How to Play a Royal Playing the king is demanding but satisfying. This document is to help future players who seek the enjoyment of playing a royal position in HYW. It concentrates mostly on the English position, but most of the lessons apply equally to both Royal Houses. Your first step as King is to straighten up your own house. This means learning fief managment and dealing with the other Lords of your realm. Chapter One - Building a Team You start out with about 60 (as English, more if you are the French king) fiefs at game's start and you need to provide bailiffs for all of them as fast as you can. You can't do this alone, so you need help. Find out which of your Lords would be interested in helping you Manage your fiefs. They should be asked to emplace bailiffs. If they are skilled at fief management, you can let them take control of running the fief. Just be certain that they do not drive the fief into rebellion, as that is a surefire way to lower your Stature. If your Stature goes down, so does your valuable ability to take in revenue through overlord taxes on provinces under your control. As king, you control many provinces, so Stature is probably the most important thing for you to keep an eye on for yourself. Naturally, the lords that help you do this successfully should be rewarded in some way for their service. You must also get your lords involved in other projects. Taking fiefs is one obvious choice. But there are many others. One of the least liked but most useful is scouting. Who holds which fiefs? How high are their keeps and how large their garrisons? Are they well managed? You can even form an estimate of the other king's Stature by checking the ratio of overlord taxes he is collecting to a fief's surplus. Scouting can tell you many worthwhile things and it only costs (online) time.The key is to keep your lords involved and active. The king who does this will win. One who fails at it will lose. Sometimes you might encounter lords who are abusive or threatening. This is a greater problem for France because the French king is relatively weaker compared to some of the more powerful French magnates. These lords may be trying to badger you into giving them something they want, perhaps lands or province overlordships. Or they might be trying to see how you react to threats. If you react poorly you can expect to have others trying the same thing. You will have to be flexible and use your judgement. Often these lords can be brought on board with a few concessions that, if they buy a good ally, will be worth their weight in gold. At the other extreme, you might have to Outlaw and hunt down a renegade noble. This course, however tempting, should be used only as a last resort, as it usually creates blood fueds that you as king will not want to pursue forever but the outlawed party will. So, in summary, get a feel for who will be active lords on your behalf. Get them on board your team. Keep your fiefs well run and your Stature up. With enough loyal lords and Kds, victory will be yours. Chapter 2- Allies Of course, you can get lords and KDs from outside your country, too. England especially finds these useful, in fact absolutely necessary for victory. Here's why: In a full game of HYW there are 27 English players, 57 French and 26 Other players. The other players consist of German, Italian, Spanish and such. England is at a numerical disadvantage right off the bat. Even though English forces pound for pound are much better than twice the strength of their French counterparts, there are only so many fiefs that can be taken--and the French have twice as many commanders (other things being equal) as the English. As well, England needs 3 french lords to even begin the motion to strip the crown from the French king. How do you get Other or French allies? It all depends. The most direct route is simple bribery and sometimes it actually works. You offer land, usually either ex-Disputed fiefs in your own land or the much juicier overlordships. If you are fortunate, you can offer the other king's overlordships once you have won his crown. Other possibilities are to identify divisions amongst Others or your opposition (French or English). Julius Caesar said "divide and conquer" and he wasn't joking. Often if you can stir up trouble on the periphery, you can back one side and get its aid in the main fight in exchange. Just be sure to back the winner. Here is a brief rundown of the Other positions: The Holy Roman Empire technically includes modern day Germany and Italy but in fact the HR Emperor (181, sometimes alternating with 131) is a weak figure unless he has a team behind him or is played by an astute player. He can (at press date) issue Calls-to-Arms, which can be a useful way to raise large armies quickly in the HJU or other areas that the Emperor controls. The Pope is another position to deal carefully with. The Pope can give France the magnificent boon of the Church Tax. On the other side, he can excommunicate you (or anyone else) and thereby reduce your Stature (quite the income loss for a king). He can also interdict your fiefs so that they might go into rebellion (more Stature hits and direct income loss). He also has the power to grant you and your Lords divorces and blessings. The power of the Pope is limited in that he can only excommunicate a PC once. Once Excomunicated you cannot be re-excommunicated. These ground rules may it rather hard to deal with the Church at times as the Pope's weapons, while very real, are also brittle. You should not alienate a Pope unduly. But if worst