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MODULE : POLITICAL MANAGEMENT OF CONQUERED AREAS
During the Middle-Age, communities were not familiar with notions of border or centralized state. The significant differences between "political states" lies at first in the language, the culture and its practices (rules, customs and patterns), the religion (of course!) and relentless private wars.
the constantly re-forming kingdoms, duchies or seigneuries are a very interesting part of the time. After a conversation with my players, I did propose this home-made module to play with (yep, we have printed the map and played with our own miniatures, wooden tokens, etc.). The module includes :
1. items measuring the willingness to be independent for the conquered areas newly integrated to our kingdoms; this will decrease over time.
2. the "core" notion (it should speak to PC-Game Europa Universalis players), depicting the true membership of a conquered area in its new kingdom/country.
3. the importance of religion in the process of acculturation, of conversion or of pacification in a conquered area.
4. the notion of culture or cultural area in the process of acculturation, of conversion or of pacification in a conquered area.
This large module makes the game more complex, while it is more realistic either (from historical perspective at least), but as we (my players and I) are addicted to Axis&Allies and fond of Paradox Games, we can firmly assert the experience of the game is improved (yes, even if the game is not published and the rules could change).
I. Rebellion risk
I recommend the use of tiny six-sided dice to measure the level of revolt of the conquered area. They are useless for your initial areas, which already have your color.
a- your initial areas : the rule " Rebellions and Barbarian Captain" says "if there are territories with less than 5 Armies, they are at risk of Rebellion. Roll a d4: the result +1 is the number of Armies necessary for the territories to avoid the rebellion". With this module, the rebellion level is always -1, i.e. you only need to have 4 armies instead of 5 to avoid totally the rebellion risk (1d4).
b- normal level : 0 (1d4+1)
Conquests are now subjected to a +1 penalty (1d4+2) for a certain time (number of turns) :
c- 2+* turns of rebellion risk after the use of the princess card (which seals a royal union before a peaceful annexation, e.g. France marries Brittany : you have to let 6 armies in Brittany for 2 turns to avoid the rebellion risk) ; +* : if the country you marry with is more than 1 area, you add 1 turn per area beyond the first one (e.g. if you marry Venice : 2 turns +2).
d- 3 turns of rebellion risk if you conquer a country of your cultural area (see point IV) (e.g. France conquers Gascogne and Aquitaine)
e- 4 turns of rebellion risk if you conquer a country with the same religion (see point III about religions) next to your own country (e.g. Castilla conquers Navarra).
f- 5 turns of rebellion risk if you conquer a country with a different religion next to your own country (e.g. Castilla conquers Grenada). After these 5 turns, religion is no longer a source of trouble.
g- 5 turns of rebellion risk if you conquer a country with the same religion but not next to your own country (e.g. Aragon conquers Sicilia)
h- 6 turns of rebellion risk if you conquer a country of different religion which is not next to your own country (e.g. England conquers Tangier).
NB1: the presence of an opposing core increases the time of rebellion risk by 1 turn.
NB2: whenever you move a personal core in a newly conquered area, the place is converted the into an "initial area"; you can enjoy there a -1 on your dice to measure the Rebellion risk (but only in the area where you have moved a core).
II. Cores
It is now possible to "win" cores to increase the number of you initial areas. At the beginning of the game, each of your areas possesses a wooden token (same color, or same flag): 7 for a great kingdom, 5 for a major kingdom, 3 for a minor kingdom, etc.). You can move them in time of :
- one every 2 turns if the conquered area is next to a core or next to your initial areas (e.g. Brittany for France);
- one every 3 turns if the area is far away but joinable by boat (i.e. on the coast) (e.g. Sicily for Aragon) ;
- one every 4 turns if the area is not next to your initial country or to one of your cores, and not joinable by the sea (e.g. Kiev for Hungary, without possessing Galicia)
If you play a great kingdom, you can thus enjoy your seven initial possessions with a lower risk of rebellion (they keep their color) and you can add seven more areas to these initial possessions during the game. These political and strategic moves materialize the "pacification and acculturation" of your increasing kingdom.
