I know this is a lot of reading, but it's just to be thorough.
How the game works:
The goal is to have the most point at the end of the game. You get points by owning territories at the end of each week, and by wining battles against your opponents. The pieces of terrain are worth different points depending on what they are, which will be explained later.
To find the most current map in league, just visit us here: http://allfunngames.deviantart.com/
How the Map Works (Orders):
Each player starts in their specific "home base," which will occupy one hex on the map. Each hex adjacent to that hex is also considered to be claimed by that player at the start of the campaign. Each session (sessions will be two weeks, as it is important for players to actually be able to make all their games, providing more time seems key). Players will send in two orders, due in by Saturday. In addition to the two orders they take, each player automatically takes one defend action. I will email these moves out on Sunday so that players can contact the players they are to battle with so they may set up their battle. There are a few types of action you can write in your orders: a move action, a defend action, or an ambush action. (Also, check in the scoring section for skirmish battles to see how to get additional games in every week).
For the examples, we will assume that the player making the action is in blue, the enemy is red, and the third party is green.
Defend Action. For defense, a player will forgo moving to a new spot on the map in order to secure the territory they already have. By choosing defend they get to fight an army that's invading their territory. Players automatically get one defend per week, but if they are attacked more than once, they will give up their territory freely if they did not choose a defend action.
Ambush Action: The ambush action is for when there is a theoretical 3 way fight and used to gain the advantage. This is the most complicated of all the orders as well. By taking ambush, you lose 30% of your army size (as you form a small ambush squad), but get to attack the remaining player after the first two have battled. Instead of fighting a full force, you will only fight that which remains of the victors' army as a result of the last battle. For the setup above it is clear that every person could move into hex 3. Instead of choosing a move option green chooses to ambush. He writes "4 ambushes 3." Both other players only choose the move option instead. After a great, bloody conflict, blue wins against red, but only 40% of his army remains. He then has to play against green, with only those models that survived.
Other situations you could get into.
What if it's a draw? The territory doesn't change. If it was previously owned by someone, it's still theirs. If it was neutral, it's neutral.
All 3 players "Move" into 3: The player's have a 3 way fight! Winner takes all.
1 player "moves" into 3, both others ambush: The two players that chose ambush fight in a smaller skirmish. The victor of this can chose to then try to fight remaining player with what is left of their ambush party, or sneak out before they are found. (There is a reason to do this that is explained later). If they sneak out they player who chose "move" gains the territory.
More than 3 people contest for an area: Resolve them separately. If it's 4 of the same type, you can do 2 1v1's, and the victors then duke it out 1v1, so on and so forth. If you have questions, just ask.
How the Map Works (terrain):
The map will be sized depending on how many players there are. For this reason PLEASE PREREGISTER! I can't stress that enough. There will also be different types of terrain on the map that will give certain armies/strategies/lores/etc. advantages. They will be explained in detail below, as well as other features of the map. For all of the types of terrain, set up the terrain accordingly (the rules below might include some of this, but will not always).
Mountains:
Fantasy: Lore of Metal and Lore of Fire have +2 to cast rolls. A wizard with this lore has can chose to upgrade its ward save to 4+ if it's normal ward is worse than that, or a +5 if it didn't have one. Monsters, Monstrous Infantry, and Monstrous Beasts have +1 to movement, while chariots have -2.
40K: Heavy Support Choices have +1 to hit, up to a maximum of 2+. Place 1d6 +2 flat pieces of terrain that count as difficult terrain but provide no cover while in them and do not block line of sight.
Forests:
Fantasy: Lore of Beasts and Lore of Life have +2 to cast rolls. A wizard with this lore has can chose to upgrade its ward save to 4+ if it's normal ward is worse than that, or a +5 if it didn't have one. The terrain at the start of the game will be 1d6-1 pieces from the random chart, 1 mysterious forest, and 4 normal forests (2 if the terrain is half forest). Skirmishers, swarms, and war beasts have +1 toughness while in forests (as they are good at dodging in and out of the cover to trees), while cavalry and monstrous cavalry have -1 to WS and BS against anything in these types of terrain.
40K: Start with at least 5 forests on the table. Players with infiltrators and/or scouts may nominate one and one forest at the start of the game. After deployment the players deploy the scout/infiltrator in that terrain.
Plains:
Fantasy: Lore of Heavens and Lore of Light have +2 to cast rolls. A wizard with this lore has can chose to upgrade its ward save to 4+ if it's normal ward is worse than that, or a +5 if it didn't have one. Chariots, Calvary, Monstrous Calvary, and Infantry with ranged attacks do not get a -1 for firing at long range. If those units are melee, they roll a minimum for a 3 for charge rolls. Monstrous Beasts, Monsters, and Monstrous Infantry have -1 to imitative.
