SCOWL Rules
(Small Commonwealth Ongoing War League)
PARTICIPATION
- Anyone member of the Small Commonwealth United Economy can take part in SCOWL.
LAND
- SCOWL uses the MCS claims map for land.
- SCOWL can only affect the land of Gralus and the lands that non-Gralans (wth the authority in their respective nations) willingly add to SCOWL.
- Non-Gralan lands can be removed from SCOWL only by one with sufficient authority in the MCS nation to which they belong, and only when that authority also controls that land in SCOWL.
- SCOWL cannot directly change the MCS map; however, a peace treaty signed to stop a SCOWL war may well cede land from one nation to another. In any case, it is up to the MCS to approve or deny such annexations officially.
JUDGING
- See below for international overall judge.
- Within Gralus, SCOWL will be adjudicated by a judge appointed by the previous SCOWL judge. If a SCOWL judge leaves/resigns without appointing a successor, the Gralan Emperor will choose.
- The judge's decisions are final and cannot be changed. He may later realize an error, but in order to further the forward progress of the war, he is not able to go back and alter his rulings.
ORBATS
- An OrBat (short for Order of Battle) is a listing of units in an army. In SCOWL, the term "OrBat" is often used synonymously with army.
- Units are soldiers, vehicles, buildings, or other actual things that a SCOWL member can control in his army.
- Unit strength is measured in Points. One Point is equal to one basic infantry soldier. Points don't necessarily represent the actual cost of such units in resources or money; rather, it represents the military strength and effectiveness of such units A 500 Point battalion is evenly matched with another 500 Point battalion if all else is equal. (Strategy, advantages, and other things come into play in real battles.)
- An OrBat lists the units controlled by a SCOWL participant.
- Magical units are allowed under NCM (see
http://www.toketi.org/magic for details.)
- Technology may only exceed current standards by the progression listed at the bottom of these rules.
- If a unit is above Modern on the technology progression, you must add on a percentage increase to their Point value as shown in the progression timeline. This increase doesn't increase the unit's combat effectiveness, it is simply overhead for the increased research, rarity, and so on of the futuristic technology
- If there is a dispute about current standards (that is, any technology actually in use today, theoretical science doesn't count), then proof will be required.
- Any exceptional abilities (such as para-drop from transport planes) must be specified in the participant's OrBat, otherwise they cannot be used.
DEPLOYMENT
- Each Participant's OrBat is divided into two, separate parts: the Static Army and the Dynamic Army.
- The Static Army can contain up to 1000 Points per day (a full 24 hours) between its current deployment and the one before it, but it can never exceed 50,000 Points. This army represents the people and structures you can build up over time, like loyal followers and cities.*
- The Dynamic army can contain up to 1 point per 5 pixels of land the Participant controls. (A pixel is a unit of area, derived from the MCS map, approximately equal to 123 square kilometers.). This represents the wealth and influence that comes from controlling land. You can throw together militias quickly, or hire special ops for a single mission. These troops aren't as tied to you as those in the Static Army and can disappear during any redeployment (since you can do so every day), they just sort of work for you.
- The Dynamic army need only wait 24 hours between deployments.
- Deployment occurs when a participant formally declares the units he wishes his OrBat to contain. If the participant already has units in his OrBat, deploying a new one will replace the old one. 24 hours after the participant announces his desired alterations, they are officially completed and the new OrBat can be used in SCOWL. Until then, the old OrBat is still useable, if there was one.
- If at any time between deployments the limit of Points for the Dynamic Army falls below the actual total Point value it has in the OrBat, the participant has one week to choose and remove an amount of units from his OrBat such that the Dynamic Army falls within its new Point limit. (For example, if a participant's land is conquered, that lowers the maximum size of his Dynamic Army, so he will have to decide which units to take out so that his Dynamic Army will stay within its limits.)
