Declarations of War for Solitaire Empires in Arms

If you are trying to play EiA solitaire, one of the hardest decisions to make (and to justify) is when one major power should declare war on another. In order to automate this awkward decision, I have devised the following system for Declarations of War (DoW). Be warned, most of this text consists of modifier tables - the actual rules are actually quite short.

Checking for Declarations of War

DoW checks are made in the DoW phase (duh! :) During this phase, each major power must roll to see if it will declare war on any of the other major powers (i.e. there will be 6 die rolls per power, but most of the time most of the rolls should not be necessary, the reason for which will be obvious by looking at the modifier tables). The order for making DoW checks is: France, Russia, Austria, Prussia, Turkey, Spain, Great Britain (or if the alternate additional major powers are used: France, Great Britain, Russia, Germany, Austria, Prussia, Italy, Scandanavia, Turkey, North Africa, Spain, Poland) - this is the order both for who makes their checks first, and also the order in which they make the checks (i.e. France first rolls to see if it makes a DoW on Russia, then Austria, then Prussia, etc. after France has made all its rolls, Russia then rolls to see if it makes a DoW against France, then Austria, the Prussia, etc.). Note that once a major power does make a DoW against a given other power, there is no need to make further rolls between those two powers until after they have settled a peace and the mandatory peace time has expired.

It is recommended that at the start of a campaign, these die rolls be made for pre-game DoWs and that no rolls be made during the first political phase.

To actually make a DoW check, sum up all modifiers (detailed below), roll two six-sided dice and add the modifier. If the modified die roll is a 12 or above, the power declares war, otherwise it doesn't.

There are times, however, when a country is in such desparate straits that it would be absolute suicide to make any DoW's; in order to reflect this, the following restrictions apply to the DoW check (N.B. these are in addition to the restrictions in 4.2.2): No power may make a DoW if they are bankrupt, if they have fewer points in corps than the (original) manpower value of their home nation (EXCEPTIONS: Great Britain, and also Turkey in a December or January turn (the levy step of that month insures plentiful troops for the next year!). The Austrian insurrection corps do not count for this calculation, nor do cossacks or freikorps, but the Tyrol corps does, IF it is eligable to be on the map).

Also, no non-dominant power, if already at war with a dominant power, may declare war on another dominant power (note that this does not prevent the dominant power from declaring war on the non-dominant one!).

Modifiers to Declaration-of-War Die Rolls

The complete(?) list of modifiers is as follows:

Natural Enemy Modifiers
	Au	Fr	GB	Pr	Ru	Sp	Tu
Au	-	+2	-4	0	-1	-3	+2
Fr	+3	-	+10	+1	+2	0	-3
GB	-3	+10	-	-5	-1	+1	0
Pr	+1	+1	-5	-	0	-5	-5
Ru	0	+2	-1	+1	-	-2	+2
Sp	0	0	+1	-5	-2	-	0
Tu	+2	-3	0	-5	+2	+1	-

These natural enemy modifiers apply to all DoW rolls all the time.

Yes, I realize the chart is not symmetrical, it is not supposed to be; read across horizontally when determining the modifiers for the major power making the checks.

[I could use a lot of input on this chart, since my knowledge of the political atmosphere of this era is not too good... -ejg]

If the major power making the check has less than half of its maximum land points possible on the board (as determined by the number its corps can hold, but not including the max. that its cities can hold in garrison, though troops in garrison do count towards this modifier).	-1 (-2 for France)
As above, but less than 3/4 of maximum.	-3 (-4 for France)
For all powers except Prussia and Austria, if less than 1/2 of the maxium naval points possible are on the board.	-1 (-2 for Britain)
As above, but less than 3/4 of max.	-3 (-4 for Britain)
It is a winter month (Dec, Jan, Feb) (who wants to fight in the winter? Can't forage and depot supply is expensive...)	-3

In the above cases, count militia and infantry that are under construction, but not guards, artillery, cavalry or ships. Also do not count insurrection corps, but do count cossacks, freikorps, and the tyrol corps (although only if they are eligible to be on the map). Do not count the Turkish feudal corps of Podolia, Crimea or Transylvania unless Turkey controls the appropriate provinces, but do count all other Turkish feudal corps.

