Fortified Cities:

While reading the Cities of the Sun expansion I decided that the Khinasi rulers would not be likely to build massive, cold stone fortresses such as those that are common in Anuire. A fortified holding or province in Khinasi would be more likely a walled city rather than a castle. Assuming this I have adjusted the rules for castles and fortified holding to reflect this. For an example I will be using the Zikalan capital, which according to the Cities of the Sun expansion has a level 4 fortification.

Part 1: The City & Surrounding Lands

Zikala is one of the largest of the Khinasi City States, matched only by Ariya. As a coastal city in one of the most arid regions in Cerilia most of the population of the province is situated either in the city or along the coast. Unlike Anuire where the land is able to support many farmers and small towns through a province Zikala is unable to do this, so most people live in the towns and only a few animal herders and farmers live outside the main population areas. On page 4 of the expansion it mentions this when it states that a city like Ariya or Zikala is the only settlement of any size in the entire province, and the rest of the lands are sparsely settled plains and savannahs. Now because all the population is concentrated in a small area, i.e. the city of Zikala the cities rulers are more likely to build a large city wall to protect the people rather than just a small castle or fortress on a hill outside the city. Thus for a large city such as Zikala, a (6/0) province, there may be as many as thirty or forty thousand people living within the cities wall, and in Ariya as many as on hundred thousand.
Because of the size and age of the City States I have now ruled in my campaign that a fortified holding in one of these provinces represents a fortified city instead. Although at first it may not appear as though this may not effect anything, it does and while thinking about these rules the changes I was making began to make more sense than the standard rulebook explanation.
As the City State of Zikala is level 6 and only has a level 4 fortification this means that only some of the city is fortified. The rest of the city (The unfortified part) represents the part outside the city walls, either the slums or an area that has recently expanded beyond the boundaries of the city wall. Because the part of the city outside the wall is not fortified it is open for attack if the province is ever invaded. While this might at first not appear to have any effect it must also be noted that if only four levels of the province are fortified then only four levels of holdings can also be fortified within the city walls. Thus an invader could rampage though the unprotected part of the city destroying the holdings there, while the rest of the city, and holdings within the walls are safe from the enemies attacks.

Part 2: The Holdings.

As I noted above, when the city is fortified it only protect as many holding levels as the level of the fortification. The rest are assumed to be unprotected. This does not however mean that these holding level can not also be fortified, above the level of the province's fortification.
On page 56 of the rulebook it states that when a province is fortified any holdings the ruler controls in that province are automatically fortified as well. This makes a lot of sense with fortified cities. When the city is fortified and the wall built then any holdings of the ruler within the cities walls are also fortified. Using the example of Zikala again, as the city is fortified to level 4 then all the holdings of the ruler, Omar ibn Tuarim el-Zisef are also fortified, with the exception of source holdings. This means that Omar's level 3 law holding is protected behind the city walls. Now this is where my rules start to make a lot of sense. The book also states that the Zikalan Temple of Avani also have a level 2 law holding. This holding would represent law in the parts of the city outside the walls, perhaps the Grand Vizier is not concerned with what happens outside the walls of his city so the temple has decided to set up a police force of their own to keep crime in that area of the city under control.
With the temple and guild holding of the province they start as unfortified holdings, but should the regents of those temples or guilds ever wish to upgrade their holdings to fortified holdings then what they are actually doing is moving their operations inside the city walls, and the cost of the fortification represents the cost of purchasing new buildings and land within the walls.
What this also means is that fortified holdings within the city walls can still be attacked and destroyed by the ruler of the kingdom as though they were unfortified. This is not welcomed by the people of the city and has a -3 penalty to loyalty for the province. Of course there is nothing to stop the guild owner from setting up a fortified holding outside the city, but this is a lot more expensive and cost double the normal cost for fortifying a holding.

Part 3: Wars.

During a war when an enemy army attacks a province and uses its troops to destroy the holdings of the province's ruler the rules are also changed slightly. The fortified city still has to be neutralized, using the rules on page 65 of the rulebook. The difference begins when the enemy wants to reduce holdings in the province. Once again we can use our example of Zikala to explain what happens. For the purposes of this explanation assume that the province's ruler, Omar ibn Tuarim el-Zisef, had a level 6 law holding in the province, which as you may remember has been fortified with a level 4 fortified city.
When the enemy, say Ariya invades the province it must neutralize the city first. As this is a level 4 fortification and a city it can hold many more troops than a castle. A level 4 fortified city can hold as many as 16 units of troops (4 times the level), although each turn the city holds troops above level 4 the loyalty is reduced 1 level. Although the city can hold 16 units of troops not all of these count towards the numbers needed to neutralize the city. An invading army in this case would need to have 8 units of soldiers to neutralize the fortified city, which is the same as for a Anuirean castle with 4 units of troops in it.
Once the castle is neutralized the invader is free to reduce any holdings outside the walls to level 0. The difference between this and the Anuirean situation is that any holdings that have been fortified are also considered part of the city and can not be destroyed individually. In the example above where Zikala has a level 6 law holding then only 4 of the levels of the law holding are situated within the walled part of the city. The rest are outside in the unprotected areas.
The enemy must take the whole city to reduce the fortified holdings. The exception to this is any holding that has been fortified individually of the city. They may be assaulted with artillery and destroyed as normal.
If the enemy have artillery then they may of course attack the city, but it is likely may be defended by soldiers from any temples and guild present as well as those of the province ruler.

Although these rules are not that different from the normal, I though some people may be interested in them as there have been some changes and quite a bit of explanation to explain something that was confusing some of the players in my pbem campaign.

by Ian Hoskins

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