Settlements
Settlements in TKoM are, quite simply, any building or group of buildings inhabited by a tribe of Medokh, or any race's equivalent of such. The design of Settlements will vary from race to race, or even from tribe to tribe, but when captured are assumed to be made suitable inhabitable for one's own people by the first wave of colonists to emigrate there.
There are basically six types of Settlements in TKoM, as follows:
Towns
These are the main population centres for every race, and each tribe in the game will initially have two. During the course of the game, a prosperous tribe may well build (or capture!) several dozen. Newly established towns will have a fortification level of 2.0 (a simple ditch, mound & palisade affair, or the race equivalent of such), but this may be built up, during the course of the game, to a maximum level of 12. The fortification level of a Town will in part determine how swiftly its population grows, but mainly how many Guard and Garrison regiments may be stationed there at any one time: this is 6+(2 x Fort level), eg. 10 in a level 2.0 town, 16 in a level 5.0, etc., up to a maximum of 30 Guard PLUS 30 Garrison regiments in a Level 12 town. The value of any fortification is great: every regiment defending the walls during a siege is worth, in combat strength, approximately its own strength MULTIPLIED by the value of the fortification level, eg. a regiment behind Level 12 fortifications is equivalent to 13 regiments of equal strength ATTACKING the fortification (its basic strength plus the fortification bonus).
In addition to a fortification level, Towns are also rated for Population 0-100% (indicating how full to capacity the town is), the Population's Morale, Guard regiments present, Garrison regiments present, Tax Level, and the populace's skills (Lore) in producing each of the seven Common Commodities: Iron, Stone, Corn, Leather, Cloth, Wood and Meat. In addition, there will be listed the various ratings for the Town's Garrison Regiments, as explained earlier in the rules under the chapters on Military Forces and Troop Factors.
Towns, as with all settlement types, are built initially by Field Armies, and thereafter will be colonised by your people and expanded upon. It is always a good idea, upon first establishing a new town, to transfer in a couple of regiments from the Army as its Garrison, since colonisation of an undefended town will be at a snail's pace. The requirements for building a new town are shown on your Race Reference Card, since this varies from race to race. The first requirement is a minimum number of regiments in the Army performing the Construct Town Order, and the second is the minimum amount of the various commodities that your tribe needs to have spare in order to build the town and put in initial stores for the colonists. A town cannot be constructed if these requirements are not met in full.
The various aspects and ratings of a Town are dealt with in detail below:
Town Site
There is a limit to the number of towns which may be built within a specific type of terrain in each region. In order to find out how many more, if any, towns may be built within a particular region, an army must perform a Survey Region Order: see the section on Miscellaneous Orders for further details. An average Region will support at most five or six Towns or Cities.
No Town may be built within 30 leagues (3 hexes) of another Town or City, or within 10 leagues (ie. an adjoining hex) of any Fortification or Shrine: this is due to future requirements for crops & hunting lands, and no population would colonise such a settlement if the expansion potential was not there. (The program therefore prevents you from making such silly mistakes by simply not allowing the Order to Construct Town unless it would have three clear hexes between itself and any other Towns or Cities, and one clear hex between itself and a settlement of any other type.) A Town's population, as it expands, will cultivate or hunt further from the town's actual location with the passing of time. Since their production is based largely upon terrain, it is necessary to plan in advance what commodities you wish a town to produce most of in future, so site your new towns according to SURROUNDING TERRAIN as well as local terrain: less than 35% of a FULL town's production will come from LOCAL terrain in the long run, since 100 leagues square (a full hex), is nowhere near sufficient for a large town or city.
Town Population
As you will notice as the game progresses, even allowing for a spectacular birthrate among your people, there is no way this could account for the speed at which new towns may fill up in a well-run kingdom. In fact, only a small percentage of your "colonists" will actually be of your own initial town or people, and the vast majority will be from other, lesser clans who recognise potential when they see it and simply join your tribe. Later in the game, many may be from another player's badly-run kingdom! TKoM is not so much intended to simulate a growing tribe, as the coming together of a potential future EMPIRE of tribes under single leadership.
