Generals, the land conversion mod

[Avery]

Hey guys while waiting on some opinions and final playtesting for my next custom pirates set Pirates of New England I have been working full steam on my land conversion modification for Pirates which I am calling Generals (PS, Ben if you would like me to move this topic to the black mongoose let me know). I decided that since this will be a huge undertaking that updating you guys on a consistent basis will be good to get opinions and thoughts to really help iron this out as a very fun addition to the pirates csg community. So from here I’ll be posting design blogs, answering questions, and overall discussing Generals with you guys on this topic. I am also highly considering starting a youtube channel where I will post videos about Pirates CSG, my customs, and my future original tabletop projects (though that is still a while out). I look forward to your thoughts, criticism, and discussing this new project of mine.

Generals Design Blog #1

First off what is Generals? Generals is a land conversion mod for Pirates CSG that will take place during the same era as Pirates CSG but for the land armies of the period. It will use the same engine as pirates with some new additions and slight tweaking. Instead of Ships there will be units representing regiments or companies, instead of crew there will be personnel, and instead of islands there will be towns and cities. The game is being designed to be a complete standalone experience from Pirates CSG, but with some slight rule modifications will be perfectly compatible to be played in conjunction with Pirates CSG.

The first set for Generals which from now on I will refer as the core set will be Generals of the Seven Years War. This is one of my favorite periods in history that I have quite a bit of knowledge of and love learning more about. The core set currently has six planned factions United Kingdom, France, Spain, Prussia, Austria, and Russia. Three of these factions are already in Pirates and if I continue to do sets after the core set I plan to introduce all the other major factions of Pirates CSG into Generals, yes even the cursed. The other three factions while never having a big naval presence as the faction in pirates are still a huge part of the land warfare of this era thus their inclusion in Generals.

The win condition for Generals varies from Pirates CSG. Pirates CSG is meant to represent a fleet expedition to hunt for lost treasure and stop the enemy from doing the same. Generals on the other hand is meant to simulate an army on campaign working to exhaust the enemy into capitulation. This will be done in the form of war exhaustion. War exhaustion is essentially your health take too much war exhaustion and you lose the game. The primary means of getting war exhaustion is when your opponents occupy cities and choose to take a new 5th action added to the game called project power.

Now you might be wondering what about the town locations I mentioned earlier. Well towns represent the primary means to obtain gold for the in game economy. A player’s unit that occupies a town may choose to take a loot action (the explore action’s equivalent from pirates). When a unit takes a loot action it will obtain gold (still deciding if it should be random gold like in pirates or just one gold piece equals 1). Gold will be used to buy units from your reserve army or the ability to use order cards. which leads me into my next segment.

Building an army consists of three parts, active army, reserve army, and order cards. the point values of the armies and the number of order cards is still being decided, but their use is as follows. The active army consists of the units and personnel you will start the game with. These units will be used for your opening plays and vital to obtaining the other parts of your army for the game. Whenever your units gain gold (primarily through looting, but other means as well) you will use the gold to purchase units and personnel from your reserve army putting them into play. Gold can also be used to purchase order cards which can result in active bonuses, passive abilities, changing board state, etc. Order cards are meant as a new addition to add flavor to the different factions and provide new fun mechanics to the game.

Morale and routing are also two new mechanics being added to Generals. In place of cargo from Pirates CSG units instead will have a morale number ranging from 2 to 5. Various situations might require you to make a morale check on your unit. If you fail to roll higher than the unit’s morale number then the unit becomes routed. A routed unit moves slower and can only perform move actions until they reach your headquarters (equivalent of home island from Pirates CSG). This makes a unit an easy targeted unless protected by other units or rallied by means of an ability. I feel this adds a new thematic element to the game that will help to create fresh new strategic thinking from pirates.

Finally the last thing I want to talk about is my heavily leaning decision to not include a captain ability equivalent into Generals. This is a more combat focused game than Pirates which had the element of distributing the ships into gold runners or gunships. This facilitated the means to have a captain to give gunships the ability to hunt gold runners. Given the combat focus of the modification and the thematic idea that maneuvering was at times more important than the actual battles I have currently opted to avoid a captain like ability. I am thinking I will include the reverse captain ability on certain skirmishing units as a way to serve their thematic theme of skirmishing and harassing the enemy. but these units will potentially need this ability as they will be no match for standard line infantry units in the game.

