Rise & Fall: The Game of Empires...

[Nathanael]

For those looking for a game that recreates the running of a continent spanning empire, I'm working on and play testing those rules 'in-campaign' as we speak.

The series is entitled 'Rise and Fall' and will be available as a number of inexpensive PDF books concerning various aspects of 'Meta-Campaigning,' i.e. dealing with the mapping, economics, population, wars, basically everything you need to know to run a fantasy campaign setting which focuses on Countries/Kingdoms/Empires.

The thing that has taken so long is that, at first, I tried to make them as compatible with d20 as possible, making every rule a natural extension of a rule from the three core books. Then I realized it would be much less complex and work (and sell) much better as a generic game aid for everything from D&D to RIFTS to GURPS. The new rules can be used with any system and as a stand alone game all on it's own, for those who want a detailed game of battling Empires.

The first part is titled 'Rise And Fall: Fields of Battle' and is an attempt to create rules that realistically recreate the way medieval battles were actually fought. It will cover everything from raising units (with cash or conscription) to the difficulties of deploying them into combat on the battlefield.

It will also include rules on how magic affects battlefield communications, combat, attrition, etc. for fantasy campaigns and how individual PC's can affect the outcome of a unit combat or even swing the direction of an entire battle. Expect it sometime in the spring of '04.

If there is anything in particular that you'd like to see covered in the mass combat rules, this is as good a place as any to tell me... ; )

 

[S'mon]

It would be nice to see good rules for the creation of medieval-type armies; without adequate info one tends to follow a pretty much 20th century modern paradigm with large professioonal or conscript armies divided up into squads, platoons etc - fine for a Roman Empire or 17th-century+ campaign, not good for a feudal medieval campaign. With a typical medieval army mostly consisting of a multitude of different nobles' levies around a core of King's troops, command and control was often pretty much impossible, and the rules should reflect this.

 

[Nathanael]

The basic combat unit is the Regiment. There are no others, although some regiments, like a regiment of scouts, serve specific non-battlefield purposes and aren't regularly deployed in combat. Regiments vary in size depending on the troop types they contain and are defined by the number of 'x' troops you can get for 'y' cost when considering equipment and training.

The system uses both regular and irregular regiments. From the highly organized cavalry units of knights to the the unorganized mobs of peasent rabble. Each fight differently, to be sure, but these differences are built into the system so that said knights will rarely, if ever, need to feel threatened by the peasantry, although the mob will make an effective delaying force for more ruthless Generals.

As far as communications go, our battlefields are ruled by orders. Each regiments will be given one of 6 basic orders to start with and will follow those orders until the end of the battle. Smart commanders will give multipart orders to their troops that can be signalled by standard or trumpet, for feints and other such tactics. Any mid-battle changes, to counter an unexpected problem, have to be dealt with by sending a messanger to the unit you want to order to deliver new instructions. In either case, an order test is needed, as orders might be misunderstood or flat out refused, and once a medieval army gets moving in one direction, it's hard to shift or stop it. This will be worked into the rules, so it won't be quite as complex in play as it sounds here...