Update 11 Deadline: September 19th, 8:00 PM GMT
Deadline ETA: HERE[TIMER=8:00 PM GMT 10/3/2012][/TIMER]
Update ETA: [TIMER=4:00 AM GMT 10/5/2012][/TIMER]
"You don't have an ETA for a hard deadline." - Dachs
DISCLAIMER: This NES is, for all intents and purposes, a beta test of the overall rules system. Rules are, at any time, subject to change. Please keep this in mind when sudden and sometimes even drastic changes make an impact on your gameplay.
Introductory
Hello and welcome to CNES: The Flames of War. This is an homage to Daftpanzer’s classic ZPNESV: Flowers on the Razor Wire, and I hope you enjoy it.
So, just what is CNES: TFW? It’s essentially a strategy board game mixed with elements that we NESers have come to know and love. It’s got a map custom-made by Lord Iggy with its own backstory written by Thlayli. You can think of TFW as a mixture of Risk, Axis & Allies, and Civilization. In a nutshell: you build an economy, and an army, and send it at your foes, all with the aim of achieving world conquest. Sound fun? It may be, I honestly have no idea. To begin playing, simply send me a nation submission, as detailed in the next section. Once I give you the go-ahead, you can start planning and diplomacizing with everyone else. Whee!
The actual playing by you is done mostly through orders sent to me. For each update you’ll need to send me orders detailing how you’re spending your various resources, and how you’re ordering your troops around. For information on how these rules work, read on.
If you’re a creative sort, you can also write stories, and develop your nation’s character through the submission of extra content. If you write particularly good stories, or submit particularly good content, I may even reward you with Mod Points for your effort - these can go to buying yourself something nice.
Submissions & Stats
Nation submissions can occur at any point throughout the NES. To begin, you identify one province to serve as the Capital (it generally cannot be a province already belonging to another player, see the section on “Insurrection” for more details), and then you dole out 20 Nation Points however you like to “buy” from a variety of qualities for your nation (see the “Nation Shop” for more details). Take a look!
Beginning of the NES
At the beginning of the NES, the opportunities are limitless. You have 20 Nation Points (NP) to spend when first creating your nation; these can be spent on things in the “Nation Shop” which you may then indicate in your stats. Here is the basic deliverable:
[font=”Courier New”]Nation Name:
Flag:
Color:
Unit Type:
Provinces:
Units:
Improvements:
Extras:
History:[/font]
And again, annotated:
[font=”Courier New”]Nation Name: {such as: The Iron Fascists of the Greater South}
Flag: {See the “Graphics” section below}
Color: {Give a primary color, which will be the color of your provinces, and a secondary color, which will be the color of your borders; these colors will also be used for your units.}
Unit Type: {See the “Graphics” section below}
Provinces: {One “Capital” province, that is free, and as many additional provinces as you can afford with NP}
Units: {You start with 3 Infantry for free, all in your capital, but you may purchase additional units with NP}
Improvements: {Your provinces will all be unadorned to begin with, but you may add improvements to them for NP}
Extras: {Anything else you get from the Nation Shop which doesn’t fit into the above 3 categories}
History: {A description of your nation and its history, with consideration given to the Thlayli chronicles}[/font]
I will be doublechecking stats to see nobody runs over 20 NP. If you go over, I will cut costs (Units, Extras, Improvements, Provinces) until you are under budget. NP unspent at the time of nation creation will be turned into $ (1 per NP) and then put into your treasury for the start of the game.
For easy reference, here are links to Thlayli’s histories:
Thlayli’s History pt. 1
Thlayli’s History pt. 2
Thlayli's History pt. 3
During the NES
If you want to make a nation after the launch - that is, during the NES - you are a bit more limited. To begin with, you can only have one province to start with, and you may not choose player-controlled provinces (generally) or capital provinces (ever) when doing so. If you choose an NPC province, improvements that are already there are automatically counted against your NP, and you may add new improvements if you choose. If you choose a player-controlled province, you may not add any improvements, but existing improvements do not count against your NP.
[font=”Courier New”]Nation Name:
Flag:
Color:
Unit Type:
Province:
Units:
Improvements:
Extras:
History:[/font]
Insurrection
Any nation with more than 8 provinces can experience an insurrection whereby a new player joins the game as a rebelling province in the aforementioned nation. To do so, pick any province in that nation that was not one of the provinces that player started with (indicated on the map as a “core” province of that faction) without a unit garrison and PM me your nation submission rather than post it in the thread.
Nation Shop
Here are the things you can buy with your NP when making your nation (note you can only take each “Extra” item once per, and tech prerequisites still apply for techs obtained in the Nation Shop):
ONE EXTRA PROVINCE: 5 NP. Beginning nations only.
ONE PROVINCE INDUSTRIALIZED: 10 NP. Beginning nations only.
