A bunch of silly newbie questions

Mike wrote:Does a fort go around a town or is it built beside it .

I think is more like a citadel.

Maybe build in a specific position, becomes a fortified position able to resits small scale sieges and offering protection from raiding parties.

Nexus06 wrote:One of the major challenges of Russia is surely how to handle famine, as food supplement is poor to say at least.

Historically Russia managed to push south and west to seek for grain lands. But for the sake of discussion I'll consider those options unavailable.

I see that is to be expected that many of the towns are to be of less than 2,500 inhabitants. Historically i think Russia was a northern part of some trade tows and many scattered villages (were hunting and fishing was a concrete supplement to poor harvest) so i expect the number of "true towns" to be smaller that the 55 or 62 depending on maps.

Southern Russia should be about the same situation, with some trade towns and many scattered "Cossacks".

given that, you think it is possible to use recruits to increase the Town population? Would this be useful in order to support HH or a better way is to assign them to a internal trade?

If it helps, increasing the size of towns (or building new towns) requires civilian resettlement, not recruits.

A new town costs £400K and 10,000 civilians. But if you want to expand the population of an existing town from say pop.8000 to 10,000 then it will need 2,000 civilians plus 2/10*400K=£80K. Getting civilians to move may also require some incentive payment depending, so it is worth checking with the GM in individual cases, but this should be enough as a guide. I would imagine that building up towns in Siberia would take more of an inducement than building up a town on the Black Sea coast?

Nexus06 wrote:
regarding administration, reading this thread i've come to the conclusion that a "roadmap" to develop administration in huge nations could be:

1. Trained admin to increase efficiency in government running. (this save 25% of Gov.Run.Cost).
2. Invest in Custom and excise and tax collector.
3. Introduce administrative division
4. Train further admin to meet the new amount of admin required for the increased complexity of the administration.

This has been historically done almost in every medium to big country. Sweden for example, Great Britain, France, UDP. Wonder if, since a significant number of recruits are required, this could bring some level off efficiency in the government, and witch?

You might be confusing 2 separate things here.

1. Customs/Excise and tax collectors should increase the tax take. This is separate from administration which relates to how it is spent.
2. Trained administrators can give the improved civil service which can then be tasked with saving money on government running costs. I don't think it is as straight forward as 25% saving though.

I've just gone through a huge exercise with England in G7 on this and it has revealed a few anomalies with things not always working how I expected.

Nexus06 wrote:The good guy guide to farming might be:

1. Night soil man in every named town (i think you have a point that a good number of named towns are scattered villages, but rules state that, in order to work, night soil man are to be raised in all named town of a said nation).
2. Discover hardy seed grain
3. train farmers

then things get quite confused.

1. farming tools (there are a number that can be discovered) are to be provided to population. This should bring benefits, but introducing for example improved ploughs in my Russia has caused a reduction of production and hh damage
2. Farming mission to help introduce the Norfolk system?
3. introduce potatoes?

I'm not the best to answer questions on agriculture, but I certainly agree with the night soil men. Simple and easy to understand them!

I don't understand the hardy seed grain and might be getting confused with botanists in a later rule book. I have just been given some hardy seed grain, but can't find in the rulebooks what it is, how to use it, how to get more of it, etc. Does it just keep longer than ordinary grain without going off, or does it have a higher yield?

Improved ploughs can be developed as a research advance and is useful in working heavier soils.
Norfolk system can be introduced after research.
Potatoes are mixed - they can be introduced immediately, but if the harvest fails it tends to be much worse.

Papa Clement wrote:

Nexus06 wrote:One of the major challenges of Russia is surely how to handle famine, as food supplement is poor to say at least.

Historically Russia managed to push south and west to seek for grain lands. But for the sake of discussion I'll consider those options unavailable.

I see that is to be expected that many of the towns are to be of less than 2,500 inhabitants. Historically i think Russia was a northern part of some trade tows and many scattered villages (were hunting and fishing was a concrete supplement to poor harvest) so i expect the number of "true towns" to be smaller that the 55 or 62 depending on maps.

Southern Russia should be about the same situation, with some trade towns and many scattered "Cossacks".

given that, you think it is possible to use recruits to increase the Town population? Would this be useful in order to support HH or a better way is to assign them to a internal trade?

