Conquest of the Empire:
PBEM last update 18 April 1998

Play by Email

Proposal

Method

Infantry, Cavalry, Catapult

Fortifications, Galleys

Order of Battle

Round of Battle

Examples: Simple Land Battle, Large Land Battle, City Fortification, Sea Battle

Some Existing Rules Clarified

Play by Email setup for COTE: [Top]

Using the original rules we do not have a viable way to play by email. The battle resolution involves the Attacker choosing a target and rolling 1 die. The Defender then picks a target and rolls 1 die. This continues until the units on one side are eliminated.

Obviously we can not do a battle with each side taking a day to turn around the email results and post the next targets. This could take months for one battle!

Proposal: What I propose is this: [Top]

March 10 1998 version.

[!! These lines have been added or changed April 17th !!]

• The Units involved in a battle do attack each other one unit per side at a time.
• The order of units attacking is a new aspect.
• The targets that are hit is a new aspect.
• Advantages from Catapults and Fortresses is included in the new battle resolution.
• Size of the Legion is used to partially determine outcomes is a new aspect.
• Galleys are included in the new resolution.
• Attackers can still retreat but the Attacker will need to post his retreat conditions with his posted turn (or pause a battle).

The Method: [Top]

I have borrowed an aspect from the Axis&Allies combat resolution device. Each unit is given attributes that determine if it gets a hit or a miss in Battles. Each unit also has a chance of hitting an enemy unit determined by what unit got the hit.

Hits are scored by a first roll. Each unit has a level that it must equal or roll under to score a hit. Infantry are level 2 and thus need to roll a 1 or 2 to score a hit.

Targets are chosen by a second roll. If a hit is scored the next die roll is used to determine which unit was hit. For Infantry the second roll of 1,2, or 3 means an enemy Infantry is hit; a roll of 4, or 5 means an enemy Cavalry is hit; and a roll of 6 means an enemy Catapult is hit. If the enemy only has one unit type left then the target roll is not required. Ie. Enemy has 4 Infantry left so the only target available is an Infantry.

If the enemy does not have the unit targetted the next less costly unit will be hit. So if a Cavalry was targetted and the enemy had no Cavalry then an enemy Infantry would be hit. If a Catapult was targetted and the enemy had no Catapult then a Cavalry unit would be lost. When a hit is scored then one enemy unit will be lost.

Fortifications give a slight advantage to the Defenders but only slight. This may need to be altered in future versions of these rules. The first hit by the Attacker will BREACH THE WALLS so to speak. The first hit does not hit a defending unit but allows future hits to target a defending unit. Once the walls are down the attackers rush in and normal land battle takes place.

Galleys fight as units only when the land units on board are ALL lost.

Retreats: Partial battles can be specified to allow the Attacker to retreat after seeing the results of a round of battle. The Attacker can specify that he will retreat if he is down to one or two or more units (thus saving his General(s)). This retreat can happen at any time during the round of battle but only after a Defender gets his return shot. See Example #3.

The Infantry: [Top]

These units attack and defend at a level 2 - they need to roll a 1, or 2 on a 6 sided die to score a hit.
The target of this hit is determined by a second die roll. A 1, 2, or 3 scores a hit on an enemy Infantry, a roll of 4 or 5 scores a hit on an enemy Cavalry, and a roll of 6 will score a hit on an enemy Catapult.

The Cavalry: [Top]

These units attack and defend at a level 3 - they need to roll a 1, 2, or 3 to score a hit.
The target of this hit will be an enemy Infantry on a roll of 1 or 2, an enemy Cavalry on a roll of 3 or 4, and an enemy catapult on a roll of 5 or 6.

At sea the Cavalry act as Infantry. They roll as attacking/defending Infantry but take hits only when targetted as Cavalry. Ie. the enemy must still target a Cavalry to remove a sea borne Cavalry unit. You do not substitute Cavalry for Infantry for taking hits.

The Catapult: [Top]

These units attack and defend at level 4 - they need to roll a 1, 2, 3, or 4 to score a hit.
The target of this hit will be an enemy Infantry on a roll of 1 or 2, an enemy Cavalry on a roll of 3 or 4, and an enemy catapult on a roll of 5 or 6.

