ExCoB II - The Prophecy of Merlin: Concluded

[kronenblatt]

“… King Arthur sleeps in Avalon, and many a change
Must over-pass this land before he wake.
The great White Dragon of the stormy North,
Rearing his crest above the foaming waves,
Shall shake the ground, and level all the hills,—
And war shall follow war,—and blood shall flow
In every vale,—and smoke of burning towns
Shall reach the sky,—and men shall cry for aid
Unto the sea, to hide them from the foe—
And still shall Arthur sleep in Avalon...”

(The Prophecy of Merlin and other poems by John Reade)

The De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (ExCoB) campaigns take place in the poorly documented and thus mysterious era of fifth century AD Britannia when the island was set to be abandoned by the Romans, the Brits and Welsh thus were left to fight for themselves, the Dumnonians migrated to Armorica to become Bretons, Picts and Scots-Irish started raiding more actively, and above all when the Anglo-Saxons arrived upon the Britannic shores. All fighting for dominance over the Roman provinces of Britannia, carving out kingdoms for themselves.

This second campaign, ExCoB II - The Prophecy of Merlin, takes off after the Battle of Camlann and death of King Arthur, with the falling out between factions of his once loyal and united Knights of the Round Table. Each player is one of these Knights, together with other Knights having formed remnant petty kingdoms from their own fiefdoms against other groups of Knights and their remnant petty kingdoms in a struggle to reunite the High Kingdom of Britain, once ruled by King Arthur.

ExCoB II will still be played on the wonderful hexagon map of Britannia in the fifth century AD and still with co-operative team play for 13 players, together with friendly Knights fighting against enemy Knights in battles over the remnants over what was once King Arthur’s lands, covering all of Britannia. And above all, ExCoB II will offer the opportunity for players to create and design their own fiefdom army lists.

The Kingdom of The West won in Round 9! Congratulations to Karvon, Kashtronomical, and Triarii!

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This is the map without any kingdom areas, structure controls, and armies. It can also be downloaded (13 MB) in .jpg format HERE.

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Overview

Each player is a Knight who once sat around the Round Table during the reign of Arthur and his High Kingship in the mythical and mysterious era of Britain after the Romans had departed, the Bretons returned, the Anglo-Saxons arrived, and the Picts and Irish crossed the border to raid the lands of the Britons and the Welsh.

Sadly, the Knights have fallen out with each other, taking different sides, during King Arthur’s war against Mordred, especially after both King Arthur and Mordred fell in the battle at Camlann, causing the High Kingdom to fall apart into independent kingdoms, consisting of groups of Knights still friendly to each other, forming their own smaller "Round Tables".

Players control their own armies as part of the fight for their own kingdoms' dominance over the old Roman provinces of Britannia and the lands of King Arthur’s High Kingdom in this dramatic and violent period, co-operating within their kingdom, and together competing against other players' kingdoms.

Winning conditions

The campaign ends as soon as one of the following requirements is fulfilled upon the conclusion of a round:

• one kingdom (then being the winner) controls at least one Court from another kingdom, connected to its own lines of logistics, and is in control over its own Court.

• one kingdom (then being the winner) controls all four Kingdom or Civitas Capitals Viroconium (of The West), Ratae Corieltauvorum (of The North), Verulamium (of The East), and Corinium (of The South), with all such four structures being connected to the kingdom's lines of logistics.

• one kingdom (then being the winner) has one of its armies located in the Fort Ruins of Derventio and one in the Town Ruins of Aelia Castra, and both Derventio and Aelia Castra are connected along roads without interruptions (i.e., no enemy armies' ZoCs or uncontrolled structures) to its Court.

• the strength of one or more armies is below 1200 FP, with the kingdom winning whose lowest strength army (including any eliminated armies) being the highest among all the kingdoms.

Kingdoms and Courts

The Arthurian High Kingdom of Britannia is divided into four kingdoms: in The East, in the The North, in The South, and in The West, each with its own Court (where its “Round Table” is located).