ONE PROVINCE URBANIZED: 5 NP. Beginning nations only.
ONE PROVINCE W/ PORT: 2 NP. Beginning nations only.
ONE PROVINCE W/ AIRBASE: 2 NP. Beginning nations only.
ONE PROVINCE W/ RESEARCH LAB: 7 NP. Beginning nations only.
INFANTRY UNIT: 1 NP.
ARMORED CAR: 2 NP.
LANDSHIP: 4 NP.
ARTILLERY: 3 NP.
OFFICER: 5 NP.
BIPLANE: 2 NP.
SUB: 3 NP. Only if you have a port.
DESTROYER: 2 NP. Only if you have a port.
BATTLESHIP: 4 NP. Only if you have a port.
MANDATORY SERVICE: 5 NP. Extra. Start with 10 Militia.
BUSINESS SCHOOLS & TYCOON CAPITALISM: 5 NP. Extra. Start with Business & Individualism.
NEW DAWN: 5 NP. Extra. Start with Third Way.
FIVE-YEAR PLANS: 5 NP. Extra. Start with State Socialism.
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC: 5 NP. Extra. Start with Syndicalism.
Graphics
Flags
You can choose one of any of the following flags.
Flags 1
Flags 2
Flags 3
Flags 4
Flags 5
Flags 6
“But Crezth!” I hear you cry indignantly, “I wanted a custom flag!” No problem. Simply make a flag graphic with the same dimensions as any of those above and send it to me, and I’ll try to cook it up like the other flags.
Unit Type
You can choose a helmet type (complete with a “general feel” from any of these:
Names should be fairly self-explanatory. There will be plenty of extra customization as the game goes on.
Economy Rules
The economy of your nation is its life-blood: it supplies, grows, feeds, and fuels the army that you better be building. Allegedly, economies have been used for other things throughout history, but that has yet to be borne out by evidence. Economics has traditionally been an incredibly complicated subject, often requiring years of study before even the most ambiguous of rules can be established and understood. Still partially outside of the realm of human knowledge, simulating an economy is a task of incredible difficulty. In CNES, your economy is represented by $.
Provincial Income
Provinces are classified according to three categories: terrain type, industrialization, and urbanization. Each province in your domain will contribute $ to your yearly income based on the amalgamation of the effects of the province’s inherent profitability (its terrain type) and its level of improvement. As a general rule of thumb, improvement is costly at first, and it takes a while to fully reap its benefits. At the start of the game, some provinces may be industrialized or urbanized, depending on the history of those regions.
Terrain Type
There are four general terrain types: jungle, desert, tundra, and temperate. Each province will be defined as being one of these categories. Different terrain types offer a different level of “base” economic profitability, and can offer different combat bonuses to the defender. The “base” economic profitability is essentially how much money the province produces from simple resource gathering operations, or when it is neither urbanized nor industrialized. All the terrain types and their qualities are classified below:
Jungle: $1, defense level 1, -1 Atk for armor-type units, urbanization +100% cost, industrialization +50% cost
Desert: $1, defense level 1, urbanization +100% cost, armored units entering desert provinces must end their movement in that province
Tundra: $1, defense level 1, urbanization +100% cost
Temperate: $1, defense level 0
Sometimes, these provinces can also have other features, like hills, mountains, and forests:
Hill: Defense level +1
Mountain: Defense level +2, urbanization +200% cost, industrialization +50% cost, units entering mountain provinces must end their movement in that province
Forest: -1 Atk for armor-type units
Each defense level counts as a fortification level (see Movement Rules below), but does not count against the max fortification level permitted by technology.
THE TERRAIN MAP
|Tropical|Desert|Temperate|Cold
Default|N/A| Yellow | Orange | White
Forest| Dark Green |N/A| Light Green | Turquoise
Improvement
Urbanization refers to the level of settlement in a province. An urbanized province is heavily and densely populated, and generates more income from the commerce generated in the urban area. Generally, urbanized provinces have access to more improvements than industrialized provinces, even though they produce less wealth. It costs $10 to immediately urbanize a temperate province. It costs $20 to immediately urbanize a desert or tundra province.
[No icon] Rural: +$0
Urbanized: +$3. Allows province to build unlimited infantry-type units.
Industrialization requires a one-time investment of $20 to immediately industrialize a province. An urbanized province cannot also be industrialized.
Industrialized: +$5. Allows province to build unlimited units of any type that province would normally otherwise be able to build.
You may also construct ports and airbases, which mostly provide military benefits but can also provide trade benefits. Ports and airbases both cost $5 to build.
Port: Province must be industrialized or urbanized and coastal. If in urbanized province, gives +$1. Allows province to build naval units (1/turn normally).
