Crusades
Three-Player Variant

Rules:

1. Three Players:
   In the time period of the game, Crusader forces never actually attacked one another, so even though the original rules permitted this, it seems to make more sense to disallow it.

   The three factions in the game are (1) Crusaders, (2) Syrian Turks, and (3) Mosul Turks with Fatimids.

2. Random Events:
   Even though one player is controlling all of the Crusaders, there is still a good chance that he will not be able to do all that he likes due to Dissension and other random events.

   Each Crusader force still rolls its own random event. The Mosul Turk player only rolls one random event unless the Fatimids have been activated, in which case a random event is rolled for the Turks and another for the Fatimids.

3. Fatimid Activation:
   During the time period of the game, the otherwise powerful Fatimids were torn by internal corruption and dissension and never participated in the events of the Crusade. Their first, ineffectual move was to attack the Crusaders at Ascalon shortly after the scenario ends (August 12, 1099).

   The Fatimids are controlled by the Mosul Turk player, whose Turk forces may never enter Egypt. The Fatimid forces may never leave Egypt (fleets may never travel more than one hex from the coast), unless Egypt is activated, which occurs when Egypt (as defined by the Winter rules) is entered by either Crusader or Syrian Turk forces. Once activated, for the remainder of the game, Fatimid forces may leave Egypt, but may never travel further east than Hebron or further north than Tyre. In addition, they may never stack with Mosul Turk forces.

4. Victory Points:
   The Crusader force may not ahistorically harm the fortunes of any one Crusader faction but must try to do well for all of them.

   Crusader Victory points are calculated for each of the four Crusader factions at the end of the game as usual, except omit Jerusalem and the True Cross. The final Crusader player total is determined by doubling the score of the lowest- scoring Crusader faction and then adding points as follows:

   • If any Crusader force holds Antioch: 10 points
   • If any Crusader force holds Jerusalem: 25 points
   • If any Crusader force holds the True Cross: 10 points

5. Transfer of Control:
   The situation of very competitive Crusader forces in real life needs to be preserved in the game rules.

   Crusaders are not permitted to hand over any Victory Point objective to Crusaders of another faction. If a faction does evacuate a city, no other Crusader faction may re-occupy it unless a Muslim force has occupied it in the mean time.