Faked Letters

Does anyone else ever find that letters from them are being faked, apparently with the intention of causing trouble?

It happened to me a couple of years back in one game and having just had a turn and got a rather irate letter from another player it appears to have happened again

I have received a few odd letters that don't seem to follow the theme of previous conversations with certain leaders and governmental organizations from my own country. However, I have had a bad newspaper article from some Oriental fellow

In truth I have had no problems so far. I must admit that the mistaken newspaper article had me very confused for sure.

it happens but usually you can tell the writing is not the same or the style etc.

If the mistaken article was in game 6 recently, I must admit that was my fault, due to a 'blonde' moment:oops:

revvaughan wrote:I have received a few odd letters that don't seem to follow the theme of previous conversations with certain leaders and governmental organizations from my own country. However, I have had a bad newspaper article from some Oriental fellow

In truth I have had no problems so far. I must admit that the mistaken newspaper article had me very confused for sure.

Kingmaker wrote:it happens but usually you can tell the writing is not the same or the style etc.

I have to say that is the bit that tends to surprise me-that players fall for it, even when it is from someone they have been in communication with for some time. You might remember the one a couple of years back when as 'Denmark' a fake letter nearly had half the great powers declare war on me (or so it felt!).

To be honest, the letter I got this turn was so 'irate' (within the game context) I actually found myself checking to see if the player is on here so I could contact them directly to assure them it was fake!

I think I shall take great pleasure in roasting alive slowly whoever is responsible

well I got an irate letter from Hanover and France, seems Hanover thinks I want to run him through and France thinks I do not believe him!

I warned Hanover I would not tolerate him slagging off the late ArchDuke but he keeps doing it....

haha ! this sounds quite interesting and dare I say "fun"

I dont think I have been on the receiving end of fake letters, and would probably react differently if I was a victim but have to say I like the way some of the sneaky (culprit) players operate.

I wonder on the Hanover letter-if I may ask, who did it come from? In the past my letters have always come from Donnersmark, the Chancellor and so I have only ever written to him; this is the first I have had from the Prince himself. I have compared it to previous letters and in style and layout and I am fairly certain it is real.

I think you've been honest and fair in your warnings to Hanover over his turn of language; as to France, not having problems there.

Kingmaker wrote:well I got an irate letter from Hanover and France, seems Hanover thinks I want to run him through and France thinks I do not believe him!

I warned Hanover I would not tolerate him slagging off the late ArchDuke but he keeps doing it....

count-de-monet wrote:haha ! this sounds quite interesting and dare I say "fun"

I dont think I have been on the receiving end of fake letters, and would probably react differently if I was a victim but have to say I like the way some of the sneaky (culprit) players operate.

I have to say it is fun in a way, the only thing that ever surprises me is the ease with which it seems others are taken in. Maybe I just a suspicious what-its by nature but any time I get a letter from someone that doesn't seem quite 'right' I suspect it straight away-mind you, after double checking I never had found one that was a fake.

Do get letters from 'inactive' players quite a bit though, always a bit odd though interesting

Danish-Chinese-Englishman wrote:I wonder on the Hanover letter-if I may ask, who did it come from? In the past my letters have always come from Donnersmark, the Chancellor and so I have only ever written to him; this is the first I have had from the Prince himself. I have compared it to previous letters and in style and layout and I am fairly certain it is real.

I think you've been honest and fair in your warnings to Hanover over his turn of language; as to France, not having problems there.

yes I have but he seems to think he can slag him off in his letter he says he willdo a better job than Karl did and not ignore german Princes!!

Kingmaker wrote:
yes I have but he seems to think he can slag him off in his letter he says he willdo a better job than Karl did and not ignore german Princes!!

Looks like we have interesting times ahead!

Well, turns out the letter wasn't faked, he was simply replying in a 'jokey' way to a letter I wrote many months ago in which I just pointed out his deal with Prussia over the throne wouldn't extend to the King of Prussia's place in the Danish line of accession. Hi idea of a 'joke' seems to be to threaten you-bah, I don't scare easy.

Plus he seems to want half my kingdom; at the moment he wants to buy it but...

I think I need to look to my border defences...

I sometimes write to people using my ministers instead of myself, as head of state. This sometimes causes some confusion & I have to assure them that it is realy me writing to them.

