Look in the back of the WRG Ancients rulesbook, 7th Edition, and you'll see mentioned a play-by-mail (PBM) campaign by R B Scott, who lives in Gwent, Wales. Scott's PBM effort is available in a software format, and about a year ago, I was fortunate to get a copy of it. There are several parts to the program. First, a medieval campaign called EUROPA, set in the 1400s; second, a campaign called HELLENICA, set in the world of ancients; and third, a scenario generating program for do-it-yourselfers. When I received the program, I approached Brian Dewitt, and asked him if he wanted to run a test of the EUROPA effort. My thought was that we'd enlist about five or six PW members as the heads of provinces, and play a half dozen turns to see how everything worked out. Brian agreed, and we each contacted a number of participants. When we next met, it turned out that I had contacted three players, while Brian had gone all-out... his neighbors and his friends and his brothers and his uncles and his grandparents, etc., or so it seemed. He had signed up the maximum number of players, 20, for the campaign. Which meant, of course, the maximum amount of work for the campaign umpires. Entering data from the players for each turn in the campaign can be quite time consuming. With 20 players providing input, I'd say that, working as a team, Brian and I spent about two hours for each campaign turn in processing the information. My function in the data input procedures was to sit at the computer keyboard, typing in the information which Brian read from the sheets supplied by the participants. On occasion, I would make a mistake... move a General to the wrong city, or prematurely end someone's movement phase, or transport the wrong number of troops, in which case, Brian and I would look at each other and say: "Life is sure tough in medieval times!" EUROPA provides a picture of Europe around 1420. There are 20 principalities, or countries, or provinces, or whatever, ranging from Austria in the east to Portugal in the west, and from England to Italy to North Africa. In short, the Mediterranean basin is fairly well covered. Not all provinces start out on an equal footing. Each is given a number of key cities, and each city provides Revenue Points (RP). The teeny provinces of Savoy and Genoa commence with only 26 RP, while Aragon starts out with 48. All others range in between these values. Each province is given a number of troops of different types, and each troop type functions best and fights best in a particular terrain. There are hills and deserts and plains, etc. The troops are: Men-At-Arms Heavy cavalry Jinnetes Light cavalry Foot Regular infantry Bombards Cannon Warships Both transports and fighting ships Each province is also assigned a number of Generals. The game centers around these Generals, who are given a number of characteristics: loyalty and age and health and military prowess and so on. The computer uses these characteristics (along with the number and type of troops, of course) in calculating battle results. Movement on the campaign map is between junctions, or cities. Movement between cities requires the expenditure of a number of Movement Points (MP). Troops do not move by themselves; they must be "dragged" by an accompanying General. A General, moving by himself, can go quite a long distance; he's got a fairly large number of MP. Burdened with troops, however, he's slowed down substantially. Many times, during the data entering procedures, Brian and I found that a General, attempting to traipse around Europe with his forces, got hung up along his desired route and was not permitted to move any further. In the campaign, the first player to get it in the neck was Portugal. Poor Portugal, situated in the west of the Peninsula, was attacked and battered and smashed by its neighbors, each seeking the maximum amount of blood. Profiting most from the demise of Portugal was the Kingdom of Castile, run by Jeff Wiltrout. I should note that the Wiltrouts, father Bob and son Jeff, thrive on campaigns such as this. Jeff got into the Guiness Book of Records for the number of phone calls he made to Granada and France and England and Aragon and Switzerland, etc., wheeling and dealing and hustling and making arrangements right and left. Toward the end of the campaign, he even contacted the Austrians, which puzzled me and Brian... why would Castile, way out on the Peninsula in the west, get in touch with the Austrians, way out in the east, on the other side of the world? We never did find out... Father Bob ran Burgundy, and his problem was that, in the center of Europe, Prince Philip of Burgundy was constantly getting battered by the provinces surrounding him. In fact, all of Central Europe seemed intent on smashing all of Central Europe... there was no stopping of the fighting, no respite, no time to catch one's breath... as soon as one battle was over, two more began. Central Europe was in chaos. In contrast, in the middle of Italy; where I sat as the Duke of Florence, all was sunny and calm and peaceful. I had an agreement with my neighbor in Rome, the Pope