Jason The King
Deity
JNES: The Path to Empire
For those who read and reviewed the rules on the preview thread, read them again! I have changed them according to the reviews I got back. I have made it more city-centric in the hopes of making it a little easier and less daunting. Also I replaced my stability/faction stat with that of EQ’s.
Introduction
Welcome to the newest JNES, and hopefully a hobby that will last through the summer. First off I’d like to attribute the rules to EQandCivfanatic and his short-lived yet promising Legacy of Civilization NES. Though some of the rules were derived from joint conversations between him, Kentharu and I, it was EQ who put them down in writing and added many of his own independent ideas. For that, he should be given due credit.
That said, I’ve made a few tweaks where I wanted to better suit my style. I want to say first and foremost: don’t be scared of the numbers. My philosophy has always been flexibility – whatever is not expressly prohibited in the rules should be for the most part fair game. Don’t feel constricted. On that same note, to be dissuaded by the seemingly complex math. I will be doing all the calculations. Besides, for it to be realistic rulers shouldn’t know about these formulas anyways!
My first rule for this NES is to stay in character and role play. Lets create a world from cradle to grave. I want you attached to this world, not your nation or even culture per say (because I warn you now, they will come and go!) And for this, I need cooperation from all players and at least minimal effort. You don’t have to write stories every turn, or even at all. You don’t have to be a poet or artist. But I would like some effort in creativity and role play in orders and diplomacy.
We will start after a short BT (2-3 turn’s worth in update 0, so not huge) to get the civilizations established. Technology and progression will not always follow the same rhythm or scale as OTL…we could be in the OTL classical age for decades, skip medieval, and have an industrial revolution right away. Or we may never have the industrial revolution. Its all open in this NES, and I hope you give me some flexibility when it comes to realism (though I will strive for keep it realistic!).
So I hope you join, and I hope we really create a world here worthy of these forums!
Sample stats:
Kingdom of Alonia
Absolute Monarchy
Capital: Westmond
Legacy: 3
Stability:
- Priesthood: Tiny/Weak/Faltering
- Grindolf Merchants Guild: Tiny/Medium/Loyal
- Farmers: Medium/Weak/Loyal
- City of Westmond: Small/Weak/Wary
- City of Krisen: Small/Medium/Wary
Cities:
Westmond: +1c, +3f
- Total Population: 45,000
- Farmers: 34,000 (Class D)
- Food Production: 48
Krisen +1c, +1f
- Total Population: 33,000
- Farmers: 24,000 (Class D)
- Food Production: 34
Raw Resources: +4f
- 2 Salt Mines (both near Krisen)
- 1 Tin Mine (near Krisen)
Trade: -2f, +2c
- 1 Salt for +1 Gold (trade with Guyerina)
Military: -1f
- Standing Army: 500 warriors, 25 chariots
- Navy: 5 Galleys
Wealth: +4c (3c in treasury)
Surplus: +5f
Wonders/Projects:
- Grinsey Road (1/3c, 1,000/1,000 Workers)
Legacy*
No nation or empire lasts forever. Except, of course, in the stories and histories of other people. The Legacy stat is perhaps the most important statistic in this rule set. The Legacy refers to the overall influence in a numerical form that your nation has had on the world as a whole. This is to help distinguish the glorious empires from the barbaric regions of the world. The Legacy stat represents both the international prestige of a nation as well as nationalism relating to it. The higher your legacy, you will receive bonuses to the fighting ability of your soldiers, the amount of population you receive from immigration from other countries, the loyalty of your subjects, and an increase to the likelihood of technological advancement or other one-time bonuses.
If your nation is destroyed or overrun (something which ALL of you should expect at one point or another) fear not! Your Legacy will remain, though it will proceed to dwindle with time. The more wonders you built during your reign as a nation, the longer your Legacy will take to wear down. If your wonders are destroyed by your opponents, then your Legacy will drain faster. While your country may fall, your heritage as a people will not, and even if your people should fade away, a truly high Legacy may carry its echoes even into planets beyond this one. Fear not if your nation falls, if you built it well, it's story will live on for millennia.
