This morning while I was waiting for my coffee to brew, and thinking about my rough-but-shaping-up solo 4x campaign, Rising Tide (which I've posted in the war room) I had an idea.
1800s USA. Each state or territory has one or more "systems", such that California might have Southern and Northern, while Washington State would be a single system. Jump Lanes represent passes, wagon trails, coastal sea routes.
Empires are pre-made. Cascadia, for example, would be WA, OR, ID. California Republic would be both Calif. territories plus Nevada. And so on. There would be two races - Indian and Immigrant. Possibly a third, with the Carribian?
The incomplete empire idea, where an empire is discovered, could represent European colonial powers England, France, Spain, Mexico, Canada. Each of these could be a threat or could start as a trading partner, military ally, whatever.
Ground units are infantry and cavalry. Ships are naval tall ships. It could go Steampunk, adding Fighters as as Crimson Skies-type airplanes and dirigibles as "atmospheric" ships.
ACW2 - would it work?
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Tyrel Lohr
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Re: ACW2 - would it work?
VBAM should be pretty easily applicable to other genres, and I know we've talked about historical and fantasy versions of the rules in the past but nothing has ever really come to fruition there.
For a ACW scenario, it would be pretty easy to break the map up into territories based on major population centers (like what you see in several of the Paradox games), down to whatever granularity makes sense. Then assign each of those stats and a terrain type to effectively act as jump lane modifiers.
Supply is still workable, but you'd have to probably change what a supply depot represented by turning it into a "fort" or something similar. You might even want to shorten the range somewhat at that point, as distances are going to get a bit skewed, but you could make sure that no one territory on the map was more than a certain size.
Then for a ACW scenario you'd just have to get the ground combat tweaked to work the way you would want, and that probably would include deciding whether to use the CSCR for ground combat or use the standard ground combat rules. That would probably be the hardest thing to overcome.
As for external powers and how they would feed in, you'd probably need something like what I remember from Revolution 76 where you spend actions on diplomacy to try and improve your standing with the outside powers to secure scaling bonuses. In that game it was money, war supplies, fleet support, and eventually ground support if you did well enough.
For a ACW scenario, it would be pretty easy to break the map up into territories based on major population centers (like what you see in several of the Paradox games), down to whatever granularity makes sense. Then assign each of those stats and a terrain type to effectively act as jump lane modifiers.
Supply is still workable, but you'd have to probably change what a supply depot represented by turning it into a "fort" or something similar. You might even want to shorten the range somewhat at that point, as distances are going to get a bit skewed, but you could make sure that no one territory on the map was more than a certain size.
Then for a ACW scenario you'd just have to get the ground combat tweaked to work the way you would want, and that probably would include deciding whether to use the CSCR for ground combat or use the standard ground combat rules. That would probably be the hardest thing to overcome.
As for external powers and how they would feed in, you'd probably need something like what I remember from Revolution 76 where you spend actions on diplomacy to try and improve your standing with the outside powers to secure scaling bonuses. In that game it was money, war supplies, fleet support, and eventually ground support if you did well enough.
[i]"Touch not the pylons, for they are the messengers!"[/i]
Re: ACW2 - would it work?
Maybe treat it like With a Purpose, where each foreign power gives missions but the rewards are tech points, EP, units, etc.
Tension as per Galaxies would work between powers, but With a Purpose style tension worked with the foreign powers. When Tension reached a certain point, rather than war, the Power would suffer privateers and trade embargos with that foreign power and its colonies, resulting in Trade Income instability and increased chance of Piracy. However, at the same time there were breakpoints in tension tracks that allow *other foreign powers* to send a single instance of some kind of support or investment. Tick of the French, get stuff from England...
I'd probably use 1E style ship battles due to the small fleet sizes. Maybe use a modified Single Squadron for ground combat, since I'd want it much simpler than in Phoenix Rising? Ships could only provide bombardment points on Supply Points (and shipyards) on coastal-connected territories since sea transport means they would be on the coast. Interior supply points could only be BV'd by dirigibles. Fighters could be integrated with both naval 1E style and ground Single Squadron style combat systems.
Supply Points themselves would definitely need to be a military fort, but like fighters it would have to mesh with both combat systems.
As far as Systems go, my original idea was vast systems (California is 2 systems, etc.) but while that's fine for sparsely-populated areas, the cities themselves could be small, high-value Systems. Mountain ranges could be dead systems. Or using something like Jovian's orbital settlements. Farming regions have one high system bonus, coasts another, forests yet another.
Tension as per Galaxies would work between powers, but With a Purpose style tension worked with the foreign powers. When Tension reached a certain point, rather than war, the Power would suffer privateers and trade embargos with that foreign power and its colonies, resulting in Trade Income instability and increased chance of Piracy. However, at the same time there were breakpoints in tension tracks that allow *other foreign powers* to send a single instance of some kind of support or investment. Tick of the French, get stuff from England...
I'd probably use 1E style ship battles due to the small fleet sizes. Maybe use a modified Single Squadron for ground combat, since I'd want it much simpler than in Phoenix Rising? Ships could only provide bombardment points on Supply Points (and shipyards) on coastal-connected territories since sea transport means they would be on the coast. Interior supply points could only be BV'd by dirigibles. Fighters could be integrated with both naval 1E style and ground Single Squadron style combat systems.
Supply Points themselves would definitely need to be a military fort, but like fighters it would have to mesh with both combat systems.
As far as Systems go, my original idea was vast systems (California is 2 systems, etc.) but while that's fine for sparsely-populated areas, the cities themselves could be small, high-value Systems. Mountain ranges could be dead systems. Or using something like Jovian's orbital settlements. Farming regions have one high system bonus, coasts another, forests yet another.