Newbie

Hi All,

My name is Ben Peters and I am new player. I have taken over a position in Game 8. I'm pretty excited to be here and I look forward to interacting with you all over the coming months.

Ben

welcome!

hey there Ben, welcome to the group, I think I speak for all of us here and say, feel free to ask for advice or any questions you might have. The game can be quite...detailed...in places. We as a group are always happy to help out the new guys. So feel free to hit us up.

Yes, you will find a lot of good info in the forums. Diplomacy is only permitted within the game, but general discussion is welcome, and people are happy to give advice.

Welcome to the game Ben, new people is always appreciated. Richard, the GM, will be nice to you for a while, to ensure you do not give any disastrous orders (it is very easy to inflict serious damage on your own position that can take years to recover from).

welcome, any problems on here let me know.....

Welcome Ben
I like you started as a newbie in game 8 a number of months ago and I have found this forum a wealth of useful information and if you ask for help the older players
will always provide help with their knowledge of the game.
hope you enjoy the game.

One Grain.

Welcome Ben Hope you enjoy Game 8!

Ok, so, first question: Where to start? I've read through rulebook and this turn's newspaper, but I'm still a little confused. I was expecting a turn sheet that I would be provide with and that would offer me a little more in the way of guidance. In lieu of that, I'm guessing that what I am to do is to craft my orders in a Word document. These orders should be numbered one through whatever, because there is no limit to what I can try and do. Is this correct? I should then write up letters, missives, or whatever else and attach those to my Word document. Then, I need to fill out my Treasury Sheet (in pen and then scanned?), but I'm lost as to what I should actually include on this sheet.
So, from what I can tell, Glory of Kings is a massive sandbox. I can do whatever I want. The question I'm having is, what should I do or, more precisely, where should I start? What would be good goals for a beginner? I assume I won't be taking over the world and I don't particularly feel very militant, so how does one begin to trade? Can a land locked country trade? Do I need to secure ports? Does that mean war? How on earth do I conduct a war?
Anyway, I love the complexity of this game (that's why I'm paying to play it), but I could use a little more direction.
Here's what I was thinking of doing for my first turn: 1) Play it safe. 2) Write letters to all of my neighbors. 3) If I can figure it out, start to develop some trade alliances to boost my coffers. Does that sound about right?
I appreciate any and all advice that comes my way.
Thanks,
Ben

PS--I'm also a little confused as to how I should read my kingdom's result sheet. For instance, if it were, hypothetically, to say: "x7 internal agents, searching for foreign spies. England." Does that mean I have 8 total, but one is deployed in England? If so, what is he or she doing?

Hi Ben.

Game 8 returns where today 29/03/2013 so you will receive your first turn sheet within the next 2 to 15 days depending on how you receive your game turns, email or by post and how soon Richard is able to do them. You wont be able to decide what to do until you get them. In my first game turn for march 1702 I was provided with some past letters related to my position then my positions assets. roads & canals, leader, family & important persons. a list of cities and what they contain, a list of regulations & laws, missions, spies, ambassadors, a turn sheet, income & expenditure statement,
the hardest part I found was trying to guess as to what the previous player was trying to do from this information then forming my own ideas.
anyway all will be revealed soon.
your turn sheet will state where your spies are and if they have a mission.
I created word doc's, for my return sheet, any letters (with nation emblem), newspaper articles, then I email as attachments with my turn.
also here are important yearly events.
Jan - Estate Revenues.
April - yearly upkeep & costs payable, changes to poor relief before April
May - Magazines purchased.
June - Harvest results.
Oct - seed grain needs to be given to farmers before October.
Dec - Income from Tax & Investments allocated.

Hope this helps.

One Grain.

