Three Countries One Goal

[Commandante]

Ouch! Not Georgia! They were doing quite good and then BAM! and they're gone. Bummer.

Good one getting a prov from Austria though.

I love your bitter irony. It's... descriptive.

 

[Storey]

Amric Thanks. The Pope is a happy man right now but there is a slight speed bump coming up just ahead.

Jwolf I had around 23% for my victory score if I remember right. It was enough to ask for two provinces but Austria wasn’t going to give them to me. They were close to taking Piemonte so I wanted to settle before those 40,000 Austrians came marching into Northern Italy. Yea I was happy at the results because I did take them on alone and won! The Austrians have just been going at the Turks in the last few years so that rivalry is starting to heat up.

Stuyvesant I’ve played the next turn of the Georgians and Mameluks and interesting is an under statement for what happened. And yes I am really learning to hate Crimea!

Director Murphy was an incurable optimist who rears his ugly head in the next chapter. Longer turns would make it easier to play. The additional time you’re with the country would outweigh the longer period of separation. With ten-year turns if you make a mistake you don’t have much time to correct it. I know it’s hard to believe but in the next turn I screw up and don’t have enough time to make up for it. I like the fact that you pay for your mistakes! Most of us can recover from just about anything the game throws at us but with only ten years to work with you can’t always succeed. I could see possibly using15-20 year turns but I find that for whatever reason 10-year turns are a perfect fit for what I’m trying to do. I think the size of the country and the goal your setting for the game should determine the length of turn. If I’m playing a major country I could go with any length but if I’m playing a minor there’s a good chance it might not be around when you come back to it with a longer turn. There’s also nothing stopping the length of turn varying as the game goes along. 5 the first rotation 10 the second 15 the third etc. Or you could give each country an equal amount of time and use it as you want but when they’ve used up their years then you can’t help them again. However I think I’ll stay with ten years since as I said earlier you don’t have time to correct those occasional screw ups. It is a tad bit more exciting this way.

Backpack So lets see. You’re going way up north to Iceland in the middle of winter, right? Iceland is basically several volcanoes in the middle of the ocean, right? So you’re in effect going to be sitting your buns down on top of a blowhole for the earth’s crust, right? You’re hoping the young blond haired blue eyed women are horny as hell because you saw them on MTV Iceland, right? Do you know this guy called Murphy? You might be the only guy I know who’s more optimistic than him.

Commandante Yea Georgia really took a hit that last turn but I haven’t given up on them. Although as you’ll see I didn’t give them a lot of help this next turn.


Joe

 

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I thought I'd pop back to the forum to see who was about. No surprises then to find Storey's genius at work on another AAR.

Now, if only he could turn that supertanker of an intellect towards learning to play the game

A few comments on gameplay:

1) I believe the inflation "problem" you had with Georgia was not really a problem. As I recall when playing a game with FOUR countries - yes guys, Storey steals all my ideas - Zimbabwe's inflation reverted to the "norm" when the AI got control of it. I just took advantage of the "bug" and printed money like there was no tomorrow - with Zimbabwe you doubt if there will be a tomorrow - while I was controlling them.
2) Not sure how exactly Military Access works but can't imagine that a country that has access to your territories will have the same supply level as you. If not, and they place troops in your province, you can feed troops into the province to slowly starve them. You can use the same trick on, for example, a large Algerian force returning from Azerbaijan through Sinai
3) I hope you're defending those manufactories

 

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Lionheart, I've wondered about that inflation issue, too, though I've never played a multi-nation game such as this. How long does it take the AI to reset inflation to a low level? Is this really a viable strategy to control inflation?

 

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I'll just say that I really like this AAR. But it sounds like a lot of work to play. Hmm, Sunni Mamelukes sound powerful! I think they'll win.

 

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This is a great AAR! I've been following for awhile and am finally caught up. You're doing a great job, considering the rules that have been imposed...I think the Sunni Mamelukes are poised to do some serious damage! Hopefully Georgia will figure out how to deal with a revolt in Crimea, but I wouldn't count on it. Oh, the reactions to the constant bad luck are always entertaining, at least on this side of the screen.

