La Révolution Française
La patrie en danger 1791/1795,
board game by Azure Wish Editions
Historical Scenario Rules Summary
Tue Jul 21 13:17:17 PDT 1998
See also the Open Scenario summary,
and
errata.
If you want to learn more about the actual history of the French Revolution,
see the
Background and Bibliography page.
Rules:
What the Actions Do
Actions Government Can Take
Personalities Who Can Be Arrested
Winning the Game
Regimes
Special Things the Royalist Can Do
The Tracks
Miscellaneous
Tips:
Hints for Placing Your Personalities
Hints and Tips for the Early Game
Examples of Objectives
Set-up:
Starting Regions; Cash; Assemblée Nationale
What the Actions Do:
- Personality Actions:
- Arrest a Personality (costs 100) - This can be done only by the Government.
If successful, puts the Personality in prison pending trial at the end of the
turn or if partially successful, removes him from the map for
1 turn. Currents not visible in the Assembly can do
a limited form of arrest. It has to be in an area that the
Current controls and if successful, you simply remove the
Personality from the map for one turn. In either case, you
don't need a personality in the same region to make an arrest.
(Keeps people from being able to hurt the government or destabilize
a region.)
- Convince a Personality (100) - Take control of a
Personality for your own Current (if he qualifies -- see
Personalities table on your Current's pages). You are at -2 if
the personality is not one of your primaries. (Gives you
more actions or better chance to complete actions plus a
larger minimum income.)
- Regional Actions:
a. require at least one of your personalities in the region to be affected
b. Each of your personalities in the region who are influential
there help your chances by +2.
c. personality declares the number of attempts, pays for all and rolls,
keeping the roll he wants
d. after this the personality cannot do anything else for the rest of the turn
- Plot (100) - This is the way to take over control
of a region (not allowed if in revolt). Neutral regions provide a +2 bonus
for this action.
(Helps income and victory points and protects your personalities there.)
- Trigger Revolt (150) - Have a region rise up in revolt (and
come into your control instead). Can't do it if (1) you're
visible in the Assembly, (2) the region is already in
revolt, (3) is either Paris or (4) there is an army there.
Areas with orange shading, e.g. Lyon, are "hot areas" and are +2
to revolt.
(Same benefits as Plot, plus hurts Government income.
Four or more current revolts starts Civil War
(which has random events & Law effects)).
- Suppress Revolt (150) - Even though it has no
personalities, as a special exception the
Government can do this unless there is an Allied
or Catholic Royal Army present. A Current can do this to
take control of the region for itself. Either way, Fame is at
-2 for the attempt. Another way for
the Government to put down a revolt is to move an army into
the region.
- Raise the Commune (200) - This is basically Trigger
Revolt, but for Paris. Only the
Sans-Culotte, Mountain and Gironde can try it. It can
result in either giving you the region or making it neutral.
Raising the Commune puts the Commune marker in Paris.
After that it cannot be raised again until it is first
suppressed. It also can't be raised if Paris is occupied
by an Allied or Catholic Royal Army. Doing this means that
control of Paris for all purposes goes to whoever controls
the Commune.
- Suppress the Commune (200) - Like Suppress Revolt, for
Paris. (Can put you in control of Paris.)
- Political Actions: (only 1 dice roll allowed for Political Actions)
- Turn Deputies (100) - Requires Regime to be Legislative or
Thermidor and that you have a Personality in Paris. You
can only try to persuade those listed under "Turn Deputies"
on your chart and if successful you get either 3 or 5 of
them. A deputy only changes side once per turn and returns
to his original side right after the Critics phase.
- Propose a Law (50, 0 for Govt) - No Personality required.
In the Legislative or Convention Regime, only the
Currents officially in the Assembly can try
this. Only one attempt per Current per turn, cost 50.
In the Terror or Thermidor, the Government, only, must
propose 1-3 Laws per turn, which are free.
Government pays the enactment cost of all laws passed, which is printed
on the chart. See the descriptions of each regime below
for Voting Rules.
