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The Campaign Archive => Empire of Wolves => Announcements => Topic started by: Mogsam on February 09, 2013, 09:48:00 PM
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FAQ
Roleplay information.
Faction goals: Are listed in your faction forum. They may change as the game progresses.
Diplomacy: Should be done in character! Please do limit the amount of out of character (OOC) discussion. Obviously we cannot prevent this but you will find that the NPC heads of your faction won't agree to OOC actions.
NPC interaction
Your NPC: Each faction has an NPC elector. This is the only NPC your faction may contact. You faction is representing the interests of your elector and will conduct the diplomacy with other factions on his behalf. They can then relate your offers to their NPC and so on. Your NPC will not always agree with your schemes if it conflicts with their own or is OOC. They want to win! You may be able to change their schemes however you must persuade them.
You may contact your NPC twice a turn in the appropriate thread in your forum. Please try to spread the roleplaying out as we will need time to repond to each roleplay. If they are left till late in the turn then they may not get a response in time for that turn. It's up to you how to do the contacting. T & G veterans will be used to writing them 'letters' but if you wish to talk to them face to face that's fine too. Your NPC can move around the map or stay static. If you move him with a player then he can talk face to face. If you leave him then you can write him letters etc. There's probably a joke about writing him letters in the snow there..
You will find an 'introduction thread' in your faction forum which is a short RP with your NPC. Take the time to interact with him before you start.
Being contacted: Occasionally under certain circumstances you may be contacted by other NPC's. These roleplays will differ depending on the importance of the NPC in question and will be explained when experienced.
Events: Occasionally you may be given a choice at the beginning of a turn based on the events of the last turn. For example, you may take a town and want to decide what to do with the elector living there. These events will influence how the Empire views you and how you are represented in the court.
How the elections predicted to end: There will be a chart every turn to show how the vote is likely to go at that moment in time. It is the 'Political Map'. The Political Map will initially be quite similar in coloruing to the main map. However when you declare for a candidate that isn't your own (has to happen for some factions!) it will change on that map.
Ar Ulric: Is the head of the Ulrican religion. He will not become directly involved in the 'voting negotation process' (polite way of saying civil war) unless a candidate is doing something highly distasteful. Whilst Ulrician values dislike the weak there is a difference between weakness and extermination. Ar Ulric legally has the right to refuse to crown an Emperor. However he would have to be able to back up such an action with more than just words... Ar Ulric maintains a courier corps who are neutral during the 'voting negotiation process.' These men of the White Wolves are used to deliver notices to factions or towns and hurting them is heavily frowned upon should you be caught.
Integration: Are you a von Altenberg supporter? Do you want a wife from his family? OK! Want to be the von Julich brother of von Kerpens wife? OK! Integrating with the story line is actively encouraged. I want you to be invested in this story! But please ask the GM's first in a thread in your forum. We'll do our best to accomidate you but if you're trying to post the most awesome character ever then it's best to check with us first! Similarly remember, you're the minor nobility trying to become major nobility. You have time to grow and become wealthy during the campaign!
Can the NPC's die?: Yes. Yes they can. Though there are no assassins to hire like last time. (It's civilised you know) and they can move around the map. (and that is something you might want to speak to them about in your first contact- are they going to accompany you or stay at home? etc)
Mechanical information
Reporting: Unlike previous campaigns there is no requirement to actually play games of Warhammer to report. Similarly there is no bonus for reporting that you 'won', 'drew' or losed your battle. Their is similarly no requirement to write "fluff battles" or pieces of fiction in order to report. (However we strongly encourage writing fluff because this is above all a roleplay campaign and fun. You will find it a far better experience should you do so.)
Instead you can report one move per turn on the reporting website. http://trueds.nl/EoW/site/home
Moves will then be completed at the end of the turn. There will then be a day of downtime* where we organise the turn end and complete the moves.
*Could be two days depending on how many people turn up.
Supply and armies: Your armies have cunningly decided to have what is pretty much a civil war in the depths of winter. Unfortunately that means that supply and ensuring your men are fed has suddenly become much more important than previous campaigns.
Similarly whilst the win/loss/draw mechanic has gone it has been replaced by another. This is army effectiveness. As the campaign progresses your army will change how well it performs. There is a mathematical code behind the strength of your report however we will not be going into details regarding it. We don't want a war based on maths and trying to decode it will not help you and is a waste of time. You have been warned! You will instead get a report of how your underlings believe your army to be in shape. (Powerful, Strong, Weak, Demoralised etc)
Here's an example of how it works:
Turn One: Army level - Powerful - Your army has not been involved in any battles or starvation.
