Diplomacy of the Three Kingdoms (map and rules)
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DIPLOMACY OF THE THREE KINGDOMS
By Edi Birsan
Introduction:
The Three Kingdoms period of China was a time when great characters rose to lead factions with the kingdoms of the day and eventually unite China under one dynasty through a series of military and diplomatic campaigns featuring temporary alliances, civil war and conquest. You are now one of those characters.
The Map:
The map shows the three Kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu. The Kingdoms are divided into provinces (spaces) 26 of which are support centers (10 Wei, 7 Shu, 8 Wu and one neutral).
Each Support Center can supply a piece on the board of either an Army or a Militia Force.
The Moving VIPieces:
There are three types of pieces in the game:
Leader Characters: Maximum of 6. One for each player. Named for the main characters of the Era. Two of which are associated with each of the Kingdoms. Players may name their characters as they please but if they want to relate it to characters of the period the following is suggested:
Wei: Cao Cao, Lv Bu
Shu: Liu Bei, Ma Chao
Wu: Sun Quan, Taishi Ci
Army: Organized professional forces whose strength is 2 on attack/support/defense.
Militia: Temporary local forces of the kingdom whose strength is 1 except when defending in its own original Kingdom’s support provinces.
The Set Up:
Standard Start:
All the Character pieces are placed face down or in a bag:
For three players use one player from each kingdom
For four player games use two for Wei and one for each of Wu and Shu.
For five player games use two for Wei, Wu and one for Shu.
For six player games use two for each kingdom.
1. Each of the players pick one character at random starting with the youngest player.
2. The player then immediately places the character and an Army piece under it in one of the centers of that character’s kingdom. This is the player’s capital.
3. Once all the players have placed their characters and starting Army, the youngest player then places a Militia unit in one of the centers in his kingdom.
4. This is repeated until each player has 2 militia, 1 army and his character on the board.
5. The game then starts.
To Win:
A player may claim any of these as they occur or he can wait for a higher valued condition
Legendary Victory: be the only character left alive
Unification Victory: Own a large number of the support centers in each of the three
Kingdoms. (Six in Wei and 5 in each of the other two Kingdoms).
Destined Victor: own 14 centers
Unsettled Victory: have the most supply centers at the end of the game.
Turn Sequence
There are five phases to a Great Turn:
Negotiation/Military Campaign
Negotiation/Military Campaign
Supply adjustments
1. Negotiation phase: not more than 10 minutes, though players may reduce the time by unanimous consent. Players may discuss plans in private or public. They are not bound by any agreement made.
2. Military Campaign phase: players write down their orders for their pieces in secret and then they are placed in a pile face down. Players should have not more than three minutes for order writing. There is no discussion during this period. They are read and adjudicated as occurring simultaneously.
3. Supply Adjustments are done after each of the second Military Campaign phases. For each support center owned a player may have either one army or one militia unit on the board. If the player owns more support centers then he has units he can add another unit on the board. The unit may be built in any of his original kingdom’s owned supply centers. Only one army unit may be built a turn and then it may only be built in the character’s capital. You may only build militia in your owned support provinces of your home kingdom. If all the player’s home support centers are occupied by an existing Militia or Army then he may not place the unit this adjustment phase.
4. Note: Leader Characters do not require a support province to exist and are only removed when killed.
Game Length
A game may be played until there is a victory, there is a unanimous concession, or until an agreed time or turn (suggested is three hours or 10 Adjustment periods).
Negotiation Status
Each player has a Negotiation or Diplomacy status with the other players and their Kingdoms that are not under control of the players of that kingdom.
For example at the start of the game there may be 3 support centers that are not owned by any player for the Wei Kingdom. For a Wu player to enter the Kingdom of Wei and take control over those centers he must be at War with Wei. Once all the Kingdom’s support centers are controlled by players, then it is no longer necessary to be at War with Wei to invade as the player would have to be at war with the owner of the support center.
This status is changed by declaration or actions in the Military Campaign phase:
Alliance:
Both players must have the allied status to each other. When there are 2 players in the same kingdom, the players start in this status automatically. When one player in an Alliance issues a ‘Neutral or War’ status order in his military campaign the alliance is over. Players that are allied may have their military units issue support orders for the other player. Players that are allied may have their units in each other’s support centers without taking control over them.
Allies may not support an attack on a province that is owned by another player that they are neutral or allied to.
“ An alliance is a means to destroy an enemy and weaken a friend.”
Neutral:
A player is neutral towards the other player and may not receive or give support to the other player. Player may not move into the provinces of the neutral power.
“Wise statesmen say: let you and him fight.”
War: Player is at war with another kingdom or faction and may not support or receive support from the hostile player. May move into that kingdom and take ownership of spaces.
“War is diplomacy by another means,”
Civil War:
A player is at war with the other player in his own kingdom. As in all war cases you may not support that player. Once Civil War is declared there can be no peace within the kingdom. Because of the dynastic rivalries breaking down each kingdom, if at the start of the first negotiation phase a faction in a kingdom reaches 6 centers there is an automatic state of Civil War in that kingdom.
