War of Succheesion Rules

The Maustrian War of Succheesion

Strategy Rules

(Battles to be auto-resolved or fought using 2x2 Napoleonics https://www.rodvik.com/2by2/ with some modifications for scale, and my own changes here and there)

 

This set of rules is meant to be the background game behind the hit youtube series “The Maustrian War of Succheesion.” Link to channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoP9li9-bxU9d1M20-lVjMQ

 

Premise:

The idea is that various players will act for the several nations (mainly two), and I will fight out the battles and use the events to make the story for the channel. If you want to participate, let me know!

The rules are still in a small state of flux, even as the war has begun.

 

The Map:

The Map is divided into Regions – circles on the map, joined by lines

Download a full-size map here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YEAjDiUm7XcRXdsr0DohnJiTPkZJYMTe/view?usp=sharing

Land Regions can contain Cities & Fortress. Cities that border on the Sea also act as Ports.
Sea Regions are just water.

Units in a Land Region are either listed as being in the “Field” or in a specific location – city or Fortress.

Land Regions are either Loyal or Occupied. A Loyal region provides full economic support to its side – an Occupied region “belongs” to another side but is occupied by forces of another side. Occupied regions provide the occupier with less population and cheese than a loyal region, and cities may only be used to produce Militia units. Occupied Regions will only become Loyal when ceded by the original owning power, usually as part of a peace treaty. Should the terms of the peace treaty be broken, the Regions will return to being "Occupied" at the GM's discretion.

Sea Regions can have units from multiple Nations present without battle. A naval force in a region can enforce a "blockade" which will prevent powers with which they are at war tracing lines of supply, trade, and exchange through that region.

For Example: The Maustrians establish a blockade in Region 13. The Maustrians are at War with Crimsonia, so Crimsonia cannot send trade goods to a nation that would require a line of trade to be drawn through region 13 - like Dunbarra or Typ Lef Nazin. Nor can an army beyond this line be supplied, nor can cheese be sent to a place to aid diplomausy or as a gift.

 

Simultaneous Turn Order:

1.       Gather income from cities

2.       Pay Supply for Units in each Region

3.       Spawn New Units and trade goods

4.       Determine new city production

5.       Exchange trade goods with other players, then cash for income.

6.       Spend Cheese

7.       Movement orders for Units

8.       Resolve Battles, Sieges, Assaults

Diplomausy

Nations are either at War or Peace. Nations at War cannot have units in the same region without fighting (unless in a Fortress, etc). Nations may also be a part of a trading pact, whereby they only trade with other nations in the same pact.

To influence a Nation to join a war or end one, simply indicate in your orders that you are attempting diplomausy. You can choose to increase your chance of success by sending Cheese to bribe, etc. Dice are rolled, and results will be revealed.

Edamnomics 

Population – Food – Agriculture – more food means more units can be supported. A Nation can only have a number of units equal to SIX times the number of land regions controlled, plus TWO for each Occupied Region.

Cities – Industry – the only area where units can be built – ships only built in ports. Cities can either build units or trade goods.

Currency – Cheese – Denoted as C. Cheese is used to guarantee supply to units in the field, as well as construct defenses. Each city produces 1 Cheese per turn. Trade Goods cashed in the nation that built them provide 1 Cheese, those cashed in another nation are worth 2 Cheese.

 

Units –

To build a unit you must have a City to build it in and enough Food / Population limit. Units take a certain number of turns to construct. A City may only build one unit at at time. (Fortifications are not units).

Militia (1)
Infantry (2)
Light Infantry (3)
Guard Infantry (3)
Cavalry (3)
Heavy Cavalry (3)

Artillery (3)
Siege Artillery (5)

Frigate (2) – Ship
Galleon (5) – Ship

General + HQ (4) (Generals are not units – they don’t count towards Population or Supply costs)

 

Trade

Instead of producing a unit, a City may instead produce a Trade Good. It takes one turn to produce a trade good.

Trade goods may be exchanged with other sides, then cashed in. You may cash in as many trade goods as cities you currently control. For each of your own trade goods you cash in, gain 1 Cheese. For each of another side’s trade goods you cash in, gain 2 Cheese.

Nations can trade if they have a shared border of regions, including sea regions. Trade can pass through any Sea Region that does not contain a unit belonging to a Nation with whom you are at war. {I might add something in here about rolling a d6 to intercept trade, but that seems overly complicated}

Supply

Units must be supplied each turn. The more units in a region the more strain is placed on the local logistics, making it more expensive.

Supply costs per region:

UNITS	COST
0	0
1	0.1
2	0.2
3	0.5
4	1
5 or 6	2
7 or 8	3
9 or 10	4.5
11 or 12	6
13 to 16	10
17 to 20	15
21 to 24	21
25 to 28	28

 

To be able to be supplied, the region must be connected to the capital of the nation through a series of loyal or occupied regions, including sea regions.

