
			SAURON 

		  (board game by SPI)


Variant Rules

NOTES

In THE SPACE GAMER, issue 17, David Ritchie described the game as 
"adequate, but nothing more".  This is an attempt to provide something
more, as well as to answer some puzzling questions about this game.

Making combat more detailed and giving character ratings similar to
WAR OF THE RING and fantasy role-playing games seemed to be one way
of increasing the "fantasy flavor" of the game.  Now wounds are more
realistic, and what's more, the ability to rally is separate from
the ability to combat.  Also, character combat should be enlivened
by the more varied CRT.  No longer is Sauron hopeless in attacking
Elendil or Gil-Galad at -2, nor is the Ringwraith certain to harm
Baldrim with impunity at +1.  

A leader losing all his associated combat units occurs quite often
with poor Baldrim (who doesn't appear in any of the novels).  It
leads to an "ahistorical" strategy of having him run as far from
Mordor as possible.  These rules simulate what such a force-less
leader would likely do -- jump right in and fight with his allies.

The Rally Table is extended as Elendil and Gil-Galad can each reach
a rally rating of 12 using magic weapons while Isildur can reach
10.  Sauron, at 13 at night, is given an Automatic rally ability.

All those mysterious rough hexes are finally explained.  This rule
may allow an army to head to the hills and hide or recoup, perhaps
introducing novel strategies.

New rules are added to reflect the loss of Westernesse leaders.
Cirdan was Lord of the Grey Havens and probably possessed Narya, one
of the Three Rings, at this time.  Anarion was King of Gondor and
defender of Osgiliath.  The deaths of these leaders would tend
to demoralize their forces.

Rules are added giving Sauron the ability to close the Mordor gates.

Since Sauron often has too few magic points to give the Beast everything
(cost: 48 MP), the Beast is often left far from Mordor, flightless,
and unable to attack, in short, easy prey for Gil-Galad or Elendil.
New rules are meant to install more realism and give the Beast a chance.
He is after all worth 15 DP's.

New rules try to add realism to the situation of archers being charged
by fanatical orcs.  In such a situation, it seems likely that the archers
would fire at the orcs unless the orcs are being diverted by a friendly
unit.

I wrote these rules a very long time ago, so let me know what you think.
Maybe you can suggest further improvements.

Rick Heli
heli@best.com
Fri Feb 26 13:52:13 PST 1999


RULES

4.3 (addition)

	Terrain Type	MP cost to enter or cross	Effect on Combat

	Rough		+2				+2 to defender's 
							Armored Protection
							Rating

7.175 (change)  Combat units with missile capability that are adjacent to
      enemy units in the Friendly Combat Phase must attack one of the
      adjacent enemy units with missile fire, UNLESS all enemy units 
      adjacent to the unit in question will be attacked in the Melee
      Combat Segment.  One of these latter attacks may be made by the
      melee capability of the same unit if it possesses both missile
      and melee strength, for example, an "Ee--" unit.

7.22 (change)  Delete the entire paragraph and substitute:
     Each leader possesses the following ratings:  Combat, Morale,
     Endurance, and Ring Rating.

     Ratings		SAURON	RINGWRAITH	GORGOL	GIL-GALAD
     -------		------	----------	------	---------
     Combat		5	4		2	3
     Morale		5	3		2	6
     Endurance		6	5		3	5
     Ring Rating	0	0		0	4

     Ratings		ELENDIL	ISILDUR	ANARION	CIRDAN	BALDRIM
     -------		-------	-------	-------	------	-------
     Combat		4	3	2	3	3
     Morale		5	4	3	3	3
     Endurance		5	4	4	4	5
     Ring Rating	4	2	2	3	4

7.221 (addition)  To engage in Leader Combat, each leader totals his Combat
      and Morale ratings minus any wounds to his endurance.  The defending
      leader subtracts his total from that of the attacker (phasing leader)
      to obtain a Combat Differential.  The phasing player rolls one die
      and cross-references the roll with the Combat Differential on the
      Leader Combat Results Table.

7.222 (addition)  The result of Leader Combat is applied immediately in the
      form of lost Endurance points.  If the number of lost points
      ever equals the leader's Endurance, he is considered dead
      and removed from the board.

7.241 (addition)  In the case of Mortal Combat (22.0), leaders may attack
      any number of times in a given phase.

