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I would....but the Napoleonic Era will never happen in Hegemony. I had an arguement with Dusty about the relationship between strategy and tactics.... I send X number of men into battle against 3 cannons and 100 calvery....How many men do I send? 103(3+100)? 400(300+100)? 500(300+200)? If tactics are not in out control, and plans are not forthcoming, then we have very little ability to work out strategy... I am NOT overly interested in fighting a war with Russia, I am simply stating that these are options if anyone was going to fight a war with Russia...and summerily things Russia should be aware of... As for should we or shouldn't we....If the situation demands it...I am not gonna sit whining to Dusty about the size of someone else's army...I am going to come up with a plan and launch it. Also, Politics is something the Tavern epically fails at. Revolution is only fun because we can't physically fail at it....We announce something, Dusty puts up a minor roadblock, we sweep it away. Ooo, ahh... Huge armies? Huge armies that were summoned into being over the course of a year or two, sent off to fight a battle or campaign and then return... These were not the days of 'I build a massive army and sit on it for the next 50 years and pwn everything that comes near me.'...Which is ultimately why Hegemony gets stale....People build an army and compete for the largest army...the person with the most resources wins...then the rich get richer...End of game, thanks for 2 months of your life.

That I agree on...it is also a very stupid tactic, since Dusty will, probably, rightly assume that someone, somewhere in the Russian Government, will realise that 800 Prussian Fish Boats is somewhat fishy(pardon the pun), and thus will take some sort of action. Additionally, Russia is a Huge country...getting 800 boats to land and 4,000 soliders to meet up, would be a huge logistics feat...and relatively pointless...Sending a spy to set fire to random sheep would probably be easier, cheaper and more successful.

You could...then I would take China and conventionally smash you from behind... That...or, somewhat more sensically, let you punch yourself out with a sustained war in Prussia(All I really have to do to defeat your plan is wander out of Berlin and not defend, you waste 3 million on a worthless attack, make aload of annoucements, I pull a France in 16 something where I just don't declare that I have been beaten and refuse to meet you on the field of battle...you piddle about wasting money(since my 5 man force will trip your army stationed in Berlin) ...then I crush you a few years later.... Rocco...the concept of a hit and run attack has existed for a long time... As has the concept of not attacking someone with your full army....A strange concept I know. If we are limited to only using 'FULL ATTACK' or 'FULL ATTACK' then, as well as being historically inaccurate(oddly enough there were many other tactics used) Russia is in a game breaking position...as is Great Britian, China and the Ottomen Empire...And...as I have said before, shallow game is shallow.

Another alternative would be to set fire to a bunch of your sheep and grain fields, then, secretly, place a minefield between me and Poland...thus destroying a large chunk of your army when you counter attack.

Hmmm, I suppose you could overcome that by stationing guardsmen along your seabanks(probably free, since people live in most of these places anyway) who would then relay a message back to your army... Which would then need to be deployed, as opposed to already being deployed.... However, it would depend how close the areas I(if I were to do this) wanted to pillage were...If they are 5 miles inland and your army is stationed 13 miles away, then me landing my army(say 2,000 men) riding off to pillage your area, then riding back, getting on boats and sailing into the sunset before your army arrived, is entirely possible. Of course having your army camped 13 miles from the shoreline is kinda unlikely... =P If you army is based out of Moscow and I am attacking, for instance, a sheep field near St Petersburg, then logistics says that I will be in and out before your runner has run back to Moscow, got the army ready to march, and then marched all the way to St Petersburg... However, if you army was based at St Petersburg, then you have a good chance of intercepting my forces. So it would be a gamble. If you kept your army on full alert then 5 men in their boat would set off your system, and those 5 men and their boat would get slaughtered...but would cost you a tonne... If you kept your army undeployed, then 2,000 men turned up, set fire to a bunch of sheep(makes more sense when you think about it), then disappeared on the boats...while your runner was still on their way to Moscow...then it costs you a tonne in a different way. Either way you think about it...unless Dusty Ninja Calverys things...you are running a significant risk. Attacking me directly being the obvious alternative for you... though if I was clever I would hire a bunch of Tunisian Mercs(or just Opium them up) to attack you indirectly...Or hire someone in China to hire someone in France to hire someone in Prussia to hire someone in Spain to hire a band of Polish Mercs... Course, it is obviously me in that instance, since only I develop these fiendishly complicated webs... :shades: I have no problem with people disagreeing...I have a problem with people whining to the mod/whatever that a tactic someone is using is overpowered when there is no logical argument against it... If you had said 'If I spotted a rowing boat with 5 men I wouldn't sound a general alarm' then that is a logical argument....Going 'That tactic is abusable! DUSTY!!!!!' is not a logical arguement. Anywho...Now that I know that 5 men in a boat won't set off a general alarm...I can deploy 800 boats to different locations, land 4,000 troops, set fire to a bunch of sheep in a lot of different areas, then disperse back onto a bunch of boats... and sail/row away while you are still wondering why there are lots of red and orange clouds moving around outside =P.