*If a mistake is made in the creation of the OrBat, then the one who made the mistake has 24 hours after the mistake is pointed out to fix it. ex: if a user only uses 20,000 of their 30,000 possible, then they have 24 hours to redeploy at the full 30,000 after the mistake is shown. If they do not, then they have to wait the full 30 days to redeploy at 30,000.
ACTIONS
- Troops are moved and commanded in three ways, PUBLIC, SECRET, and RESPONSE.
- For public actions, you post the orders that your troops are given in a War Topic or other similar place, as specified by the judge. It is encouraged to also post a narrative version of your orders, to make reading more enjoyable.
- Anonymous ("secret malefactor" in popular terminology) public actions are allowed at the discretion of the judge.
- For secret actions, the same procedure is followed, except instead of posting it, you privately send it to the judge (method of contact is at the judge's discretion, typically email). The judge will determine if the orders are possible to be done secretly. (For example, marching a full army by a city in broad daylight isn't typically something that can be done stealthily, but slipping four covert ops outside a camp to keep watch is.) If the judge deems it impossible, he/she will ask you to post it as a public action instead. The actions does not officially take place until the judge sends you a confirmation. (If you don't have time for this, make a public action, which acts instantly.)
- Public and Secret actions can be used in conjunction (like a public battle plan to retreat, and a secret order to set up a minefield behind you to catch pursuers.)
- A Response action is used to defend, counter, or otherwise react to another member's action. It can be either a Public or Secret action as well. If the judge thinks the connection is too indirect, or the response is irrelevant, the Response action will have to become its own Public or Secret action instead.
- Response actions can be chained - a response to a response to a response is not uncommon in large battles.
CONFLICT
- If an action involving battle or conflict is made, the attacking troops must wait for a Repsonse Action from their enemy before making another move. Alternatively, if the enemy sees no way out, they can instead post a "pass" action.
- If the enemy takes more than twenty-four hours in responding, the commander of the attacking troops may decide the outcome of the conflict (including casualties and such) and proceed on with other moves. This decision of the outcome, if deemed unfair by the judge, can be vetoed and changed (also by the judge).
- The outcome of a conflict should be decided (or at least an attempt made) by the involved parties. The base deciding point, if ALL else is equal, is Point value. If a 5,000 Point force encounters a 3,000 Point force, the former should, under normal circumstances, defeat the latter. However, take into account factors such as strategy (a well planned attack by the 3,000 Point force met by a thoughtless defence by the 5,000 Point force could very well prevail), terrain (high-ground better than low-ground), familiarity (homeland better than foreign land), morale (high spirits [due to defending land from invading forces] better than low morale [due to lack of supplies, overwork, etc.]), among other things.
- When posting an attack, the attacker should post expected casualties for both sides. These are in no way set in stone, but merely an idea of what they hope to accomplish. The defending side may then post their counter, and their expected casualties for both sides (which are also intensely subject to change).
- If the combatants cannot decide on a consensus for the outcome and casualties within 24 hours of the last Response action (or, if there were no responses, the original action), the judge may make a final, irrevocable, unchangeable decision, which all must abide by.
TIMELINE
- Actions occur at the time when they are posted, except for response actions in conflicts, which can occur at any time in between when they are posted and when the action they are responding to was made.
CONTROL
- Control of land for purposes of determining the size of the Static Army is normally determined by mutual agreement of involved participants, perhaps at the end of a conflict in a peace treaty or other such methods.
- If this fails, a territory can be forcefully seized if the total Point value of units supporting the conqueror in the territory is greater than the total Point value of units opposing the conqueror in that same territory there for a full 24 hours after they declare such an annexation.
AMENDMENT
- This charter may be amended by the judge.
TECHNOLOGY PROGRESSION
Modern Technology (no cost increase):
- anything in current use today.
Imminent Technology (increase cost by 10%):
- Genetic manipulation in humans begins in rudimentary form, such as removing disease, tailoring physical features, and sharpening other aspects like vision, hearing, strength, and so on. Example: genetically stronger soldiers
- Nanomaterials gain wider and more advanced use. Example: metamaterials that make objects nearly invisible.
