want. You can even set it at different levels for different armies if you do so explicitly and clearly in your orders. If it isn't given in your player notes section on your stats, it just means I forgot to put it on there. 

Cultivation costs

If a region is partially converted to cultivation (say, from having a city in it for many years) then doesn't it make sense that if you did a "cultivate" megalithic construction that you would only have to pay the difference? Well, I think so, and apparently so do many other GMs. So that's how it is. Cool, huh? (note, however, that the level of any given cultivation MC does not change - you simply get a percentage discount on the cost of them). 

General Reminders

Troop disbands: Troops can only be disbanded for their NFP for specific purposes (such as building cities or MCs in the region they are disbanded, and so forth. See Rule 5.4.5). Some of you disbanded troops and used their NFP in totally different regions for purposes that the rules prohibit. Not a big deal and I didn't enforce the rule this turn, but in the future I probably will. 

AP costs of actions: I will not count out the AP expenditure of each and every leader you have unless there is a war going on or it looks strange. Thus, if you don't put down what extra AP you're spending on an action, you won't get them. For example, if you move a leader all over and then end up in region and list the leader's action as "DP" then you will be doing a regular DP action. If however, you list the action as "DP+10" or "DP+10 extra AP spent on it" or something like that, then you'll get the benefit of the extra AP. In other words, I can't afford to take the time to calculate everyone's AP expenditures. Sorry, it just takes too long and I want to keep these turns coming out quickly. 

Tithes: Any GP that you receive from a tithe (either because you are a primate, or because you have a tributary ally), is automatically included in your Saved Gold each turn. So don’t be adding it in again…

Operating Bases: Action range is traced in Action points from a “controlled region”. For open nation purposes, a “controlled region” has a status of pt, p, or t or higher. For Primacies, this is a region with an Abbey religious site or higher.

Leader Experience: Leader stats are no longer static. Stats may fluctuate during the course of a leader’s lifetime, and can be affected by the success or failure of leader actions. Dramatic success on the battlefield or during diplomacy can increase the combat or diplomacy stat. This is far less common than Charisma changes. 

Wall points: The number of Wall points around a city cannot be higher than the Siege QR of your nation. The only exception is if you captured, intact, a city that had higher wall points than you can have.

Princely Promotion: I automatically promote eligible family members to open Prince (type "P" leaders) slots. If you don't want this to happen, let me know in your orders. Remember, you can have up to BL/2 in Prince leaders. Freebie leaders! Let me know if you want me to stop auto-promoting. 

Leader Names: Unnamed leaders are boring, and you risk the GM giving them a name you don't like. So name your leaders, eh? A very useful website for historical names of various flavours can be found at:  http://www.kabalarians.com/html/surf-by.htm

Diplomacy on Pacified regions: A number of players do diplomacy on pacified regions. If successful, the effect of such diplomacy is not to elevate the status of the region but to increase the "years from conquest" of that region more than would occur normally.  

Upgrading and Re-Equipping Troops: 

We are using the following Base Rulebook optional rules - [6.2.4.36] Re-equip Troops and [6.2.4.37] Upgrade Troops.

Build Charts: 

At the bottom of your stat sheet is a build chart - this is the correct, up-to-date chart for this campaign and replaces the Build Chart in the rulebook.

 

Port Areas [Modification to Rule 5.6.5 ]

The construction of a Port Area no longer applies to every sea zone a province occupies. Each Port Area must correspond to one particular sea zone. However, Port Areas can be built in the same province as a Port, as long as they do not serve the same sea zone.

Port Areas may be constructed in any coastal region. In addition to the normal rules, Port Areas will convert a landlocked city to Port City status (Allowing it to house MSP). Port Areas must be built along a specific Sea Zone, and once built allow any city in the region to trace trade to the adjacent Sea Zone. One port area may be constructed per Sea Zone adjacent to the region. Port Areas may be sacked as if they were minor cities, and are automatically captured if the region is conquered.

Feudal Allies [Clarification of Rule 6.1.7]

Feudal Allies: The only actions that may be normally undertaken by a Feudal-Allied Leader are: A, AS, AT, B, BC, D, E, LS, US, PS, PR, RG, S, and SE. EP, EVC, IR, LR, R, RD, SC, and SR may also be performed, but only relative to the Leader's country (e.g. the Feudal Ally keeps the slaves or loot from EP, LR, RD, SC, or SR; the FA Leader may only react within the borders of his own country).

Please remember that any troops given to the command of a Feudal Ally become his and if he doesn't return to his own country at the end of his turn he will automatically revolt.

Re-equip Troops Action [Rule 6.2.3.34]

Code RT-C

BAC 8 Leader Actions

This action can now be used to re-equip Infantry units as Cavalry. The cost is the amount of Gold difference between the Cavalry and Infantry units.

DP Assistance

If you want to use leaders to assist another leader in a DP attempt there is no problem, in fact it is a good way to get some bonus points. However, I want to make sure that all are aware of my personal requirements on this issue--in order to gain the bonus of 50% of the assisting leader's diplomacy skill, that assisting leader MUST be present and using APs for at least half the full attempt!! In other words, if your King does a DP+20 (24 APs) and you wish to get an additional bonus from having your Heir help, the Heir must do at least a DP+8 (12 APs) to get a bonus! If you assign fewer APs, then you will get no bonus from the assisting leader.

CCR clarified!!

A quick comment on how I am handling the CCR, just to make sure everyone is clear (just to avoid the early possibility of a Civil War). For those nations with Tribal or Feudal Monarchy as your governments, your CCR traces from your King himself for all purposes.

For those of you with a Centralized Monarchy, your CCR for regions traces from your Capital City (or King if you have no city in your Homeland region), but traces from the King himself for purposes of Leader loyalty checks!! Keep this in mind when moving everyone about!! Your regions might be quite safe from revolt, but if your King goes one way and a Lieutenant goes another then problems could result!!

For those of you with other government types (currently Oligarchy and Imperial are the only other ones in play), then your CCR traces from your Capital City for all purposes.

More Clarifications!!

All Trade Routes will be considered to be initiated ONLY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TURN!! This means that any routes that are contingent on something happening during the turn will automatically fail. So if you are planning to use a region that you are counting on DPing to NT that turn, the Trade Route will fail no matter what the DP result. The same applies to your partner DPing a city or region, or construction of a city...

On another note, it is not really a good idea to DP a Feudal Ally that you are making use of that turn if you are counting on the leader from the region in question. Since a Feudal Ally can only be used for offensive military operations, it could prove to be quite inconvenient if the DP succeeded and the leader went home in the middle of an attack... Also, keep in mind that in order to DP a region that is Full Allied, that region's Leader HAS to be present in the region for the duration of the DP . Since an Ally cannot DP his own region, this means that 2 Leaders will be tied up for the duration of the action--both the leader doing the DP as well as the Allied Leader in question.