Alfred Wallace - 08:21am Sep 21, 1998 PST (#45 of 53)
Last Good Book Read: The Master of Go, by Yasunari Kawabata

And here, in all their glory, are the "advanced" La Guerre de l'Empereur
rules I've been working on.

PRODUCTION

All units (ex.: Guard and Levy units, see below) bought during one
production phase come in during the next turn's production phase,
after all units are bought for that turn.

1. UNIT DIFFERENTIATION

There are now two extra kinds of markers in the game, Guards markers
(marked "GUARDS") and Levy markers (marked "SUCK"). Each nation/player
has a certain number of these. France has 5G/9L, Russia 4/12; GB, AU,
PR 3/3; SP 2/5; TU 4/9.

Any division/regiment/whatever can be a Guards unit by spending one more
dollar on it and delaying it one extra turn (2 turns; using my earlier
production variant). Any infantry unit (or Russian/Turkish cavalry) can
be a levy unit by spending the normal amount of money and placing it on
the map as per the original rules.

Levies and Guards provide modifiers in combat (below). Further, a player
with Guards troops can choose whether or not to "deploy the Guard" to
take the modifier. If modifiers are used, Guards and Levies take the
first hits in combat (undue bravado in the first case; cannon fodder
in the second).

2. COMBAT

Combat takes place in up to two rounds. In each round, a player takes
the number of corps he has (or, alternately, total divs/3, rounded up)
and rolls 1D10 (+/- modifiers) against the appropriate table:

  1 or 2 Corps: 0,0,1,1,1,2,2,2,3,4
  2 to 4 Corps: 0,1,1,2,2,2,3,3,4,5
  5+ Corps: 0,1,2,2,3,3,3,4,5,6

The number is the number of units lost by the other side. A roll
modified to more than 10 is treated as the "10" value plus one; a
roll modified to less than 0 is treated as a "-1"--the rolling side
LOSES a unit. Losses are simultaneous.

Modifiers:

  -1 per "divided command" if more than one major power is on a side
(the "Austerlitz" phenomenon; three MPs on a side
would suffer a -2)
  -1 if you're Turkey
  -1 if at least 1/3 (rounded up) of your side is Levy troops
  -1 if no artillery

  +1 if "deploying the Guard"
  +1 if you have artillery superiority of 3:2 or greater (an extra +1 if
you are France or Russia with this advantage)
  +1 if you have cavalry superiority of 3:2 or greater

After one round of combat, both sides simultaneously declare whether or
not they are withdrawing. If both sides withdraw, the battle ends and
both sides retreat from the battlefield. If one side withdraws, the other
gets a "free hit" at the next lowest CRT row (in the case of the 1-2 corps
line, roll at -1). All modifiers are still in effect, but rolls of -1 or
11 are treated as 0 and 10.

Supply and attrition: I'm going to steal another mechanic from "For the
People." Behold, "Alfred's Alternate Rule #4:"

Every Winterphase, stacks not in their home countries suffer the
following effects:

  1-3 units: None
  4-6 units: Lose 1 unit
  7-12 units: Lose three units
  More than that: Lose (units)/3 units