Infotext

Mandate of Heaven - Infotext

Mandate of Heaven. Realpolitik Version 1.1 by Yvonne Linka and Rene Krokowski
(www.graue-substanz.de). Realpolitik doesn't provide adjudication for most
of the special rules of this variant. Therefore the Gamemaster has to use
the implemented map-edit function. Keep special regards to the Hsiung-Nu,
to cornered units, to the victory criterion and to cut convoys.
If you ever are in need to call a player for neutral sc's check out the
definition of MOH.cnt, MOH.gam and MOH.map, if necessary.
(Have a look at the variant_creation.htm in the Realpolitik Folder, too.)
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Mandate of Heaven
by David E Cohen (http://diplomiscellany.tripod.com/diplomacy/id6.html)

All other rules are as in Standard Diplomacy*.

1. Builds:† Builds will be allowed on any owned SC.

2. Barbarian Power:† The Hsiung-Nu (nomadic horsemen, among whose descendants
were the Huns) will start with 3 armies.† As a preliminary to the first
Spring move (you may call it Winter 369 B.C., otherwise known as the Year of
the Pig), after negotiations, the Hsiung-Nu may place these armies anywhere
in any of the vacant provinces which lie in the north and west of the board
which are bordered by the black band. Since they live off the land, the
barbarians will not need SCs to keep their units on the board initially. For
every 2 SCs captured by the Hsiung-Nu, an army may be built and placed on the
board as with the 3 initial armies (so owning 2 SCs gets them 4 units total,
owning 4 gets them 5 units total, and owning 6 gets them 6).† If the
Hsiung-Nu get to 6/6, any further builds will be made on a 1 for 1 basis,
and must be made in a vacant, owned SC. If at the end of the second game
year, the Hsiung-Nu do not have at least 2 SCs, they must remove an army.
If they do not have at least 1 SC after the third year, a second army is
removed.†If they do not have at least 1 SC after the fourth year, the last
army is removed.† This is to simulate the opportunistic nature of the nomadic
horsemen.† If the initial raiders are successful, more will join.† If not,
the armies start melting away.† Once the 6 SCs are reached, the nomad
population is exhausted, and only native Chinese troops can be raised.
All builds up to 6 must be placed in the initial placement area.

3. Neutrals:† Neutrals will all be armed, and mobile, under certain
circumstances.† Each player, in addition to writing orders for his own units,
will write orders for all neutral powers.† If a majority of players, having a
majority of player units on the board at the beginning of the turn, agree to
an order for a neutral unit, the unit will be so ordered (i.e., 7 players
having 21 units on the board-if at least 4 players having at least 11 units
total agree, the unit moves).† This could conceivably result in builds for
neutral powers, which will also be allowed.† If a neutral power grows from
one to three SCs, it will be "activated", and a new player will be called in
to play it.† Eliminated players will not be allowed to play former neutral
powers newly grown to player status.

4.† Last Unit(s):† In keeping with Sun Tzu's maxim that armies should always
be allowed to retreat, rather than be cornered, since if cornered they fight
much harder, when the last unit or units of a non neutral power would be
annihilated as a result of an attack or attacks, the defensive strength of
the unit or units will be increased by one. Therefore, a successful attack
on such a trapped unit would need one more unit than an attack on a unit
which has an available retreat space.

5. Victory:† Victory criterion will be 14 SCs, however, non-Chinese SCs
(Choson, Pei Choushi and Tung Yueh) do not count toward this total.
Victory may also be by concession.

6. River Convoy:† Convoys by fleets in river provinces (all provinces
bordering the blue river areas on the map, representing the Yang Tze and
Hwang Ho) are allowed.† If another fleet attacks a convoying fleet, the
convoy is unsuccessful whether the attack succeeds or not.† If an army
attacks a convoying fleet, the attack must be successful to disrupt the
convoy.

The play starts in Winter 369 B.C.(Hsiung-Nu unit placement only).
First full year for all powers is Spring 368 B.C.