not to beat a dead horse here, but - you only need one person to run a CTO, don't you? A takeover is run by a single large unit - other units simply help it along.
That is correct. You can start, and possibly even finish, a CTO with a single noble, and a single unit, if it is large enough to meet the numerical requirements.
I'm not sure on the mechanics, but I thought the region automatically became a new realm, called "colony of Realm X" and the TO unit's leader became the new ruler.
In order: Yes, pretty close, and no.
- It is automatically a new realm.
- The new realm is "X Colony", as in "Morek Colony".
- It used to be that the noble that started the CTO became the ruler, and I think the duke as well. This is no longer the case. It actually changed a couple years ago. When a CTO starts, a referendum starts in the parent realm. Any noble actually present in the region in which the CTO occurs when the referendum runs can become a candidate. (The candidate restriction is a bit newer than the rest of the process.) The referendum runs until the CTO finishes or fails. The entire realm votes on who will become the ruler of the new realm. As soon as the CTO finishes, the referendum is closed, and the winner automatically becomes the new ruler. That ruler must then appoint the duke, or have him elected via referendum via the normal rules for that government type.
other than being a bit more challenging because of monsters, how is this different from simply buying the region?
- You have to be part of a realm that actually has the ability to provide troops to run the CTO. You can't leapfrog from DeadCity 1 to DeadCity 2 to DeadCity 3, spending family gold like water. (Which could easily be spread out over a series of families.)
- You need to actually have the gold on hand to recruit the troops, and pay them long enough to get to your destination.
- You need to get a big enough unit/units there past all the obstacles in your way.
- The fact that you are running around with a large unit, headed for a rogue city, gives the realm a chance to notice and stop you. And for other realms to notice and stop you as well.
- The fact that you have to have a unit and enough troops gives the parent realm some additional accountability for the creation of a colony. "We didn't know Sir Kepler McUnitless was going to do something like that" is a lot different than "We didn't know that Sir Kepler McInfantry, leading 150 troops to that rogue city, was going to try start a colony". This also means that the realm has to at least passively support your endeavor.
- CTOs have certain requirements that have to be in place before you can run them.
- Any mechanic that can be used by a single noble to create a new realm can easily be used, and seriously abused by a rich realm to do the same thing. Or worse.
Let's face it, if all it took was a single rich family to create a realm in a rogue city, there probably wouldn't
be any rogue cities left anymore in which to run CTOs. And part of the unique challenge of Dwilight is the vast rogue expanses, and the struggle of pacifying them.
