War Seaons (Was: Muster Armies

[Noah Zerbe]

> Morg wrote:
> > Do you only allow war to occur during the 'war season' (i.e. summer?)<
>
> Yes, the summer is the most common season for war - that's when a lot of
> the farming entails waiting for the fields to grow, so this is when most
> of the 'free' time of common men would come. Thus, I typically allow
> only war to occur during the summer domain turn. If regents want to war
> at other times, they must pay extra in maintainence/war move costs if
> they want to fight in the spring/fall turns as well. Winter has almost
> never seen war (IMC, only once has a regent paid the penalty to fight in
> the last domain round of the fall, and his little campaign into the five
> peaks got trapped there, barely surviving the first snow ... with the
> help of the war priests, they made it through the winter. Boy, the
> regent never did that again!)

This is actually the case in the BR novel _The Iron Throne_. Micheal
Roele and Lord Arwyn of Boeruine fought thier war during the war season
(summer and autumn). During other seasons, the weather is too bad to
conduct war. However, I agree that if a regent really wants to conduct a
war, the cost should be much higher. It's difficult to move troops and
war machines through the snow and mud.

Regards,
Noah

[Morg]

My illustrious mentor Jim Cooper, who apparently worships Tim now, wrote:

> Yes, this is basically what I have done IMC. Regents can only muster
> troops (regular units) only once every four turns (the winter, in these
> cases) and they arrive 1d3+3 months later. In effect, regents must make
> a call to arms during the winter phase (since commoner men would never
> respond during planting and harvest seasons), which they can then expect
> to have show up in the spring or summer (never, ever, would men leave
> their fields in the fall).

Do you only allow war to occur during the 'war season' (i.e. summer?) I've been tossing this idea around for a few weeks now, but I'm not sure how well it would work. In my limited historical knowledge, the harvest season commonly saw the armies 'disbanded' so the men could return to their fields, and who wants to wear plate mail armour when it's - 30 degrees Celsius?

How has this affected your games (for those who play it this way)? I think the only culture who could even make a decent winter war would be the Vos and their varsk units, and the Brechts might have a smaller ability to war in the winter, but the Anuirians I think would be most likely to fight only in the summer time.

Am I way out there on this one?

Keith
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[Jim Cooper]

Morg wrote:
> Do you only allow war to occur during the 'war season' (i.e. summer?)<

Yes, the summer is the most common season for war - that's when a lot of
the farming entails waiting for the fields to grow, so this is when most
of the 'free' time of common men would come. Thus, I typically allow
only war to occur during the summer domain turn. If regents want to war
at other times, they must pay extra in maintainence/war move costs if
they want to fight in the spring/fall turns as well. Winter has almost
never seen war (IMC, only once has a regent paid the penalty to fight in
the last domain round of the fall, and his little campaign into the five
peaks got trapped there, barely surviving the first snow ... with the
help of the war priests, they made it through the winter. Boy, the
regent never did that again!)

Now there are certain exceptions, like the Vos and Rjurik, but that's a
function of their cultural training, but even they do not normal conduct
more than minor skirmishes during winter, if they do any fighting at
all. Note that Anuireans and Brecht aren't equipped for this kind of
warfare, so I penalize those types of regents appropriately.

> I've been tossing this idea around for a few weeks now, but I'm not sure how well it would work.<

My players have no choice - I don't buckle to peer pressure when I have
good reasons not to! :) So far, with strict adherence to my homemade
rules (hey - we held a 'rules session' and they agreed with them!),
things have gone fairly smoothly. I must be doing something right,
cause they keep coming back week after week to play! :)

> How has this affected your games (for those who play it this way)? I think the only culture who could even make a decent winter war would be the Vos and their varsk units, and the Brechts might have a smaller ability to war in the winter, but the Anuirians I think would be most likely to fight only in the summer time.

Exactly, except (in my opinion) the Brecht - I think they have very poor
land war capability (with exceptions like Berhagen and Rheulgard), as
opposed to Vos or Anuirean capabilities. I think Brecht military
training would put land warfare methods at the bottom of the 'need to
study' list.

Cheers,
Darren

[DKEvermore@aol.co]

In a message dated 11-08-1998 9:44:09 PM Central Standard Time, zerbe@yorku.ca
writes:

> This is actually the case in the BR novel _The Iron Throne_. Micheal
> Roele and Lord Arwyn of Boeruine fought thier war during the war season
> (summer and autumn). During other seasons, the weather is too bad to
> conduct war. However, I agree that if a regent really wants to conduct a
> war, the cost should be much higher. It's difficult to move troops and
> war machines through the snow and mud.
>
These are interesting ideas. If you choose to use the developing War Seasons
rules, I have a further suggestion:

For winter and bad weather months, I suggest doubling the movement costs _and_
travel time. Thus, it takes (at least) two weeks for infantry to travel one
province. Negate bonuses for roads, too (they've become muddy, rutty trenches
after the first 3 supply wagons). Simple rule, easy to remember. Now the fun
stuff:

Exceptions:

Varsks obviously ignore winter terrain penalties, and the elves with the
terrain movement bonuses wouldn't be affected either--any time of the year.
Underground units like the dwarves would obviously not be affected by winter
or weather (since underground the earth takes on the average temperature of
the area all year round).

There may be other exceptions, too. Perhaps units lead by priests/priestesses
of Kriesha may ignor winter penalties. Perhaps units lead by Nesirie can
ignore heavy rains. Have fun with it! You get the idea.

- -DKE