Imagi-Medieval Campaign Part 1: Introduction and Background

Let me introduce you to the imaginary continent of Mitteleuropa.  Six players representing the aspiring empires of Austria, Batavia, Bohemia, Brandenburg, Franconia and Lombardy are all casting their covetous eyes over the rich territories of Mitteleuropa.

Mitteleuropa
The six players will each control one of the nascent empires: Franconia, Batavia, Brandenburg, Bohemia, Austria, and Lombardy.

Background Sometime in the early 15th century, powerful, yet fledgling, empires are preparing to launch themselves on an ambitious round of conquest in the unsuspecting region of Mitteleuropa. Rivals may ally but there can be only one victor with the goal being to dominate and prove themselves worthy of acclaim.  Each player has between 5 and 10 campaign years to make their mark.  The only fly in the ointment of the aspiring empire builders is the troublesome, dangerous and rapacious Lithuanian Confederation… and the occasional natural (and unnatural) disaster!

Being the master of Mitteleuropa will mean acquiring a number of titles, with the possessor of the most being the one to hold the title Ultimus Imperator.  The titles to win are:

Fidei Defensor - The player who donates the most treasure to the Pope.
Imperius Rex - The player who owns the most territories.
Castellan Dominatus - The player who successfully besieges the most castles.
Alma Habitatus - The player who has increased the value of their final possessions the most. This will be evidence of enhancing the prosperity of your subjects.
L’Homme de Guerre - The player who wins the most field battles.
Renaissance Man - The player who fulfils a range of tasks in different disciplines and wins the acclaim of others. These tasks being:

• Produce a painting or drawing.
• Write a poem at least 15 lines long.
• Display some musical talent.
• Produce a commentary on a scientific or astronomical event or development.
• Show speed in calculation and accuracy with the bow.

L’Homme sans Reproche - At the end of the campaign each player must secretly give to the umpire their choice for the one who has played the best campaign in terms of fair play, heroic conduct and honourable behaviour.

Campaign Elements As you may now realise, this is not a quick, over in a month, campaign.  More of a leisurely stroll than a sprint.  Each player must gain territory, build towns, castles and increase wealth.  All of that increases the treasure available to build armies.  I hope that the campaign is one of battles, sieges, alliances, chivalrous behaviour and non-onerous resource management.  In short, the players have to be good generals, builders and wise rulers.

The campaign rules are ones that I have written.  If you are interested here is the link to them: Founding Empires.  I won't pretend that they fabulously written... but they'll do!

The tabletop battles will use Flower of Chivalry as they provide quick games that capture a little of the  difficulty of commanding medieval armies.

Each area of Mitteleuropa that is captured provides an income shown on the map above.  This can be augmented with some investment - the towns etc. that I mentioned earlier.

There will be random events - some good, some bad.  The army lists are based on early 15th century troop types.  However, both can change with the passage of campaign time as technology and knowledge develops.

Apart from the fun of piecing the campaign together, I've actually spent a fair bit of happy time getting a range of spreadsheets in place to handle the vast majority of the umpire admin and to assist the player in doing their orders and building.  Fingers crossed it all holds together under duress.

Ultimately, it's all about having fun and creating purpose for some games.

Well, that's enough for now.  The next campaign post will set out the sides and their pre-turn 1 tasks.