An army that cannot be supplied must roll 1d6 per unit. On a 5 or 6 that unit is immediately disbanded and removed from the map.

A garrison in a Fortification that is under siege does not need to be supplied – they consume prepared stores.

Allied forces in the same region must be supplied together as one force. How the costs are divided between the various players will need to be worked out between them.

 

Fortifications

Land Units may be assigned to construct fortifications. It costs 1 Cheese per unit to establish  one level of defence. Additional levels may be constructed each turn to a maximum of level 6. Costs are in addition to normal supply. Defence Levels may not be increased if the Fortification is under siege. If multiple units construct defences in a single region, orders must state if they are building a single or multiple Fortifications. A Fortification that does not have its full garrison number of units will degrade one defence level per turn. Sea Units may not be a part of a Fort's garrison, but if in a port protected by such a Fort they would not be destroyed or engaged in battle unless the Fort should fall.

A Fortification will have the following notation: Fortress NAME, X / Y (where X is the number of units the fortification is designed to hold, and Y is the defence level).

For Example: Two units in a region are ordered to construct a single fortress. This will cost 2 Cheese. After one turn its notation will be 2/1. Each turn the fortress has two units present, its defence level remains the same. If it ever has less than two units, its defence level will drop by 1. If the defence level drops to 0, the fortress is no longer defensible, and the garrison will surrender if under siege, or simply revert to the friendly field army in that region.

 To expand a fortress to accommodate a larger garrison, you may not spend more cheese than units that will be in the garrison. Multiply the old X by Y (garrison by level) and add any new cheese. This total should then be divided to make the new X by Y.

For Example: A 2/4 fortress needs to be expanded to accommodate 3 units. 2 x 4 = 8. The player can spend 1 cheese to turn this into a 3/3 fortress (8+1=9=3x3). A 1/6 Fort can be turned into a 2/3 Fort, or a 3/2 Fort, or a 6/1 Fort for no cost.

Movement

Players will submit orders for their forces, which will be resolved simultaneously. Land Units may move up to THREE regions per turn but end their movement upon entering a region with an enemy unit present, even if under siege.

Sea units may move up to FIVE regions per turn, and transport land units. Frigates transport one unit each, and Galleons may transport two. Units can only be loaded or unloaded in port cities. If landing in a Port City guarded by an enemy Fortification, an “Assault” battle must be fought – ships can be taken as casualties as required.

 

Weather

Each season will have different weather effects for different areas of the map - the northern regions (001 to 074) are warmer, the Souther (075 to 118) are cooler.  Heat, Rain, Storms, Snow, etc. Campaigning in Winter in the South will be more difficult, and campaigning in the north in Summer more difficult.

 

 

 

Siege and Assault

Units that start a turn in a region may be assigned to lay siege or assault enemy Fortifications. Forces that are attacked by an enemy field army while laying siege will be at a severe disadvantage. The attacking force will roll two d6 for each unit to determine Tactical Points. A force assigned to a siege would normally be protected by an army in the field.

Siege

A force assigned to siege a City or Fortress will roll a single D6 and add the difference in artillery numbers, counting siege Artillery as +2. Any score of a 6 or more will reduce the defence level of the City or Fortress by 2. Any other result reduces it by 1.

Once the Defence level of the City or Fortress reaches 0, the garrison will automatically surrender.

 For Example: Fort Delay 2/4. Two units defend the Fort – one of artillery, and one of Guard Infantry. A force sent to lay siege to the fort has two units of artillery, one of them siege artillery. The attacker rolls a d6 and adds +2 (+1 for artillery, +2 for Siege artillery, -1 for enemy artillery). The roll is 4 + 2 = 6, so the Fort’s defence level is reduced by 2. Had the attacker rolled a 3 or less, the Fort’s defence level would have reduced by 1 (this represents the defenders eating supplies, sap to morale, etc).

 

Assault

Rather than lay siege to a Fortification, a Force can Assault, attempting to destroy the garrison. All of the defending force must be destroyed for the assault to succeed.

Calculate the battle as if it were a field battle, but do not count Heavy or Cavalry advantages (only Militia, Light Infantry, Guard, Artillery, and Generals Present). If the assaulting party wins the assault they can increase the Casualty Level to 100% to guarantee victory (see combat below).

After an assault, reduce the defence level of the fortification by 1.

