Strategy 

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Time Scale

Wars are fought using the same time scale as domain actions. Each month is one action round, and three months comprise a domain turn. Battles are fought in rounds and phases; not that a round of battle is not the same as a strategic round.

Movement

Troops move strategically using their movement allowance. Each area entered costs the indicated number of movement points.

Individuals have 8 MP if mounted and 5 MP if on foot. There is no GB cost to move individuals.

Movement along roads is at half cost.

Any unit may always move one area, without needing to count movement points, as long as the terrain is not impassible.

Forced March

A unit may overexpend on movement points, but will arrived disordered and fatigued, reducing it's battle effectiveness. Such units start any battle in the round damaged, as if they had taken one hit for each extra movement point expended. A unit cannot destroy itself in this manner.

A unit that lack supply can stil move, but loses a step for each movement point used. A unit can destroy itself in this manner.

Skirmishing and Ambush

A unit can avoid battle by spending a movement point to skirmish. A skirmishing force cannot be attacked except by units who can match it's movement allowance. Either side may force march some or all units in order to force or avoid a battle.

If the skirmishing unit is faster than some of the opposing units, but not faster than all of them, the opposing side has the option of attacking it with only those units that were fast enough to catch it. In this case, the battle begins with only the faster units.

An army successfully evades the enemy by being faster than all units in the opposing force, or if the opponent elects no to initiate battle with the units which could catch up. Such an army can then use its advantage in one of several ways.

1. Pillage at its leasure without having to fight
2. Attack only 2d3 units of the opposing force. Pick one unit to attack; the defender then picks one unit as an escort, then the attacker picks one unit to attack and so on.
3. The enemy army is forced to attack into an ambush position. In an ambush, the ambusher is treated as the defender, and the attacker may neither move nor attack in the first turn.

In cases where only a part of a force begins engaged, other units are delayed 1d3+1 battle rounds for each movement point they are short. If the battle ends before they arrive, a new battle is begun once the reinforcements arrive. There can thus be two battles in one turn in this situation. The second battle uses no special rules.

Fortifications

If a force did not move this turn and has access to a fortification, it may avoid the entire skirmish process by staying in the fortification. The invading force can still pillage or attack the fortification.

Fortified Camps

An army that stood it's ground when invaded may choose to fight from an armed camp. This means there is one additional terrain feature present: the fortified camp.

Occupation

An army that faces no hostile forces or castles in a province is said to occupy that province. An occupied province immediately assumes a loyalty of poor. If the old regime was particularly unfair, the people may feel liberated and assume a better loyalty rating form the start.

A ruler can pillage or tax an occupied province, but he can never collect regency for it.

The occupying force can choose to destroy any or all law, guild and temple holdings, reducing them to level zero. This nets a plunder of one GB for each level destroyed, and does not count as pillaging. Alternatively, the occupier can chose to reduce one source holding in the province by one, but this gives no monetary benefit.

Fortified holdings can only be plundered if they are occupied.

Pillaging

Armies may pillage the area they march through. Each movement point expended on pillaging accumulates 1 GB of loot.

Pillaging an area lowers the loyalty level by one step per turn (three months).

It is impossible to pillage an area for more GB in a round than it's province level. Each domain turn (three months) during which a province is pillaged, roll 2d10. If the result is lower than or equal to the number of GB pillaged, the province rating is reduced by one. It is impossible to do any rule actions in a province that is being pillaged.

Note that it is possible to squeese a lot of money from a poor domain by pillaging. Loyalty can be kept up by agitation, but pillaging reduces province levels over time.