You are one cautious bunch. I want blood, rage and backstabbing not standoff and cautious diplomatic maneuvering.
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Don't worry, I'm oboard once again....I either scheam myself to death or just somehow lure everyone ganging me when they should be ganging Russia instead
Dissapointingly boring session, then again boring is better than the worst alternative.
Not really sure how to predict this, Japan and the American players are pretty much invulnerable; Africa vs Germany strikes me as stalemate territory. Russia, Punjab, Mongols are the ones who are in the weakest position with poor mp gain, poorer IC and generally terribad terrain for defense.
In theory.
In practice the terrain may be deceptive, since we're using AoD's supply system but with DH's map we have a situation where invasion may be exponentially more difficult TC wise.
For example mongols have an unenviable task ahead of them if they invaded the Urals, I got rivers, some plains and then lots of trees and mountains before more trees and mountains thousands of miles from his capital.
Punjab is about at their manpower cap, and would exhaust themselves if my defense was serious. My real fear is from Ethiopia/Kongo who can attack through the caucasus or north from Finland.
Finland is a (?) as its TC and infra is also sufficiently terrible that any serious invasion will hit a brickwall of its own making, but I have precious space for time to give in the south. Baku and Grozny are major sources of oil for me and it isn't *that* far until the front widens out considerably favoring mobile warfare again.
So that's why 50% of my forces are concentrated there in the meantime and my entire airforce.
Not really sure how to predict this, Japan and the American players are pretty much invulnerable; Africa vs Germany strikes me as stalemate territory. Russia, Punjab, Mongols are the ones who are in the weakest position with poor mp gain, poorer IC and generally terribad terrain for defense.
In theory.
In practice the terrain may be deceptive, since we're using AoD's supply system but with DH's map we have a situation where invasion may be exponentially more difficult TC wise.
For example mongols have an unenviable task ahead of them if they invaded the Urals, I got rivers, some plains and then lots of trees and mountains before more trees and mountains thousands of miles from his capital.
Punjab is about at their manpower cap, and would exhaust themselves if my defense was serious. My real fear is from Ethiopia/Kongo who can attack through the caucasus or north from Finland.
Finland is a (?) as its TC and infra is also sufficiently terrible that any serious invasion will hit a brickwall of its own making, but I have precious space for time to give in the south. Baku and Grozny are major sources of oil for me and it isn't *that* far until the front widens out considerably favoring mobile warfare again.
So that's why 50% of my forces are concentrated there in the meantime and my entire airforce.
Bad for defense? I think I have more mountain provinces than plains. Now, invading my neighbours, that might be difficult.
More of a meta thing, your mountains are mostly in the south, and you don't have anywhere near the IC to province ratio to have anywhere nearly as many troops as you need to cover it, defensible terrain only matters if you can actually defend it with warm bodies.
Okay I will make this prediction: There will not be a big, decisive war until the alliances shift, which will happen suddenly and unexpectedly. This will only benefit one Major country when the dust has settled, though I cannot say yet who it will be. For all other players, the game basically ended in 1835, and everybody has only been killing time.
Next time: get some house rules to prevent the big blobs from forming in EU3, everywhere, not just Europe, and get more balance of power players in instead of gang bangers: that means people that play with more brass and are not only thinking of winning by reducing risks. Make sure more countries get into V2, even if they are AI, especially if they are AI, both civilized and uncivilized, and enforce a BB limit of 25, otherwise the whole V2 diplomacy system is for naught, and it seems a shame to waste that good functioning thing.
Next time: get some house rules to prevent the big blobs from forming in EU3, everywhere, not just Europe, and get more balance of power players in instead of gang bangers: that means people that play with more brass and are not only thinking of winning by reducing risks. Make sure more countries get into V2, even if they are AI, especially if they are AI, both civilized and uncivilized, and enforce a BB limit of 25, otherwise the whole V2 diplomacy system is for naught, and it seems a shame to waste that good functioning thing.
Well i think the issue has been analysed and discussed to death in previous threads, and At least I am in conclusion, that you cannot make any "rules" to prevent others diplomatic choises in the game, so all anti-blobbing features are down to diplomacy itself. Its all about having balance of unpredictable predator players and boringly predicatble dow players cleverly distributed so that blobbings couldn't last, and neither become as absolutes for someone's survival. Also, with better grand-diplomatical awareness and farsighted players intressed of game-balance added to the mix, and this game's blob's can be easily avoided. (And Im not going to even mention issues like general sportmanship and gentleman approach to keep those hawk players around)
In order to get more players into Vicky2 and into Hoi phase, the paramount would be playing with Vanilla. Since best way of getting new perms is to lure the casuall subs to fill in, and more the game is modded, less subs there actually are. Vicky2 and AoD MP circless are not that big at first place so the bad effect multiplies when those games are modded. Sadly this aspect always gets duly ignored during the conversion phase and yet the same voices ignoring it usually raises the issues of how lack of subs and players are ruining the game.
But of this game, fear not! Alas, as to complete all irony of the previous drama, Gollevainen is now on Kongo, and Jodokus has agreed to take over Ethiopia as Irsh had to resign due his work commitments, so if us two don't manage tangle into some sort of war in next two sessions, We all be dammed!
A Sky Full of Anvils
Imagine that the sky is full of anvils.
At any moment they may fall, destroying houses, killing men. There is no controlling them, or predicting the day they will finally fall; and while you can build your house sturdy, if you are wealthy enough, you cannot spend all your days indoors. So you watch the skies anxiously, and batten the hatches when storms come nigh. But in the end, you go on with your life. What else is there to do?