The Fortification: [Top]

These units are never lost in Battle. They can be destroyed only if the Defender destroys the City on a previous turn.

Forts will take the first hit from the Attacker. This will Breach the Walls so to speak and thus allow future Attacker hits to target the Defender's units.

* This might be changed to 'taking the first and second hit of the Attacker'. If we decide on giving the Forts more weight in battles. But then we might allow Forts to be destroyed as well! Capture the City but without a Fort. (OR Say that a Catapult hit is required, Infantry can never take on a Fort)

Galley: [Top]

The Galley will attack or defend at level 2 - they need a 1 or 2 to score a hit.
The target of this hit is determined by a second die roll. A 1, 2, or 3 scores a hit on an enemy Infantry, a roll of 4 or 5 scores a hit on an enemy Cavalry, and a roll of 6 will score a hit on an enemy Catapult.

So Galleys act like Infantry with respect to dice rolls.

Galleys will only fire when the last of the land units are hit in a battle. This places the Galleys in play and they can then be targetted by the other player. (Obviously no target roll is required to hit a Galley as these are then the only units left to target.) So if the Attacker hits the last Defender land unit the Defender immediately uses his Galley(s) to fire upon the Attacker. The Attacker continues with his other units in the round of battle. Battle continues until one side wins.

Order of Units = Order of Battle: [Top]

The Attacker and the Defender will always roll for each round of battle all of their units in the order of Catapults, then Cavalry, and then Infantry and in Sea Battles the Galleys only after all land units are hit.

Example:
The Attacker has a Legion consisting of 1 Catapult, and 4 Infantry in his attack.
The Defender has a Legion consisting of 3 Cavalry and 2 Infantry in his defense.
The Attacker will then have CAT#1, INF#1, INF#2, INF#3, and INF#4 as his Order of Battle.
The Defender will then have CAV#1, CAV#2, CAV#3, INF#1, and INF#2 as his Order of Battle.

Round of Battle: [Top]

The round of battle does not start with a Calculation of Advantage. The advantage is inherent in the units used in the battle.

The Attacker always starts and fires his first unit. A Catapult if he has one.
If the Attacker gets a hit and the Defender has a Fortification then this is the first target hit.

The Defender then returns fire with his first unit.
The Attacker then uses his second unit and rolls.
This continues for each unit in each Legion.

When a hit is scored the enemy unit targetted will be the last unit in the Order of Battle for that unit.

Example: Using the above Example if the Attacker scored a hit on an enemy Cavalry then the Defender CAV#2 would be the one lost.

This is very important as the unit lost does not get to fire a shot. And since it is lower in the order of Battle it might not have had its chance to fire in the battle and never will. The Order of Battle will be renewed on the next round.

At Sea: If one Legion loses all of its land units (Infantry, Cavalry and catapults) it then uses its Galley or Galleys in the same round of battle.

Therefor we change the Order of Battle immediately upon the loss of the last land unit to include GAL#1, GAL#2,... More on this in the examples.

Examples: [Top]

In the following exapmles I use the short forms for Legion A (the Attacker) and legion B (the Defender) as LegA and LegB.

The Units used are designated by short forms and Order of Battle numbers like CAT#2 - which is the second Catapult unit.

I will assume we use a dice rolling utility like www.irony.com automatted dice roller which send the results simulataneously to any email addresses specified.

Example 1: Simple Land Battle [Top] !!

Legion A has 2 Infantry and 1 Catapult
..CAT#1, INF#1, INF#2
Legion B has 4 Infantry
..INF#1, INF#2, INF#3, INF#4

Legion A attacks Legion B Irony .com sends us 6 sets of 7 rolls the first sets are 3,4,4,2,3,4,1, 2,5,1,6,1,4,2, 5,2,4,3,1,4,5.....

Round #1
We assign the 3 to Leg.A's CAT#1 - a hit
The next die is NOT used to pick a target as only one target exists - Infantry - one Infantry is lost from Leg.B (INF#4) (down to 3 Infantry units now).
Leg.B's first unit is an Infantry (INF#1) and rolls the '4' - a miss
Leg.A's second unit is an Infantry (INF#1) and rolls the next '4' - also a miss
Leg.B's second unit is an Infantry (INF#2) and rolls the 2 - a hit.The next die is used to target and is a '3' - Infantry - one Infantry is lost from Leg.A (INF#2) (down to 1 Catapult and 1 Infantry)
Leg.A's third unit is an Infantry (INF#2) but was just lost! - dead men do not roll.
Leg.B's third unit is an Infantry (INF#3) - rolls the next die - a '4' - a miss
Leg.B's fourth unit was an Infantry (INF#4) which was lost with A's first hit! - no units left to roll.

