Rules
Each player has 5 commodoties which have various uses. The amount they have of each commodity will vary throughout the game. This table shows the commodities and their uses.
Name | Use | Starting amount |
| Gold | Trading | 500 |
| Wood | Building castles and making Armour | 0 |
| Iron | Making Armour | 0 |
| Stone | Building Castles | 0 |
| Armour | Arming Soldiers | 0 |
Each county starts with a population of 500. Each county has a number of rescources. The possible rescources are listed here.
| Name | Use |
| Forest | Chopping trees for wood |
| Iron Mine | Mining iron |
| Quarry | Extracting Stone |
| Forge | Making Armour |
| Fields | Grazing Cattle |
All counties have fields but the amount varies. The amount of fields effects the number of cows that can be kept.
Each turn you must decide the following things:
- What to buy/sell.
- How many people to assign to each job in each county.
- Where to move armies, whether to invade or not etc.
- How much tax to collect in each county.
- How many cows to slaughter
- Whether to start building a castle or not
Trading
Each turn you have the option to buy or sell any rescources. There is no limit to how much you buy as long as you have enough gold.
| Resource | Buy | Sell |
| Iron | 12 | 6 |
| Wood | 16 | 8 |
| Stone | 10 | 5 |
| Armour | 1000 | 500 |
| Cows | 10 | 5 |
People Assignment
The population of each county must be divided between the following jobs:
Wood Chopping
Iron Mining
Quarrying
Blacksmithing
Castle Building
Farming
Defending
Wood chopping can only take place if the county has a forest. The same applies to iron mining and quarrying with iron mines and quarrys. Each turn the amount of each material produced is equal to the number of people working at that job e.g. if 50 people are working in the quarry then 50 units of stone will be produced that turn.
Blacksmithing can only take place if the county has a forge. The amount of armour produced is also related to the number of people working in the forge. The amount of armour that can be produced is also limited by the amount of wood and iron you have. 1 suit of armour requires 10 units of wood and 50 units of iron.
Armies
People in each county can be recruited into soldiers. Each soldier recruited requires 1 suit of armour. There is no limit to how many soldiers can stay in each county. Soldiers cannot help in any off the other jobs. They also don't need food. Because of this they aren't counted in the main population count for each county. If the county has a castle then the soldiers will automatically be garrisoned there. Soldiers can invade adjacent counties. Soldiers can also be moved between counties which are ruled by the same player. If soldiers are moved into a hostile county then they automatically attack.
Battles
Only soldiers can attack counties. People who are assigned to defend a county will defend it from invading soldiers. The soldiers in that county will also automatically defend it. Unclaimed counties automatically defend with 1/5 of their population (they don't have any soldiers). Soldiers have a fighting force of 5 and each normal person defending the county has a fighting force of 1. The defending county might have the advantage of a castle. A size 1 castle doubles the total fighting force of the defending county. This table shows the effect of difference sizes of castle on the fighting force. The effect is multiplied by the fighting force.
| Castle Size | Effect |
| 1 | 2 |
| 2 | 2.5 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 3.5 |
| 5 | 4 |
The side with the highest fighting force is the winner.
If the defenders win..
The attacking army is destroyed. Some of the defending army is killed. The unarmed people die first. The attacking force is divided by the Castle Effect and this many defending people die. If there aren't that many people then the remaining attacking force is divided by 5 and that many soldiers die.
Example 1.
20 Attacking soldiers
10 Defending people
9 Defending Soldiers
Castle size =1
Attacking force=20 * 5 = 100
Defending force=(10+ 9*5)*2 = 110
Defenders win
Attacking force/2 = 50
10 defending people die
Remaining force = 40
40/5=8
8 soldiers die. 1 remains
Example 2.
7 Attacking soldiers
11 Defending people
1 Defending Soldiers
Castle size =5
Attacking force=7 * 5 = 35
Defending force=(11+ 1*5)*4 = 64
Defenders win
Attacking force/4 = 8
8 defending people die
Remaining force = 0
3 people and 1 soldiers remain.
If the Attackers win..
The defending army is destroyed. Some of the attackers are killed. The defending force is divided by 5 and that many soldiers of the attacker's army are killed. The invasion has been succesful. At the end of the turn this county will belong to the invaders.
Example:
20 Attacking soldiers
5 defending people
3 defending soldiers
Castle size =1
Attacking force=20 * 5=100
Defending force=(5+ 3*5)*2=40
Attackers win
Defenders force/5=8
8 soldiers die
12 soldiers remain
NOTE: If you invade a county from two or more different directions your forces will be added together
If two or more people attack a county at once...
