
Helen is taken — the ships are not yet on the beach.
The Late Bronze Age Aegean is a patchwork of palatial kingdoms. Helen has just reached Ilion; there is no Achaean camp on the Scamander beach and no siege. Mycenae may invoke the suitors' oath and try to build a host; Troy may send Helen back, dig in, or call Lycia and Thrace. Heroes — some of divine blood — still sleep in their home seats. Board paved from admin geoBoundaries with Homeric island cells injected; water dropped.
c. 1190 BC. Paris has broken guest-right in Sparta and brought Helen into Priam's still-unbesieged Ilion. Across the Aegean, oath-bound basileis still sit in their own halls. You are one named lord — call the war, refuse it, or decide what a demi-god's favour is worth before a single wall is stormed.
STAT CATALOGUE — adjudicate only with these fields. Cells: allegiance only (the sole map layer). Entities: allegiance, station, bloodline, patron, health, men_under_command. Landmarks (POI): allegiance, nature, status. No world/playthrough stats. Do not invent extra entity or cell meters beyond this catalogue. OPENING. Just after Paris has brought Helen into Ilion. No Achaean beach-camp, no siege. Cell allegiance is peacetime ownership. Every landmark status starts Secure (including Ilion's citadel and Scaean Gates). First drama = oath, embassy, mustering — not wall-fighting. Do not invent a ten-year siege already in progress. HERO COMBAT. Field power ≈ men_under_command × bloodline_factor × station_bias. bloodline_factor: Mortal 1.0, Hero-blood 1.2, Demigod 1.4. station_bias: Wanax or Basileus 1.05; Hero or Champion 1.15; Elder, Seer, Priestess, or Queen 0.5 (they do not lead spear-lines unless fiction forces it). Demigod kill rule: a Demigod may only be slain in single combat by another entity with bloodline Hero-blood or Demigod, or by anyone while the Demigod's health is Wounded or Sick; otherwise a "kill" becomes health Wounded and forced withdrawal. patron colours the fiction without a separate numeric meter — Athena counsel and sudden edge; Ares blood-cost victories; Aphrodite escapes and mist; Thetis sea rescue; Apollo plague and far shot; Zeus overlord omens; Hera spite toward Troy; Poseidon quakes and ships; Artemis wild edges; None = ordinary luck only. If one side's field power is ≥ 1.5× the other, it very likely wins: loser loses 20–40% men_under_command; winner may keep or slightly raise men from captives. Ratios inside 0.8×–1.25× are indecisive: both lose 10–20% men_under_command; no cell allegiance flips. SINGLE COMBAT. A named Hero or Champion may challenge another. Resolve with bloodline, station, health, and patron colour only — men_under_command does not apply. Loser drops health one or two bands. Killing a Demigod who is health Sound without matching bloodline is forbidden: result is health Wounded + flight. Hubris against a god's child may cost the killer men_under_command or a failed next action. TERRITORY. Map cells carry allegiance alone. A land cell changes allegiance when its garrison is destroyed or routed, or when the basileus who holds it defects or yields in fiction. Named fortification or settlement POIs use status as a local siege ladder: Secure → Contested when enemy forces invest the place; Contested → Besieged when the investment hardens; Besieged → Ravaged after sustained assault without relief. POI nature (Settlement, Fortification, Port, Sanctuary) gates what actions fit (you do not sack a Sanctuary like a Port). COALITION & OATH. Before general war, track commitment through fiction and fleets: basileis of Mycenae, Lacedaemon, Phthia, Ithaca, Argos, Pylos, Crete, Salamis, Athens, Locrians answer or refuse Agamemnon via dialogue and by moving men_under_command onto ships or keeping them home. A refused embassy may harden Achaean resolve in prose; a returned Helen may stand down fleets. Desertion means men_under_command leaving an entity, or that entity's allegiance flipping to Independent basileis. PATRON & SACRILEGE. patron stays fixed except rare narrated adoption. Broken guest-right, slaughtered suppliants, sacked Sanctuary POIs, or ignored Seer warnings should worsen battle outcomes, cut men_under_command, or drop health — using only catalogue stats. MEN & TRAVEL. men_under_command < 200 blocks new field battles off the hero's home allegiance cells. Crossing the Aegean to the Troad needs ships: men_under_command ≥ 500, or station Wanax/Basileus with a fleet tradition (Ithaca, Crete, Mycenae, Pylos, Salamis, etc.). Reinforcements need a friendly-allegiance land cell and a story reason. Far from any friendly Port POI: lose ~5–10% men_under_command per turn to desertion and disease. HEALTH & REMOVAL. health gates direct action. Dead removes a non-player hero; an heir may inherit station and reduced men_under_command — bloodline never upgrades on inheritance (Demigod does not pass to a pure Mortal second). Winter (months 11–2): forces not in a Settlement or Fortification POI strain toward health Strained and should not open multi-cell offensives.