Airbase: Province must be industrialized or urbanized. If in urbanized province, gives +$1. Allows province to build air units (1/turn normally).
You may also build research labs, but only in urbanized provinces. Research labs cost $8 to build.
Research Lab: Gives +1 research points.
Finally, you may build forts for $5, which improve defense.
Fort: Defense level +1 in this province.
Occupied Provinces
Occupied provinces are those that you don’t normally own, but which you have control of due to successfully having taken it during war. In most cases, it takes 1 turn for an occupied province to normalize. Occupying a province has a few effects:
Razing
In any province you control, you can elect to raze some of its assets or qualities. Razing is free but takes 1 turn to complete. Once started, it can only be reversed with an investment of $5 (in the interim period while the razing is occurring; once the razing is complete, it cannot be undone).
You can raze:
Urbanization
Industrialization
Forest
Port
Airbase
Research Lab
Fort
Spending
There are three things you can spend $ on: improvements, units, and greasing the palms of aggressive neighbors. In order to buy anything, however, you must be able to afford it. Ordering to buy something that you can’t afford will make me a sad panda, and you an even sadder panda.
Buying Units
To buy a unit, indicate in your orders the province that the unit is to be built in. Keep in mind that provinces cannot build more than one unit per turn, except where otherwise specified here:
Infantry-type units: 1/turn unless urbanized or industrialized (unlimited/turn).
Non-infantry ground-units: 1/turn unless industrialized (unlimited/turn).
Air units: 0/turn unless airbase (1/turn) or airbase and industrialized (unlimited/turn).
Navy units: 0/turn unless port (1/turn) or port and industrialized (unlimited/turn).
Getting/Removing Cores
In any province you control, you may add a core there for a cost. The cost depends on how many cores your faction already has:
# Cores|Cost ($)
0|0
1|5
2|5
3|10
4|15
5|20
6|30
7+|50
You may also remove a core, yours or another faction’s, in any province you control for $20. BE WARNED! This action has a 50% chance to spawn 1d6 Militia under the control of the victim faction, and another 50% chance to raze improvements in the province!
Mod Points
Mod Points are a special type of point that is earned from being a “good NESer.” Typically, at least one mod point will be doled out per turn based on an agglomeration of the following criteria:
1.) Who had the best orders. From an objective standpoint, whose orders were most well-organized, clear, and concise. You won’t get a mod point if your orders contain errors - spelling or otherwise - or are incomplete or unclear.
2.) Who was the most helpful. Let’s say I ask for a piece of media, or something else, to help move the NES along. Delivering on such a request can cinch you the mod point.
3.) Submitting good content. Let’s say you write a great story that moves me to tears. Probably go’n earn you a mod point.
For a frame of reference, both Thlayli and Iggy are starting with some mod points due to their invaluable service to this NESterprise. It’s my little way of saying thanks.
So what can you do with these mod points? Well first of all, they give you mad swag. Every kid on the block is going to be wanting some of these pimpin’ mod points. Secondly, you can buy stuff with them. Stuff like double strength units, infinite resources and nuclear we-hahaha no that’d be ******ed. You can buy cosmetic stuff though. Lookie:
5 Mod Points: Name Change! - Change the name of any of your unit types.
Ex.: You rename your Infantry unit to Red Guard. So now in the battle feedouts, instead of “Infantry” you will be reported as having “Red Guard (Infantry).”
10 Mod Points: Landmark! - Add a sprite-lookin’ thing to any territory that you control on the map as a permanent doodad adorning the landscape!
Ex.: You think to yourself, “Man I wish I could have one of these cool sprites in my faction.” Well, if you have 10 Mod Points, now you can!
15 Mod Points: Sprite Change! - Change the sprite for any of your unit types to... anything.
Ex.: “If only my infantry could all be blue hedgehogs!” Well, no, I’d actually veto that one pretty hard, and probably dock you 5 mod points for good measure. But you get the idea.
Movement Rules
Every unit has a certain amount of movement, indicated by the blue arrow on their unit card. For land and naval units, this is the maximum amount of provinces that that unit can move in one turn. For an air unit, this is the maximum range that an air unit can operate within (to perform combat missions, bombing missions, and interception missions within).
Ground Units
Ground units have access to a certain number of special orders regarding movement and how they can operate on the game board. The orders that every ground unit can access are: move, fortify, and blitz.
Move
Every ground unit can move a number of provinces equal to the value of their movement score, as shown on their unit card. Every naval unit can move a number of naval spaces equal to the value of their movement score in the same way. Movement consists of multiple phases: there is the initial phase, and the subsequent phases.
The initial phase details all movements made by all ground, air, and naval units made to the fullest extent possible permitted by their movement score before being forced to stop for whatever reason, be it that they have been forced to engage an enemy army or are stopped due to other mitigating factors.
