Combat will be resolved using the War Machine rules from Basic D&D. This system calculates troop strength based on a variety of factors including experience, equipment quality, and leadership. Battles are simulated by comparing troop strengths and basic strategic decisions.

The War Machine is meant to be used by opposing players who reveal their strategies simultaneously for each move they will make. Forces can clash numerous times before a battle is finalized. Duplicating this sequence of play on-line could involve dozens of messages exchanges while tactics are decided and results are determined again and again. This will not be a practical means of turn-based play. Given this, battles will be resolved as detailed below:

The players involved in the battle must declare "Generals" for each force. Any regent, lieutenant, or NPC can be a General. If none of these are available, a generic "veteran officer" General will be assumed to have been appointed from within the force.

The General will be responsible for all decisions made in that battle, including tactical choices. The wisdom of the General's choices will be simulated through the use of the Strategy, Tactics or other similar Non-Weapon Proficiency. In the event that a veteran officer is appointed as General, they will be assumed to have a Strategy NWP of 5 to 10 depending on the force's experience level.

If a player or lieutenant elects to be the General of any force, they also assume the risk of potentially being injured or killed in combat! If a PC enters battle as a General, the player does not get to make individual choices in the battle -- the PC is treated as any other General, with his or her Strategy/Tactics skill being used for decisions. However, there may be additional benefits to the morale of the force if a PC elects to lead his or her troops in battle.

The outcome of the battle will depend on the opposing Generals' Strategy checks. A skilled General may be able to sway a disastrous result to reduce friendly casualties or to improve the effectiveness of an attack.

There will be a maximum of 4 'War Moves' during a single action phase, with each move taking approximately one week. After 4 War Moves have been executed, an additional Action must be declared by the regent to continue the battle. If a regent has invaded another regent's land and the battle carries on beyond a single Action Round, and the attacking regent does not use an action to continue the assault, the attacking regent's forces will automatically be withdrawn to the closest neighboring territory.

Before each War Move, all Generals will also make rolls to determine the strategic value of a withdrawl. The chance of this will depend on their current success on the battlefield.

The Birthright mass combat system is based on units. In order to maintain some sense of continuity with maintenance rules, etc. we will continue to track troops by units. However, the War Machine rules we will be using to resolve battles do not track "units" of combatants, but rather accounts for total numbers of troops in any battle, troop and equipment quality, and experience. Therefore we will make the following adjustments:

• When entering a battle, you have the choice of re-allocating your troops between 'forces' (any combat group on the battlefield) or joining units into a single force for the battle. This means you can move some archers or cavalry into an infantry unit, for example. This can provide advantages to your force strength as it is judged on what % of your force has missile weapons, what % is mounted, etc.abilities.
• Mixing better-trained or "specialty" troops (e.g. Elite Infantry, Dwarven Guards, Elven Cavalry, etc.) with lesser troops will negate the better troops' effects. This is more for logistics, but if you look at the numbers, force strength is calculated, among other things, by how long a given unit has trained together. It's my opinion that "elite infantry" and such are trained separately by their nature. (After all Navy SEALS don't charge the beaches with the rest of the bulletstoppers, they are typically used for different tactics.)
• As a player you may specify your troop divisions yourself or you may leave it up to your general (even if you PC is the general) to try and reallocate the forces to the best of their abilities.
• After the battle is over, all members of a force are returned to their original units, with each unit taking a proportionate % of the overall casualties. If more than one unit of a given type (i.e. archers, infantry, cavalry, etc.) was involved and joined together into a single force for the sake of resolving a battle, casualties will be taken equally from each unit. After casualties are calculated, each unit will take an equal loss. Units will then be automatically merged together to form complete units. i.e. You have 3 archer units, each at full strength of 200 troops (600 troops total). or the sake of the battle, these three units are merged into one force. During the battle, that force takes 40% casualties (240 troops). At the end of the battle you will have 2 archer units remaining, one with 200 troops, and one with 160 troops. This is done to reduce the overall maintenance costs of similar troops.
• When your forces are depleted through warfare, to replace your losses you must "re-muster". As we are dealing in small rounded numbers of GB, it may cost you just as much to replenish a troop as it would to muster a new one. You must pay the proportionate amount of cash for the troops needed to replenish a given unit. e.g. you have a unit of 200 infantry. It suffers 40% casualties during a battle leaving you with 120 infantry. To replenish this unit back to 200, you will need to pay the cost of mustering 40% of one infantry unit or 0.8 GB which gets rounded up to 1 GB which is still cheaper than paying 2GB to muster a new infantry unit. If you took 60% casualties, you would have to pay 1.2 GB which gets rounded to 2 GB, so you pay the full amount -- it will cost you the same amount to purchase an entirely new unit. "Re-mustering" counts as a standard mustering action. Mustering a partial unit counts a one unit toward the max number of units you can muster each turn (dictated by your Law holdings).
• In any situation where units are replenished due to the merging of two units post-casualties or re-mustering, the XP level of the troops will be averaged (proportionally) with any new troops entering the unit, rounding down. If more than two units are available for merging, the units with the highest XP will always be united first.