comes to worst, you can recover (if given time and breathing room) and then the Pope cannot touch you (except to deny you the Church Tax, of course). Scotland will usually have an active player, meaning an active king. While Scotland is a bit of a slum that generates little income on its own, a skillful Scottish king will demand concessions from both England and France, as he is well placed to harass England quite severely.The main reason to keep an eye on the Bruce is that he is the only Other player who gets English force values. So his armies are just as good as yours. If he is heavily funded and heavily supported by the French he can be a most dangerous adversary. Chapter 3- Rewarding Your Lords Rewarding your Lords is another key to winning as a royal. There are many rewards a King can bestow. As King you can Knight a Lords NPC (3 per year) You can promote him to a lofty position on your staff. You can grant a Lord title to a disputed fief. The greatest reward is the bestowing of an overlordship to the Lord. Lords that show the greatest of promise should be assigned to a position on your staff. There are 7 positions an English King can bestow on his lords. (The French king has appropriate equivalents. We will use the English here as an example.)The Lord is given an increase of 2 to his stature when promoted to the position. These 7 Lords form your general staff. Each have their specific assigments and each will have a certain number of other lords assigned to them. The Lord High Steward- This is generally your right hand man and (other than your Crown Prince) should be your most trusted Lord. Generally, he is your advisor and everything you do he knows. Lord High Chancellor- This Lord generally in charge of keeping an eye on the fiefs in England to see if they are being run properly and to help newer Lords run their fiefs. His other task is that of assigning Lords to take disputed fiefs for the crown. Lord High Treasurer- Sees that payouts are made to fund armies, build up keeps and so forth Lord Great Chamberlain- His main task is to aid the king in managing his fiefs and placing bailiffs. (Note- This lord should have a very good Family Expense rating, meaning that his character is frugal in spending the total of his fiefs' surpluses. Every noble had to spend most of his income on keeping up his estates, entertaining, and so forth. Many times 80-90% of fief surplus will be spent in this way automatically by the game-system and thus unavailable for raising troops. Really frugal PCs can have 70% or even 65% ratios, making them quite valuable for generating the most possible income from lands they own OR manage.) Lord Chief Justice- A man to be feared. His main task is to hunt down traitors to the crown and carry out there execution. He is also the crown chief prosecutor in any trials. ( Yes, there are trials from time to time) Warden of the Cinque Ports- A very important position. His job is to see that the armies in France are supplied with new troops and to safe guard the country's ports from invasion. It would be useful if this player position could instruct newer players in the fine art of raising fleets and sailing them (with troops aboard) against France. Lord High Constable of England- In order to win you must have one. This Lord should be your most experienced in combat and have a keen mind for strategy. There are other assignments that can be handed out. These however do not come with the stature increase. Here are a few examples: Marshall of England- Is in charge of home defense in case of invasion Warden of the Northern Marshes- Keeps an eye on the Bruce (Usually a Percy) Army Group commanders- Work under the Constable and are in charge of military districts. Admiral of England- Aides the Warden in his tasks. Main job is to ferry troops to France or wherever they have to go. Chapter 4- Disputed Fiefs When head of a small inactive family dies, all of his lands become disputed. The King or his Chancelor then has the task of appointing a lord to take these fiefs. As King you have many decisions to make with disputeds. Remember there are not many disputed fiefs in England as compared to France. You don't want your Lords fighting over these fiefs so you must decide (or your chancellor) who gets the fief. The method that is most widely used is this one: When a fief goes disputed and that fief is within a Lord's overlordship that Lord would get the fief as he is the overlord of the province. (Example- Lord de Grosmont is the Earl of Lancaster, thus all fiefs in the Province of Lancaster would go to him) If the disputed is in a province that the King owns, the King has the choice of keeping the fief (to use as a reward to give to loyal Lord) letting whoever took the fief keep it, or take possession of the fief and making whoever took it the manager. There is basically no right or wrong method in dealing with disputeds. Use good judgement and you can't go wrong. Chapter 5 - English (and French) Strategic Options There are many stratagies on how an English team can achieve victory. Please remember that every game is differant and this is merely a guideline to a winning strategy. As King of England your main goal is to strip the French King of his crown. In order for you to accomplish this you need several things. The first is 3 French allies to propose the vote to remove the French King. A vote is then taken and if 60% or more vote the French King out, he is then removed from power. You then need 1 French Lord to post a proposal that you be made King of France. Another vote is taken (the former French King's name is automatic- ally placed on a ballot as well) and if you recieve 60% or more of the vote you are made King of France. You then must hold onto the both the English crown and the French crown for a certain period of time (time depends on speed of game). If you can do all of this than you have brought your team to victory. How do you do all of this? You may want to think about some of these strategies: Your fiefs in the Aquitaine are very important to you. The French at some point will try to strip you of these two overlordships. (See game Docs on how they can) If they do strip you your stature will be put at 1 and your income will be devestated by this event. Try to avoid it at all costs. Your fiefs of Baiona and Bordeaux are very good fiefs with high keep levels. Make sure these fiefs are well taken care of. These two fiefs will be priority number one for the French. Defend these fiefs as best you can if and when France attacks. If possible, try to garrison them with active armies. Place your very best siege bailiffs (which are really nothing more than NPCs with good siege ratings) in these fiefs. See to it that France pays a heavy price to take these two fiefs from you. If they are taken and the keeps are still in good shape simply go to France and Ancestral Rebel them. Your first key stratagy should be gathering bases in France. From these bases your armies can attack and then return for protection. The French will try to besiege your lords in these fiefs and try and trap your lords inside them. When they do this they leave themselves vulnerable to attack. English troops are far superior to French troops. You will usually find out that French nobles will not hold armies over a season unless it is very large. Small French armies are easily destroyed by English ones. One English tactic used in many games is to keep a 2500 man army in the Aquitaine and use this army to defeat any French armies that present themselves. Another tactic is to leave this army out in the open and just dare the French to attack it. The strategy here is that the French have to gather a 6000 man army just to get a 76% chance of defeating it. Thus they are spending 12,000 Kds to your 5000 and this does not even guarantee them a victory. Use the English force values to your advantage at all times. French options are a bit harder to anticipate as France is essentially on the defensive. The top priority is never to be taken prisoner, either in battle or by being seized or kidnapped. If possible, you certainly want to remove the English possessions in FGA and FGU or at the least threaten to do so and compel the English to play defense instead of seeing your lands being trampled. Generally, you want to retake fiefs so that the English do not establish any kind of momentum. Doing so and showing the Others that you are in control will keep (most of) those buzzards at bay. It may be a bit cynical or even depressing, but unless the English are very badly thwarted, your top job is to keep over 40% of your realm out of their hands for the full run of the war (which amounts to a little over two years' real-time play). On the other hand, if you do accomplish this, you will go down in HYW annals as one of the greatest players ever and receive a vapor copy of the prestigious Jim VanHoose Award, named after the first legendary player to accomplish this feat. [NOTE: I think Jim was the first, but I might be mistaken.] Chapter 6 -Playing the King When you are playing a King you must always remember that if you are captured your ransom will be huge and could break the crown treasury. An English King has no reason whatsoever to go to France. Most English Kings have gone through their entire Kingship having never gone to France. Try to imagine yourself as a red target or the grand prize at the state fair this is what the French King thinks of you and what you should think of him. A capture of a Royal can entirly turn around the course of the entire war. To avoid capture just keep in mind certain things. You can't be kidnapped with an army. You can't be captured by the French if you are not in France. London is the best place for the King of England to hang out. Feeling safe is generally being safe. Always remember that Edward the III and his son the Black Prince are without question the best PCs in the game. These are prime targets for any French lord. Armies led by either of these will draw French armies because, in these cases, if France captures an English royal the ransom will more than make up for the cost of raising the army. By the same token, the French kings (who generally have rather mediocre personal statistics) should simply concentrate on keeping their Stature high to maximize income. This is a daunting proposition, though. You lose stature if your fiefs go into (or stay in) rebellion. You lose it if the garrisons of your fiefs decide to fight someone trying to pillage the fief and lose (a very common occurrence, alas). You lose it if you storm fiefs and lose. You lose it if you lose army combats (which you have no business initiating or being exposed to anyway). So how do you gain Stature? The first and by far easiest is to get the Pope to Bless you. You can also take fiefs, preferably by Negotiation. Yes, this is slow and therefore expensive. But it is an investment in your stature and will raise your income over the long haul. And one hundred years really is a long haul. We hope that this document has helped you in your quest to be a succesful King. Written by- Joel Westphal and Mike Barnhart