And after all, the anvils are only metaphorical. In the world of the literal, the lived experience: Why, the sun is shining! Historians, no doubt, will write of the decade as a dark time. They will compress the events into single chapters: A coup, a purge, a dictatorship, border frictions... and inevitably, the war. For war is coming; all men know it, though not the day or the hour. And that view is not without merit. But in the day, in the here-and-now - events pass one hour at a time; men do not skip, as a book can, from skirmish to crisis, from quasi-legal coup to the construction of new weaponry. Nor does the darkness of the decade, in a historian's view, translate into a darkness in men's souls, or in the weather; a dark decade has its long months of summer sun. If newsreels are in flickering black and white, still, the world has as much colour as ever. Even a primary source is not the thing itself.
And here, on this quiet street in the working-class parts of New Byzantium - no primary source will mention what happens here, unless you count the memories of those involved. Perhaps, in the distant future of five decades hence, some curious graduate student will seek out those old enough to remember, and write down their accounts, and - who knows? - piece together some narrative of the day; and it will be published in a respected but not a top-notch journal, and as many as a dozen people might read it with some attention, before moving on with their day. And yet in the minds of those who are gathered here today, the marriage of Aleksios and Erika, showing that Erika's mother Glykeria is not quite the invincible harridan everyone thought, looms quite as large as the renewed alliance between Ethiopia and Kongo - which shows that, if Konstantin ever had mind-control rays gotten from Persian colonies on the moon, they have now stopped working. The effort to keep the Anatolios brothers from brawling with the Nikandroi is as important, and takes as much thought, as smoothing over a skirmish in the Himalayas with deaths on both sides.
Eat, drink, and be merry? There is something to that; but if the truth were told, these minor Komnenoi rarely indulge, especially in these straitened days when the State dividend has been cut to the bone. In their daily round they scrimp and save, and put money in the bank; on the first Monday of each month they make a ritual of going to the local branch to have their account books stamped, and so-circumspectly brag about the interest they earned. (Indeed the size of Aleksios's monthly payment is not the least of the reasons Glykeria ceased her customary opposition to all Erika's doings; if that number was, perchance, inflated by temporary contributions from friends of the happy couple, well, nobody is like to tell the Harridan of Hippocrates Street.) They do not drink and celebrate because they wish to forget their troubles; they have forgotten their troubles because they are far away, and they celebrate from genuine happiness. Ephemeral happiness, perhaps; but real enough for all that. The war will come, the anvils will fall; perhaps even tomorrow, for some of them, when the telegram that started in a centurion's office in the Himalayas finally reaches its destination. But that is tomorrow, or the next day.
One hour at a time. And today, the sun is shining.
Imagine that the sky is full of anvils.
At any moment they may fall, destroying houses, killing men. There is no controlling them, or predicting the day they will finally fall; and while you can build your house sturdy, if you are wealthy enough, you cannot spend all your days indoors. So you watch the skies anxiously, and batten the hatches when storms come nigh. But in the end, you go on with your life. What else is there to do?
And after all, the anvils are only metaphorical. In the world of the literal, the lived experience: Why, the sun is shining! Historians, no doubt, will write of the decade as a dark time. They will compress the events into single chapters: A coup, a purge, a dictatorship, border frictions... and inevitably, the war. For war is coming; all men know it, though not the day or the hour. And that view is not without merit. But in the day, in the here-and-now - events pass one hour at a time; men do not skip, as a book can, from skirmish to crisis, from quasi-legal coup to the construction of new weaponry. Nor does the darkness of the decade, in a historian's view, translate into a darkness in men's souls, or in the weather; a dark decade has its long months of summer sun. If newsreels are in flickering black and white, still, the world has as much colour as ever. Even a primary source is not the thing itself.
And here, on this quiet street in the working-class parts of New Byzantium - no primary source will mention what happens here, unless you count the memories of those involved. Perhaps, in the distant future of five decades hence, some curious graduate student will seek out those old enough to remember, and write down their accounts, and - who knows? - piece together some narrative of the day; and it will be published in a respected but not a top-notch journal, and as many as a dozen people might read it with some attention, before moving on with their day. And yet in the minds of those who are gathered here today, the marriage of Aleksios and Erika, showing that Erika's mother Glykeria is not quite the invincible harridan everyone thought, looms quite as large as the renewed alliance between Ethiopia and Kongo - which shows that, if Konstantin ever had mind-control rays gotten from Persian colonies on the moon, they have now stopped working. The effort to keep the Anatolios brothers from brawling with the Nikandroi is as important, and takes as much thought, as smoothing over a skirmish in the Himalayas with deaths on both sides.
Eat, drink, and be merry? There is something to that; but if the truth were told, these minor Komnenoi rarely indulge, especially in these straitened days when the State dividend has been cut to the bone. In their daily round they scrimp and save, and put money in the bank; on the first Monday of each month they make a ritual of going to the local branch to have their account books stamped, and so-circumspectly brag about the interest they earned. (Indeed the size of Aleksios's monthly payment is not the least of the reasons Glykeria ceased her customary opposition to all Erika's doings; if that number was, perchance, inflated by temporary contributions from friends of the happy couple, well, nobody is like to tell the Harridan of Hippocrates Street.) They do not drink and celebrate because they wish to forget their troubles; they have forgotten their troubles because they are far away, and they celebrate from genuine happiness. Ephemeral happiness, perhaps; but real enough for all that. The war will come, the anvils will fall; perhaps even tomorrow, for some of them, when the telegram that started in a centurion's office in the Himalayas finally reaches its destination. But that is tomorrow, or the next day.
One hour at a time. And today, the sun is shining.
The Empire of the Volga – IV
I was breathless from the sight before me.
Or more accurately there were two particularly breathtaking sights before me, each vying for my attention, each wonderful and marvellous in their own right.
