Barbarians!

[ElMikkino]

One of the top reasons of why WR games crash and burn is that they're not exciting enough. One solution is to make the map smaller, as suggested by cooki3, but I have an alternate suggestion: the inclusion of BARBARIANS!

I got this idea partly from EU Rome, but I modified it a bit myself to be better for WR. This is how it works: the map is split up into 40 or so provinces called "Greater Regions". Here's a map of what would would be the Greater Regions, or as I like to call it, the HordeWatch map.



All Greater Regions are separated by black lines. Any barbarians that show up will be marked with a green dot. All islands circled by a black line is its own region. All islands not circled by black lines will not get hordes, so you'll be safe there, but you'd have almost no military and almost any player nation could take you over easily.

Every 5 in-game years, I would use this site to roll a 6-sided die for each and every region. If I roll a 1 in any region, that region gets a barbarian horde in it. But, if that region is a region that has lands in it that are "cored" (more on that in the next paragraph), the roll gets a -1. Also, the South-West African region, along with the Arabian region, the region in southern Egypt, and the two most Eastern regions only need a 2 or lower to get a horde, to signify tribes invading from the East or South.

A "cored" land is land that a player has either started off with, or has owned for 10 years. The region around the land at this time has become civilized, and will no longer spawn hordes.

After the hordes spawn, I will once again roll a 6-sided die to determine the strength of each horde. A 1 is 5,000 men, a 2 is 10,000 men, a 3 is 15,000, and so on, to a maximum of 30,000 men. Any horde that spawned in the South-West African region, the Sahara, Libya, Norway and Sweden, Finland, or the region directly above the Bosporan Kingdom, gets a -2 to their horde size roll, to signify to harsh conditions of that land. If I rolled a 1 or a 2 for a horde that was in one of those regions, it would be destroyed.

Okay, so now hordes of all different sizes are in all different places, what now? Well, every year, I once again roll a die to move any hordes that have not spawned that year, to different regions. A 1 is North, a 2 is East, a 3 is South, and a 4 is West. 5 and 6 are rerolls. If the horde moves into the sea or off the map, the horde is destroyed. If it runs into another horde, both hordes are destroyed, regardless of size difference. If the horde could move to 2 regions after the direction roll, I roll again for that horde, with a 1-3 being the more Northern or Western one, and a 4-6 being the other one. If a horde could move to 3, 1-2 is the more Northern or Western one, 3-4 is the central one, and 5-6 is the more Southern or Eastern one. When moving hordes, the more Northern and Western hordes get moved first.

If a horde enters a region that has a player in it, a battle will commence, which will be conducted by someone. If a horde moves into a region with 2 players in it, I roll the die again, and a 1-3 means the more Northern or Western one gets the horde, and a 4-6 means the other one gets the horde. If a horde could attack 3 people in a single region, the system similar to this one is used again.

If the horde wins the ensuing battle, all lands belonging to the player in that region are turned into rebel territory, both the player's and the horde's armies losses are counted, and the horde will move again next year. If the player wins the ensuing battle, losses are counted, and the horde moves back to its region it was in before it attacked the player. If the horde at any time after the battle moves into a region that player has cored lands in, the horde is destroyed, due to a serious morale loss.

With this system hordes will get weaker and weaker as they survive longer, but in a 5 year simulation I did, 10 hordes were created, but after their first movement, only 4 hordes were left. At the end of those 5 years, only 1 horde was left, and that horde was in basically the worst province it could be in, Norway-Sweden (all ways except North lead to death).

Remember, new hordes are spawned every 5 years, so players should always keep on their toes until they form big empires strong enough to deal with the hordes, or enough players join that almost every single province is cored.

EDIT: I forgot that in no instances AT ALL can barbarians cross water, so no Denmark-Sweden crossing, no Byzantium-Turkey crossing, and no Gibraltar crossing.
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Suggestions or comments? No matter what, VOTE!

[Mik]

Love this. Perhaps we can make pirate navies as well, just to add threats to navies? Anyways, great idea and I vote yes yes yes.

[Jakev2]

So what happens if a horde spawns on an island? It is automatically destroyed the next year? (as it rolls into the sea)

[Laurence]

What happens to player's army if horde wins?

[Priscilla]

good system old chap but the map should be made smaller... like 10 times or so

about time we abandon the futile ambition of creating a huge community, it is not possible at the time

much better to make a small but detailed map what do you think old pears?

EDIT: elmikkino do you play D&D? its cool =D

[Mik]

good system old chap but the map should be made smaller... like 10 times or so

about time we abandon the futile ambition of creating a huge community, it is not possible at the time

much better to make a small but detailed map what do you think old pears?
EDIT: elmikkino do you play D&D? its cool =D

Been throwing that idea since the beginning

[ElMikkino]

So what happens if a horde spawns on an island? It is automatically destroyed the next year? (as it rolls into the sea)

Yes. The islands are only provinces so if a nation decides to annex a part of them, then they won't be completely safe for the first 10 years.

What happens to player's army if horde wins?

If a horde goes into a player's territory, a battle is conducted between the two sides, and if the horde wins, the player's army retreats to an adjacent province that has that nation's territory in it. If there are no other provinces adjacent to the one the army was in with that nation's territory, the army disbands itself.

good system old chap but the map should be made smaller... like 10 times or so

about time we abandon the futile ambition of creating a huge community, it is not possible at the time

much better to make a small but detailed map what do you think old pears?

EDIT: elmikkino do you play D&D? its cool =D

While a small but detailed map seems like a good idea, what if more people want to join in the future? The map will have to grow again. And not everyone wants to be a Greek city-state, I bet. And no, I have never played DnD, though I do play a pen-and-paper RPG.

[Doyler]

Do not want.

[Priscilla]

as i said it is highly improbable that many more people will join, at least during the span of this game. we will need to play more practice games like this to eventually complete and flesh out the rules, people dont want to play a game that doesnt have a comprehencive network of systems for everything.

[ElMikkino]

Do not want.

Care to elaborate?

[Doyler]

Do not want.

Care to elaborate?

Do. Not. Want. At. All.

[Mik]

Do want. This means more conflict.

[ElMikkino]

Do not want.

Care to elaborate?

Do. Not. Want. At. All.

Okay...can you tell me why you don't want this?

[Doyler]

Do not want.

Care to elaborate?

Do. Not. Want. At. All.

Okay...can you tell me why you don't want this?

Look at this system. Now back to vanilla. Now back to this system.
You see where it gets feck load more complicated, yes?
I.e., Do Not Want.

[Jakev2]

As long as someone else does all thge rolls and letrs everyone know whats happening in it, I have no problems with this.

[ElMikkino]

Yes, I'll do all the rolls, and it won't seem complicated once we actually start doing it, since all the complicated stuff will just be for me.

[cooki3]

I love this idea.

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