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VARIANT RULES FOR THIRTY YEARS WAR (GMT GAMES) (v 2.1) A. Changes to Game Setup. By Karl Laskas PROTESTANT SETUP OVERVIEW Units Thirty Years War (30YW) by GMT Games is a Pilsen, BOHEMIA: Mansfeld, 3 Protestant fun, interesting, and gorgeous card-driven Mercenaries. wargame. However, as published, it has a few Znaim, AUSTRIA: Thurn, Schlick, Anhalt shortcomings as a simulation. First, the game 2 Protestant Mercenaries, 4 Militia. overstates Protestant strength in the early years. Linz, AUSTRIA: 1 Protestant militia (reduced) Second, 30YW makes it too easy for players to Ulm: 4 Militia, replacement leader [Use the raise and maintain armies, as players aren’t reverse side of the George Frederick of Baden. confronted with many tough economic decisions. Remove counter when George F becomes Finally, many of the game’s interesting historical available, substituting any available Protestant events don’t come into play because the cards replacement leader). that trigger these events are better used for Pressburg, HUNGARY: Bethlen- activation or recruitment. To fix these issues, Gabor, 4 Hungarian Militia. Treat the Hungarian these variant rules: militia as having a movement allowance of 6 points.) • Change the initial order of battle to conform [Design note: This gives the Hungarians the more closely to history. option to send troops to Prague and also • Reform the game’s economic systems (foreign simulates their essentially mounted nature.] aid, pillaging and looting). Protestant-Controlled Areas: • Provide optional rules to enliven card play. BOHEMIA, MORAVIA, SILESIA, UPPER • Accomplish these goals with no appreciable PALATINATE, LOWER PALATINATE, gain in complexity while increasing the number HUNGARY of interesting choices a player will face. Protestant-Controlled Cities: Nurnberg, Frankfurt, Magdeburg, Linz I owe a debt to other gamers for the changes to (AUSTRIA), Znaim (AUSTRIA) setup. Thanks especially to Tod D. Reiser for [Note: Despite the occupation, Ulm remains excellent suggestions on initial unit placement. neutral so long as the Protestant force I’ve altered initial force structures from his occupies. If occupied by the Imperial player, or original suggestion, based on my reading of if the Protestant force leaves and then returns, books by Maland, Pages and Eggenburger. then its neutrality is violated.] With the economic changes, I am satisfied with Protestant Aid Available: the game as a simulation at the grand strategic England, United Provinces level. I believe the game is now more subtle, but Protestant-Controlled Electors: perhaps also more unforgiving. I hope you’ll Bohemia, Lower Palatinate/Bavaria like them. Enjoy! CATHOLIC SETUP

Units Vienna, AUSTRIA: 2 Imperial Veterans, 1 Imperial Mercenary, 1 replacement leader. (Use replacement leader appearing on back of Archduke Leopold. Remove counter and substitute accordingly if still around at time Leopold becomes available.) Budweis, BOHEMIA: Bucquoy, 2 Imperial some new mechanics to the game’s existing rules Veterans, 1 Imperial Mercenary and requiring players to make hard choices about Munich, BAVARIA: Tilly, Pappenheim, economic strategy. 4 Bavarian Mercenaries. Donauworth (WURTEMBERG): 2 Bavarian It is now more expensive to recruit and maintain Mercenaries, replacement leader (Use reverse armies, but players also have additional options side of Groenfeld leader. Remove leader if for paying these costs. In 30YW, the currency leader on other side becomes available). [Note: for paying these cost is Aid Points. In this Despite the occupation of Donauworth, variant, it is better to think of Aid Points as a Wurtemberg remains neutral in this variant general measure of a side’s financial ability to during Turn 1 unless its neutrality is further support its armies (over and above its own violated by either side.] national resources). However, only some of this Koln, SPANISH NETHERLANDS: amount actually comes from foreign assistance; Spinola, 5 Spanish Veterans. the rest comes from an army’s own pillaging.

