[Wick]

I was thinking about how I would like the Dominions movement rules to work and this is what came together for me.

Core change one - Sweep: Like Hide & Sneak, Defend & Move, Sweep becomes a moving counterpart to Patrol (replacing "Move & Patrol" with a sexier name -- and much more utility). Sweep does nothing about unrest or sneaking enemies, but see what Patrol now does below.

Core change two - Non-required MP costs: Movement points (MP) are used for several things. Fighting battles, entering rough terrain, sneaking, and moving to an adjacent province all cost MP but only the last requires that the force actually have the MP.

Everything else is either just making those work or tweaking for effect, but since this is a monster post there's a lot of it.

OPERATIONS:
In a operations phase, after the first battle round, all forces moving into friendly territory move, the move order of remaining forces is based on proportion of movement points (MP) remaining. Battles are resolved after every moving force has moved one province, or been pushed back or caught by pursuers while trying to. The process is repeated until no force has both orders and MP remaining, up to 10 rounds. Routing, but not retreating, clears orders.

Battles are first checked for patrolling (or sweeping) forces. If a patrolling force is matched then it falls back on a moving force. If a moving force is outmatched it withdraws into a castle. Defending forces always withdraw into castles. Indoor actions (e.g. Research) behave like defending forces and outdoor actions (e.g. Searching) behave like patrolling. A unit that cannot fall back participates in the battle. Province Defense (PD) and independents always Patrol. (So castles work for independents!)

TRIVAL DETAILS:
Since forces have a move path it is easy to have the much requested multiple turn orders.

Sweeping and Patrolling forces start battles with 2*melee fatigue.

All current move rates are increased by one, up to ten. This makes administrative marches faster.

Flying forces which have orders and MP and are not patrolling may not participate in battles.

Sailing costs all (10?) MP, sailing forces may not patrol, nor may they participate in battles while they have orders and MP.

Stealth is checked each movement round for all ten rounds after patrol battles but before regular ones (which a found sneaker joins). This, and equating independents with PD, require that each stealth check be much safer then currently.

Sieges & storming castles are done after the operations phase.

EXAMPLES:
Example one: A Tien Ch'i army consisting of a 40 Barbarian Horsemen sweep force and a 200 Footman and Archer moving force bumps into a Pythium PD of 10 and 100 moving Emerald Guards. The Pythium PD, being clearly outmatched by the horde, falls back and joins the Guard. The Barbs then consider attacking the Pythium regular force but decide they are also outmatched and join the Feet. The TC and Pythium regular forces, including the former patrollers, each spend a movement point and fight.

Example two: Ulm, eschewing its reputation as ponderous, has decided to strike two provinces deep in a single month. It's mighty force of Pikeneers is set to patrol and a group of Black Knights are using regular move to the target province. The Pikeneers will overmatch any patrollers and crush any regulars leaving the Knights able to pass through unmolested. That, at least, was the plan. Unfortunately, a flock of Black Hawks distracted the Pikeneers so they had no remaing MP to move at all. The Knights only encountered a few PD but the wasted time caused the plan to fail.