Game Order Turn Examples from Rozwi in Game 10

What follows are three consecutive turn replies that I sent back to Agema, for Rozwi in Game 10.

Maybe they'll be of use to players. I'm not saying my method is right, correct, or the best - but it works for me, and Richard doesn't tell me to change it.

Direct copy of my turn email, sent back to Agema


Roy [surname here] Rozwi - TGOK#10 July 1701

Military Decisions:
* Umtali Horse - Rest In Camp

* Army of Drilling - rename 'Army of Hunting'. They will then do the following:-

Task: They are to hunt wild animals for their meat (within Rozwi)

Method: Infantry to build animal runs, lined by branches/scrub bushes/detritus, which cavalry driven animals will be guided into through the use of lines of men stalking forward and herding the animals into the fenced funnels. These runs will terminate in dug-out pits, or natural rock formations where the trapped animals cannot escape from. There they will be killed.

Result: Meat to be used to feed the populace / army.
Skins and ivory (antelope, etc.) being sold via Africa Trade.

Purchases:
£5,000 - Trade Mission - Cape Town, Africa

Diplomatic Orders:
If the following items can be worked on before the on-going Spy Reports, please. As what follows concerns the poor harvest result, and I'm more interested in getting that resolved than a future war. Thank you.

-

* Create new character:

Mutumwa Dongo - speaks Bantu, Khoikhoi, & Khoisan languages. Former bondservant on a Cape Town farm. Skilled trader.

Have him dispatched to UDP's Cape Town. He will act as Rozwi Emissary to the UDP's Cape Governor - and lead the trade mission there.

-

* Kumalo Stosha (at Khami) - travel to Mozambique (city) to seek audience with the governor there. Go via Umtali, and have Kushinga accompany you as interpreter.

"On gaining an audience with the governor, and via the interpretation of Kushinga, Kumalo Stosha spoke of the failure of the Portuguese man, Duarte Garcia, to present himself at Umtali, and that, further more, the Changamire was calling on his brother king, Pedro, to help the Rozwi with the harvest failure, as the Portuguese said they would do in the drawn words sent to the Changamire, dated December 1700."

* Kushinga (at Umtali) - accompany Kumalo Stosha to Mozambique (city). Assist with the above.

-

* Ambassador to Tonga, Mufaro Gezi - Seek an audience with their king, tell them that Chief Sanchez is en-route and comes seeking grain to trade.

* Chief Sanchez of the Indabade (at Khami) - Is to go to the capital of Tonga (with an armed escort suitable to allow fast travel), where our ambassador will have told the Tongan's to expect him.

"Chief Sanchez will tell the Tongan king that he acts as the voice of Changamire Dombo. That he has come to the king's kraal to tell him that his brother Dombo asks for grain to combat the Rozwi's poor harvest. What is it that Tonga asks in exchange for grain?"

Roy [surname here] Rozwi - TGOK#10 August 1701

Military Decisions:
* Umtali Horse (at Jahunda Hill): Travel to Inhambane. There they will join with the Inhambane Horse and combine to form the (renamed) Shikra Regiment.

* Mkandla's expedition (at Khami) :
Transfer 150 dogs to Royal Kennels (at Khami).
100 men return to parent unit.
Opa Mkandla to join list of character at Khami.

Purchases:
* Kumalo Stosha & Kushinga (at Mozambique): Purchase what grain is available there - to a value of £10,000 - and have it delivered via ship to Inhambane.

Diplomatic Orders:
* Chief Sanchez (at Tonga): Wait to hear what King Chewa Akani says, if anything, is his price for selling grain. When Chief Sanchez feels it prudent, he can let it be known that Changamire Dombo wishes to meet with the unmarried Princess Amanaki Akani.

* Prime Minister, Chief Hapunda (at Khami): 12,000 tons of meat (with Army of Hunting at Khami), use 4,000 tons of it and begin supplementing grain consumption throughout the nation.

Aim: Supplement grain diet of the nation with meat, so, hopefully, only a fraction of the normal grain supplies are used this month and what is saved can be stocked to use against famine.

Method: Have 4,000 tons of meat distributed as widely as possible throughout the nation, issuing it to kraal and clan headmen so as to fairly distribute the meat throughout the communities they oversee. Clan and Kraal headmen being instructed to hold back what grain saved in this way to provide food supplies in case of famine.

* x1 lof of cattle at Khami Market Place: Have Kandeya (Headsman at Changamire's cattle ranch) check to see if they are healthy. If they are, then they are to be gifted to Chinkuli Masheke (leading spirit medium) with the compliments of the Changamire.

* 500 tons of meat (Army of Hunting at Khami) is to be handed over to Chinkuli Masheke, for the use of Offerings to the Ancestor Spirits. (see below newspaper article)


"The respectful supplicants followed Chikula Masheke, Rozwi's leading spirit medium. They entered the holy site from the East with the Sun at their back, their shadow's long dark silhouettes making contact with the buried dead and announcing the living's presence at that place where life met death. They had come to honour the ancestor spirits, to ask for their protection against famine, to sacrifice to their shades and beseech for their guidance.

The royal party stood vigil through the heat of the day. Changamire Dombo and his wives, the ministers and other nobles, patiently waiting as Masheke directed the diggers and the delivered offerings. Watching on as part of the previous month's slaughtered wildlife was brought forth and interred into the offering pit dug for that purpose. Witnessing the courage of the young male sacrifice, his legs unsteady from the drugged beer and narcotic smoke used to control his fear, his duty to serve the ancestor's in their pursuit of the offered game and guide them in the hunt. Masheke's acolyte's helped him into place inside the pit before the executioner came forth and snapped his neck.