If it helps, increasing the size of towns (or building new towns) requires civilian resettlement, not recruits.

A new town costs £400K and 10,000 civilians.  But if you want to expand the population of an existing town from say pop.8000 to 10,000 then it will need 2,000 civilians plus 2/10*400K=£80K.  Getting civilians to move may also require some incentive payment depending, so it is worth checking with the GM in individual cases, but this should be enough as a guide.  I would imagine that building up towns in Siberia would take more of an inducement than building up a town on the Black Sea coast?

Nexus06 wrote:
regarding administration, reading this thread i've come to the conclusion that a "roadmap" to develop administration in huge nations could be:

1. Trained admin to increase efficiency in government running. (this save 25% of Gov.Run.Cost).
2. Invest in Custom and excise and tax collector.
3. Introduce administrative division
4. Train further admin to meet the new amount of admin required for the increased complexity of the administration.

This has been historically done almost in every medium to big country. Sweden for example, Great Britain, France, UDP. Wonder if, since a significant number of recruits are required, this could bring some level off efficiency in the government, and witch?

You might be confusing 2 separate things here.

1. Customs/Excise and tax collectors should increase the tax take.  This is separate from administration which relates to how it is spent.
2. Trained administrators can give the improved civil service which can then be tasked with saving money on government running costs.  I don't think it is as straight forward as 25% saving though.

I've just gone through a huge exercise with England in G7 on this and it has revealed a few anomalies with things not always working how I expected.

Nexus06 wrote:The good guy guide to farming might be:

1. Night soil man in every named town (i think you have a point that a good number of named towns are scattered villages, but rules state that, in order to work, night soil man are to be raised in all named town of a said nation).
2. Discover hardy seed grain
3. train farmers

then things get quite confused.

1. farming tools (there are a number that can be discovered) are to be provided to population. This should bring benefits, but introducing for example improved ploughs in my Russia has caused a reduction of production and hh damage
2. Farming mission to help introduce the Norfolk system?
3. introduce potatoes?

I'm not the best to answer questions on agriculture, but I certainly agree with the night soil men.  Simple and easy to understand them!

I don't understand the hardy seed grain and might be getting confused with botanists in a later rule book.  I have just been given some hardy seed grain, but can't find in the rulebooks what it is, how to use it, how to get more of it, etc.  Does it just keep longer than ordinary grain without going off, or does it have a higher yield?

Improved ploughs can be developed as a research advance and is useful in working heavier soils.
Norfolk system can be introduced after research.
Potatoes are mixed - they can be introduced immediately, but if the harvest fails it tends to be much worse.

thanks Papa

The hard seed grain is in Defoe's guide and it says that it can produce a x2 normal yield (so if normal grain goes x5, hard seed goes x10

I hope it is clear

Thanks Nexus ...

I've looked up the reference in Defoe's (published 2003) which is as follows: "Seed grain can be allocated to an agricultural academy for splitting into groups for small-scale controlled planting. 1,000 tons has to be allocated. The results will be known by the next July providing the grain is supplied before February of the same year, otherwise they will be known in the July of the following year. Once these results are known (and incidentally the 1,000 tons of seed grain are lost and cannot be used for other purposes), then the hardened grain (of 100 tons) can then be planted and the following June will produce a double normal yield on average (or x10 instead of x5). Bad conditions can still cause the experimental crops to fail. If more grain is used, the hardened grain seed developed will also be greater. So for example, if 100,000 tons are allocated, 10,000 tons of hardened seed will be produced, which if then planted will given an average yield of 100,000 tons, which again if planted for the next year, all things being well, will yield 1,000,000 tons!"

This is repeated in Book of Revelations (2005).

But in Advice for Princes (2009) we have these 2 bits on page29:

"Surplus Seed Grain to boost the harvest: Surplus seed grain given for use in the next harvest must be with the farmers by October of the previous year, which is the sowing season. Grain allocated later than this will go to the next harvest. So, for example, grain allocated to farmers in November 1706 will not be planted until October 1707, for the 1708 harvest, but grain allocated October 1706 will be accounted for in the 1707 harvest."

