Sword and Crown Rulebook 1301 – 1312 Second Edition 13 01 1310
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Whoever plays the game of tyrants has only two options; win or die! Sword and Crown Rulebook 1301 – 1312 Second edition 13 01 1310 Historical background and the goal of the game Our story begins in 1301. Dark clouds approached Hungary. to form legal claim on the throne. If someone gets enough power in this period to be able to centralise the country, the The last king of the Arpad dynasty Andrew III, whose power Hungarian orders give him the Holy Crown. To reach this at was only symbolical compared to his ancestors’,13 01 was probably a the end of particular13 rounds10 (the third, the sixth, and in the victim of poisoning. The landlords, who govern their own lands advanced game the ninth) there are elections for the officer like oligarchs, have the real power. They1 3pursue01 independent positions. During an13 election10 the players, using their copper, foreign policy and wage wars with each other depending on silver and gold, bid for the judge royal the master of the their interests. The central government has no influence on treasury and the palatine positions. A player immediately wins their decisions. In theory the country is unified, but in practice the game when: 1.) he gets all the three officer positions during it is broken into parts. an election, 2.) defeats all other players’ landlords, 3.) conquers 3 or 4 (in advanced game) whole provinces, 4.) conquers a The game, which goal is to get the crown, takes place in this specified number of castles according to the number of players. bloody decade. To reach the goal players have 8 or 12 years. In 1312 winning the battle in Rozgony Charles Robert stabilized At the end of the eighth or twelfth year, no matter whether a his power. But before it happens the players who personify the basic or an advanced game is played, the game ends and the landlords have a chance to get such strong political influence winner is declared. 1. The number of players layers may decide by lot or choose who plays on the players because the game does not sanction any broken with which landlord. While playing with 2, 3, treaty. To guarantee those agreements players may give copper, 4, 5 or 6 players only the choice of participating silver or gold to each other as pledge. Those pledges may be houses and landlords, the game setup and the claimed back in certain conditions but the compliance of any winning conditions differs, but all other rules agreement is not mandatory because betrayal and intrigue are are the same. Rules for 1advanced3 01 game can be always part of politics.1310 But be careful! No one knows whether found at section 6. Playing with 6 players all anyone want to ally with the guilty player next time. landlords are in game. With 5 players Slavonia and the counties bounded by the HIstORY: Danube and the Sava are out of game and inaccessible for the Paul Subics governed Slavonia and Croatia, which territories players. From the yellow counties only Baranya (as a neutral were given to him by III. Andrew. The doubtless follower of county) can be conquered. the Anjou dynasty called the young Charles Robert into the country and expanded his dominion towards Bosnia. Henrik With 4 players 2-2 landlords will be the direct neighbours of each Kőszegi the master of the treasury, who was the child of an other and between these groups there are 1-1 neutral provinces. For exceedingly influential family, was the only lord of Pannonia instance Transylvania and Southland are in play, Slavonia is neutral, (today called Transdanube). His relatives were always in one of Pannonia and Highland are in play, Tiszahát is neutral. Another the most important offices in the royal court and he was never example is if Highland and Tiszahát are in play, Transylvania is satisfied with any lower position. Kopasz Borsa baron was a neutral, Southland and Slavonia are in play, and Pannonia is neutral. famous schemer, he probably had a role in the assassination of IV. Laszlo Kun and III. Andrew. He sold his loyalty several times With 3 players there are two options. Highland, Transylvania and as a reward he was promoted to palatine; finally his destiny and Slavonia are in play and the other provinces remain neutral ended in 1317 in the castle of Sólyomkő. Laszlo Khan, who was a or just the opposite. Players must place down units of the local powerful voivod of Transylvania, lured Otto of Bavaria , took the landlord (the same colour as the province) in the neutral provinces, Holy Crown from him and kept it for himself for 5 years. The royal but not only into the castles but also on other counties in exception armies seized Transylvania in 1316, only after his death and after of natural barriers (swamps, mountains). See also 3.1 point. the bloody battle of Deva. Amádé Aba, who was a judge royal and a palatine, had his opulent headquarters in Gönc. He was With 2 players the complexity of the landlords’ era’s diplomacy killed by the citizens of Kassa and right after his death his sons and strategy can be modelled by letting the players to choose were defeated by I. Charles during the battle in Rozgony in 1312. any province to start but placing down units onto all neutral Máté Csák was the most powerful baron of the country, the sole provinces, just like in 3 player version. lord of the northern territories. In his dominion there were more than 50 castles. In 1311 his armies raided over Buda thus the king No matter how many players play diplomacy has a strong fled to Temesvár. His rule was unharmed until his death in 1321. relevance. Players have the chance to make alliances, covenants, contracts but the compliance of these agreements depends only 2 Counties Felvidék Tiszahát Provinces Pannónia Erdély 13 01 1310 Délvidék Szlavónia 13 01 1310 13 01 1310 2. Basic concepts 2.1. Counti es 2.3. Provinces ounties are the main territory unit of the Provinces are territories formed by counties. At the beginning game. There are normal counties, counties of the game they are important because each landlord (personified by with castles, counties with mountains or the players) can start only from their own province. Each completely 13 01 13 01 1310 13 011310 1310 with swamps. Everything is marked in detail conquered province gives a 4 copper bonus income at the beginning on the game board and is clearly visible. of a round (depending on which game board is played it is a maxi- We strove for historical authenticity during mum of 15 or 20 copper) for its owning player. The white province, the drawing of the board, but because of the in the middle of the board, is a royal, neutral province but it also 1uncertain3 01 borders in the XIV.1310 century and for counts as an independent province, due to this fully conquering reason of playability we needed to make some it has the same effect as occupying any other province. modifications. Players do not have to leave any unit in already conquered counties but in the beginning of the rounds only those counties give income tax IMPOrtANT in which there is at least 1 unit. The successful strategy is based on This is a very important limit: in any castle there can conquering and keeping more and more counties. never be more than 7 units at once. There can be knights in castles but there they behave as infantry and 2.2. Cast es have the same attributes as the infantry. Landlord is Castles, in which there are medieval cities, excluded when counting the limits and it still supports are fortifications in counties protected a type of unit during a siege. In advanced rules there is by walls. Conquering them also means also a type limit that means maximum the half (in case 13 01 1310 conquering the county, so they do not of dividing odd numbers round upwards) of the units count as independent territories. Thus can belong to the same type (archer, infantry, knight). having a conquered castle in a county makes the county well-protected. Every So in practise the maximum of 4 units from the same round each castle gives 3 copper income type can be in the same castle at once. tax to its current owner. 3 13 01 1310 2.4. Unit s Infantry The units are the most important parts of the game and they belong to 3 types. They fight against each other to resolve how the game and the Hungarian13 01 soldiers’ destinies1310 end. In a battle 1 unit means 1 dice rolling a unit hits the hostile unit with the rolled value . So for example if a player has 5 units in a battle he rolls 5 dice. The final hit value is the summary of the rolled value and the modifiers. In case of a successful hit a hostile unit is In history, infantry were the most numerous units; they were the base of every removed. Further details can be found below. army. They were the most numerous because of the cheapness of their training and their weapons. They are essential in sieges, so they have an important role Unit types during the battles against castles. In the game there are 3 types of units, and their special abilities Special ability are the following. Knights were the strongest units in the medieval era because of their mobility and their armour’s Sieges cannot be started without them except if the landlord is protection.