Each player, his Stronghold, and his army or armies sort under one of these four kingdoms:

Kingdom of The East, with its Court in Venta Iceni

• tyronec, Lord of Branodunum (his Stronghold), controlling 1 army

• Warg1, Lord of Caesaromagus, controlling 1 army

• dragmio, Lord of Gariannonum, controlling 1 army

• anderarcos11, Lord of Regulbium, controlling 2 armies

Kingdom of The North, with its Court in Isurium Brigantum

• carpenkm, Lord of Banovallum, controlling 2 armies

• angusosborne, Lord of Mamucium, controlling 1 army

• kronenblatt, Lord of Olenacum, controlling 2 armies

Kingdom of The South, with its Court in Durnovaria

• Aetius39, Lord of Anderida, controlling 2 armies

• RedPossum, Lord of Aquae Sulis, controlling 1 army

• SpeedyCM, Lord of Portus Adurni, controlling 2 armies

Kingdom of The West, with its Court in Moridunum

• Kashtronomical, Lord of Gobannium, controlling 2 armies

• Karvon, Lord of Magnis, controlling 2 armies

• Triarii, Lord of Segontium, controlling 1 army

Players and armies within a kingdom are co-operating, while competing with and fighting other kingdoms and their players and armies. In a similar fashion, structures are controlled by kingdoms and not by individual players.


Map

The armies of the players move around and fight armies from other kingdoms on the detailed hex map showing Britannia in the end of the Roman era, with roads and different types of structures included and divided up into six-miles-scale hexagons.

Full credit and many thanks are given to its creator and designer, Jorunkun, having made it available for download HERE.

• Armies are marked on the map with squares, color coded with their kingdom colors and numbered with their players' numbers.

• Control over structures is marked on the map through color-coded hexagons.

• Courts are marked with thick black frames.

• Special structures for victory (Viroconium, Ratae Corieltauvorum, Verulamium, Corinium, Derventio and Aelia Castra) are marked with large octogonal stars.

• Player's respective Strongholds (Branodunum, Caesaromagus, Gariannonum, Regulbium, Banovallum, Mamucium, Olenacum, Anderida, Aquae Sulis, Portus Adurni, Gobannium, Magnis, and Segontium) are not explicitly highlighted on the map.

Example (with Viroconium as special structure controlled by green and Letocetum as blue's Court)



Designing the armies

The unit types out of which to create own fiefdom army lists for players are presented in the list below. It's using unit types from army lists in and nearby Britannia (or that could have served as Roman auxiliaries and garrisons in Britannia and after the withdrawal) during the fourth and early fifth century AD, e.g., Alan 25-650 AD, Anglo-Saxon 449-599 AD, Breton 411-579 AD, Frankish 260-495 AD, Germanic Foot Tribes 260-599 AD, Germanic Horse Tribes 260-492 AD, Hunnic (Western) 376-454 AD, Pictish 210-476 AD, Roman 425-492 AD, Romano-British 407-599 AD, Scots-Irish 50 BC - 476 AD, Visigothic 419-621 AD. But all with the purpose of getting army lists typical of Dark Age and Post-Roman Britain, with some Roman or exotic elements, a hypothetical King Arthurian army.

Unit types belong to two categories: Main and Auxiliary, from where players create their own army lists for their fiefdoms (same army list for all armies that you as player control). Players will select units for a worth of maximum 3500 FP in total (roughly the same size as base game army list sizes), of which a maximum of 700 FP can be spent on Auxiliary unit types.

In total, units from no more than 15 different unit types can be selected, and of these no more than 5 different Auxiliary unit types.

Furthermore, a maximum 10 units from each Main unit type is allowed, and maximum 5 from each Auxiliary unit type.

For each full 3 units selected of a unit type (whether Main or Auxiliary), 1 will be compulsory (e.g., 3 -> 1+0/2, 7 -> 2+0/5).

Once all participating players have created their army list compositions, I’ll bundle them all into a module, to be used in-game FoG2:Ancients, in the ExCoB II campaign.




Download of Module with Armies

• Version 1 is now available for download.

• The Conquestu Britanniae II v1 module is needed to set up and play battles with the De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae II armies.

• The module includes armies for each of the fiefdoms, as designed and created by its players.

• Download the module through the following usual steps:
  1. Click on the Download community scenarios button at the top of the main screen of the game.
  2. Select De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (ExCoB) II MP.
  3. Click on Download the Selected Campaign.