Stability*
Rather than do a single stability stat as I have done in previous NESes, I am stealing an idea from Bird_jaguar via kentharu. The various major factions within your nations will be reflected in your stats, and all will have their own views towards how the country should be run. Some are large factions, others are small, and all have different strength in influence. Most of them disagree with each other, and it will be a lucky ruler who can keep them all happy, all the time.
Players have two choices with the creation of factions within their empire. The first choice is the simplest: allow me to create generic faction names like those listed in the sample stats above. If you choose this, I will add and remove the factions as they emerge or fail to be relevant to your country, respectively. The other choice is to create and name the factions yourself, and base them on your own idea of what your national culture should be. If you choose to be creative and original by naming your factions, you will be rewarded with points to your legacy. My request however is that you must allow for some sort of laboring class, others can be optional.
All factions have three key parts: Size, Strength, and Loyalty. The larger the faction is, obviously, the more people within your society who fall into that particular category. The size of a faction will be determined by player choices, and relation with that class. The Strength of the faction suggests the power of the group and the influence they can wield for or against your government. Strength can be affected by the wealth of the faction, the size of the faction, access to weapons, and other factors to be determined. The loyalty of the faction is the rating of how likely they are to turn against you and attempt to overthrow the standing regime. Loyalty changes based on how you act in regards to what the factions hold dear, which once again will be either moderator determined or player determined. In your stats they are arranged as so: Size/Strength/Loyalty. Below are the levels of each factor that you should take into account, with a numerical rating. The numbers are used by me to use to determine the various events which take place in regards to your stability.
Size:
Tiny-Small-Medium-Large-Majority
Strength:
None-Weak-Medium-Strong-Unstoppable
Loyalty:
Rebellion (0)-Mutinous (1)-Riotous (2)-Faltering (3)-Wary (4)-Loyal (5)
Economy
This is a stat that will probably see the most change through the duration of this NES. I will adapt the economic system to the development of the world’s civilization. For now I describe the economic system of the first era (as of now unnamed).
Era One
The economy of Era One is undeniably centered on agriculture and the city. While trade is present, most economic activity is based on agriculture production and urban development. To be rich means to have surpluses of agricultural production and possibly access to some raw materials.
That said, the best way to increase your agricultural production is to either conquer productive regions or increase your farming population and your total farmed land, and thus increase your own production.
Farmers and of course city dwellers are all centered on the city in this early era. As such, each city has a total food production and a total wealth production. More on what you do with these numbers later. For each city, there are the following stats:
Total Population
This is the total population of your civilization. You must feed them. If you don’t feed them you will face the consequences. If you subtract the farming population (below) from the total population, you will get the total number of city dwellers in your city. For every 10,000 city dwellers, you earn 1c. This is from the stuff city-dwellers normally produce such as crafts, pottery, art, trade, etc. The city population and its production of wealth will get more dynamic in the future, but for this early age, it is simply based on what is described above.
You cannot easily switch around farmers and city dwellers (i.e. you can’t turn farmers into city dwellers, or city dwellers into farmers). If you do, you may end up with a riot on your hands as farmers refuse to join the city and leave their land.
Farming Population and Food Production
Of your total population, this is the amount that works in the fields farming.
The amount of food your farmers produce is based on productivity, and your productivity is based on which class they are in. I round to the nearest whole number when figuring food credits. To increase your productivity, concentrate on expansion to better land, discovering better technology, or improving your current land through projects. Here are the separate classes:
CLASS F: Bad productivity. Most of your land is unusable, and you rely on intermittent rains as your water source for agriculture. Your farmers are in poor health with weak property rights, many are wandering hunters following migrating herds. Each farmer can produce 1.2 food.
CLASS D: Low productivity. You still rely on rain for irrigation, but your land is a little more fertile. Though most of your production comes from farming, there is a sizeable proportion that comes from wandering herdsmen of domesticated animals. Each farmer can produce 1.4 food.
