Italian Wars Campaign Rules

Game Mechanics
There are two types of players for this campaign. There are the rulers of countrys and
cities, and then there are the generals (umpires). Players issue the orders for their
country/city and the generals resolve any battles that might take place on the tabletop.
Battles are resolved in London. Players are more than welcome to come and lead their
armies if they so wish but being present at the game table is not necessary after-all
how many leaders fought wars from the safety of their own home! The generals
simply try and win the battles with whatever resources the players have or have not
given them. What we will try and do to give you a flavour of the action however is
post photos and short battle reports as and when they happen.
It has been my experience that Campaigns often get bogged down with complex rule
sets. As leader of your country/city you obviously want to keep things simple. So each
turn you will have to issue just a few Orders. These boil down to three things really:
Recruitment, Movement and Intrigue (more details in the next section).
A turn roughly equates to a month in real time. You will be given deadlines for the
submission of your next set of orders with each new turn results.
As the game progresses we might need to introduce new things (we are hopeful we
wont!) but the name of the game is flexibility and to have fun.
So with this in mind let us move onto the things that you are most interested in doing:
ordering your minions about!
The Game Map and Income
You will note that the game map is divided up into 3 types of settlements:
Square Cities, Round Cities and Triangular Towns. As you will see from the short
Campaign rules set out below each type of settlement has its own characteristics in
terms of income and potential recruitment capping.
All settlements are connected by road and the rivers have major bridges over them for
more details (see Game Order Movement below).
Each type of settlement will produce income for players who control it. This revenue
will be in FLORINS. You can use this money for a number of things (such as
recruitment, intrigue etc see Campaign Orders).

Square Cities yield 400 Florins per turn*

Circular Cities yield 200 Florins per turn*
Triangular Towns yield 100 Florins per turn*

*An important thing to remember: Settlements under Siege produce no income as

all trade routes are severed and the local populace will have no earnings to be taxed!
Players may sack settlements, which will bring in a one off sizeable revenue but that
settlement then produces no income for some time.

The Game map will be updated at the end of each turn. Colours on the map will
indicate Player fortunes and progress. The French progress will be in Blue, The
German Imperialist in Black, The Pope in Yellow, the Spanish in Red, the Venetians
in Green, and Firenze in Purple.

CAMPAIGN ORDERS
There are three categories of basic order: Recruitment, Movement and Intrigue. There
is an example turn sheet at the end of the rules.
RECRUITMENT
You can Use Florins to recruit more troops. These forces appear at your staging
points (staging points are indicated by Square or Round cities/towns on the game
map. Players cannot therefore recruit troops at small towns indicated by a Triangle).
Players can only recruit in places under their control of course!
There is also a limit to the amount of troops that can be raised in any one turn. Each
Square town can produce 1500 florins worth of troops per turn (if you have the
money!), while Circular towns can produce no more than 1000 florins worth of troops
in a turn.
You must specify at which staging point these new troops will appear and whether
they are a new army or are meant to join an existing army (you should name the army
they are meant to join). So for example 500 points of troops will be recruited at Milan
and they will join the existing ranks of the Green Army there.
Obviously if you dont have the sufficient Florins recruitment will be unsuccessful
Settlements that are under siege cannot recruit troops! So take care protecting your
supply lines!

ARMIES
Just to give you an idea what your money buys:
Armies are defined by the amount of Florins you allocate to them:
Up to 1200 Florins A small army
1201-2500 Florins A medium Sized Army
2500 - 4000 Florins A large Sized Army
Basically the more florins you allocate to an army the more troops and greater choice
of units the army leader will have.
Armies are restricted to no more than 4000 Florins in size. This is to reflect that an
army bigger than this is pretty unsustainable in terms of food in the field for any real
length of period.

Maximum Garrison Size when under siege

Each settlement can also garrison a maximum of troops for siege purposes.
Square Cities can garrison up to 3000 Florins worth of troops when under a siege
Circular Cities can garrison up to 1500 Florins worth of troops when under a siege
Triangular Towns can garrison up to 750 Florins worth of troops when under a siege
Of course when not threatened by siege settlements can support more troops. Be
careful as completely overcrowded areas will suffer from disease!

