Old Takeover System
This page is about the old takeover system. The New Takeover system has its own page.
A takeover in BattleMaster is a game mechanic used to reassign ownership of a region to a new realm. When a realm wishes to forcefully add a region to its nation state or when a group of nobles wish to found a new realm, a takeover is used. A common abbreviation for takeover is TO (TakeOver).
Real World History
In medieval history, land was generally held in perpetuity by the family that claimed the region and could defend that claim. Land changed owners either by gift (the region's landlord giving up the title to the land) or by conquest (the "winner-takes-all" concept). In the early period, kings (or similar) tended to not have enough power to force a change in ownership by decree. By the late period, they often did, although this was usually backed up by the king having access to the largest army in the region.
BattleMaster Usage
A takeover begins by the aggressor realm declaring war on the defending nation that owns the desired region. The aggressor realm then proceeds by massing troops in the desired region. Once enough men are massed, a "Takeover..." option will be displayed to all members of the aggressor realm in the region. At this point anyone from the aggressor realm can begin the takeover action.
Unlike most war-related actions, a takeover does not depend on the overall CS concentration in the region, but rather on the total number of troops in the area. Thus an army of 2000 CS and 10,000 men is preferable to a force of 10,000 CS and 2000 men. This has given rise to the concept of a "takeover unit": any large unit of cheap, expendable men.
There are four types of takeovers. These are Friendly, Hostile, Brutal and Colony. The type of takeover is chosen by the person who begins the takeover (colony takeovers have additional requirements then the other three types).
The success of a takeover attempt is affected by several statistics, primarily of the region being taken over, depending on the type chosen. Loyalty to the owning realm, sympathy to the aggressor realm and morale all seem to play a part. The morale of the various takeover units can have a secondary effect, as although they do not have a direct effect on the changeover chance, high morale units have a better chance of making it through the takeover period without deserting (and potentially stopping the takeover through lack of men). The time period of a takeover can take as little as a day or considerably much more time, depending on local circumstances and the state of the region (several days is not uncommon).
Failure of a takeover can happen in several fashions, from the region simply not wanting to join to the takeover units losing enough men to drop below the needed threshold of men needed. Thus a defending realm can break a takeover simply by attacking the takeover units and forcing them to lose enough men in the resulting fight, even if the defending realm loses the battle.
Friendly Takeover
A friendly takeover can be viewed as the troops doing their best to ingratiate themselves with the locals. By digging wells, hoeing fields, building houses and roads, the takeover units seek to raise the region's sympathy to the aggressor realm to the point where the region simply joins the aggressor out of favor. Thus a friendly takeover is helped along by civil work. It can only be run when the realm sympathy to the takeover force is high (over 50% seems to be the minimum).
A friendly takeover can not be attempted if the region has recently been looted. Your scribes will inform you of the following:
- These people are too wary of strangers because they have been looted so much recently. A friendly takeover will not work, try a hostile one.
Also, any looting will cancel a friendly takeover in progress.
Hostile Takeover
A hostile takeover is more like the troops conducting martial law: armed men on every corner, patrols out at night, inspections and raids occurring on a daily basis. By showing the local a constant, 'overwhelming' number of men, the takeover units push the locals towards joining their realm simply through a lack of faith in the defending realm martial ability. After all, if the defending realm could defend the region from others, then the takeover wouldn't be happening. However the constant military presence applied to the locals tends to not make the locals too happy with the aggressor realm either, so a takeover could fail if sympathy to the aggressor realm drops too much.
Brutal Takeover
A brutal takeover is the harshest of the takeover types, and can be viewed as the takeover troops actively looting, raping, killing and otherwise pummeling the locals into submission. Often a peasant militia will form to fight the takeover units, resulting in one of the few times CS becomes important for the takeover units. Once the morale of the region drops low enough, the locals will join the aggressor simply out of exhaustion. It is rumored these takeovers are aided by striking fear into the peasantry (ie. some types of looting). Rumours of your brutality may also spread to the surrounding regions.
Regardless of how many troops are actually stationed in a region, to start a brutal takeover requires at least one unit to be of a sufficient size. For instance, it might require a unit to have at least 71 men. Even though you might have over 300 allied men in the region, only units with more than a certain size (based on the region) can initiate the brutal takeover. Once started however, that unit can then move away. Note however that if you don't maintain enough total men in the region the takeover attempt may ultimately fail.
Colony Takeover
Colony takeovers can be only be performed on a city or stronghold region. Furthermore, the region cannot be adjacent to the aggressor realm. It functions almost identically to a friendly takeover. If successful, it will create a new realm with the region as its capital.
Takeover Results
A successful takeover results in the region being removed from the defending realm and becoming part of the aggressor realm.
A failed takeover results in the region remaining as part of the defending realm.
Regardless of the result, the owning nation will often have to deal with the region's current statistics, which tend to be far from normal afterwards. Loyalty, morale, production and population stats are all affected and in some cases can be depressed to very low levels. For example, brutal takeovers tend to kill a lot of locals and ruin the region's production in the process.
