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A Game by Jim Callahan

The objective is to amass as much land and wealth as possible and use that wealth to build armies capable of destroying your opponents. Build alliances and crush your friends under the searing heat of your tyranny!

In the far future, the governments of earth have collapsed. Because faster-than-light space travel was found to be too expensive and slower -than-light travel took too damn long, the population grew until people were fighting each other to live in apartments no larger than a refrigerator box. This situation was compunded by poor city utilities, high crime rates, and nowhere near enough food. Whole families were found starved in their tiny box-rooms. As people became more hungry and more desparate, cannabalism became the standard. Criminals sold pieces of their thug-buddies and worse.

Finally, one half-starved, half-insane ruler of a large country declared nuclear war on the world. BOOM. No more population problem, almost no population at all. That century became known as "The Time of Fire" and the people of the world were scattered over the clean areas, shunning the horrid wastelands that once teemed metropolis.

Ten thousand years after The Time of Fire, Earth is a beautiful, scarcely populated planet of about one million people. Many varieties of life exist now that got their boost from the radioactive soup after the apocalypse. As populations begin to grow, people band together and form loose-knit communities called Administrations. In reality, there is a central power invested in one person, called the Administrator, with outlying areas of land which are used to support the Administration. Using conscripted arimes, the Administrators must personally search for useful land and places to begin new Administrations. This, among other checks and balances used to prevent dictatorship, is the way the new societies keep control of their rulers so that a repeat of The Time of Fire is unlikely.

You have decided to become an Administrator, much to the chagrin of your friends and relatives. As you approach the old Administrator, prepared to present your case for becoming Administrator, she leaps from her chair, throws the weathered robe at you and runs laughing from the castle. You imagine that being Administrator isn't everything that the posters and advertising make it out to be. What, you ask, no training period?

"Your Administratorship?" a weathered old man approaches you. "You realize of course that you have to make a tour of your Administration before accepting the robe of office?"

You notice several people watching you from the wings of the castle metting-room and ask one of them where you should go first.

"Well, the old Administrator refused to go out of the castle, so that is all we have, no farms, no forests, just this building and the environs.

As you sit in amazement, you realize that if there was already an Administration, you wouldn't be playing this game. Search your area, meet ugly natives, kill them, take their money, build your Administration until you are powerful enough to take on the others. Destroy your friends, crush them like they're flies, you are all powerful now as Administrator in your very own castle . . . Your Objective: Conquer! (Neat how I got the name of the game into the introduction, huh? - jim)

Rules

Terrain is very important to the success of your Administration. Without the right mix of terrain types, you cannot build additional castles and train the troops required to maintain and defend your realm.

There are six basic terrain tiles found in Objective: Conquer the function of which will be explained later, for now familiarize yourself with what they look like

Woods

Mountain

Farmland

Meadow

River

Barren Desert

A terrain is considered occupied if there is an army chit in it at the compute income phase (cf.) of a turn.

There are five types of counters used to represent various players' armies and cities as well as natives and terrain features.

Native

Army

City

Administrators

Caves

The numbers on each counter represent the strength of that counter.

The Game is broken up into turns, each of which represents one month of real time. It is not necessary to keep track of how many turns a game takes unless you use the optional rule on Administrator Death and Heirs (in the appendix.)

Turns are broken up into 10 Phases.

1 Compute Income

2 Initiative

3 Move Armies/Explore New Hexes

4 Move Administrator/Send Orders

5 Move Natives

6 Spelunk

7 Combat

8 Irrigate or Defoliate/Foliate

9 Train Troops

10 Develop Castle

11 Resolve Orders

For each hex controlled subtract $0.25 from the total money available. This represents upkeep on the hex, payment for the Army occupying it, payoff for the local inhabitants, and general overhead. Whattadeal!

A hex is controlled if it meets the following requirements:

• There is at least one point of army in the hex

• There are no enemies or natives in the hex

• It is not being Irrigated, Defoliated, or Foliated (cf.)

For each farm controlled, add -$1.00-$4.00 to the total money (one die, subtract 2 from the roll). This represents drought or surplus crops.

For each castle point controlled, add $0.50 to the total money.

Roll one die, highest number goes first, reroll ties. Easy.

An Army is defined as any number of army chits of any strength occupying one hex. Individual chits may move independent of other chits in the hex.

Armies with the Administrator or in a hex adjacent to the Administrator may move one hex.

Armies are the only chits which may explore new hexes. The Administrator may move into a hex on the turn it was discovered.

It costs the Administrator $4.00 to send an army into an undiscovered hex. This represents mainly the money required to make camp, set up operations, clear any local flora and fauna, payoff the inhabitants, payoff the troops so they will risk their necks for a stuipid thing like moving into an undiscovered area (who knows what kinds of evils lurk in those undiscovered hexes?)

Hexes are discovered by rolling one die and comparing the roll to the table below.

Die Roll Terrain Type

1 Farmland

2 Woods

3 Desert

4 Mountain

5 River

6 Meadow

The Administrator may move up to two hexes unless orders have been issued.

The Administrator may send up to three orders to armies which are not adjacent to or with the Administrator. These orders may be any legal move at the time. If a move later becomes illegal for an army to complete, the orders are merely skipped. Each order that the Administrator sends past the first is charged against his or her movement whether it is followed or not. Therefore, if an Administrator sends two orders, he or she only gets to move one hex, three orders and he or she may not move. Orders take effect on phase eleven of the turn following their issue.

The Administrator may not move into an undiscovered hex for any reason. You're too chicken to explore without your army grunts with you.

Natives move randomly, leaving a wake of destruction, fear, and smelly ooze. Roll one die to determine the direction a particular native chit will move.

