Abbreviated Colony Quest Rule Set

Abbreviated Colony Quest Rule Set

Written by following Sequence of Events Chart

Political Phase

Call Ally for Aid - When a player has war declared on him, he may call any of his allies for "aid". When called for aid by an ally, a player choose to ignore the call at no penalty. Should an ally refuse a call for aid, the calling player may dissolve the alliance at no colonial chip cost. Should the called player wish to come to the aid of his ally, he must declare war on at least one of the countries that caused the call to be made. One benefit to answering a call for aid is the possibility of a reduced colonial chip cost for the declaration of war. A nation at enforced peace with a combatant may not be called to aid against that country.

If two or more countries have declared war on a nation, and the declaring countries are allied, a player answering a call for aid may declare war on all the allied aggressor nations for the cost of a single declaration of war. Example: Britain, Italy and Portugal declare war on France. Britain and Portugal are allies. France calls Germany, his ally, for aid. Germany answers the call and declares war on Britain and Portugal at a total cost of 5 colonial chips. Germany opts not to declare war on Italy but has still satisfied the call for aid. As you can see, wars with multiple combatants can become confusing. Players are encouraged to keep the colonial chip costs in mind when in possible grievance situations. See rules on grievances.

Declaration of Combined Movement - When at war, allies may choose to move together during the same phase, as long as the countries are allies and have at least 1 common ally. This allows for players to combine their armies for a single attack, add ships to the other player's fleets and to have the alliance behave as a single entity in case of offers for peace. When combined movement is declared, all nations participating will move during the phase of the player at the lowest end of the cycle. Example: France (#2) and Italy (#5) declare combined movement. France would move with Italy in the 5th position. Once combined movement is declared, it may not be terminated until the allies are no longer at war. This prevents a nations from being able to move twice before their opponent.

When using combined movement, the country who would normally move first acts as commander. The commander of an alliance is responsible for setting the level of peace in the event the alliance is offered peace. When facing an alliance using combined movement and wishing to sue for peace, a country is obligated to sue each member of the alliance for peace. This prevents an embattled nation from being able to split an alliance against the wishes of the allies. Example: Germany, Spain & Portugal are allied, using combined movement and are at war with France. France wishes to sue Spain for peace but is obligated to sue all the allied members for peace sue to the combined movement. France goes ahead and sues all 3 countries for conditional peace. Germany as alliance commander (Germany would would normally have moved first out of the 3 allies) has set the level of peace they would accept as conditional. All 3 nations would immediately go to peace with France and each country would get a choice off the conditional peace terms chart.

Peace Resolution - See more rules on peace. When at war, each player is required to set a level of peace they would accept should it be offered and a list of peace terms in the order they would desire them. This is important because peace terms may only be selected once in a single peace. Should peace occur between multiple combatants, the nation that would normally move first gets their first choice of peace term. It would then cycle down to the lowest moving player. See Peace Terms Chart. Example: Germany, Spain & Portugal are allies and at war with France. Only Spain and Portugal are using combined movement. France sues Spain and Portugal for conditional peace. Spain as alliance commander had set the acceptable peace level as conditional. Peace between these 3 combatants would immediately take place and Spain, who would normally move first gets his top choice of peace term. Spain's first choice was Term A - 1 territory. Portugal's first choice was Term A but since it has already been taken, Portugal gets their second choice of Term C - Surrender 1 support ship. All 3 countries would then be at enforced peace for 3 turns.

Assume war was just declared by Spain, Portugal and Germany against France. France would set his peace level and terms like this:

Germany=Unconditional. Terms=A,C,B,D,F. Portugal=Conditional. Terms=A,B,C,F,D Spain=Conditional. Terms=B,A,C,D,F. This covers France should any of those countries sue him for peace. If France wanted to sue for peace, he would include in his orders for the turn something like this: Offer Germany peace=Conditional. In this case, if Germany had set his peace level at conditional, peace would occur immediately.

Claim Marker Removal - Players may choose to remove a claim marker for any reason. Most often players will work out deals agreeing to avoid causing grievance situations by the removal of claims. Orders to remove claim markers are executed during this phase.

Supply Determination Phase - Supply rules are ignored unless a nation is at war with another major power. When at war with a major power, it is necessary to provide supply to any troops on the African continent or risk losing them. When out of supply, units are checked for removal. This simulates starvation, disease and desertion. For every turn a unit is out of supply, their die quality is reduced by 1 level. If a unit's die quality falls below a D6, that unit is destroyed. During combat, regardless of how many turns they have been out of supply, units fight at 1 die full die level below normal.

