The Age of Enlightenment. Game 9.

Ok, so we now all wait for Stuart to go on an invasion spree across the whole of Glory...

Though in G8 there are a couple of conflicts on the go...Portugal-Spain is busy blockading the Barbary pirates and the Great Moghul is attacking the Jat

Jason wrote:Ok, so we now all wait for Stuart to go on an invasion spree across the whole of Glory...

Though in G8 there are a couple of conflicts on the go...Portugal-Spain is busy blockading the Barbary pirates and the Great Moghul is attacking the Jat

Have waged only one proper campaign under the new rules and they seemed to work Ok..........with no more than a third of my Dragoons employed as supply convoy escorts and regular rest breaks for some formations every month was able to keep Sickness Levels from 1-3 and keep momentum at a reasonable level.

Think it helped that my silo's were full and not that far from the troops and I generally fought in Ok conditions rather than Russia in the middle of Winter for example.

I actually quite like the new rules since under the old rules siege's and esp blockades seemed too easy/low cost.

The only thing I dont like is that you can live off the land in the Black Forest & Southern Italy but it seems this is not possible in Normandy, the Loire Valley & NE Spain in the Valley of the Ebro.  When my light cavalry were plundering in some area's I blamed the SL gain on too much Brandy & Truffles (well they were the hired help....probably not used to the rich food).

As well as putting emphasis on sorting out you own supply/logistics I also think the new rules means that the art of in-game generalship is now not fancy plans, drills, equipment but timing since you can have the best trained, best equiped troops troops with the most fancy uniforms in the game but if they have spent three months undertaking a siege and have SL 4/5 they are asking for trouble if a fresh relief force hits them.

Which means these fancy modern "Armies of Observation" and Colums of Reinforcement now have a role to play.  

But for buggering up you opponents sickness levels and supply lines I still feel that the old Ottoman LC order of "Scored Earth Tactics - burn, loot, plunder" has a part to play.

An interesting month.

1. The Stadtholder of the UDP, who happens to be King of England, Scotland and Ireland, demands to see the disposition of the Royal Navy.
2. Sweden accepts it is now at peace with Spain, while accepting France's right to Newfoundland.
3. Bavaria draws closer to France, but accepts the right of Imperial Diet endorsed Reicharmees to operate in its territory. Playing both end perhaps.
4. The Emperor declares the current regime in Venice.illegal, but the dodgy Doge now accepts the Emperors admittedly liberal peace terms. Will His Sacred Majesty accept or demand more due to the Venetians habit of running at the sight of his Whitecoats.

The Venetian borders seem to be collapsing. I expected more of a fight from the Venetian player, but possibly the Spanish desire for peace has changed the strategic position for Venice. A Venetian/Spanish military alliance could counter balance Austria in Italy, but I cant see Venice doing it by himself, which is I suppose why he has accepted the peace terms.

I am sad to see that "G8 the age of enlightenment" seems to be turning into G8 the game of diplomatic poker! And every time some one's bluff gets called they fold.

What has happened to the concept of fighting to keep your honour even if the odds do not look good?

And why do people declare war and offer really, really soft peace terms at the same time? The terms which Austria offered in G8 were so soft as to almost represent a Venetian Victory without a shot fired. In that Venice keeps Milan (but as the acting Viceroy for a baby Hapsburg) and limits the Austrian Navy in the Adriatic to a minor role.

My view is that all this diplomatic peace keeping is more 21 century than 18 century and to stay in period more issues need to be decided on the battle field. I am not saying people should fight to the end every time but that it would have been more in period if say Prussia & Spain had fought a battle. Then Prussia could then have said "sorry" with its honour intact from the viewpoint of the period.

Have to admitt that I have in game attempted to agree terms which will apply depending on a Win, Defeat or Draw but at least the attempt was made to keep the look of the 18 century.

Purely from the viewpoint of an outsider looking in I would like to congradulate the Jacobite and Williamite players in G7.....non of these dodgy diplomatic fudges in place of principal! That will only happen if both sides run out of cash.......very in period.

