Question regarding game 2

J Flower wrote:Why does the crown price of Hungary want to be a Catholic priest? His Protestant parents must be most upset by this turn of events. luck that he is going to Berlin for his "Education" there he will learn the truth about the man in Rome, with a lesson in relegious  tolerance from the Kaiser,

The crown prince is looking forward to seeing his uncle... For a ten year old boy he has seen a rather lot of the world

It seems there is a new player in the role of Blackbeard, is anyone aware of others joining our happy little band. There were reports of a return of a certain Stadtholder in the UDP which caused concern in some quarters, also Spain moved it's tax rates lower which isn't normal NPC activity.

France seems to have shut up diplomatic shop again.

http://www.geschichtekompakt.de/ this address may be of interest to some of you, yes it is in German so you will need to translate bits, but there are some useful bits & pieces on there. There is a part containing the various military orders of the various smaller states of Europe, as well as the larger nations. It hope some of you try it just out of curiosity.( yes there are pictures as well)

I'm informed that Stadtholder Der Bergkamp isn't the one who'se actions so upset so many people so we can breathe a bit more easily...or at least I can.

So...G2 hit my mailbox at lunch time...had a look...

Are we seriously talking about Blackbeard having a fleet of 30+ lineships and 25 (or more) cruisers???? 

The really old games have pretty inflated navies. just a consequence of running so long.

Surely, surely we can all agree that the 100,000 scary Hungarian barbarians baring down on Strasbourg was the best news of the day ha ha ha.

That's true Deacon but still a shock to read...think his pirate fleet is large enough to take on the Prussian yacht club...

In game 3 as the Pope I had what I thought was a pretty large fleet, only to discover what other people were tooling around with!

I remember you saying that before mind you, there is something rather cool about a large papal navy

In G2 though this pirate fleet seems able to lay waste any colony it wants, it's starting to look like the sacking of Port Royal in the first Pirates of the Caribbean film...

Just so long as they remember to go home afterwards Mark

Ha ha ha, now there is an idea!!!!! Shall jot that down  but glad to finally get my collective bum off the parade ground, shall make for interesting reading.

The Prussian Yacht club will not be leaving port for a while, at least not until that huge Pirate fleet suffers some serious storm damage. I suppose it looks like a pirate position that may actually have a chance of survival which must be a first.

Good to see the Hungarian ear hunters have turned up in Germany, maybe they can terrify the French into surrender. Hope they have brought a few Spare Generals with them, the Prussian Generals seem to take leading from the front seriously.

Looks as if Leige Köln has a new player as well after all these years of living in the wilderness that is the HRR, now the Princes seem to be popping up all over the place, maybe the cunning world domination plan can once again be brought out.

I appear to have the last page of the newspaper missing. Can someone kindly let me know what the return date is. Many thanks.

The turn is due back on the 22nd of August

Advice to fellow players.-
Disbanding units with high Sickness Levels, & giving the order for the fit & healthy to be retained in the ranks doesn't help. SL remains plus you get recruits in the recruit pool also with high sickness levels, so I suppose they will be forced to sit at home until they are fit to work.


From the newsletter it seems that the French in Strasbourg are not all that fit either, maybe the arrival of the Hungarians will help to persuade them to call it a day.

If Mr Blackbeard has such a huge pirate fleet as the reports seem to suggest then he may need to plunder most of the West Indies to keep them paid for. Or do Pirates have a special rule when it comes to paying upkeep?

Perhaps he has a pirate nation hidden away

Maybe he has a big ship carrying his treasury & all his high ranking ministers.

In Historical European Pirates signed on for a share of the plunder so it was more logical to keep things fairly small scale as shares of any plunder would not have to be split that many ways.

Note sure if this would fit into game machanic's.

Other large scale Pirate operations relied on:

1) "Taxing" merchant's to use their waters........popular with the big Chinese Pirate Fleets and North African's. In many ways this is a protection racket but it could benefit local merchants who pay by making sure nasty things happen to their rivals.

- In game many of the best and longest lasting "Pirate " positions tend to walk the line between trade company and Pirate with most of their profits being made via "honest trade"...........but with margins helped by accidents to rivals and picking up some really cheap cargo.

2) State Finance/Support

The classic example is Barbossia who had virtually free access to the Sultan's treasury, shipyards & recruits but many of the French Corsairs like Jean Bart and Forbin sailed in ships "borrow" from the French Navy and paid for by French Tax payers. And with with any profits/plunder being split between the crews and the French Treasury.

In most games a good sword for hire like Blackbeard can normally find someone willing to pay him to leave their Merchants alone and give other people problems.

Black beard will need to keep plundering to keep that may men happy, otherwise they will sneak off with the ships or simply desert.

Maybe an idea is to open a chain of taverns in the ports & harbours of the West Indies, that way when the Pirates return to port with their plunder it can be returned to it's rightful owners via the rum barrel, what goes around comes around. It will mean the Pirates can continue in full employment whilst at the same time supporting a service industry that will benefit the local economy. Throw in treasure seeking holiday makers & a booming tourist industry could follow.

Maybe we ought to legalise piracy and tax their earnings?

Isn't tax collection simply piracy under another name?

Jason wrote:Maybe we ought to legalise piracy and tax their earnings?

I thought that was called a letter of Marque

Ahhh, Jason the government does it so it's not piracy

Deacon, I suspect I'm wrong but I always thought that with the letters, if you got caught you were still treated as a pirate by the other side?
I think I've been reading too much Terry Pratchett, was thinking more like his Guild of Thieves sort of set up

Nurse, the screens, the patient is having one of his turns again... 

Jason, I want a Granny Weatherwax as an ambassador but i'm not sure how she'd be received in certain circles. "What. A woman and an old hag at that!"
Pratchett is just brilliant.