Concert of Europe: Rules and General Discussion Thread

[Spamage]

The Concert of Europe

1756 and onwards

Nations, Leaders, & Players:
Russian Empire- Empress Elizabeth Petrovna (Henry Wallace)
Kingdom of France- King Louis XV Bourbon (Windjammer)
Kingdom of Prussia- King Friedrick II Hohenzollern (Lumine)
Archduchy of Austria- Empress Maria Theresa Habsburg (TimTurner)
Kingdom of Great Britain- King George II of Hanover (DKrol)
Kingdom of Spain- King Ferdinand VI Bourbon (CMB222)
United Provinces of the Netherlands- Regent Anne of Hanover (GOTfan)
Ottoman Empire- Sultan Osman III (Kalwejt)
Polish-Lithuanian Commonweath- Augustus III (X)
Kingdom of Sweden- Adolf Frederick (YPestis25)

Overview:
     With Prussia's recent acquisition of Silesia, Europe remains in a state of tension. The great powers continue to jostle for control while the idea of Enlightened Despotism reigns across the continent. With celebrated leaders such as Frederick the Great, Maria Theresa, Louis XV, and George II all looking to expand their empires, whether in the old world or the new, it appears that though the storm of war will once more appear.
    This is a time of declining empires seeking to reverse their course and of rising powers seeking to affirm their position. Europe is on the verge of war as new scientific and philosophic ideas seem primed to take the world by storm. How will the powers fare?


The Rules:
-The game begins in January 1756. As we predate the historic Diplomatic Revolution, the Great Powers can negotiate and repudiate alliances as they see fit (in the tradition of the stately quadrille), though I am not going to allow any super unrealistic alliances (*cough* Britain+France or Austria+Prussia *cough*), but largely feel free to make your maneuvers as you see fit.

-Each turn will cover 6 months of game time. I intend to have them open for one week so as to give people time to respond.

-I will issue responses for every minor power or unplayed nation.

-Updates will be posted in the main thread. These will contain overall summaries, the state of (public) alliances, deaths, and the economic situation for each power. Nations will be given specific events to respond to each turn as well. There will also be a number of events every turn which could involve international crises, events in non-playable nations, cultural discoveries, and inventions for all players to respond to.

-All communication between members (PMs) must also include me, so I am aware of the state of the game.

-You can send in your orders via PM, or post them publicly. I would prefer people post their public orders so everyone can see, while obviously sending me the secret ones.

-In the event of war, the game will continue on pace (as fighting was so common during this time period). I will open a new thread for wars between players and update it along with the general update for the rest of the game. All war orders should be PMed to me.

-In the event of a ruler's death, the player will be able to continue, so long as the heir is of the same royal house. In the event there is no clear royal heir, sucession wars may occur.

-Failure to send orders for a turn will be the equivalent of the monarch sitting back and doing nothing for that period, meaning nothing good can come from it. Players who miss turns will find their economies weakened and internal dissent on the rise (or perhaps colonies on the revolt ).

-Battles will be calculated by dice rolls. Higher number wins, margin between rolls determines the level of victory. Certain leaders and armies will have slight bonuses or maluses to simulate their quality during the time period. Sizes of the contending forces determines the amount of dice rolled.

-Have fun



This thread is for off-topic discussion, the game rules, questions, and comments.

I intend to have the gameplay thread opening tomorrow, with all of the first turn prompts for each player.

[Spamage]

I'm not sure but I believe the kingdom of Naples is ruled by King of Spain

While they both have Bourbons on the thrones, the rulers are actually brothers in 1756. Though this is a part of my prompt for Spain

[Spamage]

Btw,
Would it be possible to avoid a european war right now?
Because how it written I don't see how it doesn't escalate with the UK.
Would it be possible to avoid the hostilities right now?

There's been fighting in the Americas between France and Britain, but it hasn't escalated into a full-blown war yet. It's up to you and Britain to avert the tension

[Spamage]

And could you give US our military strength please?

Indeed, I've been working on that. It's alot of research, though I'm making some progress

[Spamage]

So Henry Wallace has agreed to replace Barnes as Russia. Right now I'm going to officially close any more signups (save for X, who has yet to respond but is more than welcome to join).

[Spamage]

Is the game open?

Yeah, first turn has begun. Diplomacy and updates can begin.

Military numbers will be added to the Poland-Lithuania post once they are finalized.

[Spamage]

Military numbers have been posted.

[Spamage]

Navies have been posted, I was actually able to find a highly detailed source, so I'm quite happy with the numbers.

Countries not listed did not have a navy at this time period.

[Spamage]

Can I get an extension until Sunday evening?  Thanks!

The turn is open until next Tuesday evening (1 week per turn) so no problem!

[Spamage]

Nothing further from me this round, unless of course some jerk PMs me with official diplomatic message

I just need one or two more players' orders and we might be able to close it early

[Spamage]

I'd like to join as Portugal, if possible.

Welcome to the game.

For everyone else, Dereich offered to become an assistant GM but I figured adding another player would be a better option

Would you prefer for me to play Venice, Portugal, or Denmark? I'm rather partial to Venice, as I believe it would have a strong navy and trade to keep its economy up.

