Vaur Komitriez II: Trouble on the Petra

[Sander 3312]

Vaur Komitriez II
Trouble on the Petra

Trouble brews in the North of Almaris. The Holy Orenian Empire, once a mighty hegemon, is no more. From the ruins and dust, new states have arisen, seeking to carve out a legacy and the Kingdom of Haense moved its border south into former Imperial lands. In the air hangs the scent of uncertainty as the leaders of Aaun, Haense, Petra and Sedan vie for control. War is coming.

In VAUR KOMITRIEZ II, you become the ruler of one of the four human nations in northern Almaris. You command troops from the mountains of the Attenlund to the plains of Arentania. Can you defend your territory from your neighbours, and will you be able to conquer the North under your rightful rule? Or will you falter, and shall your state perish and crumble like the Empire of old?

How to play:

Equipment:
To play VAUR KOMITRIEZ II, the following equipment is involved:

Unit pieces:

These pieces represent the army and navy units used in the game. The top row are the Army pieces and the bottom row are the Navy pieces. Yellow is for Hanseti-Ruska, purple is for Aaun, red is for Petra and blue is for Sedan. 

Dice

To play the game, players will require a simple 1-6 dice. (/roll 6)

Board

Most important to playing VAUR KOMITRIEZ II however, and differing from VKI, is the playing board with all its details. What everything seen on the board means will be explained below under Landscape. The starting setup of the board is shown above. 

Landscape:
The board consists of various types of terrain and has a plethora of markers scattered across it that depict actual places in the north of Almaris. Here is what everything on the board means:

Terrain
Light green terracotta: plains
Dark green terracotta: forest
Green concrete powder: hills
Blue concrete powder: water
Light grey concrete powder: traversable mountains
Dark grey concrete powder: impassable mountains

Markers
4 walls with banner: nation capital
Flower pots: smaller settlements
Trapdoors: bridges

Occupation:
To show who occupies and controls what markers on the map, banners will be used for capitals as shown above. If a capital originally belonged to nation A, but has since been sieged and occupied by nation B, its banner will be changed to that of nation B to show it's occupation.  

The conquest and occupation of smaller settlements is shown through the use of little flags ((flowers)), the colors of which correspond to the colors of each of the four countries. Yellow for Hanseti-Ruska, purple for Oren, red for Petra and blue for Sedan.

Units & Combat:
Each turn,  a player has to make a choice pertaining to units and combat. They can either deploy units, or move units and optionally fight or siege with them.

Deploying units
If a player chooses to deploy units during his turn, they essentially skip the turn. The player can then deploy a minimum of 1 unit for his capital, with an extra +1 units per 4 smaller settlements he has under his control. Players have a base unit capacity of 5, +3 for each capital they possess. This means that the unit capacity of each player at the start of the game is 8 for example, but if they'd conquer another player's capital, their capacity would be 11.

When deploying units, players are free to choose between army and navy units. These units can be deployed on a free tile next to any smaller settlement they control. This means, however, that if a player does not control a smaller settlement next to a water tile, they cannot deploy navy units. Units can also be deployed directly inside their capital to serve as a garrison.

Moving units & garrisons
Instead of deploying, a player can also choose to move his units during a turn. Doing this allows the player to move each of his units once if he so desires. Navy units can obviously only move through water tiles and bridges. Army units can only move across land tiles (excluding impassable mountains) and bridges.

There can be 1 unit per tile. Units can be in the same tile as smaller settlements or bridges. Moving diagonally is not an option.

The distance units can move depends on the terrain they are moving through:
Plains or Water (Navy units): 3 tiles per turn
Forest or Hills: 2 tiles per turn
Traversable mountains: 1 tile per turn

If a unit moves through multiple kinds of terrain in one turn, the amount of tiles they can move is determined by the amount of tiles they could move considering the tile they are in, minus the amount of tiles they have already moved. If a unit starts in plains, it can move 3 tiles. If it uses its first move to move into traversable mountains, it can no longer move. If instead it moved into forest or hills, it could move one more tile.

Optionally a player can also move army units into his capital to serve as a garrison to defend against sieges. A capital can hold a garrison of 3 units, played on the walls that don't hold the banner. If a capital is next to a water tile, navy units can also be used for garrisons, moving them directly from the water to the capital and vice versa.

Fighting
Combat in VAUR KOMITRIEZ is done by rolling the dice. In a fight, units fight 1v1 at a time, with the player with the highest dice roll winning. The player that rolls lower loses 1 unit. A battle goes on until either side has no units left, or the attacker retreats. A battle is instigated by player A trying to move into a tile that already has a unit owned by player B. Player A would be the Attacker in this case, with player B being the defender.

Terrain also has an effect upon a battle. This is always the terrain the defending unit is in. If a defending unit is in a forest or in hills, they get +1 to their dice roll. If the defending unit is in traversable mountains, they get +2 to their dice roll.

Sieging
To siege a smaller settlement, a player needs to have one of his units on the tile next to the settlement and roll either 4, 5 or 6 on the dice. If this fails, the siege may continue next turn or with a different unit next to the settlement. Sieging a capital without a garrison is done in the same way.

Sieging a capital with a garrison is done similarly to a normal battle, with the siege ending once either all the garrison units have been killed, all the sieging units have died or the attacking player ends his turn. A garrison can also attack units outside its walls, representing a sortie. Sorties are done by the defending player once it is his turn to take actions.

National Ideas, Asymmetrical Gameplay & the Goal of the Game:
There is no set goal to VKII, no preset achievement that will end the game. Instead, the players pick what the goal of the game is before they start playing. This could, for example, be that the game ends as soon as someone loses their capital, with the conquering player winning the game. Alternatively they could keep the game going until all of the smaller settlements have been conquered by a single player, or any other goal they can come up with.

The starting setup of the game is asymmetrical, which means that not all nations are equal. Sedan for example has a defensible position being shielded for the most part by mountains, but only two smaller settlements, whereas Haense is spread out wide and thin, with eleven settlements spread across half the map. This makes for different playstyles to try to achieve the goal of the game, with Sedan for example benefitting from a defensive playstyle, while Haense has to pay attention to a careful maneuvering of units in order not to get their territory conquered.

In order to strengthen these different playstyles, VKII adds National Ideas. Each country has a National Idea, serving as a modifier only they have to strengthen the style of gameplay that benefits their nation. They are as follows;

Haense: Mother Ruska - Get an additional unit every three turns without having to skip a turn for deployment. Stops once unit capacity is reached.
Petra: Knightly Republic - +1 roll to offensive battles.
Aaun: Orenian Marching - All units get to move 1 tile extra per turn.
Sedan: Defending Arentania - +1 roll to defensive battles.

[exogens 934]

Ser Emir hums as he scruffs his beard while reading the guide of the game. "Seems like the boys and I will have restless nights playing that other than the old-fashioned chess" He said while he was clearly excited to try it out.

[Olox_ 4318]

Jan Jazloviecki hummed after reading the guide "This game is a true interactive paradox, if a Haeseni player reforms the empire..." He smirked afterwards, ready to try and play