Frankish Campaign Additional Rules

Below are the additional optional campaign rules for the Frankish campaign progression. I view the Frankish campaign as a combination of the Saxons and the Raider Nations, such as the Irish or Picts. There is the potential to play a campaign as multiple Frankish lords attempting to seize the role of King of the Salian Franks and becoming the leader of all Franks or the potential to have a more standard campaign with the Franks invading the Domain of Soissons. The additional rules below, especially when combined with those available to the Roman player, will also offer much more strategic depth to the campaign. This should offer even more replayability, with a minimal increase to the complexity of the standard campaign system.

King of the Franks

The final step for a Frankish player is to rise to the position of King of the Salian Franks. In order to become King of the Franks. All of the Frankish petty kings now swear fealty to you. You must provide them with gifts to ensure their support for the position in the form of A Thief’s Horde for each subordinate king. You must also ensure that none can rival you in power by maintaining a greater number of provinces than any single petty king. If at any point you have an equal or lesser number of provinces than a subordinate king, roll to determine if a Civil War occurs as described in the main rules. If war does occur, the Frankish player will fight a battle against the usurper, who will bring a starting Frankish army. If the Frankish player is victorious, the rival king is killed and the player’s position is preserved. He will immediately annex the required number of territories required to hold one more province than any other rival king. If the Frankish player is defeated, roll 1d6-1. The number rolled represents the number of provinces annexed by the attacking king, who is now declared King of the Salian Franks. The Frankish player is demoted back to Petty King. If all of the Frankish player’s provinces are annexed, he must flee into exile and his campaign is over. Your followers have deserted you and you must fall upon the mercy of greater men than you. Remember, the higher you rise, the farther you fall.

Barbarian Invasion

The Frankish player, once declared King of the Salian Franks, may initiate an invasion of Roman lands. He must pay each subordinate petty king A Tribune’s Tribute in order to secure their cooperation. Each month for the next year, the Frankish player may attempt to fight a battle to conquer the nearest province owned by the Domain of Soissons. This province does not need to be owned by the Roman player in order to be attacked. Both players will fight with their current forces if the Frankish player chooses to attack personally. However, the if the Frankish player is unwilling or unable to attack for any given month, the territory is attacked by one of his subordinate kings using a starting Frankish army played by the Frankish player. If the province is not owned by the Roman player, he will use a starting Roman army. If the Frankish player is wins the battle, the province is annexed by the attacking petty king. However, no Frankish king may attack two months in a row except the Frankish player, troop recovery permitted. If no Frankish kings are able to attack, no attack will occur that month. This invasion continues for the rest of the year or until all Roman provinces are captured, which ends the campaign. If no provinces are captured, consult the King of the Franks rule for a possible civil war. If at any point the power of the Frankish player rivalled by a subordinate king, consult the King of the Franks rule for a possible civil war.

Optional Rule: While this is supposed to be a game of gentlemen, if the question of game integrity is raised for the non-player Barbarian Invasion battles, a different process is to be used. If both players can’t be trusted to fight these battles to the best of their abilities in order to prevent negative effects for themselves during the campaign, such as the Frankish player purposely losing a battle for a rival lord in order to prevent them from threatening his power, the players will trade armies. The Roman player will play as the Franks and the Frankish player will play as the Romans. This will ensure that both players will do their best to win as they will both have a vested interest in the outcome. The Frankish player wants to prevent his rival kings from gaining power and the Roman player wants a civil war to occur within the Frankish lands. However, please remember that we play this game for fun and that sort of skullduggery is unbecoming among friends.