It is been a while since the last the diary, and we apologise for that. That does not mean that we haven’t been busy, quite the opposite. We have been talking to manufacturers, commissioning illustrations, revamping the map, developing the rules, getting the Tabletop Simulator demo ready for testing, and of course lots of play testing.
Today I thought I would talk a little bit about Realms. Most of all we will look at those tempting targets scattered around the map, the Non-Player Realms (NPRs).
Player Realms and NPRs
A section of the map board showing southern Germany, northern Italy, the Carpathian region and the northern Balkans. Bohemia has been marked with tokens to signify that it is an Active NPR in this Scenario. Player Realms are marked with thicker Province Disks.
The European political landscape in 1444 included a myriad of states, small and big. Provinces would often change hands, either as a result of wars or as a consequence of diplomatic agreements or dynastic changes. These were mostly nothing like the national states of modern times. Thus, as a catch-all term, we merely call them Realms, because of the many different forms of governments and the various degrees of independence that they enjoyed.
Here we have circled some NPRs. Saxony’s (pink line) three Provinces all reside within the Area of Saxony. Venice (orange) and Hungary (green) on the other hand have Provinces located in several different Areas.
The Player Realms are clearly marked with thick Province disks (Austria in white, Poland in purple, and Ottomans in green). Most NPRs on the other hand are just indicated with the “flags” printed on the map board. All Provinces that have a similar flag belong to the same Realm. A Realm’s Provinces may sometimes be scattered across several Areas. Other times an Area may contain several tiny Realms.
The names of the Realms will also be depicted on the final version of the map board.
Active NPRs
Depending on the player count and scenario, some NPRs may be designated as Active NPRs. These are indicated with tokens like the ones placed on the Provinces of Bohemia here. Active NPRs have triggers in the Event cards that can make them expand, or even attack Player Realms.
Tokens that show Claims and Diplomatic Relations
In the image above we can see that Austria has placed a (Royal) Marriage token on the Bavarian Province of München. We can also see that Austria has Claims on the Hungarian Province of Pozsony, and the Venetian Province of Brescia. The Ottomans meanwhile have Claims on the Bosnian Provinces of Bosna and Hum. The Claims provide the Claim holders with a Casus Belli on the owner of the Provinces in question, and they may go to War against that Realm to conquer those Provinces.
Attacking an NPR
If you decide that it is time to attack an NPR, they will of course try to defend their territory as best they can. When moving your Army into any home Area of an NPR you are at War with, they will defend with a number of Units equal to their number of Provinces inside of that Area and any adjacent Areas (Large Provinces count double).
If the Ottomans want to enforce their Claims on Bosnia, they will simply face two Bosnian Military Units when moving their Army into the Croatia & Bosnia Area to attack the Bosnians. Bosnia only has two Provinces (none in adjacent Areas). The Province of Zagreb belongs to Hungary, and is therefore unaffected by the attack on the Realm of Bosnia.
Austria could use the Claim on Pozsony to attack Hungary, but they would face a much sterner task in trying to defeat the Hungarians. Moving their Army from Austria and into Upper Hungary, they would face no less than nine defending Hungarian Units. Three of those would come from Upper Hungary itself and a total six from the bordering Areas of Croatia & Bosnia, Alföld and Transylvania. The Province of Lika, in the Eastern Adriatic Area, would not contribute any Unit to the defence of Upper Hungary, as it is too far away.
When you have defeated the defending Army of an NPR, you may subsequently Siege the Provinces in the Area where the Battle was fought. If you continue your march of conquest into the next Area, the NPR will muster a new Army to defend their Provinces in that Area.
Tabletop Simulator set up for a 6-player Grand Campaign game.