Demagogues is a turn based strategy game. You play the role of a newly appointed bishop somewhere in Europe during the middle ages.
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| Background |
It is a troubling time for the Catholic Church in your diocese, although every citizen is a church-going catholic, the previous bishop was lazy and inept and your people are now highly susceptible to the saccharine lies of power hungry demagogues. Even as the old bishop lies dying in his bed, enterprising false prophets are already emerging from the foul corners of the countryside to lead your flock astray. You haven’t a moment to lose, you must place tax collectors to gather funds and use the money to bolster the faith of your people and amass an army capable of stamping out these threatening demagogues.
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| Rules |
Every turn you may place one tax man, make as many purchases as you like and move once. Before each turn, you collect one coin for every faithful catholic who lives in a city containing a tax man. A tax man is indicated by a checkbox next to the city. In an ideal situation you would be collecting 4000 coins each turn - one for every catholic in your diocese.
You may use your money to purchase public works and charities, which strengthen the faith of your followers against the advances of the demagogues, miracles, which convert astray citizens back to the catholic faith, and soldiers with which to destroy the demagogues once and for all.
Press pass to end your turn. After each player turn, the demagogues have a turn. Each demagogue will move once in a random direction. If he enters a city, he will attempt to convert its residents. If he enters the player’s square, there will be combat.
There are two tools available to any leader - force and propaganda. In this game, force is represented in combat and propaganda is represented in conversion.
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| The nature of combat |
You have an army of trained soldiers. At the outset of the game, there are three soldiers in your army. You may salary additional soldiers to your army for 2000 coins each. Soldiers can only be lost through combat.
Demagogues begin the game with only one soldier - themselves. A demagogue always brings his army everywhere he goes. The size of a demagogue’s fighting force is highly dynamic and is dependent on the number of followers he has. For every ten followers a demagogue has converted he has one disciple - someone who is so dedicated to the demagogue that he will fight at his side. Disciples are drawn from the ordinary rabble of the countryside and therefore are not as formidable as a trained soldier. To represent this, the skilled bishop must remember the law of the holy trinity; as long as your forces are not outnumbered by more than 3 to 1, they will win an armed conflict. If the enemy outnumbers you by more than 3 to 1, expect to be defeated.
If a demagogue is defeated in combat and some of his disciples are killed, a corresponding number of his followers in the towns will be automatically converted back to the catholic faith.
Combat is fought whenever your army shares a square with one or more demagogues.
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| The nature of conversion |
Every time a demagogue moves into a town he will attempt to convert the catholics living there. When this happens there are two factors to consider: how big is the demagogue’s army and how strong is the faith of the people in the town. A demagogue by himself will not be able to convert many catholics but with an army of 50 or more he should be feared as capable of converting entire towns in one pass. Faith is the only defense a city has against a demagogue. Faith ranges from 0 (no faith) to 20 (maximum faith). Each turn a city’s faith will drop by one point to reflect the forgetful, indolent nature of humanity. Be sure to bolster the faith of a city just before a demagogue enters.
Converted catholics may be converted back through holy miracles. Miracles cost 2000 coins and reclaim, randomly, between 10 and 60 catholics in a given town. When followers are stolen from a demagogue in this way he loses the base for his army and in the following turn his army size will decrease accordingly.
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| Advanced Play |
In the advanced game, the Demagogues are twice as likely to enter adjacent towns, making the game considerably harder. To offset this, the advanced maps are not randomized, ensuring fairer play (although in Expert play, they remain random). Advanced and Expert games are scored according to how many catholics the player has at the game's end and how quickly the game was resolved.
Most importantly, in the Advanced games you are equipped with a new tactic; the ability to vanquish cities. Once per turn you may burn any one city adjacent to your army. The city will be permanently lost and all its inhabitants will be killed. The slaughtered followers of a demagogue will decrement his army size accordingly. Also, if a demagogue happens to be in a city when it is burned, he will lose 1/3 of his army size as his men are burned alive. Burning a city is a serious move, yet if done at an appropriate time, can be highly effective. |
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