• The mod will then be automatically saved into the the My Games\FieldOfGlory2\MULTIPLAYER\ folder, within the MP_EXCOB_II_V1 subfolder.

• (The single-player (SP) version is available for download in the same way, allowing the use of De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae II armies in battles against the AI.)

Starting the campaign

Army lists

• Players design and create their respective fiefdom armies (see above), out of 3500 FP worth of units from a list of base-game army lists from this time period and region, and subject to certain limitations and constraints.

• (3500 FP is the rough size of base-game army lists and will produce the numbers of units available for selection in a 2000 FP battle, such numbers reduced correspondingly in smaller battles.)

Armies

• Each army starts out with 1600 FP army strength and is placed by its player on the map in a hex adjacent to his kingdom's Court.

• No armies can start in the same hexes.

Rounds

Each round consists of the following four phases:

1. Order giving
1.1 All players submit movement instructions for their armies, by way of PM to the administrator and in the form specified in GIVING ORDERS below.
1.2 The administrator opens only the PMs of the players belonging to his kingdom and publishes these movement instructions before opening the PMs of the other players.

Movement instructions are expressed as a sequence of individual moves (e.g., 2 4 2 6 0 6), with no other symbols in between, only blanks (for easy copy-pasting by the administrator).

2. Movement execution
Armies move simultaneously, move by move, all armies at the same time and with the moves being conducted by the administrator. If any army enters the Zone of Control (ZoC) of a structure controlled by another kingdom or an army of another kingdom, it will be considered to have completed its movement and will make no further movement that round.

3. Battle resolution
The armies from different factions that are located within the ZoC of each other and/or that have the same structure within its ZoCs will fight "engagements" (the term used herein for games of battle played in Field of Glory II: Ancients), all such engagements to be simultaneously played and completed in Field of Glory II: Ancients during a period of around four weeks.

4. Administration
1. Removal of armies having lost battles, 2. movement of armies having drawn or won battles, 3. changes of structure control, 4. placement of armies having lost battles, 5. other updates of the map, 6. army strength calculations, 7. miscellaneous.


Giving orders

Each player provides movement instructions for his army at the beginning of every round. These direction of a moves is based on the sides of the hex and the clock:

• Move up to the right (northeast) = 2

• Move down to the right (southeast) = 4

• Move down (south) = 6

• Move down to the left (southwest) = 8

• Move up to the left (northwest) = 10

• Move up (north) = 12

• Stand still = 0

Movement instructions are expressed as a sequence of individual moves, e.g., 2 4 2 6 0 6, with no other symbols in between, only blanks (for easy copy-pasting by the administrator).

In order for all other players to be comfortable with a situation in which the administrator is a player too and does not base his movement instructions on those of other players, the administrator first of all players sends his encrypted movement instructions to one player (e.g., 7 -4 0 4 5) and the decryption key (additive or subtractive adjustments for each move) to another player (-3 10 0 2 -1), which when combined reveals the administrator's actual movement instructions (e.g., 7-3 -4+10 0+0 4+2 5-1 = 4 6 0 6 4).


Movement

Each army is allocated 12 movement points (MP) at the beginning of each round. (13 MP for the armies of the kingdom controlling the most Mines.)

The cost in MP for moving into a hex with a certain terrain is as follows:

• Roads = 1 MP (along the kingdom's lines of logistics), 1.5 MP (otherwise)

• Grassland = 2 MP

• Farmed Land = 2 MP

• Moors = 3 MP

• Light Woodland = 3 MP

• Grassland Hills = 3 MP

• Wooded Hills = 4 MP

• Swamp or Marsh = 5 MP

• Dense Forest = 5 MP

• Rugged Hills = 5 MP

• Mountain Forest = 8 MP

• Evergreen Mountain = 10 MP

• Mountains = 12 MP

• River = In addition to the above, it will cost +1 MP to move into a hex that contains a River and lacks Roads and any structures.

The movement cost for entering a hex is floored at 1 MP and capped at 12 MP.

Mountain Peak and Snow-capped Peak are both impassable.