Round #1 is over as all units from both sides have taken a shot.

!! Legion A could now retreat: if it wanted to, specified to fight for one round and await instructions, OR; at any time when a a retreat condition is satisfied - would be after LegB (the Defender) had gotten a hit to satisfy the condition eg. "LegA down to one unit and LegB with three or more units".

Second round.
1 Catapult + 1 Infantry vs 3 Infantry.
Leg.A's Catapult (CAT#1) rolls a 1 - a hit - since only one enemy unit type B's third Infantry (INF#3) is lost.
Leg.B's first Infantry (INF#1) rolls a 2 - a hit. The next die is a 5 - would normally target a Cavalry but Leg A has no Cavalry and we therefor lose the Infantry (INF#1).
Leg.A has no more units to fire.
Leg.B's second Infantry (INF#2) rolls a 1 - a hit and defeats the last Leg A unit - the Catapult.

Leg. B won the battle with 2 Infantry.

Example 2: Larger Land Battle [Top]

Legion A has 4 Infantry and 2 Catapults.
Legion B has 4 Infantry and 1 Cavalry and 1 Catapult.

Legion A attacks Legion B we get 6 sets of 12 dice rolls. - 2,3,2,4,2,1, 5,4,5,3,3,5, 2,2,5,5,3,4, 1,1,2,6,6,3, 4,5,3,4,2,3, ....

Leg.A CAT#1 gets a 2 - a hit - targets a 3 - enemy Cavalry - Leg.B loses the Cavalry unit.
Leg.B CAT gets a 2 - a hit - targets a 4 - enemy Cavalry - Leg.A has no Cavalry so loses its Infantry#4.
Leg.A CAT#2 gets a 2 - a hit - targets a 1 - enemy Infantry - Leg.B loses its Infantry#4
Leg.B INF#1 gets a 5 - a miss
Leg.A INF#1 gets a 4 - a miss
Leg.B INF#2 gets a 5 - a miss
Leg.A INF#2 gets a 3 - a miss
Leg.B INF#3 gets a 3 - a miss
Leg.A INF#3 gets a 5 - a miss no more units for Leg.B no more units for Leg.A

Second round
Leg.A: 2 Cat + 3 Inf vs Leg.B: 1 Cat + 3 Inf

Leg.A CAT#1 gets a 2 - a hit - targets a 2 - enemy Infantry - Leg.B loses its Infantry #3
Leg.B CAT gets a 5 - a miss
Leg.A CAT#2 gets a 5 - a miss
Leg.B INF#1 gets a 3 - a miss
Leg.A INF#1 gets a 4 - a miss
Leg.B INF#2 gets a 1 - a hit - targets a 1 - enemy Infantry - Leg.A loses its Infantry #3
Leg.A INF#2 gets a 2 - a hit - targets a 6 - enemy Catapult - Leg.B loses its Catapult
Leg.B has no more units to fire, Leg.A has no more units to fire.

Third Round
Leg.A: 2 Cat + 2 Inf vs Leg.B: 2 Inf

Leg.A CAT#1rolls a 6 - a miss
Leg.B INF#1 rolls a 6 - a miss
Leg.A CAT#2 rolls a 3 - a hit - enemy only has Infantry and loses Infantry #2
Leg.B has no more units to fire.
Leg.A INF#1 rolls a 4 - a miss
Leg.A INF#2 rolls a 5 - a miss

Fourth Round
Leg.A: 2 Cat + 2 Inf vs Leg.B: 1 Inf

Leg.A CAT#1 rolls a 3 and hits last Leg.B unit.

Leg A wins with 2 Catapults and 2 Infantry.

Example #3 - City Fortification* [Top]

* In this example I use the one shot to breach the walls setup. We might want to look at this to allow for the wall to be standing until a second hit.

