G7 - The War of the English Succession & the breaking of the Pirate Brotherhood

Looks like UDP wants peace, but England wants it recruits back, fearing that they will be used to form a new army to reinvade the Isle of Wight in the summer.

Spain wants its recruits back as well, but thats also complicated as apparently they were captured by the English whilst fighting for the Dutch & are made up of press ganged Frenchmen.
added to which
Most of the Dutch ( Calvanist ) Army appears to be founded on a core of Austrians( Catholics) who deserted Vienna after being sent to fight in England without any supplies, got offered a pardon by James of England( Catholic) to fight for him, but swapped sides to fight for UDP ( Calvanist) at the drop of a hat, throw into the mix a Spanish( Ultra-Catholic) army that was placed under UDP control by the Spanish government but who refused to leave Dutch service when ordered( or at least asked politely) to return home. Add in that the Dutch also include, various recrutis drawn from all corners of the HRR; Scotland, England, America(s) HWIC & blackbeards pirates.
Maybe instead of peace talks the UDP should be considering founding the United Nations

SO apart from shooting the lot( of using Russian Nerve agent on a major scale) the chances of a peaceful way being found are fairly slim, France & England may well have to fight to the last dyke before UDP even thinks of surrender.

J Flower wrote:Looks like UDP wants peace, but England wants it recruits back, fearing that they will be used to form a new army to reinvade the Isle of Wight in the summer.

Spain wants its recruits back as well, but thats also complicated as apparently they were captured by the English whilst fighting for the Dutch & are made up of press ganged Frenchmen.
added to which
Most of the Dutch ( Calvanist ) Army appears to be founded on a core of Austrians( Catholics)  who  deserted  Vienna after being sent to fight in  England without any supplies, got offered a pardon by James of England( Catholic)  to fight for him, but swapped sides to fight for UDP ( Calvanist) at the drop of a hat, throw into the mix a Spanish( Ultra-Catholic)  army that was placed under UDP control by the Spanish government but who refused to leave Dutch service when ordered( or at least asked politely) to return home. Add in that the Dutch also include, various recrutis drawn from all corners of the HRR; Scotland, England, America(s) HWIC & blackbeards pirates.
Maybe instead of peace talks the UDP should be considering founding the United Nations

SO apart from shooting the lot( of using Russian Nerve agent on a major scale) the chances of a peaceful way being found are fairly slim, France & England may well have to fight to the last dyke before UDP even thinks of surrender.

Would like to point out that the ten Spanish Navy frigates of the Dunkirk Squadron captured at Ayr were not crewed by press ganged Frenchmen! They were crewed from the standard Spanish recruit pool (which historically included a lot of Italians, Germans and people from Flanders and Ireland as well as Spain). While the Ships home port was historically a infamous base for Spanish privateers before it was captured by France and carried on in the same way. In Glory G7 Dunkirk has been reclaimed and is now back in its proper home in Flanders so its Ships and crews sailing out of this port are not French!

Why the Count of Gerona and Spanish 4th Army which Spanish High Command were trying to get out of Scotland decided to that they were honour bound to stay and fight with their Anglo-Scots-Dutch-and the Spanish High Command had left in place is a bit of a mystery.
The ordinary explanation is the either Agema or I made a mistake when they got transferred to Dutch command.

But since this type of thing does not happen for future reference the Duc of Gerona is now the Spanish Version of Gordon of Khartoum driven by Spanish Macho Pride to ignore his High Command and unable to abandon his allies to Jacobite Justice while the war goes on.

If Gerona dies a hero when some hairy Scot with a big claymore takes his head off or his body is found under a pile of dead Frenchies.....its simple the Duc of Gerona is a Hero! But what do I do with the mutinious so-in-so if he comes back?!

Perhaps Russian Church Spotters may have a solution - All suspect NPC's who no one trusts such as The Orange Order, KGL, Gerona, Kingmaker get put into the Russian Foreign Legion to fight the Grand Vizier and his Jannissary Corp. If Kingmaker is commander just think of the fun he can have with merc force of Pirate-Scots-Spanish-Austrian veterans of the Scots wars.

Czar to Kingmaker "I dont know what your chaps do to the enemey but they scare the life our of me"

So G7 is upon us, almost seemed a bit of a tame turn. Some name calling but no horrible deaths, no outrageous actions by anyone...the worst we got is the Persians managing to sink a couple of French bathtubs...

...is G7 mellowing in its middle age...or is this simply the calm before another storm?