A foreign matter using the foreign secretary
Trade problems been dealt by the Minister of Trade

& so on.

I do that occasionaly, I once had the dolonial minister of France address me (Then as catherine of Russia) as Dear Cath, I wrote a sharp letter back explaining that as Empress he was not to adress me in such common way, he got all shirty I laughed he left the game 2 turns later as he ahd cocked up his postion and ogt a better guy to run France!

As to Jokey there is never a truer word said in jest, this man should watch himself he has already annoyed Peter the Great!

Well, I suppose it’s time I came clean - if anyone’s still interested.

A few years ago, I played the Minister of France in - I think - Game 4. The nation was bankrupt, having fought a costly war with England and Ottoman Rumelia. These and other states were gentlemanly and gave me breathing space when they could quite easily have declared war on me again, and for that I am still grateful. But for France to regain her position in Europe, I knew I had to confront my old enemies. Wealthy England was bankrolling the warlike Grand Vizier, Iskander Kruppa, and I wanted this alliance broken.

So I gathered some letters from the Grand Vizier, all hand written in his trademark block capitals. I created a makeshift lightbox from picture frame glass and a table lamp, and spent an hour or so forging part of a letter from Iskander to the United Provinces (another rival) thanking the Stadtholder for allowing the Ottoman invasion force to use Dutch ports as a staging post on its way to London. This fragment found its way anonymously to Westminster…

A few months later, England and Rumelia were at war. I never found out if my ruse was the catalyst, but it sure made me feel like Dennis the Menace for a while.

I continued to brood about the damage England, Rumelia or anyone else could do should they turn their gaze on me again. After a long struggle, I had managed to drag myself back into the black, but my armed forces were still about as useful as a hypothermic Girl Guide carrying a rolled-up newspaper. Virtually all of my treasury income was being ploughed back into trade. Until I could afford enough soldiers and ships to defend the homeland and colonies, I had to bluff.

I noticed the annual economic reports gave details only of trade returns, and not tax revenue. So I began dropping hints in letters and public announcements in The London Gazette regarding my economic policy: how I was seeking to ease the burden on my subjects by shifting emphasis away from tax and towards trade. Hopefully, people would think I was raking it in from France’s huge population.

Then I staged a burglary at my Army Ministry. A couple of months later, a domestic spy kidnapped a vagrant and left him tied up in a disused warehouse in a Parisian slum, just an hour before a company of dragoons raided the building and arrested him. They also found a cache of Dutch guilders - which led to a very anxious letter from Amsterdam, begging me to believe that the United Provinces had no part in this dirty affair. The ‘spy’ was later executed.

I let a few months go by. Then the King of Prussia (whom I knew to be an active correspondent with other states, notably Rumelia) received an alleged excerpt from my armed forces list.

I had inherited six battalions of foot from the previous player, and he had called them ‘the Saarbrucken regiment’. So the fragment of the list highlighted this fact with the suggestion that France was holding a Prussian regiment hostage. Naturally, the incidental lines above and below revealed that Paris was defended by massive numbers of fortress cannon backed up by brigades of well-drilled foot and heavy cavalry, that Marseilles had a devastating fleet of lineships, etc etc…

Prussia wrote to me the following month, enclosing a photocopy of the fragment I had anonymously sent him. He said someone was trying to create mischief between us, but he did not want it to spoil our good diplomatic relationship.

Maybe he forwarded what details he thought he had of France’s military on to other states, maybe he was too honourable to do so. Perhaps, as I mentioned earlier, other players did not want to humiliate France again after the English occupation of Paris and the Turkish sack of Versailles.

All I know is, in the ten or so game-years I played, no one attacked me.

There - that feels better. It’s true: confession is good for the soul.

where you the begger that arrested my Ambassador a certain Alfredo del Gordini who later became a household name after his time in the Bastille?

If so I think I had a little mischeif of my own going on as well.

BTW welcome to the forum.....

I don't remember arresting any ambassadors, and the name del Gordini doesn't ring any bells. Maybe I wasn't in Game 4 after all.

I arrived as Colonial Minister in 1722. I had a couple of run-ins with the Minister of France (le Tellier) who then quit the game and I took over his post.

The only chap I ever sent to the Bastille was a Hungarian spy. Which state were you in charge of?