For Example: Fort Delay 2/4. Two units defend the Fort – one of artillery, and one of Guard Infantry. Rather than lay siege, the attacker decides to assault. A battle is calculated using the rules outlined below. The attacker may increase the casualty rate to 100% as long as they do not lose all their units in the assault. If all the defenders are eliminated, the Fortress is reduced by 1 defence levels and may be garrisoned by the attacker. If some of the defenders survive the battle, reduce the defence levels by 1. (this needs some more work I think)

 

Auto-Calculated Combat

Armies meet –

Roll 1 d6 per unit present (or for every six units just count 1 POINT and roll for any remainders). For every Galleon roll one additional d6.

Each roll of 1 is a TACTICAL POINT (TP).

Then add extra TACTICAL POINTS (TPs):

The side with less Militia +1, More Light Infantry +1, More Guards +1, More Cavalry +1, More Heavy Cavalry +1, More Artillery (siege or field) +1, General Present +1 (for sea Battles More Frigates +1, More Galleons +1).

Both sides total their TPs. The side with the larger number is the victor. If a tie, roll off to give one side an additional TP.

If a side scored zero TP, add one to both sides.

The Victor rolls 1d6 to determine casualty level. The number may be increased by 1 for each TP the victor is willing to spend.  Result: 1 – 15%, 2 – 20%, 3 – 25%, 4 – 30%, 5 – 35%, 6 - 40%, 7 – 50%, 8 – 60% 9 – 75%, 10 – 100%

The victor may spend as many TP as they wish to increase the casualty rate by one level per success spent. An attacker may spend more TPs than they started with – but must give one to the defender for each additional TP so spent.

 

The defeated side must remove units from their army equal to the casualty rate multiplied by the number of units in the army, rounded down to the nearest whole number.
For example – an army of 10 units is defeated and rolls a 3. 25% of the units are destroyed, (.25 x 10 = 2.5) 2 units.

Divide the defeated side’s TP by the victor’s remaining TP to give a casualty ratio. For each defeated side unit removed, the victor must remove a number in accord with the casualty ratio, rounded down.

For example, The Victor scored 4 TPs, and the defeated scored 2. The casualty rate is 2/4 = 0.5. For each unit that the defeated army removes, the Victor removes 0.5. If the Defeated player removed 5 units, the Victor would remove 2.5 (rounded down to 2).

If the Victor had spent TPs to increase the casualty rate, they might end up with fewer successes than their opponent and take more units as casualties. Exception: the attacker cannot so increase the casualty rate to result in the total destruction of their own force.

When removing Casualties, Militia count as one half unit – so two Militia must be removed in place of one other unit.

No kind of unit can be taken as a type of casualty twice in a row (unless there are no other options). For example, an army that takes 3 casualties can only take the first and third as Line infantry – the second casualty must be another kind of unit if possible. A force that lost 7 units could only take 4 of them as Line Infantry.

The same applies to Naval battles – Frigates may not be taken as a type of casualty twice in a row unless there is no other option.

 

Example Battle:

The Red Army has 3 Militia, 4 Line Infantry, 1 Guard, 2 Heavy Cavalry, and 1 Artillery, and a General (11 units + General).

The Blue Army has 1 Militia, 7 Line Infantry, 1 Light Infantry, 1 Cavalry, 1 Heavy Cavalry, and 2 Artillery, and a General (13 units + General).

Red will roll 11d6 to score successes (rolls of 1) and gets 1.

Blue will roll13d6 to score successes and gets 1 (not great rolling here).

Red has an advantage in Guards and Heavy Cav, and has a General Present, resulting in 4 total “successes”.

Blue has few Militia, advantage in Light Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery. With the General present, Blue has 6 total successes.

Blue has won the battle and is Victor. Red is defeated.

Blue rolls a d6 to see what the casualty level will be: a roll of 5 means that Red will take 35% of its units in casualties. Blue decides that this is too low and spends 1 success to increase the casualty rate to 6 – 40%.

Red takes 40% of its 11 units as casualties = they will lose 4 units.

To determine Blue’s casualties, establish the casualty ratio. Red has 4 successes, divided by Blue’s now 5 successes (they spent one to increase the casualty level). 4/5 = 0.8, so Blue will lose 0.8 units for every unit that Red lost – 4 x 0.8 = 3.2, so Blue loses 3 units.

Red chooses 4 casualties – a line Infantry, 2 militia (count as 1 unit), another line infantry. The fourth loss cannot be another Line Infantry, and there are not enough militia to count as a full unit, so Red will have to lose something else – they choose to lose 1 Heavy Cavalry.

Blue chooses 3 casualties – a line Infantry, a Cavalry, and another line Infantry.

 

Red is defeated and will have to retreat. Armies in the field must retreat to a friendly adjacent territory next turn. If unable to retreat, they are destroyed.

Forces in a garrison (City or Fortress) cannot retreat and remain in place. They have withstood the assault and will continue to fight in the same location next turn. The defence value of the garrison is reduced by 1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What else do I need to include? I think I’ve covered most things. If anything is unclear let me know.