Bohorts

A Bohort was an impromptu free-for-all joust favored by medieval knights. It was considered a form of entertainment and was usually found wherever a large number of knights were at loose ends. Sieges were a common scene of Bohorts, often with knights from inside the besieged castle (under a truce flag) participating. In this respect, medieval warriors were quite civilized. But their favorite entertainment's were decidedly on the rough and tumble side. Some of these Bohorts were so spectacular that they were remembered more than the siege they took place during.

Our Bohort is played out on a larger canvas. The historical background for this game is one huge civil war. We assume that the royal and magnate (largest land owners) families of Europe had all fallen into disorder. This allowed any noble with sufficient drive and determination to wade in and pick up as many pieces as they could. Granted, this was unlikely. But large and mighty empires have fallen into disorder in the past, giving rise to a situation such as this. It happened when the Roman empire fell apart, and similar scenes of large scale chaos have occurred in China and India. So it is not totally out of the question.

Bohorts are not Camelots nor are they Team games. We do not enforce cross-national accounts or Multi player accounts in Bohorts. We don't even enforce multis in Camelots or Team games. Players can play as many positions as they want in Camelots or Team games just as long as they don't play Cross-national accounts. This rule does NOT apply to Bohorts.  

Major differences between the regular game of Hundred Years War and the Bohort.

-The Bohort only lasts ten years (40 seasons.) The normal Bohort is played at the rate of one season a day, so the game lasts for 40 days.

- Scoring is using the older GDP (Gross Domestic Product, or total income of all your fiefs) system. That is, your score is expressed in terms of how much you have increased your GDP from what it was when the game began. The ten players with the highest GDP increase are thus the winners. The number one finisher will have their score posted in the Hall of Fame.

-There is no purge after (approximately) year five of the game. The sysop will turn the purge off at an unknown season during the mid-game, adding another element of uncertainty to the action. Thus after the year the purge is turned off, when a player takes a position in the game, but does not play, the no-show player dons not get dropped ("purged") from the game after 21 days (or less, depending on how active the player had been.) This means that the second half of the game is basically a "last man standing" fight.

-The sysop running the game will decide when, he will kill off the disputed (non- playing) characters and thus make all their fiefs disputed (and conquerable by any player.) In this way, each Bohort game will be quite different.

-Since the kings of France and France are not active, none of the royal routines (church taxes, loans from the Italian banks, parliament, royal knights Etc.) are not in play.

-The pope's special powers are not in play. The game sysop plays the game, so you can always get a divorce if you need one. Just post a message to player 22 (me, the pope.)

-The cost of troops is reduced 90% (from 2,000 ducats per soldier to 200, for example.) This includes cost for Ancestral fief troops (500 ducats to 50), but not for maintenance costs (stays at 500 ducats per soldier.) In effect, you don't have to worry as much about money. Your major expense is troops, and now they are a lot cheaper.

-Tactics are different. Your chances of winning depend on the percentage increase of your final GDP over your starting GDP. Not all player positions start the game with the same GDP. The range, for most, is from 3 million to 30 million ducats. Thus a player with a smaller GDP has a better shot at getting a spectacular end game score. But the players with higher starting GDP have more money to begin with. Even with the lower cost of troops, more money is an advantage. You can use it to subsidize other players, who are in need of ready cash, to help you. Money can buy you exceptional NPCs that one player does not need, but that you can use. Not all players have the same stats. Thus a player with poor stats will be quite eager to buy NPCs with good army leadership and siegecraft stats. Three of the player positions have very high GDP. Chances of winning are low for these large GDP positions. But since you can use more than one screen name in the game, having one of these "cash cow" positions will assist your other screen name positions to win. There is also a difference in nationality. The English players have a combat advantage with their yeomen and higher stats when using other nationality troops. But the English players have to get their yeomen across the channel, and have a hard time recruiting in non-English fiefs. "Other" players also have a hard time recruiting in fiefs of a different language. Thus the French positions are actually quite good compared to the regular game.