Actions Government Can Take:
- as many arrests as it cares to pay for
- as many Revolt Suppressions as it cares to pay for
- propose 1-3 Laws (during Terror and Thermidor only)
- army movements (technically not an action)
Personalities Who Can Be Arrested:
if the Regime is ...
- Legislative (this is the regime at the start of the game):
- Cadoudal, Cathelinau, Charette, Chouan (who are all starting Royalists)
- Marat (Mountain)
- Chaumette, Hebert, Roux (all start with Sans-Culotte)
- Convention:
- All Royalists and Feuillant
- Mountain: Marat
- Sans-Culotte: Chaumette, Hebert, Roux
- Terror:
- All Royalists, Gironde and Feuillant
- Sans-Culotte: Roux
- Hebert and Chaumette only if Excessive outlawed (see Laws)
- Danton and Desmoulins only if Merciful outlawed (see Laws)
- Thermidor:
- All Royalists
- Either all Mountain or all Sans-Culotte, whichever was in power during Terror
- Mountain: Marat
- Sans-Culotte: Chaumette, Hebert, Roux
- Marais: Billaud-Varennes, Collot d'Herbois and Barere if they are outlawed (by Law)
Winning the Game:
All:
- 1 per controlled region
- 1 per Fame Point
- Royalist (reactionary, can win no matter what the regime):
5 kidnap the king
5 control Paris
1 per region controlled by Coalition
has 12 VP at start
- Feuillant (reactionary, can only win during Legislative or Thermidor):
5 control Paris
5 if regime ends Legislative
1 per Deputy
has 33 VP at start
- Marais (reactionary, can win in Legislative, Convention, Terror or Thermidor):
1 per Deputy
has 25 VP at start
- Gironde (revolutionary, can win in Legislative, Convention or Thermidor):
5 control Paris
5 if regime ends Convention
1 per Deputy
has 19 VP at start
- Mountain (revolutionary, can win in Convention or Terror):
5 control Paris
5 if regime ends Terror
5 if king guillotined or 1 per deputy, whichever is greater
has 10 VP at start
- Sans-Culotte (revolutionary, can only win in Terror):
5 control Paris
5 if Commune ends raised
5 if regime ends Terror
5 if king guillotined or 1 per deputy, whichever is greater
has 9 VP at start
- If Royalist has 25 VP or more, he wins.
- Otherwise, determine if game ended more in Reaction or Revolution:
If a Current scored 25+ points, that is one vote for its type; if
less than 25, that is vote for opposition.
- Winner is decided based on whether there are more votes for
Reaction or Revolution and what the current Regime is. So it is
a good idea to make sure you have at least 25 points and that your
fellow revolutionaries (or reactionaries, as the case may be) also
have at least 25 points.
Regimes:
- Legislative:
- Conditions to Start: already installed at start of game
- Control of Government: alternates between Feuillant and Gironde depending on Critics
- In the Assembly: Feuillant, Gironde, Marais
- Special:
If Critics outnumber Supporters, control switches to side not currently in power.
- Transforms to: Convention or Terror
- Elections: step 8 on turns 4 and 8 (always round fractions up)
- Right: Feuillant gets 1 Deputy per region.
- Center: Marais gets 1 Deputy per controlled or
neutral region.
Royalist gets 1 hidden Deputy per 2 regions.
- Left: Gironde gets 1 Deputy per region.
Mountain gets 1 hidden Deputy per 2 regions.
Sans-Culotte gets 1 hidden Deputy per 2 regions.
- Switching Sides in Assembly: allowed
- Voting Rules:
By majority of Deputies. Ties broken by vote of the Current controlling Louis XVI.
- Convention:
- Conditions to Start:
- Commune of Paris raised by Gironde, Mountain or Sans-Culotte and
- Commune level at I, II or III and
- An Allied or Catholic Royal army in or adjacent to the Paris region or
- 12+ regions are controlled by the Royalist and Coalition and
- The player controlling the Commune decides to install the Convention
- Control of Government: Gironde
- In the Assembly: Gironde, Marais, Mountain
- Special:
- Government Fame raised to 10.
