Pirates! - Planning thread

[smn_]

Edit: changed link to scenario preview 3

A new theme game is starting!

The players are mighty Pirate Lords, based from their hideouts they head out to take control of the Seven Seas!

This game will be a custom made scenario, with 10 pirate nations starting in Africa. There will be several interesting concepts to keep the game eventful and fun:
- Every step is taken to ensure that there is lots of money around. This game is about getting filthy rich and powerful!
- The game setup favours heavily going naval with very rich colonial areas waiting to be taken!
- Between every session, there will be auctions. In the auctions, several nice items, mercenary leaders, ministers and armies go to the highest bidder!
- There will be treasures to hunt. From small ordinary pirate stashes to the mythical Loot of Captain Threepwood!
- Backstabbing, scheming and plotting is allowed. In this game nobody will yell 'No but we need Kongo!' Go ahead and annex your neighbour if the situation allows
- The players will have an eternal monarch, and the stats of that monarch can be adjusted during the game!
- RPG & AARs are certainly allowed, and AARs are encouraged by pure cash rewards by the GMs!

In short, this game will be a naval/colonial oriented game where everything is for sale. The pirate who loots the most and stays alive will be considered the winner in the end, but the main aim is of course to have fun.

There will be two GMs, me and Barnius. The GM tasks are divided so that neither GM can affect their own nation with decisions. For example both GMs organize auctions, and a GM can not make bids in an auction he started. Same goes for treasure hunts etc.

The nation list so far is (nation start setups are heavily edited):

Western pirates:
* Algiers
* Mali
* Ashanti
* Benin
* Kongo

Eastern pirates:
* Egypt
* Nubia
* Ethiopia
* Zanj
* Zulu

Tentative player roster:
smn
Barnius
devil
Norrefeldt
General Guisan
Jarkko Suvinen

Looks like the game time is either wednesday or thursday. The session starts at either 18 or 19 CET, and lasts for 4 hours. We'll go with whatever suits most players.

Download the scenario preview 3 [http://www.slargos.se/forum/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=3815]here[/URL]. This preview must be unpacked into your EU2 directory. Run the generated pirates.bat to start.

Post here to sign up!

 

[unmerged(18425)]

Very interesting. Unfortunately my schedule prohibits me from joining, but I will definately watch this one!

 

[Hive]

Aaaarrr!

 

[devil]

Gaaaarrrr

I nice game, hope you will have a lot of fun with it

 

[unmerged(27108)]

seems highly interesting but i cant play either. Good luck!

 

[unmerged(7276)]

Backstabbing, scheming and plotting is allowed. In this game nobody will yell 'No but we need Kongo!' Go ahead and annex your neighbour if the situation allows

Hehe you should put that text in BOLD so that everyone is clear before game starts. I think a game where you can actually bluff/lie/backstab propaly would be healthy. It just has to be clear that normal, EU etiquette does not appyly. And before anyone says anything, there IS an EU etiquette that nearly everyone sticks too. Its just some people disagree on its detail.

 

[smn_]

Lots of interest, that's good

Let's aim to get the game going after holidays, somewhere in January would be great.

Here are some more details about the two key game concepts, auctions and treasures.

Auctions

Between each session, there will be auctions. Highest bidder gets the item. Players should raise up cash towards end of session The GM organizing the auction may not place bids.
About 3 of 4 auctions are announced pre-session so players have the time to save up money if they spot anything they need urgently. About 1 in 4 are surprise auctions, announced after sessions.

There will be two auction modes, open bidding and hidden bids. In the hidden bids mode, everyone gets to leave only one bid, which is not public. Open bidding is you normal ebay auction style.

