Game 10

tkolter wrote:Soon Abyssinian Mead might be exported from Abyssinia I need honey, a yeast common in most regions and some investing in the equipment and there you go. And Muslims can drink mead so is a fine regional export. (Its not a grain alcohol.)

WhiteRose wrote:What happened to the game turn reviews I've seen when scrolling through this forum

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Stuart Bailey wrote:

WhiteRose wrote:What happened to the game turn reviews I've seen when scrolling through this forum

In brief Feb 1703 say a lot of talking but very little action - reports in the Mercurius Politicus included:

1) The King of France buying a load of tulip bulbs from the Dutch and planting his palace gardens. This may be a indication of warming relations between Paris and the Hague but it was bloody cold in the gardens of Versailles! The French were also trying to work out what a 43 year old £500,000 debt is based on 20% compound interest but ran out of fingers.

2) The Stadtholder visited a burnt out fire work factory in the rain and had a request Hesse-Kassel to sale them some dredgers.

3) Lord Godolphin gave a speach - something about the need to protect children from Lions

4) Lord Melville also gave a speach & drank some whisky. But was actually out drunk by the envoy from Hesse-Kassel.

5) The Viceroy of Flanders who is a nephew of the King of fhas decided that Flanders is part of the Kingdom of France while Upper Guelderland and Luxembourg are still in the Holy Roman Empire because the smaller territories have votes in the diet while Flanders has no votes in the diet.

6) Naughty bandits in the Cavennes region of France have robbed merchant caravans while Highwaymen have robbed Scots diplomatic post in various locations. Of greater concern the Czar changed the Royal Steward of Poland with being collusion with Tartar bandits [smiley]https://2img.net/i/fa/i/smiles/suspect.gif[/smiley]

7) The above mentioned Royal Steward also had a lot of Noble Polish Senators rounded up at sword point, feed nothing but bread and water and after five senators and five representatives were killed forced them to vote through the abdication of the King and changes to the Polish constitution. Since the whole point of the Polish Constitution is to provide maximium freedom for Polish Nobles questions will no doubt be raised about who legal the Royal (?) Stewards actions are.

- On the basis the King of Poland has abdicated logically a new Election should now be called. This may be a bit problomatic for the Royal Steward since while he broke 230 Senators with only ten deaths. How do you deal with 30,000 Polish Nobles who are going to attend the election mounted and armed to the teeth without a war breaking out?

[smiley]https://2img.net/i/fa/i/smiles/icon_cool.gif[/smiley] Oddly the King of Poland who is also the Elector of Saxony has said nothing about his "abdication" and sems to have spent month chatting to workers on the fortifications of Dresden.

9) The King of Sweden sent month visiting his Army.

One gets a funny feeling that they are expecting trouble in Eastern Europe!

10) Outside Europe their seemed a lot of stuff about rice, rice shipments, rice going off.........seems that unless it involves rice it does not get a mention in the far east! Think their is also going to be a civil war in Nippon as well but this probably involves a row about rice.

11) In Africa its a bit more varied with yams and speared Dutchmen in Herrero. Dutch also in trouble with the Asante for taking 3,000 Asante as "Slaves" and in Pianosa (where?) a Dutch Great Frigates have mutinied. Wonder if the Dutch crews are made up of Asante? Or want to join the French Corsairs?

12) Cardinal Portocarrero introduced new taxation in Spain......but did not consult the Cortez first and they are not happy! Well if you can get away with High Teason what is the odd illegal tax between friends.

13) The Pope rubber stamped the Emperors claim to the whole Hapsburg inheritence with Spain and its Empire plus the Kingdom of Naples going to Charles von Hapsburg while on the death of his father his Charles elder brother Josef King of the Romans will inherit The Imperial Title, Hapsburg dynastic lands, Milan perhaps with a Papal Green light to annex Savoy and Flanders probably with Papal permission to take back into Flanders those rebel provinces otherwise known as the UDP.

- Have turning his coat and setting new standards in toading it seems likely that the Doge of Genoa will be retained as Viceroy of Naples.

- While the Pope gets Sardinia for his trouble, but people are also windering what else has the Emperor promised the Pope to win his support? Is a Austrian Hapsburg King of Spain who owes his throne to the Pope to be viewed as a stepping stone to a Stuart restoration in the British Kingdoms?