CLASS C: Mediocre productivity. Irrigation comes from local inundations of a river or lake source, bringing stability to the harvests. Farming produces by far the most food for your country, with animal domestication a distant second. Your farmers are in poverty, but they can maintain themselves. Each farmer can produce 1.6 food.
CLASS B: Good productivity. Most of your water comes from a system of irrigation canals and a local water source. Your land is more fertile than average. Farmers are somewhat wealthy, using technology to produce more with less input, and they live healthily (relatively) and are in good spirits. Each farmer can produce 1.8 food.
CLASS A: Great productivity: Your water comes from a great and reliable source, traveling through a spectacular system of canals including reservoirs for drought protection. The land is among the most fertile in the world, requiring very little to grow bountiful harvests. Your people are using the latest in farming technology. The farmers are wealthy and happy. Each farmer can produce 2 food.
Raw Resources
There are different raw resources that you can harvest for this time period. Each resource has its special abilities. They are listed in the Resources Post.
Specialty resources may appear here and there as well. This can vary greatly. For example, a special type of timber could be discovered from a particular type of tree that grows in a particular area, giving bonuses to ship construction, etc.
The plan is to expand this resource system into the next eras to include even specialty crops that some countries (given their climates and geography) have an advantage in so to create an actual trading system in this world. But that is for the coming eras.
Spending Wealth and Food Surplus
Total wealth is what you derive from your city population, raw resources, trade/tribute, and plunder. Wealth can be used to fund projects or wonders, to buy resources from other civilizations, to build military units, wage wars, or to sit in you treasury. Really the options are endless.
Surplus is sum of food credits each city has extra after feeding its own population. You may spend food credits on a variety of things. Some cities (especially cities just starting out) may have a deficit in food production. You will have to spend some food credits on those cities with negative food production. You can also trade food credits with other civilizations (for money, resources, or other things). Food credits are also required in standing army upkeep (and levies if you have them).
Population growth is also based on food credits. For every food credit, you can receive +1,000 population growth in any of your cities. You can decide what these people do too, whether you want them to join the city folk or be farmers. This is where the bulk of your population growth will come from (the rest will come from natural growth, expansion, and conquest), so don’t neglect it!
Military*
As has been pointed out to me by many people many times, and by me to other people, many times, at this point in history standing armies were very rare. Most of the time, they'd be in the form of household warriors or soldiers, and only occasionally as full professionals. To this end, most of your militaries will consist of Levies. Levies are soldiers which are conscripted in groups of 1,000 to serve as the bulk of your army. Your available Levies is technically your entire population, though who has ever heard of an ENTIRE population being conscripted for war. You decide when you raise levies and how much come from which cities. You can conscript as many as you like, but other elements of your society may suffer for it. Levies can be demobilized at any time to go back to farming or living peacefully in the cities. Remember, each group of soldiers on the battlefield are people who are not growing crops to increase your population or in the cities, creating new wealth.
You must also feed your levies. You either do this with your surplus food, or you can give the order for them to plunder land they come across in war. It is not guaranteed that all your food requirements will be met from plundering. It is determined by what land your are plundering, and how much you need.
Levies are also prone to getting restless if you keep them mobilized for too long and if you are losing battles. To keep a strong fighting force of levies, you should be winning battles, allowing plunder, rewarding generals and soldiers, and not keeping them for too long.
While Levies can be called forth with little hassle, they still will rarely stand up well to the standing forces which can be created. Standing forces are expensive to create and will be costly for small amounts of soldiers. Their numbers are subtracted from your total population of whichever city you take them from, but must still be fed with surplus food each turn. They cannot be demobilized and returned to your population. Remember, once you get 500 or more soldiers, you will start to have to feed them from your normal food production (for simplicity, each chariot is still one person, and each galley uses 10 men). Below is the costs for currently available units. More units will be made available with technological advancement.