Claude Vasqualles wrote:I don't remember arresting any ambassadors, and the name del Gordini doesn't ring any bells. Maybe I wasn't in Game 4 after all.

I arrived as Colonial Minister in 1722. I had a couple of run-ins with the Minister of France (le Tellier) who then quit the game and I took over his post.

The only chap I ever sent to the Bastille was a Hungarian spy. Which state were you in charge of?

Was it Game 2 by any chance? There the French colonial minister who took over the country and France was in a bit of a mess...mind you, he seemed an honourable chap

If it was Game 2 which I now suspect you had Russia to thank for some very large sums of money to bail you out The Empress (Me) was very kind to you. Did you not used to be the colonial minister and had a run in with the Player who ran France got it all but bankrupt then left and you took over? Russia paid off 2 mill of your debts if i remember rightly? Then had an agreement to give you 1 mill in return for 10,000 french recuits evry year.

Anastasia! I mean, Your Imperial Majesty....

Yes, that was me - I had a major run-in with le Tellier. Even though we were bankrupt, I still believed France should pretend she had a big stick behind her back. He, on the other hand, refused to speak out when the Turks attacked the Knights of Malta, deactivated the entire armed forces and tried to sell France's colonies. I recall he sent a battalion of elite foot to Quebec, armed with an arrest warrant for treason. Ah, happy days... Your successor, I think it was the Regent, Prince Golitsyn, wasn't quite as amenable, and ended up siding with Ottoman Rumelia and Hungary. I think he might have snatched some Polish territory too, so sadly France reverted to her default setting of having no major allies.

Maybe I would have been better picking another position - one with cash would have been a start. Apparently, the chap who was Minister of France before I arrived was playing the game just to write a review for Flagship. And, because he naturally wanted to check out the combat system, he ended up embroiled in a nasty little war in Egypt... which ended up at his own back door as the English swarmed into Paris and Rumelian cavalry chased King Louis out of Versailles. The economy was in a tip for almost ten years afterwards, and most of my plans had to stay in my head.

Yup, you got me back on the road to recovery, although I never did fathom the trade system. I suppose it was like trying to push a boulder down a hill - very difficult at first, but then it picks up a momentum of its own. By the time I got into the black and was able to begin rearming, real life intruded and I took my eye off the ball, thereby accidentally dropping back into the red. That's when I finally gave up, although I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed the game, despite never firing a shot in anger at anyone but a few restless Iroquois.

I'd find myself mulling over various ideas in between turns, popping into the library on my way home to check the biography of some character or other, or historical naval tactics, or details of the textiles industry in Nantes. I'd even write letters while at work... shocking. No wonder there's a recession if that's what everyone gets up to during the day.

Danish - you wouldn't be Duke Harefield, by any chance?

Votre tres devoue serviteur, Vasqualles

Hi Claude

Nope, not Duke Harefield

In Game 2 I was (and am) Chinese

My Dear Claude,

what fun times we had, I too got over my head trying to play to many games at once and dropped Game 2 some thing I now regret in hind sight. However I now control Russia in Game 3

Check out the beginners and advanced guide and see if that helps. Drop us an email some time so we can mull over the "old Days" so to speak

Yours

Anna....

Ah - Lord Fong, Danish? How did you like that walnut and ivory writing desk from my ambassador? The tea trade never really took off for me, but I suppose I left it a little late.

And Kingmaker - yes, I looked over the advanced guide and it made me glad I wasn't playing any more, as it contains some nuggets that I spent hours unearthing in the public library! Bang goes any advantage... heh heh.

I suppose if I'd persevered for a couple more years, my economic plans would have borne some fruit, but like I said, if you take your eye off the ball for a moment, you spend years repairing the damage.

I regret getting rid of all the papers and Gazettes I hoarded from the start. Some of the public to-ing ad fro-ing with the Grand Vizier was very entertaining.

Claude Vasqualles wrote:Ah - Lord Fong, Danish? How did you like that walnut and ivory writing desk from my ambassador? The tea trade never really took off for me, but I suppose I left it a little late.

That's me and a very nice desk; I believe the tea trade is now paying off for the new French player...

I recently got a letter that stated that even though this is a different format I assure you it is "ME"...

Haven't had too much in the way of fake letters.