Urban Skirmishes

Urban skirmishes are similar to Warfare, but take place within the confines of a city. They represent the struggle that may break out between the different factions of Zwll and other cities. This article explains the Political City Map, the concept of Force, and Faction Moves.

**POLITICAL CITY MAP**

A political map shows the city’s districts, but not its streets and canals. The districts are shown as coloured rectangles. Places where these rectangles share a border represent large thoroughfares between the districts, but also the social and economic influence that different districts wield over each other.

Let’s take a look at the political map of Zwll. The names of the districts are noted next to their rectangles. The colours represent the faction that each district currently belongs to.

Sunwood and Glassheath belong to different factions (the Treasury and the Court of Quaking Earth respectively), but share a border. This means that people can walk from Glassheath to Sunwood, but also that the two districts have some direct influence on each other. Both districts are known for their glass gardens, where food is grown. The gardens rely on magical lamps that cast the *Sunlight* spell, but most of the power sources for these lamps are located in Sunwood. If the two were to get into an argument, the Treasury *could* send troops to attack Glassheath, *or* they could simply shut off the generators that give Glassheath power.

The black squares with numbers in them represent the strongholds that are present in some districts. Strongholds often function as a faction’s headquarters, and are incredibly important to their power.

Each faction has a *Force* score, which is equal to the number of strongholds in the area they currently control. On the example map above, each faction has one district with a stronghold in it to start with, so they all have 1 Force.

**FACTION MOVES**

As part of their Perform Duty downtime action, a faction’s leader can choose which move their faction is going to make. Faction moves all happen simultaneously at the end of the server-turn. The following moves are available.

* **Attack.** The faction tries to muscle in on a district that lies outside their territory by sending troops, inciting civil disobedience, or harming the area’s economy. The district attacked by the faction must be adjacent to a district that faction controls. If the attacker’s Force equals that of the defender, the district is conquered and becomes part of the attacker’s territory. Alternatively, the attacker can issue an ultimatum such as ‘your leader resigns’ or ‘you support this political move.’ If the defender accepts the ultimatum, the district is not conquered, but they have to follow through.
* **Defend.** The faction increases defences in its territory. Attackers now need more force than this faction to conquer one of their districts during this turn. This is the default faction move.
* **Support.** If you believe a faction will attack another faction’s district that is adjacent to one of *your* districts, you can decide to support either combatant. If the attack does indeed happen, you add your faction’s Force to the total of the chosen party for the purpose of that battle.
* **Extend Reach.** You allow another faction to move through your territory. They can now attack or support in other factions’ districts that are adjacent to your own. For example, let’s say the House of Downwards Doors (bright red) wants to attack the Police (blue). This would be impossible under normal circumstances, because they have no adjacent borders. If the House can convince the Treasury (yellow) to extend their reach, however, the police’s district of the Faesteps becomes adjacent to the Treasury’s Sunwood. Now, the House can attack.

As you might imagine, planning an urban skirmish often involves negotiating with other factions beforehand. You might need them to support your forces, or extend your reach. Whatever promises other faction leaders make are not binding, however. All commands are submitted to a server admin IN SECRET (via PM). A faction could pledge to support you, then turn around and attack one of your districts when you leave yourself open at the end of the turn.