MOVEMENT
Movement is pretty straight forwards really. You specify which army you want to
move and what they will do when they get there.
All your armies must be named (you decide which name to give them). You then
simple detail which army is moving where.
So for example - Red Army (which comprises 1500 points) will march from Rome
for Firenze and engage any enemy at the City
So this means that they will engage any enemy they encounter outside of the city or
set up a siege encampment if the cowardly city garrison refuse to give battle. An army
that besieges a city will have to spend at least 25% of its points on artillery.
Or
Blue Army (which comprises of 1000 points) will march from Milan to Parma and
hold the Bridge on the River Po until it receives further orders.
Or
Green Army will march from Livigno to Verona and set up ambush positions half
way along the road
So you get the gist. The more complex your orders the greater the likelihood they will
not be followed to the letter!
Your armies will move at their best ability so do not be surprised if they do not
actually make the entire distance you have specified. You will however be notified
where the army is on the game map at the end of the turn.
INTRIGUE
The last set of orders involves intrigue. Generally there are four areas a player might
want to pursue in terms of intrigue:

Diplomacy
Should you wish to send a missive to another Player simply write your missive
address it and sent it in with your orders. At the start of the next turn we will then
send out your missives to the relevant players.
So for example:

To his eminence the Pope

From his majesty the King of France
Keep my seat warm, as I will be along to claim it soon!
Spy
You might want to try and see how many troops the enemy are sending against you or
get a definitive idea of how large a city garrison is. You can try and do this by
employing a spy. Spies cost 100 Florins. For each multiple of 25 Florins on top of this
figure you can improve the spies chances of success.
Bribe
Those of you with a more unsavoury character might want to use your money to bribe
a town over to your faction or to bribe one of the enemys units over to your side in a
key battle. All ordered bribe attempts would take place at the start of the next turn.
Bribing settlements
The rule here is the more you spend the more your chance. The base chance is 500
Florins. Each added multiple of 250 Florins would improve your chances. Factors
that impact on your base chances will be things like: size of the settlement; prior
experience if any with the settlement (good or bad), if the settlement is currently
under the control of another faction.
Bribing Units
Again the more you spend the better your chances. The base chance is 200 Florins.
Each added multiple of 50 Florins would improve your chances. All bribes will be
aimed at mercenary units, as national units would be unlikely to turncoat ! It is
probably unrealistic to expect a bribed unit to turn on its former employer. Most
likely if you are successful it will simply not turn up to fight for that general on the
day!
Assassin
The more devious among you might want to send your agents of the night out to
create mayhem. Success depends on the target. A general is going to be harder to kill
than a captain. So players might want to order assassins into enemy camps to pick off
unit leaders success will have a negative effect on the morale of that unit next time
they fight for example. There is a flat fee of 250 Florins to hire an assassin.

Example Game orders

Player: The Venetian Doge

Turn: 3
Treasury at start of turn: 1650
Income from: Venice (400 Florins), Verona (200 Florins) & Forli (100 Florins).
Orders:
1. Recruitment:
Recruit 600 Florins worth of troops in Venice
Recruit 400 Florins worth of troops in Verona and add them to the Green army
Recruit Assassin in Verona (250 florins)
Total cost: 1250
2. Movement
Unit
Location

Strength

Green Army Verona

1400 points
Will await the 400 points worth of newly recruited troops and then march and seize
Milan
Red Army
Forli
800 points
Fortify the settlement and scout the nearby area
3. Intrigue
Unit
Location
Spy 1 Forli
Move west and provide information of the strength and location of the enemy garrison
at Bologne
Use 250 Florins to bribe one of the enemy units in Milan prior to our attack

Overall turn expenditure: 1500

Monet left over: 150
New revenue: 700
Total treasury for next turn: 850