Legion A has 2 Catapults, and 5 Infantry
Legion B has 4 Infantry and 2 Cavalry in a FORT

6 rolls of 13 dice: 1,2,5,3,3,4, 2,5,2,6,2,3, 5,3,4,5,4,3, 2,6,6,3,5,5, 4,4,5,4,3,2, 3,4,3,2,2,5

Leg.A CAT#1 rolls a 1 - get a hit and BREACHES the Walls. - Leg.B does not lose any units.
Leg.B CAV#1 rolls a 2 - gets a hit and targets a 5 - enemy Catapult. Leg.A loses Catapult#2
Leg.A INF#1 rolls a 3 - a miss
Leg.B CAV#2 rolls a 3 - a hit and targets a 4 - enemy Cavalry - no Cavalry so Leg.A loses Infantry#5
Leg.A INF#2 rolls a 4 - a miss
Leg.B INF#1 rolls a 2 - a hit and targets a 5 - enemy Cavalry - no Cavalry so Leg.A loses Infantry#4
.. see Retreat below
Leg.A INF#3 rolls a 2 - a hit and targets a 6 - enemy Catapult - no Catapult so Leg.B loses Cavalry#2
Leg.B INF#2 rolls a 2 - a hit and targets a 3 - enemy Infantry - Leg.A loses Infantry #3
Leg.A has no more units to fire.
Leg.B INF#3 rolls a 5 - a miss
Leg.B INF#4 rolls a 3 - a miss

** Retreat Option: [!!]

If the Attacker specified that he would
Retreat - IF he loses one or more Catapults AND is down to three or less Units
I.e. He wants to save his General by retreating to another Territory that has a Legion (or Fort) to support his retreating forces.

Then the above round would go until Leg.B INF#1's shot when the Attacker goes to 1 Catapult and 3 Infantry and satisfies this retreat option. However the Attacker does not get his next roll LegA INF#3.
Thus we would have the Legion A retreating and leaving Legion B in control of the territory with 2 Cavalry and 4 Infantry AND the Fort stays intact!

We will assume the attack continued.

Round #2
LegA: 1 Catapult + 2 Infantry vs LegB: 1 Cavalry + 4 Infantry

LegA CAT rolls a 4 - a miss
LegB CAV rolls a 5 - a miss
LegA INF#1 rolls a 4 - a miss
LegB INF#1 rolls a 3 - a miss
LegA INF#2 rolls a 2 - a hit and targets a 6 - Catapult - Leg.B loses Cavalry.
LegB INF#2 rolls a 6 - a miss
LegA has no more units to fire.
LegB INF#3 rolls a 3 - a miss
LegB INF#4 rolls a 5 - a miss

Round #3
LegA: 1 Catapult + 2 Inf vs LegB: 4 Infantry

LegA CAT rolls a 5 - a miss
LegB INF#1 rolls a 4 - a miss
LegA INF#1 rolls a 4 - a miss
LegB INF#2 rolls a 5 - a miss
LegA INF#2 rolls a 4 - a miss
LegB INF#3 rolls a 3 - a miss
LegA has no more units to fire
LegB INF#4 rolls a 2 - a hit and targets a 3 - Infantry - LegA loses Infantry #2

Round #4
LegA: 1 Catapult + 1 Inf vs LegB: 4 Inf

and so on.

Example #4 - Sea Battle - both Legions at sea in 1 Galley Each (1 General each) [Top]

LegA has 1 Catapult + 1 Cavalry + 3 Infantry (attacking)
LegB has 1 Catapult + 3 Infantry

dice: 1,2,5,3,3,4, 2,5,2,6,2,3, 5,3,2,2,3,2, 1,5,3,4,5,4,3, 2,6,6,3,5,5, 4,4,5,4,3,2, 3,4,3,2,2,5

LegA CAT rolls a 1 - a hit and targets a 2 - enemy Infantry - LegB loses Infantry #3
LegB CAT rolls a 5 - a miss
LegA CAV rolls a 3 - a miss because Cavalry acts like Infantry at Sea!!
LegB INF#1 rolls a 3 - a miss
LegA INF#1 rolls a 4 - a miss
LegB INF#2 rolls a 2 - a hit and targets a 5 - enemy Cavalry - LegA loses Cavalry
LegA INF#2 rolls a 2 - a hit and targets a 6 - enemy Catapult - LegB loses Catapult
LegB INF#3 was already killed - no more shots
LegA INF#3 rolls a 2 - a hit and automatically targets LegB Infantry#2

