Re: Region control

Steve Chapin (sjc@cs.purdue.edu)
Mon, 27 Jul 92 22:28:17 EST

>> So:
>> The ruler of a province is controlled militarily from a tower
>> or castle.
>>
>> Only the ruler may TAX the province.
>>
>> The ruler may decide to use force to turn away travelers at
>> the border. [3]
>>
>> The province itself may be controlled by the same
>> faction, or another one, or it may be independent.

Some questions/comments:

1) It is trivial to take the province away if you control the tower
(just tax until the guy who had it no longer controls it because of
loyalty penalties).

2) How can one wrest control of the tower if one controls the
province? Or, more precisely, how does controlling the province give
one an advantage in that? Can the province population ATTACK the
tower (you implied "yes" in your mail)? If we allow provinces in
combat, what happens when a province is overwhelmed? Do we depopulate
it? (I know, these are questions I'm supposed to answer in the
GCRR...)

3) What benefit is derived from controlling a province? If you get
the tower, you get to tax. If you get the province, you get to:
>> ATTACK, DECLARE, WORK, STUDY, GIVE, TAKE, USE, but not TAX.
Realism question: if the province is WORKing, and the character units
in the town are WORKing, who's paying them?

4) Which forces get attacked if I ATTACK se from Hothras? The ones
under the Tower of Darkness, or the ones stacked under Drassa?
(you imply the tower, but I want to be sure).

5) what if we add the TERRORIZE command? Who retaliates for brutality
against the people? Those in the tower, or those stacked with the
province? The one being hurt is the one who controls the province,
but the military might is in the tower.

6) (Russell's question): Why split these? Is this so that towers
have some use, and defensive forces can get some advantage? Why not
make places defensible then (e.g. one can build walled cities)?
To beat Russell to the punch, the split seems like unneeded complexity
to me. What is the great advantage of the split?

7) It seems to me that controlling the tower is much better than
controlling the province, if I have to choose. I can bide my time,
and TAX the hell out of the place when I'm ready for it to lose
loyalty.

8) I prefer the "if you want to defend a place, stack with it" mode.
Cities and towns can have walls and earthworks that help the
defenders. Perhaps provinces can be fortified slightly. How about
something like:

Place type Max defense

plains 1 (earthworks)
swamp 0 (no defensive advantage)
desert 0 (no defensive advantage)
mountains 3 (hard to attack in)
forest 2 (wooden forts, redoubts, etc.)
city 6 (massive walls)
town 3 (minor walls)
tower ? (current)
castle ? (current)
cave ? (current)

So, if the best I can do to defend my plains province is build some
earthworks, and then when I stack with it I get a defensive bonus of
1. However, I can work with the sheer walls of stone in the mountains
to provide defensive structures. My cities can have big walls, and my
towns can have small walls.

This is not additive, i.e. a city with defense 4 in a mountain
province with defense 2 is not defense 6; it is defense 4. You attack
into the mountain province and beat its defenders (who are at +2).
Then you attack into the city against its defenders at +6. You can't
defend both places.

A note for combat: the highest possible AC should be 9, even if mods
put it higher. No one should be completely immune from damage (right
now, if I have combat >= 6, swipe the shield of Achilles and stack
with the tower of darkness, you can't beat me. Bad.

sc

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