The Age of Communes v 3

Category: Machiavelli Classic or 2nd ed. scenario.

Kudos and credits

Scenario designed by Sergio Lidsell.

Setup

Time frame 1335-1402.

Game begins in Spring 1335.

Autonomous units

Autonomous G on all unowned cities. If you use fortresses also place an autonomous G on all fortresses except Aqu, Pia, Bre and Vic (see below).

Special rules

1. Provence and Marseille are treated as a neapolitan *conquered home country*.
2. Albania, Austria, Bosnia, Durazzo, Herzegovina, Hungary, Slavonia and Swiss are impassable.
3. Corsica is a fortified port city -- not an unfortified port.
   Naples is a fortified port city giving 1 ducat income -- not a major city.
   Palermo is a major port city giving 2 ducats income -- not a fortified port city.
   Salerno is a fortified port city giving 1 ducat income -- not a fortress.
   Tunis is an unfortified port giving 1 ducat inome -- not a major port city.
   Verona is a major city giving 2 ducats income -- not a fortress.
   Bergamo is a fortified city giving 1 ducat income -- not a fortress.
   Tyrol is a fortress not a fortified city.
4. Plague only from U1348 and on (as it did not reach Europe until 1347).
5. Storms and Disband rules recommended.
6. Variable income table:

   Power	Dies	1	2	3	4	5	6
   Scaligeri (Verona)	2	1	2	3	3	4	4
   Florence	1	2	2	3	3	4	5
   Genoa	2	1	1	2	3	3	4
   Milan	2	1	2	2	3	3	4
   Naples	1	1	2	2	3	3	4
   Savoy (Turin)	1	1	2	3	4	5	6
   Pisa	1	2	2	3	4	4	5
   Trinacria (Palermo)	1	1	1	2	3	4	5
   Venice	2	1	1	2	3	3	4
   Provence (Marseille)	1	0	0	0	1	0	0

Optional rules

1. First time a player attacks Rome that player will suffer a rebellion (use assassination reb. procedure).
2. If the Mach2 board is used Milan controls Parma instead of (the non-existent) Piancenza, while Scaligeri lose the provinces of Brescia and Vicenza but gains Friuli. Use this start income: GIVLS 2d, AT 1d, PN 0d. No unit restrictions are implemented.

Disaster tables

Version

Version 1.0: 2001-10-05. Original version. Included Austria.
Version 2.0: 2002-02-17. Austria dropped and the Scaligeri state added. Some minor changes to the variable income table. Verona added as major (2d) city.
version 3.0: 2003-11-22. The Papacy dropped and replaced with the Duchy of Savoy. Corrections of this text and changes of the income tables. Famine table was changed to avoid Turin and Avignon and Palermo and Tunis getting famined at the same time. Plague table was changed to avoid Palermo and Tunis and  Savoy and Turin to get struck simultaneously. UAS moved on storm table to avoid simultaneous storm in UAS and ION.
Vers. 3b 2004-03-21 A TUN changed to F TUN. All home countries have 3SC:s each. Some Mach2 notes added.
Vers. 3c 2004-04-10. Revision of text and setup.
 

Background notes

Europe has begun cooling and is moving towards the "little ice age". Climate is getting erratical, with rainspells or dryspells at unexpected times of the year. As agricultural practices are not adapted to this new climate regime and the population is very high, the spectre of famine has begun showing its ugly head. But another threat looms far off in Asia -- the black plague. At the end of 1347 it strikes in Sicily and then moves quickly inland... You begin the game a couple of years earlier.

AD 1335. Charles I of Anjous plans for an empire stretching from France to Jerusalem are all but dust. Scores of members of the Anjou family sitting on weak thrones around Europe are embroiled in internal wars for the control of the Regno (the Kingdom of Naples--also called Kingdom of Sicily to confuse the issue). The most notable and successful exception is the angevine Louis the Great of Hungary who controls an empire stretching from Dalmatia to the Black Sea and from about 1370 including Poland.

The Regno is run by the angevine Robert the Wise of Napels who's losing power to the local barons and exerts almost no control over the Principality of Taranto (roughly from the "spur" to the tip of the heel plus the middle 3rd of "Otranto" up towards Salerno). Calabria (the toe) is mostly in the hands of monastic orders and the church. About 1345 the Regno is invaded by various branches of the Anjou family (the Hungarian branch and the Durazzo branch) and a free for all ensues between them and Queen Joanna and the Prince of Taranto. By 1350 the Regno is split between Durazzo ("Aquila"), Hungary ("Capua", "Naples"), Taranto ("heel") and Joanna ("Naples", "Salerno" and Calabria).

After various coups and counter-coups Joanna is back in charge (at least nominally) of the Regno around 1362. By 1382 she controls not much more than the city of Naples when she is murdered and the Regno is invaded by the french angevines and more years of chaos follow. By 1390 the Regno is effectively divided in roughly two halves: one ruled by Ladislas of Hungary of the  Durazzo angevines and one by Louis of Anjou of the french angevines. A situation that furthers the local aristocracy's ambition to carve out small statelets for themselves.