himself, Fred Hubig, the Little Father, that we would live in peace and serenity with one another. Our Master Plan was to combine forces and slowly proceed up the western coast of Italy, conquering all before us. our potential targets were, first, a number of independent cities, then Genoa, then Milan, and then into Central Europe, where, we thought, all the inhabitants - by the time we got there - would have battered each other into insensibility. obviously a great Master Plan of. the first water, first magnitude! The EUROPA program has a number of options available to the player each turn. You can promote Generals, you can fortify cities, you can attempt to assassinate opposing Generals... all the good things one would do during wartime in the mid-1400's. As a first step in the Florence-Rome Master Plan (FRMP), I chose the option "bribery". Right next to Florence was an independent city, Lucca, and on Campaign Turn Number 1, 1 did two things: First, I "invested" 12 of my Florentine total of 30 RP in "bribing" the forces of Lucca, attempting to convince them to open the gates of the city to my troops. Second, I marched into Lucca with a sizeable force. Somehow, the computer took into account these two simultaneous inputs the 12 RP bribery amount plus the number of units in my force and after adding a random factor, it churned away for a microsecond or two, and decided that Lucca was mine! Without a single shot being fired, I had made my first conquest! Why, this was like taking candy from a baby! Today, Lucca, tomorrow, the world! Alas, my joy was short lived. One simply cannot trust the Luccans. As I proceeded north, I failed to garrison Lucca, to leave a unit behind to show the flag. A turn or so later, the computer churned away again... and this time, the Luccans revolted! I had to reverse my course and go back to teach the Luccans a lesson...one they'd never forget... I razed the city! Nobody fools around with the Duke of Florence! I must say the Luccans were stubborn, for a couple of turns later, the city revolted again!! Don't these people know when to quit? Another interesting occurrence at the campaign's beginning concerned Granada. Brian and I had not had an input from Granada for the very first turn, and another participant - who shall remain nameless - was asked to "make Granada's move" for it. This was a wrong move for the umpires... neither Brian nor I shall make this mistake again! What this follow did was to expend all of the Kingdom of Granada's RP in an attempt to assassinate the neighboring King of Castile! This had a repercussion or two: First, Granada was not the richest kingdom in the world, and spending all its revenue in one fell swoop left it no RP for recruiting troops, etc. Granada never fully got back on its feet. Second, the attempt failed! And it severely irritated the King of Castile, AKA Jeff Wiltrout, El Diablo himself. Jeff immediately commenced whomping Granada. Pat Haugh took over Granada, but in light of this horrendous beginning, could make no headway. Granada never recovered from the effects of this first turn. The Kingdom of Granada wasn't too big to start with, and I think that the highest it ever rose in the standings was around 15 out of 20. In fact, at the campaign's end, poor Granada finished 18th out of 20, just ahead of Savoy (wiped out) and Portugal (wiped out). Mentioning Savoy brings to mind that this was the smallest principality in the campaign. Located in southern Central Europe, Savoy was pummeled by France and Milan and Switzerland... anyone within pummeling range. Savoy was run by my son Warren, and in a burst of familial affection, one might say a father-son bonding, I pledged Florence's assets to assist Savoy. Unfortunately, there was really nothing of Savoy to assist. Warren quickly lost every city he had with the exception of his capital, Turin, and there he sat, besieged by Milan and France. Each turn, I would transfer an RP or two to Savoy to help him buy another bombard for his force in Turin. But for every bombard purchased, Milan seemed to bring up two more. The Pope and I, assessing our Master Plan to advance north, realized we could never get to Turin before it fell. And we were right... one or two turns later, and Savoy was only a memory. Bob Wiltrout's theory concerning the campaign, any campaign, is that the final standings will reflect the amount of effort put in by the individual players. Careful planning and a lot of coordination and discussion and, eventually, agreement, with the other players is a must to ensure that your long-term goals can be achieved. I must admit that the Wiltrout theory is bolstered by a glance at the achievements of Wiltrouts Senior and Junior. Young Jeff, once the campaign started, never got off the phone, never seemed to end his communications with the other participants. The result: Jeff, the King of Castile, finished first. Wiltrout Senior of Burgundy also started out like a house afire with his wheelings and dealings... Bob was well up in the standings midway through the campaign. And then, unfortunately, Bob had to spend quite a bit of time out of