Presenting -- Sengoku: Warring States

Lots of sweat, late nights, and the realization that this may have been a colossal waste of time--but it's ready to test.

http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Sengoku_Main

The main module contains the strategic map and pieces. The combat module is the modified Ancient Battles Deluxe system for large combats. The saved game shows the rebels' starting stacks.

Time to sleep now. I've earned it.

Full Map

Not exactly a full map, as I'm finishing up sea area demarcations, but here's a look at the main Sengoku Jidai map of Big Japan in all its cluttered glory. Each province capital/castle shows how many units can be placed in garrison. Terrain for mountains/forests/rivers is largely for show, though some mountains restrict movement across the thick black lines.

Clans

Due to popular demand, let's talk about clans.

Depending on the number of players who are interested, we might have 10-14 clans watering the fields of Japan with cardboard blood. I love the idea of giving each clan a tiny specialized bonus, but I'm wary it might break the game's balance somehow. Here are some rough ideas:

1. Shimazu - master swordsmen, recruiting costs for heavy infantry reduced by -1.
2. Chosokabe - expert bowmen, recruiting cost for heavy archers reduced by -1.
3. Oda - tacticians, generals gain +1 experience point after battles.
4. Mori - naval tradition, naval movements require -1 lumber.
5. Takeda - master of horse, recruiting costs for heavy cavalry reduced by -1.
6. Hattori - information network, ninja bonus something something (more to come).
7. Hojo - advanced architecture, Hojo controlled castles can hold +1 unit.
8. Tokugawa - respected leadership, general's maximum capacity increased +1.
9. Uesugi - tranquil living, supply costs reduced for all land movement by -1.
10. Ashikaga - expert tradesmen, castle storage capacity +1/2.
11. Otomo - westernized, recruiting cost for heavy gunners reduced by -1.
12. Date - expert blacksmiths, recruiting cost for naginata samurai reduced by -1.
13. Hosokawa - royal lineage, recruiting time for generals decreased by -1 month.
14. Ikko Ikki - battle rage, panic rating (morale) bonus of +10%.


These bonuses may not be in the final version, but they do give a little flavor. Some are certainly more useful than others, but we won't know until we've played.

Strategy Map

This exploded pinata is a rough draft of the main Sengoku map.

• 65 Provinces with capitals
• 15 areas with port access (for trade)
• 13 areas that provide iron (for high-level infantry)
• 12 areas that provide luxury resources (to trade for gun units)
• 11 areas that provide lumber (to move across sea zones)
• 10 areas that provide horse (for high-level cavalry)
• 8 areas with gold mines (to throw excess manpower into)

That means there will be 134 distinct tactical maps to fight on (I've made 20 so far), most of which will look similar, but you'll know what you're getting into before you fight. If there's a heavily-wooded area next to your capital, build light units that aren't disrupted moving through forest. If there is a river choked off with a bridge, stock up on ranged units to pick them off one by one.

The resources are not evenly distributed; western clans will have greater access to ports and luxury resources, which means they'll be able to buy gunnery units more often. Central clans have access to iron and horse necessary for powerhouse army stacks, southeastern clans have gold mines but not enough peasants to toss down the shafts, eastern clans have greater access to lumber which allows fast travel across the sea.

In the center is Kyoto, but no one would dare attack the Emperor.

Economy

Now that the adjustments to ABD are finished, we're ready to move forward and create the game's larger strategic map of Japan. Since we've got a handle on simultaneous movement, the next step is balancing the income without homogenizing the economy.

Each area of the map will contain one element:

• Capital - generates the bulk of a province's income
• Iron - needed to create heavy infantry (HI), naginata samurai (NS) and great guard (GG) with horse
• Horse - needed to create mounted cavalry (MA), heavy cavalry (HC) and great guard (GG) with iron
• Gold Mine - allows you to convert extra manpower into additional income
• Land Bridge - not necessarily an economic element, but allows short naval travel
• Lumber - allows you to make longer naval moves, but the "ship" lasts one turn
• Port - buy/sell with Europeans (iron, horse, lumber)
• Luxury Goods - necessary to purchase light gunner (LG) or heavy gunner (HG) with port

Iron, horse, lumber, and luxury goods will generate +1 per economic phase (every 3 months). Storage capacities will be limited, because high-end units should be in short supply. Clans can trade, or purchase resources at premium prices using ports. 

These resources won't be balanced throughout the map; western clans will have greater port access, central clans will have more horse, eastern clans will have more lumber.