 

[Storey]

Lionheart Good to hear from you again. Well my supertanker of an intellect doesn’t do too good in the next chapter as you’ll see but I’m really just pacing myself. I wouldn’t want to win too easily. Unfortunately the inflation bug has been fixed. All nations are tied to the human player so I’m running the same 40% or more every time I start the game no matter what country I’m playing. Bummer! Hmm I like your starvation idea. Now why didn’t my supertanker of an intellect think of that?

Jwolf As I mentioned above it doesn’t reset it to a low level. I have to hope for an event to lower it until my infrastructure improves enough to do it myself. If I had to do it over again I might give Armenia its independence and make it a vassal.

Gjerg Kastrioti Welcome aboard. With the Mameluks large starting advantage they just might pull off an upset and win especially with the troubles that Georgia is having but the favorites might be the Papal States.

Paranoid Tsar I’ve played the next two turns and they are definitely a mixed bag. The Mameluks do make their move but how successful they are is debatable, as you’ll see on Monday. Stay tuned.


I’m about to send a screen shot to nalivayko so hopefully he can post it this weekend. It shows why the Ottomans are a problem to Georgia and the Mameluks.


Joe

 

[Storey]

Okay first off we or I should say I had a disaster. I was playing Georgia and had just lost a war to the Ottomans. They took Crimea province from me for peace. I meanwhile had taken Kaffa from Crimea. This took nearly five years to play itself out and needless to say I had numerous revolts to take care of. So here I am licking my wounds and planing my revenge or survival when I decided to look around the rest of the world. Hmm the Mameluks look about the same. Hmm now where did I put the Papal States? I could have sworn they were right here last time I looked. DAMN they’ve turned blue! They’re suffocating! Quick stand back and give them air! What the heck? Yes it seems that the screw up on missing the message about them becoming a vassal of France and forgetting to set the message file to let me know if something like this happened and not checking close enough the last time I played them to see that they were indeed a vassal caught up with me. That’s only three mistakes. Well here in the states we say “Three strikes and your out”. Sigh. So since I will not let one of my countries be diplo-annexed I had to start the turn again. Sorry about that but I made it clear in the beginning that this wasn’t allowed. And yes I did change the message file to let me know in the future so I can go back to the yearly auto save and start again from there. The turn went better the second time but not as well as I would have liked. Again please accept the apologies of the management. Now back to the show.

Wait a minute.

This might be the time to talk a little about how I start each turn. I know some of you would put the country under a microscope and check out each and every detail no matter how small. Then you’d get out your slide ruler and start figuring out to seven decimal points… Yea that’s right I said slide ruler. You know that metal mechanical device used for higher mathematical functions. Why all the blank looks? Damn kids. Okay so you take out your CALCULATOR and figure out to the seventh decimal point what’s happening to that country. I on the other hand like to feel the wind in my hair as I fly by the seat of my pants living life to the fullest… Okay so I’m not as detailed oriented, as you would be when I start my turns, so sue me. As a side note I want to point out that I was the only one in my math class who could work up a sweat using a slide ruler. Yep it’s true. Of course this was back in the days when men were men and women were glad of it. Try working up a sweat with your little calculator. Ohhhh pushing that button is sooo hard. Bah, damn kids. I won’t even start on how I had to walk to school in the snow without shoes etc, etc. Has any of this distracted any of you on how stupid I’ve been? Just wondering?



Dismember

a. Slang: To insult a member of your gang
b. To cut, tear, or pull off the limbs of

Georgia 1659

Aristocracy 9
Centralism 2
Innovativeness 5
Mercantilism 6
Offensive 4
Land 7
Quality 6
Serfdom 8

Land Tech 11
Naval Tech 9
Trade Level 2
Infrastructure Level 3

I’m at +3 Stability.
I’ve lost Podolia and Jedisan to the Ottomans in the last war, as well as Azov and Kaffa to the formation of Crimea. I’m really hurting here folks. Feel my pain.
I’m still in the military alliance of Russia and Ukraine, which I still lead.
My alliance is at war with Pskov.
I have 24,000 Infantry and 3,000 Calvary.
And of course I have a navy of 8 warships and 4 transports.

Goals: Get out of the war with Pskov. Then DOW Crimea and start once again dismembering them and this time enjoy doing it!

January 1659

Pskov accepted a Status Quo peace with me.

