ALBION

King of Kings – Arthurian Britain scenario game

King of Kings is a completely computer moderated play-by-email game.
Each player is in control of a faction in this world, governing all decisions and leading it to either victory or defeat.
As a tribute to many myths and sagas gyrating around the legendary King Arthur, the King of Kings ALBION scenario has been adopted to allow medieval, fantasy and Arthurian myth fans all over the world to replay these legendary times.


On this screenshot you see the islands of Britain and Ireland. Flags and border colours mark the control of the 14 factions (tribes) that are in the game.

View large picture

Play one of the following 14 factions (colour on map in brackets):

Angles (blue)
Saxons (purple)
Normans (rose)
Danes (light red)
Caledonians (dark green)
Welsh (light green)
Scots (light blue)
Picts (white)
Brigants (black)
Irish (grey)
Dubliners (dark red)
Ulster* (amber)
Norwegians* (dark blue)
Norsemen* (cyan)

 * Not recommended as first or second choice

Not necesserily all factions must be player-controlled, but for a proper game it is recommended that at least seven factions are player-controlled.

The game map is tiled into square provinces. Provinces may be occupied and conquered by troops.
The victor is the player who remains at game end or by consent of the participants (i.e. when the other "bow" to the new master of Britannia). 

The report will be set up on the site of the KOK server:

http://www.spod-central.org/~jontom/ 

There runs the UNIX server of the game which executes all player orders and generates the turn report for each game.
The newest rules version 4.8 is now available in English. They can be obtained from the files section of the KoK newsgroup, which is strongly recommended to be jouined by all players:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/King_of_Kings/ 

Amount of time and effort needed to play: 
In the beginning you will have to read the rules and regulations for email submission of orders (ca. 1 hour).
Once you grasp the game mechanics you can complete your turn in about 10 to 20 minutes.
All games are on a weekly schedule, i.e. the results are processed once a week. You have to submit orders before the deadline.

To play you need a valid email account. A PC compatible computer is recommended to view the turn reports with the TurnViewer, a graphical user interface. However it is possible to view the reports as an html or text file without the nice graphics.  The most recent TurnViewer is also available from the newsgroup.

Remember that playing and all software provided is free of charge.

How to play

To play, fill out the below form and send it to the game host. He will set up a new game as soon as the required number of players has signed up. Use "KOK-ALBION" as subject!

Signup-form for KOK-ALBION Game

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Player Name :    

Player Email:    

Choice of faction

First choice :

Second choice:

Third choice :

(More choices possible)

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cut and mailto:jens@sepic.org 
 
Troop and Terrain Table changes

(changes with respect to standard rules, highlighted in red)

Troop table

Province Table

* special rule and explanation will be given to seaborne tribes, if any.

Build Table

Quick Rules and Orders overview (for newbies)

Each turn your provinces will produce gold and food. Gold is used for producing new units, food for maintaining these. By issuing orders your troops are instructed where to enlist, where to move and how to attack or defend. Your units have specific characteristics such as a "to hit" chance or a movement rate that determin how they move, fight and be supplied. Provinces differ by their terrain which in turn determines how much gold or food they produce, how many movement points it costs to cross them, and whether they provide additional cover (advantage in combat) for the defender or not. It is also possible to build ships and transport units by sea. For details refer to the complete rules.

1. Place Units
Format: PLA [X-C Y-C Type]
Description: Up to three units may be placed into three different provinces. Gold must be paid for the units to be placed.
Example: PLA 7 18 FOOT 8 18 CASTLE
One foot soldier will be placed into province 7/18 and one castle will be built at 8/18. 

2. Sea Movement
Format: SEA X-C Y-C {AT} [Type Amount] [Direction]
Description: Units starting at the location given by the co-ordinates will move by sea on the route given by a series of directions.
Example: SEA 12 7 BOWMEN 3 SHIP 3 W W S W S W W N
This order moves 3 bowmen embarked on 3 ships, starting at 12/7 to 7/8. 

3. Land Movement
Format: LAND X-C Y-C {Tactic} {AT} [Type Amount] [Direction]
Description: This order moves troops overland. If the player fails to state the tactics his forces will use in a possible battle, the tactics used by the province where the troops began their movement will be used. "AT" means all troops.
Example: LAND 8 18 T FOOT 1 E E
One Foot Soldier located in 8/18 will be moved two provinces to the east. Should a battle occur over the destination province, the force will use a standard tactic, as stated by the ‘T’ expression.

4. Defensive Orders
Format: DEF [X-C Y-C Tactic]
Description: Gives retreat orders for a province, i.e. state the tactics which will be shown by units defending this province. Similar to the PLA order, up to three provinces may be given retreat orders. This order may always be given to isolated provinces.

These very short description shall suffice to complete the first couple of turns until you have achieved a stronger grasp of the full rulebook, the possibilities within the rules and its intricacies.