This is going to be a sloppy brain dump of a few different playtests I have done with Tony Bath’s rules as a guide. I have mentioned, many times, my issues with his lack of clarity in this book in relation to resources and specificity. I hope this serves anyone working on map based campaigns on their own, and I will continue to refine this until I have a meaty and satisfying campaign experience.
We begin with a map I drew for my ACKS campaign of a single county.
This was later expanded to make each Baron’s domain bigger, I didn’t take pictures of every single change, I was going fast and loose over multiple short tests. The settlements are vague, there is an assumed population spread out over the entire area.1
The map also changed slightly with the addition of special resources, more pictures later.
A. The Count Carl
B. Baron Bob
C. Baron Andy
D. Baron Dennis
E. Baron Eric
Each hex was counted, and given seasonal values in resources. Hexes are 15m across, so fairly chunky. Roads are 1st class roads. I think at this scale roads are a bit finicky to represent.
If a ruled hex was bordered by a mountain or ocean, the domain ruler was given a 1/6 of the mountain/ocean hex value per side that they owned. Looking up at the current map, the Count’s lands touch the mountains at 4 lines, so he gains 4/6 of a mountain tile’s worth of resources.
Every settlement is on a special hex of ‘cultivated land’, that gives a little bit of multiple resources.
Resources are given in Total GOLD Value per Season. The numbers under each value are the distributions of each resources within that total.
Cultivated Land 250g
150Food, 50Horse, 50Lumber
River Banks 300g
300Food
Coastlines 180g
180Food
Plains 200g
100Food, 100Horse
Woods 125G
25Food, 100Lumber
Hills 150g
50Food, 100Stone
Mountains 120g
90Stone, 30Ore
The total value of a domain is added up, and the gold value of all the resources is recorded as Tax Income. (1/3 of which goes to the Count, from each Baron)
The total value of the resources is recorded as the Potential value. This is the total amount of resources that can be pulled from the land in any given season. These will be reset at the start of every season, and are an abstraction of available resources above and beyond the daily needs.
This card tells us that Baron Andy can spend up to 430gold, per season, to buy Food from his people/land. It will take 1 week for that food to be delivered to his settlement.2
Resources are paid for at a 1:1 gold cost to resource, so 100g buys 100Food.3
Once resources are ‘real’, or tangible, they must be tracked by the domain on their sheet, and some resources will be subjected to spoilage.4
His SEASONAL gold income is 1180g, keeping in mind that troops are very expensive, he needs to be careful what he spends his money on.5
Each area was also given random Strategic Resources6. These are ‘one use’ blocks of extra resources.7 These are currently just a big ole bag of potential sitting on the map that is extra.
Here we see mines and knots of forests labeled on the map:
And their corresponding cards for their potential value:8
The Seasonal Turn
Grab a new Domain Character Sheet, fill in values.
Gain Tax income, record new seasonal resource potentials.
Upkeep: pay military, check stockpile spoilage, etc…
Initiate Monthly Turns
Domain level Events, large diplomatic Events
Initiate Weekly Turns
Receive Information
Issue Orders
Examples of Plays
Baron Eric: Spring
Gain Tax income +647g
Pay Soldiers -200g
Month 1 Event: Outbreak of Banditry, Magnitude 3/6
Week 1, send messengers to other local leaders. Week 1, send scout dispatch and 10HF.
Rolled 2 and 4 on tony bath spy rules, messengers make it safely.
Scouts discover Bandits, HF clears them out.
Week 2, HF returns with 40g in gold from killing bandits.
Week 3, Pay 200g for food, 100g for stone.
Week 4, Receive food and stone from domain into stockpiles.
Month 2 Event: Crop Damage, Magnitude 5/6
Week 1, lose 100 crop potential, pay 100 food from stockpile.
Week 2, pay 20g for ore from domain.
Week 3, Receive ore to stockpile. Week 3, issue recruitment order of 5 HF.9
Examples of Plays
Baron Bob: Spring
Gain Tax income +706g
Pay Soldiers -200g
Month 1 Event: Outbreak of Banditry, Magnitude 6/6
Week 1, send out messengers to other local leaders. Week 1, send out dispatch of 15HF and scout.
Messengers make it safely.
Scouts discover Bandits, HF engage, push them back a hex.
Week 2, Count sends message that bandits must be taken care of. Continue Scouting and tracking.
Week 3, Scouts discover bandits, HF engage, destroy them in the freeland between Bob and Count’s direct domains. Week 3 purchase 150g in food from land.
Week 4, receive 150 food into stockpile.
Month 2 Event: Religious Riots, Magnitude 4/6
Week 1, pay 1g per 10 people in settlement for massive festival to raise morale (-400g). Pay 100g to raise levee troops to help deal with riots.
Week 2, Festival Occurs. Week 2, send messengers to check on other settlements in the area.
2 Other barons are also dealing with religious riots.
Week 3, send message to Count that this is second month of religious riots, and heard rumors that another settlement is dealing with it as well, demand he acts. Request he refund the Baron the 400g he had to pay to keep his people from rioting further.
Week 4, Count supplies funds (only 200g), denies any other assistance, will not get involved in religious issues at this time.
This is shaping up nicely, and the map campaign is almost ready to set up a BIG map and run through some more turns.
The testing shall continue!
Each hex is approximately ~200sq Miles. We are going to round and fuzzy math our way to say that each hex supports an average of 1,750 people. (less than 10 per sq mile, quite low in historical context) that leaves us with ~52,000 people total over 30 hexes. Let us assume half or 26,000 of those are Urban. That leaves us with about 8-10k people in the Counts settlement, and 4-5k in each of the Barons’ settlements, and about 26,000 spread out over the remaining ~25 hexes in farms, villages, towns, hamlets, etc.
The amount of resources can/should change seasonally to reflect event cards or general change in food/seasons.
An Exception to this is the Count, he can buy from the lands that are in the county but not under his direct rule, at a penalty, currently that penalty is 2:1 gold to resource.
I don’t have rules for this yet but I would assume food/horses would spoil over time, checked once a month with army upkeep ?
For those keeping count, I believe this picture is from when I took away the 1/3 tax to the Count, so I think his after tax income is around 800g.
I believe I stole this name from the Civilization games, don’t sue me.
These should probably be more complicated than I have them, they should have a time limit, or a season limit, or a random factor, or something more to them.
There value is currently 2d6 * 100.
This is measured in FIGURES, so 5HF is 100 men. Recruits are done in batches. Every month they gain 1 training value, and player will roll 2d6+value, and scoring a 12+/18+/24+ will mean the troops are ready and trained as LF/HF/AF. Troops will need to be full armed upon completion of training before usable. Troops will receive 50% pay while being trained.