VII. Proelia (Battles)

Proelia take place during an aestas in any region but Rome; they may also take place during a hiems if a player has the Ring of Gyges (VII.H).

Numina. Proelia must be conducted in the presence of a numen
1. If two or more numina are present and a dispute arises about which of them will oversee the proelium, the Fates will decide who serves as the presiding numen.
Participants/Parties in a Proelium.
1. Only a war deity (Mars/Phobos/Deimos/Tyr/Wotan/Ishtar/Montu/Ares/Bellona) or a player who is an imperator/rex/amazones (i.e. a player in possession of legiones), a bacchant under the direction of Dionysus/Ariadne/Silenus, or a mortal player in possession of the Ring of Gyges may engage as a warring party (participant) in a proelium
  1. Virgines, matronae, senatores, and most numina may not participate in proelia as warring parties;
2. Proelia may involve only two parties who are residing in the same region
  1. A warring party consists of a player or a group of amici operating in collaboration (XI.A);
  2. A multi-player party must have declared their amicitia to Juno and received her approval before the flagitatio in order to operate as a group (XI.A.2); otherwise, they cannot operate collectively;
  3. If amici operate as a party, they fight as a single individual and cannot issue or accept flagitationes separately (VII.C);
  4. A group of amici may not field more than ten legiones in a proelium, no matter how many they collectively possess.
Issuing Flagitationes (Challenges to Battle)
1. To begin a proelium, one party issues a flagitatio to another;
2. The flagitatio must be made in the presence of a numen;
3. A party may issue only one flagitatio per aestas;
4. Seniority in the provincia/regnum determines the order in which flagitationes are issues, as follows:
  1. The party with the player who entered the provincia/regnum first has the right to issue the first flagitatio of that aestas;
  2. The party with the player who entered the provincia/regnum second has the right to issue the next flagitatio, and so forth;
  3. If two or more parties have entered a provincia/regnum simultaneously, they will roll one die each and the one with the higher number will have priority in issuing a flagitatio; if the roll is a tie, they will roll again until one die is higher than the other;
5. A party is obliged to accept the first flagitatio issued in an aestas in that region but may refuse subsequent flagitationes issued there that season
  1. Players who move to a different region during an aestas are obliged to accept the first flagitatio they receive after arriving in the new region;
Engaging in a Proelium
1. The action of each legio is represented by the roll of a single die;
2. The number of legiones each party fields is determined in the following way:
  1. The number must be equal;
  2. The total owned by the party with fewer legiones is the number each party fields; so, for instance, if one party has 6 legiones and the other 4, each will field 4 in the proelium;
  3. Players may choose which legiones (curiales or clientarum) to field;
3. To engage in combat, the parties roll their dice one at a time against each other in concursationes (skirmishes), with the result of each roll determined as follows:
  1. If the difference between the roll in the concursatio is 2 or greater, the winner appropriates the loser's legio (die);
  2. If the difference is 1, the loser surrenders his legio to the numen overseeing the proelium and the winner keeps his own legio;
  3. If the concursatio is a tie, each party surrenders his legio to the numen;
4. Reges may not retain a legio curialis which they have captured in battle, unless they convert it to a legio clientarum by paying a foreign numen with legiones clientarum a conversion fee of 200,000 D.
  1. A conversion fee must be paid immediately upon capture of the legio curialis; if not, it becomes the property of the numen overseeing the battle;
  2. If no such foreign numen is available, the numen overseeing the proelium keeps the legio curialis;
5. The proelium continues until all legiones have been fielded once (i.e. all dice have been rolled once);
6. Players may note flee a battle; proelia in progress can be terminated in only one of the following ways, without further consequence to either side:
  1. If Apollo/Diana announces the end of an aestas;
  2. If the numen overseeing the proelium leaves (numina may be beseeched or bribed in this respect); however, another numen may superseded the one who departed in which case the proelium continues;
  3. If one of the participants in the proelium successfully beseeches Mercury to rescue him and Mercury does so;
  4. If Cybele appears and stops the battle;
7. After all the concursationes have been completed, the proelium is over, with one of the following consequences:
  1. Both players have some legiones (dice) remaining and may proceed with the Game;
  2. One of the players (the loser) has no legiones and is "unprotected," in which case the winner may kill him (XIV.A.4) or abandon him to his fate;
