Rules:Terrain Improvements and Settlements
Terrain Improvements and Settlements
Terrain improvements are changes to a hex that improve the land for your kingdom's use, such as cultivating fields, digging mines, and clearing forests for lumber. The following list describes common improvements. Roads, canals, and bridges can share a hex with other improvements and are marked with an * for convenience.
Some terrain improvements have a Defense value, which is used in the Army rules.
Terrain: This indicates what kind of hex you can build this terrain improvement in.
Effect: This line states the effect the terrain improvement has on that hex (or in some cases, your entire kingdom).
If an improvement says you can upgrade it into another improvement, you can do so by paying the cost difference between the two improvements. When the upgrade is complete, you lose the benefit of the old improvement but gain the benefit of the new improvement.
Cost: This line gives the cost in BP to build the terrain improvement.
Bridge*
A Bridge allows your Road hexes to cross rivers.
Cost: When you build a Road in a hex that contains a river, the doubled cost of the Road includes the cost of bridges needed to cross the river. You don't need to build a Bridge as a separate unit; it's listed here for reference only.
Canal*
A Canal is an artificial waterway that allows barge traffic to haul heavy commodities.
Terrain: Desert, hill, or plain.
Effect: Treat the hex as though it had a river for all purposes.
Cost: Twice the cost of a Road (see the Terrain and Terrain Improvements table).
Farm
A Farm helps feed your kingdom.
Terrain: Desert (requires canal, coastline, or river), hill, or plain.
Effect: Consumption decreases by 2 BP.
Cost: See the Terrain and Terrain Improvements table.
Fishery
A Fishery is like a Farm, except it provides abundant fish rather than planted crops.
Terrain: Coastline, water, river, or marsh.
Effect: Consumption decreases by 1 BP.
Cost: 4 BP.
Fort
A Fort is a walled encampment for military forces outside a settlement. You can upgrade a Watchtower to a Fort (Unrest decreases when you do so, just as if you had built the Fort from scratch).
Terrain: Any land.
Effect: Stability +2, Defense +4, increase Consumption by 1 BP; Unrest decreases by 1 when completed. If this hex becomes a settlement, this improvement counts as one Barracks and one Stables building.
Cost: 24 BP.
Mine
A Mine extracts metal, coal, salt, or other useful materials from the earth.
Terrain: Cavern, desert, hill, or mountain.
Effect: Economy +1, earn +1 BP per turn when collecting taxes during the Income phase.
Cost: 6 BP.
Quarry
A Quarry extracts workable stone from the ground.
Terrain: Cavern, hill, or mountain.
Effect: Stability +1, earn +1 BP per turn when collecting taxes during the Income phase.
Cost: 6 BP.
Road*
A Road speeds travel through your kingdom and promotes trade.
Terrain: Any land.
Effect: Economy +1 for every 4 hexes of Road, Stability +1 for every 8 hexes of Road; improves overland travel speed.
Cost: See the Road column of the Terrain and Terrain Improvements table.
Sawmill
A sawmill centralizes the activities of loggers and turns trees into lumber for use in building and crafting.
Terrain: Forest.
Effect: Stability +1, earn +1 BP per turn when collecting taxes during the Income phase.
Cost: 3 BP.
Settlement
A village or city established in your kingdom. While much more than a terrain improvement, settlements have been included in this list for completeness and to clarify that they cannot occupy the same terrain as a terrain improvement (except for Roads, Canals and Bridges.) The rules for settlements are covered in more depth below.
Watchtower
A Watchtower flies your flag, is a safe place for your patrols, and establishes your power on the frontier.
Terrain: Any land.
Effect: Stability +1, Defense +2; Unrest decreases by 1 when completed. If this hex becomes a settlement, this improvement counts as a Watchtower building.
Cost: 12 BP.
Special Terrain
Some hexes contain features or resources that impact a kingdom's Economy, Loyalty, Stability, and other game statistics. These terrain resources are placed by the GM—not by player characters—for you to discover while exploring, and may modify terrain improvements or cities.