The first being the campus of Petrograd State University, or more specifically the site of the Twelve Colleges on Vasilievsky Island. The administrative headquarters of the University, containing over two dozen research institutes and faculties in addition to a faculty for military studies. I wouldn't be attending here specifically of course but at this campus but at the Faculty of Chemistry and the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics at Peterhof where I could pursue my passion for chemistry.
The campus I was at now however... It was very “rustic” one could say in its style, containing twelve red bricked buildings designed in the 1750's by decree from the Tsar Peter the Great. Nowadays though they had been modified into one larger modern structure.
Russia's oldest most prestigious university...
It should have been impossible for the son from a poor Jewish family like mine to have been able to afford this, even with a scholarship, much less get accepted!
And with those thoughts I turned my attention to the second reason for my stolen breath.
Standing there very statuesque, or rather stately?
The love of my life.
Irina Von Einzburn.
A Prussian Noblewoman? Every inch the cultured aristocrat...
Gentle and soft spoken, that was very much her type.
But there was an lovely air of childlike naivety about her. The kind of naivety to make her think during our first meeting that I was “kul'turny” a cultured gentleman saving her from harm.
The kind of enthusiastic naivety that would let someone of her class...
Fall in love with a bespectacled jew like myself.
I guess you could say those events happened, but isn't it just what anyone in their right mind would do?
She stood there now in her gorgeous ushanka and felt valenki of the finest Russian furs, the envy of women everywhere. Turning she smiled at me.
I blushed and grinned back at her, we were the same age it seems, we were both 18, when we first met she was so much shorter than myself, like a doll...
But now she towered over me...
It made her scary when she got mad...
It was nice though, for now I got this entire extra side of her for free. How could I not be happy with finding out more to the person I love?
I went over to her and she unclasped her hands as she turned to regard me, with a now stern and uncompromising expression.
Looking me up and down she nodded to herself, as if confirming something.
“Yes... It'll have to do...” She sighed.
“There's only so much I can do with what I have to work with after all!” She laughed, grinning from ear to ear.
I burned at the ears a little at that. But it was a transient thing.
She moved up to me, treading lightly on the snow, reaching out with her hands, gloved with fur mittens she tried her best to fiddle with my bow tie.
She pouted, fuming that how could anyone think bow ties are kul'turny? That was very 1920 but it is 1940! Who would dare show their face with a bowtie like this?
I liked bow ties, they seemed very swell to me, it suited me though she admitted as much.
“Boshemoi! If only you could wear glasses that were more kul'turny.” She shook her head in shame, there was nothing she could do.
It was hopeless.
She sighed again. Her face changed from one of despair to determination in a heart beat.
This is what I love so much about her.
“Right! It will have to do... We can do this!” She pumped a fist in front of her. Was I supposed to respond? All I could do was nod.
She coughed and composed herself, intertwining her fingers, as if she were stretching her arms out to resist the cold.
“We have a very important day ahead of us Ika.” She used the diminutive for my name. It sounded to my ears a lot like the English “Ike”, but was really her Baltic German accented Russian saying “Ik” emphasizing the “k” with an unvoiced vowel. Such was the quirks of linguistics.
Normally I would mind, I don't like it when people give me nicknames, my name is my name and people should be referring to me, not to my father after the normal Russian fashion. “Citizen” by the militia, the “police” and strangers is bad enough.
But if Iri wishes to use “Ika” for me... Well this is fine, I want her to be happy, and she liked using it.
“Hey? Are you listening?”
Ooops.
I had zoned out for a second there.
I smile apologetically and she repeats herself, pouting again., but she's used to it, “It just means your really smart, with a lot to think about” she said after I caught myself doing it before.
“As I was saying, it is one thing for us to have been accepted, and the paper work done. Father and Mother however expect big things from us, our Alma Mater here will leave an important mark on our lives, so we need to go see the Dean straight away and introduce ourselves...”
She continued.
“You are a part of the Einzburn Household.” A touch of pride entering her voice.
“They-We, all of us, have high expectations of our members, failure-Is not an option for us.”
'Return with your shield or on it'-I recall from my history of Rome.
Such a scary family.
She nodded as if hearing my thoughts, did I have such a grave expression?
“As such... There are social obligations, people from Petrograd... St Petersburg society... Friends and extended family whom we need to meet and keep in touch with as well as exceed expectations as model students.”
It was the bargain struck.
When I first met the Matron of the Einzburn family, a tall scary woman of formidable personality, I had worried I would die on the spot from her glare.
She wanted nothing less than the very best, and seeing my posture and poor clothes, my finest but the worst by their reckoning... It was far from it.
Somehow...
Somehow we persevered, I don't think I melted her heart, but seeing the look her daughter had for me in her eyes she decided there must be something of value to me.... The judgement of an Einzburn was not to be casually dismissed.
If she loved me then there must be something to it, she had informed me in a private interview.
So she would grant me a chance, she was exceptionally generous, not even insisting on conversion into Russian Orthodoxy as was often the case for cross religion marriages, though our children would most certainly be baptized.
I was only slightly saddened at the thought, I was non religious, unobservant as the terminology went, but I was still a Jew and would always be seen as one not matter what vows I took.
How wise the women of the Einzburn line are!
The men are very fortunate to have such custodians eh?
We entered the main building.
The sight was a true marvel, the longest academic hallway in the world.
Lines with statues of Russian politicians and long dead Tsars and Prime Ministers.
Awards and honors also took their rightful and dignified place within the closed and locked glass cabinets lining the hallway.
I was truly lucky to be here.
Lucky to be with Iri.
“Over here is the office were representatives from the Faculty of Military Affairs reside, you'll need to visit there at some point... for the ROTC courses...” A shadow passed her face.