February 1660

Georgia declared war upon Crimea. Ukraine and Russia joined the war on the same side as Georgia. I figured I’d ask them to join to speed things up a bit. I thought, what could go wrong? Since Azov was the first province I besieged and since it was closest to Russia then Russia if it had a leader would send him there. It would be no big deal if he captured the capital as long as I captured Kaffa. So what does Russia do? You guessed it. Russia promptly sent its leader to Kaffa and stole the siege and captured it. In the end I captured Azov and could only ask for money for peace. Now that was stupid of me. Hey that’s the first stupid thing I’ve done in the entire game, I think. Damn memory is flaking out on me again.

May 1660

Papal States converts to Catholic. Somehow I knew they would get around to it.

February 1661

We captured the province of Azov from Crimea and received $75 for peace. Yea, a lot of wasted effort because of my mistake. Now I have to just wait for the truce to end.

May 1662

Russia declared war upon Poland. Ukraine and Georgia joined the war on the same side as Russia. Sweden joined the war on the same side as Poland.

Poland rejected our generous peace offer! As you can see my heart isn’t in this war and I repeatedly tried to get them to agree to a Status Quo peace. Since they wouldn’t I sent out a 3,000 man Calvary force and pillaged as many provinces as I could before winter came. Then I’d wait in one of the Ukraine’s provinces until spring and repeat the process. I made a tidy sum doing this. I also finally gave in and disbanded my fleet. I need all the money I can get for my army.

August 1663

Papal States cancelled the Vassalization she had with France. I’m VERY happy to see this. See I knew what I was doing.


February 1665

Poland accepted peace with Russia on the following terms. Russia pays $171 in indemnities. Finally peace but my men are stranded so…

Ukraine is now granting us military access to their country.
Russia is now granting us military access to their country.

October 1665

Ottoman Empire will now guarantee our independence. Now isn’t that nice? I think they’re trying to be friends.

March 1666

Georgia declared war upon Crimea. I do not ask my allies to join!

Mameluks entered a Military Alliance with Persia.

April1666

We have initiated a siege in Azow.

May 1666

We have initiated a siege in Kaffa.

January 1667

Persia declared war upon Baluchistan. Mameluks joined the war on the same side as Persia.

February1667

Crimea accepted our generous peace offer. Kaffa is mine once again but I’ll have to wait to get Azov back. I move my ENTIRE army to Kaffa to make sure the suckers don’t successfully revolt.

Not a lot to say about this turn. I continue to make mistakes in assuming that things will happen the way I think things should in my little fantasy world. At least the Ottomans didn’t attack the second time. One of the strengths of the game is that it never does the same thing twice. By the way I’m learning to really hate Crimea.

Victory count 5

 

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Papal States converts to Catholic. Somehow I knew they would get around to it.

I saw a slide rule once in college. It was in this display case next to an abacus, a stone tablet and a chisel.

Oh, and on Murphy and optimism...I'm not a pessimist or an optimist. The glass isn't half full or half empty. It's inefficient, designed to twice the required capacity.

Another good update Joe.

 

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Originally posted by Storey
Hmm now where did I put the Papal States? I could have sworn they were right here last time I looked. DAMN they’ve turned blue! They’re suffocating! Quick stand back and give them air!

Papal States converts to Catholic. Somehow I knew they would get around to it.

There were so many good lines in the last post, but these two prompted legitimate spit-takes from me. Great update!

Isn't a slide rule a metric ruler or something like that?

Georgia seems to struggling mightily, but I've got all kinds of faith in the AI. It will probably get vassalized and then diploannexed by Russia if you aren't careful. Red provinces? Get a band-aid on Georgia, it's bleeding to death!

 

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The Ottomans guaranteed your independence?? Huh?? Has anyone ever figured out what the AI is looking for with guarantees?

By the way, I must have missed it, but when did the Pope change religion from Catholic in the first place?

France's diploannexation of the Papal States in your aborted run brings back shades of Avignon and all sorts of turmoil! Could have been fun! Although I understand your rules, and I agree with them.

Now what are the Mighty Mamelukes up to?

 

[Stuyvesant]

Your allies sure are your best friends, whether they're France or Russia!

Glad to hear that you were able to get back at Crimea, at least a bit.

