Cant see the wood for the decision trees

During my planning for the current AWI campaign I realised that I needed some way to not only engage the opposing generals militarily but also to force them to make some of the political and moral decisions that their real life counterparts had to occasionally confront.

Can’t see the Indians for the trees either. Cherokee on the warpath.

A random event for each player every turn might seem like overkill but it’s certainly built an interesting narrative for only a little pre game planning.

There are ten random event subjects and each turn a 1D10 roll determines which subject my generals will have to deal with. The chosen subject generally presents each general with a decision, the ramifications of which may continue off in several directions over time.

Since both players are now aware of this one, here’s an example:

A snapshot of number 8 on my pre scripted décision tree.

On turn 2 I rolled an 8 for Chris (British General) which produced an encounter with some elders from the Cherokee nation. The Cherokee were historically allied to the British but if this result had come up for Graham I’d have chosen a different tribal grouping. Note the red boxes on the tree denote the end of the subject for this faction. If Indians are rolled again for Chris it’ll be treated as a « no event ».

The Indians offered to assist the British in one of three ways but claimed they needed to be armed by the British first.

Unwilling to pass up the chance General Parrott agreed to arm them and asked them to interdict enemy supplies. What he didn’t realise was that unlike appearing as auxiliaries in battle or increasing his strategic map scouting range the supply interdiction option would develop randomly next turn depending on a 1D6 roll by yours truly.

Next turn I rolled a 4. Obviously I didn’t tell Chris. Rather than attacking the American military supplies which I’m sure Chris had hoped for, the Cherokee started raiding the American farmers in the small settlement of Arrowhead. Not only did this shift them from their majority loyalist outlook, the raids destroyed supplies that Chris had issued promissory notes for. Mmm.

Since I asked both generals to think as their real life counterparts might’ve done I’ve been surprised on several occasions by the answers they’ve come up with to deal with ongoing problems. Issuing Promissory notes to make up a shortfall in supplies being one of them. It was so unexpected and ingenious that I had to allow it even though it was outside of the game rules. It just goes to show that even with extensive pre game planning you can’t cover everything - though it certainly makes for a more interesting narrative when the players engage with you like this.

Toodleooh.