One Grain,

Thank you so much for the reply. I am a little confused, however, as I received a Newspaper right away that said I had a turn due April 2nd. The other information I received, which sounds like what you described, is just a little difficult for a Newbie to decipher. One question: The nation emblem that you were referring to is yours, correct? You are not including the emblem of the nation that you are writing to are you? If so, I just want to make sure my etiquette is correct. Also, the yearly dates is really helpful too. I would have forgotten those. And, I assume, those yearly dates are in-game months and not real-life months, yes?
Last, dumb question: I'm having a little trouble figuring out what month Game 8 is in. The Newspaper I was sent says "September" but my Turn Sheet says "May." Yet the date for my turn due is April 2nd, 2013, which tells me that the Newspaper, at least, is up-to-date. Maybe I just missed it, but what month, exactly, is Game 8 in?

Thanks again,

Ben

Yes, glory of kings is a massive sandbox, if you will.

But place yourself in the role of your monarch/government of the period. If you try something too outrageous for the period, it's almost guaranteed to fail. Talk to your advisors about your plans, they can help steer you to rational courses of action, though be aware that all advisors have their own agendas. (Your army guy, for instance, will always say you need more troops even if you have the biggest army in the world!).

writing your neighbors is always a good start. Trade is something you want to invest in early in the year, so you have a few turns before that is critical.

If you are comfortable saying what position you've taken, people who've played the position, or have some insight into that country can give you more specific advice.

Oh, sure, I just wasn't sure if that was allowed. I am playing Saxony. Also, when you say, "Ask your advisors," how, exactly, would I do that? Craft a letter to one of them and submit it with my next turn?

Thanks for the help!

Yes, it's permissable to say who you're playing, just not to engage in any diplomacy.

Your advisors/ministers should be listed on your turn under your assets.

You can just ask as a turn order, something like:

1) Ask my advisors what they think I should invest in trade.
2) ask my advisors what they think of the state of my military.
etc.

You would probably want to address some questions to specific ministers, since your minister of the army isn't likely to give you good advice about trade and the like.

I don't have any great insight into saxony, but I know from the main forums discussion that there are several players around who have played the position who can probably give you good advice.

Great! Thank you.

there is a guide I wrote for new players and an advanced guide as well

beginners guide: https://agema.darkbb.com/t58-glory-of-kings-beginners-guide

advanced guide: https://agema.darkbb.com/t209-advanced-guide?highlight=advanced+guide

I'm a fan of Kingmaker's suggestion to have a '5 year plan'.

Most things move relatively slowly in the game, and it helps to have some focus and long term objectives to build towards. You obviously won't have any for a few turns while you figure out where you want to go, but since resources are always limited (recruits and money), it helps to have a plan for how you're going to spend them to build your position.

Recruits are the real limiter of a lot of things in the game, so I would suggest until you've gotten your feet under you, you don't do anything with recruits that you can't undo. IE, if you put recruits into trade investments (usually a bad idea anyway), you can't get them back. But if you put them into military units, you can alway demobilize the unit later and get your recruits back.

True Deacon. It all depends on the position you have as well,

Welcome Ben,
Hope you have a long & enjoyable time in Game.

Basically you have a blank canvas & you can paint on it as you like. It may be an idea to do a bit of research on you position, try & decide what kind of position you envisage for yourself. Will you play a Prince dedicated to the arts, the military, a bit of both. Will you be a loyal follower of the Kaiser. Will you be a defender of the Protestant faith.

A few ideas that may help you, Saxony has historically silver deposits, so maybe send out a geographical mission to search for them, if they haven't already been found. There is also the Porcerlain that you can develop & market, Leipzig horse fair, Book markets.

The Saxon army is also a well respected body, get it training. If nothing else simply give the order for it to drill. you can go into details later.

If you go on the tourist information for some of your cities, then you will find various landmarks, places of interest that you can maybe transfer into the game. Look up Augustus the Strong, see what he got upto, he maybe a little flambouyant, but it will possiably give you a few ideas.

I have been playing an Imperial German position for many years, it includes Saxony, Prussia & Bavaria, so if you have questions please ask. Admitted it will be biased from my viewpoint, but it may help you through the mystic maze of LGDR.