The Age of Enlightenment. Game 9.

Well an interesting turn indeed, the English make a right royal mess up by getting the queens name wrong. Talking about strength and unity, are the English building up to something, especially as they in previous papers were showing off about there new coastal fortifications in the previous months paper.

Finally the Shogun has some honourable competition!

The French position is not totally unexpected, they would want to press there own claims as would Austria, but the creation of a massive power block in France and Spain is not going to please many.

MarkTurner26 wrote:Well an interesting turn indeed, the English make a right royal mess up by getting the queens name wrong. Talking about strength and unity, are the English building up to something, especially as they in previous papers were showing off about there new coastal fortifications in the previous months paper.

Finally the Shogun has some honourable competition!

The French position is not totally unexpected, they would want to press there own claims as would Austria, but the creation of a massive power block in France and Spain is not going to please many.

But clearly the honourable competition is not from Venice ! First they deal from the bottom of the pack and get the Bavarian mark drunk. Then they offer to spy for the Ottomans in Austria and stitch up the Polish Envoy on faked murder charges !!

At the current rate Venice may achieve that most rare of events in GDR...........unity of opinion the in the HRE (on ons subject at least).

Meanwhile we have no unity of opinion on the succession to Carlos II dec'd King of Spain, King of Naples, Duke of Milan and Duke of Flanders.

Its still civil but the Emperor is saying that various will's and marriage agreements mean that Louis XIV Hapsburg wife and her heirs can not claim Hapsburg lands while Louis XIV is saying he is going to allow a year and if by that time his Grandson does not get his inheritance there is going to be trouble!

Oddly the William of Orange.......Stadtholder/King of England and his various ministers have yet to express their opinion unless its the re-building of York Minster "Please God do not let a Bourbon become Duke of Flanders:pope2: "

Ah but what's not to like in G7? England has done nothing except allow the French to steal all their naval advances through reverse engineering (how enlightened is that?) Spain seems pretty keen on harvest and the post office and banking. Prussia is tweaking everyones nose and the Swedes are rampant!

Yes on reflection G7 is the most enlightened game.... 

Is war looming?

"Is war looming?" well yes my dear sir but where and with whom I cannot say. Good luck to you

Well what did everyone make of that last turn...

The English seem to have made there stance to oppose any French military action. Which may lead to an interesting train of events further on down the line. The Bavarians still feel that Maximillian would make a good choice as Emperor and have invited the three key powers in Western Europe. The stage seems set for a war between France and England. Is this war inevitable?

It is interesting to note that the English put forward two acts the Popery Act and the Pretender Act, the former being a largely anti catholic piece of legislation, the last clearly distancing the English government from the Jacobite cause.

The English seem to be continuing a pro Anglican by once again changing a cathedral to an Anglican Cathedral and a Anglican Bishop put in its stead. After these acts it will be interesting to see how the French will react.

The major powers seem to be manoeuvring, I readiness!

My take is that:

1) The Elector of Bavaria is pushing his claim to the throne of Spain in the interests of keeping the balance of power and is offering the Duc of Anjou the kingdom of Naples and Charles Hapsburg the Duchy of Milan to drop their superior claims in his favour.

2) The English may support this since totally ignoring the principles of dynastic right and legitimate succession they seem to be taking the position of "anyone but a frog"

3) If the Spanish Nobles support the Elector the Holy Roman Emperor may also support the Elector.

4) If the Spanish Nobles support the Elector the French may also support the Elector.

So in theory we could end up with a "enlightened" solution to the problem. The only possible problems are:

a) Will the Spanish Nobles agree to this 3rd treaty? and give the Kingdom of Naples to the French

b) Will Charles Hapsburg be able to reclaim his Duchy from Venice?

c) If the Elector becomes King of Spain, The Duc of Anjou King of Naples and Charles Hapsburg becomes Duke of Milan who becomes Duke of Flanders?

Well that was a fun turn. England has continued its anti-Catholic ways while the French statement gives Sir Sidney a bit of red cheeks. At the same time the French have their own Catholic/Protestant conflict to deal with. We quickly got a King IN Prussia, presumably in exchange for some kind of support for the emperor. Maybe this new series of laws? Speaking of those laws, is anyone as curious about proposal three as I am?

Well it looks like to me that the English guy is simply playing the Historical card, which is probably why his honour score is quite high. Plus the address that he gave smells like he is playing up to his nobles, and you know how the saying goes "a bit of French bashing gets you anywhere!"

The King in Prussia move was very quick. The Emperor is also quickly preparing his position to defend the Empire from France. I suspect that this is an indication of experienced players who know which way they intend to play and have a good idea of how to go about it. Should be fun.

A good point on Germany orienting itself against France. Getting a cooperative Prussia-Brandenburg will surely go a long way towards securing the eastern flank and allowing more military focus on the west. I haven't played enough to know if a permanent Reichsarmee is likely or common, but I would imagine 40,000 men under the control of the Emperor can go a long way in tempering the ambitions of anyone who would seek to gain prestige at the expense of the Germanics.

I note that the Holy Roman Emperor is trying to set himself up as "first amongst equals" and run the HRE as a friendly confederation of Germanic Princes but I dont think this is automatically anti French. It may just be the Emperor trying to do his "Job" and hopefully pick up some honour points.

Since the majority of the active Princes - Austria, Prussia & Saxony are in the East it could equally be said that this outbreak of German co-operation is anti Ottoman or even anti Russian.