  3. Both players have no legiones, in which case they both are "unprotected" and left to their fates.
Mars/Phobos/Deimos/Bellona/Ares. War gods may engage in and encourage proelia, as follows:
1. To any player who may engage in proelia, including bacchants (X), whom a war god encounters during an aestas, the god may offer the following choice:
  1. To issues a flagitatio to another player of the war god's choosing in the same provincia/regnum and engage in a proelium;
  2. Or to engage in a proelium with the god himself.
2. Each war god possesses a legio ultrix immortalis (a special die), a legion which cannot die in battle and which he may re-use in any number of concursationes; proelia with a war god proceed in the following way:
  1. The number of legiones possessed by the war god's opponent determines the number of concursationes;
  2. If the opponent rolls a number equal to or higher than the number the god rolls, the opponent keeps his own legio;
  3. If the opponent rolls a number lower than the god, he loses that legio to the war god;
3. If Mars/Phobos/Deimos defeats his opponent in every concursatio of a proelium, that player is summarily pronounced dead;
4. Phobos may attack only legiones clientarum; Deimos may attack only legiones curiales. Ares may attack players only in the eastern Roman world (Greece, Asia, Parthia, Syria, Egypt); Bellona may attack players only in the western Roman world (Mauretania, Spain, Gaul, Germania, S. Italy, N. Italy, Sicily);
5. If the war god encourages or engages in a proelium, he must remain until its conclusion.
Juno. Once each aestas, Juno may also force any two players (including those numina who are allowed to fight) to engage in a proelium.
Cybele. No fighting, including proelia in progress, may occur in Cybele's presence.
The Ring of Gyges. The Ring of Gyges bestows invisibility on the mortal (living or dead) wearing it, allowing that player to move at will during a hiems and attack any three of an opponent’s legiones without warning, as follows:
1. The mortal wearing the Ring of Gyges must supply his/her own die
2. Using the Ring of Gyges in combat follows the same rules as for war gods (VII.E) and all general rules for proelia ─ no proelia in Rome, no fighting with a virgo/matrona, the player keeps any legiones he wins, etc.;
3. Once Pluto/Persephone takes back the Ring of Gyges, the player who was wearing it must find the closest available seating and is susceptible to all rules concerning movement (VI).
Tyr/Wotan/Montu/Ishtar. These foreign numina may engage in proelia with mortal players but at the risk of their own legiones. They follow the same rules of combat as imperatores.
Vulcan. Vulcan may bestow on a favored mortal his legio fabrilis (“forged legion”; a ten-sided die) to employ in combat during an aestas. The mortal may continue using the legio fabrilis in place of his/her own legiones until it is defeated in a concursatio, at which point it returns to Vulcan and cannot be reused during that proelium.
Fortuna/us and Tyche. Fortuna/us and Tyche each carry one rota fortunae (a Roman numeral die) which may be used once during a proelium to add to or subtract from a player’s score in one concursatio. Fortuna/us may operate only in the western Roman world (Mauretania, Spain, Gaul, Germania, S Italy, N Italy, Sicily); Tyche may operate only in the eastern Roman world (Greece, Asia, Parthia, Syria, Egypt). If the roll of the rota fortuna is an even number, that number is added to the sum of the player’s roll. If the roll is an odd number, that number is subtracted from the player’s total of the roll. The roll of the rota fortunae must happen simultaneously with the roll of the dice in the concursatio.
Pazuzu. This Assyrian wind-demon may possess (i.e. take possession of a character’s body) a living mortal player for one season and control all that player’s choices and actions. Possession ends at the beginning of the next motus period. Possession may occur only if Pazuzu rolls a higher number on one die (legio clientarum) than the player to be possessed; thus, the character to be possessed must own at least one legio. If Pazuzu does not roll higher, the player may keep the die. All rules for concursationes apply, including imagines and numina who can affect the total of a roll of the dice (e.g. Fortuna/us, Tyche) and participate on either side of this dice roll.