Once all movement has been resolved in this manner, the initial phase is concluded by the battle phase, where all battles that need to be resolved are resolved. Following this is the retreat phase, where units that have survived and lost a battle retreat into adjacent friendly provinces. After the retreat phase is the secondary movement phase, where units with movement points remaining and an unpingable path forward OR under a blitz order finish their movement as ordered.
Fortify
Any ground unit that chooses not to take a movement order can take a fortify order, where they dig into the territory they are in to obtain a Fortification bonus. Subsequent fortification orders can increase this bonus by increasing the fortification level by 1, so long as tech level permits. Taking a movement or blitz order eliminates all acquired fortification bonuses. By default, the maximum fortification level is 1.
Fortification bonus: +1 Def and +1 Eva per level.
This bonus can also be improved by certain qualities of terrain (and terrain bonuses do not count towards the max level permitted by technology), however the total fortification bonus can never exceed 5.
Blitz
A blitz is a special movement order that allows an army to attack multiple times in one turn. Any unit with a movement score above 1 can take a blitz order. The only difference between a blitz order and a movement order is that the secondary movement phase is now no longer limited by requiring a clear path forward: even if units occupy the target province, units with a blitz order can keep moving ahead, and will keep fighting. The total number of provinces that a unit can move under a blitz order cannot exceed its total movement. Blitz orders can only be given once the appropriate tech has been researched.
Air Units
Air units are always qualified as being “based” in a province, and it is from that province that they can operate. Aircraft can perform any orders within range of their based province, or “base,” their range being defined as their movement score. If an air unit loses its base, or for any other reason must rebase, then it moves its base to another baseable province.
Aircraft can undertake six types of orders:
Ground Support
Aircraft ordered to do ground support will participate in any battles occurring in the targeted territory. The targeted territory must be within range of the supporting aircraft. Note that aircraft ordered to do ground support can and will also fight enemy aircraft in any battle that they are ostensibly participating in for ground support purposes.
Ground Attack
All aircraft can engage in ground attack missions. Unlike ground support, in this kind of mission an aircraft actively engages hostile units in the target territory. Use this to make bombing passes on territories you can’t quite reach yet, or if you want to use aircraft to engage an opponent without bringing ground troops to the fight. If you use this mission and target an ocean territory, adjacent territories that the aircraft can also reach will also be targeted in case enemy naval units pass through those territories but not, specifically, the target territory.
Interception
Aircraft ordered to do interception will participate in any battles in range where at least one enemy aircraft is performing ground support. They will opt to participate in the battle with the most enemy aircraft present. Aircraft ordered to intercept will also force enemy aircraft engaging in strategic bombing within their range to fight.
Rebase
You can manually rebase your aircraft in lieu of another order for a turn. Doing so consists of moving the aircraft and its base to another baseable province. Baseable provinces are friendly provinces with an airbase within the range defined by the range score of the rebasing aircraft in question. If there is no baseable province in range, the aircraft cannot rebase. Aircraft that cannot rebase, but which are forced to, are destroyed.
Air Sweep
Biplane, Fighter, and Jet units can engage in air sweep missions. To do so, simply order the mission on any territory within range of the biplane, fighter, or jet you are giving the mission order to. When air sweeping, aircraft will escort strategic bombing missions sent to the target territory, meaning they will join those aircraft in combat should they be intercepted.
Strategic Bombing
Bomber and Heavy Bomber units can engage in strategic bombing missions. To do so, simply order the mission on any territory within range of the bomber or heavy bomber you are giving the mission order to. Aircraft ordered to engage in this way will not participate in battles with other units except when intercepted. Strategic bombing missions roll 1d6+Atk (per bomber) against 1d6+Def (per defending AA). A victory for the attacker means that one installation at random in the defending territory starts razing, and razing rules continue as normal from there. A victory for the defender means a 50% chance that the attacker is destroyed and no damage is done to any installations in the defending territory.
Diplomacy Rules
Diplomacy is when you talk to other nations and stuff, and make agreements and disagreements and write pieces of paper about how much you hate or love each other. In CNES, diplomacy is a mostly unregulated process in terms of who you can talk to and when, but where it affects gameplay there are a few specific rules. You may also trade $ to other players.
The relationship between your nation and another nation can be expressed as one of three different statuses:
At Peace: Default. No special rules.
Allied: Must be explicitly referred to by both players in orders; units now fight together as allies and can enter allied territory without starting war.
At War: Triggered when one nation’s armies enters the territory of another nation not in an alliance. Units now fight one another when occupying the same territory and can occupy another’s territory.
When you break an alliance, you must explicitly order it in your orders. Keep in mind that this action occurs during the political phase of the turn, and therefore unit positions as they are at the start of the turn must be resolved before any movement can occur. This is so that a player cannot unally the same turn they occupy a formerly friendly nation's capital province.
