Lord of Eternal Conflict
Another deliberation of a friendly neighborhood writer.
So I was looking over some of the more under utlilized aspects of the Map game and their relation to Minor factions, and that is Rebellions. As of now, they are more or less obsolete and do little to impact the Map. While glossing over the Rebellion Rules there were some points I noted that I think could be fleshed out, some aspects modified to make things far more interesting. To precede this I would suggest making it so that any two of the three dominions done by a Major faction every month should be opened up to being vulnerable to Rebellion. The current system where you only get 1 opportunity a month (And a very difficult opportunity to get considering 80% of the Major factions can barely get to or easily do 3 dominions a month) makes it extremely difficult to utilize Rebellions in general. Just keep that in mind and hold any thoughts you have until you read over the rest of the suggestion.
First and foremost, the thing I picked up when looking at the Rebellion rules was the first bullet point - 'Rebellions allow Minor Factions to claim or neutralize Major Factions’ territory.' They key word here being claim. So I don't have enough pretext and clarity regarding this, but I thought Minor factions were not allowed to have any territory on the map, thus having no veritable presence on it, so this was a point I thought could be reworked/revamped into something a little more interesting. What if, when a Rebellion is declared and the Minor faction is successful in rebelling that territory and taking it from the Major faction, they can hold onto those hexes that they have successfully rebelled and add it to a pool of space that the Major faction is unable to dominion/'invade' for an x period of time. This gives Minor factions some presence and ability to effect the map. This space can be held onto by the Minor faction for the future, and if they decide to go Major, the number of hexes they successfully rebelled can be added to their initial starting pool of hexes when going Major.
For example - Minor Faction A decides they want to be a thorn in a Major Faction B's side and rebel their territory to stop their expansion. Over the course of a few months they successfully rebel 5 hexes, thus denying 5 hexes from the Major Faction B. Minor Faction A decides to go Major and in addition to their 3 starting hexes, they get 5 hexes of their choosing in the space they decide to set up shop. If they move to a different section of the map, the 5 hexes that were locked from the Major Faction B before can now be opened up for Major faction B to do dominions.
Targets of Rebellions - Keeping in mind the point of opening up 2/3 dominions to being vulnerable to rebellions, I think that the target of the Rebellion should be as soon as the dominion goes up, rather than the 10 day period after it is submitted for judgement. This can liven up the dominions by making them more interesting and a source of conflict between Major/Minor factions. I'm not quite sure what the point is of rebelling territory belonging to a recalled Major faction currently as it will get swept under the rug in future dominions anyways. Unless the point above is implemented, then being able to rebel recalled Major faction's territory would actually become pertinent and useful.
Rebellion Declarations, I think are fine as is, as is their judgement being the same as mini invasions. I think that the need for a minimum minor faction age should be lifted under the stipulation that you cannot declare a rebellion on territory that is in a 3-4 hex radius around the Major Faction's capital hex. It makes more sense that it'd be significantly more difficult to try and rebel a territory around the capital hex where influence would likely be the heaviest, likewise territory farther away from the capital hex would probably be easier to rebel. I think that having the option for multiple Minor factions to jump in on a Rebellion is perfectly fine, as it can perhaps build up collaborative efforts from multiple Minor factions with similar goals and perhaps result in them merging to have a larger and more cohesive member base when going Major if they ever decide to go Major.
Major Faction Recalls - This point is fairly moot if the only way a Major faction can avoid being recalled is winning 2 separate rebellions within 2 weeks. This has three reasons -
1) Any faction, Major or Minor, can simply wait 2 weeks and wait for the recalled Major to be removed from the map before going in.
2) No Minor or even Major factions actively utilize Rebellions because there is no benefit to them in 'taking' recalled Major territory since they can't hold it or it will just be the point of dominion once recalled.
3) Major factions can't hold any territory that isn't directly connected to their cloud of influence, so unless there are some extremely valuable hexes of any worth right up against their border, there is no reason to launch a rebellion to claim it.
Just a few of the current deliberations I've had while seeing how to improve and make the Map game more interesting. As it stands now we lose more Major factions as they pop up, giving Minor factions a hefty advantage (Claiming/Denying territory without needing to worry about getting invaded)/incentive for utilizing Rebellions prior to going Major will perhaps give them a much more stable and better chance at remaining Major. If there is anything that sounds confusing and could use more clarification, feel free to let me know and I'll do my best to make it more clear. If you have nothing constructive to say, then leave it to yourself please.
