Warfare#

Battles#

Whenever opposed armies end a season in the same hex, either controlling power can declare a battle there. The GM declares the terrain and any special effects thereof. Each side proposes up to two battle goals and declares what armies are joining the fight, and lay them out in order. They may also secretly reveal to the GM any other assets that they would like to use to influence the battle. Any champions may also declare their involvement if they are also in that hex.

Armies that are in nearby hexes (within their mobility) can also arrive to reinforce a battle. They are put to the side and marked with Delayed X, where X is their distance from the battle; they are added when Delayed reaches 0.

Usually there are two sides to each battle, and each side can contain multiple powers. In rare cases, a battle might have three or more sides.

Support Limit#

Support Limit: Each power has a support limit, indicating how many total bodies they can maintain in their standing army. At the start of each season, during Tidings, you may disband any of your loyal armies. At the end of Tidings, for every unit you still control (every unit in each army that is controlled by you) beyond your support limit, pay one coin, loyalty, or fear. Loyal armies do not charge a fee for use, but do still count against support limit.

Cities have a support limit equal to the total population of their 4 largest claimed towns. Conspiracies have a support limit equal to the number of hexes where they have at least one influence. Champions have a base support limit of 0, increased by effects that let them make and control armies.

Phases#

Deployment: Powers can deploy additional armies.
Spellcasting: Each Power may cast up to one fast spell.
Commands: Each side takes turns issuing commands to each of their armies. Receiving a command “Exhausts” an army, preventing it from taking additional commands. When a side includes multiple powers, they must take turns issuing commands.
1. The side with the Initiative goes first; the power with fewer deployed armies seizes the initiative at the start of the battle.
Goals: Once all armies are exhausted, resolve the goals. No one wins ties.
1. Any side with escalation may spend 1 escalation to offer terms of surrender to another side. The recipient may accept or decline, and the escalation is spent either way. Mortal armies have a habit of accepting surrender against their commanders’ orders when they think they’re likely to die otherwise, represented by a morale check.
Cleanup: Some statuses on armies trigger, then they all tick down by 1. Any power may choose to retreat armies from the battlefield or rout individual units within their armies (usually to protect wounded units).

Basic Commands:#

🚩Slay: Attack with +1
🚩Hold: Apply Presence with +1
🚩Charge: Spend a momentum to Attack and Apply Presence.
🚩Rest: gain a momentum and restore armor

Perks, items, and certain assets give you access to special commands. Generally, these special commands can only be used once per battle.

Army Attributes#

Units: A rough accounting of the size of the army. It is represented as a number of tokens on the battlemap, each of which can absorb a certain number of wounds (usually 2), before they die. Individual units can also be routed, meaning they are separated from their army by cowardice or disorganization. Routed and dead soldiers cannot act. Other than these statuses, units within an army are identical.
- Units that are not routed or slain are called “active”. The number of active units in an army is called its “Size”. A smaller army is one with fewer units.
Attack: The ability of the army to harm the enemy
Presence: The ability of the army to achieve battlefield goals by taking and holding territory.
Morale: The ability of the army to resist rout and confusion through organization and will.
Defense: The threshold an attack needs to meet to damage this army
Armor: Absorbs wounds. Natively, Armor applies only to untyped damage, not elemental damage (burn, freeze, shock, crush, flare, and void)
- Armor is broken when the last point is removed.
Momentum: A fluctuating resource used by armies to use special commands and activate special abilities. Momentum is capped at the number of active units.

Attack, Presence, and Morale are all listed with a die size and a static bonus. During any combat check, armies roll a number of these dice equal to their number of active units (units that are not routed or slain), counting the number that match or beat a certain threshold. Defense is a static number.

Basic Attack: Bring weapons to bear against another enemy army. Threshold: Target’s Defense. Difficulty 0. For each excess success, the defending army loses a point of armor or takes a wound on a unit. Attacks are generally melee unless otherwise stated, but certain abilities can change them to ranged or airborne, changing which targets are valid.

Example: The Knights of Count Caliphrase have 4 units and 3 armor, so they can take 7 wounds without permanent losses.

The Bloodied status tracks the greatest number of new wounds that a unit has reached in a given army. Thus, the first wound received brings them to Bloodied 1, and the first time a wounded unit would take another wound they go to bloodied 2. When an attack increases the target's Bloodied status, they inflict routs equal to half the target’s size (always round down), which the target resists with a morale check equal to the attacker’s rank, with one fewer rout per success.

By default, the defender chooses how to allocate wounds and routs among the units in their army. Typically, defenders will want to put new wounds on the least wounded unit, to avoid increasing Bloodied or losing units. Similarly, defenders will usually want to rout their most wounded unit first. When an army loses its last unit to either wounds or rout, it is destroyed.