Catholic-Controlled Areas: Expenses AUSTRIA, TYROL, BAVARIA, SPANISH Recruiting. Unless players spend one aid point, NETHERLANDS, FRANCHE-COMTE there is a –1 modifier to all recruiting rolls. Free Catholic-Controlled Cities: Activations. Any free activation requires a Regensburg, Augsburg, Trier, Aachen, Koln, player to expend one Aid Point immediately. If Mainz, Budweis (BOHEMIA), Strasbourg,, there are no Aid Points on the track, the player Wurzburg (UPPER PALATINATE), Bamberg cannot perform a Free Activation. (UPPER PALATINATE), Hanau (HESSE- Paying Troops. As in the original 30YW rules, KESSEL) . [Upper Palatinate remains Protestant, some troops are paid locally (at no cost in Aid and Hesse-Kassel neutral despite these Catholic Points). Other troops are paid out of Aid Points. incursions.] At the end of each turn, EACH UNIT that has Catholic Aid Available: not been paid will roll for looting. Note that this Spain, Pope is a major change from the game rules, which required only one roll for each stack of units. Catholic-Controlled Electors: Looting Procedure. For each unit roll one die. Mainz, Saxony, Koln On a modified roll of 1 through 5, the unit has been paid. On a modified 6 through 10, the unit NEUTRAL SETUP is reduced. The modifiers to this roll appear on Dresden, SAXONY: John George, 4 the game’s original Looting Table: Saxon Militia [Note: Saxony enters the game on a player’s +1 If the city is on Pillage-1 side when he plays the card “Saxony Changes +2 If the city is on Pillage-2 Sides”.] +2 If the city is besieged +1 At least four units in the city are looting (NB: CARDS Units paid out of Aid Points that are also in the The Protestant player gets Treaty of Ulm plus six city do not count in this total.) other cards. The Catholic player gets seven +1 Mercenary unit cards. On the first play, the Protestant player -1 Veteran unit plays Treaty of Ulm as both an Event AND -1 Dynamic Leader either an Operations or Aid Card. After all units have rolled for looting, increase OPTIONAL RULES: the pillage status of the city to Pillage-2. Use all optional rules. Additionally, I allow [Game Play Note: Be warned: armies that go Bavarian and Imperial units to stack together. unpaid will quickly melt away using these variant rules. Failure to pay B. Economics attention to finances can lose the game In addition to its horrific cost in lives, the Thirty in a heartbeat.] Years War was incredibly expensive. These variant rules attempt to represent this by adding Revenue deck. He does NOT add in previously-played Historically, troops were supported by a cards into the reshuffle. combination of national resources, foreign aid and local pillaging. [Design note: This increases the amount of game National Resources. The importance of national tension during turns 2 through 5.] resources to recruiting and paying troops is Weak Cards. Many of the event cards in the represented by 30YW’s rules for locally paid game are so weak that playing them would be a troops. These rules make only one change to waste of a card, and so they rarely are played. 30YW’s autopay rules: units do not qualify for For the following cards, the Event always takes autopay (for example, Imperial units in Austria) place – even if it is played as an Activation, if all cities in the area are pillaged. Recruiting or Aid card: Aid Points. Players can generate Aid Points by playing Aid Cards. However, in this variant, C-2 England Withdraws Troops there is NO LIMIT on the number of Aid Cards C-5 Spain Declares War With England that can be played per turn. C-12 Frederick of Palatine Deposed Pillaging. Whenever an army activates for C-14 Mutiny movement, it may pillage any city it moves C-16 Marie of Spain Marries Ferdinand III through to get additional Aid Points. (Again, C-20 Peasant Revolt in Germany this represents the local stealing of resources, not C-21 Discretion over Valor the provision of foreign aid.) An army of up to 5 C-24 Famine in H-K or Wurtemberg units may increase the pillage condition of any C-25 Famine in B-L or B-K city by one level (from unpillaged to Pillage-1, C-26 Plague in Saxony or Brandeburg or from Pillage-1 to Pillage-2). An army of 6 or C-27 Plague in Upper Palatinate or Bohemia more units may increase the pillage condition of C-28 Recovery any city by two levels (from unpillaged to C-29 Recovery Pillage-2). Each time a city’s Pillage Level is C-36 French Huegenots Revolt increased by one, that players is awarded one C-37 Peasant Revolt in Germany Aid Point. C-39 Peasant Revolt in France C-40 English Civil War [Game Play Note: Note that these pillaging C-41 Mutiny rules do not remove the pillaging requirement C-42 Cardinal Richelieu Dies found in the game’s movement rules to pillage C-43 King Louis XIII Dies cities. If a player fails to meet that requirement, C-44 Innocent X Becomes Pope he still suffers the penalties found in the game C-51 Plague in Lower Palatinate or Munster rules. However, players now derive some C-52 Recovery benefit from pillaging, and consequently German C-53 Recovery cities tend to suffer far more than they do under C-55 Plague in Mecklenburg or Pomerania the original 30YW rules. While there is a benefit to pillaging, there is also a disadvantage because P-2 Three Musketeers it makes it more difficult to move through and P-5 Gregory XV Becomes Pope maintain your armies in a space.] P-6 England Intervenes P-8 Ottoman Turks Raid P-9 Richelieu Becomes Chief Minister of France P-10 Swedish Aid P-11 Treaty of Ulm P-14 Peasant Revolt in Bavaria P-15 Urban VIII Becomes Pope C. Changes to Card Play P-16 Mutiny These rules are optional, even more so than the P-19 Aid from Duke of Savoy rest of this variant! P-20 Spain Makes Peace with England Expanding Deck. During the Early War phase, P-21 Ferdinand III Becomes Holy Roman whenever a player removes an asterisk card from Emperor the deck after playing it as an event, he adds one P-38 Oxenstierna randomly-chosen Intervention Card to his P-40 Peasant Revolt in Austria unplayed cards deck and then reshuffles that P-41 Mutiny P-42 Portugal Revolts vs. Spain P-53 Recovery P-54 Recovery P-55 Recovery

Karl Laskas January 18, 2003