A Twilight of Empires

Comments and Basic Addenda

Rules Beginners Really Need Now

The rulebook is big. It is scary. So scan it for these bits you will find most useful initially, the essentials, i.e.

The Leaders (2.12): Your minions and their abilities.

Regions and Cities List (2.14): Lands and peoples mean cash and troops.

The Maps (4.0): Know where to go on our map.

Construction: Building Armies (5.4): How to raise an army.

Leader Actions (7.2): Most important are S, A, AT, D, DP, HC, M, Rule.

How To Fill Out Leader Action Orders (7.3): Also see the sample orders form and Example Orders Form (13.6).

Troop Conversions - Troops per unit

200 horse and foot
2 artillery and vessels
10 elephants

Time and Taxes

Turns: One Turn = 4 years
Taxes: Start with census in effect
Income: Thus the nominal starting tax rate for most positions is 88%

Units Buildable -

  When constructing units, only use the Custom Units list. Each nation has a unique set of troop types based on historical evidence.

Name Your Leaders and Cities

  For reasons of roleplaying and neatness it is important that players name their leaders. Failure to find names for your leaders will lead to revolt checks for those leaders - if you don't care about them, they may decide to reciprocate.
  Similarly, unnamed cities may be built. They will, however, not be fully controlled by you, entered instead as Claimed only.

Agro Production -

  In a grossly unfair and arbitrary move, your GM has decided to cut the amount of agro produced by large civilized empires by some fraction. There are any number of rationalizations which may be offered, but it is essentially a game balance move.
  More important, the agro production of nomadic cultures has been increased in order to maintain their in-game viability.

GP Bonuses -

  As opposed to current practice in most campaigns, the bonuses to various activities, e.g. diplomacy, spying, etc., are derived from committed gold points (gp) as follows:

bonus = ( √gp ) / 2

rounding up in all cases. See also the turn hint on this topic.