A native will move without regard for terrain and, as such, will move off the map or into an undiscovered hex. If a native moves off the map or into an undiscovered hex, destroy that native.

Because they are defending their homes from invaders, natives will never move away from combat. If natives are in the same hex as a player's army, they will not move. They will fight until they die.

While the definition for spelunk does not include mining, the general idea of cave exploration is appropriate. Mountains can contain caves that also may contain natives, gold deposits, or old, ruined dungeons. Upon discovery of a Mountain hex, roll one die to determine if there is a cave. Caves are discovered on a roll of 6 on a die. The army that discovers the hex as a mountain may Spelunk the mountains immediately for free. Subsequent armies may search for caves in a mountain hex for $4.00 per spelunking.

After discovering a cave, roll to determine the contents of that cave.

1 Mine-each turn an army is mining, roll one die twice.

Roll 1 Roll 2

1 lose 1-6 men to a cave-in

2-5 Gain $1-$6

6 Gain $2-$12

Roll 1 Roll 2

1-3 Gain $1-$6 in treasure

4-6 A Native of Strength 2-12 appears

Roll Strength of exploring Army (round down)

1 1/4

2 1/2

3-4 Equal

5 1 1/4

6 1 1/2

Combat is resolved by rolling one die for each army. More than one army chit in a hex can either roll separately or together (the advantage is to fight together, but hey, who knows?) It can be broken up into four steps, but as experience with the system grows, the steps will be phased out as it becomes second-nature.

Castles give bonuses equal to their strength in battle. Castles lose points if they are in battle much the same way armies do. This represents damage done by attacking seige engines, fireballs, sappers, etc..

step 1 - One die rolled each for attacker and defender.

step 2- Add the roll to the total army strength in the hex.

step 3 - Compare the two, the higher total is the winner.

Example 1

John's armies of 6 and 4 find themselves amongst the natives whose strengths are 3 and 5.

Step 1 - John rolls 4 Natives roll 2

Step 2 - 10+4=14 8+2=10

Step 3- John Wins!

Step 4 - 4-2=2 Natives 8 strength before combat

is now a 6. John decides to take casulties to the 3 strength native

Combat continues next turn unless John moves.

Example 2

John's armies did not move, thinking that success is inevitable. Natives are now Strength 5 and 1.

Step 1 - John rolls 1 Natives roll 5

Step 2 - 10+1=11 6+5=11

Step 3- Tie!

Step 4 - No Effect

Combat continues next turn unless John moves.

Example 3

John, surprised by the outcome of the previous fight decides to go at least one more turn. John strength 6 and 4, natives 5 and 1.

Step 1 - John rolls 1 Natives roll 6

Step 2 - 10+1=11 6+6=12

Step 3- Natives Win!

Step 4 - 6-1=5 John's tough army of 10 is now cut down

to a mere 5. He decides to take one

point from the 6 and remove the 4

from the face of the earth.

Combat continues next turn unless John moves. See John run.

Because it is imperative that farmland, desert, rivers, and forests occur in a specific configuration, Administrators are allowed to change the terrain (at a price, of course).

Only one change may be made to a hex for each foliate/defoliate phase.

Armies are built upon a solid foundation of training, effort by the leaders, and a lot of money and support. Castles are the places where this training and support take place. A castle can build armies up to one point higher than the castle has points. Therefore, a castle of strength 3 can build 4 point armies, one of strength 4 can build 5 point armies, etc.. If an army is newly trained up to five points in one phase, the 6th point is free. That army must have been started in that phase. In other words, it costs $6 for a 6 point army, but $5 for a four point army. Or in a nutshell:

$2.00 to start a one point army

$1.00 for every point after the first, up to 5, the 6th is free.

$1.00 to retrain a depleted army

Armies cannot function if they are larger than 6 points, but they can travel together. This merely means that two armies can travel together, but they do not mix, they merely travel and fight together. However, if the players are getting low on a certain number of chits, armies in the same hex may combine or split during the train armies phase. To be brief, an army point is an army point, and may be split or combined at the discretion of the Administrator with one exception, an army cannot split or combine on the phase that it was trained. It does not give an advantage to split armies in order to retrain them, as you can see. A 6 point army costs $6.00, 6 separate 6 point armies cost $36.00. If a player thought that splitting them up would save the $2.00 startup fee the math works out thusly . . . $6.00 to start the first 6 point army, Turn two, the army splits into six 1 point armies. The Administrator trains each of those up to 6 points for an additional $30.00. $36.00 for 6 separate 6 point armies, and two turns. as opposed to the $36.00 and one turn if they are trained all at once. No savings if you ask me.

Castles are the training grounds for new armies and the defense for the Administration. Castles give bonuses equal to their strength in battle. They also give a monetary bonus of $1.00 per point during the compute income phase.

A Castle cannot be built unless there is enough water and natural resources nearby. Therefore, a Castle can be built only in a desert hex, with at least one river next to it, with at least one forest within two hexes of it. See below for examples of proper and improper castle placement.

It costs $10.00 for each point built during the Develop Castles phase. They get no free points like armies, and they may not be built over five points. Developing a Castle requires an army of no less than 6 points. No more than one point may be built per Develop Castle phase.

Any orders sent the turn before reach the hex for which they were intended. If there are no armies in that hex, the orders take no effect. All armies in a hex which receives orders will follow those orders. Even an army that moved into a hex before the orders arrived will follow those orders.

The following commands can be given to an army:

• Spelunk

• Develop Castle (one point per phase)

• Irrigate or Foliate/Defoliate (one change per phase)