Warrior (axmen, slingers, clubmen): 100 Warriors for 1c
Specialized Warriors (swordsmen, spearmen): 100 S. Warriors for 2c
Chariots: 25 Chariots for 1c.
Archer: 50 Archers for 1c
Galleys: 5 Galleys for 1c. Most be built in a city.
As for warfare as a whole, I'd like you to be aware that because each turn is twenty-five years long, that is a considerable amount of time to topple a nation. Wars on the whole are a slow thing in this period, as real siege equipment and artillery do not exist. Nonetheless, a smaller nation is still in risk of being overrun in a single turn. Therefore you may find a contingency plan useful if you are near an aggressive neighbor. I will archive all contingency plans provided in your Private Messages for potential use.
Projects and Wonders*
World Wonders are wonders which you specifically and creatively design of any type, size, or shape, within reason of course. All World Wonders will provide Legacy by default, the larger the wonder, the more Legacy it will provide. Wonders can also increase the loyalty of your subjects, be used for defensive, purposes or most other purposes. I will say though, Wonders CANNOT materialize soldiers from nowhere. To create a wonder, simply post on the thread (and/or PM it) describing it, its location within your empire, and the effects you believe it should have. I will then assign a cost in wealth, manpower, and if necessary time (time only relevant for HUGE projects), and it will be listed underneath your stats.
Names and Places*
Feel free to name any and all cities, terrain features, and landmarks that appear on the map. With one exception, the first person to name something in their area is the person who's chosen name will appear on the map. The sole exception is the name of the world as a whole. For this, I hope that ya'll come to a popular consensus.
Technology and Advancement*
I have determined to abandon the typical "Stone Age" rhetoric when referring to technological levels. Instead, eras will be determined by a variety of factors of the nations at hand, and if you're the prime power among the continent, you may find that whole eras of civilization may become named after your people. Technological advancement will be measured and obtained by players meeting secret parameters which have been pre-defined. I will not share these parameters, allowing for player activity to fully determine technological advancement rather than moderator whim or fortune. I will provide in updates those smaller advances which do take place. The smaller advances will be made based on various other factors previously discussed.
Policies and Activity*
The rules listed above are not all you can do with your country. I fully endorse creativity, and if you find something interesting not provided for in the rules above, by all means, let me know. This includes any domestic policy for the home front or other efforts you'd like to make to appease or please your people. This also includes the creation of religions and the development of your society as a whole.
Cities and Expansion*
Cities will appear on the map, starting with your capital city and expanding as your population grows. You may found cities on your own based on stories about your nation, but remember, that cities need people to live in them, and city dwellers are generally those not in the army or farming the fields. If you decide to manually found a city, that means taking population from current cities and moving them to this new city. Additionally it costs 1c and 1f to found a new city. Otherwise, new cities will appear according to the mod. I hope you will name your cities, if not, I will take guesses based on your actions and the names you have given settlements so far.
Expansion can be a slow and painful thing. You can occupy plenty of territory, but if there's no people to live there, then there really isn't much point to it. My recommendation is to expand in one direction at a time if you're doing it peacefully.
Conquest is the way to quickly increase both your population and the size of your country on the map. If you go out a'conquering, you will be able to dramatically increase your power and ability. I will warn you however, that the people you conquer, even early on, may be quick to rebel against you, if given the chance to.
Stories and Tales*
Please, spin your yarns tell your stories. Stories from your empire could be passed down to each generation, and a well-written story will definitely earn you Legacy points for improving the culture of your nation. Stories are defined by me as historical text based writings, tales from the perspective of someone living in your nation, or anything else along those lines. The descriptions for creating wonders or your factions do not count as a story or tale.
Starting Map*
Note on the maps: the Political Map will only be available on the most recent update, please take that into consideration if you're creating a new nation.
Updates
Will be weekly at the least, and brief. I will do my best to keep things interesting, but I am leaving the story-telling and world-building to you guys. I think this is the best way to keep an NES going smoothly and not burn out the Mod.
