Rules specific to Lords Campaign 24
Main
Rules and Notes
(Last
updated 18th May 2024)
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
Papacy
and Religious Primacy Rules
Non-Player
Nation Rules
Mercenaries
The Spoils of Victory
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!!
Paths to victory:
There are several options open to a player when an NPN has been defeated
- Take
the victory conditions (see NPN rules) available for NPNs and allow the
NPN to go its own way. This is a useful option if you do not want to
increase your imperial size or bother with the NPNs internal affairs.
- Keep
it as either Pacified or Pacified Tributary. You will not get victory
conditions but will get income from the NPNs Homeland/Friendly regions and
cities. Also, as the years from conquest marker goes up it may turn
Friendly or Tributary. Using this option treats the NPN as a super-region.
- Old
school, you will have to take the regions you want and conquer each in
turn. If the capital is taken then some of the NPNs ratings will be added
to yours if higher. The NPN will cease to exist.
Dealing with hordes:
Hordes can be dealt with a number of ways rather than just an outright battle.
These are
- Threaten
them. Hordes respond to a show of strength and may leave you alone if
confronted with enough force.
- Bribe
them. They are looking for gold and lands to settle or pillage so if you
offer them it on a plate they may well go away. They may also just take it
and attack anyway.
- Use
diplomacy. It does work and I suggest chucking in a royal princess or two.
You can also use a combination of the above. If the horde
becomes a FA or A, you can direct its attacks or its path of migration.
Restrictions on Royal Marriages: Due to the complications
arising from these rules only K, H or P leaders can benefit from a Royal
Marriage. Members of the Royal Family that have not come into play are not
considered eligible. Also, Primate, Order and Secret Empire positions are not
eligible for marriage bonuses. These are meant to be diplomatic arrangements
between sovereign states.
No Orders: If I don’t get any orders in for a
position and the player doesn’t answer my emails then I’ll put the position
back to a NPN and put aside the players cash (if any) until they pick it or
another nation up again.
Request Royal Marriage: Used to ask a NPN nation
for a bride for one of your Princes or a suitor for one of your little
Princesses. Cost is 6AP, Charisma based. The leader doesn’t have to be in the
NPNs capital but if he isn’t then he needs to be in your homeland/capital.
Naval Reaction and Blockade: Naval Reactions can only
occur when there is action in a Sea Zone that the fleet is based at. The fleet
has to be based from a port and not the Sea Zone. Also, the Reaction can only
occur when your own lands or those of an ally benefiting from a Defensive Pact
marriage bonus are attacked. It also applies to any merchant fleets you operate
through the Sea Zone in the case of piracy.
Naval Blockade’s only work if your fleet is based in the same Sea Zone
as the target port and you spend all (every single one) of your APs in the
blockade. The fleet must be based from a port and not a Sea Zone.
The use of fleets for Reaction and mitigating the
effects of Pirates: My
understanding has now changed since we GMs have had some discussion on the
list. The use of Reaction has been explained on the Wiki and Patrol is no
longer used in the Base Rules.
Reaction
Trade Route Escorts
- This
is specific to Lords 24. Units can be assigned to a trade route to act as
static convoy escort using the G type leader. Note this is not as good as
patrol as the warships assigned will only reduce the effects of piracy,
not capture or destroy the pirates themselves.
Improved cultivation at
TL5: If
a nation has reached the dizzy heights of TL5 than it can benefit from improved
cultivation. You can Improve a cultivated homeland region from 2GPv to 3GPv, or
any other controlled cultivated region from 1GPv to 2GPv. This is a level one
megalithic construction.
New Rivers: I’ve added in some new possible rivers onto
the map. These are rivers that were once passable by light traffic (remember
Cogs cannot travel on rivers) and have now become silted up. You can dredge a
stretch of the river (along one region border edge) as a 0.5 level project.
Gripes:
Agro as
conversion – this has restrictions (see 2.11.5.3) which I will be enforcing
from now on.
Rivers can only
support light ships – as far as I know Cogs cannot travel on rivers. This also
includes Cogs built for trade.
New Primates: We have two new Primate positions this
turn. Jumal Skyfather, which is an Estonian god and the Coptic Church based out
of Axum.
Minor islands and City States: I’ll be allowing minor
islands (Corfu, Jerba, Wight etc) and city states to be used as locations from
T44. Just let me know the rationale behind why you want it separate and if
reasonable I’ll add it in. Once they are created as locations, they obey all
the rules of islands etc. However, their Gpv cannot go above 0.
Flooding: The last few turns have seen a massive increase
in the amount of flooding that has occurred. It appears that the years are
getting warmer and wetter. As a result of this some of the minor rivers on the
map are once again becoming passable to river traffic.
Denmark: Following on from the Minor Islands stuff, you
can see that Denmark is now separated out to Jutland and Syaland (Zeeland).
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.
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.
Pre-Columbian
New World nations can colonise Wilderness or Steppe regions to 2GPv by using
Tribal Points only. If the nation moves out of Pre-Columbian status, then the
standard limit of 1GPv for Wilderness or Steppe will be enforced and one of the
Tribal Points will have to migrate.
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.