Example: The levy of Derop has 5 units, 1 armor, 3 Defense, and a morale of d4+1. After they are attacked by the Fangs of Grim Harbors, a rank 4 army of gnolls, which roll 6,3,4,2. This tears through the armor and inflicts 1 wound. The levy is bloodied, so they face a rank 4 morale challenge. They roll 1,2,1,2,3, and only the 3 increases to match 4 with the 1 point static bonus, so 1 is immediately routed.

In addition to their Attributes, armies have the following:

Rank: The extent of an army’s experience and capabilities
Equipment Tier: Provides armor
Ancestry: The origin of the unit
Class: The main types of weapons used, providing a mechanism for spending momentum
Mounts: If this army has acquired mounts, they provide mobility and sometimes stat boosts or other effects.
Experience: An asset towards leveling up, specific to this army
Mobility: The count of hexes this army is prepared to travel without difficulty
Fee: The cost in coin to field this army. The fee is paid after the army moves or fights a battle. If you choose to not pay the fee, the army may choose to desert and join another power. Armies loyal to their controller waive the fee, and a Personal Army (a champion's own body) never charges one.
Element: The elemental association of this army. Armies resist one wound whenever they take damage of a type matching their element.

Goals#

In addition to wounding the enemy, armies also try to achieve certain goals on the battlefield by applying presence. This represents the ability to hold space and deny mobility to the enemy. When applying presence, an army rolls a presence check against a chosen goal’s threshold. At the end of each round, whichever side has more presence successes on a goal gains its benefits, then the goals are reset and presence dissipates. When an army retreats, routs, or is destroyed during a round its presence dissipates.

Every battle includes the two base goals “Seize the Initiative” and “Advance”, plus other goals proposed by the combatants or generated by terrain features.

Seize the Initiative: Reward - Seize the initiative, allowing you to command first each round. Threshold 3/3.
Advance: Reward - Gain +1 Escalation. Your escalation is a permanent bonus to attack rolls. Threshold 2/2

Some goals are asymmetric, with different thresholds for different sides. For instance:

Walls: Rules - While this goal remains, attackers may not score Advance Goals.

Attacker: Threshold 2, reward: Remove this goal
Defender: Threshold 2, no reward

Assassinate Count Caliphrase:

Attacker: Threshold 4, reward: Kill Count Caliphrase
Defender: Threshold 2, reward: remove this goal for next round

Battle end:#

A battle ends when only one side has active armies remaining or at the end of 7 rounds. A battle will often end with someone accepting terms of surrender in the Goals step. After the battle, count the armies that permanently lost at least one unit. Every army that survived the battle gains a one-use Experience asset of that rank.

At the end of each season any routed units return and each army heals a number of wounds equal to half their size.

Army Actions (Noncombat):#

*️⃣🦶Muster: Move armies you control from their garrisons to any other hex. The movement cost is doubled for rough terrain and negated by roads (even when the road on the map is visually pointed in the wrong direction), and compared to each army’s mobility. For armies moved beyond their mobility, the Difficulty is increased by the difference.
You can declare a Muster as a regarrison: the armies take a town, stronghold, or outpost in the target hex (or a power that can garrison them there) as their new garrison. Increase the Difficulty by 2 for each army moving to a new garrison.
*️⃣⚔️Train: Increase an army’s rank by one and apply the levelup process to increase its attributes. Increase its Fee by 1. Difficulty: The new rank + a quarter the army size rounded down
*️⃣⚒️Forge Armaments: Upgrade the equipment tier of an army, improving their armor. Difficulty: The target tier + a quarter the army size rounded down. Unique metals are a critical asset and industrial quantities of Iron are an assured asset.
*️⃣ ♥️Gather Cowards: Gather routed units from an army that was fully dispersed by rout last season. If you previously controlled the unit, gain a +3 asset. Difficulty: the number of successes is the number of units recovered, up to a maximum of the number that fled.

Making Armies#

Most newly minted armies start as a rank 1 Levy from a town, though the world is populated by other forces, already leveled further, that can be recruited to your cause.

*️⃣⚔️Levy - Create a new army in a claimed town that is not Depopulated. It is rank 1 with 3 defense and d4 in presence, attack, and morale. They have civilian equipment and no class. Their rank, fee, and mobility are 1. Then they gain a set of Ancestry bonuses, then choose a single levelup bonus of your choice. Choose a size up to the town’s population, the town gains “Depopulated” equal to a quarter of the chosen size, rounded down. Difficulty: the size plus the town’s “Uprising” status.