*Almost Directly from Legacy of Civilization
For those who read and reviewed the rules on the preview thread, read them again! I have changed them according to the reviews I got back. I have made it more city-centric in the hopes of making it a little easier and less daunting. Also I replaced my stability/faction stat with that of EQ’s.
Introduction
Welcome to the newest JNES, and hopefully a hobby that will last through the summer. First off I’d like to attribute the rules to EQandCivfanatic and his short-lived yet promising Legacy of Civilization NES. Though some of the rules were derived from joint conversations between him, Kentharu and I, it was EQ who put them down in writing and added many of his own independent ideas. For that, he should be given due credit.
That said, I’ve made a few tweaks where I wanted to better suit my style. I want to say first and foremost: don’t be scared of the numbers. My philosophy has always been flexibility – whatever is not expressly prohibited in the rules should be for the most part fair game. Don’t feel constricted. On that same note, to be dissuaded by the seemingly complex math. I will be doing all the calculations. Besides, for it to be realistic rulers shouldn’t know about these formulas anyways!
My first rule for this NES is to stay in character and role play. Lets create a world from cradle to grave. I want you attached to this world, not your nation or even culture per say (because I warn you now, they will come and go!) And for this, I need cooperation from all players and at least minimal effort. You don’t have to write stories every turn, or even at all. You don’t have to be a poet or artist. But I would like some effort in creativity and role play in orders and diplomacy.
We will start after a short BT (2-3 turn’s worth in update 0, so not huge) to get the civilizations established. Technology and progression will not always follow the same rhythm or scale as OTL…we could be in the OTL classical age for decades, skip medieval, and have an industrial revolution right away. Or we may never have the industrial revolution. Its all open in this NES, and I hope you give me some flexibility when it comes to realism (though I will strive for keep it realistic!).
So I hope you join, and I hope we really create a world here worthy of these forums!
Sample stats:
Kingdom of Alonia
Absolute Monarchy
Capital: Westmond
Legacy: 3
Stability:
- Priesthood: Tiny/Weak/Faltering
- Grindolf Merchants Guild: Tiny/Medium/Loyal
- Farmers: Medium/Weak/Loyal
- City of Westmond: Small/Weak/Wary
- City of Krisen: Small/Medium/Wary
Cities:
Westmond: +1c, +3f
- Total Population: 45,000
- Farmers: 34,000 (Class D)
- Food Production: 48
Krisen +1c, +1f
- Total Population: 33,000
- Farmers: 24,000 (Class D)
- Food Production: 34
Raw Resources: +4f
- 2 Salt Mines (both near Krisen)
- 1 Tin Mine (near Krisen)
Trade: -2f, +2c
- 1 Salt for +1 Gold (trade with Guyerina)
Military: -1f
- Standing Army: 500 warriors, 25 chariots
- Navy: 5 Galleys
Wealth: +4c (3c in treasury)
Surplus: +5f
Wonders/Projects:
- Grinsey Road (1/3c, 1,000/1,000 Workers)
Legacy*
No nation or empire lasts forever. Except, of course, in the stories and histories of other people. The Legacy stat is perhaps the most important statistic in this rule set. The Legacy refers to the overall influence in a numerical form that your nation has had on the world as a whole. This is to help distinguish the glorious empires from the barbaric regions of the world. The Legacy stat represents both the international prestige of a nation as well as nationalism relating to it. The higher your legacy, you will receive bonuses to the fighting ability of your soldiers, the amount of population you receive from immigration from other countries, the loyalty of your subjects, and an increase to the likelihood of technological advancement or other one-time bonuses.
If your nation is destroyed or overrun (something which ALL of you should expect at one point or another) fear not! Your Legacy will remain, though it will proceed to dwindle with time. The more wonders you built during your reign as a nation, the longer your Legacy will take to wear down. If your wonders are destroyed by your opponents, then your Legacy will drain faster. While your country may fall, your heritage as a people will not, and even if your people should fade away, a truly high Legacy may carry its echoes even into planets beyond this one. Fear not if your nation falls, if you built it well, it's story will live on for millennia.
