Muster-y Machine

Inevitably, My Liege, is in part a response to the BECMI Companion set from 1984 by Mentzer, Niles, and Spiegel. Their dominion rules go in a completist direction, including specified populations sizes grouped into three densities, monthly population increase, incomes of several types including those based on a variety of natural resources, etc.

The rules for war - called the "War Machine" in a rare instance of catchy branding (for these books, anyway) - is a high-level strategic affair. You calculate a rating for each body of troops using, by my count, 28 different variables, then add it to a d100 roll, and compare results to determine the outcome of a battle. There are even further modifications to account for sieges and battle tactics. 

It's not particularly difficult to wrap your head around, and the detail resolution is impressive. I can imagine more than a few 80s nerds went into mathematical modeling after being exposed to equations like these for the first time in games.

Actually, looking back at the Machine now, I can see that My Liege, followed its philosophy pretty faithfully, but I had a few goals of my own:

1. Establish a seasonal rhythm of battle
2. Tie military forces to holdings and especially to vassals
3. Low mental load for resolution while still supporting flavorful, flexible emergent narrative

Seasonal Rhythm

In My Liege, as in many feudal systems, there's no standing army. As I said in my last post, the rules are broken down into Campaign Season (Spring/Summer) and Harvest Season (Fall/Winter). If the players want to make war, they need to decide that during the Harvest Season and order vassals to muster warbands. Then they issue actual military orders during the Campaign Season. Warbands can remain mustered indefinitely, technically, but at the expense of being able to collect taxes from that vassal's holdings and putting it at greater risk for a revolt.

Holdings

When a vassal musters a warband, they pull one "company" from each hex in their holding. I'm keeping these terms vague on purpose, but companies are equal-HD blocks of troops of a single type. The default assumptions are things like spearmen, bowmen, men-at-arms, etc. Any type of company can come from any type of hex, but I'm asking DMs to roll for hex features, which include incentives to muster a certain type of company from the hex. For example, here's the forest table:

d12	Forest
1	Luxury: truffles
2	Luxury: mead
3	Luxury: boar
4	Strong Hacking Arms: +1 Battle Roll to men-at-arms companies
5	Fade into the Trees: +1 Battle Roll while fighting in forest
6	Led by Seers: +1 Battle Roll if outnumbered
7-8	Town
9-12	No feature

Vassals

When it's time to fight, vassals lead their warbands in battle. They need to pass a test like the order resolution system I talked about last time, with Charisma as the primary ability and either Strength (for attackers) or Constitution (for defenders) as the secondary ability. This determines how much of their warband's full strength they're able to utilize effectively on the battlefield.

Battle Rolls

To resolve the battle, each side adds together the number of companies they're able to bring to bear (based on the vassal tests), bonuses for defending, having the most different types of companies, and based on their hex of origin, then rolls d10 and adds it to the total. The highest score wins the battle.

Next, it's time to test Dexterity to determine the aftermath. The greater the gap between winner and loser, the more likely it is that the losing leader will be captured, to be ransomed back the following year.

Example

Let's put this together:

Sir Jannis the Loudmouth musters a warband from his 2-hex holding Glenwode to defend against invaders. It consists of a company of men-at-arms who hail from a forest full of Strong Hacking Arms (+1 to the Battle Roll) and a company of bowmen. He has a Charisma of 14 and a Constitution of 12.

He passes his test of Charisma, but fails his test of Constitution. This means he effectively utilizes 3/4 of his warband, rounding up - so both companies.

Therefore, his score is: 2 companies + 3 for defending from his stone castle + 1 for Strong Hacking Arms = 6

The DM rolls d10 and gets 9, for a total Battle Roll of 15.

Baron Dogon the Merciless of 3-hex domain Keening and Lady Lilith of 4-hex Fayre Vayle are invading. Baron Dogon's warband consists of companies of horsemen, halberdiers, and skirmishers (who come from a forest with a tradition of Fading into the Trees). His Charisma is 8 and his Strength is 12. Lady Lilith's warband consists of mounted archers, magic-users, men-at-arms, and spearmen. Her Charisma is 15 and her Strength is 10.

After testing Charisma and Strength, the Baron fails both and can only effectively utilize 1/4 of companies, rounding down (0 companies!). Lady Lilth passes Charisma but fails Strength, so can utilize 3/4 of her companies well (3).

The score for this side is: 0 for the Baron's companies + 1 for Fade into the Trees (assuming Sir Jannis's castle is in a fores) + 3 for the Lady's companies + 1 because she has the most different types of companies = 5

The DM rolls d10 and gets 5, for a total Battle Roll of 10.

The defenders win by 5, and we move onto the aftermath.

All leaders test Dexterity (Sir Jannis DEX 8, Baron Dogon DEX 13, Lady Lilith DEX 10):

• Sir Jannis rolls a 4, which is within the difference in scores. Because he won, this means his warband fought well and can add 1 to further Battle Rolls this season.
• Baron Dogon rolls 16, above his Dexterity. This means his warband was routed and may not fight again this season.
• Lady Lilith rolls 5, also within the difference in scores. Because she lost, this means that not only were her forces routed, but she was taken captive!

Hopefully all of that makes sense. There's much more to say about My Liege, so I'll be back soon.