Prussia buys a gold plated 28 meter high horse, pulled by a team of Prussian Imperial Guards, specially trained in fire eating. They cross the Prussia-Austrian Border and proceed, by weaving path, to the Capital, with small lumps of silver/bronze being thrown celebratorily into the air so that the peasents may have gifts to celebrate their leader's birthday. When they arrive at the Capital, the Prussian General, Santa Klaus, reaches inside the gold plated horse and extracts a horn of the finest Gunpowder, he then spreads a trail aroud the Golden Horse, with fireworks stationed every few centimeters. The trail leads in an almost complete circle(prevents it going the other way). As the trail burns the fireworks are set off, drawing Oooos and Ahhhhhs from the crowd. [hide=Only read if you are Dusty] After lighting the fuse Santa Klaus backs into the crowd(then rus off), ostensibly to get a good view, but actually so he doesn't get blow up when the trail of gunpowder reaches inside the Gold Plated Horse and detonates the 1.7 tonnes of Gunpowder. Releasing 3 Gigajoules of energy. The equivient of a MOAB bomb....Which should kill all the people in attendence, including the Austrian King...Prussia then declares a great tragedy, an accident to do with the fireworks, and in the confusion seizes 4 provinces from Austria and leadership of the Holy Roman Empire. Investigation reveals a mad Polish person in the crowd had fired a flaming arrow into the explosive stockpile, detonating the massive stockpile of fireworks. In responce the HRE declares war on Poland. (PS, ignore everything in this post, except this sentence, everything else is a joke) [/hide]

You mean you will attack me through Poland? A brillant plan...However I have very little interest in blowing up a house fully of dynamite with a lit fuse already burning.... If I were to attack Russia I would probably invent a device for moving across water ...It would probably take hundreds of years to....Wait, a log floats...If I got many logs I could build such a device...what to call it....Hmmm....A Rift? A Ruft? No, I have it, a Raft! But that doesn't seem to maneverable....I know, I will use what I learned from the Dutch Windmills to develop a science of water dynamics....What to call it though? Water Dynamics isn't very sciencey sounding....hmmm Fluxocalorification? Nah....Hydrodynamics perhaps? And using this new science I have invented I will devise a method for moving logs quickly from place to place by cutting down the surface area....So if I cut across the beam...hey that sounds like a good name, I will create Beams of Wood....Beams of non-metal? Beams of Timber!...I will create beams of timber and shape them into a huge log with a curved bottom! And that gives me another idea...If I don't fill the middle bit I can Hold troops! And that sounds like a perfect name I will place my troops in the Hold of my giant log....Nah, that sounds like a bad name....giant cannon? No, I have it a Ship! But thinking of cannons, I might need to defend my new fangled ships, so I will create cannon holes above the waterline! My god, all of these new technologies I am inventing, who knows how we got along without them for so long! Its not FAIR Dusty, Archi has been blessed with sense, reason and intellect, and is using them to beat me!

Alternatively declare war, announce a big army, and then send five guys in a boat....To face down the full Russian army...Do that a couple of times, wear out Russia's budget so they can only deploy a small force, then attack with a decent sized army....Take a bunch of provinces, scorch earth them, retreat. Rinse and repeat. Since Russia continues to get invaded and Cathy does nothing about it(Just a lot of 'pretend' invasions, staged by Cathy to make Russia seem stronger) she is seen as weak...and if we were to ask Dusty where the grain fields or the sheep fields or textile mills or main roads into Poland were...then we could target those provinces first... Making you poor, weak and ineffectual...then we round up a bunch of Doom's book/s, rewrite it/them as leaflets and cause increased dissent.