Deadline ETA: HERE[TIMER=8:00 PM GMT 10/3/2012][/TIMER]
Update ETA: [TIMER=4:00 AM GMT 10/5/2012][/TIMER]
"You don't have an ETA for a hard deadline." - Dachs
DISCLAIMER: This NES is, for all intents and purposes, a beta test of the overall rules system. Rules are, at any time, subject to change. Please keep this in mind when sudden and sometimes even drastic changes make an impact on your gameplay.
Introductory
Hello and welcome to CNES: The Flames of War. This is an homage to Daftpanzer’s classic ZPNESV: Flowers on the Razor Wire, and I hope you enjoy it.
So, just what is CNES: TFW? It’s essentially a strategy board game mixed with elements that we NESers have come to know and love. It’s got a map custom-made by Lord Iggy with its own backstory written by Thlayli. You can think of TFW as a mixture of Risk, Axis & Allies, and Civilization. In a nutshell: you build an economy, and an army, and send it at your foes, all with the aim of achieving world conquest. Sound fun? It may be, I honestly have no idea. To begin playing, simply send me a nation submission, as detailed in the next section. Once I give you the go-ahead, you can start planning and diplomacizing with everyone else. Whee!
The actual playing by you is done mostly through orders sent to me. For each update you’ll need to send me orders detailing how you’re spending your various resources, and how you’re ordering your troops around. For information on how these rules work, read on.
If you’re a creative sort, you can also write stories, and develop your nation’s character through the submission of extra content. If you write particularly good stories, or submit particularly good content, I may even reward you with Mod Points for your effort - these can go to buying yourself something nice.
Submissions & Stats
Nation submissions can occur at any point throughout the NES. To begin, you identify one province to serve as the Capital (it generally cannot be a province already belonging to another player, see the section on “Insurrection” for more details), and then you dole out 20 Nation Points however you like to “buy” from a variety of qualities for your nation (see the “Nation Shop” for more details). Take a look!
Beginning of the NES
At the beginning of the NES, the opportunities are limitless. You have 20 Nation Points (NP) to spend when first creating your nation; these can be spent on things in the “Nation Shop” which you may then indicate in your stats. Here is the basic deliverable:
[font=”Courier New”]Nation Name:
Flag:
Color:
Unit Type:
Provinces:
Units:
Improvements:
Extras:
History:[/font]
And again, annotated:
[font=”Courier New”]Nation Name: {such as: The Iron Fascists of the Greater South}
Flag: {See the “Graphics” section below}
Color: {Give a primary color, which will be the color of your provinces, and a secondary color, which will be the color of your borders; these colors will also be used for your units.}
Unit Type: {See the “Graphics” section below}
Provinces: {One “Capital” province, that is free, and as many additional provinces as you can afford with NP}
Units: {You start with 3 Infantry for free, all in your capital, but you may purchase additional units with NP}
Improvements: {Your provinces will all be unadorned to begin with, but you may add improvements to them for NP}
Extras: {Anything else you get from the Nation Shop which doesn’t fit into the above 3 categories}
History: {A description of your nation and its history, with consideration given to the Thlayli chronicles}[/font]
I will be doublechecking stats to see nobody runs over 20 NP. If you go over, I will cut costs (Units, Extras, Improvements, Provinces) until you are under budget. NP unspent at the time of nation creation will be turned into $ (1 per NP) and then put into your treasury for the start of the game.
For easy reference, here are links to Thlayli’s histories:
Thlayli’s History pt. 1
Thlayli’s History pt. 2
Thlayli's History pt. 3
During the NES
If you want to make a nation after the launch - that is, during the NES - you are a bit more limited. To begin with, you can only have one province to start with, and you may not choose player-controlled provinces (generally) or capital provinces (ever) when doing so. If you choose an NPC province, improvements that are already there are automatically counted against your NP, and you may add new improvements if you choose. If you choose a player-controlled province, you may not add any improvements, but existing improvements do not count against your NP.
[font=”Courier New”]Nation Name:
Flag:
Color:
Unit Type:
Province:
Units:
Improvements:
Extras:
History:[/font]
Insurrection
Any nation with more than 8 provinces can experience an insurrection whereby a new player joins the game as a rebelling province in the aforementioned nation. To do so, pick any province in that nation that was not one of the provinces that player started with (indicated on the map as a “core” province of that faction) without a unit garrison and PM me your nation submission rather than post it in the thread.
Nation Shop
Here are the things you can buy with your NP when making your nation (note you can only take each “Extra” item once per, and tech prerequisites still apply for techs obtained in the Nation Shop):
ONE EXTRA PROVINCE: 5 NP. Beginning nations only.
ONE PROVINCE INDUSTRIALIZED: 10 NP. Beginning nations only.