The side with the higher force(after castle modifier) wins. If the winner is the home county then all the other armies are destroyed. If the winner is one of the attackers then all the other attackers are destroyed and the county is captured. The winner recieves the damage of the highest opposing force.
However if the two highest forces have the same force (this applies when theres only one attacker aswell) Then the defender always wins, even if the defender has a much smaller force than two attackers who have the same force!! (However in this situation the defending army would all be killed, but the county wouldn't be lost.)
Tax
Every turn tax is collected from the population of each county. The maximum amount of tax that can be collected from each county is calculated as follows:
Tax=(Ration Effect + Castle Size) * Population
| Ration | Ration Effect |
| None | 0 |
| Half | 0.5 |
| Normal | 1 |
| Double | 2 |
| Triple | 3 |
For exmaple:
Ration = Double
Castle Size = 3
Population = 800
Tax=(2+3)*800=4000
However, although this is the maximum amount of tax that can be charged you can choose to only charge 0, 20 ,40 or 80% of this total instead of the full 100%. This will increase migration into the county from the surrounding counties.
Castle Building
All counties start with no castle. You can order a castle to be built at any time. Once work on a castle begins it no longer has any effect on tax or battle calculations until it is finished. A castle can promoted from one stage to the next. Each stage requires 100 units of work. Each person working on the castle adds 1 work unit per turn. Once another 100 work units have been added to the castle's total the work is finished and then the castle can once again have an effect on tax and battles.
However before a stage in castle development can start materials must be ready. The required materials needed for each stage are listed below. The materials for building are deducted from the players rescources as soon as the build order is given.
| Castle Size | Wood | Stone |
| 1 | 200 | 0 |
| 2 | 300 | 100 |
| 3 | 350 | 250 |
| 4 | 350 | 450 |
| 5 | 400 | 600 |
Farming
Each county has a number of fields which they keep cows in. At the start of a game there are 10 cows in each field. The maximum number of cows a county can have is 20 cows per field. Each cow produces 5 units of food each turn as cheese. Each cow that is slaughtered is worth 20 units of food. The cow population rises by 10% each turn. Cows have to be looked after by farmers. 1 farmer is required per cow to look after it. If the cows are crowded then 3 farmers per cow are required. Cows are crowded if there are more than 10 cows per field (ie. cows > fields * 10). If there are more cows than the farmers are capable of looking after then all the cows above this number will die.
E.g.
Fields = 9
Farmers= 120
Cows=100
Cows after deaths= 120 / 3 (because 100 > 9 * 10)=40
If after this calculation the number of cows is still above the maximum (fields * 20) then the number will be reduced to this amount.
WARNING: If no farmers are assigned during any turn then all the cows in that county will die.
The order that these calculations are done in is as follows:-
1.Cheese produced
2.Cows born
3.Cows slaughtered
4.Cows die from overcrowding
The number of food units that are produced each turn dictates the ration which effects tax and population growth. If the total food units is less than half the population then the ration is none.
| Ration | Food Units |
| None | pop/2 > food |
| Half | pop > food > pop/2 |
| Normal | pop*2 > food > pop |
| Double | pop*3 > food > pop*2 |
| Triple | food > pop*3 |
Population Growth
Every turn the population of each county grows depending on the ration which has been supplied. This table shows the change in population for different rations:
| Ration | Population change |
| none | -20% |
| half | -5% |
| normal | +5% |
| double | +10% |
| triple | +15% |
NOTE: All unclaimed counties grow 5% each turn without exceeding 500
Migration
Each turn migration occurs between counties depending on the tax rates. Each county must have a tax rate of 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 or 100%. The difference in tax rates between two adjacent counties is what dictates migration. People will migrate from a high tax county to a low tax county. If two adjacent counties have the same tax rates then no migration happens between them.
When there is a difference between two counties the difference is divided by 5 and that percentage of the county with the high tax rate moves to the county with the low tax rate.
Example:
County 1:
pop=500
tax=80%
County 2:
pop=100
tax=20%
Difference = 80 - 20 =60
60 / 5 = 12
12% of 500 = 60
County 1: new pop=440
County 2: new pop=160
NOTE: All unclaimed counties have a tax rate of 80%
Order of calculation
To keep all these calculations organised there is an order which they follow each turn. All players turns are calculated simultaneously. The calculations are done in the following order:
Trading
Armies recruited
Castle Building
Black smithing
Armies move and battles occur
Wood is chopped
Iron is mined
Stone is quarried
Cheese is eaten
Cows are born
Cows are eaten
Cows die from crowding
Tax collected
Population growth
Migration
Counties assigned to new owners
How to give your orders for each turn is covered in Giving Orders
If you have any questions or comments about the rules email me at Beany@dborrell.easynet.co.uk
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