If the major power making the check:

N.B. if you are using the historical national aspiration rules this last modifier is NOT a cumulative modifier, as there are further modifiers for individual territories later, and I do not want to count all these territories twice!

IF, on the other hand, you are not using the HNA, then this modifier should be cumulative. (For example, if France controls Palatinate, Prussia will have a +1 modifier when rolling to see if Prussia declares war on France.)

Additional Modifiers for the Historical Aspirations Rules

If you are using the Historical National Aspiration rules, the following modifiers should also apply (but hey! you may decide to use these modifiers even if you aren't using HNA :)

In all cases where a modifier is used for control of a minor, these mods only apply if the minor is actually controlled (i.e. a neutral minor does not a modifier make!)

Russia
against the power controlling Sweden	+2
against the power controlling Finland (but only if different than the country controlling Sweden)	+1
against France, if Fr controls Poland	+2
against any other power that controls Poland	+1
against a power that controls both Masovia and East Prussia	+1 (usually Prussia)
against a power that controls both East Galicia and West Galicia	+1 (usually Austria)
against the major power that controls Bessarabia, Moldavia or denies access through the Dardenelles	+2 for two conditions (usually Turkey)
against the major power that controls two of Wallachia, Bulgaria and Armenia	+1 (usually Turkey)
against a power that controls any two of Malta, Corfu and Palestine	+1

* If Naples and Sicily are controlled by different powers, or if one or both of the two are neutral, there is no modifier.

* the balkans are defined as Serbia, Bosnia, Albania, Rumelia, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Wallachia, Moldavia, Bessarabia, Military Border, Transylvania, Illyria, and Hungary.

Some observations about the above modifiers:

The HNA modifiers were derived, quite appropriately, from the HNA rules, but can probably be used even if you aren't using the HNA rules, especially if you want a game that doesn't deviate too grossly from history.

On average, some quick calculations reveal that the best possibilities for wars using these rules are for wars between Russia and Turkey, Austria and Turkey, Austria and France, Prussia and France, France and Great Britain and Spain and Great Britain. Conversely, wars will be almost impossible between Turkey and Prussia, Austria and Great Britain, Prussia and Great Britain, and Prussia and Spain. All in all, I think that is fairly desirable, given that that is more or less historically how things were, but there is always a chance for some bizarre twists of fate :)

Ok, I'm starting to play test these for myself now. I'm doing a full campaign starting in 1805, and using the HNA modifiers. I've done the pre-game DoWs and have the following results: Fr vs. GB, Sp vs. GB and Tu vs. Ru. This is actually quite reasonable - action between Fr/Sp and GB will consist of primarily naval battles at the start, which don't cost supply and is therefore affordable, while Turkey is unlikely to ever be in a better position vis a vis Russia then at the start of the game. Au and Pr were -><- this close to war with France, but just missed. They can use the time to pick up minors instead, and war will probably start after the winter is over and forage becomes practical. This will save them a fortune on supply. Which is to say, I am satsified with these initial results.

However, various things I am considering now:

• Only make the check once per quarter instead of every month. This is a lot of number crunching to do on a per-turn basis, but not doing it every month might cause a good opportunity to be missed.
• Have previous results influence future results. This might seem too arbitrary, however. For example, if Prussia's modified roll vs. Austria is a 2, the next roll will have a -2 modifier as that 2 roll could be interpreted as good (or improved) relations. While a roll of 10 might cause a +1 on the next roll as this represents relations becoming strained. Several points against this: die rolls are too arbitrary, and I already have a "natural enemy" modifier. I'm sure there are other cons. On the pro side, it would help reflect that nebulous internal factor thing and helps crescendo certain countries into war gradually, so each side can expect and prepare for it before it happens. Scale might look something like:
  • 2 = -2 to next roll
  • 3-5 = -1 to next roll
  • 9-10 = +1 to next roll
  • 11-12 = +2 to next roll
  But I'll try it without for this game and see how it goes.