- Louis XVI imprisoned until he undergoes Special Trial (XI-A).
- Clergy and Coalition markers increased by 3.
- Sardinian Army enters Marseille.
- One Spanish Army in each of Montpellier and Toulouse.
- English Fleet in Marseille if controlled by Royalist.
- Royalist places Quiberon Army in Bretagne or Nantes if controlled by Royalist.
- York's Army enters Lille.
- Transforms to: Terror
- Elections: when regime installed and 4 game-turns later (always round fractions up)
- Right: Gironde gets 1 Deputy per region + 1 Deputy per 2 Feuillant regions
- Center: Marais gets 1 Deputy per controlled or neutral region + 1 Deputy per 2 Royalist regions (rounded up).
Feuillant gets 1 hidden Deputy per 2 regions.
- Left: Mountain gets 1 Deputy per region + 1 Deputy per 2 Royalist regions (rounded down).
Sans-Culotte gets 1 hidden Deputy per 2 regions.
- Switching Sides in Assembly: not allowed
- Voting Rules:
Apply the Fame of proposing Current to the Action Resolution Table.
Marais may modify by -2 up to +2. Current controlling Commune may modify from -3 to +3
(even if not present). Each other Current present can modify from -1 to +1. Law passes on A or
B. C result means that proposer loses 1 Fame.
- Terror:
- Conditions to Start:
- Commune of Paris raised and
- Commune level at II (Sans-Culotte) or III (Sans-Culotte or Mountain) and
- An Allied or Catholic Royal army in or adjacent to the Paris region or
- 12+ regions are controlled by the Royalist and Coalition and
- The player controlling the Commune decides to install the Convention
- Control of Government: Mountain
- In the Assembly: Mountain, Marais
- Special:
- Government Fame raised to 10.
- Put a Revolt Marker in each region controlled by the Gironde.
- Dissident and Coalition markers increased by 3.
- Government gets +2 to suppress revolts and arrests of anyone in regions
containing any of Billaud-Varenne, Collot D'Herbois or Barere
- Government gets +2 to propose 2 laws if Robespierre & Saint-Just in Paris
(only 1 law if only 1 of them is in Paris) (Current's choice)
- Carnot can command armies giving Government +1 or -1 (see XV-C4 p. 35) (Current's choice)
- Sardinian Army enters Marseilles.
- One Spanish Army in each of Montpellier and Toulouse.
- English Fleet in Marseille if controlled by Royalist.
- Royalist places Quiberon Army in Bretagne or Nantes if controlled by Royalist.
- York's Army enters Lille.
- Transforms to: Thermidor
- Elections: maintain existing schedule, follow election rules given for Convention but include only these:
- Right: none
- Center: Marais and hidden Feuillant
- Left: Mountain and hidden Sans-Culotte
Remove Gironde (but save for Thermidor) and Royalist Deputies.
- Switching Sides in Assembly: not allowed
- Voting Rules:
Apply the Fame of the Government to the Action Resolution Table.
Marais may modify by -2 up to +2. Current controlling Commune may modify from -3 to +3
(even if not present). Each other Current present can modify from -1 to +1. Law passes on A or
B. C result means that proposer loses 1 Fame.
- Thermidor:
- Conditions to Start:
- at least 2 laws have been rejected (not necessarily in
the same turn) by current regime and
- Marais wishes to install Thermidor (must be done
immediately after a law is rejected).
- Control of Government: Marais
- In the Assembly: Marais, Feuillant, Gironde
- Special:
Government Fame raised to 10.
- Transforms to: (nothing in the historical scenario)
- Elections: maintain existing schedule, follow election rules given for
Convention but include only these:
Right: Feuillant
Center: Marais
Left: Gironde (hidden Mountain or Sans-Culotte)
Either Mountain or Sans-Culotte (whichever one previously ran the government) is outlawed and has its Deputies removed
Any previously-removed Gironde Deputies are restored.