Supply is provided a number of ways. If a space has a port, it is automatically considered to be in supply unless the port is actively being blockaded. If a space is a colony and has a port, it may automatically project supply into adjacent territories. A space that is not a colony and does not posses a port is supplied by physically docking a fleet containing a merchant ship in the space's harbor. This action provides supply to the space for 2 turns. The supply can be renewed at any time by performing the same action again. Players may trace supply from an ally's space if it is a colony, contains a port AND the player docks a fleet containing a merchant ship. This will allow supply to be projected into adjacent territories for 2 turns. A player's troops are considered in supply if actually in an ally's space without docking a fleet. The exception to this would be if the ally was also at war and the space was not supplied by him.

Player Phase - Player Turns - Sea Movement -A player's turn begins with sea movement. Fleets may move an unlimited number of spaces but may only dock once a turn. Fleets ordered to a port/harbor may also be ordered to move to the adjacent coastal sea zone after docking. Example: Italy wants to drop troops off in Kenya and is at war with Spain. Italy orders Fleet 1 from Italy to take 1 guard and 1 regular to Kenya using evasive (EV) movement and to end the movement in the Kenya coastal sea zone. This allows the fleet a much better opportunity to avoid being intercepted by an enemy fleet than if it had remained in the port/harbor. The order should be written to look something like: Italy: Move Fleet 1 with 1 guard, 1 regular to Kenya - moving evasive (EV). Move 1 guard, 1 regular into Kenya, fleet to coastal zone. Orders are written in plain english. Express your wishes as best you can within the minor guidelines you'll be given for order writing and you should be fine.

There are three modes of movement: Patrol, Evasive and Blockade. The default movement mode is patrol. While at war and blockading with or moving a fleet, the mode of movement should always be supplied. If a player neglects to supply the movement mode for a fleet, it will default to patrol mode. Movement modes are only important if a nation is at war. Crippled ships may only move 1 sea zone per turn.

Land units may be transported by friendly merchant ships that begin a turn docked in the same space as the troops. A merchant ship may carry one land unit at a time. In order to unload troops, a fleet must dock at a port/harbor. Fleets may land troops into uncivilized (where they have a claim), allied and enemy spaces (as long as no naval fortification is present). Should there be a naval fortification or if the fleet is intercepted by an enemy fleet, sea combat occurs. Land units disembark during the sea movement phase but may NOT move again during the land movement phase.

Sea Combat - Sea combat against a naval fortification lasts for 2 rounds. Fleet combats will last as long as both players want to slug it out. In a fleet combat there will be 2 rounds of combat. The following turn, players will give orders for the fleet to stay or leave. If both players decide to leave there is no victor. If both players opt to stay, then 2 more rounds of combat are fought. If one player leaves and the other stays, the player opting to remain will "win" the battle and be awarded the appropriate colonial chips. The retiring player will be penalized the appropriate colonial chips. A fleet may only be involved in one battle per turn.

Players must give orders, which will stand until changed, that indicate their preference of naval target. The order can be as simple as: Naval Priority - Support. This means that if the ships in the player's fleet outnumbers his opponent, on the second round of combat the extra ships will target support class ships. For an example of naval combat click here. Naval Combat Example

Land Movement - Land units may move 1 land space at a time. Land units may only move into, enemy, uncivilized (if player has a claim), allied and personally owned spaces. Moving into a space which contains enemy or native combat units will result in land combat.

Land Combat - Land combat will have one of three results. A player will win, lose or become engaged. A losing player will have his remaining units retreated to: 1) an owned space 2) an allied space or 3) a non-enemy major power space (this will cause a grievance). The winning player's forces remains in the newly won space. If the result is an engagement, both armies remain in place. The following turn the player(s) may choose to continue the fight as is, reinforce or withdraw their forces. Withdrawing will result in "losing" the battle. When involved in a combat, all players involved will expend a battle chit for supply. If a player is involved in a combat and does not have a battle chit available, all his troops will fight as if out of supply.

Capturing an uncivilized space will turn it into a protectorate. Capturing a minor power space will cause the minor power to sue for conditional peace and the territory becomes a protectorate. Capturing a major power owned space causes the space to go into occupied status. The space does not count towards production rules, provide colonial points or money while occupied. For an example of land combat click here. Land Combat Example

Build/Construction Phase - All players do their production during this phase.

