FORCES Land War Game Rules

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Updated: 30 Sept 2008

Object of the Game

The object of FORCES is to conquer the world through the use of strategy and negotiation.

Game Flow

FORCES progresses through three different types of turns as follows:

Nation Picking (optional)
|
Capital Selection
|
Year Turn

After Capital Selection, play repeats through increasing years until the game is complete.

Nation Picking Turns

If the game is configured for Auto-Picking, nations are automatically distributed to all the players and play begins immediately with the Capital Selection Turn. Otherwise, each player takes turns picking the land zones they wish to make up their empire with.

Nation Picking Turns happen sequentially. Picking will cycle through all players in a pattern like: 1 2 3 3 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 1... This diminishes any advantage the players who picked first may have.

Each player selects a land zone during their picking turn until all of the land zones have been picked.

Once a player picks a land zone, all of its Forces become that player's.

Once all land zones are picked, the game progresses to the Capital Selection Turn.

Capital Selection Turn

After all the land zones are picked, each player must then select one of their land zones to be their capital. Capital selection is very important; care should be taken to select a capital that can be satisfactorily defended. If a player loses their capital, they do not collect any income until it is recaptured. In certain game configurations, the loss of your capital will result in your instant elimination from the game.

All Capital Selection Turns are done simultaneously. Once everyone has submitted their selection, the results will be displayed to all players and the game will progress to the first year turn, 'Year 2000'.

Year Turns

The actions that you perform during your turn will not be revealed to other players until the turn is complete. The results of the turn will only be calculated once all players have submitted their turns to the server.

Purchasing and Placing New Forces

There are ten different force types available for purchase and use in FORCES, however Land War games only use 3 of these.

Force Name	Cost in Credits
Troop	10
Tank	15
Factory	45

Using available credits, new forces may be purchased. Newly purchased Forces are placed at the end of the turn. New forces can only be placed at locations where the player has a Factory that they own. Forces cannot be placed at Factories that have just been captured or built.

A maximum number (not value) of Forces equal to the resource value of the land zone containing the factory can be produced at it. For example, a factory on a land zone with an income of 3 can only have a maximum of 3 units placed at it per turn. The total value of these units does not matter, so 3 tanks or 2 tanks and 1 troop can be placed at the factory. A factory located on ones own capital has unlimited production and does not have this restriction.

Care must be taken that the land zone selected to produce the new Force is not in the process of falling into enemy hands. If a hostile location is selected, the Force will not be produced.

New Factories can only be placed on land zones that you already owned at the beginning of the year. Only one factory is permitted per land zone. Factories cannot be placed on water zones.

New Forces cannot move until the next turn.

Forces Movement

Movement types for different Forces:

Force Name	Movement Points
Troop	1
Tank	2
Factory	0

If a Force is in or enters a land zone with a Force of another player that can block it, it will be unable to move further regardless of any additional movement points remaining for that turn.

Combat

If at then end of movement, there are forces of more than one player in any land zone, combat ensues.

A random dice roll is generated for each Force. For each successful roll, a casualty is scored upon an opponent. Only one round of combat will happen during each turn. If all of the opposing Forces in a land zone are not destroyed, combat continues again during the next turn, allowing the opportunity for reinforcements to be brought in.

Force Name	Attack Odds	Defense Odds
Troop	15 %	30 %
Tank	50 %	30 %
Factory	0 % ***	0 % ***

*** Factories can neither attack nor defend and cannot be destroyed.

Land Zone Takeovers

Land Zone Takeovers are calculated at the end of the turn. A land zone may only be taken over if all Forces of the owner have been destroyed and that there is at least one land based attacking Force such as a Troop or Tank.

If there are no defending Forces but two or more attacking player Forces, then the land zone is set to neutral and will remain such until only single player remain on it.

Factories do not assist in defense and are not counted as a defending Force. If a land zone is captured with a Factory on it, the victor will control the Factory the following turn.

Income Collection

Income is collected at the end of each turn. For each land zone a player owns, they will receive credits equal to the income value of that land zone. However, if a player does not own their capital, they will not earn income from any of their land zones until they recapture it.

Victory Conditions

The standard victory condition for all games is conquering the world by destroying all other players. Some games have additional early victory conditions that can change and sometimes speed up the game dynamics. Four possible early victory conditions (in order of priority if more than one configured) are:

- number of capitals controlled
- total income
- number of land zones to control
- total cash

A game may have one or more of the victory conditions selected. For example, a given game may have an early victory condition of 'must control 3 capitals' or 'have a total income of 200' to win. The first player to meet one of these conditions would be declared the winner.

To view the victory conditions for the current game, just click on the Victory button located at the top of the screen. Clicking on this button will display all early conditions for victory in the current game, if any.