What else needs to be included? 

Skirmish Combat System

Sengoku Quick Combat

1. Secretly choose and reveal a formation

2. Compare choices; you may gain a +1 modifier if you have X > than your opponent

3. Players roll a die on the casualty table and apply losses/kill units

Example:

Attacker: Generals with +2 CPs, 18 infantry strength, 4 ranged strength, 6 cavalry strength = 28 total

Defender: General with +1 CP, 4 infantry strength, 2 ranged strength, 8 cavalry strength = 14 total

Attacker chooses Arrowhead, Defender chooses Crane’s Wing

Attacker’s modifier is 0 (+1 for infantry advantage, -1 for formation choice)

Defender’s modifier is +2 (+1 for cavalry advantage, +1 for formation choice)

Attacker rolls a 4 and deals 40% of 28 in casualties = 11.2 (rounded to 11)

Defender rolls a 3+2 and deals 50% of 14 in casualties = 7

Attacker has more than twice defender after combat and gains +1 Honor. Defender loses no honor because this was a skirmish combat. NOTE: you don’t receive change when removing casualties above what’s required.

Choose formation:

	ATT.
DEF.		Birds in Flight > CPs +1	Arrowhead > Infantry +1	Keyhole > Ranged +1	Crane’s Wing > Cavalry +1	Yoke > CPs +1	Fish Scales > Infantry +1
	Birds in Flight > CPs +1	A:-1 D:-1	A:+1 D:-1	A: 0 D: 0	A: -1 D: +1	A: 0 D: -1	A: 0 D: +1
	Arrowhead > Infantry +1	A: -1 D: +1	A: +1 D: +1	A: +1 D: -1	A: +1 D: -1	A: +1 D: -1	A: -1 D: +1
	Keyhole > Ranged +1	A: 0 D: 0	A: 0 D: +1	A: -1 D: 0	A: +1 D: -1	A: +1 D: -1	A: 0 D: 0
	Crane’s Wing > Cavalry +1	A: +1 D: -1	A: -1 D: +1	A: -1 D: +1	A: 0 D: 0	A: +1 D: 0	A: +1 D: -1
	Yoke > CPs +1	A: -1 D: +1	A: -1 D: +1	A: +1 D: -1	A: -1 D: +1	A: 0 D: 0	A: +1 D: -1
	Fish Scales > Infantry +1	A: +1 D: -1	A: +1 D: -1	A: +1 D: +1	A: 0 D: +1	A: -1 D: +1	A: 0 D: 0
	Half Moon > Ranged +1	A: 0 D: 0	A: +1 D: -1	A: -1 D: 0	A: 0 D: -1	A: -1 D: +1	A: -1 D: +1

Casualty Roll

1 – 10%, 2 – 20%, 3 – 30%, 4 – 40%, 5 – 50%, 6 – 60%

Maps are a Go-Go

These individual maps are going to take longer than I originally hoped. However, the image above, remade from one of the ABD maps, was created from scratch. More importantly, the dimensions match the ABD module on Vassal so I won't have to play around with the pixels or programming -- that comes later with the main Sengoku module.

Speaking of Vassal, I would welcome programming partners in creating the main game. Since Vassal doesn't automate rule enforcement, there's no heavy lifting - no java, no math, no arrays, no formulas  A series of toggles are applied to art images that become pieces that players click and drag.

Who'd like to help?

Re-Themed Units

I've re-themed the ABD units to their Japanese counterparts. From left to right - light infantry, medium infantry, heavy infantry, yari samurai, naginata samurai, light archer, heavy archer, light gunner, heavy gunner, light cavalry, mounted archer, heavy cavalry, great guard.

Notable changes include:

• Pikemen (PK) to Yari Samurai (YS)
• Phalanx (PX) to Naginata Samurai (NS)
• Knight (KT) to Great Guard (GG)

I took the ukiyo-e-style art from Shogun 2, shopped them into silhouettes, and kept the same numbers. The leaders were similarly modified from random prints online.

The art department's next task is to create a strategic map with area hex maps for each location on the board. This will be time-consuming, but will limit map fatigue. The maps included in ABD look like:

They don't have to include a river.

If anyone would like to join the team and design some 18x12 maps using the terrain listed here:

...then we can knock these out faster. If you don't have Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, etc., you can scribble a design on a cocktail napkin, email me a list of coordinates (A1-Clear, A2-Forest, A3-Clear), or any way you can think and I'll likely include it somewhere.