If Doom is selling them? No, I said French Revolutionary Guys...Like Guy Fawkes...like the Effigies of the Pope... Kinda like scarecrows that you burn. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes#Legacy Anywho, Rocco(and anyone else), are you willing to jointly attack France? The Royalists are bunglingly incompetent and Doom will only get more powerful. I also use my position within the HRE to seek assistance for the war against France (Revolutionary if France is willing to invite us, Imperial and Revolutionary if not) I also offer advanced terms to revolutionary France, namely that a border between Revolutionary France and Imperial France is established: [deal] The revolutionarist agree to stay south of the border and not attempt to cause revolution in the North for 20 years. All of the French overseas colonies(minus Corsica) which are not held by the Imperial government are assigned to Prussian/other powers that got involved, the colonists are kept on for one year to teach the incoming colonists what is what and then may swear an oath of alliegence to their new country or be returned to Revolutionary France, and a sum of 100,000 Ducats is paid to Revolutionary France for the skill and time rendered. The revolutionists hold a plebsite in all of their territories as to if they wish to remain revolutionary in 20 years time. The costs of the armies deployed are paid by Revolutionary France. Prussia, in return, will guarentee to recognise both nations, and will sigh a defensive pact with both nations(Revolutionary France against Imperial France and Imperial France against Revolutionary France) valid for the next 20 years. Prussia also accepts that the two Frances will occationally skirmish, and will tolerate this as long as no provinces change hands. [/deal] There is room to negotiate, but I plan to be at war within two years if there is no signature. If such a deal is signed, and Revolutionary France respects the deal then Prussia will turn attentions on Imperial France to accept such a deal, if they have not already. If a lot more countries get involved, before the two Frances sign a deal, then the deal will become more sever, since they will likely want more of a reward for their involvement. Elsewhere Prussia investigates Dutch Windwill design, and conducts a study (Dusty) into wind speed in Prussia, and the possibility of developing an array of windmills to provide power.

Ok, if anyone has any really good ideas for a resource send them to me. Going to bed.

On the note of Lichens...Population plays a very, very small part in this game.

Ok, after talking to people, and my shocklingly small amount of progress I have decided to quarter the map and run with that instead. So map is now completed, please feel free to browse the rest of the map, choose a home system and a race to go with it. http://users.aber.ac.uk/lug9/delta_v/ Game won't start for a while(week probably) yet, so feel free to ask questions. And remember, make your race POWERFUL! Be Overpowered if you want, I will trim your race back if I think that mind controlling planets is too powerful...but be creative. A word on resources and economy: Unlike recent Hegemony games, there is no reset date for your budget. Each planet has a set number of resources(Which replenishes itself yearly) To harvest that number of resources you need that number of houses. Now, resources are resources, not cash. To generate cash you sell resources to your consumer industries for a sum of money...the more you sell, the less you get paid per resource. Cash and resources combine to produce ships, houses, spaceports and whatever else you need to build. (This game is unbalanced...if you have enslaved another empire, or your own, or are communist, or have announced martial law, or whatever I deem to work... then you don't have to pay cash, there are some disadvantages, probably, and good advantages with other systems...but the game is not designed to be fair...) The most common resource, found on all planets, is Earthex...which is basically all the elements on the periodic table, joined into one resource...as such it can be used for most things. The other 37 resources can only be generated within specific temperature bands. For example Fissium can only be generated on planets which have a temperature between 488 and 511 Kelvin. In the early game these resources give you a discrete boost in one area...Example, Fissium is 300% more effective at producing Nuclear Energy than Earthex. Later on these boosts can be increased in all sorts of ways. These 37 resources can be combined to produce an insanely large number of combinations or can be broken down into different constituent elements.(Which takes time to do) Now... As the game progresses ship design will get more complicated because of this....Since building part of a ship out of this material, part of it out of that, and then another bit out of another...is complicated. But this game is designed to GROW, not start uber complicated and expect you to live with it...hence why Earthex is so universal. Anyway, since one planet will only be able to produce (at max) 4 different resources, trade will be an important part of the game...so be prepared to organise trade deals, or fight wars, or go without. Anyway, you won't find out the resources(aside from Fissium) until you are actually playing the game...just letting you know that they exist and that budget resets will not be part of the game.

