I'm not quite sure I understand the way bandits and raiding & pillaging works. The BotM has 3 possible raid states; Raid, Pillage and Plunder and their associated effects. This is fine, but when/how do they occur? The random bad luck table lists no such outcomes though the GPC does state when certain counties are affected. Is that all I need to know? Just apply the raid type when the GPC says so? The Botm (p.46) states "Hostilities may occur in the GPC, like Saxons looting; they can come about through play, if a rival or ambitious neighbor attacks, or from random events" Ok so I guess if a neighbour attacks I assign the level of attack (eg Raid, Pillage, Plunder) based on the outcome of play events, but the random events? There are no random events which result in Raid Pillage or Plunder unless you count the Bandit and Dragon Raids, but they don't count right? ???

Moving on to Bandits. The little box at the top left of page 27 in Botm states "Un-worked peasants will turn to banditry" and "Bandits may only be defeated by events during play; there are no random events to remove bandits". Ok so does this mean bandits will not appear until unworked peasants are present on your manor (I'm guessing no, due to them possibly being from other manors), and does the second quote mean that once they appear they continuously raid (+1d6 fate per year) until removed by play?

Manor things in general. The ticks or rolls that various Investments and Enhancements give, are these one off rolls, or annual rolls?

Knightly Standard of Living. What exactly determines the level at which a knight lives (eg Poor, Average, Spectacular etc)? Is it simply, once all other expenses are covered, the amount left over that determines the living standard for the next year?

Harvest Income. When rolling on the Harvest Income Table, is the base income for the manor multiplied before any extra for Investments & Enhancements are added, or are these multiplied too? eg, my manor has an income of ?6, I build a Dairy (which grants +?1d6 -?3 annual maintenance) and get a Harvest Result of Excellent (x2 normal income). Is my income 6 x2 + 1d6(-3), or 6+ 1d6(-3) x2?

Finally, and not to do with manors :), is the Saxon Grudge Table from the GPC. This ties in with my first point about Raid & Pillage. Is this purely for the GM to figure? There seems to be nothing more about how much it needs to rise to before the saxons will attack or indeed how much it rises or falls by. This is fine, I'm just checking Im not missing something. Also, for those that may have used this already, would you care to share your methodology on this?

Hi,

Here's how we play it, could be right or wrong.


Manor things in general. The ticks or rolls that various Investments and Enhancements give, are these one off rolls, or annual rolls?

Unless otherwise stated it's an annual thing Dovecote gives a love family check every year, a jousting list gives a lance check every year.


Knightly Standard of Living. What exactly determines the level at which a knight lives (eg Poor, Average, Spectacular etc)? Is it simply, once all other expenses are covered, the amount left over that determines the living standard for the next year?

It's how much you spend for living and maintenance, in general a manor makes you ?6 which covers the cost to live at a average level. If your manor makes less than this you std of living goes down. If you add to the ?6 you std of living goes up. So if your manor made ?6 thats it gone and you have a average std of living. The amount left over goes into to your treasury, it has no game effects, well except people might try and steal it. You also get glory for the amount of money you spend too.


Harvest Income. When rolling on the Harvest Income Table, is the base income for the manor multiplied before any extra for Investments & Enhancements are added, or are these multiplied too? eg, my manor has an income of ?6, I build a Dairy (which grants +?1d6 -?3 annual maintenance) and get a Harvest Result of Excellent (x2 normal income). Is my income 6 x2 + 1d6(-3), or 6+ 1d6(-3) x2?

It is all multipled as the investments are part of your manor, so the latter.

So manor (?6) + Dairy(with an outcome of ?3) = 9 * Harvest(Excellent *2) = ?18


Hope this helps,

BigSteveUK

Steve, thanks.

I think you're ahead of me timewise in the GPC, would you mind letting me in on how you resolved, or intend to resolve, the Saxon Grudge Table?

On a more general note re Saxons and Raids etc,. I've been toying with using SEGAs Medieval Total War 2 to resolve battles between players (they'll all pretty familiar with it), though working the results back into the game is not super straightforward. I do like KAP5s battle system but it doesn't seem to lend itself to non-predetermined battle scenarios. I wonder if the new battle system will do this when it arrives. How do you handle such things? What if one of your knights goes off and decides to raid a neighbour (or another county), how do you determine what forces the defender has at his disposal, if any. Actually - and sorry to go on :) - what happens on a wider scale with such conflicts. If a knight of Silchester attacks or raids me, does Earl Roderick then get annoyed with the Earl of Silchester or are such things considered part and parcel of daily life. Can my knight ask for aid from Roderick?

About the battle system: This does now account for non-predetermined scenarios. Basically every battle has something called Intensity (which varies according to how many men there are, and what the weather and the ground is), and every player can, with his actions during the battle, influence this intensity. If it is below 0 (zero) for two rounds, you win. If it goes over 40 for two rounds, you lose. Both your actions during the battle round, and the outcome of this action in a round, give you (changes) to modify the intensity.