ONE PROVINCE URBANIZED: 5 NP. Beginning nations only.
ONE PROVINCE W/ PORT: 2 NP. Beginning nations only.
ONE PROVINCE W/ AIRBASE: 2 NP. Beginning nations only.
ONE PROVINCE W/ RESEARCH LAB: 7 NP. Beginning nations only.
INFANTRY UNIT: 1 NP.
ARMORED CAR: 2 NP.
LANDSHIP: 4 NP.
ARTILLERY: 3 NP.
OFFICER: 5 NP.
BIPLANE: 2 NP.
SUB: 3 NP. Only if you have a port.
DESTROYER: 2 NP. Only if you have a port.
BATTLESHIP: 4 NP. Only if you have a port.
MANDATORY SERVICE: 5 NP. Extra. Start with 10 Militia.
BUSINESS SCHOOLS & TYCOON CAPITALISM: 5 NP. Extra. Start with Business & Individualism.
NEW DAWN: 5 NP. Extra. Start with Third Way.
FIVE-YEAR PLANS: 5 NP. Extra. Start with State Socialism.
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC: 5 NP. Extra. Start with Syndicalism.
Graphics
Flags
You can choose one of any of the following flags.
Flags 1
Flags 2
Flags 3
Flags 4
Flags 5
Flags 6
“But Crezth!” I hear you cry indignantly, “I wanted a custom flag!” No problem. Simply make a flag graphic with the same dimensions as any of those above and send it to me, and I’ll try to cook it up like the other flags.
Unit Type
You can choose a helmet type (complete with a “general feel” from any of these:
Names should be fairly self-explanatory. There will be plenty of extra customization as the game goes on.
Economy Rules
The economy of your nation is its life-blood: it supplies, grows, feeds, and fuels the army that you better be building. Allegedly, economies have been used for other things throughout history, but that has yet to be borne out by evidence. Economics has traditionally been an incredibly complicated subject, often requiring years of study before even the most ambiguous of rules can be established and understood. Still partially outside of the realm of human knowledge, simulating an economy is a task of incredible difficulty. In CNES, your economy is represented by $.
Provincial Income
Provinces are classified according to three categories: terrain type, industrialization, and urbanization. Each province in your domain will contribute $ to your yearly income based on the amalgamation of the effects of the province’s inherent profitability (its terrain type) and its level of improvement. As a general rule of thumb, improvement is costly at first, and it takes a while to fully reap its benefits. At the start of the game, some provinces may be industrialized or urbanized, depending on the history of those regions.
Terrain Type
There are four general terrain types: jungle, desert, tundra, and temperate. Each province will be defined as being one of these categories. Different terrain types offer a different level of “base” economic profitability, and can offer different combat bonuses to the defender. The “base” economic profitability is essentially how much money the province produces from simple resource gathering operations, or when it is neither urbanized nor industrialized. All the terrain types and their qualities are classified below:
Jungle: $1, defense level 1, -1 Atk for armor-type units, urbanization +100% cost, industrialization +50% cost
Desert: $1, defense level 1, urbanization +100% cost, armored units entering desert provinces must end their movement in that province
Tundra: $1, defense level 1, urbanization +100% cost
Temperate: $1, defense level 0
Sometimes, these provinces can also have other features, like hills, mountains, and forests:
Hill: Defense level +1
Mountain: Defense level +2, urbanization +200% cost, industrialization +50% cost, units entering mountain provinces must end their movement in that province
Forest: -1 Atk for armor-type units
Each defense level counts as a fortification level (see Movement Rules below), but does not count against the max fortification level permitted by technology.
THE TERRAIN MAP
Default|N/A| Yellow | Orange | White
Forest| Dark Green |N/A| Light Green | Turquoise
Improvement
Urbanization refers to the level of settlement in a province. An urbanized province is heavily and densely populated, and generates more income from the commerce generated in the urban area. Generally, urbanized provinces have access to more improvements than industrialized provinces, even though they produce less wealth. It costs $10 to immediately urbanize a temperate province. It costs $20 to immediately urbanize a desert or tundra province.
[No icon] Rural: +$0
Urbanized: +$3. Allows province to build unlimited infantry-type units.
Industrialization requires a one-time investment of $20 to immediately industrialize a province. An urbanized province cannot also be industrialized.
Industrialized: +$5. Allows province to build unlimited units of any type that province would normally otherwise be able to build.
You may also construct ports and airbases, which mostly provide military benefits but can also provide trade benefits. Ports and airbases both cost $5 to build.
Port: Province must be industrialized or urbanized and coastal. If in urbanized province, gives +$1. Allows province to build naval units (1/turn normally).
Airbase: Province must be industrialized or urbanized. If in urbanized province, gives +$1. Allows province to build air units (1/turn normally).