Its fairly safe to assume that everything I post is part of my evil plan....The Hague gives me the Red Cross, which changes the game, so that in a month(if the game survives) I can condemn players who don't show mercy, thus allowing me to rustle up extra armies...that is if Dusty allows it, which he probably won't... If he doesn't then game is shallow and me playing deeply entertains me, even if it has no results. If he does then game is deeper, and it enterains me. Blowing up Russian Tsar guys is flavourful and will allow Dusty to go 'The Prussians disagree' or 'The Prussians agree' which would mean that they are either willing to fight Russia, meaning they don't like your proto-communism...or they are not willing to fight Russia, meaning they do like your proto-communism, and gives me an excuse to execute the Russian Nobles for breaking the Declaration of Human Rights. However since Dusty is unlikely to draw all of these conclusions from this it is probably just flavour... And since the nobles will have been indirectly instructed to do this(something that Dusty, with all the things he is doing, probably doesn't have time time to rubberstamp, post and then ignore) I can proxy them...if I can't then game is shallow and I draw amusement from sparring with Dusty...Only bad outcome is if he gives a flat no, since that would be boring. Since I don't have the time or effort to explain these things to Dusty, to have him disagree...and neither does he....it is easier to post and assume that he didn't notice, than to assume he is running a shallowly boring game.

Sigh...Retech, its called flavour...its called Roleplay....its called playing a game. If everything we do is gonna be controlled by Dusty then we might as well not play...As for nothing coming of it...shallow game is shallow.

I don't know, the nobles are doing it...so its probably an excuse or propaganda...or flavour that I can't be blamed for :thumbsup:

King Frederick offers to meet with the Pope to discuss reperations for the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, hopefully putting down some of the enemity between the Protestants and the Catholics. If he refuses then the practice of burning the Pope on the 5th of November continues unabated. As a show of good faith, the King disperses 50,00 ducates buying French Revolutionary 'guys' and giving them to local peasents to do with as they wish, instead of the Pope. Notes are taken who does what and a summery is given to the King (If you could do that Dusty). Elsewhere a new tradition of burning Russian Tsar 'guys' has taken off in responce to the war brewing in the Crimea....though these ones have barrels of gunpowder under them, and are thus probably a result of Ex-Russian Nobles spending their money.

Nice. If I was doing that I would have a masterpiece engraved roof.

Better...more reusable...option is to dig a big hole(20 Z levels), cover it with hatches and open it...if it doesn't kill it, it will make sure it can't attack you easily.

Prussia disagrees. The revolutionaries should work within the system to strengthen the state, so that the state can strengthen society. If all efforts are focused on strengthening society(In Russian there are only Serfs, so...), then the state crumbles...and then no one can look after society, so that crumbles too. Anyway, with the British Sailors come tales of Guy Fawkes Night(By some strange coincidence :shades: ). With massive support by the peasents, Prussia adopts the 5th of November as Effigy Night, where an effigy of the Pope is tradtionally burned.

Since Napoleon got defeated that is not suprising.... However Hegemony has a habit of suddenly having 3 people side with Napoleon and tipping the balance for the lulz. Also Dusty controls the armies so its not like we can say 'My forces use Napoleonic tactics'...So I expect to lose a war against France at first. Anywho, Prussia prepares ships to sail to France.

Prussia buys a copy of the book and I, personally, read it. Since Prussia has a system based on merit, not blood(kind of) it should be interesting.

Cool. I spend 2 million on that.

Flavour...developing the game world...emotional blackmail later on... The game is very dull if all we do is pm you research and the number of troops we are invading somewhere with...and occasionally respond to random events. Plus it sets stuff in motion....40 years time the changes that I, Retech and Doom are making will have begun filtering down to the common man in the street...which means that the game will change in one manner or another... Is there anything benefit to it(currently)?

Yeah, something told me that Russia wouldn't get involved... Though it was a fairly silly suggestion to begin with...Since the French Government is hardly going to let the Russians come into their country and help the revolutionaries overthrow the government. But since it was a C&P job I put two and two together and realised it was a joke...potentially aimed at discrediting the effort, meaning no one took any interest...though people were unlikely to do so in the first instance, and perhaps I am thinking too much into this. @Doom: Obviously we couldn't fight a conventional war against the revolutionaries, but we can exert pressure on the French Government to actually spend money, rather than having a 60+ million Ducet chest waiting for your inevitable victory. Or we invade, and make you seem impotent, hypocrits or wear badges that say 'I am a dissenter'. Do nothing. Attacking your fellow Frenchmen while they fight for freedom. Create/recruit armies to fight Prussia. (Depending on Dusty, obviously)

Thank ye kindly, we will have your ship back as soon as the celebrations are over. (This is what Hegemony is about, people posting, hoping for benefits that are a million to one. :thumbsup: It used to be that the benefits happened automatically, but still)