Stability*
Rather than do a single stability stat as I have done in previous NESes, I am stealing an idea from Bird_jaguar via kentharu. The various major factions within your nations will be reflected in your stats, and all will have their own views towards how the country should be run. Some are large factions, others are small, and all have different strength in influence. Most of them disagree with each other, and it will be a lucky ruler who can keep them all happy, all the time.
Players have two choices with the creation of factions within their empire. The first choice is the simplest: allow me to create generic faction names like those listed in the sample stats above. If you choose this, I will add and remove the factions as they emerge or fail to be relevant to your country, respectively. The other choice is to create and name the factions yourself, and base them on your own idea of what your national culture should be. If you choose to be creative and original by naming your factions, you will be rewarded with points to your legacy. My request however is that you must allow for some sort of laboring class, others can be optional.
All factions have three key parts: Size, Strength, and Loyalty. The larger the faction is, obviously, the more people within your society who fall into that particular category. The size of a faction will be determined by player choices, and relation with that class. The Strength of the faction suggests the power of the group and the influence they can wield for or against your government. Strength can be affected by the wealth of the faction, the size of the faction, access to weapons, and other factors to be determined. The loyalty of the faction is the rating of how likely they are to turn against you and attempt to overthrow the standing regime. Loyalty changes based on how you act in regards to what the factions hold dear, which once again will be either moderator determined or player determined. In your stats they are arranged as so: Size/Strength/Loyalty. Below are the levels of each factor that you should take into account, with a numerical rating. The numbers are used by me to use to determine the various events which take place in regards to your stability.
Size:
Tiny-Small-Medium-Large-Majority
Strength:
None-Weak-Medium-Strong-Unstoppable
Loyalty:
Rebellion (0)-Mutinous (1)-Riotous (2)-Faltering (3)-Wary (4)-Loyal (5)
Economy
This is a stat that will probably see the most change through the duration of this NES. I will adapt the economic system to the development of the world’s civilization. For now I describe the economic system of the first era (as of now unnamed).
Era One
The economy of Era One is undeniably centered on agriculture and the city. While trade is present, most economic activity is based on agriculture production and urban development. To be rich means to have surpluses of agricultural production and possibly access to some raw materials.
That said, the best way to increase your agricultural production is to either conquer productive regions or increase your farming population and your total farmed land, and thus increase your own production.
Farmers and of course city dwellers are all centered on the city in this early era. As such, each city has a total food production and a total wealth production. More on what you do with these numbers later. For each city, there are the following stats:
Total Population
This is the total population of your civilization. You must feed them. If you don’t feed them you will face the consequences. If you subtract the farming population (below) from the total population, you will get the total number of city dwellers in your city. For every 10,000 city dwellers, you earn 1c. This is from the stuff city-dwellers normally produce such as crafts, pottery, art, trade, etc. The city population and its production of wealth will get more dynamic in the future, but for this early age, it is simply based on what is described above.
You cannot easily switch around farmers and city dwellers (i.e. you can’t turn farmers into city dwellers, or city dwellers into farmers). If you do, you may end up with a riot on your hands as farmers refuse to join the city and leave their land.
Farming Population and Food Production
Of your total population, this is the amount that works in the fields farming.
The amount of food your farmers produce is based on productivity, and your productivity is based on which class they are in. I round to the nearest whole number when figuring food credits. To increase your productivity, concentrate on expansion to better land, discovering better technology, or improving your current land through projects. Here are the separate classes:
CLASS F: Bad productivity. Most of your land is unusable, and you rely on intermittent rains as your water source for agriculture. Your farmers are in poor health with weak property rights, many are wandering hunters following migrating herds. Each farmer can produce 1.2 food.
CLASS D: Low productivity. You still rely on rain for irrigation, but your land is a little more fertile. Though most of your production comes from farming, there is a sizeable proportion that comes from wandering herdsmen of domesticated animals. Each farmer can produce 1.4 food.
