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.