7.26 (change)  Delete existing table and replace with

Die Roll -4    -3    -2    -1     0     1     2     3     4     5
	 ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   --- 
   1     k/-   k/-   k/-   -/-   -/-   -/-   -/-   -/k   -/k   -/k
   2     k/-   k/-   1w/-  1w/-  1w/-  -/1w  1w/k  -/k   -/k   -/k
   3     k/-   2w/-  1w/-  -/1w  -/2w  1w/-  -/k   -/k   -/k   -/k
   4     3w/-  3w/-  k/1w  1w/1w 1w/1w 2w/-  -/k   -/k   -/k   -/k
   5     2w/-  2w/-  2w/1w 1w/2w 1w/2w 1w/2w 1w/1w  -/k   -/k   -/k
   6     1w/-  -/1w  2w/-  2w/-  2w/-  1w/-  1w/2w  -/k   -/k   -/k

8.1 (change)  Delete all up to "Magic Leaders..."

8.11 (addition)  Leaders may only stack with units of their own
     nationality (exception: 8.25).  Leaders may not stack or pass
     over enemy combat units at any time.  There is no effect, good
     or bad, if a leader is alone in a hex.

8.25 (addition)  Should all the combat units of a leader's nationality 
     be destroyed, the leader may stack with any allied combat
     unit.  (Exception: Elves may not stack with dwarves.)  However,
     such a leader may not form special formations or rally.

8.331 (change)  The rally rating is determined by adding a leader's 
      Combat and Morale Ratings.  If the leader has wounds to his
      endurance and these wounds exceed the leader's Combat rating,
      subtract the difference from the Rally Rating.

8.3311 Example:  Normally, Baldrim has a Rally Rating of 6 (3+3).  However, 
       he has 5 wounds to his Endurance.  These wounds exceed his
       Combat Rating with the difference being 2.  Thus, his Rally
       Rating becomes 4 (6-2).

8.37 (addition)  Continuation of the Leader Rally Table:

	Leader Rating		Dice Roll Needed to Rally
	-------------		-------------------------
		9			3-11
	       10			3-12
	       11			3-12
	       12			3-12
	       13			Automatic

14.3 (addition)  There are six other Westernesse units included in the
     countermix.  They may be used to alter the strength of the Westernesse
     side and can be brought on, in any amount the players agree to, on or
     after game-turn 3.  Their rules for entrance are identical to those
     found in 14.2.  The units are

	1 Men (B-3-W)
	5 Elves Archers (e-2-X)

16.6-16.64 (change)  Delete and replace with below:

16.6 (change)  THE RING OF POWER
     The One Ring, which Sauron wore during the battle had been forged by
     him and was the holding receptacle of much of his power.  With it,
     he hoped to control the elves, dwarves, and men who held the three,
     seven, and nine rings.  Although this play met with mixed results,
     the One Ring was still very formidable in its own right.

16.61 (change)  If Sauron loses the ring, (see 22.0), add 20 points to 
      his side's current Demoralization Level and subtract 4 from his
      current Morale for all purposes.  Finally, immediately subtract
      10 points from the number of Magic Capability Points still 
      availalbe to Sauron.

16.62 (change)  If Sauron recovers the ring (see 22.0), all the effects
      of 16.61 are reversed.

16.63 (change)  The ability of each character to take off the ring is
      measured by his Ring Rating.

16.631 (addition)  Sauron's Ring Rating is 0.  He may not take off the
       ring, but there is no reason for him to do so.  If the Ringwraith
       or Gorgol recover it, he returns it to Sauron as quickly as
       possible by moving both counters into the same hex.  Or, if Sauron
       is dead, the highest ranking Sauron leader wears wit with an increase
       of 2 in Morale.

16.632 (addition)  The only reason for Westernesse leaders to have Ring
       Ratings is to check whether the ring may be thrown into Mt. Orodruin.

16.633 (addition)  To remove the ring, the player controlling the leader in
       question rolls 1 die during the Joint Rally Phase.  If the number on
       the die is less than or equal to the leader's Ring Rating, the ring
       is removed.  If the character wishes to destroy the ring, he need 
       only be in the center Orodruin hex and not be wearing the ring.  
       Destruction occurs only in the Joint Rally Phase.

16.69 (addition)  If a Westernesse leader fails to remove the ring
      in 3 attempts, 2 is added to his Morale and he becomes evil.
      This character may do one of two things.  (1) If his Basic
      Morale is lower than 4 (wounds to endurance subtract from
      Combat before affecting Morale), he becomes a Servant to
      Sauron and is under control of the Sauron Player.  Otherwise,
      he is played by a third player and each turn that passes
      after the first battle, all of one type of Sauron unit comes
      under his control in the following order: Ringwraith, Wargs,
      Goblins, Trolls, Slaves, Orcs, Gorgol.