'slide rule, slide rules; also spelled with a hyphen. A slide rule is an instrument that you use for calculating numbers. It looks like a ruler and has a middle part which you slide backwards and forwards. EG You've got to learn to use a slide rule'

That's what my Collins English dictionary says about it. Now at least I know what it's supposed to do, but I still have no idea how it works. Guess I'm too young to know it.

 

[Commandante]

I think I've seen one of those slide rulers once. If I remember it correctly, the teacher showing it was talking to us in the same bitter tone you are, Storey.

As for getting help by your allies, I always deny them to enter my wars if the outcome is very important and my country can handle the conflict by itself.

 

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Many funny lines. But the best has to be "Papal States converts to Catholic. Somehow I knew they would get around to it." It ties in nicely with another AAR out there about a Protestant Pope. I assume your Pope was mega-Catholic and that was the Treaty of Trent kicking in.

How will the roller coaster turn next?

Tune in next chapter, same Bat-Time, same Bat-channel!

 

[Storey]

Backpack We used the stone tablet in grade school.

A nice site with a brief explanation about slide rules is

inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.hpmuseum.org/sliderul.htm

Paranoid Tsar It’s a logarithm device. You guys are really making me feel old. My worst nightmare will be if Crimea joins the Ottoman alliance. That will make things very difficult.

It was quite shocking to look around and realize that the Papal States really weren’t there anymore. I think I did a double take before I was convinced that I hadn’t suddenly become colorblind.

jwolf Yep they went Counter Reformed Catholic. I didn’t bother changing them because I thought this would eventually happen as it did. Gosh I’m smart. The mighty Mameluks seem to have been quiet for awhile but all that changes with the next turn.

Stuyvesant When I first used one I had the unpleasant thought that who ever invented this was a lot smarter than I was or would ever be. It was a humbling experience to see something so elegantly simple and yet so complex. I carried mine in a leather sleeve. If I remember right I had a slight swagger when I wore it tied to my belt on my left hip.

Commandante I really kicked myself for letting them join the war. Crimea didn’t have any allies so there was no reason to do it. Sometimes I amaze myself at what I do.

Stroph1 This has turned into more of a roller coaster ride than I had thought possible. Next chapter on Monday.

Everyone have a good weekend. I’ll be playing golf so it will be sun and fun for me.

Joe

 

[nalivayko]

For everyone to enjoy. As Joe elegantly put it:

Here you are with a tasty screen shot showing the three countries and the bug bad Ottomans!

I would not dare to correct "bug" to "big". I am sure Ottomans are buggy, at the very least, in a way that they bug the shit out of you. Especially, when you turn around and play another country

 

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A short lesson on Slide rules for you ignorant youths!!!

Previous message removed because it was written by a drunken eedyot

Storey: Get Emilia back. Ever since the days of "Who killed Cologne?" it seems more appropriate for them to be with the Papal States.

 

[Amric]

Storey- Having seen the screenie...oh man, I do NOT like how the Ottomans have grown...I agree, kinda scary...BTW, I also don't like how Nubia has crept up from the south on the Mamelukes...I think the next turn with them you ought to slap them down. They don't have the manpower you do....Take a few provinces from them...at the very least take the Nile province from them. It should be Moslem anyway.

Emilia looks terrible being Austrian. Which is not good. You gotta get that back...and Genoa and Venice. I'd save Venice for last as it will be a small problem resupplying if someone has enough navy to stop you. But the Pope needs a good ally. Perhaps Bohemia and Bavaria...at least until you get what you want.

As for Georgia you are in a real bind...looks like Ukraine, Russia, and to an extant, the Mamelukes are your only decent choices for allies....and the Mamelukes aren't orthodox so that kinda leaves the first two as your best allies....You gotta get Azov back, even thought they don't contribute much manpower wise...


All in all, your work is cut out for you....Take a large drink...better make it two...and good luck.

 

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nalivayko, thanks for posting the screenie.


Wow, the Ottomans are much larger than I thought...scary. Hey, is Venice down to one province? Perhaps it's time to use that mighty Georgian Navy. The Italian Job.

Also, Cyprus could be a target too.

 

[nalivayko]

Check out Bavaria and Bohemia! I'd also say go for Cyprus and Venice (last with Papal States - they have nothing to lose).

Austria and Turkey have to be eliminated Easy to say, I know. Mamelukes is the last hope of the free world Just make sure to take coastal provinces only, not to come in contact with Georgians.