Land Unit Builds - All land units are produced in this phase. All national builds are placed in the player's home country. Colonial builds must be placed in an owned space on the African Continent. Players must indicate the location of placement when giving the order to build a colonial. Colonial units may never be transported to a player's home country. Players may build units as they wish within the following restrictions: 1) Britain may build 4 national land units per turn, 2) France may build 3 national land units per turn, 3) Germany, Spain, Italy & Portugal may build 2 national land units per turn, 4) No country may build more than 2 units of regulars per turn, 5) All countries may build 1 colonial unit for every 3 spaces they own on the map, 6) All countries have the same troop size limitations to abide by see expense chart. When players own certain numbers of African territories, they can get extra funds and be permitted to build an additional national land unit per turn. See bonus chart.

Ship Construction - All ships are constructed during this phase. New ships are always placed in a player's home country. A player is limited to building a number of ships equal to the number of ports he owns. There are several types of ships and all ships except, merchant ships, have time limitations as to when they may be constructed. See naval forces chart.

Naval Repairs - Naval repairs are completed in friendly ports. See Port Facilities

Naval Fortifications - New naval fortification and upgrade/repairs to existing fortifications are completed during this phase. See Fort Rules

Port Construction - New port facilities and port repairs are completed during this phase. See Port Facilities.

Protectorate to Colony Upgrades - Protectorates are eligible to be upgraded to colonies after the 2nd full turn of possession by the owner. On each player's turn in the Land Forces section, every space owned by the player will have something listed under the status column. When a protectorate is eligible for upgrade, it will be listed as "Eligible". Eligible protectorates may be upgraded during this phase.

End Turn Political Phase

Declarations of War - All declarations of war occur in this phase. See DOW Rules.

Claim Placement - Each player may make one claim on an uncivilized territory per turn. Those claims are placed on the map during this phase. See Claims.

Revolt Checks - Every territory on the map has a minimum garrison level. Should a player notice another player's space is under garrisoned, the player may spend money to try and cause a revolt to occur. For every pound up to a maximum of £25, the player gets a 1% chance of causing the territory to go into revolt. The could be a situation where multiple players attempt to cause a revolt in the same location. If this would happen, the attempts are not cumulative, each attempt is checked for separately. If a revolt attempt is successful, a number of native units equal to the combat value of the space will appear. The combat level is equal to the number of native units the territory began the game with. By the end of the second turn of revolt the owner of the space must accomplish one of following. 1) Eliminated the native units. 2) Have at least 1 land unit present in the space. If neither of these requirements are met, the territory reverts back to uncivilized or minor status and is available for anyone to claim and then capture. Money spent on revolt checks cause the check to be made at the start of the turn using the previous turn's garrison level.

Ottoman Intervention - Every time one of the following spaces changes ownership, a check for Ottoman intervention is performed. The territories in question are: Egypt, Libya and Sudan. When one of these spaces changes ownership, there is a 5% chance for each of these spaces the new owner controls, to cause Ottoman intervention. If the check for Ottoman intervention is successful, a random # from 1-20 will be selected. That will be the number of units the Ottoman Empire will use to try and reclaim those territories, regardless of owner. Once all Ottoman units have been eliminated or the Ottoman forces have been in sole possession of all three spaces for two full turns, the intervention is considered over. In the latter case, the spaces are considered minor countries for future major power actions. Subsequent interventions can still occur. Ottoman units are all D6 quality.

Money & Colonial Chip Acquisition - Players accumulate funds and colonial chips during this phase. The amount of funds collected is figured by adding the base country allowance and adding the economic value of all African possessions. The economic values for those territories are adjusted for being colonies and foe the presence of port facilities. Occupied spaces and those in revolt are not added to this total.

Colonial Chips represent a nations diplomatic clout. Each country begins the game with 15 chips. Additional colonial chips are earned during this phase at a rate of 1 per turn plus 1 for each colony. Example: France has 2 colonies, the French player would receive 3 chips that turn. Colonial chips are also gained and lost based on actions and events occurring in the game. See Colonial Chip Chart.

Winning The Game - The goal of the game is to win. There can actually be multiple winners in Colony Quest. The game consists of 26 turns. At the end of the 26th turn, each countries colonial point earnings (for African possessions) will be checked. If that number is equal to or greater than the level needed for victory for their nation, they are A winner. Winners will add their colonial chip total to their colonial point earning level. The player's total that is furthest ahead of his needed victory level is considered to be the top victor. The game can also end early if one player is able to reach his game ending victory level. See Victory Chart. Should a player cause the game to end early, he is considered the top victor regardless of the totals after colonial chips are added.

Last updated 9-10-02