Bridge: The hex contains an existing Bridge over a waterway. If you build a Road in this hex, you do not have to double the cost of the Road.
Building: The hex contains an abandoned building in good repair (type determined by the GM). If you establish a settlement at the building's location in the hex, you can incorporate the building into the settlement at no cost (this does not count toward your building limit for that turn).
Free City: A Free City is a settlement that is not part of any established kingdom. Claiming a hex with a Free City is an excellent way to add a fully functional settlement to your kingdom. In order to claim a Free City hex peacefully, you must succeed at a Stability check. Failure indicates radicals and upstarts in the settlement and Unrest increases by 1d4.
Lair: A Lair is usually a cave or defensible shelter that can be used as a defensive fallback point, a storage location, or even a guardpost or prison. If you claim a hex with a Lair, Stability increases by 1. If you construct a Fort or Watchtower over a Lair, its Defense increases by 1. Potentially, a Lair may allow access to an underground cavern hex (see the Terrain and Terrain Improvements table).
Landmark: A Landmark is a site of great pride, mystery, and wonder, such as an outcropping in the shape of a human face, a smoking volcano, or a lake with an unusual color or unique properties. The Landmark bolsters your kingdom's morale. If you claim a hex with a Landmark, Loyalty increases by 1. If the hex also has a Road, Loyalty increases by an additional 1.
Resource: A Resource is a ready supply of some kind of valuable commodity that offers a great economic boon to your kingdom, such as exotic lumber, precious metal, gems, rare herbs, incense, silk, ivory, furs, salt, dyes, and the like. If you claim a hex with a Resource, Economy increases by 1. If you construct a Mine, Quarry, or Sawmill in a hex with a Resource, all of its benefits increase by 1. If you construct a Farm or Fishery in a hex with a Resource, those improvements decrease Consumption by an additional 1 BP.
River: A River allows water travel through your kingdom, facilitating trade and allowing irrigation. Economy increases by 1 for every 4 River hexes claimed, and Stability increases by 1 for every 8 such hexes claimed.
Ruin: A Ruin is a partially destroyed building. If you claim a hex containing a Ruin and build a settlement at the Ruin's location, you can use the Ruin as the basis of an appropriate type of building (as determined by the GM), reducing the cost of that building by half. Alternatively, you can salvage building materials from the Ruin, reducing the cost of 1 building in that hex by 1d4 BP.
Settlements and Districts
The greatest assets of your kingdom are its settlements. Most settlements start as simple villages, and some grow over time into bustling cities.
The District Grid is divided into 9 large blocks separated by streets. Each block consists of 4 smaller lots separated by alleys. Treat each lot as approximately 750 feet per side, so overall the district takes up about 1 square mile. On each lot you may construct a building, and each building affects your kingdom's Economy, Loyalty, and so on.
For purposes of this game, all settlements will be limited to having only one district. This is primarily to prevent a settlement from having an incredibly insurmountable defense due to the myriad number of districts it possesses. This also forces expansion and simplifies bookkeeping.
The placement of buildings in your district is up to you—you can start in the center of the district and build outward, or start at the edge and build toward the center. Some buildings (such as the Guildhall) take up more than 1 lot on the grid. You can't divide up these larger structures, though you can place them so they cover a street. (Streets do not count as lots.)
Construction: Construction is completed in the same turn you spend BP for the building, no matter what its size is. A building's benefits apply to your kingdom immediately.
Population: A settlement's population is approximately equal to the number of completed lots within its districts × 250. A grid that has all 36 lots filled with buildings has a population of approximately 9,000.
Defense: A settlement's Defense is used with the Army rules. It otherwise has no effect unless the settlement is attacked. You can increase a settlement's Defense by building certain structures (such as City Walls).
