Crownwane

You are a king on a royal progress. Nine holdings stand between you and the hall your line was crowned in, and every one of them is a hex battle you have to win with three orders a round. THREE DECREES A ROUND You do not move every unit every round. You get three Decrees, and commanding a unit spends one of them. With a court of four, somebody always stands still. The way out is Earshot. Any unit standing beside the Sovereign can be commanded for free, so a tight court acts five times a round while a scattered one acts three. Once per battle the Sovereign can raise the Crown Call for three extra Decrees and a little healing. Save it. THE SUNWAKE Two columns of the battlefield are lit at any moment, and the light steps one column sideways at the end of every round. Strike from the light and you hit harder. Stand in shadow and you take less harm. The good ground moves every round, so no position stays good for long, and you can read where the light will fall next on the track above the board. THE WEIGHT OF THE CROWN Win a holding and you may hang a relic on your crown. Every relic has a weight. For every three weight the Sovereign loses a hex of movement, and the weight also pulls the Long Dark forward, after which every foe on the field gains attack every round, forever. A heavy crown has to win fast. You can always refuse the shelf and stay light. Sixteen relics, and no single run holds more than a handful. SUCCESSION INSTEAD OF GAME OVER Your court can be cut to pieces and the progress carries on. Only the Sovereign matters. When the crown goes down, an heir picks it out of the grass, inherits part of what you carried, and rides on under a new name. The reign that ended is written into the Annals with the round and the field it ended on. NINE HOLDINGS Four regions, from the flooded Low Water to the Last Hall. The fields ask different things of you. Rout everything. Stand on a cairn when a named round closes. Simply keep the crown breathing for six rounds. Or find the Pale Herald and put it down while its guard still stands. Six kinds of ground, from briar that draws blood when you step into it to standing stones that stop an arrow dead. TWO MORE WAYS TO PLAY The Underkeep is a lantern crawl beneath the throne room. Bump into things to fight them, watch the taper burn down, find the stair. Crown shards found in the dark raise your health for the rest of the descent. Trials of the Wane is endless waves on open ground with the banner of your choice. No relics, no map, no heir. Every fifth wave brings a Pale Herald.