Project Rome – siege tests

I mentioned in a previous post that sieges were not long protracted operations and many fortified towns or villages fell to a determined assault according to Livy. If the defenders offered stiff resistance then Roman command would resort to starving the Spanish out which meant the construction of forts and walls to encircle the position, Numancia was starved into submission after eleven months.    

Therefore, the siege rules for the Spanish campaign should not be overly complicated but cover the basics such as logistics, some engineering and assaults. Rather than cast a die and add or deduct factors to determine a result, I opted to use the card system that was developed for the campaign game with each suit representing a facet of a siege operation. Using the cards to build up sufficient points total would add a certain level of tension to the game and it was a system already known to players of the campaign game.

Of the changes, the most significant was the time scale, this was reduced to each turn being a week of activity as compared to a month for each map turn. This would give players four turns at the siege game before returning to the campaign map to start the new month. This meant the besieged player could organize a relief force to disrupt the attacker or the besieging player could block such an attempt.

After initial tests, the system does work well as there are enough options for players to organize their defence or prepare for an assault. There are however, a few loose ends that may need better defining and some these relate to the game at the campaign level, such as under what conditions can a defender chose to stand siege and what values should be given for defending a fortified town or village or when sacked.

More testing is planned.