The Throne of Cofain
                   Scenario description and special rules

                                Morten Larsen

                                  May 2001

1. Introduction

The nations on the island of Cofain have been at peace with each other for
almost a century. Only the occasional pirate or goblin raids have disturbed
them, and those have always been swiftly and easily dealt with. In the
interior of the island a few independent towns have grown strong, unmolested
by all but the monsters living in the wilderness (and even the monsters have
grown fat and lazy). It was not always so and indeed this tranquil state of
affairs will not last long, for the battle for the Throne of Cofain is about
to begin.

Once there was a mighty sorcerer who ruled all of Cofain from his castle at
the centre of the island. Some say the sorcerer created the island while
most others believe that he came from some far-away continent to which he
went back when he left Cofain. In any case the island bears his name and
most people think that his rule was a golden age where all prospered and
lived in perfect harmony with each other. But apparently not all subjects
were equally happy with the sorcerer Cofain, for about four centuries into
his rule he found himself with a rebellion on his hands. The rebels were a
minority and had no general support among the population except in a few
towns in the south of the island, but the fact that any of his subjects were
so unhappy with him that they would rebel first grieved and then angered the
sorcerer immensely. As punishment for the ungratefulness of his subjects he
called forth great hordes of monsters (whose descendants to this day inhabit
much of the interior of the island) and cast a spell upon his castle which
transformed the garrison into magically animated un-dead and caused the
ground around the castle to sink until the castle and the treasures within
came to be at the bottom of a new, great lake at the centre of the island.
He then left the island Cofain and vowed never to return. But he left a
message carved in 4 foot letters on a great rock on the shore of the new
lake: "Let those who would inherit the throne of Cofain raise the castle
from the lake, or have them wait full three centuries until the castle again
shall rise by the power of its enchantment". All this was nearly three
hundred years ago.

After the sorcerer Cofain had departed there was chaos as the inhabitants
were suddenly confronted with hordes of hungry monsters. Many were killed
(and eaten) but most made it to the relative safety of the towns, most of
which were at the shores of the island. Even the elves who had until now
preferred to live in family groups scattered around the northern forests had
to seek safety in numbers and form a city of their own. All the hitherto
mostly peaceful inhabitants of the island of Cofain now had to arm
themselves and learn how to fight off the monsters of the wild. After a
decade the few towns in the interior had succumbed but the towns near shore
had managed to clear their immediate surroundings of monsters and even to
start cultivating the land again. Then came almost two centuries of wars:
The leader of one town after another began to nourish the ambition of
becoming the new ruler of all of Cofain and the first step would of course
always be to conquer the nearest neighbouring town. In a complicated
sequence of local wars, rebellions, alliances made and treachery committed
the new nations of Cofain emerged: In the north the Blue Knighthood, in the
east the Hidden Valley, in the south east the Red Warlords, in the south
west the Whitehill Gnomes, in the north end of the western mountains the
Dwarves, and in the north west the Greenwood Elves. The interior of the
island was largely left to the monsters and here tribes of goblins forged a
nation of their own. Add a few scattered settlements of hunters, some desert
tribes in the south west desert, and the pirates inhabiting the small
islands just off the coast of the large main island and you have Cofain as
it looks today. After two centuries of strife even the most ambitious
warlord tired of fighting and and peace broke out over most the tried
island. Since then the independent towns have grown a little larger and the
pirates a little more numerous but otherwise not much have happened for
almost a century.

But now something will happen. For the three centuries since the sorcerer
abandoned Cofain have almost passed and soon his castle will rise from the
lake again. The four major nations have all recently had a change of
leadership and the new leaders are ambitious, ruthless and bored with peace
(indeed they are very much like your average play by mail gamer). War will
once again come to Cofain and much blood will be shed before the monsters
have been driven off and a single nation controls the island, their ruler
firmly enthroned on the

                              Throne of Cofain!

2. The Nations

Here follows a short description of the four player positions in the Throne
of Cofain scenario.