Simultaneous Movement

The first time I played a real game that required adult thinking and none of that hopeful dice rolling you find in Risk was in Colin's basement playing Diplomacy with six experienced warlords. I was a young pup named France and when England and Italy found out I didn't understand the rules, they did what anyone should do in those situations -- they cut me to pieces and mailed the remains to my mother.

Diplomacy is one of the most elegantly-designed, emotionally-affecting games you'll ever play. The concept of talking with an opponent to affect the game, of being able to legally deceive other players with no penalty (save future distrust) still gives me chills. Years later in grad school, I suggested to some untested political science students that we play. The moment Russia and Germany realized I had lied to both of them and thereby captured four cities in a fall turn gave me an adrenaline rush I'm still riding.

None of those back alley negotiations, however, amount to anything without the simultaneous movement mechanic which asks players to write their orders down and reveal them all at once. You thought Germany was going to support you into Warsaw? Think again, Austria-Hungary, and there's nothing you can do about it, because your orders are binding contracts and now Turkey's got a shot at Budapest.

I've been fretting about simultaneous movement for our game; not because players may throw alans (my new term for temper-tantrums), but because if movement on a large map is going to be useful, it should take time. Take a look at this snippet of the Empires in Arms map:

Most stacks in EiA can move 3 spaces, so if I want to get from the city of Posen to Lemberg in East Galacia, that's going to take two turns. That kind of slower, methodical movement is preferable to the kind of nonsense you see in Risk where armies move across a continent in a turn -- ridiculous not because it's unrealistic (a fun game is more important than historical accuracy), but because there's less opportunity to outflank, cut off supply, or capitalize on an opponent's mistake. If this were our map:

Courtesy of Ikusa, formerly Samurai Swords, formerly Shogun

I could go from Hida to four other provinces in one move. That means I could go from one economic resource producing area ($) to one of four other capitals in one turn. The problem is that when everyone is that maneuverable, war becomes a standoff. If I attack Echizen from Hida, the troops in Shinano will swing in to fill the vacuum. I decide not to attack and instead begin an arms race...and arms races are never fun.

Alright, almost never.

Here's the rub: if we use an Ikusa map from above but slice it up into smaller areas like in EiA, then moving from Posen to Lemberg above might take five weeks in real time: frustratingly slow. Each time we need a decision from a player, the game slows as we wait for an email reply or a piece to move, and unless we're waiting for a combat to be resolved, I don't want anyone to wait to play.

If we slice the map into smaller areas and have players move roughly 3 areas per turn by writing their army's route, what happens when armies move near each other? Armies could circle each other because they've been ordered. If we ask the player to adjust, that could mean a day or two waiting for a reply. I need more options, gentlemen, give me some.

1. Smaller Slices - if the Hida territory above was cut into perhaps 3 areas as a province, with one area containing the capital, we could avoid multi-movement decisions.

2. Zone of Control - if armies were forced to stop moving when they moved next to each other, we could stop them from never colliding, but if they stop, then next turn one could keep running away.

Dramatis Personae

"Plotting Strategy" is a fancy way of saying he's taking his turn

The Ur-Sengoku, as initially designed in 1998 by a Calculus-skipping dope named John Reilly came from a failed translation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms II  for SNES into a board game. This was one of my first attempts to create a strategic/tactical long-form game and it was a complete disaster. Instead of looking at how people played and the kinds of decisions they felt justly rewarded/punished for making, I tried to mirror the exact algorithms used in the video game to create an in-person experience.

Thankfully, that game never made it to table because the formula for dealing damage in combat looked like something I should have learned in those Calculus classes I was skipping to play Goldeneye64. Instead of open-air diplomacy, ROT3K II used a horse system, asking you to select a general and pre-scripted message, after which you hoped your delivery boy wouldn't get caught. I tried to model this system, which meant players weren't allowed to talk at the table but had to write notes and roll to see if their messenger was caught.

John's Undergraduate GPA: 2.79

One of the reasons I wanted ROT3K II to be real was the inclusion of characters - generals with varying statistics, portraits, and names I would never pronounce correctly. Our game won't be so lucky as to have dozens of generals and officers managing our empire for us, but it will have four types of generals whose skill increases with experience.

From left to right: Rank D, C, B, and A

1. Levels - clans begin with various generals that increase with experience. Generals gain an experience point for each victory earned in battle.