But for my money if its anti anyone its anti the Doge of Venice!

Since in the last few months the Doge has:

1) Pinched the Duchy of Milan (Historic part of the HRE) from its Legitimate Hapsburg heir and called the Emperor senile

2) Annoyed and humiliated the Elector of Bavaria and his Envoy over recruits etc

3) Arrested a Saxon-Polish envoy after a clear "set up" which must have upset the Elector of Saxony

4) Offered to spy for the Ottomans and is now helping the Slave Traders by building them a goal and a shipyard.

I wonder how much the "oaths" of Milanese Nobles the Doge has collectted at sword point will be worth when the true Duke of Milan & 100,000 plus Germanic Troops pour over the Alps to restore dynastic right? and put G9 favourite card sharp and Ottoman Spy in his place?

40,000 Reicharmee troops on the Rhine would be more in the Nature of a non threatening (to 200,000 French troops) gesture to the western princes that they have not been totally abandoned while the Emperor and/or the Elector of Bavaria go "hunting for that pesky Doge" in Italy.

The big question for G9 will be if the annoyed Electors gang up with the Emperor and go for Venice do other rulers ie French? Spanish? Ottomans? help the Doge?

Speaking as a Ottoman player in another game the temptation to march would be killing but with the "King in Prussia", Austrian artillery missions active in Poland etc, etc I think the worry would be if you got to Vienna and suddenly the whole Empire show's up.

The HRE is a peace loving pacifist, who merely wishes to write baroque music and enjoy germanic opera. The proposed Reicharmmee is merely a job creation scheme for peasants and the idle gentry. Nothing to see here move along.

Goldstar wrote:The HRE is a peace loving pacifist, who merely wishes to write baroque music and enjoy germanic opera. The proposed Reicharmmee is merely a job creation scheme for peasants and the idle gentry.  Nothing to see here move along.

So no truth in the accounts of the Emperor's recruiters that if you join the Reicharmee you will get a nice tan and spend your summers enjoying wine, women and song in sunny Italy?

What month is the game now in?

The last turn was August/September

Once more until the breach dear friends!

Well that was a rather interesting turn, the English have been toppled from there top spot as most honourable by the Japanese Shogunate, falling to fourth position, there must be a really shocked First Lord of the Treasury out there.

But he is quite possibly more annoyed about the fact that King William has yet to approve the acts now numbering three quite prolific pieces of material. I wonder if the players in Agema land have any advice for him because I think he needs it after rubbing the French up the wrong way.

The French have invited back James and his young son to court which makes for interesting reading, are the French looking for a re-match of the Glorious revolution? Which could be highly possible considering the rhetoric that seems to be going backwards and forwards between the two.

The HRE must be happy that all the motions passed this month.

Slight embaressment for the Shogun when his emissary of the Wongon was thrown out and re directed to Chinamnpo, but once again the Japanese seem to have found a buddy in the French. Whilst once again passing even more legislation.

I'm actually surprised that it seems that the french don't help James in more games. You could spend relatively little on him to create a fair amount of unrest in a traditional enemy, the English.

It's not like you have to go so far as game 7 and invade England to have a notable impact, I would think.

The appearance of the heavily pregnant Queen Dowager of Spain at King Carlos II funeral would appear to settle the question of the Spanish succession for the shorterm at least. Although one could question why the Spanish government has taken so long to announce the fact after 11 barren years of marriage. Given the Dowager Queen is the HRE sister in Law and german, it will be interesting to see how things progress.

The HRE victory in the Imperial Diet may not be all that it appears, noticeably Prussia and Hannover failed to cask votes either way.

Deacon wrote:
I'm actually surprised that it seems that the french don't help James in more games.  You could spend relatively little on him to create a fair amount of unrest in a traditional enemy, the English.

It's not like you have to go so far as game 7 and invade England to have a notable impact, I would think.

That's a good point!

I wonder, do French players not hang around long enough to get a policy like that working? It might be my imagination but it does seem to me that we get through Frenchies at quite a pace in games...

Frenchies generally pick up a lot of enemies, game 2 as an example was at war with pretty much everyone! I think it's a good move generally, but surely the English guy is searching for the Jacobites as it is.

Yes, it may be that many french don't want to overly antagonize the English with the Spanish Succession at issue. But I just don't see the French and the English ever really getting along, so it seems relatively inexpensive to me to cause some political unrest in England by pushing James.

You could then always trade dropping the support for some English concessions.

I am not sure whether that might happen in Game 9, France and England seem to be quite hypocritical, but in all the games I have played this is the most antagonistic France and England.

...just thinking off the top of my head here...

...but is it actually in France's interest to give much support to James and Co? As long as there is a Protestant monarch on the English throne, England remains the easy bogeyman for which all Frenchman can unite against? A Catholic England might not be viewed like that?

Yes, give some support to the Stuarts, but never enough to really to a threat for England? Offer little and deliver less?

Well, no, you probably don't want him to take the throne, but witness game 7. England went completely into the can while trying to deal with it, so it isn't like even if he got the throne that would necessarily mean he would keep it, and then you have a ready made excuse for war whenever you want to go beat up on the english.

You'd have carte blanche to set up agents all over england to rabble rouse for James, and you could deny it all.

I'm not saying I'd do it, but then France isn't the kind of position I'd like to play. Too big and too central to everything. You'd have to commit a ton of time (and money) to do France right.