There are two distinct actions which are required to assume control of another regent's holding(s) or province(s): Contest and Invest/Divest. In 'Pure' Birthright, all regents have some amount of "bloodline" power which physically and spiritually ties them to their domains. The action of Investiture/Divestiture, in particular, reflects this -- the breaking or transferring of this magical bond to another. In the "Queenmaker" campaign, Investiture is still required, but represents a slightly different action.

Before any regent can attempt to assimilate one or more holdings or provinces of another regent into their domain, it must first be Contested. This can take place using a 'Contest' action, but the regent may be required to already have a presence in that province, the province must be occupied by the regent's forces, or the leadership of that province must able for challenge.

You can Contest a Holding or a Province, or even multiple Holdings or Provinces (Realm action as opposed to Domain action). The Birthright Rulebook describes Contesting as follows:

CONTEST
Type: Domain, Realm
Success: 10+
Base Cost: 1 RP

A regent can neutralize another regent's holding by contesting his influence. If the attempt is successful, the contested holding does not generate regency or Gold Bars for its owner. A level 0 holding is destroyed by being contested. The success number is modified by the difference between the attacker's holding (or province rating, if he's the ruler) and the contested holding.

The holding remains contested until:

• the attacker relents
• the attacker loses all of his own holdings or rule of the province
• the defender succeeds in a rule action.

If a contested holding is contested a second time, its owner loses the holding and its slots become uncontrolled.

Example: Two thieves are rivals in a province (5), Wirt controls a guild (3). Bensien controls a guild (2). If Wirt contests his rival's holding, his success number becomes a 9 or better. If Bensien contests Wirt's guild, his success number is 11 or better.

Rulership of a province can be contested as well. A province is contested automatically if the province is conquered during a war. As long as the ruler hasn't been divested (divestiture refers to stripping a ruler's connection to his land) but the conqueror remains, the province generates no regency or GB for either party.

Provinces can be contested peacfully under certain conditions. If a ruler's law holding is at (0) and the province's loyalty is poor or rebellious, any regent with a holding there can use this action to contest the province. The province then generates no regency and no gold until its ruler is divested, ends the contest by gaining a law holding, or increases the province's loyalty.

The next step is Investing the holding or province. In the Queenmaker campaign, this represents the act of replacing the chief ruling officers for that province (or the equivalent for a holding) with loyalists, rounding up malcontents, and basically getting the province or holding under the new regent's complete control. In the Birthright rules, a priest was required to perform the act of Investiture due to the nature of the 'spiritual' ties a regent has with their realm. This is not the case in the Queenmaker campaign: any regent may perform the act of Investiture on a contested holding or province.

Investiture I'll paraphrase because our version is different than that in the rules:

INVESTITURE
Type: Domain
Success: Special
Base Cost: Special

Investiture allows one regent to pass control of part of all of his domain to another regent. Once the investiture is complete, the provinces or holdings in question become part of the investing regent's domain.

Investing Provinces or Holdings: A single province or holding can be invested without the permission of its ruler if it has been conquered or contested by the investor. The base success number is 10, and the investor must pay RP euqal to the province or holding level. The defender can bid Regency Points normally to affect the success number.

Vassalage: An agreement of vassalage must be formalized by an investiture ceremony. The agreement isn't binding; the vassal can voluntarily break it any time he wishes. The liege is immediately aware of his vassal's actions, and may take steps to remind him of the pact. The vassal and his liege agree to a number of Regency Points that the vassal will pay the liege each domain turn. At the time of the agreement, both give up that amount of RP.

Investiture as a Realm Action: An entire domain or realm under one regent can be invested, but only if the regent to be divested is alive and physically present at the ceremony. The victim may be under any kind of magical or physical duress. The recipient must spend RP equal to the Domain Power (the sum of the values of provinces, holdings, and other assets) of the realm he intends to take over. Success is automatic if the target is willing; if the target is unwilling, the success number is 10 modified by the difference between the Domain Power of the investor and victim. If the investiture fails, the victim retains control of his domain.

If an attempt is made to divest an unwilling regent whose provinces have not been conquered, the provinces are considered contested until the new regent can defeat any opposition there and occupy them. Similarly, all holdings must be contested or conquered physically, or they remain under the control of the target's loyalists. Neither the new regent nor the loyalists can gain or spend regency in contested provinces. Only when a province is conquered by the new regent can he collect and spend RP there.

So, to summarize, this is the process in conquering a province and its holdings:

• If you control the province:
  a) You can attempt to contest any holding in that province.
  b) You can attempt to invest any contested holding in your province.
  
• If the province and/or holdings are Uncontrolled:
  a) If you have a holding in that province, you can attempt to invest the province or any other holdings.
  b) If you do not have a holding, you must conquer/occupy the province with at least one military unit (which causes the province to become contested). You can attempt to invest as another action.
  c) You must invest the holdings and the provinces separately.
  
• If the province is controlled by another regent:
  a) If you have a holding in that province, you can attempt to contest the other holdings.
  b) If the controlling regent's Law holding is contested or at level (0) and the loyalty of the province is poor or rebellious, you can attempt to contest the province. You can then attempt to Invest the province as another action.
  c) If neither of the previous conditions is true, you must conquer/occupy the province with at least one military unit (which causes the province to become contested). You can attempt to invest as another action.
  d) You must invest the holdings and the provinces separately.
  

XP for actions performed by a Lieutenant or other NPC will be awarded to the Lieutenant/NPC, not to the regent.

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