More of the same.
1.  The Emperor's terms to Venice have harden, they must accept a Austrian garrison in Milan and allow Austrian troops to transit to and from the Duchy.  He also thinks Pola and Zengg would be better under Austrian protection.
2.  Bavaria continues to cover all the bases, sending troops to the Reicharmee whilst signing an alliance with the Sun King.
3.  The Bey of Rumelia is so insulted by accusations that he is mobilising his troops, he has decided to mobilise.
4.  Despite praying for peace the Emperor is scouring the Empire and Europe for Reicharmee recruits and mercenaries.
5. The dodgy Doge has gone silent, has he retired from the fray or merely plotting his next nefarious scheme.

Jan 1702 Journal Des Scavans has shown up and its all gone very quite in G9.

But is it a return to "Enlightenment" or just the lull before the storm?

In brief:

1) William of Orange Stadtholder of the UDP who is also King of England & Ireland seems to be taking the Dutch principle of religious toleration to extremes by offering a home to both Irish Catholics bored with the Kings own Protestant Govt in Dublin and to French Anabaptists. One wonders what the good Calvinist burghers of Belfast and Amsterdam will make of "King Billy/Protestant Hero" going all soft on Papists & Anabaptists??????

2) King Louis XIV seems happy for "Anabaptist rubbish to leave France...............and dont come back!". The King's grumphy view of Anabaptist's was probably not helped by spending the month waiting in for the Elector of Bavaria who was 34 miles away waiting for the King.

On a more positive note it seems that Louis XIV has joined the Danzig Pact extending his protection to Sweden, Saxony, the Commonwealth & Prussia-Brandenburg V those nasty Spanish & English bullies who were up to recently threatening to send fleets into the Baltic/Armies into the Empire and crush the Elector of Brandenburg etc for saying what everyone else was thinking about the Queen of Spain & the "miracle baby".

In the event the Boys in the Baltic did not need the Sun King to save them from the nasty Anglo-Spanish-Venetian alliance but by that that stage talks would seem to have been almost complete. But London & Madrid no doubt note with concern the willingness of Louis XIV to wade in on other side.

3) Augustus the Strong of Saxony, King of Poland & Grand Duke of Lithuania etc celebrated the extension of the Danzig Pact by rebuilding his burnt down Agricultural Academy, going to bed with a French Actress & drinking lots of Beer.

4) Duke Victor of Savoy has provided his daughter Maria Luisa the new Duchess of Anjou with a honour guard of 4 battalions. One wonders in the lobbying of the Duke and Duchess of Anjou is having an effect on their doting Grandfather & Father? Could the Anjou claim to Milan, Flanders, Spain etc still have legs?

Probably only if you have doubts about the legitimate parentage of little Pip of Spain.

5) Lord Fong has welcomed a Moghul Envoy with a banquet.

6) The Holy Roman Emperor has been to Church and sent a new envoy to Venice.......seems that Venice & Vienna are now best of friends again..........should the Ottomans be worried?

Apart from that not a lot going on.

Feb 1702 Journal des Scavans has shown up and basically sod all seems to be happening:

1) Showing the wonders of modern French and Bavarian diplomacy and logistics the King of France and the Elector of Bavaria finally managed to both be in the same room at the same time!

2) The Duke of Anjou (2nd in line to the Throne of France & French Claimant to the Throne of Spain) has given the French Stronghold of Casale Monferrato to his father in law the Duke of Savoy.

3) An Austrian Army has marched into Milan to garrison it on behalf of little Philip Hapsburg (The "Miracle" baby and Hapsburg Claimant/King of Spain). Venetians continue to run the place for him and pocket the tax income for Philip.

4) Austrians are also planning a major expansion of Austrian/Imperial Navy in the northern Adriatic (offering to lease Venetian Ports) & the Baltic/North Sea. Lets hope no one appoints a Prussian Admiral to lead the Reichsmarine.

5) The Great Moghul has had a party in Delhi and set off some fireworks.

6) In Peking Fu Manchu was toadying to the boss.

As I said at the top sod all is happening up I live in hope that Johann Kaspar von Stadion (Austrian Envoy to Venice), King Joseph (Heir to the Throne) & Kommodor Tegetthoff will finally start a war of liberation in SE Europe and kick the Ottomans back to Asia. That always seem to liven things up.

