My idea for a moderate complexity Medieval IOT:
Wars of Medieval Kingdoms
This game will start in 900AD, after the confusion of the dark ages. Players will play as a Medieval Kingdom of their choice, either historical or make up their own.
Starting Claims
At the start, claim 5 territories, and decide on a nation name, and post any history that you'd like.
Claiming Territory
On your turn, you may claim 3 territories, unless at war, in which case you may not claim any.
Income Collection and spending income
Players will have three stats, Military, Economy, and Stability. There are no armies or upgrades of individual provinces. All three of these will start at 10.
Players collect 1 gold per territory they control, times their economy rating. Gold cannot be banked, only spent. Money may be invested however.
To upgrade any of these, pay 5 gold times the rating you already have. These ratings may go down during the course of the game, but you may upgrade them again.
All of your ratings will decrease if you expand a lot, but remember the maximum is 20 and they are relative to your nation size. A tiny kingdom who has only Scotland but 20 military will be weaker in military than a massive kingdom such as Russia with a rating of 10. Balance is key.
What they do:
Military: Will be explained in more detail in the Combat section, the higher military rating you have, the better chance you will have to win in battle.
Economy: Your economy rating is multiplied by your number of territories to determine your income.
Stability: Stability can take a hit at any time. There's no particular benefit to having a lot, except as insurance. It can drop at any time due to random events. It will also drop slowly as you expand, when you sign alliances or Defensive Pacts, or when you declare war, especially without a casus beli.
Other things you can buy:
Diplomacy
Certain diplomatic actions cost money, due to the expense of sending diplomats and getting a deal signed:
Defense Pact: Cost 100 Gold. Gives you Casus Beli to attack if the other party is attacked.
Guarantee of Independence: Cost 50 Gold. Same as DP but only one way.
Alliance: Cost 200 Gold. Same as DP, but even if your ally attacked first.
Free-Trade Agreement: Cost 100 Gold. Automatically increases both parties economy rating by a certain amount of levels (The lower your rating is already, the more levels it will increase.) This bonus will be lost if you cancel the agreement.
Embargo: Cost 100 Gold. The opposite of a free trade agreement. Reduces both parties economy. Will be increased when canceled.
You may make two treaties a turn, assuming you are willing to pay for them. These cannot be saved if not used.
Also, a GoI and Embargo need consent by only one party, the rest need consent by both parties. Also, signing many treaties flippantly may decrease your stability slightly.
You may sign "Unoffical Agreements" without paying for them but they will not give you Casus Beli or have any effect to the games income.
ALSO: Any treaties made with either a nation who is in the same region as you, or shares a border with you. In the former case, this is based off your capital.
For instance, a player controlling all of Germany and with a capital in Berlin could make a deal with anyone touching his borders and anyone in the Western European world region.
Bonus Cards: Cost 100 Gold times the number you have already. they will give you additional special abilities.
Forts: Cost 100 Gold times the number you already have, these will increase the territories' defense when its attacked. Your capital always automatically has a fort.
Random Events
Each turn, random events will occur. These may cause conflict between players, or take the form of a disaster, political scandal, unexpected bonus, exc. In some cases, you may be able to use gold to mitigate a disaster or additionally take advantage of a positive event.
Declaring War
There are several "Valid" reasons to declare war. They are:
Border Dispute
They declared war on someone you had a DP, alliance, or GoI with.
They declared war on anyone without a casus beli.
Your ally declared war for any reason.
A Random Event gives you a casus beli.
They embargo you.
Any other reason I deem appropriate to give a casus beli.
Note: Even if you go to war with a casus beli, or if they declared war on you, your stability will take a hit, but they will give you more of one if you do not have one.
At War
When at war, you have no claims. However, you may make 3 attacks. This is a grand total, not per person you are at war with.
Combat will be settled using Rise of Nations units from the Middle Ages. Your army size will be based on your military rating and territory count. If two nations are the same size, but one nation has a military rating of 20 and the other has a military rating of 10, the nation with 20 will have twice as strong of an army. There is, however, no set in stone actual number of units I will deploy for each side, while higher numbers will in general mean larger battles, the actual number will be up to me. However, it will be proportional. However, two different battles may be handled differently.
If you have a fort in the defending province, you will be given three forts to defend your city in addition to your army.
I will make a map that has a city on it for the defense, and none for the attack, however, neither side will have any resources. The defender will have to hold out for 10 minutes (Until nightfall) or kill all the attackers. The attacker will have to hold the city until it assimilates or kill all the defenders.
I will control the attacking side, a moderate computer will control the defending side. If you are attacking, you may give me general tactics to follow, however otherwise I will play to my discretion.
Navies are combined with the military strength, and if attacking an overseas territory by a sea route, you must use your navy first to cross the water.
If you lose in combat, there is a chance your military strength will fall.
If you take the enemy capital, they will be able to continue to fight, but all of their ratings will fall greatly.
Stability
A very important function of the game, this can be raised with money just like any other stat, and can be lost by going to war (Especially without just cause) by getting entangled in alliances, expanding too quick, extreme rhetoric in game, and just about anything that would decrease stability IRL. Anything 10 or higher is "Safe" but if it drops below 10, you may by random chance face negative effects. They will get worse as it gets lower, so keep it up high! If your stability hits 0, you collapse into Civil War.
NPCs
Only one NPC will exist at the start, (Now there will be 0) but I may create them if there are not enough human players or they may spawn on their own if a nation runs low on stability. In general, NPCs I create will remain totally neutral, but nations that spawn from Civil War may be hostile to the mother nation.
The one NPC that starts in the game is the Papal States. They control no territories, but are important to the Diplomatic structure of the game.
The map will be the same one as Ideology Wars. I give NedimNapoleon full credit for this map. It fits the needs and general area I want for this game exactly.
Regions
The game will include five regions: Western Europe (England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Italy, and anything in between those countries) Eastern Europe (The rest of Europe except for Russia and Scandinavia), Russia (Which includes Scandinavia) Asia, and Africa. If you control an entire region at any time, you will gain a bonus card each turn, and your stats will improve (The amount depends on the size of the area.) If you control three regions, you may be eligable for a Domination Victory (More on this later.)
Victory
The game will end in 1200 AD (Since each turn will be 10 years, that is 60 turns.)
However, there are three ways you can win before this.
Conquest Victory: Control all other player's capitals.
Domination Victory: Control 3 of the 5 game regions.
Diplomatic Victory: Be crowned Holy Roman Emperor (Which will be done by consistently completing Papal Missions.) You must then hold your capital for 1 turn.
No longer relevant, but still there in case anyone wants to see the changes made.
The game will now run from 900 to 1200 AD with 5 year turns.
That's it for now, any comments or suggestions?
