Guide

The Battle of Poitier, 1356.

Player's guide

More material can be found on the metagaming stream of this site.

Introduction

This is May of the Year 1355. The King of England has decided to resume the war against France. The main objective is to advance Edwards III's claim to the throne of France and free himself from the vassal position relative to the King of France as the Duke of Guyenne. The Gascon lords are firmly on the English side and are begging Edward III to intervene in Languedoc. The Black Prince, now uncomfortably tailed by creditors, is eager to replenish his finances. Finally, dukes, Earls, lords and knights are aching for a campaign to bring honour and wealth to their names.

The time has come for a Chevauchee into France.

Gameplay

Selecting an Actor

At any time, a player may decide to take control of a Non-Playing Character (NPC). The NPC may be already listed in the cast, or requested by a player to the GM. Upon taking on an actor, the player must state an objective to accomplish with the actor (e.g. Sack Carcassone, intercept the Anglo-Gascons, etc.).  

Once an update is posted for a given actor, the controlling player has 48 hours to reply or else the actors reverts to a NPC and is handled by the GM. However, if another player has dibs on this actor, the control is simply transferred to the player who called the dibs.

Calling dibs on an actor

A player can at any time call "dibs" on another player-controlled actor. Dibs can be called on any player-controlled actors without dibs, or on actors which dibs are called on by a player with a lower Command and Control Score. The score of all players is kept on the player's page.

Scoring on Command points

The soundness of gameplay is evaluated using the Command and Control score as described in TOEM. When a player stops controlling an actor, or accomplish an objective, he/she gets to keep the command points if the objective was met. If a player drops an actor without accomplishing the obective, the most that a player can score is 0 (e.i. negative scored are carried over).

Playing an Actor

Players are going to be prompted with a brief narrative description of a situation and expected to describe their plans in a comment under the post. Any discussion with the GM will take place as comments to a post until a final resolution can be made. All dice rolls will be made using the Invisible Castle service.

Players should consider that their actor know much less than they do about the situation. The game flow is designed to keep everyone in the dark as much as possible. The GM also reserve the right to deny decisions that are based on knowledge inaccessible to a given actor. 

Phases of the Game
Here are listed four phases that possibly will take place. It is, however, unclear whether these will all happen as expected.

Mobilizing England

Actor : The Black Prince (England)
The Black Prince will launch the mobilization of his Estate according to a historical, pre-planned procedure.  The challenge is to get the expeditionary force at sea as soon as possible, then into a marching order crossing the borders of friendly territory without in order to ensure a successful raid in the year 1355. The Black Prince will have to use his leadership to make this happen as the best laid plan is likely to hit snags along the way.

The raid of 1355

Actors : The Black Prince and Earls (England), various local magistrates (France)
France is taken by surprise, but the campaigning season will be short. You are tasked to tear a wide strip of devastation from Bordeaux to Toulouse. However, the English should not destroy the property of friends on their merry way to loot and glory.

The raid of 1356

Actors : The Black Prince and Earls (England), Cardinal XXX (Holy See), King Jean of France (France)

Winter has arrived and the English forces may prepare for a new raid into France. This time, it is likely that France will not stand by while its citizens are pillaged and murdered. Can the Black Prince achieve his war objectives without being defeated in the battlefield by a much larger army of French knights?