Automaton - playtest 1

This playtest is a first shot at testing the automaton. The setup is simple: it is assumed that the player never address the automaton in any initiative. Three cycles are tested.

Scenario
You are Edward, prince of Wales, heir to the English throne and better known as the "Black Prince". You landed from England with 1000 men-at-arm and their retinues and 500 archers on foot. Overall, this force needs 2000 horses but only 1000 have arrived in good health. You are encamped in the suburb of Bordeaux where your forces are getting restless. Supplies from England are insufficient both in gold and food. There is a shortage of arrows and your knights are complaining of the lack of steel armors from Northern Italy.

Weekly cycle against the Black Prince

1. The food stock possibly become low.
2. The fodder stock possibly become low.
3. The ammunition store possibly become short.
4. The attrition through desertion is very rarely significant.
5. The attrition through the plague is very rarely significant.

Round 1

I break my army into three forces: one will go to Bergerac and the other to Angouleme. I remain in Bordeaux with the administrators, and entrust the two other forces to noble and effective leaders.

OK, reorganizing is a technical task and you are trained in this area (target: 12). There are plenty of good leader to choose from (+1), and the men are itching to leave the camp (+1). However, horses are in short supply (-2) and so are other goods (-2) which are required for military operations (food, fodder, etc.).

Target : 10 roll: 6. A smashing success.

Your forces split into three roughly equivalent groups and take their leaves. All is done on good order, despite the various shortages. 

Round 2 

Great, I send foragers up the Garonne River to collect food and fodder. All proceeds are stockpiled in Gascon's stores. This will work because the Bordeaux valley is very fertile and yet to be touched by raiding armies. 

I assume the planned outcome is that the food and fodder stores will be satisfactorily stocked once this is completed. I accept the fact that the valley is fertile (+1) and unspoiled by raiders in the last few years (+1). However, there are some resistance in the Gascon's camp to plunder within their own land (-2).
Target : 10. roll: 13. Failure. (Delay narrative after the automaton's turn).


Automaton:

1. Food shortage (10), smaller force (-2), pre-existing hunger (+1). roll: 15. Food shortage is over.
2. Fodder shortage (10), understrenght in horses (-2), already in a shortage (+1). roll: 12. Fodder is fine.
3. Ammunition shortage (10), no battles (-2), already short (+1). roll: 15. Ammo stock are OK.
4. Desertion (6), camp life is boring (+1), short in food (+1). roll: 7. Desertion is significant.
5. Death from plague (6), camp life (+1), city nearby (+1). roll: 8. Plague affects the camp.

In large part because the Gascons have opposed, the foraging operation is stalling and you must spend too many good days trying to raise enough supply to furnish the camp. Meanwhile, the plague and desertion are taking too many good men from your ranks. On the up side, fewer people to feed means that the food and fodder stores are now appropriate. Camp life is demoralizing and unsanitary.


This ends the first weekly cycle.

The TOEM Automaton

Motivation
The automaton is a mechanical device against which players have to compete in addition to any competition between players. In fact, it introduces the concept of "cycles" (see below), where each time that a player loses the initiative, a number of initiatives are triggered. It is easy to tune the challenge rating of a game for a player by changing the nature or likelihood of the initiatives built into the automaton.

Definitions

• Automaton : A non-playing entity that triggers a set of initiative each time that a cycle is completed.
• Cycle : All game actions between the time that a player propose an initiative after receiving the conch. The trigger point of the cycle is, however, immediately after a player has to surrender the conch.

Procedures

Setting up the Automaton

Each actor is associated to a cycle. Cycles can be shared if more than one actor are acting under the same kind of constraints. For each cycle, a set of initiative is prepared. All of these initiative are listed in no particular order, and are worded such that the outcome is against the interests of the actor(s). More than one cycle can be setup: the umpire decides which cycle(s) are triggered if there are more than one to chose from for a given actor.

Executing the automaton

The automaton executes all initiatives in a cycle simultaneously. This means that the outcome of one of the cycle's initiative doesn't have an effect on the other even if each initiative has to be resolved in a sequence. The state of the actor is then updated and the conch passed to whoever should own it as per the original rules. 

Creating cycles

Let's use a game setting where a medieval army is raiding the country side (which is what Chevauchée will be all about). There can be a weekly cycle for the travelling army that goes like this:

• The food stock possibly becomes low.
• The fodder stock possibly becomes low.
• The ammunition store possibly becomes short.
• The attrition through desertion is very rarely significant.
• The attrition through the plague is very rarely significant.

This means that food, fodder and ammunition have a base target number of 10 to become low. Attrition becomes significant only on a base number of 6. Of course, the player's actions and the current state of the actor can be used as PROCON. For example: low food stocks is a significant factor in promoting desertion.  Travelling through a large city increase the exposure to the plague, etc.

The game can be made harder by simply increasing the chance of running out of something (e.g.: the food stock is likely to run low), or made easier by decreasing this outcome (e.g.: the food stock rarely become low).

Strategic notes
An automaton is essentially a dedicated opponent to a given actor/faction. It acts as a player that is systematically aggressive such that staying "alive" is a challenge and only the very skilled players will have the leisure to go after other players. The automaton should be tweaked such that a player ignoring key factors of a simulation will not survive. It also acts as a way to shape a game by setting objectives that cannot be ignored. To follow up on the previous example: not only the Black Prince needs to undermine the support for the King of France in Poitou, but he must at the same time maintain his troop fed and in supply, and compensate for the unavoidable attrition of a campaign.