BATTLE MINES

Occasionally, one of the four horsemen will ride across the land, heralding doom. Each has a huge impact on the game, both during production and in the cycle that follows.

No-one knows at what time the horsemen will strike, (except maybe Rasteroid who won't take advantage of it early on,) but if you talk to someone very old, like say your grandpa's grandpa or someone along those lines, they may have picked up some snippets of knowledge in their vast life about when the horsemen will appear.

Horsemen production events occur before all others. The Horsemen will not ride on official Battle Mines holidays.

The White Horseman

• During production, any master who is not a vassal themselves reverses vassalage with one of his vassals, chosen randomly.
• Corruption from all Spies is increased to 100%.
• Everyone has bad luck.

The Red Horseman

• All rules forbidding combat are waived. Repeat vassalizations will refresh, not augment old ones. Reverse vassalizations will nullify the existing vassalization.
• All bounties are worth triple the usual number of prizes. (Ie. Your first bounty is worth 3 Food, not 1.)
• During local combat, the attacker's Firepower is always 20.

This Horseman seems to favor Stormy weather.

The Black Horseman

• No Food is produced. The people cannot become full.
• Your starving citizens will eat one Food if it is available, otherwise no work will be done at all.
• Food is worth twice as much on the Black Market.
• Bribery prolongs or shortens a vassalage by three cycles, not one, but still will not cancel it entirely.
• Agents can plunge a nation directly into Anarchy by inciting a revolt.
• Any government change costs only one Food.

This Horseman shows up after a long period of Sunny weather.

The Pale Horseman

• Local combat accuracy is increased to 100%. Other modifiers are ignored.
• During production, all Battle Mines have a chance of losing one intrinsic level of hull to acid rain. This probability is equal to:

For example: maceo has 30 Fallout and 5 Pollution. His chance of losing hull is 70%.

This Horseman, probably the most dreaded of them all, shows up when it has rained steadily for many cycles.