Empire Game

Hello all.

I am going to start up an online version of the empire game that we here in Winnipeg have been playing for a few years now.

The rules are as follows, and I am looking for approx. 5 or so people that can commit to at least a game a week.

Once I have around 5 or so I'll bring out the map (yes it will be the same one that was posted on hordlings if you want to go look for it) and we can get started with capitals and first turns.

Some rules will have to be altered a bit to accommodate an online league but that shouldn't be too much bother.

Any questions just ask.

Rules for Empire:

To start with, we use a 20 year old Forgotten Realms map. I've drawn about 60 or so territories on it and in each one I've written a keyword with a colour. The colour represents the faction.

Choices for war bands are dependent on territories you control. Territories will have a faction and a keyword associated with them, this will indicate which figures you are able to use. In other words consider the territories as owning the fig. If you don't control, say the wild dragon territory, you can't use any wild dragons in your warband. Some keywords were made to equal others due to their scarcity:

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

Setup:
First choice will be decided with a dice roll with high roll choosing first, next highest second and so on. Players will take turns choosing a territory to be the capital of their empire. Ties to be rerolled. Players will then choose four adjacent unclaimed territories to form their empire. If there aren't four unclaimed territories adjacent to the capital, then unclaimed territories next to each other can be chosen.

Start of a turn:

There is a limit of three attack actions per day, per empire. Decide which territories are to be attacked by writing down (secretly) which ones to be attacked in order of preference. This will include two alternate choices to be used in case of conflict/battle limits. A empire can only be attacked twice per day. Contesting an unclaimed territory is not counted towards this limit. If more than one person wants to contest a territory the first person to submit a warband will be the contester.
Attacking an unclaimed territory can only be done with 100 point warbands and time is limited to 30 minutes. If more than one person attacks the same unclaimed territory they battle for ownership. If an odd number of people contest the same territory a dice roll with the two lowest fighting and the winner battling the high dice score. Otherwise a mini single elimination round will determine ownership.

You have a pool of empire points. Territories give you 50 points each. Commons cost regular listed price to field, uncommons cost half again as much ( so a 40 point fig will cost 60 points) and, rares and uniques will cost double. Uniques will also require that you control their home territory. You always have a minimum of 250 empire points. Warband construction will be only the cost indicated on the card. As an example the uncommon fig, the eternal blade will cost 54 points when considering warband construction but will cost 81 (54+27) of your empire points as a uncommon. Your total warband cost for all battles in one day, cannot exceed the total of your empire points.

You'll need multiple armies as no one can be in multiple places at once. Rares are just that. You are allowed only one rare of a particular type per empire (i.e. One Tomebound, one Skullcleave warrior etc...). As a further complication, you'll also need to be in control of the territory that allows you to have that rare, so if you lose the territory, you lose the rare. There is only one of each unique allowed (only one Storm, only one Elminster, etc...) for the entire map. They are tied to particular territories, so again if you lose them you can't use them. Rares and uniques can only be used in one warband per day. Armies, once placed on a day, can only defend or attack adjacent territories. Armies are all reset at the start of a new day.
When the term unique is used in this way it refers to figs that we have deemed to be very powerful in this scenario. Such as Solamith or Raistlen. See the map for more examples.

The attacker decides how many points will be used in his warband. The defender then can decide to use up to that limit or less. You will have 10 minutes to tweak your armies accordingly. The idea here is that you are going to have standing armies so you won't need to change much if anything.
The defender is allowed to use one extra dice when determining map. If you are defending your capital territory, rares and uncommons only cost their listed price in regards to empire points. This only applies to the defender's warband.
Battles use the arena format for the most part with a few exceptions. Warband points are in 100 point increments so no 137 point warbands. The 75% rule isn't used in 100 point and 500 point warbands. Victory is determined by points as normal but in the event of a tie, the defender wins.
Empires must be continuous. There must be an unbroken link from each territory in your empire to your capital. The exception to this rule; seas and oceans provide a link to all territories that surround them. During the course of the game territories may lose the link to their capital. If this happens, the controller of those territories has till the end of the next day to regain a link to these territories. If he is not successful then any territories that do not have a continuous link to the capital become unclaimed.

Allies:
Alliances are reset at the start of every new day.
Allies must be declared at the start of the day 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 day. The points must be written down 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.

Vassals:
If your capital is attacked and you lose the battle, you become a vassal. 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, by the 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.
In addition, the lord gains one territory adjacent to his empire of his choice. The vassal doesn't lose his capital.

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. We usually got for a number of weeks.