When a levy is disbanded (a free action while in their origin town), remove a number of stacks of “Depopulated” equal to a quarter of the number of returning units, rounded down. When disbanding a mostly intact levy, keep its army card in your records: when levied again, it regains that card with all upgrades and experience (but only if the new size is the same or smaller than the recorded size).

Many rogue armies start on the map, usually between ranks 2 and 4, and Cities start with a few armies for national defense.

Some armies are “premium” and are stronger than their rank would imply: Their attribute dice start at d6 and they have one free premium keyword. These armies have a ⭐ in their description. Some armies are “titanic”, representing an individual creature of immense power. Titanic Armies use the “titanic” classes, which are stronger.

Equipment mortal armies start with tier 0 equipment: improvised tools, thick civilian clothes, etc. To prepare them for war, you will need to use the Forge Armaments Action. The tiers are 0 (Civilian), 1 (Light), 2 (Medium), 3 (Heavy), and 4 (Grand). An army’s armor is increased by the rank of their armaments. Wondrous armies (ents, dragons, elementals, etc.) do not have equipment, but generally have improved armor from another source.

Leveling up:
When a unit levels up, their controller rolls three dice on the following table. If they leveled up from training, roll additional dice equal to the excess successes. Then select three bonuses from the rolled options (repetitions allowed). If you are unhappy with the result you can discard the Train action, refunding any Experience spent but no other costs.

Presence: die size +2
Attack: die size +2
Morale: die size +2
Defense: +1
Mobility: +1
Keyword: General, Terrain, or Profession

Building From Scratch: When you build an army from scratch, start with the levy template and level it up repeatedly. For a Controlled build, you choose the bonuses. For a Random build you roll many d6 and just take the first three unique bonuses for each level.

Basic Classes#

Levy: When this unit levels up, it chooses a new class.
Archers: Attacks this army makes from commands are Ranged. When attacking, this army may spend a momentum and apply -1 to the attack to target two enemy armies with a single roll.
Brawlers: +1 Presence. After applying presence to a goal, spend a momentum to inflict Weakened 2 to an enemy that applied presence there. While weakened, the target cannot attack other armies if they could attack this one and they cannot apply presence to other goals if they could apply presence to this one.
Dervishes: Once per round, when attacked, this army may spend a momentum. If they do, their remaining momentum is added to their defense for the remainder of the round.
Axes: +1 Attack. When attacking, this army may spend a momentum. If they do, each point of damage destroys two points of armor.
Hammers: +1 Attack. When attacking, this army may spend a momentum. If they do, the attack deals Crush damage.
Infantry: +1 Defense. After receiving a command, this army may spend a momentum to gain Taunt 3.
Pikes: +1 Presence. After being targeted by a melee or airborne attack, this army can spend a momentum to attack back.
Rogues: +1 Attack. When attacked, this army may spend a momentum to change the attack target to another valid army on your side. When activated, gain Strengthened 1.
Shieldbearers: +1 Morale. When commanded, this army can spend momentum to restore up to twice that much armor.
Tortoise: +1 Morale. When receiving a ranged or airborne attack, this army can spend a momentum to gain +3 defense against the attack.
Supports: +1 Morale. This unit may pass momentum on to other units.

Titan Classes#

Angel: Gain Flying 1 at the start of even rounds. This army may spend all stacks of flying and a momentum when an ally is attacked to intercept, changing the attack target to this army.
Dragon: Gain Flying 1 at the start of odd rounds. This army may spend a momentum after being attacked to Gain Flying 2. Has 3 base Armor but cannot use equipment.
Demon: When this army is deployed, opposed mortal armies make a morale check with threshold 2; routing a unit for each missing success. Whenever any unit is slain, you may spend a momentum to gain Flying, Strengthened, and Mobile 2.
Devil: When this army is deployed, opposed mortal armies make a morale check with threshold 2; routing a unit for each missing success. Whenever any unit is slain, you may spend a momentum to inflict Frozen 2 on its army and gain Flying 2.
Giant: Each unit can survive two wounds, dying on the third. When applying presence, this army may spend a momentum to target an additional goal.
Monster: Each unit can survive two wounds, dying on the third. When attacking, this army may spend a momentum and apply -1 to the attack to target two enemy armies with a single roll. Has 3 base Armor but cannot use equipment.
War Balloon: Starts combat with Flying 1 and can spend a momentum when commanded to gain Flying 3. Attacks are always ranged.

Army Keywords:#

Every army is assumed to contain an array of soldiers specialized in different kinds of weaponry and tactics. Keywords are used to note specialties an army has and the resulting mechanical effects.