The Royalist has no Deputies.
- Switching Sides in Assembly: allowed
- Voting Rules:
By majority of Deputies. Ties broken by vote of the Current controlling Government.
Special Things the Royalist Can Do:
Raise Catholic Royal armies if Clergy marker ever reaches 17 or higher:
a. must appear in Cholet, Nantes or Angers
b. must be raised by one of Charette, Chouan, Cathelineau or Cadoudal in the region
c. can only be raised once
The first army raised puts France into Civil War (which has random events & Law effects).
Placing Reinforcements:
Royalist places all Coalition reinforcement armies.
Royalist places Catholic Royal reinforcements in Nantes, Angers or Cholet.
Paying Army Maintenance:
Royalist pays 100 per Catholic Royal army per game turn. Coalition armies are free.
Move Non-player Coalition Armies:
Coburg's Austrian: start in Lille, then Amiens, Paris, Orleans, Rouen
Brunswick: start in Metz, then Paris
Wurmster's Austrian: start in Strasbourg, then Dijon, Paris, Lyon (via Dijon)
Sardinian: Marseilles
Spanish: Montpellier and Toulouse
English Fleet: Marseilles
Quiberon: Bretagne or Nantes, then (if Allies control Paris) Angers, Tours, Orleans, Paris
York: Lille
Move Catholic Royal Armies:
Royalist moves Catholic Royal Armies after all Coalition forces move,
but before Government armies. Coalition and Catholic Royal armies are always
friendly to one another, and always antagonistic to Revolutionary armies.
Combat occurs when one army tries to prevent another leaving a region.
Coalition and Catholic Royal Armies can move through as many adjacent regions
as they control, but may only move 1 into an uncontrolled region. Government
armies move any number of regions until encountering enemy. When a Government
army enters Paris, it must say whether it is putting down the Commune (if raised).
Army in the Paris box means the Commune is put down (move Commune marker to 20 and
resolve combat); in the Paris region means it is not.
Catholic Royal Armies cannot leave Nantes, Cholet and Angers unless led by Charette,
Cathelineau, Cadoudal or Chouan.
Combat:
Occurs in the same region and is mandatory. Decide the attacker: if only one player
wants combat, his side is the attacker; if both players want combat,
then the player with the most armies is the attacker and receives
a +1 or -1 to the dice roll for every extra army, which he can decide how to apply
after he sees his roll on the Resolution Chart. Always use the 13-14
column. A =all defenders
eliminated, B = no effect, C = all attackers eliminated. Combat
is for one round only.
Catholic Royal armies can avoid combat in Nantes, Cholet and Angers if led
by Charette, Cathelineau, Cadoudal or Chouan, but this loses control
of the region.
Fame Adjustment:
Royalist gets +1 Fame if Catholic Royals defeat Government
forces in a region without any Coalition forces present.
Regional Actions:
Royalist is the one Current that can try Regional Actions in regions where Coalition or
Catholic Royal armies are in control. He gets a +2 bonus for doing this. Yes, he can still try
to get political control of the region through revolt, even if it
is Paris. Catholic Royal control has precedence over Coalition if
both are in a region. Military Control by a Catholic Royal army
gives automatic political control, but military control by the
Government does not confer any political control. However, once
the Government has armies, it can quash revolts by simply sending
in an army (assuming no enemy army present), although this doesn't
change political control.
Paris:
As soon as an enemy army enters Paris, the Commune is automatically raised.
If combat occurs in the Paris region, the Government decides whether its Army or the Commune
is eliminated (treat Commune as suppressed, may be raised again on the next turn).
If Paris is conquered by Coalition or Catholic Royal armies, the capital of France is relocated
and the Commune random event is skipped, with the Commune no longer raisable.
The King:
If Royalist or Coalition has military control of Paris during Legislative (in other regimes happens free and automatically), can once in the game try to kidnap the king as an action
spending 200, thus getting permanent control and letting the king leave Paris with a friendly
army. If recaptured, he automatically goes to trial on the next turn and Guilt has a +4 bonus. If the kidnap fails or isn't tried, king is moved to the provisional capital.