- Fusion power becomes plausible and practical, with safe (so long as there is constant oversight) plants providing plenty of clean energy. Practical hydrogen fuel cells can now fully power cars or other vehicles.
- Lasers become militarized, but still have drawbacks like blooming (dispersing) for continuous beams (short pulses are fine) and the size/energy consumption would require essentially its own power plant on board (so most likely only on large naval vessels.)
- Improved data handling and sending, with extremely high transfer rates, downloading full movies in a few seconds, etc.
- Robotics sees the widespread use of remotely controlled war vehicles (like the Predator except now in normal combat positions) and the beginnings of automated ones (like advanced "smart" automatic targeting systems).
- (Use with NCM only, see
http://www.toketi.org/magic for details) Scientific acceptance of the Astral Plane's existence leads to creation of Astral Metal (a substance existing simultaneously on the Material and Astral Planes) in laboratories.
Approaching Technology (increase cost by 20%):
- Genetics begins to branch out, creating bizarre cross-breeds and experimental species, but without great precision. Example: Chelkran
- Nanotechnology advances even more, with perfect invisibility possible with metamaterials and very basic nanorobotics, mostly in the medical field. They also improve rudimentary human-computer interfaces using artificial silicon neurons, allowing metal control of devices like prosthetic limbs.
- Fusion technology improves even more, with self-regulating plants requiring no human intervention, and the real breakthrough - modulated output. Plants can be designed to only produce a certain amount of energy with their fusion reactions, making any meltdowns caused by outside forces do only minor explosions/radiation to a very local area (only a hundred meters out or so).
- Phased array lasers become plausible for military use, avoiding the blooming issue. They are also flat, not requiring a turret to be aimed (they can fire in any direction.)
- Wholly automatic robots become plausible for battle, and although they are still not "intelligent", they can be guided with a simple set of orders like "attack the infantry" instead of requiring full control. This technology also works on computer systems with autonomous programs and so on at the same "intelligence" level.
- (Use with NCM only, see
http://www.toketi.org/magic for details) Studies yield new sensor devices able to see onto the Astral Plane, allowing for things like "metal detectors" for magic or letting non-mages see magical things with some goggles, and so on.
Forthcoming Technology (increase cost by 30%):
- More exact genetic engineering becomes possible, allowing delicate grafts of many different pre-existing traits (although still no creating new genes) to construct wild new species. Example: Montags
- Nanobots become far more useful with things like programmable matter. Precision human-computer interfaces show up, allowing a person to work a personal computer or the like with only his mind.
- Miniaturized fusion reactors become possible and safe by creating a relatively low-output system: they use that modulated output to provide a much smaller amount of energy than a power plant, so were they to "melt down" due to severe trauma or even intentional breaking, the resulting explosion/radiation would be very minor, usually going only a meter or so beyond the device itself.
- With portable power generators available, personal robotics like battle exoskeletons become possible.
- Smaller power sources means laser guns! They're still rather cumbersome, rocket-launcher size or so, and can only fire a short burst at a time since it still has to charge, but it's a laser gun!
- Communication is revolutionized by quantum entanglement. When you split a meson (a particle type), the parts continue to spin, and if you change the spin of one part, the other part changes its spin as well, regardless of distance. This means you can instantly transfer binary data over any distance with no possibility of interception, but each connection has to be manually linked up, unlike radio/micro wave communication.
- (Use with NCM only, see
http://www.toketi.org/magic for details) Astral Plane technology finally creates the coveted teleporter by discovering how to create an actual gateway between the Astral and Material Planes. This can either work like Mages, shifting singular things instantly, or be a portal type system, making a circular rift that you can step through. Devices of either kind are at least the size of a room, though, and take around a minute to teleport an object/person or ten minutes to create a portal.
Eventual Technology (increase cost by 50-100% or more):
- Technology not on this list but plausible to the judge can be costed anywhere from +50% to +100% or more, or simply refused.