General#

Agile: This army can spend Momentum to dodge incoming attacks, absorbing wounds like armor.
Bloodlust: When attacking, this army chooses how wounds are distributed.
Needler: When attacking, this army may halve the threshold for success (usually the target’s defense) and the number of successes. Round down both times.
Fearful: When this army bloodies a target, the target’s morale check has difficulty equal to their size, rather than half of the size.
Immunized: This army resists a total of 3 wounds whenever they take damage of a type matching their element.
Siege: After applying presence to a wall or other defensive feature, damage it and reduce its threshold by 1 for your side for the remainder of the battle.
Skirmisher: This army starts each battle with 2 momentum.
Slayer: When attacking, this army may decide to double the threshold for success (usually the target’s defense) to deal two wounds per success. Each pair of wounds is applied to the same unit. Conflicts with Needler.
Valiant: Negative statuses tick down by 2 each cleanup instead of 1.
Vanguard: Has +1 defense against attacks for each previous attack this round.
Wallkeepers: While defending with an untaken wall, this army gains a bonus to their morale equal to the wall’s rank (1 for wooden, 2 for stone, 3 for layered)
Wild Element (terrestrial): This army's element at any moment is whichever terrestrial element (A, F, E, or W) is best for its controller and worst for its enemies. The primary effect is that they resist one wound of each terrestrial elemental damage type. Conflicts with Immunized.

Terrain#

Guerilla: +1 attack and defense while in Forests. Forests are never difficult terrain.
Mountaineer: +1 attack and defense while in Mountains. Mountains are never difficult terrain.
Naval: This army has +1 attack and defense while in Coasts. Can move through water like roads.
Nomad: This army has +1 attack and defense while in Plains. Deserts are never difficult terrain.
Stealthy: This army is not visible on the world map. It starts battles with Strengthened 1.

Profession#

Greybeards: Provides expertise in warfare, primarily assisting in ⚔️challenges. Describe a signature command; they are too wizened to use it themselves, but it can be used once per battle on a friendly army.
Engineers: Assists in building roads and walls (but not other features). Has +2 presence against goals related to walls or siege equipment.
Racketeers: Experienced in appraising the value of materials and in squeezing money out of peasants, primarily assisting in ⚖️challenges.
Stablemasters: Provides beasts of burden and capable managers thereof, primarily assisting in 🦶challenges, including those to move this army.
Scoundrels: Provides an endless supply of pickpockets, pranksters, and battlefield vultures, primarily assisting in 👤challenges. Gains +1 Fee but provides 1 coin every time they slay a unit in battle.
Scouts: Maintains a key eye on their surroundings, primarily helping in 👁️challenges. +1 Mobility, but -1 Presence.
Arcanists: Provides magical assistance, primarily in🔮challenges. Armor functions against elemental damage types.
Cooks: Organizes fine meals and feasts, primarily assisting in ♥️challenges. Other armies on your side start with a momentum (Doesn’t stack with other cooks)

Premium#

Stampeding: Can deal Crush damage with Charge attacks.
Firespitting: Can deal Burn damage on odd rounds
Frigid: Can deal Frost damage on even rounds
Stormblooded: Can deal Shock damage, but when doing so only rolls as many damage dice as they have wounded units.
Nightmare: Whenever an attack this army makes would inflict a wound, instead rout a unit in the targeted army.
Alien Mind: Doesn’t make morale checks when bloodied. Immune to illusions and mental enchantments positive and negative.
Juggernaut: +2 dice on presence checks. Counts as +2 size.
Incorruptible: While you are visible in a hex, influence cannot be added to that hex by any means. You grant vision of the influence layer.
Flapping: Gain Flying 1 at the start of odd rounds.

Negative#

Some keywords are negative, and should not be taken at levelups unless you have some sort of devious plan afoot:

Mercenary: This army has +2 Fee and mobility (included in sheet)
Repulsive: When this army joins a battle on the same side as mortal units, those units must pass a rank 2 morale challenge.
Ageless: Heals half as many wounds at the end of each season
Servile: -1 Morale, but any fees for this army are halved when paid with Fear