So I was looking over some of the more under utlilized aspects of the Map game and their relation to Minor factions, and that is Rebellions. As of now, they are more or less obsolete and do little to impact the Map. While glossing over the Rebellion Rules there were some points I noted that I think could be fleshed out, some aspects modified to make things far more interesting. To precede this I would suggest making it so that any two of the three dominions done by a Major faction every month should be opened up to being vulnerable to Rebellion. The current system where you only get 1 opportunity a month (And a very difficult opportunity to get considering 80% of the Major factions can barely get to or easily do 3 dominions a month) makes it extremely difficult to utilize Rebellions in general. Just keep that in mind and hold any thoughts you have until you read over the rest of the suggestion.
First and foremost, the thing I picked up when looking at the Rebellion rules was the first bullet point - 'Rebellions allow Minor Factions to claim or neutralize Major Factions’ territory.' They key word here being claim. So I don't have enough pretext and clarity regarding this, but I thought Minor factions were not allowed to have any territory on the map, thus having no veritable presence on it, so this was a point I thought could be reworked/revamped into something a little more interesting. What if, when a Rebellion is declared and the Minor faction is successful in rebelling that territory and taking it from the Major faction, they can hold onto those hexes that they have successfully rebelled and add it to a pool of space that the Major faction is unable to dominion/'invade' for an x period of time. This gives Minor factions some presence and ability to effect the map. This space can be held onto by the Minor faction for the future, and if they decide to go Major, the number of hexes they successfully rebelled can be added to their initial starting pool of hexes when going Major.
For example - Minor Faction A decides they want to be a thorn in a Major Faction B's side and rebel their territory to stop their expansion. Over the course of a few months they successfully rebel 5 hexes, thus denying 5 hexes from the Major Faction B. Minor Faction A decides to go Major and in addition to their 3 starting hexes, they get 5 hexes of their choosing in the space they decide to set up shop. If they move to a different section of the map, the 5 hexes that were locked from the Major Faction B before can now be opened up for Major faction B to do dominions.
Targets of Rebellions - Keeping in mind the point of opening up 2/3 dominions to being vulnerable to rebellions, I think that the target of the Rebellion should be as soon as the dominion goes up, rather than the 10 day period after it is submitted for judgement. This can liven up the dominions by making them more interesting and a source of conflict between Major/Minor factions. I'm not quite sure what the point is of rebelling territory belonging to a recalled Major faction currently as it will get swept under the rug in future dominions anyways. Unless the point above is implemented, then being able to rebel recalled Major faction's territory would actually become pertinent and useful.
Rebellion Declarations, I think are fine as is, as is their judgement being the same as mini invasions. I think that the need for a minimum minor faction age should be lifted under the stipulation that you cannot declare a rebellion on territory that is in a 3-4 hex radius around the Major Faction's capital hex. It makes more sense that it'd be significantly more difficult to try and rebel a territory around the capital hex where influence would likely be the heaviest, likewise territory farther away from the capital hex would probably be easier to rebel. I think that having the option for multiple Minor factions to jump in on a Rebellion is perfectly fine, as it can perhaps build up collaborative efforts from multiple Minor factions with similar goals and perhaps result in them merging to have a larger and more cohesive member base when going Major if they ever decide to go Major.
Major Faction Recalls - This point is fairly moot if the only way a Major faction can avoid being recalled is winning 2 separate rebellions within 2 weeks. This has three reasons -
1) Any faction, Major or Minor, can simply wait 2 weeks and wait for the recalled Major to be removed from the map before going in.
2) No Minor or even Major factions actively utilize Rebellions because there is no benefit to them in 'taking' recalled Major territory since they can't hold it or it will just be the point of dominion once recalled.
3) Major factions can't hold any territory that isn't directly connected to their cloud of influence, so unless there are some extremely valuable hexes of any worth right up against their border, there is no reason to launch a rebellion to claim it.
Just a few of the current deliberations I've had while seeing how to improve and make the Map game more interesting. As it stands now we lose more Major factions as they pop up, giving Minor factions a hefty advantage (Claiming/Denying territory without needing to worry about getting invaded)/incentive for utilizing Rebellions prior to going Major will perhaps give them a much more stable and better chance at remaining Major. If there is anything that sounds confusing and could use more clarification, feel free to let me know and I'll do my best to make it more clear. If you have nothing constructive to say, then leave it to yourself please.