Turn Three: Army level - Strong - Your army has taken two towns with overwhelming force involving your allies. It has taken casulties and will now be reporting at a slightly lesser strength.
Turn Five: Army level - Weak - Your army attempted to assault a town which was defended by another faction and lost. It has now taken significant casulties and should not attack for a turn to regain its strength or indeed should retreat to a stronger holding. Stronger locations replenish armies faster. More people/better forges/more morale = stronger replenishment.
Turn Seven: Army level - Capable - Your army spent two turns at a town under your control. It has been replenished by the citizens and can now fight at a capable level.
And so on. It's worth mentioning again that whilst there is a mathematical code it doesn't dictate the campaign. Two players who do the exact same moves for three turns may end up with dfferent strength levels. Someone has to go first over the walls or hold the flank! You can volunteer yourselves to go first if you like, if not it will go arbitrarily.
What's to stop us from sitting on one location forever?: Unfortunately the Empire of Middenland is a landlocked location and only has access to a limited amount of supplies during the winter. The more armies that stay in one location the less effective that location will become at replenishing it. Similarly locations will run out of supplies eventually and you can effectively starve your own locations. Towns aren't expecting thousands of hungry soldiers to home and feed. It's important to remember hungry people are unreliable voters..
It's a legitimate tactic to play defensively. But remember kids - many of whom are older than me... It's a boring one and you may be mocked by Pandas.
Regions: Regions are the map squares that are labelled 'Region' (Cunning I know). These are the areas you need to hold to besiege a major settlement.
Locations: Locations are the sites that do not have 'Region in them' They are the vast majority of the areas on the map. You may simply attack towns and villages.
All of the seats of electors are surrounded by Regions. These are the fortresses and major population areas in the Empire and will need to be besieged by taking the region before they can be taken. If you control the Region you may attack the location.
Movement: On the map you will see a red line. This red line indicates a 'road' that your army may move along. You may only move from one region to another each turn. For movement purposes an attack on a location from a region also counts as one move. Alternatively you may remain static.
What happens when two armies pass each other on a road?: They fight and one side wins. The losing side will be pushed back to the location they came from and count as defending it. They will obviously be less effective as they have lost in the field and taken casualties. It is possible for players to be captured by opposing armies or indeed killed should they enter a particularly unfair fight. Should you lose the region to the attack and the defence you will attempt to retreat to friendly territory if you can. If your cut off then we will approach you with your options. There will be no warping around the map this time!
Can the NPC's die?: Yes. Yes they can. Though there are no assassins to hire like last time. (It's civilised you know) and they can move around the map. (and that is something you might want to speak to them about in your first letter - are they going to accompany you or stay at home? etc)
Does our NPC have an army?: Yes. It's you silly sausage!
He's called you in to fight for him. (This also means that should you persuade your faction you could even make your character the captain of your NPC's guard. Which I think is quite neat as an idea.)
Political Map: Every turn you will see a political map appear showing how everyone is likely to vote. Naturally alliances can shift so it will change quickly.
Is it possible to kill the current electors and replace them with new ones who favour you?: The only votes that are hereditary are those of the primary electors. I.E the ones you support (+ Ar Ulric, Riccardi and von Plauen)
So with that said it would be perfectly reasonable to lop off the heads of those who don't support you when you capture a town and replace them with someone more 'malleable.' People of strong moral fibre - such as yourselves I imagine.
That said - Do think it through and check who it is you're killing. There's a lot of integration in this campaign so if you kill the random elector you might find out he's related to someone important. Which won't go well for you. Similarly if you decapitate 10 electors you suddenly might find that the others resist you more. Or less! It's also worth noting that if your faction does give the votes to players in your faction you have to trust that they vote how they say they will..
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Ask away!
Unless your fauthise and you've noticed something horribly obvious to make me feel silly.
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First things that come to mind....
Talking to NPCs- you say 2 messages per turn I assume that is for the faction and not individual players.
Combat/Movement - When two armies of equal strength (lets assume powerful) meet on a give turn on a road how is the outcome determined? Can a weaker army defeat a strong army? Can a single army defeat multiple other player armies on a road? Are there combat modifiers for defending a location?