2. Unit Cap - the highest ranking general  in an army commands a maximum number of units. This cap, useful in Empires in Arms, leads to smaller, maneuverable armies instead of standoffs with roaming monster death-stacks.

3. Stack Limit - armies can hold 3 generals with no more than one Rank A general.

4. Training Generals - generals of varying ranks can be purchased. Think of this expenditure of resources as the time and energy spent grooming/educating an heir, adopted son, noble, or exceptional soldier currently in service.

Leader Table -- Draft

The shadow graphic on the leaders aren't Japanesey enough. The same is true for the other units in ABD. If anyone is willing to find/redesign those markers with a more appropriate theme, I'll help.

Ancient Battles Deluxe

Delicious.

Colin once told us that the reason we dig these games, these wargames in particular, is that it plays on an instinctive, primitive need to hunt. We plot, scheme, and prepare to catch that deer, knowing it has defensive instincts to avoid us. What the deer doesn't realize is that we found a +2 bow and boots of stealth last week in the beholder cave and we're very hungry. When we play, we use those old instincts to hunt each other with digital cardboard and lies.

Since Colin introduced us to Empires in Arms, the long-form game has appealed to me because it takes forever to finish, if it ever does. The journey keeps me coming back to these games. Week to week, you stare at the board, thinking of ways to take out that stack of units, wondering what price his allies will betray him for, what your breaking point is before you surrender, or how to cut off his supply. A victory on Sunday sets the rest of your week on a good note; a dramatic loss keeps you up at night. I think Monopoly infuriates people not for its game-length, but for the lack of choice you have on that journey toward victory.

The journey of this game involves constant choices, the core of which, as I've said before, will be the Ancient Battles Deluxe combat system. Apart from memorizing The Art of War, the smartest way to prepare for this game would be to understand the rules of ABD, and to schedule a few skirmishes on Vassal.

Simple Rules make for Deep Strategy

Most of your hunting will be conducted on that game's battlefield. Because Vassal doesn't automate or enforce the rules of a game, it will be up to you to record the results and adjust your army displays on the strategic board.

As for those tactical maps - how will we generate where you fight? Here are some options:

1. ABD In-Box Set - the ABD module comes with a handful of maps already made. Players can either select a map or choose randomly. This would be easiest, but I can sense map fatigue as players grow accustomed to seeing the same mountain range over and over.

2. Homemade Random Maps - We can easily create maps using HexDraw and import them into the Vassal module. Players can randomly decide or choose based on the area's general topography.

3. One Area - One Map - We'll create a specific terrain-relevant map for each movable area on the board. When you fight in that forest space outside Kyoto, you'll know what you're getting yourself into. This wouldn't take as long as you'd think, considering each map is only 12x18 hexes, the HexDraw program is very intuitive, and we could crowdsource it to other players. Any takers?

As for sieges - I can think of two options:

1. Abstract Table Rolls - similar to Empires in Arms, players roll to see if they break in or starve troops. This would be quicker, but reduces player involvement in those battles.

2. Castles/Fortresses on Map - small castles (one hex) or fortresses (7 hex circle) would be placed on a tactical map. Melee and/or missile defense would be increased in those hexes and combat would be fought as usual. This increased defense would make attacking a castle much riskier than starving the defenders, but it would speed up your assault. We'd need to playtest a few skirmishes for balance.

Small Castle and Fortress with Entrances

How to Start

When I was 12, my father and his wife took a friend of mine and I on a Civil War summer trip to Gettysburg and Virginia. This was when Gettysburg still had its old-timey floor light show at the Visitor's Center showing you an aerial view of the battle. The presentation looked like a board game - troops moved in formation, fought, and fell dark; reinforcements entered from the edge of the map, and after a few turns, slavery was over.

In a large gift shop across the street from that Visitor's Center, I bought a suede Union cavalry hat and a copy of the board game, The Civil War.

After skimming through the rule book, I saw "How to Start" listed on pg. 53. That means 52 other pages explained concepts, die roll modifiers, combat results tables (CRT), demoralization, command points, etc. All this before you were allowed to start playing -- hardly the same planet as Risk. I was so disheartened I'd never find someone to try it with me that I put the box in a closet for over a decade before dragging Flint Dibble into a game with me, which he won as the North.

I bring this up because as we begin writing the rule book and deciding "How to Start," a number of questions come to mind:

1. Automatic - during setup, will each clan have a set number of units pre-organized into a few army stacks? Or will they start with a pool of money to spend, customizing their forces as they'd like?