So ends my first design blog. I’ll try to keep you guys consistently updated on what’s going on and when I get to alpha and beta stages I’ll be sure to release what I have done at those times in order to get a wide range of playtesting done by the community.

Thanks guys!

 

[Ben]

I am also highly considering starting a youtube channel where I will post videos about Pirates CSG, my customs, and my future original tabletop projects (though that is still a while out).

That sounds really cool!

I like the sound of Generals.  I’ve never been obsessed with land warfare by itself, so I’d want to use it in conjunction with Pirates.  Looking forward to reading more about it!

[Avery]

Generals Design Blog #2

Hey guys welcome to my second design blog for Generals, the land conversion modification for Pirates CSG. Last blog I let you guys know the factions that will be released in the core set, Generals of the Seven Years War. In this Blog I will be releasing the pre alpha stats for the French faction as well go over some keywords and their abilities attributed to some of these units.

My plan is to release 14 units and 4 to 5 personnel for each faction in the core set. Each faction has some underlying themes behind them to help drive their development and certain strategies around them. The French I wanted to focus on units providing some great support and buffs as well as encourage some aggressive tactics. so without further to do here is the pre Alpha stats for France (points are still a work in progress). Also to help you understand these stats know that soldiers are the equivalent of masts in this game and morale replaces cargo though it does not function like cargo but is a new mechanic. Also FT stands for flavor text. Rarities are there just for fun.

La Couronne Infanterie (rare): 7 soldiers/3 morale/S/2L,3L,2S,3S,2S,3L.2L/This unit exerts +1 war exhaustion when projecting power./FT=As part of the Army of the Lower Rhine the Couronne Infanterie will serve as France’s main muscle in Germany.

La Reine Infanterie (uncommon): 6 soldiers/2 morale/S+S/4S,2L,2L,2L,2L,4S/Grenadier, Once per turn if this unit makes at least one successful hit another unit in your army get +1 to it’s gun rolls till end of turn./FT=The Reine Infanterie work to support all of Montcalm’s forces in North America.

Abernaki Warriors (uncommon): 6 soldiers/5 morale/S+L/4L,3S,3S,3S,3S,4L/Native, Skirmisher, L range guns cannot hit this unit, artillery is exempt from this ability./FT=The Abernaki have placed their faith and support to the French cause in order to stop their mortal enemies the Iroquois and their British allies.

Dauphin Infanterie (Common): 5 soldiers/2 morale/L/3L,3L,3L,4L,3S/This unit gets +1 to it’s gun rolls while within S of a friendly unit/The Dauphin Infanterie came in just in time to the village of Vellinghausen to support fellow French forces from utter collapse.

Compagnie Des Indes Cipayes (common): 5 soldiers/4 morale/L/2L,3S,4S,4S,3S/Native this unit eliminates 2 soldiers with a successful charging action./FT=The Indian locals comprised of this unit are more accustomed to a different way of fighting.

Colonial Compagnies Franches de la Marine (common):5 soldiers/3 morale/S+L/2S,3L,3L,3L,2S/This unit ignores terrain/FT=These French marines have been assigned to the North American Theater adopting the many Indian back trails to surprise the British everywhere they go.

Du Roy Dragoons (Rare): 5 soldiers/3 morale/S+S/4S,4S,4S,4S,4S/Cavalry, When this unit routes or shatters an opponent’s artillery unit you may immediately purchase an artillery unit from your reserve army for -3 gold and deploy it S away from this unit./FT=The Du Roy dragoons are tasked with seizing vital supplies for the French war effort.

Mi’Kmaq Warriors (common): 4 soldiers/4 morale/S+S/4L,2S,2L,4S/Native, Skirmisher, once per turn a Unit must make a morale check when they receive a hit from one of this unit’s guns./FT=with a long history of fighting european colonists the Mi’kmaq have a fearsome reputation.

Lochmann Infanterie (common) 4 soldiers/2 morale/L/3S,3S,3S,3S/This unit’s guns may not be eliminated, soldiers can still be eliminated./FT=A Swiss regiment known for their stubborn resistant no matter the casualties.