Founding a Settlement
Aside from the starting settlement allocated to every newly established kingdom, settlements are not, in general, free. A great deal of effort goes into their construction on the part of your people, as well as on the part of your kingdoms pocket book. Outlined below are step by step instructions to the settlement building process.
Step 1— Acquire funds. As previously stated, founding a new settlement is expensive. Before you begin the process, be certain that doing so is economically feasible for your kingdom at the moment.
Step 2— Select a hex within your kingdom that is free of monsters or other hazards. It should go without saying that a settlement must be constructed within the borders of your kingdom. Similarly, if monsters (or an opposing kingdoms army) are occupying a hex, it will be necessary to oust them from your lands before construction can begin. This can be done by sending out your armies to dispatch the interlopers, or, in the case of monsters, hiring adventurers to dispose of the beasts.
Step 3—Prepare the site for construction. To put a settlement on a claimed hex, you'll need to prepare it. Depending on the site, this process may involve clearing trees, moving boulders, digging sanitation trenches, and so on. See the Preparation Cost column on the Terrain and Terrain Improvements table for the BP cost. If your settlement is in a hex containing a canal, lake, ocean, river, or similar large body of water, you must decide which of your settlement's borders are water (riverbanks, lakeshores, or seashores) or land. Some types of buildings, such as Mills, Piers, and Waterfronts, must be adjacent to water.
Step 4—Construct your first buildings. Construct 1 building in your settlement and pay its BP cost. If the building you construct requires placement next to a house, you must also build a house. Building a house in this way does not count towards the number of buildings you may construct this turn.
When you complete these steps, you've founded your settlement!
Claiming Hexes
In order to allow your kingdom to grow, you must expand your borders to incorporate more hexes into your kingdom. To do this, you must first choose a hex that you would like to claim. This hex must be adjacent to your kingdoms borders and be revealed to you (under normal circumstances a hex adjacent to your borders will always be revealed. See the Vigilance rules for more details). You then pay 1 BP in exploration costs as your people more thoroughly examine and settle the area. The hex is now yours! Your control DC and Consumption go up appropriately, and your revealed hexes may increase, depending on where the hex you claimed is located.
Also, at this point, any resources or indigenous monsters are revealed, provided they were not already. In the case of monsters, your kingdom may have to then deal with these before anything productive may be gained from the hex.
Claiming Water and Islands
When you claim a hex that contains part of an ocean or lake, your claim includes the water portion of that hex. In effect, your kingdom automatically controls a small portion of the waters adjacent to its coastline. Because any new hex you claim must be adjacent to an existing hex in your kingdom, if you want to claim land beyond that water (such as an island), you must first explore and claim the intervening deep water hexes. Your exploration only applies to the water's surface—you are searching for uncharted islands, dangerous reefs, and so on.
Terrain and Terrain Improvements Table
| Terrain | Preparation Time 1 | Preparation Cost 2 | Farm Cost 3 | Road Cost 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cavern | 3 turns | 8 BP | xx | 4 BP |
| Desert | 1 turns | 4 BP | 8 BP | 4 BP |
| Forest | 2 turns | 4 BP | xx | 2 BP |
| Hills | 1 turns | 2 BP | 4 BP | 3 BP |
| Marsh | 3 turns | 8 BP | xx | 4 BP |
| Mountains | 4 turns | 12 BP | xx | 4 BP |
| Plains | Immediate | 1 BP | 2 BP | 1 BP |
| Water | xx | xx | xx | xx |
1 Preparation time represents the weeks of labor (beginning with the current turn) required to prepare the hex for settlement. Construction of buildings can begin in the current turn for settlements built on plains. 2 Preparation cost represents the BP cost to clear a hex of this type in preparation for founding a settlement. 3 Farm cost represents the BP cost to cultivate a hex for farming. 4 Road cost represents the BP cost to establish a Road that crosses a hex and connects to all adjacent hexes. The cost to build a Road doubles if the hex contains rivers (for building bridges).