Hexes with structures in which Roads end or intersect are treated as Roads for the purpose of MP costs.

Furthermore, each instruction to stand still "move" (i.e., each "0" in the movement sequence) costs 1 MP.

All armies move simultaneously and spend their MP, move by move and if necessary MP by MP, all armies at the same time. The moves are conducted by the administrator and presented once all armies' movements have been completed.

No army can at any point in time be located in the same hex as another army, whether from the same or from another kingdom. An army adjacent to a hex in which an army from even its own kingdom is located will, if instructed to move to that hex, halt and move no further that round.

This said, armies from the same kingdom are allowed to move through each other's hexes, if paying and having the necessary MP to do so and and if not ending its move in the hex of any other army.


Structures

There are a number of different structures present on the map that will have certain effects and implications and that may be of importance to be controlled or to wrest out of control from enemy kingdoms.

• Tower or Signal Station, Fort, Fortress: If controlled, provide defensive support, as reflected by additional FP for engagements taking place within the structure's ZoC.
  • Tower or Signal Station: +20 FP in location of Tower or Signal Station.
  • Fort: +40 FP in location of Fort, +20 FP 1 hex distance from location of Fort.
  • Fortress: +80 FP in location of Fortress, +40 FP 1 hex distance from location of Fortress, +20 FP 2 hexes distance from location of Fortress.

• Royal Villa, Village, Town, Kingdom or Civitas Capital, City: If controlled and connected to the kingdom's lines of logistics, staying a full round within the structure's ZoC reinforces the army's strength (up to a maximum of 1600 FP).
  • Royal Villa: +2 FP per round in location of Royal Villa.
  • Village: +4 FP per round in location of Village.
  • Town: +8 FP per round in location of Town, +4 FP per round 1 hex distance from location of Town.
  • Kingdom or Civitas Capital: +16 FP per round in location of Kingdom or Civitas Capital, +8 FP per round 1 hex distance from location of Kingdom or Civitas Capital.
  • City: +32 FP per round in location of City, +16 FP per round 1 hex distance from location of City, +8 FP per round 2 hexes distance from location of City.

• Fort Ruins, Town Ruins: "Haunted" sites that cannot be controlled by any kingdoms but that cause armies to suffer FP penalties if fighting engagements located close to these structures.
  • Fort Ruins: -20 FP in location of Fort Ruins.
  • Town Ruins: -40 FP in location of Town Ruins, -20 FP 1 hex distance from location of Town Ruins.

• Hillfort or Sacred Site, Church Monastery: Cannot be controlled by any kingdoms, and armies located within the ZoC of these structures may neither attack nor be attacked, but don't exercise any ZoC at all and don't enjoy any potential benefits of recovering FPs (from Royal Villas, Village, Towns, Capitals, or Cities).

• Mines: The armies of the kingdom that, at the beginning of a round, controls more Mines than all other kingdoms will each get an additional +1 MP to spend on their moves that round.
  • If two or more kingdoms control the highest number of Mines, none of them will get the additional +1 MP.

• Strongholds: An army that stays a full round in the location of its player's own Stronghold obtains a strength reinforcement of +16 FP per round (up to a maximum of 1600 FP), in addition to other effects above.

Gaining, losing, and retaining control over structures
A kingdom gains control over a structure if the structure at the end of a round (after all engagements have been concluded) is located within the ZoC of one of the kingdom's armies and not within the ZoC of any other kingdom's army. Any other kingdom controlling that structure will then be considered to have lost control. Thus, in order for a kingdom to lose control over a structure, another kingdom must in fact have gained control over that structure, and until that occurs the controlling kingdom will be considered to still control the structure.


Lines of logistics

Logistics lines serve the purpose of inter alia speeding up Road movement and enabling reinforcements to armies' strengths through structures.

A kingdom's lines of logistics:

• originate from its Court;

• extend along Road hexes to other structures controlled by the kingdom for as long as no Road hex along the logistics line is "interrupted", i.e., within the ZoC of another kingdom's army or a non-controlled structure;
  • Fort Ruins, City Ruins, Hillforts or Sacred Sites, and Church Monasteries do not count as non-controlled structures since they cannot be controlled and thus do not "interrupt" lines of logistics;

• end at the controlled structures from where there are no further uninterrupted Road hexes to other controlled structures farther away.