17.11 (addition)  The Beast, when not in possession of Horn Attack or Death
      Breath has an Attack Rating of C for melee combat and a Combat Rating
      of 9 for leader/individual combat.

18.1 (addition)  If Sauron is inside Mordor, he may choose to close the 
     Gates of Morannon.  Only if the gates are open, may movement
     and melee combat may take place through them.  Missile combat
     may occur only on the part of the units inside Mordor.  The
     gates must remain in the same position throughout the game-turn.

19.211 (addition)  When Narsil is destroyed by missile or melee combat 
       or by Death Breath, the shards remain to be used by any
       Numenorean leader (Elendil, Isildur or Anarion).

19.212 (addition)  There are no longer any benefits from carrying the 
       shards of Narsil, except that 1 is added to the Combat Rating
       of a Numenorean leader bearing the shards during leader/individual
       combat ONLY.

20.2 (change)  Amend he last sentence beginning "If Elendil, Isildur ...":
     If any Westernesse leader is killed, his original number of
     Rally Points are added to the current Demoralization total.

20.21 (change)  Supersedes the second sentence of 20.2 in the case of Narsil only:
      If Narsil is reduced to shards, add 10 points to the Westernesse 
      Demoralization Level.  If the shards are destroyed as per 19.21,
      add 10 more points to this total.

22.0 (addition)  Mortal Combat
     During any Combat Phase in which a phasing leader is within 4 hexes
     of an opposing leader, the phasing leader may challenge his opponent
     to Mortal Combat.

22.1 (addition)  If the opposing leader accepts, he moves to his front
     lines or as near to the challenging leader as possible during
     his next movement phase.  If the leader is able to occupy the
     same hex as the challenging leader, Mortal Combat ensues during
     the Leader Combat Segment of that turn.  If the leader is
     unable to occupy the same hex as the challenging leader, then
     during his movement phase, the challenging leader moves into
     the same hex and Mortal Combat occurs.  In any case, both
     leaders attempt to move into the other's hex until one is
     successful.

22.2 (addition)  Combat is handled just as specified in 7.2 except that
     both leaders attack simultaneously, applying wounds to endurance
     only at the end of each round of combat.  Also, combat
     continues until one (or both) are dead.  Leaders are not allowed
     to stop combat until at least one has been removed from the board.

22.3 (addition)  Leaders need not accept challenges, but thepenalty
     for avoiding a challenge is to have his side's current 
     Demoralization Level increased by his current number of Rally Points.
     Also, he may not rally in THAT turn.

22.4 (addition)  Challenges may only be issued to Leaders whose summed
     Combat and Morale Ratings differ by 3 or less from
     the  challenging leader.  For example, as they begin the game,
     Isildur could conceivably challenge Gorgol, but Elendil could not.


EXPANDED GAME

If a decisive victory is not gained by either player, then an
Expansion Game can be played.  This game postulates that neither
Sauron nor the Western Alliance would ever be satisfied with less
than total victory.

To simulate the rematch, the map is rotated 90 degrees so that the
arrow, pointing west, now points north.  The mountains extend from
the hex numbers 0801, 0901, and 1001 to hex numbers 0823, 0924,
and 1023.  They also cover the hexes from 1023 to 2923, 1022 to
2922, and 1021 to 2921.  The Gate of Morannon now exists on the
hex path between hexes 0722 and 1120.  The six hexes in the mountains
on each side of the path are fortifications.  In them, the Sauron
player may place his 3 catapults and as many men as stacking
restrictions allow.  Units may never move directly from the path
to the wall, but may use the stairways in hexes 0920-1019 and
1122-0923.

The Black Tower of Barad-dur is located in hex 1608 and the 6 hexes
surrounding it.  Mt. Orodruin lies in hex 2218 and the 6 hexes
surrounding it.  A road connects the two, going from 1609 to 1611
to 2214 to 2217.  The road continues...  [To Be Added]

All Combat leaders are restored except for dead leaders and special
items.  The latter retain status from the previous part of the
game.  Leaders, if only wounded, regain full status and magic
capability points.  Any killed Sauron leaders are replaced by
leaders exactly the same as Gorgol.  Should Baldrim be killed, he
is replaced with a dwarven leader with 1 less morale point.  If
any of the Numenoreans are killed, they are replaced by their sons.

[More to be added]
