Granada: The Fall of Moslem Spain
Second Edition Preview
and New Siege Rules
By Doug McNair
June 2010

Our downloadable version of Granada: The Fall of Moslem Spain comes with a completely revised Second Edition rulebook, developed by me.

When Granada was originally published back in 2003, prevailing wisdom had it that the case system of rules organization might be intimidating to non-wargamers, and games intended to bring new people into the hobby shouldn’t have it. I disagree. A vital part of an enjoyable wargaming experience is the ability to find rules quickly and easily, and Lord knows it’s a lot easier for me to answer online questions by replying “Yes or No — see rule XX.XX.” So when I wrote the Second Edition rules to Granada I reinstituted the case system, organizing everything nicely and breaking-out subsections so they’re easier to find.

In the process I expanded and refined the sequence of play and the combat sequence, adding more phases so that events which don’t necessarily happen every turn or in every battle still get taken care of in the proper order. I also revised the rules for Leaders so that it’s clearer who is under which Leader’s command at all times, with the timing of unit-transfer between leaders or away from Leaders being better defined.

That plus some extra rules I added make Granada Second Edition a much smoother-playing and enjoyable experience.

Inevitably when you’re redeveloping a game, you come up with ideas for new rules that look and feel good but which you don’t have enough time to playtest thoroughly by your deadline. It’s best to treat these as variant rules so that players can try them out and use them or not as they see fit. Below is one such rule. Enjoy!

Sieges (16.0)

When using this rule, add two Siege Phases to the Winter Lull sequence (5.2), as follows:

Winter Lull Sequence: Siege Variant

A. Spanish Siege Phase
B. Spanish Withdrawal Phase
C. Moorish Siege Phase
D. Moorish Withdrawal Phase
E. Castle Control Phase
F. Spanish Reinforcements Phase
G. Moorish Reinforcements Phase
H. Captured Leader Phase
I. Year End Phase

During the Spanish Siege Phase, the Spanish player can try to make Moorish-controlled castles surrender. During the Moorish Siege Phase, the Moorish player can try to make Spanish-controlled castles surrender. Players force a castle to surrender by making a successful roll against that castle on the Castle Surrender Table (16.2).

16.1 Siege Eligibility

In order to be eligible to roll on the Castle Surrender Table against a given enemy-controlled castle, all of the following must apply:

• A player must have one or more units in the same area as the enemy-controlled castle during his Siege Phase.
• The total number of units the player has in the area with the castle must equal or exceed the total number of enemy units inside the castle.
• At least one of the units the player has in the area with the enemy castle he wants to besiege must be an Infantry unit.

16.2 Procedure

To make a surrender dieroll against an eligible castle (16.1), a player adds up the number of units (of all types) he has in the castle’s area and then subtracts the number of enemy units inside the castle. The difference equals the player’s Siege Strength. He then cross-indexes his siege strength with the garrison strength (11.2) of the castle the on the table below, and rolls one die. Roll for each castle separately, adding a +1 bonus to the dieroll for each siege gun the besieging player has in the area with the castle (Spanish player only since the Moorish player has no siege guns). On a natural or modified dieroll result that is greater than or equal to the number shown on the table, the castle surrenders (16.3).

If the dieroll is less than the number on the table, the castle does not surrender and the besieging forces must withdraw from the castle’s area during the besieging player’s subsequent Withdrawal Phase (13.1).

Example: During the Spanish Siege Phase, the Spanish player has two cavalry, one infantry and one siege gun unit in the same area with the Moorish-controlled castle of Granada. There are two Moorish units inside the castle plus Leader Amir Ali. The Spanish player’s total Siege Strength in the area is 4 – 2 = 2. He cross-indexes his siege strength of 2 with Granada’s garrison strength of 4, and determines that he needs to roll a modified 8 or more on one die to make the castle surrender. He rolls one die and adds a +1 modifier to his roll because he has a siege gun in the area. He rolls a 6 + 1 = 7, and Granada does not surrender. He must therefore withdraw his units from Granada’s area in the Spanish Withdrawal Phase.

16.3 Surrender

If a castle surrenders, all enemy units inside the castle are eliminated (they go back in the pool of unused units normally), all enemy leaders inside the castle are captured by the besieging player (7.62), and the castle immediately comes under the control of the besieging player (11.6).

This piece originally appeared in November 2008.

Granada is available now at a great price — just download, print and play!