Economy- Is there an established economic system? How much money/resources do the players have? Do we have access to our benefactors resources or just our own?
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First things that come to mind....
Talking to NPCs- you say 2 messages per turn I assume that is for the faction and not individual players.
That is indeed correct. Treachery and Greed was about the players. This is about the team.
Combat/Movement - When two armies of equal strength (lets assume powerful) meet on a give turn on a road how is the outcome determined? Can a weaker army defeat a strong army? Can a single army defeat multiple other player armies on a road? Are there combat modifiers for defending a location?
Two powerful combatants may not be the same strength. It doesn't go 1 - 5 with each increment getting a different name. However if they were exactly the same they'd inflict casualties on each other and draw, alternatively they may be presented with an event. There is an element of RP to the campaign as well as mathematical results.
A single strong army could defeat two weaker ones. Or three weaker ones. Which obviously brings in rewards for thinking further ahead than the next move..
Defending a location has benefits yes. The stronger the location the stronger the benefits. Castles are hard to take without bringing appropriate forces.
Economy- Is there an established economic system? How much money/resources do the players have? Do we have access to our benefactors resources or just our own?
There's no resources. You are assumed to have enough money to pay your men for the campaign. (or the threat of throwing their families out in winter is enough to motivate them. Your benefactor - whilst powerful - won't be able to just bribe people to vote for him. He'd have to offer political gains etc. Bribery is seen as crude and unreliable.
You do have a finite number of 'resources' i.e food. When you start to run low an underling will warn you. Running out of food is also reflected in your army strength. Starving soldiers are rubbish soldiers.
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Reporting:
Simple question...do we automatically report wherever we end our movement, and can we choose not to report if we want to just pass through an area without attacking anyon
Army size:
What is the expected army size, fluff-wise? I was imagining my character as more of a hired war-leader who doesn't have a lot of troops of his own, but has a few tough retainers (and he's a freaking Blood Dragon Vampire) but mostly leads the troops assigned to him. I'm wondering (ballpark) how many troops we are each in charge of and if it works better for the campaign if I bring my own.
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Reporting:
Simple question...do we automatically report wherever we end our movement, and can we choose not to report if we want to just pass through an area without attacking anyon
You technically can't pass through somewhere without reporting. No one trusts armies not to supplant them so they won't let you in. Similarly in the depths of winter you can't really go around - there's no paths or clearings. (Except around big cities and Middenheim). You have to report when you end. If you report in your own town (or don't eat) then it still counts towards defending it/food consumption. They still gotta eat.
There will be times when exceptions are made - when 3 factions unite behind one candidate they might try to pass through each others land. However that will be an exception.
Similarly if you bring 5 armies against a village you might find it just capitulates without a fight.
[quote[Army size:
What is the expected army size, fluff-wise? I was imagining my character as more of a hired war-leader who doesn't have a lot of troops of his own, but has a few tough retainers (and he's a freaking Blood Dragon Vampire) but mostly leads the troops assigned to him. I'm wondering (ballpark) how many troops we are each in charge of and if it works better for the campaign if I bring my own.
[/quote]
Depending on the lord/quality of the troops - It's in the hundreds. I've not worked it out manually but Middenland isn't massively populated.
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At any point would it be possible to split you're troops? Possibly sending a detachment with an ally, or leaving a garrison kinda thing?
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Mogsam, Rufus, you guys are heroes.
"What happens when two armies pass each other on a road?: They fight and one side wins. The losing side will be pushed back to the location they came from and count as defending it. They will obviously be less effective as they have lost in the field and taken casualties. It is possible for players to be captured by opposing armies or indeed killed should they enter a particularly unfair fight. Should you lose the region to the attack and the defence you will attempt to retreat to friendly territory if you can. If your cut off then we will approach you with your options. There will be no warping around the map this time!"
I've been asking for this since A5. That, and with the "realistic" reporting (instead of just everyone making imaginary wins), means that this is easily my favorite ruleset to date. Good job, lads!
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I'm not concerned about splitting my own troops as they should be with me. But as this is a team event, can each member within our faction make separate "moves" with different missions/ideas/goals?
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So if I brought about 15-20 troops of my own (plus my character is a beastly fighter), could I assume he assigned me to lead a small contingent of his troops and that would work for army size?
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You technically can't pass through somewhere without reporting.
You know, if you'd told me that beforehand, I could've actually programmed the website to not allow moving without reporting ;). Contact me if you want me to do some last-minute coding :).