Zones of Control (ZoC)

The ZoC of armies and of different structures (if controlled by a kingdom) is as follows:

• Army = 1 hex around location (unless within the ZoC of a Hillfort or Sacred Site or Church Monastery).

• Royal Villa and Village = only its own location.

• Town and Kingdom or Civitas Capital = 1 hex around location.

• City = 2 hexes around location.

• Hillfort or Sacred Site = only its own location.

• Church Monastery = 1 hex around location.

• Tower or Signal Station = only its own location.

• Fort = 1 hex around location.

• Fortress = 2 hexes around location.

• Mines = only its own location.

An army within the ZoC of a Hillfort or Sacred Site or Church Monastery does not exercise any ZoC at all, whether for the purpose of halting another army or gaining, losing, and retaining control over structures.

No armies can march through the ZoC of a structure controlled by another kingdom or through the ZoC of the army of another kingdom, but will then halt at the first hex that it enters the ZoC and move no further that round. If an army at the beginning of a round is located within the ZoC of a structure controlled by another kingdom and if its first movement to another hex is still within the ZoC of that structure, it can move no further than to that one hex within the ZoC before halting again for the remainder of the round.

Structures that are not controlled by any kingdom do not exercise any ZoCs, so armies can thus move without interruption without such ZoCs.

Fort Ruins and City Ruins can never be controlled by any kingdom and thus never exercise any ZoCs.


Engagements and battles

Two armies from different kingdoms that at the end of a round are located within each other's ZoC and/or have the same structure within their respective ZoCs will fight an "engagement" (another expression for and in the form of a Field of Glory II: Ancients game.

The engagement will in Field of Glory II: Ancients be set up as follows:

• ExCoB II v1 module (downloaded in-game).

• Open Battle scenario.

• 24 turns turn limit.

• Wide (40 x 32) map size.

• Map type on the terrain as specified in Map terrain of engagements below.

• Each army's strength as force size, adjusted:
  • for any effects from the Tower or Signal Station, Fort, Fortress, Fort Ruins, and Town Ruins structures,
  • by -40 FP for the one of the two armies (if any) that has spent more MP than its opponent army that round, if at least one of the two armies in the engagement is located in a River hex (only if such hex has no structures), and
    • If both players have spent the same amount of MP, none of them will suffer the River penalty.
  • by -60 FP for each engagement that the army is fighting that round (for example, if fighting 1 engagement then -60 FP, if 2 engagements then -120 FP in each of the 2 engagements, if 3 engagements then -180 FP in each of the 3 engagements, etc.).
  • Force size is capped at 1600 FP.

• The player having spent the fewest MP that round normally sets up the engagement in-game.

• The winner, or the player having incurred the fewest casualties, reports the results in this thread.

Main armies

• The army of a fiefdom (i.e., controlled by a specific player, a “Knight") always uses its fiefdom's army list as its main army, independent of whether the Stronghold of such fiefdom is controlled by its kingdom or not.

Allies

• Allies are not allowed.

Battles

A "battle" consists of one or more engagements between armies from two different kingdoms.

Normally one battle involves only one engagement and thus only one army from each of two kingdoms, but it may consist of several individual engagements involving several armies from each of the two kingdoms, if and to the extent that more than one army from one kingdom has at least an army from the other kingdom in common as opponent in engagements.

For example, if two different armies from the same kingdom are both fighting the same army from a different kingdom, both these two individual engagements make up the same "battle". If in addition one of these two armies are fighting yet another army from that different kingdom, that Field of Glory II: Ancients is included in the battle as well.

Other examples (with armies A, B, and C being from one kingdom, and X, Y, and Z from another):
1. A is fighting X, B is fighting Y, and C is fighting Z in three separate battles, since none of the armies from one kingdom has an army from the other kingdom in common.
2. A fighting X as well as Y, B fighting Y, and C fighting Z results in one battle including three engagements; A vs. X, A vs. Y, and B vs. Y (since A and B have Y in common as opponent), whereas C vs. Z is still a separate battle.
3. A fighting X as well as Y, B fighting Y as well as Z, and C fighting Z results in one battle including all these five engagements (since A and B have Y in common as opponent, and B and C have Z in common).