Botanists: It is possible to evaluate the quality of grain seed by examining a sample from a batch under a powerful microscope. This can help establish quality, they suspect, and so enable them to lead a selective choosing of quality grain to improve yields long term. This is the system to do so:
1. Establish a grain inspectorate, which needs 1,000 trained botanical staff +£10,000 per 2M of population to establish. Costs £10K extra on government running costs per 2M population (or part thereof).
2. 100 microscopes need to be supplied to the inspectorate per 1,000 staff.
3. The inspectorate once established in the country, can monitor grain seed and make sure the best is kept for future planting, and the inferior kind is used in bread. this should improve the yield of a crop where there is a bumper harvest (that is when a surplus is had, it is likely to be larger than previously, although a failed harvest may be just as bad)."

The Miscellany (2018) adds "An agricultural of science academy can attempt to research Grain Inspectorates as a means of improving grain production. Botanists discover it is possible to evaluate the quality of grain seed by examining a sample from a batch under a powerful microscope. this can help establish quality, they suspect, and so enable them to lead to selective choosing of quality grain to improve yields long term." It then describes the system as above, but adds "Grain surpluses handed to farmers to plant for a new harvest must be ordered inspected by our Grain Inspectorate to gain the advantage of this system."

So I can see that hardy grain is much better, but there is always the risk that when planted I have a bad harvest and waste it.

In G7 it is currently April-1714, so the earliest I can give hardened grain to my farmers is Oct-1714 which should be included in the Jun-1715 harvest.

What I'm not sure about is whether hardy grain yields hardy grain. If it does (as per Defoe) then what is the point of botanists? Or has the older rule been replaced by the rule about botanists?

England's population is c.9M so I can see the logic of planting some hardy grain as an insurance policy (if I plant 90,000 tons of hardy grain and I have a normal harvest then I should get 900,000 tons from the hardy grain which is enough to cover 1 year of future famine). If each year I plan 90,000 tons of hardy grain then I can build more and more protection against famine.

I'm not looking to corner the grain market, just protect against famine since I don't want anything to derail my attempts to restore my economy.

Playing Russia can be a bit daunting, due to size, Putting in place administrators, clergy, doctors etc can seem an uphill struggle, in G7 Russia has divided itself into 8 "Districts" Each with its own District government in a city in that district then raised the required academies in each district & allow them to develop independently, each area is roughly 2,000,000 pop so it is easier to keep an oversight, means when recruits are available they can be allocated to target areas, it is easier ot put out universal education as well as it can be rolled out over a number of years a few districts at a time.

It may not be the best solution but it has worked for me in G7

Hi Papa C,

Hardy Grain produces more Hardy Grain. As well as 10*, it has a longer ‘shelf life’.

KJ

J Flower wrote:Playing Russia can be a bit daunting, due to size, Putting in place administrators, clergy, doctors etc can seem an uphill struggle, in G7 Russia has divided itself into 8 "Districts" Each with its own District government in a city in that district then raised the required academies in each district & allow them to develop independently, each area is roughly 2,000,000 pop so it is easier to keep an oversight, means when recruits are available they can be allocated to target areas, it is easier ot put out universal education as well as it can be rolled out over a number of years a few districts at a time.

It may not be the best solution but it has worked for me in G7

Interesting.

I'm following the same strategy, but i didn't build different academies for each governorate.

Nexus06 wrote:

J Flower wrote:Playing Russia can be a bit daunting, due to size, Putting in place administrators, clergy, doctors etc can seem an uphill struggle, in G7 Russia has divided itself into 8 "Districts" Each with its own District government in a city in that district then raised the required academies in each district & allow them to develop independently, each area is roughly 2,000,000 pop so it is easier to keep an oversight, means when recruits are available they can be allocated to target areas, it is easier ot put out universal education as well as it can be rolled out over a number of years a few districts at a time.

It may not be the best solution but it has worked for me in G7

Interesting.

I'm following the same strategy, but i didn't build different academies for each governorate.

Hah........the Russians have it easy! At least all of their recruits and trained staff are in one place. "Spain" (In G7) is not only split up into irregular sized bits but as these bits are seperated by water so you have to pay recruits/skilled staff shipping and settlememt costs as well.

Which takes time and nasty things happen like my 200 trained Priests who drowned after their ship hit a reef in far east and my vets with altitude sickness in the Andes.

Do not give all parts of "Spain" exactly the same academies but do try and spread them out so that the various parts of the Empire do not feel ignored and have their own local culture.