A list of stuff that might come up for auction:
- Leaders (explorers, conqs, generals, admirals)
- Ministers ( affect, monarch stats, inflation, badboy & such )
- Treasure maps (leading to minor treasures, items and/or parts of the major treasure map)
- Spy information (Spy claims to know who some valuable piece of information, such as the owner of a certain item etc)
- Mercenary armies (20k to 100k depending of century)
- Pirate mercenaries (small navies of 5-15 warships)
- Beautiful items (chests, paintings, furniture, statues), occasionally yields minor treasures or other goodness.

If a player is short on cash and has something valuable, he can auction or sell that stuff directly too. Basically anything that is bought in an auction can be resold (Up for discussion if units or leaders should be sellable too).

Treasures

As in any good pirate game, there will be treasures. To find a treasure one needs the map and control of the target province. Greater treasures may be found too, but their maps are usually split in several pieces. GMs notify players secretly when they find a map. To keep possession of maps secret might be important, for sacking a capital yields a copy of the map to the looter.

Smaller treasures are more common, but the monetary reward is nothing much (think along the lines of some months income with full mint). Larger treasures may be found too, but they are more complicated. Usually those are either in more difficult provinces, or the map is in several pieces.

The mightiest of treasures is the Loot of Captain Threepwood. This one is so big it can and will seriously affect game outcome, and boost the nation that finds it.

Players can ally and share their knowledge in treasure hunts, but whoever then first gets control of the target province may decide to sneak off with all (or most) of it

 

[smn_]

Hehe you should put that text in BOLD so that everyone is clear before game starts. I think a game where you can actually bluff/lie/backstab propaly would be healthy. It just has to be clear that normal, EU etiquette does not appyly. And before anyone says anything, there IS an EU etiquette that nearly everyone sticks too. Its just some people disagree on its detail.

Well, in this kind of game I consider anything that is not game-engine abusive (such as a deal where you give me money, I give you a province, and after getting the money I would not give the province) as a fair trade. Got a 20 year NAP? No worries, break away if it suits you. Promised to give half of Caribbean to Algiers? No worries, sink their fleet and rob their half-developed colonies if it suits you. Good backstabs and a bit of healthy paranoia are for good

Also, with the great treasures being potentially hidden in ones demesne, it is just understandable that your neighbour would attack you and capture that province in order to get the treasure.

An extra rule: Navaho and Dakota are off-limits for everybody. They are reserved to the GMs, if we might get annexed, so we can edit them full world knowledge and follow the game through, writing chronicles or something

 

[unmerged(5161)]

Here is a cool idea. Uber-boost the AI countries, then create small pirate havens in the colonies. Fight for the spoils of AI ineptitude and build colonies with the stolen proceeds. Everyone gets one province islands; Caribbean, St Helena, Cape Verde, Falklands, maybe Indian/Pacific Oceans too.

Probably too far along now to change the idea, but just thought I would throw in my 2 cents.


AARRGGHHH

 

[HolisticGod]

Smn,

Hmm... I think I'd stick around to play this, provided it's at a day-time I can handle.

Some ideas:

One-province islands would require exceptionally high tax base and manpower, but that could be fun-particularly if each started with a shipyard.

At any rate, though, I think you should set all countries to Aborigin as primary culture, all pirates should belong to one religion (doesn't much matter what that religion is-it's just necessary to keep them even colonially) and tech group if they aren't already and have CBs on the capitals of all European countries and one another.

The pirates should be allowed to move their capitals at will, except to Europe.

 

[smn_]

Smn,

Hmm... I think I'd stick around to play this, provided it's at a day-time I can handle.

Cool, the timeframe is in the first port, I hope something suits you

Some ideas:

One-province islands would require exceptionally high tax base and manpower, but that could be fun-particularly if each started with a shipyard.

I have thought about this idea too, but there are some problems. the provinces would need to be unrealistically good, like 50 base tax and 20 manpower to make such a nation viable. Otherwise the setup would take a century or two before the players are strong enough for any powergaming. A problem with the really high tax rate on the other hand is, what if your neighbour annexes you? That neighbour may practically rise to double power compared to anybody else with just one lucky battle won. I for one would probably build a huge warfleet and army, and try to annex a couple of colonizing neighbours with surprise strikes. Not really a recipe for a good game, such early gambles, I think there needs to be some room for errors etc.