“An officer... Is that so?” I said to aloud.
She nodded.
“All students need to take officer training courses, patently ridiculous. You are no soldier, who could you kill or ordered to be killed!?” She fumed.
“Its fine... Iri... I'm sure whatever they decide to do with the likes of me it will be where I'll be of use.” I smiled, a little weakly. I knew army life wouldn't suit me either, I'm not really sure if it suits anyone but that's just me.
“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” I said, not to anyone in particular.
“Who said that?” Irina quirked her head, obviously trying to figure out if she knew if she heard it before.
I stopped.
I thought about it a bit myself.
“I... I don't think anyone said it, I just sort of made it up....” I scratched my head.
“However.... It is something I believe though. Violence is the wrong answer to everything, people spend too many resources, far too many lives on struggling with other humans for tracts of dirt. When instead it could be used for the benefit of all humans on this small world of ours.” I said this, determination slowly creeping into my voice.
“So.... Amazing!” Irina said, clasping her hands together, her mouth in a wide open smile. She lunged towards me and grabbed my arm, rubbing her cheek onto my shoulder. She had to bend over slightly to do so.
“You should be Prime Minister!” She said after a few minutes like this, walking slowly down the hallway arm in arm.
“That will never happen. I am just as much a politician as I am a soldier, I am nobody.”
“Your wrong.” She said, but we left it at that.
It is about as likely as robots taking the appearance and mannerisms of human beings.
But I left that unsaid.
[We see the return of Isaac Asimov as well as my walking Fate/Stay Night shout out, I added in some Foundationverse references (I,Robot and Foundation specifically iirc. I think I got a good roster for characters/different POV for the time being, might add some minorities as specialized rolls like being a pilot or submariner at some point.]
I was breathless from the sight before me.
Or more accurately there were two particularly breathtaking sights before me, each vying for my attention, each wonderful and marvellous in their own right.
The first being the campus of Petrograd State University, or more specifically the site of the Twelve Colleges on Vasilievsky Island. The administrative headquarters of the University, containing over two dozen research institutes and faculties in addition to a faculty for military studies. I wouldn't be attending here specifically of course but at this campus but at the Faculty of Chemistry and the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics at Peterhof where I could pursue my passion for chemistry.
The campus I was at now however... It was very “rustic” one could say in its style, containing twelve red bricked buildings designed in the 1750's by decree from the Tsar Peter the Great. Nowadays though they had been modified into one larger modern structure.
Russia's oldest most prestigious university...
It should have been impossible for the son from a poor Jewish family like mine to have been able to afford this, even with a scholarship, much less get accepted!
And with those thoughts I turned my attention to the second reason for my stolen breath.
Standing there very statuesque, or rather stately?
The love of my life.
Irina Von Einzburn.
A Prussian Noblewoman? Every inch the cultured aristocrat...
Gentle and soft spoken, that was very much her type.
But there was an lovely air of childlike naivety about her. The kind of naivety to make her think during our first meeting that I was “kul'turny” a cultured gentleman saving her from harm.
The kind of enthusiastic naivety that would let someone of her class...
Fall in love with a bespectacled jew like myself.
I guess you could say those events happened, but isn't it just what anyone in their right mind would do?
She stood there now in her gorgeous ushanka and felt valenki of the finest Russian furs, the envy of women everywhere. Turning she smiled at me.
I blushed and grinned back at her, we were the same age it seems, we were both 18, when we first met she was so much shorter than myself, like a doll...
But now she towered over me...
It made her scary when she got mad...
It was nice though, for now I got this entire extra side of her for free. How could I not be happy with finding out more to the person I love?
I went over to her and she unclasped her hands as she turned to regard me, with a now stern and uncompromising expression.
Looking me up and down she nodded to herself, as if confirming something.
“Yes... It'll have to do...” She sighed.
“There's only so much I can do with what I have to work with after all!” She laughed, grinning from ear to ear.
I burned at the ears a little at that. But it was a transient thing.
She moved up to me, treading lightly on the snow, reaching out with her hands, gloved with fur mittens she tried her best to fiddle with my bow tie.
She pouted, fuming that how could anyone think bow ties are kul'turny? That was very 1920 but it is 1940! Who would dare show their face with a bowtie like this?
I liked bow ties, they seemed very swell to me, it suited me though she admitted as much.
“Boshemoi! If only you could wear glasses that were more kul'turny.” She shook her head in shame, there was nothing she could do.
It was hopeless.
She sighed again. Her face changed from one of despair to determination in a heart beat.
This is what I love so much about her.
“Right! It will have to do... We can do this!” She pumped a fist in front of her. Was I supposed to respond? All I could do was nod.
She coughed and composed herself, intertwining her fingers, as if she were stretching her arms out to resist the cold.
“We have a very important day ahead of us Ika.” She used the diminutive for my name. It sounded to my ears a lot like the English “Ike”, but was really her Baltic German accented Russian saying “Ik” emphasizing the “k” with an unvoiced vowel. Such was the quirks of linguistics.
Normally I would mind, I don't like it when people give me nicknames, my name is my name and people should be referring to me, not to my father after the normal Russian fashion. “Citizen” by the militia, the “police” and strangers is bad enough.
But if Iri wishes to use “Ika” for me... Well this is fine, I want her to be happy, and she liked using it.
“Hey? Are you listening?”
Ooops.
I had zoned out for a second there.
I smile apologetically and she repeats herself, pouting again., but she's used to it, “It just means your really smart, with a lot to think about” she said after I caught myself doing it before.
“As I was saying, it is one thing for us to have been accepted, and the paper work done. Father and Mother however expect big things from us, our Alma Mater here will leave an important mark on our lives, so we need to go see the Dean straight away and introduce ourselves...”