This accounts for the reason why, as a town is "filling up", the availability of Guard regiments seems quite high, but then when a town is full (and your people are then actually colonising your new towns from existing ones), the only regiments then becoming available are formed solely of youths of the settlement choosing to join the army; not the menfolk of an entire family who have recently joined the settlement from another tribe, as in the case of a new or expanding town still being colonised.
In game terms, this Non-player population is basically wandering the land searching for the best tribe of their race to join. This influx will continue well into the game, up until the point where an entire race has joined one or another player-controlled kingdom. Growth thereafter will be simply the birth-rate minus the death-rate (at which Kobolds have the distinctive disadvantage here, unless other races do something to raise the Kobold death rate higher than their birth rate!), plus population shifting between the kingdoms of their own race according to various, logical factors.
Colonists are choosy about where they live: terrain preferences, fortifications, Guards & Garrison present, local Production Lore (see below), current Town morale, scarcity of local enemies, and the Warlord's Tax Level (see below), are all taken into consideration in varying degrees - but don't neglect a single one of these factors if you want the town to grow as rapidly as possible.
Town Morale
Town Morale is similar to Army or Garrison morale in practice, and will be reported on your Turn Results in similar, descriptive fashion. Low morale, for whatever reason, will drive the population away - and perhaps to another kingdom entirely. Morale is largely affected by the presence or absence of enemy forces in the area, by how the town's Lore, fortification level and number of defending regiments stands compared to the average in the tribe (higher or lower, and to what extent), and by its tax level.
If a Town comes under siege the population's morale will drop each turn (in most cases) with increasing losses for a prolonged siege as stoed supplies begin to run out. If the siege is not lifted by a relieving force, the population will eventually surrender to the besieging army even if the latter have obviously little chance of ever breaching the walls or destroying the defending troops; simply because a diet of roast, boiled, grilled or fried rats is likely to become pretty tiresome after a while, even for a Kobold.
Town Lore
As with Practical Military Lore and the Lore of Military Theory mentioned in previous sections, each tribe also has a rating for their skills (Lore) in producing each of the seven Common Commodities. Also as with the two Military Lores, these may be researched by tribal scholars with funding from the Warlord's treasury, but in this case it is obviously the population centres - the Towns and Cities - which may be upgraded to the current level of researched Lore in any of the seven fields, and there is a Miscellaneous Order available to do this also: see the relevant section later in this booklet. Lore affects the production of commodities greatly, as does a Town's population level and morale.
Town Tax Level
Each Town and City pays taxed to the Warlord's treasury, in cash and kind, as a percentage of their total SURPLUS output, ie. surplus to their basic necessities for bare survival. There is a Miscellaneous Order available to the Warlord for setting the Tax level for any particular Town (with a newly constructed or captured Town having a Tax Level of 0), which may range from nil to 10. Multiply this figure by 10 to find the actual percentage of a Town's surplus production you'd be receiving at any given tax level.
Naturally, few things affect a population's morale more than how much of the sweat of their labour has to be paid in taxes. A Tax Level of 5, while not necessarily very welcome, is considered fair in most circumstances, but above or below this will affect morale accordingly.
Cities
Cities are in every respect identical to Towns, only larger. They cannot be constructed from scratch, only by converting a large Town. The requirements for such a conversion are shown in the Rule Compendium due out soon: it would be impossible for your tribe to consider creating Cities for quite a few turns.
Military Fortifications
Fortifications are military establishments built with security in mind. Not being population centres, they may be constructed in any terrain easily, and may be positioned as close as 20 leagues (2 hexes) from a Town or other settlement type (ie. there must always be at least one clear hex between a fort and any other settlement type).
Once constructed (see Race Card for minimum requirements in regiments & commodities) the fortification level may subsequently be built up to a maximum of level 8. Forts may hold Garrison regiments equal to 4 + (2 x fortification level), ie. a maximum of 20 regiments in the largest size.