Maybe all are suffering from the in game winter blues, no movement of troops in the winter turns,

Expect to see the tattered remains of the Treaty of Scotland blown away in a wiff of black powder in coming game year, Too many breaches & questions of misunderstanding to see it hold till the end.

If there is a storm coming, then the Russian fleet ( Both ships) are staying in port & just to be on the safe side the crews are going on shore-leave.

Storm + Russian Fleet = Flotsam & jetsom

Jason wrote:So G7 is upon us, almost seemed a bit of a tame turn.  Some name calling but no horrible deaths, no outrageous actions by anyone...the worst we got is the Persians managing to sink a couple of French bathtubs...

...is G7 mellowing in its middle age...or is this simply the calm before another storm?

When he says mild name calling he means that the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire has been compared to a low class street entertainer by the Russians while they also called the senior Iman of the Ottoman Empire a monkey and a "Mad Mullah".

Meanwhile after the Grand Vizier & the Iman Selim Iqbal (or the Organ Grinder & his monkey according to the Russians) attacked Christain doctrine, called the Christain Bible corrupt and Christains the sons of the Serpent. The Spanish Inquisition basically said the Grand Vizier and the Iman were vile and evil and will burn in eternal hell fire! From every Church, every School and every Warship in the Spanish Empire!!

When the most honourable and respected Ottoman (The Hopsdar of Moldavia) is both a Christain and father in law to the next Czar, you have a highly respected Shia Shah in Persia actually fighting to protect muslim pilgrim routes, and you are trying to run a half Christain Empire attacking Christians and getting into a slanging match with powers to North & West may not be great diplomacy by the Organ Grinder.

A fact reflected by the number of Ottoman Beys who have either signed or are considering trade and non aggressions pacts with the Hapsburgs. Showing how little support the Grand Vizier has in the Ottoman Empire outside of his Jannissary Corp Power Base.

Meanwhile Dutch peace proposals to France & the Jacobites got an absolute NO and a demand from King James that the Dutch get rid of their leader and hand over all their POWs before he will even think about offering any peace terms. In this circumstances it looks like War between the Dutch and the Anglo-French will not end any time soon. Though it would seem that troops in the Dutch service seem to be moving out of may areas of Scotland perhaps to improve the defences of the UDP proper against an expected invasion. While Dutch raiders continue to pick off French and Jacobite shipping, mostly in the North Sea.

It seems unlikely that the French and the Persians are actually talking at all so this war continues to tick over mostly at sea.

In the ongoing row which is Anglo-Spanish relations the good news is that King Charles Commissioner of POWs and his legal team has been set free with a strong hint that Alfred Hamilton leaves the country if he does not want to see the inside of Newgate again. But no sign that King James is going to free Spanish Sailors or the Flanders envoy to Scotland.

In effort to apply pressure on the London Govt the Spanish have started to levy a 50% tax rate on English shipping using the Spanish territorial waters between Ceuta and mainland Spain. The Jacobites have said that if Spain does this England will claim the whole English Channel as their territorial waters and levy a 50% trade on Spanish/Flanders shipping. One wonders what the French and Dutch will make of this claim?

With three Maritime area powers at war with each other and punative tarrifs between others it is perhaps no surprize that the only powers with any trade in this area are people who actually live (and Fish?) in it plus the Russians. Everyone else has abandoned this trade zone.

Must be honest & point out the only reason Russia has any trade at all in the Maritime area is due to poor map reading on the part of the ships captains, they should all actually be trading in the Baltic, but due to dodgey maps supplied by the Russian Admiralty so have ended up in the English channel by mistake.

Stuart Bailey wrote:

Jason wrote:So G7 is upon us, almost seemed a bit of a tame turn.  Some name calling but no horrible deaths, no outrageous actions by anyone...the worst we got is the Persians managing to sink a couple of French bathtubs...

...is G7 mellowing in its middle age...or is this simply the calm before another storm?

When he says mild name calling he means that the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire has been compared to a low class street entertainer by the Russians while they also called the senior Iman of the Ottoman Empire a monkey and a "Mad Mullah".

In all fairness, by G7 standards that is mild

But I still fear the game is mellowing, I mean it's been months since anyone has been brutally murdered...of course that could be about to change....

Jason wrote:

Stuart Bailey wrote:

Jason wrote:So G7 is upon us, almost seemed a bit of a tame turn.  Some name calling but no horrible deaths, no outrageous actions by anyone...the worst we got is the Persians managing to sink a couple of French bathtubs...