This means that each army can be involved in several engagements but only in one battle each round.


Map terrain of engagements

The engagement played out in Field of Glory II: Ancients will use the map type and terrain of the location of the army having spent the fewest MP that round (until having completed its movement), or if both armies have spent the same amount of MP that round, in falling priority order in the list below.

• Grassland = Agricultural

• Farmed Land = Agricultural

• Grassland Hills = Hilly

• Dense Forest = Wooded

• Rugged Hills = Hilly

• Light Woodland = Wooded

• Swamp or Marsh = Marshy

• Moors = Marshy

• Mountain Forest = Wooded

• Wooded Hills = Hilly

• Mountains = Mountains

• Evergreen Mountain = Mountains

All terrain will use North European.


Outcomes and effects of engagements and battles

The results of the individual outcomes of all the engagements within a battle will determine the total outcome of the battle, which in turn will affect whether control of structures is changed and armies are moved from the locations.

A kingdom and all its armies involved in that battle are considered to have won a battle against an enemy kingdom if at least one of the kingdom's engagements in that battle is won and none are lost, with the enemy kingdom (and all its armies involved) in that battle then considered to have lost the battle. If there is no winner and hence no loser of a battle, the battle is considered to be a draw for the involved kingdoms and armies.

An army having:

• lost a battle is removed from its hex and placed (at its player's choice) in the hex of (or adjacent to) its player's Stronghold (provided it is controlled by its kingdom) or at least 2 hexes away, in the hex of the closest structure controlled by its kingdom and connected to the kingdom's lines of logistics, or, if none of these are available, in a hex of or adjacent to the Court of its kingdom.
  • Default (if no instruction from its player): the farthermost hex adjacent to its player's Stronghold.

• drawn a battle moves 2 hexes away from the armies it fought, in the direction of its kingdom's Court or controlled structures, always without moving within the ZoC of any army from another kingdom.
  • Default (if no instruction from its player): the direction of its kingdom's Court.

• won a battle either (at its player's choice) remains in its hex or moves into the adjacent hex previously occupied by a removed losing enemy army. If more than one army wishes to move into the same hex, the army with the lowest incurred casualties will make the move and if a tie the army with the highest inflicted casualties will make the move. If still a tie, no army will move into that hex.
  • Default (if no instruction from its player): remain in its hex.

Reduction of army strength

• The level of incurred casualties (as shown in the upper left corner of the screen when the Field of Glory II: Ancients game ends) from engagements will reduce the army's strength going forward.

• An army will suffer strength reduction from each of its engagements.

• The reduction amounts to:
  • 1 FP per percentage point of incurred casualties for the army winning the engagement.
  • 2 FP per percentage point of incurred casualties for the army drawing or losing the engagement.

• The army strength reduction during a round is calculated and becomes effective only at the end of the round, once all engagements and battles have been concluded.

Elimination of armies

• If the strength of an army at the end of a round is below 1200 FP, it will be eliminated and irrevocably removed from the map and the campaign.

[kronenblatt]

Warg1 added to the list of participants.

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angusosborne added as well.

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anderarcos11 participating.

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And SpeedyCM.

[kronenblatt]

Once ExCoB I is concluded or about to conclude, ExCoB II will take off (most likely after summer, in August)!

Since this campaign focuses on co-operative team play, it will ideally involve a large number of players, but I'm still undecided exactly how many: will ultimately depend on people and their commitment, but between 6 and 16 players roughly. I’d like to achieve 3 or preferably 4 kingdoms, with at least 2 reliable and committed players in each.

So if you're interested to join and can commit to the rules as well as to reliably and timely provide instructions and conclude battles, please please PM me and I'll put you on the list among the other interested players.

[kronenblatt]

Time has come for those wishing to participate in the ExCoB II campaign to spend your summer months creating, finetuning, and optimising the army list that you want to use for your earldom army or armies.

Therefore, and to make your life simpler (and mine as well), I've created the "Creating_ExCoB_II_ARMY_LISTS" Excel spreadsheet for you to use, available for download HERE.