You may also build research labs, but only in urbanized provinces. Research labs cost $8 to build.
Research Lab: Gives +1 research points.
Finally, you may build forts for $5, which improve defense.
Fort: Defense level +1 in this province.
Occupied Provinces
Occupied provinces are those that you don’t normally own, but which you have control of due to successfully having taken it during war. In most cases, it takes 1 turn for an occupied province to normalize. Occupying a province has a few effects:
- Disables income from that province for 1 turn.
- Transfers ownership of province to the occupier.
Razing
In any province you control, you can elect to raze some of its assets or qualities. Razing is free but takes 1 turn to complete. Once started, it can only be reversed with an investment of $5 (in the interim period while the razing is occurring; once the razing is complete, it cannot be undone).
You can raze:
Urbanization
Industrialization
Forest
Port
Airbase
Research Lab
Fort
Spending
There are three things you can spend $ on: improvements, units, and greasing the palms of aggressive neighbors. In order to buy anything, however, you must be able to afford it. Ordering to buy something that you can’t afford will make me a sad panda, and you an even sadder panda.
Buying Units
To buy a unit, indicate in your orders the province that the unit is to be built in. Keep in mind that provinces cannot build more than one unit per turn, except where otherwise specified here:
Infantry-type units: 1/turn unless urbanized or industrialized (unlimited/turn).
Non-infantry ground-units: 1/turn unless industrialized (unlimited/turn).
Air units: 0/turn unless airbase (1/turn) or airbase and industrialized (unlimited/turn).
Navy units: 0/turn unless port (1/turn) or port and industrialized (unlimited/turn).
Getting/Removing Cores
In any province you control, you may add a core there for a cost. The cost depends on how many cores your faction already has:
0|0
1|5
2|5
3|10
4|15
5|20
6|30
7+|50
You may also remove a core, yours or another faction’s, in any province you control for $20. BE WARNED! This action has a 50% chance to spawn 1d6 Militia under the control of the victim faction, and another 50% chance to raze improvements in the province!
Mod Points
Mod Points are a special type of point that is earned from being a “good NESer.” Typically, at least one mod point will be doled out per turn based on an agglomeration of the following criteria:
1.) Who had the best orders. From an objective standpoint, whose orders were most well-organized, clear, and concise. You won’t get a mod point if your orders contain errors - spelling or otherwise - or are incomplete or unclear.
2.) Who was the most helpful. Let’s say I ask for a piece of media, or something else, to help move the NES along. Delivering on such a request can cinch you the mod point.
3.) Submitting good content. Let’s say you write a great story that moves me to tears. Probably go’n earn you a mod point.
For a frame of reference, both Thlayli and Iggy are starting with some mod points due to their invaluable service to this NESterprise. It’s my little way of saying thanks.
So what can you do with these mod points? Well first of all, they give you mad swag. Every kid on the block is going to be wanting some of these pimpin’ mod points. Secondly, you can buy stuff with them. Stuff like double strength units, infinite resources and nuclear we-hahaha no that’d be ******ed. You can buy cosmetic stuff though. Lookie:
5 Mod Points: Name Change! - Change the name of any of your unit types.
Ex.: You rename your Infantry unit to Red Guard. So now in the battle feedouts, instead of “Infantry” you will be reported as having “Red Guard (Infantry).”
10 Mod Points: Landmark! - Add a sprite-lookin’ thing to any territory that you control on the map as a permanent doodad adorning the landscape!
Ex.: You think to yourself, “Man I wish I could have one of these cool sprites in my faction.” Well, if you have 10 Mod Points, now you can!
15 Mod Points: Sprite Change! - Change the sprite for any of your unit types to... anything.
Ex.: “If only my infantry could all be blue hedgehogs!” Well, no, I’d actually veto that one pretty hard, and probably dock you 5 mod points for good measure. But you get the idea.
Movement Rules
Every unit has a certain amount of movement, indicated by the blue arrow on their unit card. For land and naval units, this is the maximum amount of provinces that that unit can move in one turn. For an air unit, this is the maximum range that an air unit can operate within (to perform combat missions, bombing missions, and interception missions within).
Ground Units
Ground units have access to a certain number of special orders regarding movement and how they can operate on the game board. The orders that every ground unit can access are: move, fortify, and blitz.
Move
Every ground unit can move a number of provinces equal to the value of their movement score, as shown on their unit card. Every naval unit can move a number of naval spaces equal to the value of their movement score in the same way. Movement consists of multiple phases: there is the initial phase, and the subsequent phases.
The initial phase details all movements made by all ground, air, and naval units made to the fullest extent possible permitted by their movement score before being forced to stop for whatever reason, be it that they have been forced to engage an enemy army or are stopped due to other mitigating factors.
