Great questions. Some good meat here to get us going.
I've got some questions, firstly
'Garrison Armies
A lordship's army, or an ally army of the owner of a settlement, is allowed to garrison themselves in a settlement with no minimum/maximum amount of time.
Providing an army as garrison will circumvent a standard garrison in that settlement if an engagment were to occur there.
Villages are not available to garrison an army.'
What do you mean by the bold part?
What if a garrison already exists in a settlement in which an ally/lord wishes to station themselves?
The bold part of the rule explains that if a settlement is besieged that has an army in it, the army will fight the engagament itself with it's numbers. Any stationary garrison that may have been in that settlement is circumvented by an armies prescence. So it will not be (Army Size + Garrison) fighting, but just the army.
Any ally is able to move into an allies settlement. This will be left to the overall gameplan of the faction itself. The goal is to make every move strategic in nature of the end goal, not for a single lordship.
Secondly, regarding splitting one's troops.
You start with 2X 500 and are allowed to split them into 2X 250 - 250?
Or can I do things like 150 - 350? Also this means that we are only allowed to have two parts of each army, so in total 4 'sub-armies' if you like?
If you choose to split an army, it will be into two halves. The split does not have to be right away either. The rule states they may split at anytime. So if the army is 300 troops after an engagment or two, you will make 2 armies with 150 troops each.
The most armies anyone will ever have is 4, so yes 4 'sub-armies' that represent half the numbers of the orginal army.
In terms of movement, you say its only quad-directional, does this mean a move diagonally is essentially the full movement order of 2? If so, maybe that should be addressed?
Yes, a diagnal move will be 2 grid squares to accompish. We opted to keep the movement system standardized and simple to interpret so on four directions were utilized. This really safeguards the lordships so nothing is missed and their full intent in the movement is recognized.
Another thing regarding raids. I read that an army or ally's army can move in and assist a raided village, if the village is within moving distance away. Does this mean the salvaging army cannot move on the next turn?
Essentially, that will be their movement for that turn cycle. Because the turn is real-time, you will be able to see the attempted raid and the defending army respond with it's movement into that villages square. Now I have considered the possibilty that a lordship may purposefully delay their movement post to make it difficult for a response. The idea of a movement/counter movement deadline has been thought of an is still being deliberated.
Finally, time constraint. How do you intend to deal with map time limits and will armor and equipment be mandated in every battle as per the upgrades purchased by a lordship?
Engagments are fought on TDM which gives a total of 120 minutes on one map. I feel that is a large amount of time, especially if it is a large engagment with multiple armies which would mean 20-30 people per side. If needed, the time could be coded up but as of now w/ the playtests we've done 120 seems sufficient for most situations.
Equipment will be coded in to the module and 0 money will be available during an engagement. Only way to control 100% equipment tiers so that is the route we took.