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I'm not concerned about splitting my own troops as they should be with me. But as this is a team event, can each member within our faction make separate "moves" with different missions/ideas/goals?
You don't have to play as a unified force. Each can do what they like. You'll totally lose if ou don't work together though
.So if I brought about 15-20 troops of my own (plus my character is a beastly fighter), could I assume he assigned me to lead a small contingent of his troops and that would work for army size?
You could discuss that with your faction essentially look after y our lords troops. I'm not sure how you're going to keep being a vampire secret from him though.
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Mathurin is obviously one of those Von Carstein or Lahmian vampires that "can blend into society"....mwahahaha
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A quick note after seeing some posts.
Middenheim cannot be attacked. No one wants to try to take a near impenetrable fortress with a few thousand men. Similarly its pretty silly to attack the capital. You've got to live there after the war.
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Can it be moved through? On the same note, can Marienburg and Talabheim be moved through?
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You can use Middenheim region to go around it. There's no option to attack it though.
Marienburg and Talabheim aren't currently n the map to move to or from. Foreign regions!
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Just want to clarify, there are no large NPC armies moving around, such as an army from Middenheim.
Other than that it seems pretty clear to me. :dry:
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Actually that's a good point. Do the two Primary Electors who are not running have armies the same size as ours?
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Riccardi has nothing. von Plauen has men to enforce the Empires hold on Wolfenburg. He certainly lacks the numbers to leave the city without losing control of it.
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I'm liking the story line development and the way you guys set this up already!
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I'll probably just be a war-leader with some of his troops then, as that works better for my fluff. As far as hiding the fact that I'm a vampire...I'm a Blood Dragon, so I'm fairly disciplined, I have a couple retainers I generally feed on, occasionally in battle I let slip the beast within, but that could probably be put down to berserk rage or somesuch. It's possible that a particularly observant person might put it together, especially if they saw me in the heat of battle, but if that happens I'll just have to deal with it I guess.
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Just to clarify, can we do OOC planning etc within our own factions?
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Ooc planning internally is fine. Entirely ic is a bit harsh. Just no ooc diplomacy.
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This might be a silly question not entirely appropriate for the faq, but when is the start of turn one?
Edit: Nevermind, just noticed the thread saying it starts today! Woohoo!
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The FAQ states that we can only contact our own NPCs, what about neutral NPCs? Can we talk to them?
Additionally is there any sort of intelligence project or rumours that we can gain about other factions plans/movements?
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I think in that case you would talk to your NPC and he would send a message along. Can't really make promises for your lord kinda thing.
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The turn update will give an idea of where other factions are. Similarly the map will change as will the political map. They can only move one square. Rumours will come from the turn fluff.
You can only talk to your NPC. Some neutral NPC's may approach you depending on situation and relevance. If they see advantage or are blatantly about to be attacked and such. Similarly taking towns may cause events involving locals. If you want to ally with another faction you have to discuss terms and present them to your own NPC.
This is still a war game so there is violence but how you act changes how the world acts.
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How long is one turn in game time? A week?
Edit: Also could we get a list of who is in what faction? Just so we know who we can send messages to for diplomacy.
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First page of the join a faction thread has a list of players and their factions.
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First page of the join a faction thread has a list of players and their factions.
This!
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And the in-game turn length?
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Week. Turns are Tuesday to 11.59pm Saturday GMT.
Sundays and Mondays are updates.
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You realise I was asking for the In Character time for a turn right? So how long I would say a march it was from one place to another when it’s one turn’s move. I can't tell if you thought I was asking for the OOC turn length, since you appear to have listed that.
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Oh sorry. Again about a week and it is currently late autumn but it's snowing and cold enough to be winter.
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There are eight days in an Empire week, by the way. And the election will be held on the winter solstice.
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Makes for a LOOOONG work week for a mercenary....LOL.
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Suspect you can handle it. :icon_wink:
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There are eight days in an Empire week, by the way. And the election will be held on the winter solstice.
So that's where that Beatles song is from :D!
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Ok, we're looking at turn 2. I want to move, but don't want a fight where I'm going. I want to talk to the faction that I highly suspect will be going the same place I am. I would ride in with a white flag, signifying I want to talk about an alliance. How do I do that? We already had a problem at Calden, when I didn't want ANY hostilities, and I don't want it repeated.
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If you want to have diplomacy with another faction then you can just write to them via pm.
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*starts checking PM box*