She continued.
“You are a part of the Einzburn Household.” A touch of pride entering her voice.
“They-We, all of us, have high expectations of our members, failure-Is not an option for us.”
'Return with your shield or on it'-I recall from my history of Rome.
Such a scary family.
She nodded as if hearing my thoughts, did I have such a grave expression?
“As such... There are social obligations, people from Petrograd... St Petersburg society... Friends and extended family whom we need to meet and keep in touch with as well as exceed expectations as model students.”
It was the bargain struck.
When I first met the Matron of the Einzburn family, a tall scary woman of formidable personality, I had worried I would die on the spot from her glare.
She wanted nothing less than the very best, and seeing my posture and poor clothes, my finest but the worst by their reckoning... It was far from it.
Somehow...
Somehow we persevered, I don't think I melted her heart, but seeing the look her daughter had for me in her eyes she decided there must be something of value to me.... The judgement of an Einzburn was not to be casually dismissed.
If she loved me then there must be something to it, she had informed me in a private interview.
So she would grant me a chance, she was exceptionally generous, not even insisting on conversion into Russian Orthodoxy as was often the case for cross religion marriages, though our children would most certainly be baptized.
I was only slightly saddened at the thought, I was non religious, unobservant as the terminology went, but I was still a Jew and would always be seen as one not matter what vows I took.
How wise the women of the Einzburn line are!
The men are very fortunate to have such custodians eh?
We entered the main building.
The sight was a true marvel, the longest academic hallway in the world.
Lines with statues of Russian politicians and long dead Tsars and Prime Ministers.
Awards and honors also took their rightful and dignified place within the closed and locked glass cabinets lining the hallway.
I was truly lucky to be here.
Lucky to be with Iri.
“Over here is the office were representatives from the Faculty of Military Affairs reside, you'll need to visit there at some point... for the ROTC courses...” A shadow passed her face.
“An officer... Is that so?” I said to aloud.
She nodded.
“All students need to take officer training courses, patently ridiculous. You are no soldier, who could you kill or ordered to be killed!?” She fumed.
“Its fine... Iri... I'm sure whatever they decide to do with the likes of me it will be where I'll be of use.” I smiled, a little weakly. I knew army life wouldn't suit me either, I'm not really sure if it suits anyone but that's just me.
“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” I said, not to anyone in particular.
“Who said that?” Irina quirked her head, obviously trying to figure out if she knew if she heard it before.
I stopped.
I thought about it a bit myself.
“I... I don't think anyone said it, I just sort of made it up....” I scratched my head.
“However.... It is something I believe though. Violence is the wrong answer to everything, people spend too many resources, far too many lives on struggling with other humans for tracts of dirt. When instead it could be used for the benefit of all humans on this small world of ours.” I said this, determination slowly creeping into my voice.
“So.... Amazing!” Irina said, clasping her hands together, her mouth in a wide open smile. She lunged towards me and grabbed my arm, rubbing her cheek onto my shoulder. She had to bend over slightly to do so.
“You should be Prime Minister!” She said after a few minutes like this, walking slowly down the hallway arm in arm.
“That will never happen. I am just as much a politician as I am a soldier, I am nobody.”
“Your wrong.” She said, but we left it at that.
It is about as likely as robots taking the appearance and mannerisms of human beings.
But I left that unsaid.
[We see the return of Isaac Asimov as well as my walking Fate/Stay Night shout out, I added in some Foundationverse references (I,Robot and Foundation specifically iirc. I think I got a good roster for characters/different POV for the time being, might add some minorities as specialized rolls like being a pilot or submariner at some point.]
Well i think the issue has been analysed and discussed to death in previous threads, and At least I am in conclusion, that you cannot make any "rules" to prevent others diplomatic choises in the game, so all anti-blobbing features are down to diplomacy itself. Its all about having balance of unpredictable predator players and boringly predicatble dow players cleverly distributed so that blobbings couldn't last, and neither become as absolutes for someone's survival. Also, with better grand-diplomatical awareness and farsighted players intressed of game-balance added to the mix, and this game's blob's can be easily avoided. (And Im not going to even mention issues like general sportmanship and gentleman approach to keep those hawk players around)
In order to get more players into Vicky2 and into Hoi phase, the paramount would be playing with Vanilla. Since best way of getting new perms is to lure the casuall subs to fill in, and more the game is modded, less subs there actually are. Vicky2 and AoD MP circless are not that big at first place so the bad effect multiplies when those games are modded. Sadly this aspect always gets duly ignored during the conversion phase and yet the same voices ignoring it usually raises the issues of how lack of subs and players are ruining the game.
But of this game, fear not! Alas, as to complete all irony of the previous drama, Gollevainen is now on Kongo, and Jodokus has agreed to take over Ethiopia as Irsh had to resign due his work commitments, so if us two don't manage tangle into some sort of war in next two sessions, We all be dammed!
This isn't true per se, or rather it is a truism. We presume that there are no rules that can prevent blobbing, because rules have had a tendancy in our game to be difficult to enforce. V2 was a "new" game for most of us so its exploits were not well known, allowing a few players to get away with blatant acts of cheating by claiming ignorance and this has plagued us in lesser form since the beginning.
For ym CK2 Multiplayer thread I've suggested a easily enforcible houserule to not prevent blobbing, which I feel is merely a symptom of a greater problem: Gang Bangs.
In the long term the cost-benefit analysis of players is to follow the path of least resistance, making the game about preemptive strikes or partitions. Partitions have no cost, especially as the number of players increases to include most of the players in the game or a sufficient number to make resistence ineffectual at best to suicidal at worst. Considering how geography for most like 90% of the entire campaign conspired to just as easily work against a defending coalition this has made gang bangs attractive, risk free and cost free.
