Completely (in)Accurate Invasion Simulator (CiAIS)

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The Handbook

v0.2.1

(2023-05-27)

Index

The Handbook

• Before you start

  • Necessary
  • Optional

• The Map

• The Players

• The Start

• The Game

• The Setup

  • Warfare

    • Land
    • Sea
    • Air

Before you start

You will need the following:

Necessary

• A large map in your favourite projection (ideally an equirectangular projection)
• A table large enough to hold said map
• A computer or tablet to run Google Earth (for distance measurements)
• Go stones or similar (to represent units)
• A highlighter for each player, different colour each
• A sheet of paper for each player to keep track of currency
• A pen for each player
• A phone or computer to have the rules and unit values
• Small black squares to represent starting bases, one for each player
• Small white squares to represent outposts, at least 2 per player
• 3-8 friends
• snacks and water (the game can take a really long time)

Optional

• a drum set (for playing ba-dum-tssh every time someone makes a bad joke)
• a recorder
• some music

an example of a CiAIS setup (the first game of it ever played, actually!)

The Map

The map consists of satellite imagery of Earth. All natural terrain is preserved (as of 2022), man made structures are not preserved (this includes canals e.t.c.).

The map is split into three theatres, the Western theatre, the Central theatre and the Eastern theatre. The Western theatre is any land west of the -30th meridian. Between 30°W and 60°E is the Central theatre, and east of the 60th meridian is the Eastern. There are 8 playable continents, North America, Central America, South America, Western Europe, Africa, East Asia, West Asia and Oceania. The starting positions are as follows:

• North America - Chicago
• Central America - Mexico City
• South America - São Paulo
• Western Europe - Munich
• Africa - Lagos
• East Asia - Shanghai
• West Asia - Moscow
• Oceania - Sydney

A player may launch attacks on enemy territories as long as all forces involved are in the same theatre. Missiles or other long range weapons may not be used for attacks across theatres, however bases can be setup and shipments sent across theatres.

Annotated CiAIS map, in equirectangular projection. Theatre boundaries are highlighted in orange and cities are highlighted in different colours for each theatre. Note the grid system, this will be helpful later! Map from https://kartenprojektionen.de

The Players

CiAIS can be played with 2-9 players, however at least 3 are needed for an enjoyable game and anything above 6 gets a bit too crowded, so it's really more like 3-6 players. Each player is given a continent (starting position is the largest city* in said continent, as described above), which they can take control of. Invasions can only be launched from the same theatre, but cross-theatre naval attacks are allowed. Each player is given a set amount of money, units and territories at the start of the game, however it is offset to make it more balanced; players in locations of higher strategic importance start with slightly less money, and those in locations of low strategic importance start with slightly more. Starting continents and budgets are decided from left to right, top to bottom.

* - not always the largest, sometimes it's changed for balance's sake

The Start

At the beginning of the game, players are given a chance to build up defences. Every player receives a turn, in which they can perform one action. The turn order is decided from west to east. The specific units and defences are different per game, but each unit has a winning chance multiplier against air, sea, and land units. This gives a weighted chance for an interaction between two units to be won (how this works is explained in the unit handbook.)

The Game

The objective of the game is to capture the capital city of all the enemy players. After purchasing a unit, it will start off at your home base. From here, you can move the unit either along the x-axis (east/west) or along the y-axis (north/south) but not diagonals (think about how a rook moves in chess). The minimum distance you can move a unit is 1 deg, and the maximum depends on the unit (see unit handbook for details). Scouting units can be used to set up bases in other places and theatres, allowing you to recruit new units from there. There is a price per degree of movement for land, and per 10 degrees for sea. When you cross theatre, you must move a unit to the boundary, and then make another move to take it across.

Every complete rotation, 100 is added to every player's bank.

Taking over another player gives you their bank.

You can form alliances and share money!

The Setup

Warfare

Fighting can be done in three main ways, land, sea and air. Different terrain will affect the multiplier of the unit.

Land

Land warfare is pretty straightforward, details are outlined in the unit handbook.

Sea

Again, straightforward. Price multiplier is per 10 deg, and a naval invasion may be launched from any theatre (but aircraft launched from carriers cannot cross theatres).

Air

Undecided how this will work as of now, will probably be finished later

Unfinished as of now, more will come later!

TODO - Exact values for multipliers, different terrain types, different unit perks

This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0