The Empire Game

This is an online varient that I've posted before but would like to see some more people join. We have four players already and one or two more would fit in very well. The link to where to post attacks and arrange battles is here:

http://plasticrypt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=4516

If interested e-mail me (chantry@mymts.net) and I'll send you a copy of the map we use.And thanks to eMpty Kay for being bored one night and retyping the rules.))

Rule your EMPIRE!

Empire uses all current edition DDM rules. Go to the DDM Guild website (http://ddmguild.com/) for current rules & Mini Stats.

Set-up: At the start of the game, pick a capital territory, and four territories adjacent to your capital. If there are not four territories adjacent to your capital, pick territories adjacent to one of your other territories. Your starting empire must be contiguous. You also declare whether your empire will be Good or Evil.

Map: The map is divided into territories. Each territory will have a faction (determined by the text color) and either a keyword or figure name. There are also large bodies of water (Oceans or Seas). When determining if an empire is contiguous, all territories adjacent to the same body of water are also considered adjacent to each other.

Owning a territory allows you to use creatures of that faction and keyword in your warbands. Some figures have legendary status, due to how powerful they are. Legendary figures have territories of their own and you can not use these figures in your warband unless you own their territory. Besides the keyword changes listed in Appendix A of the rule book, the follow keywords are also considered the same:

Illithid = Mindflayer, Ettin, Goliath and Cyclops = Giants, Hydra = Beast , Animate and Warforged = Construct, Cleric = Divine, Paladin = Divine, Fighter = Martial, War = Martial, Ranger = Martial, Rogue = Martial, War and Warlord = Martial, Warlock = Arcane, Wizard = Arcane,

Creatures with their own territory:

Drizzt, Drow Ranger
Earth Archon Rumbler
Elminster of Shadowdale
Exarch of Tyranny
Human Fighter Lord
Kuyutha, Exarch of Bahamut
Psychic Sentinal
Raislin Majere
Solamith
Tomebound Arcanist
Wulfgar

Building Warbands: Follow standard rules for warband building with the following changes. When building your warband, you may only use figures that match at least one of your territories. If you do not have a territory for the figure, you may not use it, even if you normally would. For example, if you are an evil empire and have the Civilization Unique territory, you could build a Civilization warband with Count Strahd, but if you did not have any Undead territories, Count Strahd's warband building will be of no use. Your warband is considered to be the alignment of your empire, even if you are using all neutral figures, so an evil empire can not use good figure, and visa versa. For warbands of 100 point or 500+ points, the 75% cost limitation does not apply.

Other Limitation: Each year, there may be only one of each possible rare or legendary figure in play for an empire. The rare or legendary figure may only be in more than one battle, if the territory it is in is attacked, or if the rare joins an attack in an adjacent territory. You are also limited by the number of Empire points you have to build with. You gain 50 empire points for each territory you occupy. To use a figure to attack or defend cost a number of empire points as listed below (except when your capital is attacked, see “Attacking another player”). You gain and lose empire points during the season, based on results of attacks.

Figure Empire Point Cost
Legendary Figure 2x Point Cost
Huge Rare Figure 1.5x Point Cost (round up)
Visible Figure (from random pack) 1.5x Point Cost (round up)
Rare Figure 2x Point Cost
Huge Uncommon Figure 1x Point Cost
Uncommon Figure 1.5x Point Cost (round up)
Common Figure 1x Point Cost
Visible Figure (from all visible pack) 1x Point Cost
Items 1x Point Cost

Examples: “Aramil, Adventurer” from the Player's Handbook Heroes set 1 would cost 13 empire points. A “Storm Giant” from Giants of Legend would cost 417 empire points and “Stormrage Blue Dragon” from Demonweb would cost 130 empire points.

Game Play: Play is done by years. Each day has three seasons when battles occur. Each season you either attack a single territory or sail across a large body of water. You may attack any adjacent territory. To attack a territory adjacent to a body of water you are adjacent to, you must spend a season sailing. At the start of a year, you declare up to 5 actions (attack or sailing) you will take that year. Only three will actually take place, the other two are alternates, in case something prevents an earlier action from occurring.

Attacking a Neutral Territory: When attacking a neutral territory, you may only use a 100 point warband (but any empire point cost). Another player will defend the territory. The defending warband will consist of any non-rare creatures of the faction and keyword of the territory. If the territory is for a Legendary figure, the defending warband may be any non-rare figures of the faction, regardless of keyword. The Legendary figure may also be in the defending warband. If two player attack the same neutral territory in the same season, they will battle each other for control of the territory. If three or more players attack the same neutral territory, there will be a single elimination tournament between those players to gain control of the territory. There is a round limit of 8 rounds. At the end of the either round, whoever is ahead in points wins. In the case of a tie, the defender wins.

Attacking another player: When attacking another player. At the start of the season declare the size of the warband you will be attacking with, not at the start of the year. You do not need to declare the amount of empire points. The warband size must be a multiple of 100. The defender can then build any size warband up to that size. When a player's capital is attacked, all figures have an empire cost equal to the figures point cost, for the defending player only. The game is played until there is a winner, there is no round limit as there is when attacking a neutral territory.

Vassals: If your capital is attacked and you lose the battle, you become a vassal and the attacker becomes your lord. All your vassals are now free. A vassal cannot attack his lord and cannot ally with anyone else. You can end being a vassal by having more territories than your lord. A vassal can also be released, by his lord spending three of his attack actions to do so. As tribute to your lord you give up a total of 10 empire points from you empire pool per territory you control (or 1/5th of your total empire points). However you can not be reduced to less than 250 empire points. As an example, if you have 6 territories your lord only gains 50 points from you because you would have a total of 300 points and you can only be reduced to a minimum of 250 points. Points are given at the beginning of the year so points earned from territories won later do not suffer the 1/5th point tithe. In addition, the lord gains one territory adjacent to his empire of his choice. The vassal doesn't lose his capital.

Allies: Alliances are reset at the start of every year.
Allies must be declared at the start of the year before choices for attacks are made.
Allies must share a common border, or share a common waterway.
Allies can share information about what territories their allies are planning to attack.
Allies can give empire points to each other at the beginning of the year. The points must be declared at the same time that battles are.
If an empire attacks an ally, that ally can only use half of the attackers warband total for defence, but only on the first battle. So if you are attacked with a warband with 200 points all you can defend with is a 100 point warband.

End of Game: The game ends when there are no, non-vassal players, or a preset time limit runs out and the player with the most territories wins.