The Blue Knighthood:
     These humans live in the north of the island. They believe in horses
     and heavy armour but lack the metal for equipping a large scale army.
     They have good potential for building a large cavalry force but cavalry
     may not be the ideal troops for taking on the monsters of the
     wilderness. The high priest of the Blue Knighthood takes care of
     magical protection against enemy strikes while the court wizard
     supplies fire strikes to weaken enemy armies.
The Red Warlords:
     This human nation is situated in the south east. While they are not so
     keen on horses they are the only nation to employ the dreaded war
     elephants in their army. The warlords themselves are renowned for their
     superior leadership skills and they will get the best out of their
     troops in any battle. Their mage can both provide magical protection
     and strike enemy armies with lightning.
The Greenwood Elves:
     The elves have their city in the woods of the north west. They are
     known to be deadly both when employing their bows and when charging the
     enemy astride one of their giant wolves. While the nation in general
     has the highest quality troops on the island, the big problem is the
     slow growth rate of the population which means they really cannot
     afford to lose many troops. The fact that they start with only one city
     also means that the scope for internal growth is very limited. The wood
     elven nobles can cast magical spells including protection spells and
     lightning strikes.
The Whitehill Gnomes:
     The gnomes live in the hills in the south west. Part of the nation's
     population is of dwarven origin and these few dwarves are the only
     really heavy troops available. Gnome wizards can call down fire strikes
     on enemy armies but know no spells which can protect their own troops
     from similar attack. Luckily both gnomes and dwarves are inherently
     fairly resistant to strike spells. The Whitehill Gnomes are the only
     nation capable of recruiting more full strength spell casters and thus
     have the best long term potential for delivering powerful strikes in
     combination.

3. Winning the game

The winner of the game is the nation which at the end of the last turn has
accumulated the most victory points.

Victory points are awarded for enemies destroyed in combat, cities
controlled, magic and special items owned and for the Throne of Cofain. At
the start of the game all nations have zero victory points and as the game
progresses points may be added or subtracted (it is possible to have a
negative score!).

The points awarded for units destroyed in combat depend mostly on their
(theoretical) combat value and range from 1 point per 100 individuals killed
for human Light Infantry to 21 points per 100 individuals killed for
Elephant Riders, with leaders and characters worth anything between 0.25 and
2.5 points. No points are awarded for wounded individuals or for individuals
who flee, only kills count.

Cities are worth two victory points per size increment. For the original
owner of a city it is worth an extra 10 points in addition to those awarded
for its size. This means that if you lose a size 8 starting city of your
nation you lose 26 points while if you gain a new size 8 city you gain only
16 points.

Magical and special items, whether produced by players or found by questing
characters, are worth some victory points to their owner. All non-unique
magic items are worth 3 victory points to whoever owns them. All non-unique
non-magical items (e.g. an Adamantine Axe or a Poisoned Blade) are worth 2
victory points.

3.1 Castle Cofain and the Throne of Cofain

At the end of turn 7 (in the 12 turn game, later in a long game) Castle
Cofain will rise from the lake at the centre of the island. The lake hex
will be converted to swamp and the castle with its garrison of un-dead will
appear. The castle contains the Throne of Cofain and is worth 50 victory
point to any player nation owning it.

Note that as un-dead troops do not require any food or gold for their upkeep
a siege of the castle will not have any effect; an attacker will have to
take it by storm.

4. Design notes and game variants

Throne of Cofain is designed to serve as a player's first introduction to
the COSMOS Fantasy game system. The game is designed to be a challenge in
itself even without active opposition from the other players as your
opponents are as inexperienced as yourself and thus may not initially put up
a very good fight. Therefore the non-player positions are fairly strong, as
are the roaming groups of monsters. Each monster group is set up to move
around in a repeating pattern or possibly just to stay in one place. Each
wilderness hex (un-owned by anyone at start) is frequented by one monster
group and each monster group has a territory of at most three hexes. With
this in mind you can scout nearby hexes to determine which monster group you
will have to eliminate to be able to control them, what the groups' movement
patterns are and how big they are. If you plan to venture out to sea (where
there are three cities and a gold mine to be had on four small islands) you
should also scout ahead as there are pirate forces patrolling the sea lanes
much like monsters patrol the land. Monsters and pirates will never move
into your starting lands or each other's territories, so once an area is
cleared you are safe except from the other players' forces.

