Heil and velkomin to The Hammer and the Cross. This will be the second forum game I’ve created and hopefully it’s just as much fun as the last one. This game will begin in the year 865 AD in England. During this time England is divided into four Kingdoms of Saxons, East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria and Wessex. To the north of these civilized realms are the Picts a savage people who are dirt poor and have a love of raiding and pillaging but no stomach for real war. To the west lay the Welsh a barbaric people who trace their lineage back to the original inhabitants of the island. The Welsh harbor a deep hatred for the Saxons an enemy which they have been fighting for centuries. Wales is divided into many petty kingdoms with very little central authority although one king shows promise Rhodri ap Merfyn, if he can unite the kingdoms the Britans may be able to reclaim their island. To the south lays Francia a land of slavers, warriors and, traders they produce the best swords, armor and, ships in the area. And to the east lay the Vikings who recently landed in East Anglia. The Vikings have been harassing England for years but now they have landed in great numbers. The inept king of East Anglia has made peace with their army giving them lodging, gold and, horses. They now wait for more men and prepare for further conquest.
In The Hammer and the Cross religion is a very important factor of the game being your religion which will decide many things about your relations with the various factions on the islands. In this game both Christianity and Nordic Paganism will have a conversion factor, they will both start out low but as monks are slaughtered and churches pillaged or Viking leaders adopt the Christian faith in order to make peace with their Saxon neighbors this factor will go up or down.
In this game money is extremely important it will determine how large of an army you can support how happy your followers are with you and how big of a threat or target you are for your enemies. Speaking of armies each army has a percentage next to it in the stats. This percentage reflects the quality of the army. Their equipment, experience level, and morale are all reflected in this stat.
Players will be allowed to choose anyone be it someone they invented or a historical character from this time. If you invent a character your starting place and ethnicity will have a large effect on your beginning stats. As an example a Viking may start with a long ship crewed by thirty-five battle hardened warriors. Meanwhile a Saxon could start with eighty men most of whom are farmers untrained in battle (though about 10 of those guys will be your house hold guard and therefor real warriors).
Morale is an important factor when leading any army if a lord is generous with his followers his followers are far more likely to follow him into any battle. But if a lord is greedy and ungenerous with the spoils of war his followers may desert him or even kill him. In addition to all of this prestige is also a key factor in this game. The more prestige you have the easier it will be to recruit men and the more opportunities you may have to say gain a kingdom.
Land and naval battles will be decided by several major factors first, the tactics and deployments you use. When you send your orders tell me how you intend to deploy your troops and, what you wish for them to do. Secondly the terrain on which you will be fighting on. And lastly the quality of your troops compared to the quality of the enemy troops. Also if you do an epic battle speech or IC I may tack on a point or two to your roll.
Sending orders is simple just send me two orders they can be about whatever your wish them to be. Each turn covers four months so keep this in mind for campaigns as your army may begin to melt away if your farmers need to get back home for the harvest.
Example Order
Character Creation Template
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