Sea Zones and Sea Battles
Sea zones are labeled, and are divided by black lines on the map (Ex: Eastern Mediterranean, West Mediterranean, Black Sea, etc.).
Unlike regions which can only be owned by 1 player, Sea Zones can be have a maximum of 2 "owners". Sea Zones can be:
- Pirate-controlled
- Player-controlled (1 player has fleets in the sea zone)
- Split control (2 players have fleets in the sea zone)
At the beginning of the game, all Sea Zones are pirate-controlled.
Sea Battles
Map for reference
To attack a sea zone and thus "control" it, you may attack it like you would any other region (i.e. you must own a region or sea zone touching it). Once you control a sea zone, you may launch attacks from it as if it were any other region.
Unlike battles for land regions which takes a single dice roll, Sea Battles will take 6 dice rolls: 3 for each side. Dice rolls for each side are added up, and whichever side has the highest sum wins the battle.
Additional bonuses/penalties for sea battle depending on previous dice rolls:
If you control (or have split-control) of a sea zone, your fleets will automatically try to intercept enemies traversing the sea, with a 50% interception chance. If intercepted, the enemy move fails.
Traversing the Sea
Instead of attempting to control or contest a Sea Zone, you may instead choose to simply traverse the sea to attack a region on the other side. If the sea zone is not controlled/contested by a hostile player or by pirates, you may traverse without issue.
However, if the sea zone you wish to traverse is controlled (or partially-controlled) by pirates or an enemy faction, you have 2 options:
1) Option 1: Attack the enemy fleet in the sea zone in an effort to wrest control of the seas for your own faction
- This uses a Move. If you are successful, your faction will now replace the enemy for control of the Sea Zone.
2) Option 2: Attempt to traverse through the sea zone to attack a region on the other side, trying to sneak past the enemy faction's ships (or pirate ships) that are patrolling the area.
- This uses a Move. GM rolls dice. Rolling a 1, 2 or 3 means your ships have been intercepted, and your move fails. 4, 5, or 6 means you successfully sneak past enemy ships.
Contesting a Sea Zone
A maximum of 2 factions can have fleets patrolling a Sea Zone.
If no faction owns a sea zone:
- This means pirates are patrolling the sea zone, and will try to block factions from traversing this sea zone. Players can attack the pirates to try to remove them from the sea zone (as discussed above). If successful, the player will now "own" the sea zone and the pirates will be eliminated.
If one (1) faction controls a sea zone:
- If "Faction A" owns a sea zone, another faction (Faction B) may attempt to contest the sea zone using a Move. If successful, Faction B will also have their warfleets added to the sea. Now two (2) factions have split control of the sea zone (and so both factions' fleets will try to intercept enemy attempts to traverse the sea). This is NOT a declaration of war! So you can contest sea zones owned by friendly nations.
- This also does NOT remove "Faction A" warfleets! (If you want to eliminate faction A's presence from this sea zone, you must declare war and attack their fleet in a normal sea battle).
If two (2) factions have split control of the sea zone:
- Let's say Faction A and Faction B have split control of a sea zone, so they both have fleets patrolling there. If "Faction Z" also wants to have their fleets patrol this sea zone, they first need to target either Faction A or Faction B and contest them using a Move. If successful, the targeted faction will lose control of that sea zone, and Faction Z will replace them.
Hint: Think of contesting a Sea Zone as a game of king of the hill, except instead of 1 king at the top of the hill, there are a maximum of 2 factions controlling a sea zone.
When should you "contest" a sea zone vs. outright "attack" it?
- Simple. If you want a naval presence in a sea zone that is currently owned by a neutral/friendly faction (and you wish to keep the peace), simply "contest" them in the sea zone. Diplomatic relations might be strained, but you will avoid outright war.
- Otherwise, if you're already at war with a faction that owns a sea zone, it makes sense to just attack their fleet instead.
How is a winner decided when "contesting" Sea Zones?
- Same way sea battles are decided, and all bonuses/penalties that apply to sea battles apply to contesting a sea zone as well.
Bonus from Logistics
Logistics wins wars. As reminder, sea battles take three (3) dice-rolls for each side, instead of the usual single dice roll for land battles.
For each Great City you have touching a particular sea zone, you get +1 for all three sea battle rolls within that sea zone.
For each Fortification you have touching a particular sea zone, you get +1 for your initial sea battle roll within that sea zone.
Learn how to build Cities and Fortifications below under "Advanced Rules".
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