Orleans Cavalrie (rare): 4 soldiers/3 morale/L+S/+1/Cavalry, Before settling a charge action roll a d6, on a 5 or 6 eliminate a soldier from an opponent’s unit within S of this unit./FT=A well equipped and heavily armed Cavalry unit for the French the Olrleans regiment will fire off their substantial firepower before using their sabers.

Milice du District de Trois Rivieres (common): 3 soldiers/ 4 morale/S+L/4L,3S,4L/Skirmisher, This unit gets +S to it’s base move if within L of a friendly unit./FT=This Canadian militia is known for their white toques and sashes proudly displaying their love for New France.

Bercheny Hussards (rare): 3 soldiers/2 morale/S+S+S/+2/Cavalry, Once per turn as a free action you may eliminate a soldier from a friendly unit within L of this unit to reinforce this Unit./FT= Originally raised as a regiment by Hungarian nobility the Bercheny Hussards now serve the French army and regularly absorb disbanded units.

47th Royal de L’Artillerie (Uncommon): 2 soldiers/3 morale/L/3L,3L/Artillery, Other units do not block this unit’s line of fire./FT= Their experience across the globe has honed their skills with precision accuracy.

Montcalm’s Artillery Train (uncommon): 1 soldier/4 morale/S+S/2S/Artillery, While within S of a city or town this unit’s guns eliminate 2 soldiers with 1 hit./FT= Montcalm has every precious captured British brass cannon quickly transported for the defense of Canada.

Lienard de Beaujeu (common personnel): Native units in your army get +1 to their morale checks, Native Units from your reserve army may deploy within S of this unit./FT=A captain of New France’s military forces his respect and adoption of Indian practices have garnered their support to the French cause.

Louis Charles Cesar le Tellier (common personnel): Artillery units within S of this unit get +1 to their gun rolls and once per turn may reroll a gun roll./FT= As Marshall of France’s forces Louis plans to batter the Prussian forces into submission.

Marquis de Montcalm (Rare personnel): Native units in your army get -1 to their morale checks. Once per turn this unit ignores the first hit it takes./FT=Despite Montcalm’s European style of warfare clashing with the Indians of North America his military experience will provide a much needed leadership to New France’s military forces.

Charles de Rohan (rare personnel): Once per turn roll a d6 on a roll of 5 or 6 you may move any unit in your army L as a free action./FT=The Prince of Soubise believes that careful positioning to outflank the enemy not brute force is the only true way of winning in Germany.

The keywords you may have notice in these pre alpha stats were Grenadier/Native/Skirmisher/Cavarly/Artillery. These keywords contain unique abilities as well helping to separate the units into different classes.

Grenadier is used to mark units that were traditionally grenadier companies. Their unique ability is the closet thing I will have a captain ability from pirates. Allowing them to make one 3S attack after performing a move action.

The Native keyword is used to mark units native to the colonial lands of the European powers. Their unique abilities will be that they can ignore terrain to represent their knowledge of their homelands.

Skirmishers are used to mark light troops of the era. Their ability is the reverse captain ability from pirates csg. Allowing them to shoot and move using the same shoot action. Skirmishers can also turn 180 degrees, for other units this consumes their move action. They will also get -2 to their charging actions/melee rolls. This represents their main use to harass the enemy while the negative to melee discourages using their ability to fire and charge the enemy.

Cavalry are used to mark units that used horse as their main means of transportation. You might have noticed that some Cavalry units instead of having dice for their attack they had a +1 or +2. A cavalry unit with this plus number cannot perform shoot actions, but instead get a bonus to their charging/melee rolls during a charging action. Cavalry units will also have the ability to spend gold to increase their movement for a turn.

Artillery encompasses the cannons of this era. These units have the special ability to double the range of their guns allowing them reach distances other units cannot. This will be important to prevent hardcore camping strategies since I will not be including a regular captain ability in this game.

So that’s what I have for you guys this time I’ll be working on the pre alpha stats for another faction as well as explaining some of the basic personnel of the game. Any thoughts or criticisms are much appreciated. If you guys have a certain faction you want to see the stats of next let me know I still have the United Kingdom, Prussia, Austria, Russia, and Spain left to work on. So let me know which faction you want me working on next. See you guys next time!

 

 

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