Being designed for a purely military purpose, the garrison of a Fortification receive a larger bonus from the Fort's defences than they would from the defences of any other type of settlement. Each regiment defending a military Fortification has a strength equal to its own plus its own multiplied by double the Fortification level: each regiment is essentially worth 17 regiments in a level 8.0 Fortification (the maximum size). The maximum garrison of 20 regiments in a level 8.0 fort are therefore capable of holding out for quite a period of time against as many as 340 besieging regiments.
Placed in a line along a hostile border, with 10 leagues spacing between them (1 clear hex), forts effectively halt an initial enemy thrust in its tracks as commanders are reluctant to bypass fortified positions and leave them to fall upon his supply lines, so to pass through he will have to lay siege first. (See the "between" rule for Army Movement, for the practical effects of an evenly-spaced line of fortifications) Forts act as bases for long-ranging scouts also: whereas Guard and Garrison units of Towns and Cities must concern themselves only with the immediate and surrounding area, forts may detect enemy armies further afield, often giving advance notice of impending attack before it even materialises.
As forts often guard wild and uninhabitable borders, where safe refuges for honest travellers and traders are few and far between, Garrison commanders often play host to a variety of such folk. Occasionally rumours and information possibly worth the Warlord's personal attention are picked up from such folk in gratitude for the night's security and comfort, and the commander will duly forward such news with the next dispatch rider/runner.
Shrines
Shrines may be constructed within 20 leagues of any other settlement (one clear hex between them), with the exception of other Shrines and Wizard's Towers, which the priesthood insist they must be more than 30 leagues from (3 clear hexes between them).
Shrines may range from small missions to large, fortified temples teeming with the ranks of the BLOOD GUARD, the warrior-priests of Medokh's World. They are constructed by armies as per the Race Card requirements, and may subsequently be fortified further and garrison: maximum fort level of 8.0, with Garrison capacity of 4 + (2 x Fort level), a maximum of 20. Fortification bonus in the event of siege is identical to that for towns - a defending regiment's strength being equal to its own strength plus its own multiplied by the Fortification level.
Note that the BLOOD GUARD will tend to literally take over a Shrine if it is not garrisoned to the full extent of its fortification level, eventually leaving no room for Garrison troops: give them an inch and they'll take a foot!
Shrines are built for religious purposes only, and serve to focus the Gods' attention upon your people. They can be a source of great inspiration, but if your army encounters an enemy's Shrine which is dedicated to a God for whom your people have shown little respect when dedicating their own shrines (ie. you have very few or no shrines dedicated to this God), then this will serve to instil fear in your warriors instead, to varying degrees.
Gem Mines
Gem Mines are converted Fortifications built over or near to a source of precious Gemstones. They may be built only by a Surveyor, Guild Surveyor, or Master Surveyor Individual, and then only when a Surveyor in your employ has previously discovered an untapped source of Gemstones (a Supplementary Rules Sheet will be received containing full details & Order description).
Gem Mines are not ordinary fortifications in that they are not intended for a military purpose. While this means they are not included in the Army Movement restrictions of the "Between" rule, and do not produce Scout reports on the local area as do ordinary Fortifications, defending Garrison regiments of a Gem Mine do however benefit from the superior defences of the basic Fortification.
Wizard's Towers
Wizard's Towers are Fortifications converted under the supervision of a Loremaster, Magician or Sorcerer (a Supplementary Rules Sheet will be received containing full details & Order description, upon hiring your first Individual of one of these types).
As with Gem Mines, Wizard's Towers are not ordinary fortifications in tha they are not intended for a military purpose. While this means they are not included in the Army Movement restrictions of the 'Between' rule, and do not produce Scout reports on the local area as do ordinary Fortifications, defending Garrison regiments of a Wizard's Tower do however benefit from the superior defences of the basic Fortification.