NB1 : if you move a core from an initial possession during the game to a non-initial possession, it can not be moved during the whole game. Except if the area is conquered by an opponent or the barbarians. In this case, the player can (but he must not) take the core back and place it on one of his initial possessions.
NB2 : if you move a core on an area where there is still an opponent core, you can oust the previous one.
NB3 : this cores' movement is regular during the game. (e.g.1: if you haven't moved a core since the beginning of the game and if after a crusade finishing on your country capturing Antioche at the end of the 6th turn of the game, you can move immediately a core to Antioche) (e.g.2: si you have placed a core at any turn, you have to wait at least two turn to move another one... or four if you plan a far far away conquest!).
NB4: you are authorized to only move one core per turn.
III. Religions
We don't divide the Mediterranean basin between only Christians and Muslmims. We use 1. Shiite, 2. Sunni, 3. Catholic, 4. Orthodox, 5. Pagan.
1. Shiite : marmarica, egypt, sinaï, judea, persia, mesopotamia.
2. Sunni : almohads (2), mekinids (3),tanger (1), granada (1), sevilla, murcia, valencia, zayanids (2), grand erg (1), hafsids (7), sicilia (1), jordania, syria, armenia, caucasia, rum (3), cilicia (1).
3. Catholic : irlande (2), scotland (3), englad (7), walles (1), brittany (1), france (7), holy empire (7), provence (1), lombardia (1), genoa, corsica, venice, dalmatia, florencia, roma, kingdom of sicilia (3), sardigna, aragon (4), castilla (7), portugal (3), navarre (1), denmark (3), sweden (4), norway (3), pomerania (1), bohemia (1), silesia (1), poland (2), lituania (1), volinia, teutonic order (4), slovakia, pannonia, croatia, tripoli (1), antioche (1), cilicia (1), judea.
4. Orthodox : georgiae (1), trebizond, byzantine empire (7), cyprus (1), crete, rhodes, athens (1), epire (1), serbia (1), hungary (7), galicia et volinia (2), livonia, russian principalities (7), novgorod (7), crimea (1).
5. Pagan : golden hord (7)
IV. Culture
Here are the cultural areas (more or less historical, of course ; the goal is to propose 5 of 6 areas to each great kingdom)
1. England : walles (1), scotland (3), irland (2)
2. France : bretagne (1), guyenne (2), provence (1), suisse (1), palatinat (1)
3. Spain : aragon (4), navarra (1), grenada (1)
4. Holy Empire : holstein (1), pomerania (1), silesia (1), bohemia (2), prussia (1)
5. Hongrie : dalmatia (1), bohemia (2), serbia (1), rumelia (1), valachia (1)
6. Byzantine empire : epire (1), athens (1), trebizond (1), rum (3)
7. Golden Horde : crimea (1), ryazan (1), smolensk (1), kiev (1), tchernikov (1), polotosk (1)
8. Mameluk : tripoli (1), antioche (1), persia (1), cyprus (1), leptis magna (1), tripolitania (1).
9. Hafside : sicilia (1), cyrénaïque (1), oran (1), rif (1), tangier (1), grenada (1).
Other important areas:
10.Italian : milan, venice, genoa (corsica), florencia, sardigna, roma, kingdom of sicilia (3)
11.Portugese (3)
12.Marocan (3) : tangiers, almohads (2), grenada
13.Celts : brittany (1), irland (3), walles (1), scotland (3)
14.Scandinavian : denmark (jutland + scania), norway (3), sweden (4)
15.Russian : Novgorod (7), russian principalities (7)
16.Poland-lituanian : teutonic order (4), lituania (1), galicia and volinia (2), poland (2)
17.Bulgarian (3)
18.Irish (3)
19.holy land : cilicia (1), cyprus (1), rhodes (1), antioche (1), tripoli (1), judea (1), damascus (1)
20.Ilkhanid : Ilkhan (4), cappadocia (1), trebizond (1), cilicia (1)
21.Seldjoukid : rum (3), trebizond (1), cilicia (1), bithynia (1), misia (1), lydia (1)