The Italian Wars Campaign

Some time ago I ran an "abstract" kind of campaign called the Formaggian Succession Wars, which was great fun. 

I'm planning something similar with this one, a fictional Italy with fictional factions, but mostly resembling historical Italian city-states and condottieri (and mercenaries as well).

The campaign has some core rules, but the battles are absolutely agnostic, and can be played in any way, until there is a strict conversion ratio of units to each system.

Battles could be played on the tabletop using figures or my Bottle Cap Armies rules, Roll20 or Cossacks.

The Goal of the Game

To entertain with lots of military blunders and treachery. The game lasts until one of the factions controls the entire peninsula (which is hardly likely). It's basically a sandbox so it can run indefinitely.

Factions

There are five major players and two outside powers:

Alliance of Nibeuno [NI] - on the northern peninsula, with the following sub-factions:

- Diviteca (Genova) - with an army of 6 inf and 6 heavy cav under Paolo Carmino de'Liberi

- Fradice (Florence) - with an army of 6 inf, 6 inferior inf and 4 heavy cav under Gavriele Cupatovo

- Mate di'Cao (Milan) - with an army of  4 inf, 4 inferior inf, 2 siege engines and 10 heavy cav under Tommasino il Germanico

The Alliance will only take common military action if ALL constituent members' representatives agree.

Republic of Contatre [CT] (Venice) in the north, with an army of 8 garrison infantry, 12 infantry and 8 heavy cav, under Giacopo Pesterino

- with bases in Malli, Niecce and Putnoco

Papal States [PA] - with an army of 4 rabble inf, 4 regular inf, 6 heavy cav, under Maximiliano Parmigiano

with the following three bases: Loma, Lazio, Larcenio (they may have separate armies and condottieri)

The Lazio and Larcenio nobility will only support the Papal cause if the Papal army is not overbearingly strong.

Kingdom of Ostia and Ripiena [OR] (Naples), with an army of 6 rabble infantry, 10 infantry and 8 heavy cav, under Falco di Mortadella

Kingdom of Grana Padano [GP] (Sicily), with an army of 6 infantry and 6 heavy cav under Jacopo Luigi da Spina di Pesce

Holy Roman Imperial Armies [HR] led by the Graf von Berg-König (strength to be determined)

French Armies [FR] led by the Comte du Stell-Artois (strength to be determined)

Campaign Rules

The campaign is divided to years, starting from 1217 OC. 1 campaign turn equals about two months. The last turn of each year is hard winter, where campaign movement is limited. Each turn is quite a broad period of time, so miscellaneous actions (foraging etc.) would not be accounted for, unless they have specific relevance.

Each faction may have one or two main armies and garrison forces dispersed across their lands. In cases of extreme emergency (or a fat chance of beating down a fleeing foe) foot and cavalry elements could be divided to army parts under the same commander. Each army is permitted to complete one action each turn, and each faction may, besides that, complete one event (such as pass a treaty with other houses, recruit fresh troops etc.)

An event that is contested must be assigned a success rate (in percentage), then 1d100 rolled to determine the result. The narrative may call for any chance of success. If there is a disparity between factions, opposed rolls on 1d100 are also possible.

One base generates 1 unit per turn. If a faction controls more than seventy units, a new unit is generated every second turn, until the total number of units falls below seventy again. (A unit in Campaigns in the Ancient World equals a unit of 36 in Cossacks or a unit in Bottle Cap Armies.)

If a faction remains passive for a turn, or their armies only move without engaging, they cannot recruit. (An exception to this is when the army is marching with the intention to give battle, but must cover a larger distance.)

Political leadership changes (due to enemy spy activity, internal struggle etc.) every ten or so years, especially during more intense periods of war.