At any rate, though, I think you should set all countries to Aborigin as primary culture, all pirates should belong to one religion (doesn't much matter what that religion is-it's just necessary to keep them even colonially) and tech group if they aren't already and have CBs on the capitals of all European countries and one another.

The pirate nations currently have all their unique cultures and the same religion + techgroup. Casus Bellis are not yet in in the preview but will be later on. I'm not sure if the culture similarity is a good, bad or irrelevant idea, for differing cultures support colonial warfare which is an aim of the scenario.

If you look at the scenario setup, it is for encouraging naval and colonial wars. The aim is a GM-led experiment of 10 naval nations wrestling for power and gold. Africa was chosen mainly for 1 reason: Double move rates. Oh and it is geographically quite nice for placing 10 nations too.

Some consideration has also been used with base tax & manpower edits, so that the area is divided with natural borders: provinces with horrible attrition. In this scenario, one would want to have a navy even when invading the next-door neighbour, exactly for the geographical reasons.

Me & Barnius also edited in colonial 'hotspots', for example Caribbean and Indonesia are much richer than in a normal setup. Also, India & Japan got some rich gold provinces to ensure some competition there.

The hard choice would thus be, will the player stay colonizing locally, poorer and more difficult but manpower-yielding Africa, or the easier-to-colonize, very rich lands overseas. I think this kind of setup will, after initial buildup, see an amount of colonial wars never seen before.

Go download the preview and check the initial setup, it is easier than me trying to describe it

The pirates should be allowed to move their capitals at will, except to Europe.

Certainly an interesting idea. I like it .. will need to think for a while about the implications (such as early conquest of China) .. but a very good suggestion.

 

[Swuul]

If it is Wednesday or Thursday starting after or at 1900 CET and not lasting beyond 2300 CET, count me in if there is room

 

[HolisticGod]

smn,

Er, no, differing cultures stymies colonial warfare.

Setting Aborigin as the primary encourages it.

 

[smn_]

If it is Wednesday or Thursday starting after or at 1900 CET and not lasting beyond 2300 CET, count me in if there is room

Naturally we want you in, so unless an overwhelming majority of players can't play those days, we will play wed or thu

 

[Swuul]

Naturally we want you in, so unless an overwhelming majority of players can't play those days, we will play wed or thu

Weee! I have *influence*

 

[smn_]

smn,

Er, no, differing cultures stymies colonial warfare.

Setting Aborigin as the primary encourages it.

After thinking about it for a while, you are actually right

 

[Wyvern]

Sounds like a great setting smn! Times midweek would be difficult for me to play though sadly.

 

[unmerged(10146)]

Hehe you should put that text in BOLD so that everyone is clear before game starts. I think a game where you can actually bluff/lie/backstab propaly would be healthy. It just has to be clear that normal, EU etiquette does not appyly. And before anyone says anything, there IS an EU etiquette that nearly everyone sticks too. Its just some people disagree on its detail.

True

But with players taking lead of 10 pirate nests it should be clear not only all those mentioned was allowed, but also encouraged

And when we say encouraged, that in this game means you get money for it

 

[smn_]

Sounds like a great setting smn! Times midweek would be difficult for me to play though sadly.

I know, whe I was in UK I could never participate in a week game that started before 20CET .. the time difference, work schedules and traffic were just too much to get home before that. But unfortunately the game day can't be too close to ToH2.

 

[unmerged(10146)]

smn,

Er, no, differing cultures stymies colonial warfare.

Setting Aborigin as the primary encourages it.

You are right, but so are different rare cultures (which we appied): colonial cities (1000-5000 population) would change culture to the new owner after 30 years (nationalism) which would encourage fast reaction of the former owner... But since there are some exceptions to this, so probably your suggestion is better, thanks