The Tracks:
- Clergy at Level II is a +1 bonus to Royalist Fame; Level III +2.
- Sans-Culotte gets +1 bonus if Commune at II, +2 if at III, Mountain +1 if at III.
- Royalist gets 50 extra income if Coalition at Level I, 150 if at II, 100 if at III.
- Louis XVI, at cost of 100, can reduce Coalition by 1 if controlled by Feuillant, reducing Gironde Fame -1.
- Louis XVI, at cost of 50, can increase Coalition by 1 if controlled by Royalist, reducing Feuillant Fame -1.
(these happen before voting laws and can still be done w/o changing Coalition marker)
- If Louis vetoes an anti-privilege law, Commune +3, Clergy -3.
Same for anti-clergy laws, but also Louis' Current loses 2 Fame.
Miscellaneous:
- Royalist can never ally with or transfer money to
Mountain/Sans-Culotte and vice-versa.
- Put spent cash in the
box labeled Assignats.
- Snake eyes on the Action table means
you lose a Fame. Box cars you get an extra one.
- Minimum income
for any Current is: 100 + (no. of personalities) x 50
- Government
always gets 2500 minus revolt or Coalition/Catholic Royal-controlled
regions.
- Government always returns all its current cash before
receiving new income.
- For government bankruptcy, see p. 21
(Current controlling it loses 5 Fame, can happen once per game).
-
Louis XVI cannot leave Paris voluntarily, cannot execute actions.
-
Foreign war ends when no enemy armies left in France or if Coalition
goes to I.
- Civil war ends when no Catholic Royal armies left
in France (not counting hidden ones).
- Civil war starts again
if at least 4 regions are in revolt.
Hints for Placing Your Personalities:
- Placement in areas where personality has influence reduces chance of arrest (-2).
- Placement in areas where your faction is in control reduces chance of arrest even more (-4).
- Placement in areas where you have influence increases chance for regional actions (+2).
- Placement in hot (orange) areas increases chance for triggering revolt (+2).
- Placement in neutral areas improves chance to control by +2.
- You need one in Paris if you want to steal Deputies in Assembly.
- If your Faction controls the Government, you must place at least one in Paris.
Hints and Tips for the Early Game
- Feuillant:
The primary actor of the early game. Ideally France will stay
in the Legislative Regime forever. Arrest everyone you can.
Pass laws which will mollify the commune and other forces dangerous
to the Republic. Quash revolts and build up your fame. In general,
try to hold down the lid on boiling France. Consider a daring
strategy of passing many laws to drive inflation through the roof
and prevent anyone from doing much of anything.
- Gironde:
The primary re-actor of the early game. Wrest control of
government from Feuillant. Take over areas from him in case there
is an election. Kick reactionary personalities out of Paris.
Pass laws to increase the outrage of Commune and
Clergy.
Consider helping the Royalist to take away Feuillant regions so as
to meet the conditions necessary for the Convention.
Help your fellow revolutionaries the Mountain and
Sans-Culottes. Remember, no matter how well you are doing, you
can't win unless both of them also score at least 25 victory points,
unless both Feuillant and Marais can be kept to under 25 points.
- Marais:
Probably the side that needs to make deals more than any other.
Try to expand your number of territories for when an election comes.
Conserve funds. Pass laws to increase your fame. Your favorite
regime is probably Thermidor so it might be best to lean toward
the revolutionary side of things for most of the game so that
they will rapidly move to Terror and then allow you to move
them to Thermidor. Consider helping the Royalist to take away
Feuillant regions so as to meet the conditions necessary for
the Terror.
- Royalist:
There isn't all that much for you to do in the early game. It's
a surprising contradiction, but even though you are ostensibly
friendly to the conservative Feuillant, they are actually too liberal
for you. In reality you have no truck with Assemblies at all and the
divine right of kings is the only thing that makes any sense to you.
