Province control and ownership ============================== The section for empire-builders: How to own land and gain status. Quick overview -------------- Each province and city generates an amount of gold each month. This gold is known as its "tax base". The size of the tax base is determined by the civilization level of the province. This gold may be PILLAGed, taxed by a castle, or taxed by a garrison. It does not accumulate if left uncollected at the end of a turn. A castle automatically collects all of the gold in its province. The GARRISON order installs a group of at least ten soldiers in a province to claim it and guard against pillaging. Garrisons must be bound to a castle. A garrison pays maintenance for its members from the province tax base, then forwards 1/5 of the remaining gold to its castle. The castle owner gains status from the number of provinces under control: provinces rank --------- ---- 1-3 lord 4-7 knight 8-11 baron 12-15 count 16-19 earl 20-22 marquess 23+ duke region king (region must have at least 15 provinces) A noble may PLEDGE to another noble, granting status and control of owned provinces. The status of a noble who pledges is the smaller of the original status or one below the rank of the pledge target: new status = min(original status, one below rank of pledge target) Control of a province allows one to change its name or the name of any of its sublocations, take items from the garrison, and issue DECREEs to watch for certain units, or to attack specified units on sight. The castle continues to receive the income from garrisoned provinces, even if the castle's owner is pledged to another noble. Every noble in the pledge chain shares control of the garrisoned provinces. In other words, a castle owner may pledge to a noble, who in turn may pledge to a third noble, etc. Thus a province may have any number of rulers. Visitors to a province are informed of the castle to which the garrison is bound, and the top-most ruler in the pledge chain (which may simply be the owner of the castle): Province controlled by Amber Keep [cy09], castle, in Forest [cj12] Ruled by Erekosse [5210], baron ... Seen here: Garrison [780], garrison, on guard, with ten soldiers Tax base -------- Each province and city generates a "tax base" each month. The amount of gold fed into the tax base is determined by the civilization level of the province: civ level tax gold --------- -------- wilderness 50 civ-1 200 civ-2 250 civ-3 300 civ-4 350 civ-5 400 civ-6 450 The tax base support garrisons, can be collected by castles, or seized through pillaging. Pillaging and opium consumption reduce the future tax base of a province (see below). A city's tax base is added to the province's tax base at the end of the turn. If the city is pillaged during the month, the amount transferred to the province will be diminished. Gold left in the province at the end of the turn does not accumulate. Castles ------- Castles are the foundation of land ownership. A castle provides its owner with taxes from the province it is located in, as well as from garrisons in other provinces which are bound to the castle. The owner of a castle automatically receives the remaining tax base from the castle's province at the end of each month. If a garrison is stationed in the same province as a castle, the garrison will first pay maintenance from the province's tax base, then the castle will collect whatever is left. Each province may contain only one castle. The castle must be built in the outer province or in a city, if the province has one. (Tax revenue for the castle is the same no matter where it is built.) Castles may not be built inside other sublocations. A castle alone is not sufficient to rule a province. A garrison must be stationed outside the castle in the province to protect it. Garrisons --------- Garrisons are groups of men who are stationed in provinces to protect them, and collect taxes in the name of a castle. Garrisons must be created with the GARRISON order, and must be bound to a castle located in the same region. For example, suppose that the region Lesser Atnos had 20 provinces. One of these provinces contains Amber Keep [cy09]. A garrison bound to Amber Keep could be stationed in each of the 20 provinces (including the province containing the castle itself). Continuing the example, garrison units not in the Lesser Atnos region could not be bound to Amber Keep. The castle a garrison is bound to must be in the same region. Garrisons can be bound to any castle in the region. If Lesser Atnos had two castles, some of the garrisons could be bound to one, and the rest to the second castle. More about garrisons -------------------- Garrisons are established with the GARRISON order. Ten soldiers are required to create a garrison. The GARRISON order must be issue at the outer level of a province; one can't establish a garrison while inside a city, building or other sublocation. The garrison pays the maintenance cost of its men directly from the tax base of the province. One-fifth of the remaining tax base is forwarded to the castle the garrison is bound to. For example, a garrison of ten soldiers would require 20 gold per month to support. This would leave 280 gold remaining in a typical province. 