VonR and Yoshi can protest until the cows come home about how "If only the players had more skill it totally could have been avoided honest!" but even if we grant that it leads to a game that is in the long run ultimately not fun and pointless, an act of extended nihilism.
"No safetynets" has failed, utterly and completely to result in a fun and balanced game and the solution is to find both a sufficiently clever and sufficiently simple and thus enforcible house rule to nip the problem in the bud.
Ultimately the problem rests in that its too easy to gain territory, especially when the work has already been largely done for you in games like EU3 and V2 wherein your armies have been destroyed and war exhaustion in some form cripples recovery.
So the solution is simple:
a) If you are at peace and have a cease fire with any and at least ONE human player, no other player may dow you for the duration of the cease fire.
-I would personally suggest as a starting point also making cease fires through modding or house rule be 10 years instead of 5, expiring obviously if you dow anyone or any AI, to give sufficient time to recover from a sufficiently devastating war.
b) A limit on the number of provinces taken during a war, applied equally to AI and Humans. To 5, +1 if it is a coalition struggle but it is 6 in such a case in TOTAL and to be divided up among the belligerents as they decide amongst themselves. (If one peaces out, then it still applies, the amount he takes is subtracted from the total)
So if you have 3 versus 1, its 6 provinces, so hypothetically 2 provinces each. Defenders can take +1 per defender ontop of 5.
For any GM practicing due diligence his task involves this is easily enforcible. It puts a hard limit on how many provinces be taken in a war, disincentivises gang bangs without banning them outright.
Its true that gang bangs could still happen, an easy win for a province is still an easy win for a province but depending on the costs for such an endeavor the goal post has been moved to make it more unlikely and for far less gain; meaning that the defending country has time and breathing room to recover.
The biggest issue to me, was that once ganged, you were likely killed off once and for all then and there with zero chance of recovery. That isn't very fun or fair, to ask people to commit exuberant amount of time to playing and then having them die egregiously like that.
For those who thought "tl;dr" at Blayne: Blayne wants to turn a game of grand strategy, diplomacy and backstabbing into extended SimCity with armies.
Interesting, to be sure, but not what we signed up for.
Interesting, to be sure, but not what we signed up for.
What? No! WHAT? NO! NO!
[video=youtube;umDr0mPuyQc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umDr0mPuyQc[/video]
The proplem that usually leads into blobbing is indeed gangbangs, and the convidiency one's eg. 1-vs.-15 ones, where there is no change left for the underdog or so. But as such they are not that bad, since they usually needs complete pariah player or dropout to work as a victim.
More proplematical ones are the "Perma-NAPs" or goodwill relationship between several major countries, that can convinietly blob themselves, and having their backs covered by unformal, and unwritten agreements that certain nations don't figth and attack each others. This game has had its share of those (and propably still has), and in the previous campaing, I came up with the term "HRE" for certain big nations in europe that never figth against each others.
Now, that alone is not gamewrecking, as long as there are enough power unallingned to the perma-NAP network and can gather up force that can bring down those nations involved, or (and this I've found out to be more important) there is enough turnover rate among the players. But when three to four players plays rigth from the start till finish and don't figth against each others ever, its kinda predictable that by Hoi phase there are few untouchable monsters that have over 600 IC and not even the combined efforts of the rest can bring them down by "fair" gameplay.
But In my opinion things don't need to go that far as they have in this game. In the previous marathon, eventually the "HRE" was broken when the players dropped in late eu3-Vikcy phase and were replaced with hawkish opportunists who did not hung into alliances past their expiring dates and waged war as the main feature of the game. I learned lot from Elcyion, Falakh, Von Runsteds(before his enmancipation) and Foelsgaard of how to really play along the diplomacy in this type of games.
In my first leg of this campaing, I did not hung into alliances, switched them regularily and flexibly, without avoiding anyone's company (to the point that I had several overlapsing commitments during conflicts) and even when I was stucked into the Persian trap, I didn't hesitate to be hostile to all possible directions and gain hostility from them.
Unfortuanetly several other players did not choose this, and the game turned into what it is now.
Most unfortunate was that Mayi and Elcyion were driven out in Eu3 phase, since they were good examples of players that could even in underdog position turn the game balance by breaking the mega-alliances and convidiency-NAP circles. Had they been allowed to continue their way, there would be more player nations left, and there migth be balance.
So what the game needs is players that understands something about the gamebalance, that are ready to put effort to maintain it, and are not stuck into comfortability-zone when it comes to the intrigue part of the gaming. The game needs players who's morale sees nation killing gangbangs as wrong and are ready to do something about them, and in the otherhand players, who don't see no one excluded from their potential enemy lists and are ready to wage wars even against their geostrategically benefitical ally-candinates.
No rules, No "safety-nets". More skill so that the lag of skill doesen't need to be replaced with NAP-chains and artifical rules that are impossible to enforce.
More proplematical ones are the "Perma-NAPs" or goodwill relationship between several major countries, that can convinietly blob themselves, and having their backs covered by unformal, and unwritten agreements that certain nations don't figth and attack each others. This game has had its share of those (and propably still has), and in the previous campaing, I came up with the term "HRE" for certain big nations in europe that never figth against each others.
Now, that alone is not gamewrecking, as long as there are enough power unallingned to the perma-NAP network and can gather up force that can bring down those nations involved, or (and this I've found out to be more important) there is enough turnover rate among the players. But when three to four players plays rigth from the start till finish and don't figth against each others ever, its kinda predictable that by Hoi phase there are few untouchable monsters that have over 600 IC and not even the combined efforts of the rest can bring them down by "fair" gameplay.
