Cardiac Steel is, at its core, a scrumptious smoothie consisting of various and numerous ingredients, of which Diplomacy and mafia are the most prominent and significant, and a dash of Hearts of Iron a distant third. Just like Diplomacy and Hearts of Iron, conquering territory is paramount to your personal success. And, just like mafia, lynching the scumbags is also imperative to the town's success.
The game is set in post-apocalyptic-World-War-II-era Europe. After a devastating disease wiped the governments of the world off the face of the earth, as well as most of the globe's population, the world -- Europe included -- fell into disarray. (GM's Note: There may or may not be sequels to this game on different continents, depending on the game's success and popularity.) Rebuilding has been going on for quite some time now, and ten new countries have risen out of the ashes, into four separate alliances.
The Allies -- Consists of democracies (think WWII UK, for example) yearning to bring the freedom and civil liberties their form of government grants to its citizens to the rest of Europe.
The Axis -- Consists of fascist dictatorships (think WWII Germany, for example) thirsting for conquest and European domination.
The Comintern -- Consists of authoritarian communist and socialist governments (think WWII Soviet Union, for example) desiring to turn Europe into a proletariat wonderland.
Kingdom of Zaccino -- Consists of only one nation, unlike the other alliances (which all have three), the Kingdom of Zaccino, a land ruled by its much beloved benevolent dictator, Zack. The Kingdom, commonly abbreviated as KZ, is a utopian society where unicorns frolic and flowers abound, concerned only with its own defense. (Or is it? ...)
Among each alliance (save the Kingdom of Zaccino, which does not participate in the mafia aspect of the game), there is one nation scheming with its secret brethren from the other alliances to overthrow the other nations and establish a European Triumvirate for themselves (OOC: three mafia, one in each faction). They must be stopped at all costs, or else...
Rules
Spoiler:
Game Phases
The Game is divided into two phases:
Lynch Phase -- The nations vote to lynch another nation (optional); if successful, all of the nation's territories (outside the capital) will revert to unclaimed, and all of their armies (outside the capital) will be removed from the map. Players also deploy troops during this phase.
Movement Phase -- The nations move their armies and attack other nations.
All phases are 24 hours.
Posting is allowed, and obviously encouraged, during both phases.
Armies
During the lynch phase, the amount of armies you may deploy is calculated by this formula:
(current number of territories) - (current number of armies) = amount of armies you may deploy
You are never required to take armies off the map, unless you are lynched.
There is neither a minimum nor a maximum of the amount of armies you can have in any one territory.
You may only place an army in a territory under your complete control.
All army placements must be PMed to me. You can discuss it in the thread, alliance QTs, in private, etc. but no armies will be placed unless you PM me.
Combat
Each army has an attack/defend value of 1. To win an attack, an attacking force must be greater than the defending force. In other words, the number of attacking armies must be greater than the number of defending armies in order to take control of the territory.
Each area you attack from increases the total attack value by 0.25 (in addition to the value added by the additional attacking armies).
Each turn a defending force remains stationary increases the total defense value by 0.1 (max of 0.5).
You may support attacks and defenses using adjacent armies to the territory. These will each add to the attack/defend value by 0.75. The supporting army will remain in the territory it is supporting from, regardless of a victory or defeat.
Because there are no ships, armies can cross the water from certain territories to reach territories not accessible by land. Armies attacking a province in this manner suffer a 0.1 decrease in attack value each.
Please refer to this map to see which territories can access each other across water:
If this is a bit confusing, I can illustrate it in a picture.
Victory
Town Victory -- All mafia nations are eliminated, all other alliances except your own eradicated.
Mafia Victory -- All town nations are eliminated.
Communication
All forms of private communication - whether it be via CFC's PM system, e-mail, IM, etc. - is allowed, and strongly encouraged, even between rival nations WITH ONE EXCEPTION [see below].
You are not allowed to edit any posts with a vote in them, or else the vote is invalidated.
You are not allowed to create your own QuickTopic.
Each alliance will be provided its own QuickTopic, and the mafia will also be provided a QuickTopic. Again, you aren't allowed to create your own QuickTopics.
Eliminated Players
Upon your elimination from the map, you may continue to discuss the game in any way you want, both in QuickTopics and in the thread, but with the following caveats:
You no longer have a lynch vote.