14) Nothing has yet to be said about the the Papal rubber stamping of the Hapsburg claim but along with the Polish Crisis the key points in G10 would now seem to be:

a) Will the King of Portugal risk Papal displease and continue to seek the Crown of Spain? Current betting is that he will eventuallu win over the Spanish Nobles unless Charles Hapsburg shows up in Iberia with a Hapsburg Army to back his claim.

b) Will the King of France who only asked for an opinion on the Papal Fief of Naples bow the knee to Papal-Imperial rule in Europe and accept the vastly extended Papal ruling in total and retreat to to his charming new Flower Gardens? Or will he stand up for the hard won rights of the French Church and State as as per Article One of the Declaration of the French Clergy?

Faced with revolting Protestants and a seemingly all powerful alliance of the Emperor and the Pope, backed by the Elector of Bavaria and his brother, The Grand Duke of Tuscany, The King of Sweden and turn-coat Doge of Genoa it must be tempting to Louis XIV to take the Dowry payment and order his grandson to withdraw from Milan, Sicily and Flanders.

But adding to the Kings problems he has the Bishop of Paris demanding that he stands up for the Gallican Church (which does not want to see French Tithes leave France to line the pockets of slimy Italian Clerics) and chunks of his nobility and Army/Navy like the Comte De Forbin, allies like the Duke of Savoy and even his own family like this nephew Philippe d’Orleans are spoiling for a fight. Dreaming the usual dreams of French Nobles about honour and La Glori with a side order of fire, sword, rape and pillage. They may be wrong in thinking one Frenchman is worth any two cleric’s and Italian bankers but if they are not allowed to make a stand who wants drunken and depressed junior relatives kicking over the flowers?

15) In summary the start of G10 has seen the Emperor win a huge diplomatic victory in getting the Pope to back his claims. Unfortunately for him his former Anglo-Dutch-Scots allies tend to view being in an Papal influenced alliance as being allied to the anti-Christ. And while his other allies like Genoa & Bavaria cheer and clap his diplomatic skills and he has boxed the French & Savoy into a diplomatic corner a question remains over how keen some of his allies will be when metal starts to meet the meat?

Jason wrote:Scotland is a little miffed at his Holiness, we tend to not take kindly to those who make out our allies, who are independent sovereign nations, are 'rebel provinces' nor seem to have missed out that whole Glorious Revolution song and dance...pretty sure we put posters up everywhere that the Stuarts were no longer kings of Scotland...perhaps we need to put a few up in Rome in Latin to get the point across.

As to who is nicking our mail...could it be some very desperate stamp collectors?  I guess Scottish stamps might be quite rare on the continent.

J Flower wrote:beginning to think I have a curse with Naval assets, in G2 the Prussian yacht club & rowing Union, sank more of its own ships than the foes, As Russia in Seven a major storm sank over 50 Sol. Now As UDP I actually get a half decent navy with a tradition of sinking more enemy that their own & the buggers mutiny!

Think I am just going to stick with dry land  for now, maybe I just don't understand the ways of the sea.

Just for the record France didn't buy the tulip bulbs they were sent as a loving gift from his friend the Staadtholder, who wants good king Louis to enjoy his gardens in the spring.

Deacon wrote:
You expect the Pope to be peachy with the overthrow of a Catholic monarch because he was Catholic?

That's right up there just below him proclaiming Martin Luther was right. I think about the only thing higher up that list is proclaiming that "there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet."

WhiteRose wrote:Love reading these reviews

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Deacon wrote:
Well, I'm pretty sure the Pope wants to stamp stuff (like heretic protestants), does that count?

Kerensky wrote:

The only more bizarre event was the Scottish Stamp collector. In terms of diplomatic relevance, Scottish mail has to be up there with mine. I like to think I bring something to the atmosphere in G10, but what I say or do is not exactly going to set the tone for Europe. I hope Jason is not offended if I place his Scotland in that same bucket of states.

Which leads to the only possible conclusion. Someone's agents f**ked up.

Deacon wrote:
Well, I'm pretty sure the Pope wants to stamp stuff (like heretic protestants), does that count?