...is G7 mellowing in its middle age...or is this simply the calm before another storm?

When he says mild name calling he means that the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire has been compared to a low class street entertainer by the Russians while they also called the senior Iman of the Ottoman Empire a monkey and a "Mad Mullah".

In all fairness, by G7 standards that is mild

But I still fear the game is mellowing, I mean it's been months since anyone has been brutally murdered...of course that could be about to change....

Well we have had the Flander Envoy to Scotland snatched off the streets and probably tortured/murdered by Jacobite Thugs. Plus the calling out of the Mad Mullah a "Slimy Sodomite sidekick of the GV" as well as monkey so perhaps all is not lost for the vodka drinkers of old Nevyansk town.

However its clearly time for Russia to spark G7 back into life with a move south and show all these soft western European types how real men fight the ungodly!

Stuart Bailey wrote:

Jason wrote:

Stuart Bailey wrote:

Jason wrote:So G7 is upon us, almost seemed a bit of a tame turn.  Some name calling but no horrible deaths, no outrageous actions by anyone...the worst we got is the Persians managing to sink a couple of French bathtubs...

...is G7 mellowing in its middle age...or is this simply the calm before another storm?

When he says mild name calling he means that the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire has been compared to a low class street entertainer by the Russians while they also called the senior Iman of the Ottoman Empire a monkey and a "Mad Mullah".

In all fairness, by G7 standards that is mild

But I still fear the game is mellowing, I mean it's been months since anyone has been brutally murdered...of course that could be about to change....

Well we have had the Flander Envoy to Scotland snatched off the streets and probably tortured/murdered by Jacobite Thugs.  Plus the calling out of the Mad Mullah a "Slimy Sodomite sidekick of the GV" as well as monkey so perhaps all is not lost for the vodka drinkers of old Nevyansk town.

However its clearly time for Russia to spark G7 back into life with a move south and show all these soft western European types how real men fight the ungodly!

At the moment, I fear the drinkers of Nevyansk have their own crisis to worry about...

Jason wrote:

At the moment, I fear the drinkers of Nevyansk have their own crisis to worry about...

Oh no not a Vodka shortage in Nevyansk

Stuart Bailey wrote:

Jason wrote:

At the moment, I fear the drinkers of Nevyansk have their own crisis to worry about...

Oh no not a Vodka shortage in Nevyansk

Not quite that bad...but it might lead to that!

The Governor of the Russian Colonies( JasoN) has had to pay a tribute in Vodka to the central russian Government( Other Jason) Which means one Jason gets to drink till he falls ove r& the other gets to drink to drown his sorrws , which Jason is which is anyones guess & in the state they get into after all that vodka they don't really care.

Wonder if mixing Vodka & Cider is something worth making a trade investment in with a heath warning " Rots your guts & addles your Brains"

J Flower wrote:Wonder if mixing Vodka & Cider is something worth making a trade investment in with a heath warning " Rots your guts & addles your Brains"

Hardly any worse than an Irish half and half...though I think a Scottish half and half is better, at least taste wise

The March 1713 Gloire du Roi has shown up and for fans of the extreme blood shed, wild insults and general anarchy which for so long has been the mark of G7 it was a very, very poor month with outbreaks of religion and pacific action all over the place such as:

I) Probably setting the tone of things was Pope Clements XI address in Rome asking the Catholic Princes of Europe to employ justice where nrcessary, but also not to forget clemency. Does anyone have a clue what Clement XI is going on about???????!

II) After months of talks and diet meeting's the Russian administrations have taken over Estonia and Ingria (they already controlled Livonia) thus after years of fighting which has seen the Russians defeated time after time on land and sea the Swedes have rolled over and the Great Northern Wars have finally ended not with a bang but a whimper.

III) Louis XIV seems to have forgot he is at War with the Dutch and the Persians and spent the month praying and eating meat free feasts.

IVi) The Dutch responded to last months French criticism of their peace terms by very politely altering them to confirm with Louis XIV view that they were not as good as the Treaty of Scotland. Basically they are now offering the Treaty of Scotland Mark II but with the provision that anyone from the British Isles who does not wish to live under the rule of a Catholic King (like Lords Belmont & Rivers plus about half of the current "Dutch Leadership") can pack their bags and go elsewhere. They did however finally apply a 50% duty on French & English trade to bring the UDP into line with the rest of the Maritime Trade Region.

iv) King James of England did a lot better than most in keeping up G7 standards in that his Navy raided the Dutch Port of Cochin (or is it Persian? I forget) and cut out six Dutch Merchants Prizes. Plus back at home James totally forgot about Jacobite promises not to touch the Church of England and using his Royal Position has Head of the Church of England decided to wipe out 150 years of the English Reformation.