These rules are designed to completely supercede any human judgement in the arena of declaring war, but if you absolutely must see two powers at war at a given point in time, you are always free to completely ignore these rules and create whatever grossly illogical (lopsided, outright unfair, whatever) situations you want, but don't come crying to me if it later makes the modifiers on the table seem unbalanced - it was your own damn fault ;p

Surrender Rules for a Solitaire game of EiA

As it is awkward with deciding declarations of war in a solitaire game, it can also be awkward for one human player to decide when two powers might settle a peace. This is especially true given the modern mentality to "fight to the last man" which rarely occurred in 18th-19th century warfare. Plus there were lots of internal factors which might influence such a decision that one player playing solitaire could not meaningfully recreate. In order to reflect these issues, I have developed a set of rules complementary to the DoW rules for determining when a power at war will sue for peace.

Determining Surrender

Determining whether a country sues for peace or not is done during the peace phase (appropriately enough :) During this phase, each power that is at war with another major power rolls 2d6 and adds various modifiers (listed below). If this result is less than 10, the power continues to fight. If it is exactly 10, the power will sue for peace, but can not accept an unconditional. If the roll is great than 10, the power will sue for peace and may accept unconditional if the player deems it wise. On a roll of 15 or more, the power must sue for peace and accept whatever is offered.

In the unlikely event that two powers at war with each other should both roll over 10, the powers in question are considered to have setteled an informal peace with no conditions (unless you want to impose some, of course, but I'd generally recommend against it).

Modifiers to Peace Determination

Unlike DoW's, you do not check for peace every turn, or even every turn in which a power is at war, rather, surrender checks are made when certain event come to pass. Should it be necessary to know what order countries should make the check in, the following order should be used: GB, Sp, Tu, Pr, Au, Ru, Fr (i.e. reverse order from that of the DoW check). The events that can force a surrender check, and the modifiers they incur to the die roll are as follows:

The country in question is GB or Fr or Ru	-1
National capitol is occupied	+3
National capitol is besieged	+2
At least half of the provincal capitols are occupied	+2
At least half of the provincal capitols are besieged	+1
Country is in the fiasco zone	+5
Country is in the instability zone	+2
The country's most senior leader (or Nelson for GB) that is physically on the board (not just available) is wounded, killed or captured	variable *
The country loses control of a minor that it needs for dominant power status	-2 (0 for GB & Fr)
Loses at least half of the land factors that were available at the start of the war, including all reinforcements since the war started, and without having inflicted similar casualties on the enemy	+2 (+4 Fr, 0 GB)
As above but loses three quarters	+4 (+6 Fr, +2 GB)
Loses at least half of the naval factors that were available at the start of the war, including all reinforcements since the war started, without inflicting similar loses on the enemy (EXCEPTION: Au and Pr)	0 (+4 GB, +2 Fr)
As above but loses three quarters of navy	+2 (+6 GB, +4 Fr)
If an ally who is fighting the same enemy surrenders to that enemy	0

* +4 for Napoleon, +1 for Nelson, +2 for royalty of other countries, where royalty (not just any ol' nobility...) for each country is as follows (if you feel there are any ommissions or comissions, let me know and I'll correct it!):

Ru	Alexander
Tu	Vizier
Au	Charles
Pr	Brunswick (? Hohenlohe? anybody know?)
Sp	Cuesta(?)
GB	none (but Nelson does count, see above)
Fr	for purposes of this rule - none (France is a republic, right? ;)

In cases where there are more than one leader on the board with equally high seniority ratings, the player in question must declare one to be most senior for purposes of this rule at the start of the move phase)

An additional modifier that does not trigger a check but is applied to all rolls is this: -1 for each ally also at war with that same enemy.

All modifiers are cumulative.

With these rules, it should now be possible to have a reasonable judgement of when a country has had enough and sues for peace. Unfortunately, they have not yet been play tested - not even once! - so I am not sure what any problems may be in terms of game balance. If you decide to try them out, let me know how they work and any suggestions you may have.