This is the way I do Contest Actions in my campaign. http://fan_of_enoch.tripod.com](http://fan_of_enoch.tripod.com[/url) Contest is designed to attack/destroy your opponents holdings. You cannot simultaneously increase your own, but it does free up the space to in the following action.
Since Rule actions only allow you to build up holdings 1 level at a time you could reduce your opponents holding by two levels and guarantee a slot for your holding the following turn. Another alternative is to send Gweedo your Lt. to burn your opponents guild warehouses and spend your action building your guilds in their place.
Note: most regents do not enjoy losing power (levels) on holdings that they invested serious time and money in to create. A contest action should not be taken lightly by the target. It is easily justification of war, open or covert.
Contest
A regent can neutralize another regent’s holding by contesting their influence. If the attempt is successful, the contest holding does not generate regency or Gbs for the owner. A level 0 is destroyed by a Contest action. A successful Contest action permanently reduces a holding by 1 level. A holding may be reduced by Multiple levels. For each level contested the difficulty is increased by 5. (i.e. a level 3 holding has a difficulty of 20). The success number is modified by the difference between the attacker’s holding (or province rating , if he’s the ruler) and the contested holding. Multiple holdings can be contested in a single turn.
For example, two thieves are rivals in a province (5). Benson controls a guild(2). If Wart, his rival, has a guild (3) he may contest Benson’s guild with a base difficulty of 9, or both levels at 14. If Benson contests Wart’s guilds he has a base difficulty of 11, or 16 for both levels.
Rulership of a province can be contested as well at double the normal difficulty (i.e. 20 for first province, 30 for two). However, contesting a province does not effect its level. Rather it effects it ownership/investiture. A province is automatically contested if the province is conquered during a war. Once a province is successfully contested, it ceases to generate regency and GBs for the ruling regent until:
The attacker relents
the attackers loses all of their own holdings/provinces
the attacker dies
the defender makes a successful Rule action on a law holding (if available slots exist) or the province level.
If a province is successfully contested twice (or once in the turn after a successful invasion) an Investiture Action may be performed switching the realm’s ownership. Multiple provinces can be contested in a single turn. (i.e. Gavin Tael of Ghoere successfully contests the border realm of Maesford, Alamie. Maesford will not generate RPs or GBs. If Gavin successfully contests the realm a second time all times to the regent of Alamie are broken. The following turn Gavin may perform an Investiture ceremony, effectively conquering the realm without military force).