- Under The King James reforms of 1713 the English Church is being taken back to Henry VIII position of 1536 which would make it a Catholic Church but with the King rather than the Pope as its head. In two minor concessions James is allowing any Bishops who do not agree with him to resign also while Clerical celibacy is restored any Clergy who are married can remain in this state. Assume James does not approve of divorced wives making the place look untidy but is less concerned by sexually frustrated wives married to celibate Clergy. On reading this I expected riots and heroic English Bishops standing up to the King. Instead we got total silence from the Bishops which either means they are in a state of shock or only hand picked cowards have been left in place.

V) In Constantinople the Imam Salim Iqbal (AKA The Monkey) and the Organ Grinder seem to be backing down from Russian Threats at a rate of Knotts. Well having not backed Sweden when they had the chance they were hardly likely to come out from under their rock now the Ottoman side of the Russian-Ottoman border seems to have fragmented and have the provinces turned Shia.

VI) Meanwhile total news worth events ref the House of Hapsburg?..........one of their senior ministers visited them next door in Munich.

Seems G7 is waiting for something.

Will it be the Invasion of UDP by Catholic France & a semi on its way to becoming Catholic England.

The proposed reforms of the Church of England to make it an almost but not quite Catholic Church could be an interesting talking point in the coming months, will it mean a lot of Anglican bishops going into early retirement, will it cause the Puritains to all book passage on ships & head for the Americas.

The new Caucaus map gives a fresh incentive for Ottoman, Persian& Russian interaction to come under the spot light.

The War of the English succession looks to be spreading to the Far East as well, Is the Cape Colony also on French shopping lis tof colonies to visit this year.

With the clock running down on the treaty of Scotland & its restraining influence, maybe the strain will cause it to break, certainly Spain is convinced England has breached the treaty tenfold since its signing, & England is adamant Spain has broken the treaty on a multiude of occassions, so both sides think the other side has used the treaty to its own ends , but both sides are also convinced that they are the good guys & the others are out to get them.

Could be an interesting few turns ahead.

J Flower wrote:The proposed reforms of the Church of England to make it an almost but not quite Catholic Church could be an interesting talking point in the coming months, will it mean a lot of Anglican bishops going into early retirement, will it cause the Puritains to all book passage on ships & head for the Americas.

Oh whose wacky Stuarts (I mean the family, not the player), they get all religious and cause the English Civil War/War of Three Kingdoms...then they get all religious a second time and cause the Glorious Revolution...will it be third time lucky, they get all religious and everyone goes along with them...or well...

Place your bets please at Uncle Sergi's Honest Bookmakers (registered offices-Nevyansk)

Jason wrote:

J Flower wrote:The proposed reforms of the Church of England to make it an almost but not quite Catholic Church could be an interesting talking point in the coming months, will it mean a lot of Anglican bishops going into early retirement, will it cause the Puritains to all book passage on ships & head for the Americas.

Oh whose wacky Stuarts (I mean the family, not the player), they get all religious and cause the English Civil War/War of Three Kingdoms...then they get all religious a second time and cause the Glorious Revolution...will it be third time lucky, they get all religious and everyone goes along with them...or well...

Place your bets please at Uncle Sergi's Honest Bookmakers (registered offices-Nevyansk)

According to King James III of England "Defender of the Faith" etc, etc

- All the Puritans have already left the country for New England etc to live as a "Tolerated Religion" under the Pirate followers of the Czar.

- Those evil traitors who were are only interested in holding onto their stolen Church lands such as Lord Rivers, Lord Belmont, Lord Galway Lambert, Robins etc, etc have either fled to Holland or are trying to get there. To be shortly crushed under the Iron Rod of Louis XIV along with the rest of their heretic allies.

- This just leaves a few fuddy old Cleric's to be pensioned off and the 90% of the population who are secret Catholics and have been in hiding since the pilgrimage of Grace can finally return to practice of the true faith.

- The only reason why James III is keeping the Church of England seperate from the Roman Communion and under his direct control is that Rome itself is being held in "Babylonian Captivity" by Spanish Silver and the Pope and most of the curia are bought and paid for agents of the House of Hapsburg..........a fact proved when they had the nerve to disagree slightly with King James III demands.