Example:
In the first Great Turn a Wei Leader Character starts with provinces 8,6 and 9, and then after the two campaign moves owns
in addition to his starting three points: 5,10, 23. Thus he reaches six centers. At this point the jealousy/instability of the Kingdoms is reached and there is automatic Civil War between the two Wei Leader Character positions regardless of what they may want otherwise and they may never be neutral or allied with each other for the rest of the game.
“No hatred is as great as brother for brother.”
Campaign Military Orders:
Orders are issued by piece. Example of a written order:
A8->5 or Army in province 8 moves to province 5
L8 S M7->6 or Leader in province 8 supports Militia in province 7 to 6
M7->6 or Militia in province 7 moves to province 6
All pieces can be ordered in an order phase. Leaders can move separate from Armies and Militia and are the only piece that can be combined with an Army or Militia. Unless using an Optional Rule, two leaders may not be in the same province.
There can only be one army or militia piece in a space at a time.
There can only be one character in a province and he may only be in a province with one of his own pieces.
Orders for a piece are either:
Move/Support/Defend
All pieces may move to an adjacent province.
All pieces may give a support into an adjacent province. A support order can be made to a specific piece to move into an adjacent province or to support a non-moving piece to defend its province. A unit ordered to move CANNOT be supported to defend its province since it is trying to move away. Support orders the unit being supported and the exact province it is moving to.
Pieces that are not moving or supporting are considered as Defending.
Conflict Resolution
Move (also called attack)
Pieces move with the power of their force (2 for an army, 1 for militia and 1 for a Leader Character) plus the power of all their unbroken supports into that space.
If a piece is in a province that is moved on with greater force acting in unision (mover with support), then the unit is dislodged.
If there are equal forces moving on to a space then that space is not entered into by any of the movers. If there was a defender in the province the defender is then not dislodged even if the movers are from hostile players.
A piece that is blocked in its move returns to its space of origin and defends that space.
A piece that is moving to an adjacent province and is bounced back by equal or superior force has priority over other pieces of equal force moving on his original province so there may be a chain reaction of units being halted.
Support
Support is given either to help a mover or to help a non move ordered defender it cannot do both.
A piece ordered to support still defends its own province and may receive support for the purpose of defense.
Pieces that are issuing support into an adjacent target space have their support unbroken as long as they are not attacked from a place other than the target space or is not dislodged from the target space.
All supports in a province are CUT (negated) when the province is attacked by any unit from outside the target of the support. Thus an attack by a single militia may negate the support given by the combined Leader and Army in a province for action somewhere other than the province of this attacking militia.
Defend (also called Stand or Hold)
A unit that has no order automatically defends his province.
A unit whose order is written as invalid automatically defends his province.
In both the above cases a piece may still be supported (unintentionally or not) by a neighboring piece if allowed to by diplomacy status.
The power of unit in defending is 2 for an Army, 2 for a militia in its own original Kingdom’s support provinces, 1 for a militia in any other province, 1 for a Leader Character.
Dislodged
Unless using the option rule of Army Supremacy you may not dislodge one of your own units but may stage a supported move into a friendly occupied space to keep others out.
A piece that is dislodged must retreat to an adjacent province. If there is a Leader Character then the player must retreat the Leader Character to the same space as the unit it is with. If there is no space to retreat to then the pieces are destroyed. A militia may elect to be removed from retreat if the player who owns it decides to. This is the only way a Leader Character and a retreating militia may be separated on a retreat. Army pieces that have a possible retreat will always take that retreat carrying any Leader Character with them.
“Armies look for reasons to stay together, militia looks for reasons to go home,” (traditional saying)
Optional Rules
1. Heroic Escape: Each character is allowed one historic escape from certain death if he owns his capital, when the unit he is with is dislodged without any space for a retreat. The character is then returned to his capital only if it is still owned by him.
2. Militia disband: all militia units outside of their kingdom are marked separately (such as turned over or noted somehow by an additional marker) the first time they are found outside of their kingdom during an adjustment supply phase. If the militia is found outside of its kingdom on a second adjustment supply phase the unit is removed before the ratio of units on board to support centers is made.
3. Free Style Diplomacy: play without Alliances, neutrality or War, Civil War.
4. Army Supremacy: In this period Army’s and militia have a historic dislike of each other. Therefore an army moving into a space with a friendly militia will dislodge the militia to take dominance in the space. Militia so dislodged will be removed from the board and not allowed to retreat.
5. Destruction of a capital an army (friend or foe) that sits for two consecutive orders with a destruction order (new order) may destroy the capital and it is no longer considered as a supply center.
6. Neutral zone battles: Players may be neutral to each other and still attack and dislodge non-allies in the Neutral provinces that are in any initial Kingdom.
7. Combined leaders: two leaders of allied factions may combine together with an army or a militia unit. However, in the event of one side breaking the alliance the player owning the militia or army automatically kills the other leader *heroic escape would be a good thing at this time. If both leaders are alone, then both leaders are sent to their own capital and the one without a capital is killed.
[ 此贴被BlackSeaWater在2008-10-20 06:44重新编辑 ]
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