Ancestries:#

Ashborn: F, Loses all momentum when a Water spell is cast. Gains momentum when a Fire spell is cast. Firespitting, -1 Defense.
Deep Dwarves: E, Gains momentum when their armor is broken. Engineers, +1 Defense, -1 Mobility
Mountain Dwarves: F, Gains momentum when an ally’s armor is broken. Mountaineer, +1 Defense, -1 Mobility.
Diverse: Wild Element, Gains momentum when breaking an enemy's armor.
Triumph Elves: A, Gains momentum at the end of the spellcasting step if an ally cast a spell with rank matching the round number. Agile, Ageless
Recluse Elves: W, Starts battles with 3 momentum, reduced by 1 per present friendly army. Guerilla, Ageless.
Horselords: F, When this army enters a battle, they gain momentum equal to the round number. +1 Mobility, +1 Fee.
Halflings: E, Gains momentum when attacked by a larger army. Valiant, -1 Attack.
Harpies: W, Gains momentum when they end a round without receiving a wound or routing. Flapping, +1 Attack, -1 Morale, +2 difficulty on challenges to provide them armor.
Orcs: E, Gains momentum during deployment if they are wounded; it must be a wound received in a real battle, but orc armies may choose to leave a wound present as a scar instead of healing it.
Drakes: F, Gains momentum at the end of each round their side wins a goal. Wallkeepers, +1 Presence, +1 Fee.
Gnolls: A, Skirmisher, +2 Mobility, -1 Defense, -1 Armor, -1 Presence.
Antinium: E, Gains momentum each round a Centenium is on the battlefield on their side. Alien Mind, Repulsive.
Skeletons: D, Cannot gain momentum. +1 Attack, +1 Defense, +1 Morale.
Zombies: D, Gains momentum whenever their Bloodied level increases. Each unit can survive two wounds, dying on the third. -1 Attack, +1 Defense.
Wraiths: D, Gains momentum the first time each round they are attacked by a mortal army. Fearful, +1 Mobility, -1 Defense.
Ghouls: D, Gains momentum when they bloody another army. Repulsive, Fearful, +2 Attack.

Skeletons, Zombies, Wraiths, and Ghouls are undead, not mortal.

Elemental Ancestries:#

Creatures that were never mortal gain an ancestry based on their element:
Air: Gains momentum the first time each round this army applies presence
Fire: Gains momentum the first time each round this army attacks
Earth: Gains momentum the first time each round this army is attacked
Water: Gains momentum the first time each round a goal is lost by their side
Light: Gains momentum at the end of the first four rounds of combat when fighting in sunlight, or at the end of just the first round otherwise.
Dark: Gains momentum the first time each round an enemy unit routs.

Statuses:#

Burning: You cannot gain or restore armor. Take 1 wound from Burn each cleanup.
Frightened: Roll a rank X morale challenge during each cleanup (before ticking down)
Vulnerable: -2 Defense
Weakened: -X dice on attack checks
Pinned: -X dice on presence checks
Scattered: -X dice on morale checks
Strengthened: +X dice on attack checks. Counteracts Weakened.
Mobile: +X dice on presence checks. Counteracts Pinned.
Emboldened: +X dice on morale checks. Counteracts Scattered.
Frozen: -X dice on checks
Hastened: +X dice on checks. Counteracts Frozen.
Taunt: Enemy armies must make their melee attacks against you if able.
Flying: You cannot be targeted by melee attacks. Your melee attacks are instead Airborne.

Example Armies#

Mortal Armies:#

Levy Template
Rank 1 - Civilian ____ Levy - ____ Units
3 Defense - d4 Attack - d4 Morale - d4 Presence
Armor 0 - Fee 1 - Mobility 1
Element (res: ___ 1) - Momentum

> Mountain Dwarves, + Morale >

Derop Levy
Rank 1 - Light Mountain Dwarven Levy - 5 Units
4 Defense - d4 Attack - d6 Morale - d4 Presence
Armor 1 - Fee 1 - Mobility 0
F (res: Burn1) - Gains momentum when an ally's armor is broken.
Mountaineers.

> Levy specialized into hammers, + Attack, + Defense >

Hammers of Derop
Rank 2 - Light Mountain Dwarven Hammers - 5 Units
5 Defense - d6+1 Attack - d6 Morale - d4 Presence
Armor 1 - Fee 2 - Mobility 0
F (res: Burn1) - Gains momentum when an ally's armor is broken.
Mountaineers.
Hammers: When attacking, this army may spend a momentum. If they do, the attack deals Crush damage.

>Lost a unit in battle, + Defense, +Valiant, Acquired Heavy Armor>

Derop Stoneshatterers
Rank 3 - Heavy Mountain Dwarven Hammers - 4 Units
5 Defense - d6+1 Attack - d6 Morale - d6 Presence
Armor 3 - Fee 3 - Mobility 0
F (res: Burn1) - Gains momentum when an ally's armor is broken.
Mountaineers.
Hammers: When attacking, this army may spend a momentum. If they do, the attack deals Crush damage.
Valiant: Negative statuses tick down by 2 each cleanup instead of 1.