Scott DiBerardino - Apr 21, 2009 11:39 am (#28015 Total: 28182) Designer of TENKA, not so new anymore from Victory Point Games :: Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. -- Napoleon FEUDAL LORD (Sunset) Feudal Lord (Sunset Games) -- 19 April 2009 This Japanese title (once slated to be published by MMP as Samurai Lords: The Wars of Feudal Japan, but alas...) has been on and off my play list for a couple years, ever since I was lucky enough to obtain a copy. Not sure why I finally gathered the impetus to actually do the pasteups and other editing work to get this to the table -- perhaps it was yet another viewing of Kagemusha that did it -- but in the end I finished enough of the work to make a go of this viable. In addition to the redoubtable Mr. Merchant, local Japanophile John Squires joined us for a three-player scenario entitled (sigh) Decisive Battle of the Three Heroes. This scenario pits three historical rivals in the Kantou region against each other in a struggle for, er, consolidation against neutrals, mostly, at least in the beginning. Drawing by lot, Nate ended up with Takeda Shingen, perhaps the most famous of the medieval warlords who was not directly responsible for putting Japan on the path to reunification. The Takeda start in the mountainous province of Kai, right between the other two lords, but with a working gold mine and a fat treasury. John drew Hojo Ujiyasu, lord of the rich province of Musashi and other territory in the Kantou. With no gold mines in his territory, John would have to quickly complete his control of his territory and husband his starting resources. I myself drew Takeda's classic rival, Uesugi Kenshin. Uesugi starts with little territory but an island gold mine to support his efforts to expand south. Before we could begin, though, (and this is one of those things that's hard to get from just reading the rules) we had to make Neutral Appearance checks in each territory. This resulted in a powerful neutral force occupying my home province (15 strength, almost as strong as my own forces), and several minor powers appearing in John and Nate's territory. We would be busy for most of the game dealing with these obstacles within our own spheres of influence. The first year was relatively uneventful (random events do not appear until the third year). I spent a large amount of funds for intrigue to secure partial control of Echigo (my home province) and a valuable adjacent province (Kozuke). However, my attempt to get the neutral power in Echigo to submit backfired, spawning two new powers of 10 strength each (this required consecutive rolls of "6", a 1-in-36 chance). I was in danger of losing my only source of income and essentially being knocked out of the game. John and Nate meanwhile cleaned up the backfield a bit, submitting and assaulting smaller neutral fortresses in their territory. At the end of the first year, we each got to draw our first vassals. I got Mr. Generico -- average values all around. Jon drew a fairly weak vassal who would have some minor use as an administrator. Nate, however, drew an extremely powerful but dangerous applicant -- maximum ratings in all categories, but also very treacherous! Nate threw caution to the winds and put him to work immediately. In year two, I failed again to get submission of the neutrals in Echigo; I was now spending my savings to nothing just trying to keep partial control. I was working on converting Kozuke, but a little bit of intrigue funding by John (from his adjacent Musashi province) undid that work as well. Nate proceeded to set up shop in North Shinano and move into South Shinano to get control of his third province. At the start of year three, the wheels began to come off. Nate drew the Treachery event, which requires treachery checks from all his vassals (only the one at this point). Shingen's prestige is high enough that even the most treacherous vassal still has only a 50% chance of rebelling -- but, in true Nate fashion, he fails to retain Wonderful-san's loyalty, and we learn our first serious lesson of Feudal Lord: keep your enemies close, but your friends closer. Since Wonderful-san was alone leading an army outside Takeda territory, and since there was a Takeda territory with no general governing it, Wonderful-san took his entire force, fled to North Shinano, took over the fortresses there, and then became neutral (a 20-strength force, in the end). This was a terrible blow to Nate's expansion, and it I imagine it would take several years for us to even think of going after the neutral in North Shinano. John had managed complete control (no small feat) of the rich Musashi province, and then pressed it for heavy taxes to build up a huge war chest. John also drew an event that let him bribe away* one of my two vassals (although I had placed them together, so the betraying general could not take any forces with him). I decided the time was right to try out the field battle rules, and rushed a sizable force into Musashi to try to take him down a peg or two (and repay him for his perfidy). Several rounds of field battle later, John's main army was destroyed, and he hold up in his 15-strength fortress. I controlled the field, busting his complete control of Musashi down to partial control, but I did not have enough force to lay siege or even to contest his control (I lost 6 strength of my 13 soldiers). At least as bad, John lost one of his own vassals to treachery, who fled with an army and set up in one of John's lesser provinces with a 30 (!) strength neutral fortress. John had one more tiny province (Awa, on the peninsula), so he built up a reinforcing army there with the intention of driving me from Musashi (he couldn't recruit in a territory with enemy soldiers). Nate, having consolidated his power in Kai, had moved into South Shinano and solidified complete control there as well; a tidy little domain with good income thanks to his original gold mine, but only about 40% of that needed to win the game. I, on the other hand, had complete control of Kozuke and was slowly whittling down the opposition in Echigo. With partial control of one other province, I would have enough income to declare victory in a turn or two. At this point, Nate has to leave (four hours for four turns, so far!). John and I decided to play through one more year, though we never made it out of the Fortune phase... Right off the bat, I draw an event that allows me to bribe away* one of John's vassals -- so naturally I pick the one leading his reinforcing army, which comes over to my side, giving me control of dinky Awa, and more importantly, the army that was going to sweep me out of Musashi. But! Feudal Lord giveth with one hand, and with the other taketh away. Famine hits northern Japan, and both of my provinces are hit -- no tax income whatsoever for me this turn! I had already spent myself into penury, and I was going to go bankrupt at the end of the turn, unable to pay all my soldiers' salaries (my army, thanks to the appointment of John's treacherous vassal) was far too large for me to support. We more or less just worked out what would happen that turn, since John had no forces and I had no money. I would take a severe prestige hit for being bankrupt, and have to withdraw my army from Musashi due to lack of funds. John would collect only a little income, but had enough saved up to rebuild his forces. I was still in a commanding position, but it would take a couple of years to enforce my will after the famine -- and apparently anything could happen in those couple of years! After this fifth turn (out of 12 in the scenario), we took the game down. Early on we had a discussion about the Pax Romana-esque nature of the dramatic random events. John and I thought that once you knew what to expect (especially from treachery) there were ways to mitigate the damage -- don't leave a general alone with a large army, and even if they betray you at least you won't lose a huge force. You also want to make sure you have no powerful provinces left unattended. Since you are limited to six vassals, this means it will be difficult to expand beyond a few provinces -- but I consider this historical. It took dozens of years for the historical lords in this situation to expand beyond one or two provinces, and there are plenty of historical examples of a single disaster unraveling a lord's entire domain. I'm not even that pissed about the famine burying me on the last turn -- I recognized that the strategy I pursued to subdue the neutrals in my home province through lots of intrigue spending was a risky one, and that one should never deplete their treasury to such a low level... And yet, I do sympathize with Nate's position, that such drastic swings of fortune take the game out of the players' hands. Feudal Lord was designed in 1983, when elegance of player control and balance were not the virtues they are in today's Eurogaming world. All this to say, FL is not going to be for everyone. We are definitely giving it another try before too long. # An important note -- the translation for the card "Intrigue with an enemy vassal" is incorrect. You are supposed to include the target vassal's daimyo's prestige when rolling to steal the vassal away -- this makes it much more difficult, unless you want to offer a lot of raises. Even so, a well targeted bribe can seriously undo another player's power.