But In my opinion things don't need to go that far as they have in this game. In the previous marathon, eventually the "HRE" was broken when the players dropped in late eu3-Vikcy phase and were replaced with hawkish opportunists who did not hung into alliances past their expiring dates and waged war as the main feature of the game. I learned lot from Elcyion, Falakh, Von Runsteds(before his enmancipation) and Foelsgaard of how to really play along the diplomacy in this type of games.
In my first leg of this campaing, I did not hung into alliances, switched them regularily and flexibly, without avoiding anyone's company (to the point that I had several overlapsing commitments during conflicts
) and even when I was stucked into the Persian trap, I didn't hesitate to be hostile to all possible directions and gain hostility from them. Unfortuanetly several other players did not choose this, and the game turned into what it is now.
Most unfortunate was that Mayi and Elcyion were driven out in Eu3 phase, since they were good examples of players that could even in underdog position turn the game balance by breaking the mega-alliances and convidiency-NAP circles. Had they been allowed to continue their way, there would be more player nations left, and there migth be balance.
So what the game needs is players that understands something about the gamebalance, that are ready to put effort to maintain it, and are not stuck into comfortability-zone when it comes to the intrigue part of the gaming. The game needs players who's morale sees nation killing gangbangs as wrong and are ready to do something about them, and in the otherhand players, who don't see no one excluded from their potential enemy lists and are ready to wage wars even against their geostrategically benefitical ally-candinates.
No rules, No "safety-nets". More skill so that the lag of skill doesen't need to be replaced with NAP-chains and artifical rules that are impossible to enforce.
I agree with most of what Golle is saying but I would also like to expand on the "Perma-NAP" issue.
As you say, there was a tendency to create larger blocs of human players who would not fight eachother on a regular basis, like for example the African brotherhood. Now, instead of pointing fingers and telling them that they should have fought one another one should instead ask why they didn't. The reason, I believe, is that the new mechanics in DW regarding buildings and magistrates disincentives war between neighbours, especially in a mega-campaign such as this. This is because there is no real benefit to ones own nation to expand once you've reached a certain point. It is also because the game gave us the choice of either developing our core areas with accepted cultures and right religion and become prosperous, or take non-core, non-accepted culture, wrong religion provinces from your neighbour and develop these. The only reason to DoW someone was if you had spare magistrates or if you wanted to reduce someones power, not increase your own.
So, the problem as I see it is that during the largest in-game timeperiod the best long-term strategy was to sit still and build. Wars were a risky venture with very small gains. There was no reason for Ethiopia to fight Kongo since the provinces that he would have got if he'd won would be desolate wastelands unless he neglected his own core territory and focused on building up his new non-accepted lands. Cooperation in this case is the logical way to go as it will make Africa, as a whole, stronger. This wouldn't have been the case if provinces retained their value once taken and would have allowed for multiple wars over disputed areas like in AROW and the many wars over Britain.
As you say, there was a tendency to create larger blocs of human players who would not fight eachother on a regular basis, like for example the African brotherhood. Now, instead of pointing fingers and telling them that they should have fought one another one should instead ask why they didn't. The reason, I believe, is that the new mechanics in DW regarding buildings and magistrates disincentives war between neighbours, especially in a mega-campaign such as this. This is because there is no real benefit to ones own nation to expand once you've reached a certain point. It is also because the game gave us the choice of either developing our core areas with accepted cultures and right religion and become prosperous, or take non-core, non-accepted culture, wrong religion provinces from your neighbour and develop these. The only reason to DoW someone was if you had spare magistrates or if you wanted to reduce someones power, not increase your own.
So, the problem as I see it is that during the largest in-game timeperiod the best long-term strategy was to sit still and build. Wars were a risky venture with very small gains. There was no reason for Ethiopia to fight Kongo since the provinces that he would have got if he'd won would be desolate wastelands unless he neglected his own core territory and focused on building up his new non-accepted lands. Cooperation in this case is the logical way to go as it will make Africa, as a whole, stronger. This wouldn't have been the case if provinces retained their value once taken and would have allowed for multiple wars over disputed areas like in AROW and the many wars over Britain.
You think I was suggesting it for this game? You see but you do not observe.
So yeah, irrelevance.
The proplem that usually leads into blobbing is indeed gangbangs, and the convidiency one's eg. 1-vs.-15 ones, where there is no change left for the underdog or so. But as such they are not that bad, since they usually needs complete pariah player or dropout to work as a victim.
More proplematical ones are the "Perma-NAPs" or goodwill relationship between several major countries, that can convinietly blob themselves, and having their backs covered by unformal, and unwritten agreements that certain nations don't figth and attack each others. This game has had its share of those (and propably still has), and in the previous campaing, I came up with the term "HRE" for certain big nations in europe that never figth against each others.
Now, that alone is not gamewrecking, as long as there are enough power unallingned to the perma-NAP network and can gather up force that can bring down those nations involved, or (and this I've found out to be more important) there is enough turnover rate among the players. But when three to four players plays rigth from the start till finish and don't figth against each others ever, its kinda predictable that by Hoi phase there are few untouchable monsters that have over 600 IC and not even the combined efforts of the rest can bring them down by "fair" gameplay.
But In my opinion things don't need to go that far as they have in this game. In the previous marathon, eventually the "HRE" was broken when the players dropped in late eu3-Vikcy phase and were replaced with hawkish opportunists who did not hung into alliances past their expiring dates and waged war as the main feature of the game. I learned lot from Elcyion, Falakh, Von Runsteds(before his enmancipation) and Foelsgaard of how to really play along the diplomacy in this type of games.