One also wonders what will happen The Duke of Anjou and Charles Hapsburg ever finds out the truth about the "Miracle" Baby.

Another take on the the latest turn.
1.  King Billy and the Sun King appear to be ready to swap popish Irish for protestant Frogs.
2.  Turkenlouis marches a Hamburg Army into Milan, flags flying to popular acclaim of the people.  Venice now has Austrian troops on 3 sides.
3.  The Austrian yacht club has went from a coastal defence force to a Kreigmarine?
4.  Hanover considers 1 General sufficient to cover it's Reicharmee commitment rather than the 4000 men the Emperor was after.
5.  Is a Hapsburg nephew being King of Spain, without a shot being fired not a victory for the Emperor.

A few interesting occurances.

1. The French are delivering 4200 men to Dublin via Dutch Merchants.  Is that 4200 troops or 4200 Protestant French settlers to keep the Catholic Irish down?

2.  King Charles XII arrives in Rostock and announces that the Westphalian settlement is under threat from the nefarious popish Bavarians.  The Lion of the North intends to create a North German Protestant alliance, which in theory is against the spirt of the Treaty of Westphalia as well?  Given that King Charles XII is in the Danzig Pact which included the Catholic covert Augustus of Saxony Poland and His Most Catholic Majesty King Louis XIV of France his newfound Protestant zeal is somewhat surprising.
3.  Kindly old King Louis continues his transformation from reactionary terror to liberal peacenik. The King is not content with granting toleration to the Huguenots and has now freed all crown land serfs as well, where will his radical policies end?
4.  The Emperor has finally settled with Venice, Austrian troops have withdrawn from the Republic, but remain in Milan, garrisoning it in the name of his nephew King Phillip of Spain.  Despite the ending of hostilities the Emperor continues to campaign for more troops for the Reicharmee and appears to have added Polish Lancers to his forces.  What the Emperor intend to do with all these troops and his new Kreigmarine remains a mystery.

To all your blessed Lords, most gracious hignessess, merciful soul and poweful warlords.
I introduce myself to all my colleague players ad a fresh piece of meat in game 9.
Of course at the present moment i cannot disclose my position. But i would be more than grateful toward the noble gentleman who will enlight me by descriving the most important events since today that gas happened in game.
Thank you very much

If you follow the previous Stuart Bailey posts they are a very good synopsis. They are entertaining and whilst a little biased often include pointers which I didnt pick up on myself. Stuart usually does a useful post so hopefully will do one after the next turn comes out.
From my perspective as Sweden the game is starting to heat up in the Empire. The one big previous event was a war which took place between Venice and Austria. Which suddenly seemed to evaporate when Spain settled a war with Prussia.

Well it looks like I should be rejoining at a fairly decent time I look forward to crossing both swords and quills with you all.

Thanks for the recap Basileus. I've read al previous posts but i could find no news from the eastern europe area and i was wondering if something ad happened there too

Eastern Europe has been fairly quiet of late.  Lithuania recently claimed it could resist an invasion by Russia or the Ottomans, Serbs in Carniola seem worried by the Turks, and Austria asked for permission to recruit in Russia.  That's all I can find of late...other than the antics of the King of Saxony-Poland, which are mostly drinking too much, enjoying the pleasures of female company and having his army march though more for the fun of it I think!

Ach Jason, thanks again. No doubt my first in game action will be a banquet in your honor and a gift to your Royal highness for your kindness

No worries   As sure you've picked up, we're a friendly bunch here who like to help out new players   

Oh, checked my last G9 turn-the return date was 17th April so I suspect the next turn will be sent out in a day or so

Eager to receive it

Welcome both Mark and Nexus to G9. It shall be interesting to interact with you in game. You are always welcome to visit me at the Centre of the World, well Europe at least. Really if you look at a map it should be at the centre, and if it isn't then it is the wrong map.

Dear Bearlord i'll be happy to!

Jason wrote:Eastern Europe has been fairly quiet of late.  Lithuania recently claimed it could resist an invasion by Russia or the Ottomans, Serbs in Carniola seem worried by the Turks, and Austria asked for permission to recruit in Russia.  That's all I can find of late...other than the antics of the King of Saxony-Poland, which are mostly drinking too much, enjoying the pleasures of female company and having his army march though more for the fun of it I think!

