December Reflections
Welcome to another monthly update, yet again only slightly delayed by the holidays! For those who also celebrated, I hope everything went well. Here's to a new year; may 2020 be the best one yet!
There are a few new features I'd like to discuss, but first some background.
I briefly mentioned a difference between individual and group scores in a discussion thread (aside: did you know there is a discussion forum?), but realized I never went into detail. Dei Gratia Rex simulates many things, but it does not use the same granularity for everything. Your family, tenants-in-chief and their families, advisors, and certain characters which have ongoing stories are relatively fine-grained simulations. They are characters with personality traits, relationships, and any other properties that are appropriate to have. For everyone else, their interests are boiled down to a single score.
If you're familiar with Reigns, it is a similar, though not identical, concept. In DGR there is nothing bad about having high scores and low scores do not generally mean instant death. Having very low scores does however open you up to very bad events that are otherwise impossible. It might be possible to right the ship, but going too low in any of these does put you in danger of a premature end to your rule. Balancing competing interests is hard for a ruler.
Particularly sharp-eyed readers may notice that compared to previous screenshots, the one above is missing a value. More on that later.
People on the whole prefer peace to war. This holds as true of the 12th century as the 21st. However war then, as now, was common. Also in common between the two periods is the need of rulers to justify their wars both to their own people and to other states. In the 12th century there was also the added wrinkle of the Church actively trying to dissuade Christian princes from fighting against each other. In order to finish the conquest, an ambitious king will need to gather reasons: casus belli.
Some strategy games dispense with these altogether. Others have casus belli systems, but force their players to pick one and only one. In DGR, occasions for war are multifaceted affairs. Generally wars will have a number of reasons, some strong, some weak. These combine to form an overall case for war.
With a strong enough justification, there is little opposition to going to war; without such justification there is resistance. Of course it is possible to go to war without any reasons. This is not recommended; see above about group scores.
Medieval warfare is often popularly presented as a gallant affair of heroic knights charging at one another. This did indeed happen… rarely. Attrition warfare was actually the order of the day. This meant raiding, siege warfare, skirmishing, and generally avoiding pitched battles. No medieval commander would willingly give battle unless he thought victory was easily attained. Consequently, war in DGR is also primarily comprised of siege and chevauchée, since economic damage is as important for forcing peace as is defeating armies.
Infantry is levied from the free farmers and burgesses of the counties. First a base number is derived from the amount of productive land there. This is then modified by the group scores described earlier. This amount is next reduced by a rate determined by ruin caused to a county. Ruin can come from a number of sources, but the most common is warfare. Cavalry is provided by the nobility (again modified by group scores, but also individual relationships). Each of your vassals has a certain amount of wealth derived from the manors which they hold. If they are deprived of this wealth, or if their manors are badly damaged, they lose the ability to provision knights and men-at-arms. Protecting your own land against economic damage is important if you wish to be a conqueror.
As a king, you also have a certain amount of household knights, the number of whom can be raised and lowered over time. Hiring temporary mercenaries is also an option. Both of these tend to be expensive though.
After making all these systems, I realized that the level of simulation for military matters was fine enough grained that a group score for the military was superfluous. There really were no other factors that were not captured in what I described above. Additionally I found that this nebulous "military" score was only referenced in three previous events that I had written. Given all that, it was an easy thing to drop.
I'm trying really hard to get the game out this year. Economic realities of my own mean that this is probably not going to be a choice, but rather a requirement. I don't have a specific date yet, but I'll definitely announce it when there is one!
Until next time, thanks for reading.
There are a few new features I'd like to discuss, but first some background.
Simulation and Abstraction
I briefly mentioned a difference between individual and group scores in a discussion thread (aside: did you know there is a discussion forum?), but realized I never went into detail. Dei Gratia Rex simulates many things, but it does not use the same granularity for everything. Your family, tenants-in-chief and their families, advisors, and certain characters which have ongoing stories are relatively fine-grained simulations. They are characters with personality traits, relationships, and any other properties that are appropriate to have. For everyone else, their interests are boiled down to a single score.
If you're familiar with Reigns, it is a similar, though not identical, concept. In DGR there is nothing bad about having high scores and low scores do not generally mean instant death. Having very low scores does however open you up to very bad events that are otherwise impossible. It might be possible to right the ship, but going too low in any of these does put you in danger of a premature end to your rule. Balancing competing interests is hard for a ruler.
Particularly sharp-eyed readers may notice that compared to previous screenshots, the one above is missing a value. More on that later.
Casus Belli
People on the whole prefer peace to war. This holds as true of the 12th century as the 21st. However war then, as now, was common. Also in common between the two periods is the need of rulers to justify their wars both to their own people and to other states. In the 12th century there was also the added wrinkle of the Church actively trying to dissuade Christian princes from fighting against each other. In order to finish the conquest, an ambitious king will need to gather reasons: casus belli.
Some strategy games dispense with these altogether. Others have casus belli systems, but force their players to pick one and only one. In DGR, occasions for war are multifaceted affairs. Generally wars will have a number of reasons, some strong, some weak. These combine to form an overall case for war.
With a strong enough justification, there is little opposition to going to war; without such justification there is resistance. Of course it is possible to go to war without any reasons. This is not recommended; see above about group scores.
Warfare and Economy
Medieval warfare is often popularly presented as a gallant affair of heroic knights charging at one another. This did indeed happen… rarely. Attrition warfare was actually the order of the day. This meant raiding, siege warfare, skirmishing, and generally avoiding pitched battles. No medieval commander would willingly give battle unless he thought victory was easily attained. Consequently, war in DGR is also primarily comprised of siege and chevauchée, since economic damage is as important for forcing peace as is defeating armies.
Infantry is levied from the free farmers and burgesses of the counties. First a base number is derived from the amount of productive land there. This is then modified by the group scores described earlier. This amount is next reduced by a rate determined by ruin caused to a county. Ruin can come from a number of sources, but the most common is warfare. Cavalry is provided by the nobility (again modified by group scores, but also individual relationships). Each of your vassals has a certain amount of wealth derived from the manors which they hold. If they are deprived of this wealth, or if their manors are badly damaged, they lose the ability to provision knights and men-at-arms. Protecting your own land against economic damage is important if you wish to be a conqueror.
As a king, you also have a certain amount of household knights, the number of whom can be raised and lowered over time. Hiring temporary mercenaries is also an option. Both of these tend to be expensive though.
After making all these systems, I realized that the level of simulation for military matters was fine enough grained that a group score for the military was superfluous. There really were no other factors that were not captured in what I described above. Additionally I found that this nebulous "military" score was only referenced in three previous events that I had written. Given all that, it was an easy thing to drop.
2020
I'm trying really hard to get the game out this year. Economic realities of my own mean that this is probably not going to be a choice, but rather a requirement. I don't have a specific date yet, but I'll definitely announce it when there is one!
Until next time, thanks for reading.