Sunday 26 June 2016

Kingmaker Cyprus: Setup and first moves

I don`t intend to follow my Kingmaker Cyprus game move by move on the blog.  This is my wargames diary of course, but it`s for wargames rather than boardgames.  Even so this is essentially the basis for a Lion Rampant Campaign, so I will probably have to keep it updated to some extent.  It remains however a work in progress, and I will be amending and changing it as I find out what works and what doesn't.

The initial setup is displayed on the board:


The Holdings are as follows:



The House of Clugney
Fief  Saranta Kolones Pafos  (the Castle of the Columns)
Mercenary Bowmen
Sir Alain
Chamberlain of Paphos
Holdings Vineyards
Ship  il Bassanio di Genoa (Mercenary) (Galleass)
Admiral of Cyprus: Lemesos
Ship: Le Roi de Jerusalem of Famagusta (Galleass)
Ship:  La Belle de Kyrenia (Galleass)

The House of Conrad
Fief Kolossi Castle, Lemesos
Sir Jaques
Bishop of Pafos
Chancellor of Cyprus
Archbishop of Nicosia
Captain of Acre
Constable of Nicosia Castle

The House of Gilbert
Lordship of Carpaso
Constable of the Castle of Famagusta
Bishop of Kyrenia
Mercenary crossbowmen unit
Sir Roger
Treasurer of Cyprus

House of Gaston
Lordship of Kantara
Kings Pardon
Sir Gunter
Bishop of Famagusta
Steward of Royal Household
Count of Famagusta 
Warden of the Royal Ports: 50
Ship   Le Trinity de Famagusta (Round Ship)
Ship   Le Guillaume de Pafos (Round Ship)

House of Roland
Lordship of St Hilarion
Royal Counter 6:The Royal Bastard
Marshal of Cyprus
D'Ibelin: Count of Lefkara
Abbot of Kikkos
Holdings: Merchant

House of Richard
Fief of Pergamos
Mercenary Foot Sergeants unit
Sir William
Holdings: Stables Horse Stud
Count of Larnaca
Count of Lemesos

This is a solo game, and I turned the first card in the event deck as: "Bloodfeud between two factions."  A dice roll indicated that this is between faction 5 and faction 6.    The House of Richard and the House of Roland clearly hate each other's guts!  This is made even more interesting since both are powerful factions.  Only one Royal heir counter has been drawn, and that is the Royal Bastard who is one of the Roland's, but Sir Roland does not have a Bishop that can crown the Bastard as King, and even if he did the bastard is the weakest of the Royal Counters and could be easily challenged.  Unlike in normal Kingmaker the bastard is in play here as a character, and I diced the Royal Castle at Nicosia for his location.  That means the crown deck draws will be critical, and should Roland draw a Bishop and get the Bishop to Nicosia I could have a Bastard King on my hands!

The Game Opens


Sir Clugney draws the Blood feud card.  Random dice allocate this to Sir Richard and Sir Roland`s factions.  (This may need reworking and it may be that I should have made it Clugney since he drew it.

Clugney moves his retinue to Kourion.  Since he is Chamberlin of Pafos he takes control of the castle.
The Crown card he draws Count of Kyrenia, adding 6 Lion Rampant points to his retinue.

Sir Richard draws Crusade, but the prince of Antioch is not in play so no result.
Richard moves his retinue to Nicosia, but the Castle is already occupied.  He knows that his old enemy Sir Roland will have to join his proxy, the Royal bastard inside the city to crown him, so he waits outside.
Richard draws Sir John, adding four points to his retinue.

Sir Roland draws a skirmish card as an event.  These are straight from Lion Rampant.  This one is Hammer and Anvil. 
He gathers his retinue knowing that Sir Richard is attempting to block his way into Nicosia.  He cannot crown a King without a Bishop, but I reason that he would be better placed in Nicosia, so Sir Roland marches to give battle.  Battle is a misnomer of course, Lion Rampant is about skirmishes.  He plays the Hammer and Anvil card because choosing this may give him an advantage.
Sir Richard moves into contact outside Nicosia, and I have to resolve the battle as a tabletop game before I can make any further moves.
Sir Richard boasts that he will slay Sir Roland in this battle.  Sir Roland boasts that he will destroy Sir Richard’s Forces entirely.
 

2 comments:

  1. Methinks Sir Roland has been at the commandaria.

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    1. Commandaria! It tastes like prune juice... a very alcoholic prune juice. The worst of it is that a bottle of the stuff is so cheap, and readily available. They sell it in Lidl here. Richard 1st declared it to be a Royal wine, but he probably didn't get his in Lidl. He loved it. No taste buds that boy!

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