You will need more than your starting troops before you venture into the
wild and you should therefore start by recruiting more troops and possibly
replace some of your light troops by fewer, heavier troops. As you need to
scout the surroundings for monsters you probably will not venture forth
until turn 2 anyway, so use the first turn to get organised. You should also
consider expanding your cities to increase your revenue (but be aware that
you need to have enough food both to feed your troops and to supply your
cities).

There are nice, juicy non-player towns to be taken, some of which are quite
near your starting position. But be aware that every town is approximately
equally far from at least two player nations and you will likely encounter
the forces of one or more other players when you move out to take it. Do not
be the one to take the heavy losses defeating the non-player garrison only
to have your opponent squash your remaining troops and take the town
itself...

Garrisons are fairly strong so usually it is worth considering a siege
rather than a storm. Even non-player garrisons are not stupid however, so
you need to bring enough troops that the garrison cannot neutralise your
siege just by moving out of the town with "defend" tactics.

With only four player positions there is limited scope for diplomacy, but it
is possible to ally with the other players. As the player nations are much
closer to each other east/west than north/south the scenario almost invites
the Knights to ally with the Elves in the north against the Warlord and the
Gnomes in the south. But while you may agree with your ally how to split the
towns between you there can only be one nation which gets the Castle Cofain
and the Throne.

The scenario can be set up in various ways depending on how you prefer to
learn the game system and whether you visit Cofain just as an introductory
game before moving on to a more complex scenario or you are there to conquer
all of the island and put yourself on the throne. You can play the game as a
solo game in which case you only have to worry about the monsters and
non-player nations and the challenge becomes to expand and develop as much
as possible and also to take the Castle Cofain before the game ends. You can
also play only two players where one takes a southern and the other a
northern nation in order to have some space for initial expansion.

Throne of Cofain can be played over either 12, 18 or 24 turns. The shortest
game is sufficient to learn the basics of the system, maybe attack (but
probably not fully absorb) your nearest neighbouring player nation and/or
possibly take the Castle Cofain. The 18 turn game is good for a north versus
south war between two teams or just for four players who want to have a
chance at really battling for the Castle. The 24 turn game should make it
possible for a really good player to conquer most of the towns and cities in
the game (plus of course the Castle Cofain) or for one player to completely
eliminate the other in a north versus south two player game.

5. Special rules

The following special rules are in effect for the "Throne of Cofain"
scenario.

5.1 Major character limit

There is a limit on how many "major" character units a nation can possess at
one time. All character units which may enter quest mode are known as major
characters. A recruit order (or any of its variants) which would bring the
number of major characters above the limit for the nation will fail. Note
that the major character limit is checked when a recruit order is commenced
and when it is finished, so while it is possible to start multiple
simultaneous recruit orders for major characters beyond the limit, the major
character limit will be enforced when the orders finish and thus some of the
recruit orders will fail (and resources used will be lost).

The major character limit determines how many questing-capable units a
nation may have in total, whether these are actually in quest mode or not.
Note that all ruler types are major characters and thus count towards the
limit. The major character limit for your nation and a summary of how many
and which major characters the nation already has can be found in the status
report each turn.

6. Questing

Around the island of Cofain the adventuring character (i.e. a character in
quest mode) may find monsters and other nasties to battle as well as riches
in the form of gold or magic items. There are also travel routes (ships)
connecting coastal towns to other, nearby coastal towns.

Apart from a few wandering monsters, most monsters in quest mode are found
in their lairs. Monster lairs are scattered around in the wilderness (hexes
not controlled by anyone at the start of the game). Examples of monster
lairs are bandits' dens and caves. When the monster(s) have been cleared out
of a lair the lair will in not be re-populated. All lairs will contain
treasure of some kind which can be picked up once the monsters are gone, so
it is a good idea to search for a few phases after clearing out a lair to
spot all the treasure there may be (small items such as magical rings are
easy to miss).