The First Skirmish - the Fords of Marialla

Welcome!


… to the “Battle of Marialla” Skype strategy battle game. Below is a quickie intro to what it’s all about. The first section is more up-to-date game info.


When: looks like Friday the 3rd, or Thursday the 2nd, alternatively after the weekend. Sign up on the calendar!
Where: Skype chat rooms. We're sort of headquartered at the South Maltese/Scanian Union Party chat, but will create game- and team-specific chats closer on. 
Who: let me know, and I'll fill you into the table below! 



Intro for newcomers!

What we plan to do is to host a gaming session over Skype. It will be team- and turn-based, and essentially the players will command units around on a strategic map to fight a battle. This is all set against a fairly big and elaborate backdrop of previous planning and world history - which you don’t really need to know anything about in order to participate.

I’ll give a short overview soon, but for the curious ones I thought I’d link a rather bigger document: the original "Eclipse" game introduction. That was how we planned to start this whole thing, but for one reason or another - mostly, just wanting to get started - we’ve pruned it down and are gonna launch a pilot battle just for the luls! Select portions of the previous plan will be reused for this game, but with much less complexity and a greater focus on the more strategic elements.


Basically, the game is about two nations at war: The Holy Dominion, ancient and vast, and the Republic, a rebel nation. The Republic’s main goal is fighting for the freedom of mankind against the God-Kings of the Dominion - and the Dominion’s is to preserve the sacred world order of the Common Law of Man and Spirit. Come the time of this campaign, the Republic has launched a crusade to strike at the heart of the Dominion: the city of Falar and the God-King Radiance who rules there.

Campaign map. The red X marks the battle we’re about to play out.  

On their way to Falar and God-King Radiance, the Republican army must cross the Ford of Marialla. This is where our battle plays out. The Republican vanguard arrives finding a small Dominion force hastily trying to fortify the crossing. Both Republican and Dominion reinforcements are quickly arriving at the scene. The main forces of both factions are still too distant to play a part in this day's battle, but while the engagement may be minor whoever is left holding the crossing by the day's end will have gained a decisive advantage as the campaign continues. 


For more details on the way the world works, see the document linked above - but keep in mind certain particulars will be different for this game. First off, obviously, the original Eclipse battle was to have been fought at Falar - so this is really a sort of prologue, a first initial skirmish between Dominion and Republican forces. Indeed, that is how it was first envisioned - once we have played this battle, it will be written up as the prologue to the next game!

Then again, it should be noted - there are no guarantees or weighted dice determining who will win this battle. Whoever wins, wins - and we can do this all again. If the Dominion keeps winning, the final battle may be fought at Sabria (the capital of the Republic) instead of at Falar!


The battle will be played out on a strategic map much prettier than the rough sketch below. But you get the idea:

Tactical map of the Fords of Marialla.

The unit system is described in more detail in the section “V. Your army” of the Eclipse documentation. It will work somewhat differently here at Marialla, however, so I’ll summarize with a focus on the differences:

• Each team gets a total of 50 points (divided equally among team members) which are spent on units.
  
• Spend 1 point to recruit a unit of either Company (~250 men) or Party (~25 men) size. (The Regiment-sized unit won’t be present at Marialla.)
  
• If you’re Dominion, the unit will be Infantry-type. Republicans get Ranged-type units by default.
• (Recruit Party-sized units to concentrate certain upgrades for a greater effect - such as Magic.) 
• Spend additional points to upgrade the unit with one or several specializations. See the Eclipse documentation for more descriptions and icons, but the specializations are:  
  
• Infantry / Ranged / Cavalry / Sappers / Magic / Heavy / Veteran (Scouts are disabled - not needed)
  
• Let the GM know your army composition by the time the game starts!

Below is how the units will be displayed on the map (as seen above). Enemy units appear on the map only based on the reports your team’s main characters have received. Each team will be viewing their own map, which might have discrepancies with what’s really going on if the enemy is employing subterfuge!



If you’re interested, give us a holler on Skype (and sign up here at this forum for good measure). Me (Skype: sRGBA, Stefan Berglund, also sometimes known as Ashenmoon) or Timolas (Tim, Timothy Alden) are all ears if you’ve got questions or comments or suggestions. We’ll also get you into the group chats, at that.

• First off, you’ll want to pick a side. It would be nice if the two factions had roughly the same amount of players - check the forum thread for a table with the participants. But even so, go with what you find most interesting - we’ll even out the playing field in other ways! Just reply on the forum thread with where you want to join, or tell us on Skype.
  
• Pick which times work for you on the calendar, so we can find a time that works for everyone.
  
• If you want to, go craycray with the RPG aspects! Who are you playing as - a captain, a magi, a nobleman? We’ll not use this very much in the battle to come - but it would be nice to at least have an in-game name to refer to!
  
• Plan your army. As (will be) described above, each team has 50 points (divided equally among the players) for which to recruit company-sized units. So, the exact amount of points you get depend on how many team members you have! This won’t have to be finalized until the battle starts, but you can at least ponder how you want to focus yourself - boots-on-the-ground melee regiments, a cavalry wing or two, or maybe delve into the magics? Each player will inform the GMs privately of their recruitment orders before the game starts - though it might be a good idea to discuss with your team members!
  
• Show up on Skype on time! An hour or three should do it, during which you’ll discuss strategy with your team in your group chats, inform the GM of your final orders for the turn, and watch as the strategic maps update and the battle unfolds!
  

Useful links

worldforge.freeforums.net/thread/86/first-skirmish-fords-marialla
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13biKja5WHpbLpNXv0ziLO82gBT-aNYWuK7ToZ29xY2E/edit?usp=sharing (calendar for the battle)
docs.google.com/document/d/1NqOd3fp9B7g8H5aRtPvazUlSVdvZ69Pfz3ZKZA9mmR0/edit?usp=sharing (Eclipse introduction document)
worldforge.freeforums.net/ (“Shatterbridge - Eclipse” and “Novel Writing” subforums)
shatterbridge.wikia.com/wiki/Shatterbridge_Wiki