If the game ends conservatively in the Legislative regime, you
will probably still lose unless by some miracle you manage to
take political control of at least half the map. This is very
unlikely to happen however as your personalities will be arrested
long before that, as soon as the government sees it starting
to happen in fact. Instead, to be sure of winning you need to
follow an unexpected path of actually encouraging revolt in France.
Thus, throw your Assemblée support to a Declaration of War
on the eneimies of France, or, failing that, consider supporting
the otherwise inimical Gironde or Marais if they will do things
which raise the Coalition Level and Clergy Levels, i.e. pass
the Anti-Privilege, Anti-Clerical and Military laws. That
should raise the Coalition level to 17 where foreign and Catholic
(needs Clergy at 17) armies can be brought on, the real source
of your power. But the Declaration of War is the easiest way.
Meanwhile, try to stay out of prison and above
all, work on winning back Louis XVI. Not only can he free your
arrested personalities and raise the Coalition Level by one
each turn, he can make unpopular decisions in the Assembly
which ultimately help your cause. (Also, the following Random Events
Table results increase the Coalition rating during Legislative:
Political - no. 4, Coalition - nos. 2-5. These results increase
the Clergy rating during Legislative: Coalition - nos. 4, 9,
10, 12.)
- Mountain:
Consider raising the Commune. Try to stay out of prison.
Save money, watch and wait. Remind Gironde how much he depends on you.
When the time is right, move into the Terror regime.
- Sans-Culotte:
Same as Mountain.
Examples of Objectives:
Note: even if the objective is accomplished, it must endure through the
end of the turn in order to count.
Player Objectives:
- Convince a personality, e.g. Louis XVI, to join your side.
- Trigger a Revolt via action table in a region, e.g. Amiens.
- Suppress a Revolt via action table in a region, e.g. Amiens.
- Raise the Commune.
- Suppress the Commune.
- Successfully Plot to control via action table, in a region, e.g. Bretagne.
- Pass a type of law, e.g. an Economic Law or a Military Law.
- Pass a type of law with another faction, proposed by a faction, e.g.
Marais and Gironde declare as their common objective the passage of an
economic law proposed by the Marais.
- Install a new regime, e.g. Terror.
Turning Deputies is not a legal Objective.
Government Objectives:
- Arrest a personality, e.g. Marat
- Suppress Revolt via action table in a region, e.g. in Bourges.
- Defeat an Army, e.g. the Coalition army at Lille.
- Pass a type of Law, e.g. an Economic or Political Law (only during regimes
in which government proposes laws)
If the Government declares Suppression of a Revolt as an objective, it does not
count if the revolt is suppressed via army.
Starting Regions; Cash; Assemblée Nationale:
1. Put one of your markers in each of your starting regions.
2. Procure the listed amount of cash for yourself.
3. Put the listed number of your deputies in the Assemblée area of the board.
Note: there are 26 total Assemblée votes at start, 14 needed to get a majority
Royalist: Angers, Cholet, Nantes, Tours; 400; 2 in Center at top edge (hidden)
Feuillant: Clermont, Dijon, Metz, Montpelier, Orleans, Rouen, Strasbourg, Toulouse; 1400; 8 in Right
Marais: Angouleme, Cahors, Limoges, Lyon, Nevers; 800; 10 in Center
Gironde: Amiens, Bordeaux, Caen, Paris; 1400; 4 in Left
Mountain: Lille; 350; 1 in Left at top edge (hidden)
Sans-Culotte: Marseilles; 350; 1 in Left at top edge (hidden)
Region of Bourges is in Revolt.
Government is controlled by Feuillant and has 2300.
Armies in Lille, Metz, Strasbourg, Marseille.
Put one Royalist marker at the start of Clergy Level II and two markers at III.
On the Commune track, put a Sans-Culotte marker at the start of Levels II and III
and a Mountain marker at III.
Put 50, 150 and 100 Assignat markers at the start of Coalition levels I, II, III resp.
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