town, and so couldn't continue his activities. The result: Burgundy finished in 13th place. Conclusions The EUROPA program, for each monthly turn, when it prints out a report for each player, does so in the form of a newsletter. There is first, a listing of your assets, your Revenue Points, etc. Second, there is a rundown of the news of areas immediately surrounding your principality. Here, you get battle results, not in numbers, but in textual form: "The independent city of Lucca revolted today from the oppressive yoke of Florence..." or, "The dogs of war were unleashed in the city of Ravenna as a colossal Papal force besieged a minor Venician army under the command of General Philia..." Third, also in textual format, is the news from areas away from your own. This news is delayed one turn, i.e., Castile, way out in the west, will be reading the news of Austria, in the east, one whole turn after the events occur. It was in the Florentine Daily Gazette that I read of the demise of my forces, of the demise of my plan to conquer the world. Pope Hubig and I were working our way north as our Master Plan dictated. Along the way, I had collected several minor cities, nothing spectacular, but sufficient to keep my troops in practice and my Revenue Point total up. Then our combined forces marched into the independent city of Modenna. We outnumbered the Modennans, or Modennians, or Modennites, or whatever, and we thought that here was yet another easy victory. The Pope and I besieged the city; all was going well, and the siege was proceeding in fine fashion over a time period of several turns as evidenced by the articles in the Florentine Daily Gazette. The Duke of Milan, however, obviously an avid reader of the Milan Enquirer, must have read of the siege so close to his own territory and decided to help the Modennans. A large number of Milanese units appeared in the city. Milan had listed both Florence and Rome as enemies, and so the computer joined the Milanese forces with those of the defending Modennans and allied them against our besieging units. Even so, we still had pretty good odds going for us in the combat. And then Milan did us a dirty. The @#$%@&! Duke sent one or two units into Modenna's neighboring cities. What these units effectively did was to cut off all supply lines leading to our forces in Modenna. When the computer assesses force strength in its combat calculations, one of the critical items is whether or not the engaged units are in supply. And ours were not. Not good. And so, when I picked up my next issue of the Florentine Daily Gazette, I was horrified to read that the besieging forces had been beaten... indeed, more than just 'beaten', according to the Gazette, as it indicated that "... the fleeing Florentine forces had been annihilated!" Annihilated!! Bad news, indeed, for Florence, for the forces that I had donated to the joint Florentine/Papal army constituted about three quarters of all my available troops! I was undone! I now appreciated how others, who had also unmercifully been bashed in the campaign, felt. Fred Haub, for example. Fred, as the King of Naples, had sent most of his forces o'er the water to attack enemy troops in Sicily or Corsica, I forget which. The Neapolitan attack failed miserably... I'm not sure whether through battle or through the computer's maniacal calculations of attrition of the fleet due to high winds on the high seas. In any case, Fred, like me, was just about out of the war. Each player's monthly newsletter published his standing in the campaign. The rating stems from a very simple calculation... it's the ratio of your starting Revenue Points to your current Revenue Points. Obviously, one can "up" one's Revenue Points by capturing enemy cities. Another, more convenient, way to increase revenue input is to increase your tax percentage, i.e., the RP supplied by each city under your control. Each city raises a nominal number of RP, and I noted that several players consistently taxed their cities at 150 percent of nominal. Brian Dewitt stated, in his campaign summary to the players: "The French somehow managed to collect taxes at about 170% for the entire game." In theory, a high tax rate should give rise to a revolt or two, and, conservative and beneficent ruler that I am, I kept the Florentine tax rate down to 110 percent of the standard. My thought was that eking out a wee 10 percent above the norm would not excite the bowels of the computer when it came time to calculate which provinces rose in revolt. I suffered no revolts (other than the Luccans - but they don't count since Lucca was conquered territory) but several participants who had raised and kept their tax level to 150 percent didn't suffer either. In all, a most enjoyable affair and highly recommended, although, like Brian, I don't think I'd volunteer in the near future to run another campaign. For information about the software, contact: R B Scott, 28 Priory Gardens , Usk, Gwent 02913 2496 UK. Back to PW Review January 1992 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1992 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com