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.