40K: Vechicles get a +1 to their cover saves from moving against ranged, but a -1 against melee (as the cloud makes it hard to see from at range, but close up the flatness of the terrain helps the vehicle stand out).
Graveyard (fantasy)/Ruins (40k):
Fantasy: Lore of Shadow and Death of Light have +2 to cast rolls. A wizard with this lore has can chose to upgrade its ward save to 4+ if it's normal ward is worse than that, or a +5 if it didn't have one. Units that don't move are considered to have soft cover as they can duck behind graves and such. War machines have -1 to hit against non-monstrous targets as they blend into the fog and graves. All units have -1 to Ld.
40K: Non-fearless units have -2 to Ld. Due to rubble and settling ash and dust all non-vehicle units have a 6+ cover save at all time.
Dessert:
Fantasy: -2 to All Magic rolls excluding dispelling. All ward saves are reduced by 1. Swarms, Skirmishers, war beasts, and have imitative -1 and move -1 . War machines have +1 to BS.
40K: Flame weapons have +1 Strength. Scatter rolls are -1.
Split Terrain: The Terrain will either be all one type, mostly one type, or an even 50/50 split. For all and mostly one type use only the special rules of that type of terrain, but set up the board according to how it should look (there will be an example below). This is just for flavor and to make the map look more fluid. On terrain with an even split, use both sets of special rules (for deserts the -1 to ward saves and the bonus ward save will just straight cancel each other out).
Example A: Players play with both Graveyard and Plains Special Rules. Players should divide the table in ½ and set up the table accordingly.
Example B: Players play only with the special rules of the Plains, but one side of the table should have a few graveyard features in it.
Example C: Players play with the graveyard special rules. The center of the board should be set up with graveyard type terrain, while both sides will have different terrain.
Example D: Only plains special rules and style terrain.
Example E: Both forest and plains special rules. Players set up forests in the middle of the board while the outside is plains. (The circle tiles will always be considered half and half).
I want to play but I can't touch anybody! (Skirmishes)
After orders go out, players will find out how many battle lie ahead of them for that session. With a maximum of 3 (2 orders and 1 defense) and a minimum of 0 (no conflict in orders, no one attacking you), it seems kind of hit or miss with how much you can actually play. With this in mind, the players can play up to 4 total games per 2-week session by making up the difference in skirmish battles. This will allow players to get in some games even if they aren't finding conflict on the map. For example, let's say a player using both move actions, doesn't bump with any other player, and gets attacked. He uses his one default defend action and battles the person who attacked his territory, but he currently only has one game for 2 weeks (boring!). Well, he then gets to challenge anyone else in the league to a skirmish battle. They play roll to see what type of terrain the play on, and then go at it (1 Mountain, 2 Forest, 3 Plains, 4 Graveyard, 5 Desert, 6 Split Terrain- roll until you roll 2 non-6 numbers). They record the result because doing battle does count for points, but there is not exchange of territory due to the battle. If there are no players who need skirmish games available then you can play against anyone else in league, but they do not count the game for scoring (you still do). There is no penalty for not playing skirmishes.
They're in my base, Killin my doods!
If you continually suffer defeat you may might the enemy knocking on your front door, heck, they might try to take ALL of your hexes away. Luckily, they can't! You're home base hex cannot be captured by enemy players (phew!). In addition to this, while you are defending your home hex, your units are fearless and have +1 to initiative BS, and WS. While you have this advantage, you are a target worth going for, as opponents who defeat you in your home base gain more sweet points. You don't need to capture all of someone's hexes before you attack their base (in fact, that makes it much worse), it need only be exposed.
Players may only attack another player's home base once per 2 sessions (4 weeks total). I don't want anyone just sitting there killing someone's base who is a good matchup every week and winning through that cheesy strategy.
How to win! (scoring)
With that the rules for fighting and terrain are established, we can go over how scoring works.
At the end of each session players will score according to their performance in battle, number of tiles, and for any objectives I might have sent out that week.
Map Points:
Each hex you control- 1 points
Each Money Hex you control- 3 points
Having the most Hexes at the end of a session- 3 Points
Battle Points:
Winning a battle using a "Move" order: 3 Points (even if you don't capture the point)
Winning a battle using a "Ambush" order- 2 Points
Winning a battle "Defend" order- 2 Points
Winning a skirmish- 2 Points
Drawing a battle using a "move" or in a skirmish- 1 Point
Winning a battle against a Home Base Hex- 1 point for every hex that player controls.
Objectives-
Objectives will be things like- "Acquire a hex from the player in the lead" or "Win through an ambush move" I will announce these objectives in the emails. The points will vary.