In the "ArmyList" tab of that spreadsheet, you enter the number of units for each unit type in the E column, in cells E7:E36. Plus your user name, in cell B1. In the "UnitStats" tab, you can see the stats of the different unit types, if you want to.

So do as follows

1. Enter your user name in cell B1 of the ArmyList tab.
2. Enter your selected number of units (subject to the constraints below) for each unit type in cells E7:E36. IMPORTANT: Keep the zeros (0) for the unit types for which you don't want any units!
3. Copy cells B1:B2 into a PM and send off to me by July 31 at the latest (it will then be very easy for me to extract information from that single row of values, separated by minus signs). Example to look as follows (again, keep any zeros):
   kronenblatt
   0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
4. That's it (for now).

Constraints to unit selection in army list design

• Unit types belong to two categories: Main and Auxiliary.

• Select units for a worth of maximum 3500 FP in total, of which a maximum of 700 FP can be spent on Auxiliary unit types.

• In total, units from no more than 15 different unit types can be selected, and of these no more than 5 different Auxiliary unit types.

• Maximum 10 units from each selected Main unit type is allowed.

• Maximum 5 units from each selected Auxiliary unit type is allowed.

• Cells with disallowed values will flash red in the spreadsheet if any of the above is breached!

• For each full 3 units selected of a unit type (whether Main or Auxiliary), 1 will be compulsory (e.g., 3 -> 1+0/2, 7 -> 2+0/5).

More information

• In the ArmyList tab you use 3500 FP to create your army list (that I will compile for all players into an armylist.txt file to use in-game). If you then were to fight a 2000 FP battle, those would be the minimum + optional numbers applicable for you when spending the 2000 FP. Armies and their numbers (actually min and max, not optional) in the armylist.txt file are always expressed in 2000 FP battle terms.

• However, our armies will start off battling at 1600 FP (to be reduced over time due to casualties), giving you fewer units to choose from.

• Thus, in the UnitStats tab, minimum + optional numbers are reduced in a manner set out by the base game itself to reflect that it is a 1600 FP battle (see cell K-N1 therein).

• That explains the difference you're seeing between the min and optional numbers in the ArmyList tab and those in the UnitStats tab.

• Once armies get reduced further, say to 1536,1400, or 1251 FP, that difference will be even larger, since available units too choose from will have been reduced much more. (Otherwise an e.g. 1200 FP battle would give too much flexibility if units were to be available from a full 3500 FP army list, instead of a rough (1200/2000)*3500 = 2100 FP list).

• If you want to amend e.g. the 1600 FP in the cell K-N1 of the UnitStats , you can unprotect the tab simply through right clicking on it, and then select "Unprotect sheet".

[kronenblatt]

As the underlying storyline, I’m looking at having this campaign portray a falling out between factions of the “Knights of the Round Table” following the Battle of Camlann and death of King Arthur, with each player being one of these Knights, in fractured groups having formed their own (smaller) Round Tables.

It won’t involve any immediate changes to the rules, other than renaming of some concepts (e.g., earls, earldoms, kingdoms) and maybe victory conditions, such as the capture and holding of a possible Camelot located on the map (will depend on the number of players and factions). (I’d like an even number of factions or Tables, so probably 2 or 4 of those.)

[angusosborne]

If it's allowed - I call dibs on Yorkshire/Northumbria

[kronenblatt]

If it's allowed - I call dibs on Yorkshire/Northumbria

Sure, I’ll make a note of that and will try to accommodate it if it suits the proper allocation (based on skill and experience) of players into kingdoms.

[kronenblatt]

13 players signed up so far, with 10 of them having submitted their army lists to me:

• tyronec (army list provided)

• Aetius93 (army list provided)

• carpenkm

• Giacofa93 (army list provided)

• dragmio

• Kashtronomical (army list provided)

• kronenblatt (army list provided)

• Warg1 (army list provided)

• angusosborne (army list provided)

• anderarcos11 (army list provided)

• SpeedyCM (army list provided)

• Redpossum

• Karvon (army list provided)

• ...

• ...

• ...