Actually, the whole of G9 and not only Eastern Europe has been marked by fairly active diplomacy but to date very little in the way of active conflict - One result of which is that the poor King of Poland has spent the game marching in circles! Its enough to turn anyone to drink!!:

1) In the East the Prussian's, Swedes & Saxony-Poland signed all signed up to a mutual defence alliance - the Danzig Pact. Half expecting the Russians or the Ottomans to go on the attack. To date the Asian Hordes have yet too march so the Danzig Pact would seem to have worked really well or be evidence that some Eastern European rulers are paranoid.

2) Actually the only invasion of the "Pact" came not in the east but in the west. Following the birth of a "miracle" baby to the about to die (and believed infertile) King of Spain and his Wife the Elector of Brandenburg said what everyone else was thinking and called the Queen of Spain a whore. Spain and its ally England declared war on Prussia and the Spanish Army of Flanders invaded Prussian territory on the Rhine.

In accordance with the "pact" Sweden and Saxony-Poland marched west to smite the invaders of Imperial Lands. While the Emperor was less than happy that his sister in law had declared war on Imperial Princes without even talking too him and also seemed to have lined up with his arch foe the Doge of Venice in Italy.

3) In the event the Elector of Brandenburg said sorry I called you a whore and the Spanish went home .......the the King of Sweden screaming that he wanted to send them home in a box and the Elector of Saxony turning to drink and an invite to join the Empire's War with Venice (Then backed by Spain & England?).

4) Sadly one reason that the Cleeve incident ended so quickly was that the Spanish player had dropped. This also ruined the alliance the Doge of Venice had built against the Emperor (To this day we still do not know why Spain gave the Doge Milan and turned against its Austrian relatives...........but with a baby Hapsburg????? Monarch rather than a adault Bourbon) so the Doge also dropped and a second possible war ended in diplomatic fudge and the Elector of Saxony crying into his drink about his now defunct merc contract with the Emperor.

5) Net result of all these players having dropped out is that the Emperor now has a friendly "Hapsburg" on the throne of Spain. And at the price of handing over civil control (inc tax income) of Milan Venice is again friendly to Austria and is no longer dealing with the Sultan and the Golden Horde.

6) The only slight cloud for the Emperor was that when England & Spain declared war on the Danzig Pact Louis XIV ( a very nice friendly peace loving one in G9) noticed he was rather short of allies and the Pact noticed that in Naval terms it was a Joke even if it controls most of the Worlds supply of maritime supplies......Result Louis XIV joined the Pact.

Currently all the bits in G9 are set out in a new of interesting manner but no one has lit the touch paper or fallen out with anyone. But if Mark is going to join G9 its probably only a matter of time.........Hi Mark:D

No one is fully sure what happr

Somebody needs to smother the little questionable birth prince to start up the Spanish Succession crisis again. That would add some spice to the game  


**Haha. the forum software rewrote b*stard as questionable birth. I actually used it appropriately in context...

Deacon wrote:
Somebody needs to smother the little questionable birth prince to start up the Spanish Succession crisis again. That would add some spice to the game  

This is G9 - The Age of Enlightenment...............and Kingmaker has joined G7 so baby smothering is probably not going to happen.

Still its a bit of a catch 22 for who ever takes on a Spain position ........unless King Philip grows into a really unhealthy idiot with a proper Hapsburg Jaw about to drop dead at any moment no one is going to believe he is the true son of Carlos II.

Yes, I thought as a method of ending the crisis, this was just a bad, bad idea, since anytime in the next couple of decades that somebody wants to have a go at you, they can.

I'm sure that Richard would frown on my joining game 9 solely for the purpose of infanticide!

Currently all the bits in G9 are set out in a new of interesting manner but no one has lit the touch paper or fallen out with anyone. But if Mark is going to join G9 its probably only a matter of time.........Hi Mark:D wrote:

I like to bring a touch of joy, mayhem and even bloodshed to proceedings, the nation I have taken is in Europe not one of the big boys but I am sure you will all work out who I am playing very shortly.