Once all movement has been resolved in this manner, the initial phase is concluded by the battle phase, where all battles that need to be resolved are resolved. Following this is the retreat phase, where units that have survived and lost a battle retreat into adjacent friendly provinces. After the retreat phase is the secondary movement phase, where units with movement points remaining and an unpingable path forward OR under a blitz order finish their movement as ordered.
Fortify
Any ground unit that chooses not to take a movement order can take a fortify order, where they dig into the territory they are in to obtain a Fortification bonus. Subsequent fortification orders can increase this bonus by increasing the fortification level by 1, so long as tech level permits. Taking a movement or blitz order eliminates all acquired fortification bonuses. By default, the maximum fortification level is 1.
Fortification bonus: +1 Def and +1 Eva per level.
This bonus can also be improved by certain qualities of terrain (and terrain bonuses do not count towards the max level permitted by technology), however the total fortification bonus can never exceed 5.
Blitz
A blitz is a special movement order that allows an army to attack multiple times in one turn. Any unit with a movement score above 1 can take a blitz order. The only difference between a blitz order and a movement order is that the secondary movement phase is now no longer limited by requiring a clear path forward: even if units occupy the target province, units with a blitz order can keep moving ahead, and will keep fighting. The total number of provinces that a unit can move under a blitz order cannot exceed its total movement. Blitz orders can only be given once the appropriate tech has been researched.
Air Units
Air units are always qualified as being “based” in a province, and it is from that province that they can operate. Aircraft can perform any orders within range of their based province, or “base,” their range being defined as their movement score. If an air unit loses its base, or for any other reason must rebase, then it moves its base to another baseable province.
Aircraft can undertake six types of orders:
Ground Support
Aircraft ordered to do ground support will participate in any battles occurring in the targeted territory. The targeted territory must be within range of the supporting aircraft. Note that aircraft ordered to do ground support can and will also fight enemy aircraft in any battle that they are ostensibly participating in for ground support purposes.
Ground Attack
All aircraft can engage in ground attack missions. Unlike ground support, in this kind of mission an aircraft actively engages hostile units in the target territory. Use this to make bombing passes on territories you can’t quite reach yet, or if you want to use aircraft to engage an opponent without bringing ground troops to the fight. If you use this mission and target an ocean territory, adjacent territories that the aircraft can also reach will also be targeted in case enemy naval units pass through those territories but not, specifically, the target territory.
Interception
Aircraft ordered to do interception will participate in any battles in range where at least one enemy aircraft is performing ground support. They will opt to participate in the battle with the most enemy aircraft present. Aircraft ordered to intercept will also force enemy aircraft engaging in strategic bombing within their range to fight.
Rebase
You can manually rebase your aircraft in lieu of another order for a turn. Doing so consists of moving the aircraft and its base to another baseable province. Baseable provinces are friendly provinces with an airbase within the range defined by the range score of the rebasing aircraft in question. If there is no baseable province in range, the aircraft cannot rebase. Aircraft that cannot rebase, but which are forced to, are destroyed.
Air Sweep
Biplane, Fighter, and Jet units can engage in air sweep missions. To do so, simply order the mission on any territory within range of the biplane, fighter, or jet you are giving the mission order to. When air sweeping, aircraft will escort strategic bombing missions sent to the target territory, meaning they will join those aircraft in combat should they be intercepted.
Strategic Bombing
Bomber and Heavy Bomber units can engage in strategic bombing missions. To do so, simply order the mission on any territory within range of the bomber or heavy bomber you are giving the mission order to. Aircraft ordered to engage in this way will not participate in battles with other units except when intercepted. Strategic bombing missions roll 1d6+Atk (per bomber) against 1d6+Def (per defending AA). A victory for the attacker means that one installation at random in the defending territory starts razing, and razing rules continue as normal from there. A victory for the defender means a 50% chance that the attacker is destroyed and no damage is done to any installations in the defending territory.
Diplomacy Rules
Diplomacy is when you talk to other nations and stuff, and make agreements and disagreements and write pieces of paper about how much you hate or love each other. In CNES, diplomacy is a mostly unregulated process in terms of who you can talk to and when, but where it affects gameplay there are a few specific rules. You may also trade $ to other players.
The relationship between your nation and another nation can be expressed as one of three different statuses:
At Peace: Default. No special rules.
Allied: Must be explicitly referred to by both players in orders; units now fight together as allies and can enter allied territory without starting war.
At War: Triggered when one nation’s armies enters the territory of another nation not in an alliance. Units now fight one another when occupying the same territory and can occupy another’s territory.
When you break an alliance, you must explicitly order it in your orders. Keep in mind that this action occurs during the political phase of the turn, and therefore unit positions as they are at the start of the turn must be resolved before any movement can occur. This is so that a player cannot unally the same turn they occupy a formerly friendly nation's capital province.