Europe bleeds. Thrones tremble. The fate of nations
hangs upon the edge of pike and powder.
You are a mercenary captain of no great birth and
uncertain fortune, yet history is written by those
bold enough to seize it.
Forge Thy Captain
All particulars shall be entered upon the muster roll, lest the chronicle remember thee as nameless.
Europe, for all its sermons, has long known a third estate of being. Choose the manner befitting thee:
Where shall thy company strike its first camp? Other theatres remain unreachable, for the moment.
Distribute 10 points amongst thy faculties.
Thy father's estate yields 10,000 thalers. Hire as thou wilt, but mark well: each cohort thereafter demandeth coin and bread by the month.
Battle Tactics
Battles unfold upon a chequered field, after the manner of chess, each cohort a piece, each tile a yard of broken ground.
- Melee Infantry, pike, halberd, the backbone of every well-ordered tercio. Brace and gut frontal cavalry.
- Ranged Infantry, arquebus and musket. Deadly from afar; smoke and hedge may yet blind them.
- Melee Cavalry, cuirassier, hussar. Loose them upon a flank or rear; gunned down should they charge a steady line head-on.
- Ranged Cavalry, reiter and dragoon, swift skirmish and pistol-shot.
- Artillery, the great pieces, longest of reach. Slow to limber, slower still to reload. May also level fieldworks, splinter bridges, fell stands of trees, batter stone houses to ruin. Mountains, alas, stand against any shot.
Terrain & passage: every cohort can step a single tile in any direction, even up a hillside or into the woods, though rough ground spends its whole movement. Rivers may be waded slowly; bridges cross them at the pace of plains. Trees, houses, and mountains forbid passage outright, though guns may yet clear the first two.
The Armory drills and re-arms each kind of cohort, granting +5% damage and armour per rank, to five ranks. Pay in coin or in stores.
Thy Camp Stands Ready
Captain — of —.
The Training Ground
A great square of trampled earth, ringed by pike-racks and straw butts. Sergeant Hesse drills the recruits past supper, when the cooking fires gild the dust. Here the company's mettle is hammered into shape, blow by blow.
Make Ready the Company
The mock foe is drawn up on the far end of the field. Thou hast one hour before the trumpets sound. Choose how thou wilt spend it.
A Skirmish at Dawn
The Command Tent
Within the captain's tent, maps lie unrolled and pinned with daggers. Couriers come and go on muddy boots. From here thou seest the wars of Europe at a glance, and the small marks thy company hath left upon them.
The Mission Board
Pinned with daggers and bone-headed nails, the notices flutter in the wind, contracts from burghers, magnates, prince-bishops. Couriers ride daily from the great cities; envoys still warm from a hard ride wait beneath the awning. Some matters are spoken low and only to thee.
The Recruitment Tent
A line of hungry men and a few hard women winds out from the tent flap. The quartermaster's clerk asks names, signs them with a fee in advance, and points them to the colour-sergeant.
The Armory
Smoke curls from the forge, and the apprentice's bellows wheeze. Spare pike-heads stand in barrels of straw; breastplates hang on pegs in the gloom. Each band of cohorts may be drilled and re-armed at the smith's expense, +5% damage and armour per rank, to a maximum of five ranks. Pay in coin from thy purse, or in iron, powder, and timber from thy stores.
The Infirmary
Linen, hot water, and the steady curses of the surgeon. The wounded are sorted: those who may yet stand to a line, those who must rest, and those past help. Supplies bind the bandages; time, the rest.
The Gates
Beyond the gate, the road forks toward every quarter of the Empire. The watchman lifts his lantern: with a contract in hand, the road leadeth somewhere, without one, it leadeth nowhere of consequence.
The Trade Caravan
Wagons drawn up under a flapping canvas, drovers shouting prices in three languages. The caravan-master will sell thee bread, powder, and timber by the bushel, or buy off thy surplus when the road is long. His rates favour the house.
Deeper trade, rare wares, faction-tied prices, caravan reputation, will come in time.