20% of this, or 56 gold, would be forwarded to the owner of the garrison's castle. Example: > garrison cy09 Installed Garrison [780], garrison, on guard, with ten soldiers Visitors to this province would see: Province controlled by Amber Keep [cy09], castle, in Forest [cj12] Ruled by Erekosse [5210], baron Note that Erekosse may be located inside the castle, or the castle's owner may have pledged service to him, in which case Erekosse could be anywhere. Garrison reports ---------------- Garrisons do not provide full location reports to their owners. They do notice any resource depletion activity, such as timber cutting or mining, as well as any large or unusual parties which enter their province. This includes any stack of five units or more, any party of 20 or more men, and most monsters or wild beasts. Garrisons do not monitor activity in hidden locations, even if the players who rule over the garrisons have discovered the hidden locations. The DECREE WATCH order may be given by a ruler to instruct all garrisons to watch for a particular unit. This is useful for locating individuals who would otherwise go unnoticed by the garrisons. Referring to garrisons ---------------------- Since a province may only have one garrison, garrisons may be referred to without knowing their entity number. The keyword "garrison" will match the province's garrison, if there is one. Examples: give garrison 12 5 attack garrison Status ------ The number of provinces a noble controls determines his status or rank: provinces rank --------- ---- 1-3 lord 4-7 knight 8-11 baron 12-15 count 16-19 earl 20-22 marquess 23+ duke In addition, if a character has control over every province in a region, and the region contains at least 15 provinces, then the character is given the rank of king. Provinces may be directly owned, if the noble is the owner of a castle, or indirectly, through other pledged nobles. Pledging land ------------- A noble may PLEDGE his lands to another noble. This grants the pledge target status by increasing the number provinces he may rule over. For example, suppose there are two castle owners, Osswid and Feasel. Osswid has garrisoned six provinces, and Feasel has three. Osswid is therefore a baron, and Feasel is a lord. If Feasel and Osswid both pledge to Candide, Candide would attain the rank of Count. Osswid and Feasel would remain at the same rank in this example. Candide would receive garrison reports for all provinces which Osswid and Feasel control. He would have the same privileges in the controlled provinces: he could take items from the garrisons, alter the names of the provinces or their sublocations, and issue watch and hostile decrees. However, the income generated by the provinces would continue to be forwarded to the castles. No extra income goes to the pledge target. Status after pledging --------------------- The status of a noble A who is pledged to another noble B will be either A's original status, as determined by how many provinces he controls, or one rank below B, whichever is lower. For example, a noble with 5 provinces who pledges to a king will remain a baron. However, if pledged to another baron, the noble's rank would fall to lord. Pillaging --------- Gangs of ten or more men may use the PILLAGE command to seize loot from a province or a city. Pillaging yields 1/3 of the tax base for a location, and destroys another third. For example, a location with a tax base of 300 gold would yield 100 gold to a pillager, and be left with 100 gold (100 was destroyed by the act of pillaging). Pillaging has a harmful effect on the future tax revenue of the location. The more a location has been pillaged, the lower its tax base. Provinces and cities take as many months to recover as they have been pillaged. For example, a city which was pillaged for five months in a row would take five months to return to its normal tax base. Pillagers must first defeat any units GUARDing the province, including any province garrisons. Opium ----- Opium is produced in poppy fields, and consumed by markets in desert, plain, forest, and mountain provinces. All markets have some level of opium demand. However, this demand will not be visible in the market report at low levels. Satisfying opium demand in a market will cause the next month's demand to be higher. As peasants become addicted to opium, the increased demand will be shown in the location's market report. If no opium is sold to a market, the demand will fall. Opium adversely affects the city's tax base. The more opium the market buys, the more tax revenues will be reduced.