CLASS C: Mediocre productivity. Irrigation comes from local inundations of a river or lake source, bringing stability to the harvests. Farming produces by far the most food for your country, with animal domestication a distant second. Your farmers are in poverty, but they can maintain themselves. Each farmer can produce 1.6 food.
CLASS B: Good productivity. Most of your water comes from a system of irrigation canals and a local water source. Your land is more fertile than average. Farmers are somewhat wealthy, using technology to produce more with less input, and they live healthily (relatively) and are in good spirits. Each farmer can produce 1.8 food.
CLASS A: Great productivity: Your water comes from a great and reliable source, traveling through a spectacular system of canals including reservoirs for drought protection. The land is among the most fertile in the world, requiring very little to grow bountiful harvests. Your people are using the latest in farming technology. The farmers are wealthy and happy. Each farmer can produce 2 food.
Raw Resources
There are different raw resources that you can harvest for this time period. Each resource has its special abilities. They are listed in the Resources Post.
Specialty resources may appear here and there as well. This can vary greatly. For example, a special type of timber could be discovered from a particular type of tree that grows in a particular area, giving bonuses to ship construction, etc.
The plan is to expand this resource system into the next eras to include even specialty crops that some countries (given their climates and geography) have an advantage in so to create an actual trading system in this world. But that is for the coming eras.
Spending Wealth and Food Surplus
Total wealth is what you derive from your city population, raw resources, trade/tribute, and plunder. Wealth can be used to fund projects or wonders, to buy resources from other civilizations, to build military units, wage wars, or to sit in you treasury. Really the options are endless.
Surplus is sum of food credits each city has extra after feeding its own population. You may spend food credits on a variety of things. Some cities (especially cities just starting out) may have a deficit in food production. You will have to spend some food credits on those cities with negative food production. You can also trade food credits with other civilizations (for money, resources, or other things). Food credits are also required in standing army upkeep (and levies if you have them).
Population growth is also based on food credits. For every food credit, you can receive +1,000 population growth in any of your cities. You can decide what these people do too, whether you want them to join the city folk or be farmers. This is where the bulk of your population growth will come from (the rest will come from natural growth, expansion, and conquest), so don’t neglect it!
Military*
As has been pointed out to me by many people many times, and by me to other people, many times, at this point in history standing armies were very rare. Most of the time, they'd be in the form of household warriors or soldiers, and only occasionally as full professionals. To this end, most of your militaries will consist of Levies. Levies are soldiers which are conscripted in groups of 1,000 to serve as the bulk of your army. Your available Levies is technically your entire population, though who has ever heard of an ENTIRE population being conscripted for war. You decide when you raise levies and how much come from which cities. You can conscript as many as you like, but other elements of your society may suffer for it. Levies can be demobilized at any time to go back to farming or living peacefully in the cities. Remember, each group of soldiers on the battlefield are people who are not growing crops to increase your population or in the cities, creating new wealth.
You must also feed your levies. You either do this with your surplus food, or you can give the order for them to plunder land they come across in war. It is not guaranteed that all your food requirements will be met from plundering. It is determined by what land your are plundering, and how much you need.
Levies are also prone to getting restless if you keep them mobilized for too long and if you are losing battles. To keep a strong fighting force of levies, you should be winning battles, allowing plunder, rewarding generals and soldiers, and not keeping them for too long.
While Levies can be called forth with little hassle, they still will rarely stand up well to the standing forces which can be created. Standing forces are expensive to create and will be costly for small amounts of soldiers. Their numbers are subtracted from your total population of whichever city you take them from, but must still be fed with surplus food each turn. They cannot be demobilized and returned to your population. Remember, once you get 500 or more soldiers, you will start to have to feed them from your normal food production (for simplicity, each chariot is still one person, and each galley uses 10 men). Below is the costs for currently available units. More units will be made available with technological advancement.
