Truly Machiavelian Renaissance Games

Secret Victory:
General Arnold Von Der Kukuclocken

By Otto Schmidt

The Zwiss General

The War has not gone well. Legolam, son of Ltihium, self-styled “King of the Elves” has once again revolted in the north, and while the main armies are fighting there, the Salacious Empire has attacked in the south. The ruler of Salacia Sha Na-Na is well known for his disinclination to take risks and he hired you Zwiss to fight on his side. So much the better, you’re the best, you’re the meanest, the most savage fighters in the world, and as long as the money is good you’ll do it all year long. That’s the problem. There has been very little money forthcoming, and the troops are getting restless and have not been paid.

Worse! You recently discovered that the Atholli’s have BOTH the Swinns AND the Black Legion among your ranks. That’s bad news. Those guys are tough fighters, every bit as hard-bitten as you and they don’t give a whit for your reputation so your troops ferocity won’t harm them one bit (Swinns and Black Legion are not affected by terror weapons). But the over riding concern is money. You haven’t been paid, and the men are ready to toss you on their pikes.

On the other hand, some co-religionists in your Zugs have friends in the Swinnish camp and the scuttlebut is that they are tired of this war too! It occurs to you that if some means could be found to signal the Swins that an agreement might be reached, you might not have to fight them, and they might let you clean the clock of the Atholli army. But how to do it in the heat of battle? I wonder. Of course, by now you’re so fed up with Sha-Na-Na’s non payment that some of your men are ready to attack HIM!

1. You get two victory points for EACH wagon with 100,000 florins that you have in your control at the end of the game.

2. You get three victory points if you manage to make a rappraochement with the Swinns.

3. You get two victory points for each Swinn unit or Black Legion unit you eliminate. (Can’t stand competition!) A note on the Swinnish Rapproachement. It is advised that you make some sort of personal contact with the Swinnish player early in the game and establish what you are going to do. Otherwise you may get too far into the game and be unable to take advantage of any opportunity there. That is, you may have already committed yourself. On the other hand you must be careful not to let Ben Elux and Sha Na-Na know what you are doing too soon, otherwise they may sense trouble and attack you themselves. While you can be fairly sure of the attitude of your troops toward such a rapproachement and the attitude of the lower ranks of the Swinns, you don’t know what their commanders will want to do, and they may be heavily bribed by the Atholli’s or even your own Salacian employers.

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