About what happens if you go raiding (or get raided): That depends on your status with your liege, his relationship with your enemy, and other political and personal factors. If, for instance, Earl Roderick is very annoyed about how the Earl of Silchester interacted with him during last court session or visit (and he thinks he (and you) can get away with it), he might not give a hoot about what you do to Silchesters vassals. If, on the other hand, he is best friends with the Silchester, Roderick may come to teach YOU a lesson when you go off raiding, and/or probably will ask his good friend Silchester to punish the vassal that raided you, one of Rodericks vassals.
So it is always advisable to respectfully and not too obviously sound out your liege if you want to go raiding his neighbors vassals.

Until the Book of Battle comes out (which I am looking foward to, and hopes that it comes out before my players get into the Anarchy Period). Until then, it says on page 212 of the rule book that you determine the outcome by "rolling 1d20 on the Battle Results table for the results of the player's army." Before the table it gives a list of modifiers that will affect the die roll. for simplicity sake, I'll go ahead and list the modifiers and battle results table.

Situation Modifier
A battalion on the players' side routed -10
A battalion on the players' side retreated - 5 (Note: the book says routed here, but I think it's supposed to be retreated)
Enemy Battalion retreated + 5
Enemy Battalion routed + 10

Table D-1: Battle Results
d20 Result Effect Fate Modifier
2 or less Decisive defeat + 5
3-18 Indecisive + 0
19 or more Decisive victory - 5

Hi Pram,

Glad to help.

With regards to grudge you are ahead of me, I have about 3 more years till the battle of St Albans so I have yet to look at this. From what I have read I think the Saxons are more likely to raid you than to have a full battle with you. So this will mainly be skirmishing.

With regards to battles if they are in the book they are kind of predetermined e.g. as to who wins an loses.

This becomes a lot loser in the Anarchy period and really where you need to put in some more work as a GM.

Other battles you need to make up, how many knights and men can the players and their enemies host, decide it?s length and other modifiers and then run it as per the rules.

The new system I feel will improve on all of these matters.

From what I have read so far the Anarchy period is all about who do we become allies with, who to we pay off and who do we keep annoy. So you need to focus on the importance of allies and keeping the Saxons happy till you can tell them to stuff it.

Most attacks and raids will just be skirmishes, but I can imagine later on you probably will have to field the army of Salisbury

I am sure there is either on the web site, in the forum or the book a list of roughly how many knights Salisbury has.

If your raided I would talk the Earl who will usually tell you to get stuck in, depending on situation he may well lend you some men, but again this will run as a skirmish not a full battle. Also if he helps out bear in mind he will want a cut of the loot. IF the knight just your their own household it?s all theirs.

Hope this helps a little,

BigSteveUK

Thanks, everyone. This has helped greatly. Also, I've now read through the Raiding thread (which I missed before) which discusses this topic.

I guess one big question remains, dear Greg, when can I buy the Book of Battle!? ::)

Harvest Income. When rolling on the Harvest Income Table, is the base income for the manor multiplied before any extra for Investments & Enhancements are added, or are these multiplied too? eg, my manor has an income of ?6, I build a Dairy (which grants +?1d6 -?3 annual maintenance) and get a Harvest Result of Excellent (x2 normal income). Is my income 6 x2 + 1d6(-3), or 6+ 1d6(-3) x2?

It is all multipled as the investments are part of your manor, so the latter.

So manor (?6) + Dairy(with an outcome of ?3) = 9 * Harvest(Excellent *2) = ?18

This means that if your Dairy generates 1L (roll of 1 on D6) with 3 maintenance will during a normal year cost you (1-3)*1=2L and during an excellent harvest cost you even ((1-3)*2=4L! So the better the harvest to more you loose on your investment?
So during excellent harvest all maintenance costs are also doubled...??
Shouldnt it be:
manor (6L) + Dairy(with an D6 outcome of 3L) = 9L ->
9 * Harvest(Excellent *2) = 18L ->
18L - 3L maintenance = 15L

wfg,
Thijs

This means that if your Dairy generates 1L (roll of 1 on D6) with 3 maintenance will during a normal year cost you (1-3)*1=2L and during an excellent harvest cost you even ((1-3)*2=4L! So the better the harvest to more you loose on your investment?
So during excellent harvest all maintenance costs are also doubled...??
No



Shouldnt it be:
manor (6L) + Dairy(with an D6 outcome of 3L) = 9L ->
9 * Harvest(Excellent *2) = 18L ->
18L - 3L maintenance = 15L


Yes. To reframe your latter calculation using a dice roll of 1 for the dairy from your earlier example:

Manor (6L) + Dairy (1L) = 7L
7L * Harvest(*2) = 14L
14L - 3L maintenance = 11L

Regards
Luke