In the Kingdom of Trinacria (that is: the islands of Sicily and Malta/Gozo) the situation is chaotic too. The downward road started during the reign of  Fredrick III (also ruler of the Duchy of Athens between 1311 and 1337)--which was marked by repeated famines (1311 to 1335) and slow economic collapse--ends for all practical purposes in civil war at his death in 1337. Four baronial families (Ventimiglia, Moncada, ... ) essentially carve out small statelets for themselves and the city of Messina almost manages to create  a city state. Some control is restored as the aragonese invade the island in 1392. Massive population decline, from an estimated 850000 to 350000 during the 14th century, and the plague do also exacerbate the situation.

(Trivia note: between about 1100- Tunis was tributary to Sicily. 1535-1574 Tunis city was under Spanish control.)

In the north Genoa kick out the angevine overlord just to find themselves soon under milanese rule as the Visconti family are fast extending Milans influence in northern Italy. Power which will peak around 1390 under the rule of Gian Galeazzo Visconti (who has risen to power by assassinating all his brothers -- a typical ruling family of the times). Genoa was rich but weak mainly because its style of government more resembled Chicago in the twenties than a centralized well run state.

The north is also the home of the powerful state of the della Scala (Scaligeri) family -- probably the richest or 2nd richest of Europe at the time. Under the rule of Mastino I and II (mastiff, the dog type) and Can Grande I ('big dog', yes I am serious), they had gained control of a good chunk of north-eastern Italy by 1335. (BTW Fratricide was a pastime of this family too.) But they had also enraged most of their neighbours. In 1337 Milan, Venice, Florence, d'Este (Modena and other cities) and Gonzaga (Montferrat) allied to crush the state.

The Papacy was weak at the time and controlled just the territory close by Rome and Avignon. The 14th century was also the century that saw *three* simultaneous popes and the Papacy going practically bankrupt. 

Between France and Italy the ambitious counts/dukes of Savoy are slowly and discreetly expanding their domains.

Game notes

The game is fairly historical in its setup, with some changes for playability. Angevine control over "Naples" was divided between brothers and robber barons, that's why Naples does not control all neapolitan (btw this is the 'correct' spelling although the inhabitants of the Kingdom, the Regno, were called "regnicoli" at the time) provinces. Notice also the construction with Provence. That is partly because the angevines got that lands by marriage and partly because they were constantly warring between brothers, sisters and cousins about who would rule what (another typical ruling family of the times). The angevines also controlled a slew of  small towns (of no consequence) mainly in Piedmont in northern Italy that on a lot of maps are bunched together to look like a sizeable province. As that is not the case those towns have been ignored.

(Trivia note: the word mafia is said to be a contraction of "maranu li francheschi" -- death to the french. Which describes the general sentiment in 13th century Sicily about the rule of Charles I of Anjou.)

The Balcans are also mostly impassable as these lands were ruled by various warlords and for some decades by three successive Tsars Stefan of Serbia.

As the Hungarian Angevines were mostly concerned with consolidation of their power and expansion eastwards, their territories are impassable except for Croatia. The cities of the Dalmatian coast passed between Venice and nominal Hungarian control several times during this epoch, but for practical game reasons Dalmatia and Ragusa are considered to be venetian as Venice controlled the Adriatic Sea. Venice may seem boxed in in its"mare nostrum". This is intentional as Venice lost a lot of its possessions along the Adriatic Coast in the 14th century.

In version one Austria was given the role of major threat over Venice, but as that was not really historical the della Scala State replaced Austria in version 2. Tyrol and Trent were free states at the time.

Tunis symbolizes the Kingdom of Aragon in Spain in this scenario. Even if it did not control Trinacria per se it was always ready to interfere. The island of Sardinia is controlled by the Kingdom of Aragon (actually by the Kingdom of Majorca) but treated as neutral for game purposes.

Della Scala also controlled Parma and Lucca, but for game reasons this is ignored and Lucca is awarded to Pisa.

The Papacy was removed as a power in version 3 and the Duchy of Savoy is instead one of the contenders. This was both due to the fact that the north needed another power for game balance, and the fact that Rome was weak combined with the need to make central Italy less crowded.

Saluzzo was only incorporated into Savoy later on, but has been awarded the Duchy of Savoy to give the latter three cities. Historically the County of Nice (called Savoy on the mach map) passed under savoiard (yes it is called thus) control at this time, but that would leave TDOS a too smeared out state, so I used SLZ instead. Avignon is to be regarded as the historical Savoy in this game and not as the very small papal Avignon.

Notice that in version 1 and 2 Milan, Genoa and Florence started with only two cities in their home countries !

Perugia is under florentine control as to give Florence three cities. Historically Perugia switched between free commune and Papal control.

Bergamo was at this time under milanese control, and thus is milans third city.

Genoa has gotten Montferrat.

Note: the possessive of Savoy is sabaud !

Some more trivia

Opinions about the Regno (Kingdom of Naples) from contemporaries.

• "Men completely inimical to any kind of civilization.", Niccolo Machiavelli in "Discorsi".
• "Nothing by a school of ambition, avarice and tyranny.", Pandolfo Collenuccio of Pesaro.
• "Could not be called lands, but... rather thieves' den's, full of bloody entrails and other crude parts.", Niccolo Acciaiuoli, Grand Seneschal of the Kingdom
• "Malicious, evil, endowed with little talent and traitorous to the bone." "Arlotto"
• "A paradise peopled by devils." Popular saying (related by Benedetto Croce in "History of the Kingdom of Naples").

Legal

Copyright Sergio Lidsell.  2001, 2002, 2003, 2004.

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