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The year is 3025.
Humanity has reached the stars- but split itself between five great lords and a multitude of other minor powers. War has raged, on and off, for the past two and a half centuries in the name of reuniting humanity under a single banner- the long dead Star League. Each war has been a tepid, inconclusive affair, but now strange winds are blowing. Battlemechs are gearing up and jumpship crews training with increased fervor as the lights burn long into the night in capital cities across the Inner Sphere. Another war is beginning. This one will not be about small border adjustments, or jockeying for political position. This war will be to the knife; a war of annihilation and conquest. The Fourth Succession War is about to begin; and when it ends, one lord will rule humanity once more.
Who will it be?
Let's Play Battletech: The Succession Wars!
This is a board game set in the popular Battletech universe- the one that brought us the Mechwarrior and Mechcommander games in addition to the basic tabletop wargame. The Succession Wars is a bit different: it goes to the grand strategic scale and puts players in charge of one of the five major factions of the Inner Sphere (all of humanity... at least as far as they know at the time.) with the goal of conquering everyone else and ruling all of humanity. To do so, they will have to wage war, diplomacy, with bribery and deceit on flagrant but stylish scales.
This is the Inner Sphere, a ball about 500 light years in diameter centering on Earth. Each space is an entire sector of space, with several worlds inside it; they are referred to by the name of their sector capitals.
The gameplay is closest to Axis and Allies, if you're familiar with that. Each space generates an amount of revenue in the form of millions of C-bills (the common currency) each turn to go into the coffers of the player who controls it, ready and eager to be spent forging newer and deadlier weapons of war. The color indicates which of the five players controlling it at the start of the game, which won't last long. Each turn, empires collect money, spend it, move their pieces, undergo combat, and so forth. Combat is simple. When units from more than one player are in the same space, they must fight. Each unit rolls 1d10 trying to get equal or less than their Unit Strength; if they do, they kill a unit of the enemy's choice. This continues until one side retreats or wipes out their enemy. All units can only move on special transport units called Jumpships; they move 3 spaces per turn, have a limited carrying capacity, are the absolute only way to move between stars for units and leaders alike and they are very expensive. Capturing them is a priority in almost any war.
In addition to the military units, each faction has special leader characters. They could provide a bonus to a unit in the same space as they once a turn, increase the tax revenue provided by a space, or aid in other ways. They are also, except for faction leaders and a few others, bribable. Almost everyone is bribable in this game, players, characters, mercenary units... the sky is virtually the limit as far as naked graft goes. There is also a technology mechanic, where you can pay money for a chance to improve your technology level (it can also increase through naked conquest!) for a variety of benefits. Or you can assault Earth.
I'm not saying much about the specific mechanics, for a very good reason: the full rules are freely available as a PDF download at Board Game Geek, here: http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/6101/the-succession-wars-rules-pdf They are a quick read, and short; only ~12 pages pertain to this game, with the rest being setup information, orders of battle and an optional scenario. They are UNCLEAR on a few points, which I will try to clear up as we go along with my hazy memories and a stiff shot of commonsense. (Special note! This game actually predates every single Battletech novel but one, and it ignored that one. If your favorite canon thing is not here: that's probably why!)
How's this going to work?
I NEED five people- one to run each of the five major factions. I would like others to assist them, provide a Voice Of Reason, and maybe submit orders if the player has to be away or busy for a few days, but that I will leave as an informal thing for the players to decide amongst themselves. Do try to be able to submit orders on a reasonably frequency schedule- I don't mind a slack day or two, but if you can only post once a week or if the moon is full you may want to step back and be a cuddly advisor. I will take first come first served who have actually looked at the rules. The first phase will be Setup, which goes Marik->Steiner->Kurita->Davion->Liao, and then play begins with Liao taking his first turn and going in the same order (L->M->S->K->D->L.. etc.) until someone controls four capitals. Virtually everything is public knowledge, with only the event cards being secret knowledge; for those I will either use PMs or (at player request) email to notify them of what their cards are, and then they can play them publically at any time.
Faction Overview
Liao: Tax base 35 million C-Bills (12 from leaders), 3 jumpships (3/2/1), total mech strength 88 points
Marik: Tax base 39 million C-bills (14 from leaders), 6 jumpships (3/2/2/2/1/1), total mech strength 88 points
Steiner: Tax base 44 million C-bills (14 from leaders), 4 jumpships (5/3/2/2), total mech strength 106 points
Kurita: Tax base 43 million C-bills (13 from leaders), 6 jumpships (3/2/2/2/1/1), total mech strength 116 points
Davion: Tax base 50 million C-bills (15 from leaders), 6 jumpships (5/3/3/2/2/1), total mech strength 157 points
Yes, Davion is by far the strongest faction. Yes, Liao is by far the weakest faction. Them's the breaks: Let the ruler beware. All the more honor if you somehow pull off a win as House Liao, eh?
The Map
The initial map is HERE (Warning: Really Big Image). I know this isn't ideal, but it's the main map I'm going to be working with throughout the game. I am open to suggestions as to how to get this information to you guys that does not involve making the LPix server weep into its beer. .GIF seems the clearest/smallest format and I really like having the full board this size for the maximum room to maneuver my pretty little tokens on; in addition to the full map I will after every player's turn create a "small" (and by that I mean a mere 1300x1050) image of the overall state of the board with important attacks noted.
On that map, the units who have to be in a given place are already put there for your convenience; the units you as a player can put wherever you like are off the board beside your faction. Every border region must have at least one unit in it, be it House (the darker shade) or Mercenary (the lighter shade of your faction color); just be aware that there are cards which can spark an immediate auction for any mercenary unit's services (i.e. I would strongly not advise leaving the only path to your capital guarded only by a single merc unit). So you can start planning out your unit placements even if you are not immediately On The Hot Seat as House Marik is.
That is that! I hope this turns out fun- this is an old and not particularly well balanced game, but I think it will be neat for five goons to go to interstellar war over.