What odds is Uncle Sergi's Honest Bookmakers (registered offices-Nevyansk) offering that at that at some stage James III calls a crusade to free the Papacy from its Spanish Captivity and moves it to a New Jeruselem in Warwick?

Stuart Bailey wrote:

What odds is Uncle Sergi's Honest Bookmakers (registered offices-Nevyansk) offering that at that at some stage James III calls a crusade to free the Papacy from its Spanish Captivity and moves it to a New Jeruselem in Warwick?

Hmmm, Warwick you say? Odds for that happening, I'll offer 500-1...now if you had said Glastonbury I'd have given you odds-on

Mind you, I still see all this as the result of the Stuart family abandoning their roots and becoming besotted with soft English life...if only they had stayed focused on Scotland, with this character becoming VIII of that name, then all would be well and we wouldn't have all this going back to Rome nonsense...what true Scotsman in the 18th Century would even consider abandoning the path to enlightenment that John Know had set them on?

I wonder if now England is on the verge of either Civil War or a return to the Catholic church, or indeed maybe both, will Spain feel able to welcome its fellowCatholic prodigal son back into the Catholic fold.

Are their actually any Puritans left to flee England or have they all done a runner to the Americas already where they have settled in happily to the Russian protectorate , what will their reaction be when King James raises the funds to get the 13 Colonies back under Londons Catholic control.

J Flower wrote:I wonder if now England is on the verge of either Civil War or a return ot the Catholic cu´hurc, or indeed maybe both, will Spain feel able to welcome its fellow catholic prodigal son back into the Catholic fold.

Are their actually any Puritans left to flee England or ahve they all done a runner to the Americas already where they have settled in happily to the Russian protectorate , what will their reaction be when King James raises the funds to get the 13 Colonies back under Londons Catholic control.

I am sure all good catholics including the leaders of Spain support the 1713 Counter-Reformation of the Church of England as being a big step towards bringing England back into communion with Rome.

Spain has never had a major religious problem with King James or King Louis of France for that matter. Rather I think the problem Spain had with King James III was down to him being a Frenchman by upbringing and education. The snubbing of the Queen of Spain's sister, the brutal murder of Prince Eugine of Savoy in Edinburgh, failure to set free Spanish sailors and the throwing of King Charles of Spain diplomatic staff into Newgate Goal! 50% taxes on Spanish Trade and at least half of King James Ministers being double dealing turncoats who deserted the Hapsburgs in the middle of a war and are now trying to toady up to the Organ Grinder of the Ottoman Empire.

May be some Puritans left in England but probably only women, children and old men all the rest are either fighting with the Orange Order or have fled into exile in either the UDP or the America's.

No doubt when King James raises the £27m to get the 13 colonies back from Peter & Son (Pawnbrokers) the locals will be so happy that they can finally say good bye to the Cossacks and tar and feather any of the ex Pirate tax collectors Peter has been using to run the colonies if they hang around........That they will be welcome the return of King James, Jacobite Justice and 50% tax on imported tea and coffee by donning fancy dress and having a really wild party in Boston

Why Stuart that's quite a revolutionary idea....

Jason wrote:Why Stuart that's quite a revolutionary idea....

I look forward to the day when just prior to the hand over a certain Col of the Russian Guard has to go in and save Russian Tax Farmers from being tarred & feathered by the locals and finds out that most of the men in question still have Jacobite charges against them from their "Sons of Liberty" days and outstanding Spanish charges due to their days with Blackbeard and the sack of Havanna.

The "Tactical withdraw" Of Russian forces from the 13 English American colonies is still a long way off in game terms, there certainly is a melting pot of personalities present, all are listed as loyal to Russia despite whatever prior allegence they had, when Russia removes it's calming presence then it is no longer a Russian problem. The fact that the Puritans are a little upset with the Catholic church may lead to more problems than you think.

As Russia raises no taxation within the area then it may be a long time before the tar & feathers get to be used.

Said Colonel is a busy man at the moment and the Amreicas is not yet on his bucket list.....

J Flower wrote:
As Russia raises no taxation within the area then it may be a long time before the tar & feathers get to be used.

I see the Russian Government has adopted what is known in business as the "posion pill" defence against hostile take overs to make sure that no English Government in its right mind will ever want to buy the American colonies back.

Since £27m will get the Catholic English Government the right to levy zero tax on a bunch of ex-Pirates, ex-Hungarian protestant rebels, Puritans, ex-French protestant rebels, Orange Order and Sons of Liberty.

Plus purely nominal control of local administrators or are either ex ship mates of Blackbeard or business partners of Martel.