Estates

The estates of the noble house are settlements where buildings are constructed; workers are employed; armies formed and rally; starships built and repaired. Each estate needs a Lord to govern it and each Lord may appoint a Steward and Tribune to automate some aspects of the running of the estate (see Estate Management).

Creation
Besides the starting estate of each the Noble Houses, new estates are only obtained through Diplomacy or conquest.

Lands
An estate is primarily an area of land claimed by the noble house for their own exclusive usage. Each region has a finite amount of land that can be claimed by the estates on it and the cost of claiming the land increases as the supply dwindles.

Eventually the only way to obtain land in a region is through diplomacy or warfare.

Emissaries can offer land as part of a truce, peace, alliance or oath of allegiance offer. The land must be free (ie. unoccupied by buildings) from the chosen estate.

The Baron receiving such an offer may elect to add the land to an existing estate in the same region or a new estate will be created with the newly acquired land if no suitable estate is chosen as the recipient.

Unused lands will fall into disrepair and disappear. Each estate may have as much free land as used land before this happens.

Building Limit
The total level of all buildings on an estate may not exceed its lands.

Tax Level
Each estate has a tax level (in sovereigns) which is levied against all freemen and artisans once per year.

Wage Level
Each population type at an estate has a fixed wage level which is paid each chronum.

Additionally, every troop at an estate must be paid £1 per chronum. Unpaid troops at an estate leave the estate each chronum.

Inventory
Each estate has an inventory of items which it is holding. The inventory can be sold on the world market, transferred to another estate on the world using shuttles or picked up by a docked starship. It can also be used in production of item or starships; form army units and installed into starships.

If an estate falls in ground battle, the inventory and the surviving buildings goes with it.

Authorisations
A Lord or Steward may give another Noble House authorisation to pick up specific items of a set quantity from the estate's inventory for any reason they wish.

They may also give another house authorisation to deliver items to the Estate.

Authorisations given can be viewed on the Estate's Authorisation tab whilst authorisations received are shown in the Noble House's Authorisation tab.

Resource Gathering
There are a number of different Buildings which can gather resources at an estate depending on the yields and season of the region.

If a Steward is present, this is done automatically every chronum. Otherwise, the Lord of an estate must manually order resource gathering to occur at each building at 4 action point cost. A Lord may gather resources in addition to the automated gathering done if a Steward is appointed.

Ores and trade goods gathered are deposited into the estates item inventory.

Workshop Production
A Lord can order any item built at the estate's workshops using 4 action points. This has no mass restriction although the raw materials must be present at the estate. The estate must also have at least a level one workshop.

An estate with a Steward can queue items to be built at its workshops at the rate of 50 mass per workshop level per chronum. Queued items are produced in order, skipping items for which the raw materials are missing. If an item is larger than the mass produced by the workshops each chronum, the mass produced is carried forward until the next chronum until at least one item can be produced.

Shipbuilding
See Building Starships