I'd prefer Denmark-Norway, tbh. Venice was in quite the decline economically and politically throughout the 18th century and it would be difficult to reverse whereas Denmark remained a strong regional power with colonies in Greenland and the Americas.




Just a reminder that the turn will close Tuesday August 1st @ 5 pm PST. I hope to get a post with the major news events up Tuesday evening (quite a bit of exciting things happened this turn ) and will have Turn 2 opened either Tues or Wed. No late orders will be accepted.  I may also do a post debriefing all the powers for their actions this turn after the general news update.

Feel free to keep PMing between the turns, but do not post in the gameplay thread after Turn 1 until Turn 2 and the prompts have been added. Thanks

[Spamage]

Turn 2 is posted. Please PM me if you see I forgot to make any changes in regards to the location of your armies or if you raised more men, I'm more than happy to edit it in. With 300 PMs to go through, I may have missed things  (though it's great you are all so active, I've loved watching the diplomacy so far).

Turn 2 will close Wednesday Evening August 9th @ 5 pm PST.

[Spamage]

Just a heads up that I will be gone on vacation from Friday evening to Monday afternoon. I should have occasional internet access to answer any immeadiate questions, but if any widespread war between players breaks out it will be until Monday before I can post a new thread for it.

Keep including me in PMs while I'm away so I will understand everything that occurs in by absence. Feel free to submit your orders as usual during this period as well.

[Spamage]

Boy, what an interesting scene to come back to

I'll be posting the war thread shortly. All the involved powers are encouraged to send me their military orders and I urge anyone who is planning on joining this turn to do so shortly, in order for a more efficient processing of orders at the end of the turn.

[Spamage]

Boy, what an interesting scene to come back to

I'll be posting the war thread shortly. All the involved powers are encouraged to send me their military orders and I urge anyone who is planning on joining this turn to do so shortly, in order for a more efficient processing of orders at the end of the turn.

Can we please have an extension until Wednesday (Friday would be much better, but at least until Wednesday late evening)?  RL is kinda crazy right now.

Totally understandable. Wednesday evening @5 PST is when the turn was due to close, I'll extend it a couple of hours until 12 a.m. on Thursday. (it will be helpful for me too, with the new war to manage)

I don't want to extend turns too much though, because I'm worried it starts to slow the game down with long periods of downtime between turns.

[Spamage]

Added a poll for calculating battles, players feel free to vote. Majority rules, I'll consider it closed with the turn.

[Spamage]

Turn is closed, though I will accept last-minute submissions from anyone still needing to turn in responses until midnight (X doesn't need the extension anymore). If you have already sent me orders, consider them locked. Military results from Turn 2 will be posted in the war thread shortly. I may or may not get to the News Events tonight. Turn 3 will most likely be posted Friday.

Very interesting developments for news this turn, even better than last time

[Spamage]

Most of the prompts are done, so I can now guarantee turn 3 will be up tomorrow night.

[Spamage]

Just to clarify, Turn 3 closes on August 18th @ 5 pm PST.

I'm debating doing more events in real time during the turn (like to Pope event) in order to adequately respond to rapidly changing events without having to wait until the end of turn update, but I was wondering what you all thought before I went forward with it. Would it be a problem or does it help?

[Spamage]

I'll have to leave this. My West Wing game is coming up soon, so I need to focus my attention there.

Sad to see you go! Hope you had fun and best of luck on your election game.

For everyone else, The Netherlands will continue in the War, even without a player. I'll probably keep including their stats in case someone wants to join in the future.

[Spamage]

I already have a solution for the problem, look for another update tonight.

[Spamage]

Just a reminder the turn closes in 4 hours, still missing some players' orders.

If I get everything in order, I may even be able to post the war update tonight (though it's looking like there's  twice as much to calculate compared to last time, so I'm not 100% sure)

[Spamage]

All the news events are up, and I'll begin working on the next turn's information tomorrow. I would like to have it up by Sunday.

The was has been very fun to watch and calculate so far! Great playing by all


ALSO, nice playing by X, but his subjects were not going to back switching sides so soon, especially after the others had aided the rebels against him. We've been talking and he'd like to remain in the game, though not as Poland-Lithuania. Next turn he will take on the role of Benedict XIV and attempt to steer the Vatican though what has been an interesting conflict so far.

[Spamage]

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Are you serious???

I mean, I like him at personal level but he's going to play a character who will have such a massive impact on many players. What if he decides to excommunicate me for no reason? He always ends up betraying me in all the games we play for no ing reason. It's a very bad idea to have the Pope being playable as it could have so many consequences.

So I suppose the agreements I passed with the Pope in the beginning of the game to reform my realm will no longer in effect too?

I'd obviously step in if he did something as extreme and put of character as excommunicate you. I think it'll be interesting to add a player with very little military power, but in control of  perhaps the most organized social institution  in history.

Unless he voids them, the agreements between the Crown and the Church remain valid.

[Spamage]

Spamage, I assume we're to wait for you to post turn crisies before posting anything in the gameplay thread, right?

I'm fine if you post stuff, I just don't want someone posting in between the multi-part prompt section as it would look sloppy.

I'm working on the prompts, I hope to have everything finished this evening.