Fall of Bronze

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Instructions Further Below

Welcome to Fall of Bronze, a game taking place during the Bronze Age Collapse(Extra Credits videos linked below). You must take care of the nation of Alazar during this extremely volatile time. Every action counts, and may easily determine the collapse of your nation. Therefore, you must take care with every action that you take. Winning is impossible, for the odds are stacked against you. How long will you delay the inevitable?

You start out controlling 25 Provinces.  There are also 25 more "uncontrolled" provinces, available for your conquest. Maintain the stability of Alazar and the loyalty of the Provinces, otherwise you will lose your territories. If all your territories are lost, it's game over.

In this tumultuous time, Earthquakes and Famines are constant, so don't be surprised when your population suddenly goes down. Be careful, however - if a Province loses all its population, it will become permanently abandoned! Together with loyalty, the population of a province can be managed using the interactions available on the Province Page.  Take care, however - you only have a limited number of interactions per season, and some actions may forbid you interacting with provinces for a limited time. 

Keep the Three Groups of Alazar - The Boyarane(Nobles), Persane(People) and Rabane(Slaves) - happy, or expect your stability to fall. 

Speaking of Stability - There is only one way to increase it, and it requires sacrificing a good amount of your population.

So take care with every action you take, for the slightest mistake may mean the complete collapse of Alazar - inevitable, yet unexpected.

Enjoy!

Basic Instructions(as Requested):

You have 4 "Quantities" available to you - Military Strength(an abstract measure of how strong your army is), Economic Strength(an abstract measure of how rich your country is), stored Food and Stability.  All of the above except for stability are generated each Season by each Province. 

Stability is an interesting one - it will, no matter what, always slowly but surely dwindle down. There is only one way to increase it, mentioned slightly further down.

Groups:

There are also three "Groups" whose happiness you need to tend to. Each Group has a "Loyalty" between -3 and 3. At negative loyalty, they will severely lower production of certain things, and also your stability. For each unit of positive/negative loyalty, you gain a positive/negative 5% bonus to production of a certain quantity. The more loyal the Group is, the more it costs to bring their loyalty up. However, take care, because the more negative a Group's loyalty is, the more it will cost to appease them, meaning you may be doomed!

1. The Nobility - These represent the ruling class and rich people in your nation.  In order to be kept happy, they need to be granted military strength(to protect trade routes, their mansions, etc.) If they are loyal/disloyal, they affect production of Economic Strength.

2. The People - These represent all the citizens of your nation that aren't nobles. In order to be kept happy, they need to be granted economic strength(because who doesn't want free money). If they are loyal/disloyal, they affect production of Military Strength, something which becomes very important later in the game!

3. The Slaves - These represent all the non-free labourers in your nation that are treated as property.  In order to be kept happy, they need to be given stored food(because there's nothing else they can really be given). If they are loyal/disloyal, they affect production of Stored Food. If the slaves are extremely disloyal, there is a chance they will revolt and remove a province from your control!

Provinces:

Now let's talk about Provinces in More Detail.

The more loyal the Province, and the more people it has, the more Economic Strength, Military Strength and Food it will generate. 

Each Province has certain quantities attached to it - Loyalty, Living Population, Base Fertility and Base Richness. 

Base Fertility is basically the amount of Stored Food(without taking into account bonuses) that your province produces each Season. Living population cannot be higher than Base Fertility.

Base Richness is the amount of Economic Power(without taking into account bonuses).

Living Population represents the amount of people living in the Province. If it goes down to 0%, the Province will become permanently abandoned, as many cities were during the Bronze Age Collapse!

Each Controlled Province is one of three types:

1. Core - These are the Truly-integrated Territories of the Country(the capital, etc.). These will, by small chance, provide you with events that may give permanent bonuses to Food, Economic Strength and Military Strength production.  They also produce twice as much as a regular province, so losing them would be quite a blow. Their Loyalty is directly dependent on Stability, so if your stability is low, well, expect problems.

2. Half-Core - These are the nearly-integrated Territories of the Country. Their loyalty starts off at 100%, so they aren't much of a problem, and their production is regular. At over 90% loyalty, they may, by chance, turn into Cores.

3. Peripheral - These are the very-recently conquered Territories of the Nation. Their loyalty starts off at 75%, so their production is a little less. Moreover, they produce half as much as a Half-Core province. At over 90% loyalty, they may, by chance, turn into Half-Cores.

The player starts off with 5 Cores, 10 Half-Cores and 10 Peripherals. There are also 25 uncontrolled territories. It costs 1000 military strength to conquer an uncontrolled territory, and will decrease the loyalty of the People by -1 (Because who wants to be forced to fight in a war, right?) Any conquered Provinces start off with 25% loyalty, which, combined with the fact that it is a peripheral province at the start, means you produce barely anything.

There are several Provincial Actions that you can undertake. These are:

1. Hold Festival - Increase The loyalty of the Province by 5% at the cost of 500 Economic Strength(also plays a sound I really like)

2. Harsh Treatment - Increase The Loyalty of the Province by 10% at the cost of 250 military strength and 2% of the population(because some executions will have to be made!)

3. Growth Subsidies - Increase the population of the province by 1% at the cost of 250 stored food.

4. Exemplary Punishment - Kill a whopping 10% population, increasing loyalty in this province by 25 and in all others by 5, and increase stability by 10% at the cost of 750 military power. This is the Bronze Age, don't forget!

5. Abandon the Province - Leave the Province. You get a bunch of free military strength, economic strength and food, but obviously you lose the province. This will decrease the Nobility's loyalty by 1(because, you know, you just left their rocking mansions to the barbarians)

Of course, there is province conquest, and then two other actions which depend on the presence of a certain threat that soon appears in the game.

The Sea People:

At turn 5, in a random uncontrolled Province, the Sea People will appear, as well as a sword on the government page, and a change in music. The number of swords represents how ferocious the Sea People are.

At Ferocity 1, the Sea People will only attack and conquer uncontrolled provinces.

At Ferocity 2, they'll start attacking your Peripheral provinces, which costs 100 Military Power to repel, and kills 2% of the Population!

At Ferocity 3, they'll start attacking half-cores, which costs 75 military power to repel

At Ferocity 4, they'll start attacking cores, which costs 50 military power to repel.

If a province is lost, it will negatively affect stability!!

You can, however, liberate provinces from the Sea People, which will lower the loyalty of the slaves by 1(because they want to be liberated, not a bunch of random people), and cost a whopping 2500 military strength. Note, if you wish to conquer a province belonging to Sea People, you have to liberate it first!

You can also, however, make a deal with the Sea People. Each Season, you'll have to pay them 500 Economic Strength, and they in return will give you 100 Military Strength. Be careful, however! If you don't meet even one payment, the Mercenaries will come and ravage one of your cores!

That's about it. Survive as long as you can!