A new Swords & Sails expansion is in the works.
about 3 years ago
– Sat, Feb 06, 2021 at 12:42:37 AM
Hi all,
Some concepts I am working on for expansions and looking for some feedback.
I am looking at putting out a Intrigue Card expansion, looking to call it the Mercenary & Privateer card expansion.
First we will reprint all the Royal Marriage, Inherit Title, and Political Minor Ally blue cards with a change which states explicitly that it is limited to territories with 50 or less city income as is stated in the rulebook.
Next will add several cards as proposed by Bryan B. which will revert a previously neutral territory back to a Neutral status. 4 different variants based on Intrigue card color. The target Territory can't have an Army on it and there will be several multi-purpose counter cards which can stop the revolt. These counter cards will be named "Call Up Militia" (a Red Card) (Note, depending on play testing we may make this card start a territory into revolt and then will be completed (change back to neutral), If no Army is moved into the territory or no Call Up Militia card is played by the next Intrigue phase, will be decided by playtesting).
- A Green card, name Peasant Revolt (Activating Player must remove 5 Peasants in any armies to activate),
- A Blue card, Political Unrest, which requires 2 additional players to support publicly during the Diplomacy Phase to
- activate (or 1 in 3/4 player games, or 60 gold payment in 2 player)
- A Yellow Card, named Instigate Sedition, which will need to discard a Spy card to activate.
- A Red Card named Minor Insurrection which is activated by removing 5 Morale points of non peasant troops from existing armies.
A new category using the black color for Calamities / Natural Disasters. The concept is to have these with global impact on all players during a season of impact. A different method to determine if a black card is in affect in any given turn could be rolling 3 dice and getting a 13 which happens 9.72% of the time or slightly less than every 10 turns on the average (any combination of rolling 1,6,6; 2,5,6; 3,5,5; or 4,4,5).
- Plague - Reduces City income by 33%
- Famine - Reducing Agricultural income by 50%
- Tree Infestation - Building Fleet Units cost 25% more
- Locust Swarm - Building Infantry HI / LI / Peasants cost 25% more
- Equine Contagion - Building KN/HC/LC costs 25% more
- Iron Shortage - Building KN / HC / HI cost 25% more
- Trade War - Remove 50% from all trade cards just before Intrigue phase
Likewise we could have a set of Boons / Prosperity cards (White) which is drawn on a 7 and affects everyone in a season.
- Increased Trade - Increases City income by 33%
- Great Harvest - Increases Agricultural income by 50%
- Increased Tree Growth - Building Fleet Units cost 25% less
- Locust Swarm - Building Infantry HI / LI / Peasants cost 25% less
- Equine Contagion - Building KN/HC/LC costs 25% less
- Iron Shortage - Building KN / HC / HI cost 25% less
- Increased Trade - Add 50% coins to all trade cards (at end of match end of Diplomacy)
Additionally we can add a few cards into each color category for these to affect only individual players.
One Green, Blue, Yellow, and Red card which will state to immediately draw a White card and use at the start of the next turn. Then One Green, Blue, Yellow, and Red which will state to immediately draw a Black card and use at the start of the next turn. Since we are adding these bad results, may need to add a counter card which allows individuals to cancel the effect (same counter for all). Then we could allow 3 players to each use a counter card to cancel the global calamities as well (maybe 5 for 10 or more players).
Now for the Mercenary and Privateer part of the card upgrade.
We will add red cards for Mercenaries and Privateers. A Mercenary (or Privateer for Fleets) is a card which will allow a one time use of additional troops (or Ships) for battle. We will name the Mercenaries based on Map territories such as The Irish Fianna, The Great Companions (Byzantine), or the Roden Raiders from Sweden (Privateer). Major and Minor player symbols will be on each card which denotes that the activating player must pay a small stipend to the player symbol on the card if that player is in the game or to the bank if not. In general troops (different combinations of Units / Ships, will be added to a battle when activating a Mercenary card. Each themed Mercenary or Privateer will have a different mix of units based on the themed territory it comes from. When winning the battle using Mercenaries, the added mercenary troops will automatically have a chance at pillaging the territory which is captured (and thereby reducing incoming for a season or two). The controlling player may try to limit the pillaging by making a command roll against the mercenaries units to try and control them (essentially a morale roll using the 3 highest morale units in the Army, not counting the Mercenaries). Rolling against the pillage / loot number on the Mercenary card and pillaging for 0, 1, or 2 turns of income depending on the difference (exact values will be discovered during play testing). The North Sea Empire's Morale roll is 1/2 for using to prevent the looting / pillaging. After using the mercenaries card will be discarded unless the additional cost to keep it is paid which goes to the player with the same symbol of the Mercenary card or the bank if that player or minor is not being played. The card is also discarded if all the troops are killed during combat. If using a Mercenary or Privateer card with your own factions symbol or any territory you now control, you do not have to pay when they are being activated, but you still will need to pay the bank to keep the mercenary card with the army or fleet for any future turns.
Several other additional Red Cards can be related to neutralizing Cities defenses (Siege Engine Cards) used during combat and the full immediate retreat cards Strategic Reposition (one variant would be yellow which would be called Bribed Passage). Considering a card or capability to reduce / destroy player built cities as well, but that would have to be expensive to use.
Those are the concepts for new cards developed so far, please send me your ideas for any others or comment on these suggested cards.
Thanks
Jason R. Williams