Truly Machiavelian Renaissance Games

Secret Victory:
Counts of Flotsam and Jetsam

By Otto Schmidt

The Swinns

The War has not gone well. Sigurd the Great, your captain general, warned you all not to get involved in this the third of the Elvish Civil Wars, but you all saw only glory and gold and ignored his orders and raised your regiments and went off to war. You now rue the day and the old boy was right! Well now you have little to show for it. Besides, secret instructions have come from the Landgraff not to risk too much as he may need your regiments back home soon. Worse still, Beltelephon has hired those rotten, despicable, deserters, those whoresons, those blackguards, those vile sons-of-bitch-bastards the BLACK LEGION as well. Every decent Swinn and Landsknecht would like nothing better than to see each and every one of them broken at the wheel! WORSE! a few weeks ago you discovered that a ZWISS army has been hired by the Salacians. Now it’s bad war and far away from the “gold and glory” jaunt you set out on.

Yet even in the midst of difficulties things change. Word has come to you that the Black Legion is disheartened and tired of their reputation and if some honorable way could be found they would like to get back into Sigurd’s and your, good graces. Further, through common co-religionists in the ZWISS and the Regiment of Donner und Blitzen rumors have percolated that the Zwiss are tired of the war too, and a it has occurred to you that a way might be found to avoid a murderous fight. If only some signal could be given to the ZWISS, but how to do it. Sigurd would be pleased if a “rapproachement” could be made with them (though the Landgraff would be displeased, and both would like the Black Legion back, and of course, if you could come home with a nice fat load of booty...

1.You get one Victory point for each wagon (with 100,000 florins) in it in your possession at the end of the game.

2. You get one Victory point for each gun and regiment you are left with at the end of the battle.

3. You get four Victory points if you can make a “rapproachement” with the Zwiss.

4. You get two Victory points if you can make a “rapproachement” with the Black Legion.

5. You get two Victory points if you are still part of the Atholli Army at the end of the game.

Note on “rapproachement” with the Zwiss. You cannot talk to the Zwiss player nor he to you. You cannot just sidle up and make a deal. The rumors may be true, but they may be false, and if it is suspected you are doing this in defiance of the rules, you lose. You must THROUGH NORMAL game actions and comments to your fellow commanders on your side “telegraph” your actions and intentions to the Zwiss.

More Truly Machiavelian Renaissance Games Elvish Civil Wars

Back to Table of Contents -- Courier #83
To Courier List of Issues
To MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 2002 by The Courier Publishing Company.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com