Scherzo in 5

This game has occupied my commutes, my showers, my pre- and post-sleep musings, and even a few of my dreams. A great many things have been assembled. It is now time to try and get that melange out of my head and assembled into an externally logical system.

The assumed presentation is a modular map built from square tiles. The square tiles would represent one of six terrain types: ocean, marsh, plains, hills, mountains, impassable. The players would start the game by assembling the tiles into a pleasing pattern. Possibly there would also be preset patterns of scenarios for more canned experiences.

Once the map was established the players would in turn each found one city state in some location on the board. A city state would be defined by its central location, initially something like a meeting hut, later something akin to a City Hall, Palace or other capitol building. Subsequent buildings within range of the central building would be considered to be part of the city state.

City states consist of contiguous sets of buildings. City States are defined by their centres and a range factor from their centres. That range gets larger as the city cntre is upgraded. City states may overlap, in which case one either overtakes (war/conquest) the other, one simply absorbs the other, or they co-exist with clearly defined (possibly porous) boundaries.

City states will be invested in by players. These investments will initially take the form of straight cash. Later investments may take the form of building contracts, logistical supplies and material supplies. The lead investors in a city state will guide the city’s decisions. Minor investors will not have a part in this decision process.

This is not a negotiation game.

The basic expected pattern:

1. City states are ordered in terms of descending bankroll

2. In order Each CIty State takes a turn. A turn consists of:

• Each player with presence in that city taking a turn and moving their product markers among buildings within the City State, or moving them out to buildings in other City States, and other like activities, selling material to the City State, investing in the City State, etc
• The primary investors in the City State making decisions for the City State. This will mostly take the form of building construction, investments in material, wars, etc.

1. Repeat #2 for the next City State

2. When all City States have been processed, repeat from #1.

Buildings would be largely analagous to the buildings in Neuland or Roads & Boats. Player participation however would be strictly along the Neuland pattern. Players would only own product markers and product markers would decay across turns. Like Roads & Boats, players would not own buildings or transports, just product markers. Thus the challenge becomes one of sequencing product marker translations across chains of buildings both within and across City States efficiently. Additionally the challenge is to sequence the City States so that their order of operation allows for most efficient action sequencing. Finally the challenge is to cause City States to construct buildings that most advantage your action sequencing without undue benefit to others.

Assumptions:

1. A player may cause a City State to build any requested building merely by providing all required resources.
2. Buildings gall within technology levels in different vectors. Some builds are not constructable until the City State has mastered specific prior technologies
3. City States can “borrow” the technology of their neighbours (connected by transports) without investing in the technologies themselves.
4. Construction of a building at a sufficiently high technology level causes all buildings and any product markers they may contain and any transports which depend on them of a sufficiently low technology level to vanish instantly from the game. They are obsolete. This effect may extend to City States directly connected by transports. Thus for instance a City State may research Internal Combustion Engines and then build a Internal Combustion Engine factory only to see all stables, horses, donkeys and carts instantly vanish from the City State’s domain. This pattern is deliberately directly comparable to the 18XX train rusting pattern.
5. A players turn starts by laying down each one of their product markers that are in the currently active City State. They may move up to N product markers on to subsequent buildings for free. In doind so the product markers stand up (shades of Neuland). They may move product markers additional steps forward through the building chain or add additional action markers or start-location buildsings in the City for an exponentially growing cost. Product markers may be moved across transports to other buildings or to remote City States for a fee paid to the owning City State.