You may no longer participate in the Movement Phase.
You may not privately communicate with any other "living" players outside of QuickTopics. You can privately communicate with your fellow dead players at your leisure, however.
Alignment is not revealed upon death.
Miscellaneous
When you sign up, you may create a nation (with as much or as little detail as you desire), pick a color (not black or dark red), pick a capital, and join a faction. Be as historically accurate or inaccurate as you like.
All nations start out with one army.
I'd like a few reserves.
The game begins with a Movement Phase.
Oh, and finally, the map. It's from Iron and Blood 2, hand-drawn by taillesskangaru, with some minor edits by myself. Territories colored black are not part of the game. When the game starts and as it progresses, I'll create additional maps for capitals, alliances, and such.
Spoiler:
Dark Red -- Kingdom of Zaccino (Zack)
Salmon -- England (BSmith1068)
Red -- Soviet Union (Jarrema)
Dark Purple -- Portugal (Verarde)
Green -- Italy (mechaerik)
Light Blue -- Greece (General Olaf)
Orange -- Hungary (Backwards Logic)
Yellow -- Westphalia (Stuck in Pi)
Dark Blue -- Norway (landlubber)
Blue -- Parisian Empire (GamezRule)
Players:
Spoiler:
Allies [3/3]
BSmith -- England
Verarde -- Portugal
General Olaf -- Greece
Map updated. If no nation name is specified, I'll just name your nation after its capital.
Two spots left for both the Axis and Comintern; the Allies are closed.
Some important rule changes:
You start out the game with five armies.
Each turn you receive one army for every two territories you completely own. If you own only one territory, you still get an army.
For the lynch, the number of territories you own is equal to how much your votes count for in the lynch. You cannot split your votes.
There must be a majority of the votes -- not players, votes -- for a player to be effectively "lynched". Failure to reach a majority will result in only a partial lynch, the severity of which depends on the amount of votes.
Each army may only move a maximum of one territory each turn.
If you have any questions, or want something illustrated, speak up!
You know, I was trying to figure out how to merge Diplomacy and Mafia into one game and then this comes along. This could be interesting. In, as the Comintern in Hungary, color Orange.
(I have also updated the rules a bit, so check that out too.)
Green is attacking with 4 armies from Lombardy, with 2 armies from Naples, and supporting the attack with 1 army from Lombardy. for a total of 6 attacking armies and 1 supporting army. The supporting army adds 0.75 to the attack value, and since Green is attacking from two territories, that adds an additional 0.25 to their attack value.
Attack: 4 + 2 + 0.75 + 0.25 = 7
Purple has 5 armies defending Rome, and for our purposes let's say that all 5 of those armies have been stationed in Rome for 2 turns increasing each army's defense value by 0.2.
Defense: 5 + (5 * 0.2) = 6
Since the attack value is greater than the defense value, the attacking force wins. The attacking armies move into the province, while the supporting army stays in Lombardy. Because the defending armies have no province to retreat to, they are destroyed (or surrender, whichever flavor you prefer). If they had an adjacent province, either unclaimed or claimed by themselves, they would automatically retreat to that province. (If the time comes when there is more than one adjacent province to retreat to, I will address it.)
Thus, the end result is 6 of Green's armies stationed in Rome.
Each faction, and the mafia, have received their PMs; the game will start shortly.
ABSOLUTELY NO SHARING OF QUICKTOPICS with people who did not receive the link from myself. This means an Axis player may not give the Axis QT link to a Comintern member, for example.
Any other private communication is allowed (see OP for more details), with the caveat of NO SCREENSHOTS. Feel free to quote anything else, or forge anything, even something I send you.
Oh, and the mafia received a separate PM from the Faction PM. Again, there is one mafia member in each faction. Alignment will not be revealed after a player's elimination.
Chaos erupted with the emergence of the new factions and nations. All of the factions declared war on each other (well, except the poor Kingdom of Zaccino; everyone declared war on them), resulting in what is now sure to be a bloody free-for-all that can only end in two possibilities:
The unification of Europe...
Or its destruction.
Send me your orders for army movement! Phase ends in 24 hours!
Players:
Spoiler:
Allies [3/3]
BSmith -- England
Verarde -- Portugal
General Olaf -- Greece
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