Thank you and "The King is dead!" optional rules for smaller gaming groups
about 2 years ago
– Wed, Sep 07, 2022 at 01:02:01 PM
Salve fellow gamers!
First of all, a huge thank you from all of us at Sound of Drums to everybody that already backed us or is still sitting on the fence :)!
We noticed the large interest in questions about the solo possibilities of "History of the Ancient Seas".
Solo, or reducing the live player count, is a big thing these days. We all know how difficult it can sometimes be to get your gaming group together. It is the same for us. Or sometimes you just want to dive into the rules and practice, alone.
So today we would like to explain the "King is dead!" ruleset a bit more.
The King is dead!
(or how to play DIES IRAE and MARE NOSTRUM with less players)
In the development and test process of the series we often faced an issue that all of you might know: We wanted to play/test MARE NOSTRUM but could only get 4 players at the table. So, we there were four of us, we were looking on the gorgeous map and game components and wanted to play the epic MARE NOSTRUM. What to do?
Two ideas came up: We need a solo mode that takes over one faction. My friend Michael Pertsinakis put me in touch with Gottardo Zancani, an experienced designer of solo modules. While waiting for his first drafts we had the idea to try what we now call “The King Is Dead”, an optional rule with “Static Empires” for DIES IRAE and MARE NOSTRUM. The “Static Empire” is a way to have one faction in the following situation: The King is dead! The Empire has no new leader and can’t take any action. The non-player faction has a setup of a medium-sized empire. This faction doesn’t take any actions.
The idea has its roots in the rules for the City State of Syracuse in HELLAS where players need to invest some resources to take over Sicily. We liked the idea very much and while testing a well-balanced setup for these “Static Empires” we had a lot of fun but it was also a big challenge to create the right mix of units, fortresses and trading posts.
This option is not complex to implement. Players just need to adjust the number of available actions and the limits per action cycle corresponding to the number of players that play the game.
In addition to ARCHIMEDES, the solo mode, we prepared a “The King Is Dead” setup for each game and for each faction.
You will receive the rules and setup for these “Static empires” as free download from our website!
Let’s take DIES IRAE for example. The faction that is not represented by any player is Persia. Legion, ships, trading posts and fortresses are set up according to the image. The Greek player decides to have his capital in Pella and the Egyptian player has placed his capital in Kanopus. On the image you see the setup of these two factions.
Now, Persia being inactive, offers both players a lot of new options. Greece and Egypt are separated by the Mediterranean Sea. The Greek player has a bigger fleet and is more flexible, but the Egyptian player has now a lot of open space he has not to fight for against Persia. The Greek player is closer to the valuable merchandise of the leaderless Persian Empire but it will take time and some effort to take these over. As in all games of the series it is mostly easy to gain control over merchandise, island and provinces. The task to keep control over them, is a little bit more tricky. In this interesting constellation both players will have a huge coastline to defend. The player who build faster a fleet with long range will have the initiative.
Thank you!
Your, Uwe Walentin