In my first leg of this campaing, I did not hung into alliances, switched them regularily and flexibly, without avoiding anyone's company (to the point that I had several overlapsing commitments during conflicts
Unfortuanetly several other players did not choose this, and the game turned into what it is now.
Most unfortunate was that Mayi and Elcyion were driven out in Eu3 phase, since they were good examples of players that could even in underdog position turn the game balance by breaking the mega-alliances and convidiency-NAP circles. Had they been allowed to continue their way, there would be more player nations left, and there migth be balance.
So what the game needs is players that understands something about the gamebalance, that are ready to put effort to maintain it, and are not stuck into comfortability-zone when it comes to the intrigue part of the gaming. The game needs players who's morale sees nation killing gangbangs as wrong and are ready to do something about them, and in the otherhand players, who don't see no one excluded from their potential enemy lists and are ready to wage wars even against their geostrategically benefitical ally-candinates.
No rules, No "safety-nets". More skill so that the lag of skill doesen't need to be replaced with NAP-chains and artifical rules that are impossible to enforce.
We have never, throughout 4 or so GG's and several normal EU3 mp games have ever seen there be an even distribution of skill to result in a balanced scenario as you suggest that avoids blobbing; it never happens. For the next GG if we want to have a fun scenario, without gang bangs because they're easy, to avoid blobbing we frankly need house rules; the only solution that would work otherwise is impossible since we start in CK2.
If it were EU3 and we had around 32 players, enough for europe and the rotw to be filled, we could then put the worst players in the strongest nations and the best in the weakest and it should balance out. We'ld also have enough players that gang bangs aren't as likely but we can't rely on that.
Players leave, we have new people join, where once we had Elcyion the next we get Jodokus, and so on. Its better to have something that works regardless of players, and works accounting for human nature than to hope naievely for it to work out a 5th, 6th, 7th, time and so on and then blame the players when it goes wrong.
Do I blame Oddman for singlehandedly ruining the New World and long term play balance? Sure I do!
, but it wouldn't have happened if we had more smartly designed the scenario, and if we had a disincentive to try to annex Inca and Huron in one go.
I also agree there was an imbalance with buildings that also contributed, that is something we would need to fix for next time as well and it would help alleviate some of the problem, that and with proper RotW buffs to meet the European average I think we would be just about set. I would still be concerned about gang bangs and perma naps but at least it wouldn't be so dissaproportionately be Continent A vs Continent B, especially if we had enough players who survived in Europe. Like 12 and not like 4.
Then we could avoid ridiculous silliness of people giving up France to focus on the New World.
well this game has allready de facto been played; regardless what should or should have been done. One thing that is certain in regagarding last marathon's experiences, that what this game migth indicate for the rules don't apply on the next. The game is about players, not about the setup. CK2 itself brings so much new factors, as well as propable euIV that one should not make hasty assumptions regarding this game. Heck, even with same roster, I bet the game would be different since I for examble played considerably differnt gampaing in both cases.
So for those peanuts who were complaining about the long peace... you can quit yer bitching.
WAR!!! WAR!!!
never take what is jodokus' if he has his tanks nearby to give counter argument
EDIT:
Soo... Germany declares war on Croatia. We held a immediate meeting along our allies wheter attack Germany directly or just get our share of croatia. We choose the latter and begun storming into croatia from anatolia. Agreed, we did move bit leisurely fashion and Germany was rushing trough the pusta and Balkan mountains. Soon he was closing the straits, so Jodokus need to land on Gallipoli to get our sole waraim before fivoin. We were approaching it, by 6:00AM our troops would have got to the city, but some random Croatian stack got there first, and the battle delayed our movment to 11:00AM...in 8:00 AM german tanks got there. In 9:00AM Jodokus Declared war on Germany.
At this point Mongolia had joined the nazi-commie axis of evil, and was thus war with our comitern of ligth. So Naturally Punjab and Japan begun to move in what seems to be full attempt to annex KoM (and quite deeply they did get allready)
me and Jod. then knew we have to push as hard as possible to gain as much before the evidatble Catalunian joining would took place. We got the straigths, we got southern Greece and some italian holdings around Rome. But 1000IC against us two's 700 IC is not going to mean short and easy war in europe. Germany has the terrain, and me and Jod are bit uncustomed to AoD's changes. (if this would have been Hoi2arma the war would allready be over)
But it beats the sitting and building IC game 0-10 ,)
never take what is jodokus' if he has his tanks nearby to give counter argument
EDIT:
Soo... Germany declares war on Croatia. We held a immediate meeting along our allies wheter attack Germany directly or just get our share of croatia. We choose the latter and begun storming into croatia from anatolia. Agreed, we did move bit leisurely fashion and Germany was rushing trough the pusta and Balkan mountains. Soon he was closing the straits, so Jodokus need to land on Gallipoli to get our sole waraim before fivoin. We were approaching it, by 6:00AM our troops would have got to the city, but some random Croatian stack got there first, and the battle delayed our movment to 11:00AM...in 8:00 AM german tanks got there. In 9:00AM Jodokus Declared war on Germany.
At this point Mongolia had joined the nazi-commie axis of evil, and was thus war with our comitern of ligth. So Naturally Punjab and Japan begun to move in what seems to be full attempt to annex KoM (and quite deeply they did get allready)
me and Jod. then knew we have to push as hard as possible to gain as much before the evidatble Catalunian joining would took place. We got the straigths, we got southern Greece and some italian holdings around Rome. But 1000IC against us two's 700 IC is not going to mean short and easy war in europe. Germany has the terrain, and me and Jod are bit uncustomed to AoD's changes. (if this would have been Hoi2arma the war would allready be over
)But it beats the sitting and building IC game 0-10 ,)
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