The (Second) Maustrian War of Succheesion

Strategy Rules

LINK TO LATEST VERSION OF RULES: RULES PDF

(The battles are fought using the “2x2 Napoleonics” rules which can be found here: 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:

Stilwenese Grenadiers, returning from fighting in the Mauxican Rebellion, have brought strange new ideas to Mausropa – and have overthrown the Royal Family! Stilwen has declared itself to be a Demouscratic Republic! In the chaos of Revolution, the Count and his family have been killed.

Maustria, still in the midst of its own Succheesion Crisis, has vowed to intervene and avenge the Count. The Regent, Countess Rostopki, has declared that Demouscratic revolutions are dangerous, and a threat to the stability of the Continent.

Prince Stepka of Adoen, in exile in Stilwen, has fled the nation in fear of his life. This is a violation of the Pratplatkof accord, and may well plunge Mausropa into war. Patriotic fundamentalists in Adoen have been fighting a guerrilla war against the Maustrian forces of Occupation, and with Stepka’s escape, the flames of war burn more brightly.

The Grand Ducheesses of Ubliko has died, and her niece and heiress has renounced violence and retreated …

Typ Lef Nazin has decided that now is a good time for extended Cavalry raids deep into Maustria, while Dunbarra sees an opportunity for some opportunistic piracy…

Zurin has emerged from its civil war…

Manarth, hungry for vengeance and restoration of their honour...

Crimsonia, near bankruptcy from reparations and paying for the unsuccessful war in Mauxica has little interest in fighting Maustria again – but the cause of Demouscratic Republicanism cannot be left defenceless. Crimsonian is the champion of the anti-royal forces in Mausropa – and those forces need leadership, now more than ever.

 

 

The idea is that various players will act for the several nations, 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 always 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. There are fewer regions than in the First War of Succheesion.

Download a full-size map here: (insert link later)

 

Land Regions have two attributes: Cities and Cheese Production.

Cities allow units to be produced in your Nation, while Cheese Production allows for the formation and maintenance of units, increased trade, and other actions.

The Cheese value of a region may be increased by one at a cost of 5 + current cheese production (So a region with cheese production of 2 may be increased to 3 for a cost of 7 cheese). Desert and Forest regions will cost double to increase cheese production.

New cities may be established in a region for a cost of 100 cheese.

Sea Regions are just water.

Land Regions are either Loyal, Occupied, or Contested. 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 half the Cheese of a loyal region, and occupied 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.

A Region is Contested if it contains units of at least two nations that are at war. Forts count as units for this purpose. Contested regions produce one quarter cheese for each side, and the cities may not be used to produce units.

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 ….

 

 

 

Simultaneous Turn Order:

1.     1. Gather income from Regions and Trade

2.     2. Produce New Units

3.     3. Pay Maintenance Costs

4.     4. Establish New Trade Routes

5.     5. Spend Cheese

7.     6. Movement orders for Units

8.     7. 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 (Production and Trade)

 

Units –

A Nation can build a number of units up to the number of cities they control. Production of most units will require multiple cities. A number of units may appear in a Region equal to the number of loyal cities (or occupied cities for Militia). Units may be part built in a turn, and completed in the next. Units also cost the number in brackets in cheese to form.

Militia (1)
Infantry (2)
Light Infantry (3)
Guard Infantry (3)
Cavalry (2)
Heavy Cavalry (3)
Artillery (3)
Frigate (2) – Ship
Galleon (5) – Ship
Fort (2) – may be built in any Land Region (even with no cities present).

For Example: Crimsonia has 12 loyal cities, and may therefore produce 6 units of Infantry in a turn (since Infantry require two cities to form). One unit may be placed in a region per city. Each unit of Infantry also cost 2 cheese to form.

Trade Agreements
Two nations that share a border or have a free connection through sea regions may establish a Trading Agreement.
Both sides invest an amount of cheese (up to five each per turn). Each turn the agreement is in place the Trade Agreement will generate 1 cheese per five invested, which will be divided equally between the trading partners. Any remaining cheese will be automatically invested into the agreement.

For Example: Berdain and Maustria establish a trading agreement. They both invest five cheese, for a total of ten cheese. Each turn the Trade Agreement will generate 2 cheese, which will be split equally between the Trade Partners.
Next turn, Berdain invests an additional 2 and Maustria invests 3. The Agreement now has 15 cheese invested in total, and will generate 3 cheese per turn. Each side will gain 1 cheese, and the third will be automatically invested into the agreement for a future turn.

A side may choose to break a Trade Agreement (as part of Diplomausy, or a declaration of War). The side that breaks the agreement will immediately receive one half (rounded down) of the total cheese invested in the agreement. The other side will receive one quarter (rounded down) of the total cheese invested. All remaining investment is lost.
If both sides break the agreement simultaneously, they both receive one quarter (rounded down) of the investment.

For Example: Berdain and Maustria have a trade agreement with 23 cheese invested. Berdain breaks the agreement. Berdain receives 11 cheese. Maustria receives 5 cheese. The remaining 7 cheese are lost. If Berdain and Maustria both gave orders to break their trade agreement in the same turn, both would receive 5 cheese, and the remaining 13 cheese would be lost.

If the link between two Trading Nations is blockaded or occupied by a enemy force, neither side gains cheese from that invested – all gains are instead permanently lost, though the total amount invested remains in place.

 

Armies

As units are created, their type is recorded in the spreadsheet under the "Army" section, and a single land or naval unit marker is added to the appropriate region. In this way, instead of keeping track of which kinds of units are in each region, it is simply recorded how many land units are present. When a battle occurs, the units present will be in proportion to the total units in the Army area.

For Example: in region 15 there are 13 land units belonging to the Kingdom of Randomia. In the event of battle the make-up of the army would be determined in proportion to the units held by the Kingdom. 13% would be militia, and 17% Cavalry. Effectively a percentage die would be rolled to see what units are present.

{The idea of this is to cut down on the bookwork of tracking exactly what units are in each location, which can get tedious}

Officers

Something needs to be added here.

Supply

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

29+                    40

 

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.

 

Forts

Forts are a unit that cannot move and do not require supply. They can be constructed in any controlled region. There need not be a city in the region. More than one Fort may be built in a region.

A region with a friendly fort will be considered Contested if there are enemy forces and no other friendly forces present.

 

Movement

Players will submit orders for their forces, which will be resolved simultaneously. Land Units may move up to TWO 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 THREE 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 ( ) are warmer, the Southern ( ) 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.

Sieges and Assaults

Units that start a turn in a region with an enemy Fort may either lay Siege or Assault.

For a siege, a single enemy fort is removed.

For an assault, a d6 is rolled for each enemy fort. On a roll of 1, a Fort remains. On a roll of 2+ a Fort is removed. On a roll of 1 or 2, no attacking units are destroyed. On a roll of 3 or 4, one attacking unit is destroyed. On a roll of 5 or 6, two attacking units are destroyed.

If any enemy force enters the region, any sieges and assaults are cancelled and a normal battle occurs.

 

Auto-Calculated Combat (this bit doesn't really need to be read, and has not changed since the last rules)

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.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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