I believe we can accommodate up to 3 players more, i. e., 16 in total, but we will go with the signed-up players providing army lists, even if an odd number. So if you’re interested and reliable and buy in on the rules, write here or send me a PM. Please then also write how many armies you’d like to control (1, 2, or maximum 3).

Those who already have or who shortly will provide their army lists to me will get to see those of the other players and get a chance to make minor adjustments to their Main units (Auxiliaries stay firm).

[kronenblatt]

Found The Prophecy of Merlin and other poems by John Reade, beautifully written with parts perfect for this campaign:

… I will give an answer to thy quest:

King Arthur sleeps in Avalon, and many a change
Must over-pass this land before he wake.
The great White Dragon of the stormy North,
Rearing his crest above the foaming waves,
Shall shake the ground, and level all the hills,—
And war shall follow war,—and blood shall flow
In every vale,—and smoke of burning towns
Shall reach the sky,—and men shall cry for aid
Unto the sea, to hide them from the foe—
And still shall Arthur sleep in Avalon...

[kronenblatt]

Here's what the four kingdoms (of The North, The East, The West, and The South) will (most probably) look like. Along with the kingdoms' respective courts and some special structures to be captured.

[kronenblatt]

And here's the allocation of players into the four kingdoms, along with their number of armies (based on players' preferences), i.e., 5 armies per kingdom.

Knights of The West

• Giacofa93, Lord of Segontium, with 1 army

• Karvon, Lord of Magnis, with 2 armies

• Kashtronomical, Lord of Gobannium, with 2 armies

Knights of The North

• carpenkm, Lord of Banovallum, with 2 armies

• kronenblatt, Lord of Olenacum, with 2 armies

• angusosborne, Lord of Mamucium, with 1 army

Knights of The East

• tyronec, Lord of Branodunum, with 1 army

• Warg1, Lord of Caesaromagus, with 1 army

• anderarcos11, Lord of Regulbium, with 2 armies

• dragmio, Lord of Gariannonum, with 1 army

Knights of The South

• Aetius39, Lord of Anderida, with 2 armies

• SpeedyCM, Lord of Portus Adurni, with 2 armies

• RedPossum, Lord of Aquae Sulis, with 1 army

[kronenblatt]

Setting up the module itself and its structure of texts, etc., while waiting for the final army lists from participants. Here's some teasers (please note the generals' names; from an extensive list of Knights of The Round Table):

[Redpossum]

Is it too late to get some color changes to the map?

I have been allocated to The South, and I can't see for squat what's going on down there. Specifically, the background color and the color of the text are too similar; there's very little contrast.

For example, Calleva Atrebatum is not too bad, because the text is shadowed, but Spinae just north of that is much harder to read.

For another example, how are we supposed to tell the difference between Grassland Hills and Rugged Hills, when everything is so dark? The key shows them as yellow and green, but ours are two scarcely-distinguishable shades of brown.

I do not mean to disrespect all your hard work, for which I am indeed grateful, but The South got a really dark color, when the other three are much lighter, and that's making things very hard for us. Could you please change the background to something light-colored like the rest?

[kronenblatt]

Is it too late to get some color changes to the map?

I have been allocated to The South, and I can't see for squat what's going on down there. Specifically, the background color and the color of the text are too similar; there's very little contrast.

For example, Calleva Atrebatum is not too bad, because the text is shadowed, but Spinae just north of that is much harder to read.

For another example, how are we supposed to tell the difference between Grassland Hills and Rugged Hills, when everything is so dark? The key shows them as yellow and green, but ours are two scarcely-distinguishable shades of brown.

I do not mean to disrespect all your hard work, for which I am indeed grateful, but The South got a really dark color, when the other three are much lighter, and that's making things very hard for us. Could you please change the background to something light-colored like the rest?

I understand your concern. It won’t be a problem, though, since that map and its colours showing the extent of the kingdoms are just published now, at this stage, for presentations. Later, once the campaign is about to start, these area colours will be removed and replaced by coloured semi-transparent hexagons showing control over structures instead. In addition, these colours will be different but may still pose difficulties with respect to terrain. In the third post of this thread, I've now published a downloadable map with no armies and no structure control hexagons for easier reference. You could have a look at the ongoing ExCoB I campaign map to get a feel for it.