Round #2
LegA Cat + 3 Inf vs LegB 2 Inf

LegA CAT rolls a 3 - a hit and LegB loses Infantry#2
LegB INF#1 rolls a 5 - a miss
LegA INF#1 rolls a 3 - a miss
LegB INF#2 was lost - no more shots
LegA INF#2 rolls a 2 - a hit and LegB loses last land unit Infantry#1
LegB GALLEY shoots - rolls a 2 - a hit and targets a 3 - enemy Infantry - LegA loses Infantry#3
LegA has no more units to fire.

Round#3
LegA: cat + 2 Inf vs LegB: Galley
LegA CAT rolls a 2 - a hit - and the galley is lost (last unit to be hit)

..........

If in this example we had Leg B on 2 galleys - say 2 generals one with a Catapult and one with the Infantry
We would get - on round #2 after LegB's last land unit is hit.

LegB GAL#1 shoots a 2 - targets a 3 - LegA loses Infantry#3
LegB GAL#2 shoots a 2 - targets a 1 - LegA loses Infantry#2

Round#3
LegA CAT rolls a 5 - a miss
LegB GAL#1 rolls a 3 - a miss
LegA INF rolls a 4 - a miss
LegB GAL#2 rolls a 5 - a miss

Round#4
LegA CAT rolls a 4 - a miss
LegB GAL#1 rolls a 3 - a miss
LegA INF rolls a 2 - a hit LegB GAL#2 is hit and sunk

Round#5
LegA CAT rolls a 6 - a miss
LegB GAL rolls a 6 - a miss
LegA INF rolls a 3 - a miss

.... many misses

Round#8
LegA CAT rolls a 3 - LegB Galley is sunk.

LegA wins with 1 Catapult and 1 Infantry on 1 Galley

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Rules clarified - April 17, 1998

These are my interpretations on the Rules in the manual that I wanted to make sure were as I saw them. Please respond if you do not think they are right.

Legions: Consist of 1 Leader and 1 to 7 units. Here Leader includes Ceasar or Generals or Cities. A Galley is "not considered Legion members" but can "carry a Legion", page #5 Galleys.

Roads: Make movement between cities easier - save movement costs of units. But movement along these roads must be accompanied by a General or Ceasar "to lead it out", page 6, What's a Legion?

Galleys: They can carry 1 Legion. Thus they can take from 1 to 7 Leaders but only 1 to 7 combat units. If more than 7 units then a second galley is required and also at least a second Leader for the second Galley.

Galley Movement: Moving from sea to sea is one movement, moving from sea to land, or land to sea is one movement.
. A Galley must move 'land to sea' to set sail with a Legion, or 'sea to land' to drop off units.
. A Galley can move 'sea to land' to land at a port, then 'land to sea' to leave with an army. This is two moves - a full Galley movement.
. Legions can not make a land move and a sea move, only one type of movement allowed.
. Therefore we have Galleys: Land to Sea to Sea; Land to Sea to Land; Sea to Sea to Land; Sea to Land to Sea.
. We can not have a Galley leave a coast with a Legion on board (Land to Sea; #1), move to a second sea zone (Sea to Sea; #2), and land the units (Sea to Land; would be #3). Therefore no capitol territory (Hispania, Numibia, ...) can reach an enemy capitol territory by sea with newly purchased units. The Galleys must pickup units (Land to Sea; #1) move to the next sea (Sea to Sea; #2).
. When a Galley lands on a coast and is done its movement - it should be moved to a conjunction of black lines on that coast. By this I mean if two seas are accessible to this territory and the coast line is not broken, then the Galley should be at the nexus of the two seas and the coast. The next turn the Galley can enter either of these two seas on its first movement.
. When a Galley lands on a coast that has three or more adjoining seas (Asia, Neapolis, Sardinia, Crete,...) the Galley should be placed on the interior of the territory to signify that it can move to any sea when it does its Land to Sea movement.
Italia, Hispania, and Macedonia do not qualify here as their coastlines are broken. The "two seas accessible" rule is used on the coast where the Galley landed.

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