2. Custom - should players have customized clan names/mons including general names or do we stay historical?

3. Cultural - should some clans have oddly-balanced armies? Should the Takeda be cavalry-heavy at start? Should Chosokabe have more archers?

4. Handicaps - if one nation's starting economy is rather weak, should they begin with a larger force?

Game Objective

The first time I sat down with The Sims I immediately felt like I was wasting my time. I was tasked with interior decorating, getting a job, going to work, making friends, and manually telling my people to go to the bathroom. "You know what I like about Legend of Zelda," I said, "Link doesn't need potty-breaks. This game is stupid," I then looked up at a clock and found six hours had passed. I came back the next day and played that stupid game for another six hours because if I could get one more friend, I'd get promoted to Mayor.

Games made by Maxis (Spore, SimCity) have largely self-generated goals. I find that infuriating and compelling because without an official endpoint, I have no boundary to stop playing, but if there's a competitive finish line, I may fail.

I bring this up because we have some options as we decide what Sengoku's final objective will be:

1. Standard military dominance - game ends when one player controls X% of the map and is crowned King Daimyo Ultra Power Hyper Turbo Shogun of Planet Universe.

2. Tribunal Shogunate - the top three players after X turns are considered dominate. The reason we'd chose three winners instead of one is partly from the history of the Onin War where three daimyos rose to power, but also because this would disrupt the standard practice of games where the leader gets whacked to allow the second-place player to rise. A three-player victory means you've still got a chance if you're in 4th place.

3. Individual Victories - each player has a specific victory condition that triggers game's end. The Oda clan needs to hold Kyoto for a full year (12 turns), the Chosokabe clan needs to save $300 to win. Adopting these conditions complicates game balance, but means we'll see varied play styles.

4. Player-Set Conditions - at game start, each clan secretly selects a handful of conditions from a list that they must accomplish to win. E.g., "Win 30 battles," "Have the Largest Cavalry," "Control 2 Enemy Capitals," "Successfully Assassinate 6 Generals," etc. Again, this complicates game balance, because as a first-time playthrough, we're guessing which of these conditions would be easier or harder to complete.

5. Victory Points - player with the highest victory points after X turns wins. Players gain/lose victory points for winning/losing battles, accepting/asking for surrenders, making/breaking alliances, etc.

I'm leaning toward #2 or #5, but which of these, or anything you can think of, would you prefer?

Game Features

We're doing this because we're busy. We've got families and jobs and other worthless timesuck hobbies, but we still want the human contact. We can see in the chart below, when we were younger, we had plenty of time for this nonsense, but no money for games:

Now that we're all impossibly rich, we don't have the time or geography to meet once a week for eight hours of ruthlessly trash-talking close friends, destroying egos, and not trusting Andy.

That's where Sengoku comes in. Daimyos, samurai, alliances, and ninjas clash during Japan's feudal period with absolutely 0% Tom Cruise. We can play using the Vassal Engine, which means you take your turn on your own time. When you fight, you'll schedule an hour or so with your opponent. Hopefully, we can knock out at least one turn (game month) per week.

As Alan recently asked, "Is this a game you're inventing?" Inventing is a strong word; I'm stealing proven mechanics from other games to make a larger work. Those mechanics include:

Simultaneous Movement (Diplomacy, Game of Thrones): Everyone will mark where their armies move, and when all the orders are in for that turn, we'll execute the orders. This will cut down on wait time.

Tactical Combat: For relatively equal forces (less than 2:1), we'll use Ancient Battles Deluxe, which plays like the Total War games, has a moderate learning curve, and takes no longer than 90 minutes to play through a battle (assuming you've already learned the game).

Abstract Combat: When the forces are more than 2:1, we'll use a simple table and roll dice. For these quick combats, we'll use a rock/paper/scissors system to determine losses.

General Experience/Levels: Your generals will gain experience for win/loss/draws and advance over four ranks. New generals can be purchased, and each successive rank allows the general to control larger forces.

Diplomatic Options (Empires in Arms): The way to keep players from being eliminated involves the enforced peace/surrender options. If you're taking a beating in a war, you can throw your hands up and surrender, allowing your opponent to take some territory, troops, money, etc. This ends the war, but it also prevents that opponent from fighting you for, let's say, 18 months.

Neutral Powers (Empires in Arms, Game of Thrones): At game's start, there will be some neutral clans/rebels to fight. Other clans will be played by a player you're not allied to.