Warrior (axmen, slingers, clubmen): 100 Warriors for 1c
Specialized Warriors (swordsmen, spearmen): 100 S. Warriors for 2c
Chariots: 25 Chariots for 1c.
Archer: 50 Archers for 1c
Galleys: 5 Galleys for 1c. Most be built in a city.
As for warfare as a whole, I'd like you to be aware that because each turn is twenty-five years long, that is a considerable amount of time to topple a nation. Wars on the whole are a slow thing in this period, as real siege equipment and artillery do not exist. Nonetheless, a smaller nation is still in risk of being overrun in a single turn. Therefore you may find a contingency plan useful if you are near an aggressive neighbor. I will archive all contingency plans provided in your Private Messages for potential use.
Projects and Wonders*
World Wonders are wonders which you specifically and creatively design of any type, size, or shape, within reason of course. All World Wonders will provide Legacy by default, the larger the wonder, the more Legacy it will provide. Wonders can also increase the loyalty of your subjects, be used for defensive, purposes or most other purposes. I will say though, Wonders CANNOT materialize soldiers from nowhere. To create a wonder, simply post on the thread (and/or PM it) describing it, its location within your empire, and the effects you believe it should have. I will then assign a cost in wealth, manpower, and if necessary time (time only relevant for HUGE projects), and it will be listed underneath your stats.
Names and Places*
Feel free to name any and all cities, terrain features, and landmarks that appear on the map. With one exception, the first person to name something in their area is the person who's chosen name will appear on the map. The sole exception is the name of the world as a whole. For this, I hope that ya'll come to a popular consensus.
Technology and Advancement*
I have determined to abandon the typical "Stone Age" rhetoric when referring to technological levels. Instead, eras will be determined by a variety of factors of the nations at hand, and if you're the prime power among the continent, you may find that whole eras of civilization may become named after your people. Technological advancement will be measured and obtained by players meeting secret parameters which have been pre-defined. I will not share these parameters, allowing for player activity to fully determine technological advancement rather than moderator whim or fortune. I will provide in updates those smaller advances which do take place. The smaller advances will be made based on various other factors previously discussed.
Policies and Activity*
The rules listed above are not all you can do with your country. I fully endorse creativity, and if you find something interesting not provided for in the rules above, by all means, let me know. This includes any domestic policy for the home front or other efforts you'd like to make to appease or please your people. This also includes the creation of religions and the development of your society as a whole.
Cities and Expansion*
Cities will appear on the map, starting with your capital city and expanding as your population grows. You may found cities on your own based on stories about your nation, but remember, that cities need people to live in them, and city dwellers are generally those not in the army or farming the fields. If you decide to manually found a city, that means taking population from current cities and moving them to this new city. Additionally it costs 1c and 1f to found a new city. Otherwise, new cities will appear according to the mod. I hope you will name your cities, if not, I will take guesses based on your actions and the names you have given settlements so far.
Expansion can be a slow and painful thing. You can occupy plenty of territory, but if there's no people to live there, then there really isn't much point to it. My recommendation is to expand in one direction at a time if you're doing it peacefully.
Conquest is the way to quickly increase both your population and the size of your country on the map. If you go out a'conquering, you will be able to dramatically increase your power and ability. I will warn you however, that the people you conquer, even early on, may be quick to rebel against you, if given the chance to.
Stories and Tales*
Please, spin your yarns tell your stories. Stories from your empire could be passed down to each generation, and a well-written story will definitely earn you Legacy points for improving the culture of your nation. Stories are defined by me as historical text based writings, tales from the perspective of someone living in your nation, or anything else along those lines. The descriptions for creating wonders or your factions do not count as a story or tale.
Starting Map*
Note on the maps: the Political Map will only be available on the most recent update, please take that into consideration if you're creating a new nation.
Updates
Will be weekly at the least, and brief. I will do my best to keep things interesting, but I am leaving the story-telling and world-building to you guys. I think this is the best way to keep an NES going smoothly and not burn out the Mod.
*Almost Directly from Legacy of Civilization