In terms of Farming I like hardy grain & potatoes, the improved plough/Seed drills and enclosure. After a early famine which was very bad news many small farmers in Spain have given up their plots to allow enclosure and have taken training and large farms in the America's on pepper corn rents and very long leases, which seems to work well as a way to stop social unrest at home.

Oddly one effect of this is that Spain proper seems to be less and less important to the Empire. Its top university is in Italy and its law, culture,art etc seem to be dominated by Italians with a contribution from Flanders. While in terms of farming, trade and much else things seem to be going west.

Example of this is when the French raided Mexico City and caused a small fire......50m tons of hardy grain the grain reserve of the Viceroy of New Spain went up in smoke (ouch!).

Oddly same thing seems to have happened in G10 with a lot of things happening outside of Spain and Spain proper feeling like a bit of a back water at times and Madrid. Wonder if Spain should follow some Russian players and move its capital?
eel

Amazing how in deep you can go in this game!

Nexus06 wrote:Amazing how in deep you can go in this game!

I thought :

G7 was all about farming

Scabble about building railways

G10 about prizes and avoiding lawyers

Rome - Chariot races

Have I missed something? s

I always thought that G7 was our Macbeth game, drenched in blood.

Lots of crazy mad people, stabbing other crazy mad people. Hmm, maybe 18th century Mad Max might be a better analogy.

Deacon wrote:
I always thought that G7 was our Macbeth game, drenched in blood.

Lots of crazy mad people, stabbing other crazy mad people. Hmm, maybe 18th century Mad Max might be a better analogy.

Think the "Macbeth" game was G2:

- Lady Godolphin burnt at the stake by the Spanish Inquisition for Witchcraft, Necromancy & Posioning
- Civil war in the Bourbon family & later Bloody revolution in France with King Louis XV murdered with a blunt axe!
- Mass sacking of cities, Impalment & blinding of Captives
- But worst of all was that someone (Venice and got blamed and torched in revenge but it was probably the Bey of Egypt - Pirate and bee fancier) assassinated my character by having him stabbed in the back!

Compared to that the pools of blood in G2. G7 has been fairly low key and civilized apart from the personal execution of James II by John Churchill and some Jacobite pay back.

Off course if Louis XIV declares war because of what that bloody parrot told him to do things may yet get very "Greek" style. Godolphin better keep a very close eye on any Chicken Pies

Deacon wrote:
I always thought that G7 was our Macbeth game, drenched in blood ... Lots of crazy mad people, stabbing other crazy mad people.

It did sometimes seem like that, yes. Of course once the crazy mad people had stabbed each other they tended not to recover (the exception being Churchill who managed to appear from the dead, a bit like Blackbeard).

A recent game letter I received suggested G7 was so different because multiple players viewed their positions in terms of the resources they could mobilise for war which they pursued irrespective of the longer term interests of their countries, even to the point where they were prepared to destroy their own positions, way out of any proportion to what they could expect to gain through any peace agreement. Not surprisingly they dropped once their fighting capability was compromised, leaving wrecked positions with trashed honour/economy and a rather difficult turnaround for any successor. The historical-realist players, the nation builders, the roleplayers, those who take up a position because they are interested in its history (not just its capacity for war), are now in the majority, and consequently we have every reason to hope that things will get much less violent and everyone can enjoy a more positive game experience in G7. There will still be plenty of flashpoints and possibly a few more wars so it certainly won't be boring, but hopefully we will not be so 'crazy mad'. Not, of course that King James is going soft, but seeing how things are deteriorating in G10 it does seem that tensions in G10 are much higher than they are in G7. Stuart's comment that G10 was about 'avoiding lawyers' may well be correct since the 'crazy mad' types tend to be locked up by lawyers - if someone can arrest them first! I'm certainly enjoying G7 a lot more now the war is over, although for some reason I seem to be spending more time on G10 than I expected.

Stuart Bailey wrote:Of course if Louis XIV declares war because of what that bloody parrot told him to do ...

Esmerelda (the parrot) has a keen intellect and understanding sharper than many. I'll admit as a bit of roleplay introducing her was supposed to be a bit of fun - I had no idea she'd have such a following at Versailles after the departure of your ambassador. King James is very fond of animals and would probably take great exception to anyone who didn't look after Esmerelda.