As the lowering sun came level with the double peaks of Guardian Hill those gathered withdrew, leaving the sacred ground before darkness descended and claimed the noble burial site as it's own."


- the Royal Burial Ground is 3 miles away from Khami, to the west.

- I've included Changamire Dombo in the above, as I'm hoping that he can ride to Khami - take part in the ceremony and then spend the night at Khami - and then return to lead the Army of Training. If he cannot do this, as it would interfere with the Army of Training's march, then please remove Changamire Dombo from the 'scene'.


Thank you.

Roy

Roy [surname here] Rozwi - TGOK#10 September 1701

Military Decisions:

Purchases:
£2,500 (Personal Wealth) - gift to Princess Akani of Tonga
£4,000 (Personal Wealth) - payment to Chinkuli Masheke for his cattle. [herd to be kept alive, for now, and stored at Khami Market Place.

Diplomatic Orders:
* Chief Sanchez (at Tonga): Thank King Akani for the opportunity to trade with Tonga. Rozwi accepts. As friends, Rozwi invites Tonga to open a trade mission at Khami, should the king wish, and enquires if it would please King Akani if Rozwi and Tonga were to both lower tax on each other to 5% from January 1702?

* Mufaro Gezi (at Tonga): Present to King Akani, stating that they are gifts from the Changamire to Princess Akani;
A belt of waist beads, the lower string of which being Kiffa beads.
A pair of polished seashell ankle cuffs.
"The cuffs are for the many days of travel that the Changamire will endure to meet the Princess. The waist beads to show that he has the stomach to undertake and complete such a task. If you allow the Changamire to meet the Princess, then he will present, for her, such other items to show the strength that alliance between Tonga and Rozwi could provide."


* Kumalo Stosha (at Mozambique):
Using his fingers to count off his points, Kumalo Stosha replied to the Portuguese Governor:

i) Rozwi will provide slaves for purchase. Portugal can then make use of them as you will.

ii) Rozwi has no knowledge of the islander Betsilio, nor their lands.
Regiments can be raised and hired to Portugal, then they can be trained to fight to your methods and be able to do as you wish in battle. Portugal then commands it's own forces without Rozwi involvement.
The Changamire dislikes the idea of a Rozwi army fighting, cut off, over the sea -- But, if Portugal asks, the Changamire will make an army available to fight alongside our friends. What would be the purpose of such an army? Should it be foot soldiers, horsemen, or both? Is it to fight independently, or stood in close cooperation with Portuguese regiments, or as threat to drive the Betsilio into a trap?
The Changamire needs to know Portugal's wishes before anything further can be done or talked of. Umtali's kraal should host such talks.

iii) Rozwi will react to action taken against Tonga. If there is outstanding issue, Rozwi and Tonga and Portugal will talk to arrange blood price to be paid.
Other tribes have no ties with the Rozwi, at this time.

iv) Portugal is welcome to open trading posts at Inhambane and at Umtali. Portugal is welcome to trade food to the Rozwi; that which you produce and any you can import from eastern markets. Further trade and farming talks can be held at Umtali kraal.


* Prime Minister, Chief Hapunda (at Khami): 8,000 tons of meat (with Army of Hunting at Khami), use 4,000 tons of it and continue supplementing grain consumption throughout the nation - as started last month, and using the same methods.

* Chief Muzorewa (at Inhambane): Have ready for Scotland's diplomat, Mr Glover, several unmarried women. These women to manage his home and help him learn our language and customs easier.

* Chief Muzorewa (at Imhambane): Make it known, as Rozwi Law, that those White Men who come to Imhambane at the invitation of the Changamire are here as guests, and should be afforded all courtesy and help. Any trouble they may cause is to be reported to Chief Muzorewa's assistants, to be dealt with my the chief himself.

Also, any White Men or Moslem Men who come to trade at Inhambane is to be granted all courtesy, unless the Changamire states otherwise. Any problem these outsiders cause is to be reported to Chief Muzorewa immedietly.

* Rozwi confirms it is a signatory of the Treaty of Kaap Kolonie (as written September 1701) - this is a non-aggression treaty, with an amendment to cover the UDP's trade treaty specifics, with the UDP (awaiting their approval).


Thank you.

Roy

Just for comparison, here's an early order turn example as Scotland in G10

Military Orders
• 10 Liners to be laid down at Leith (150 recruits; 3 months; £3,500)
• 2 infantry battalions (matchlock musket & pike-armed) stood down of Edinburgh Garrison to be rearmed with flintlocks from army camp (£1,000)

Expenditure[b][/b]
• £5,000 to be spent opening Repair Yard at Leith
• £5,000 to be spent opening Trade Missions in Moscow
• £50,000 to be spent opening legal academy at Glasgow, to be known as The University of Glasgow
• £30,000 to be invested in Americas Trade
• £100,000 to be invested in Maritime Trade
• £30,000 to be invested in Baltic Trade
• £30,000 to be invested in Whisky Trade
• £5,000, from Personal Wealth, to be spent on banquet (see diplomatic orders)

Diplomatic Orders
• 1,000 recruits to attend as The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh to train as Physicians
• Lord George Melville to host banquet on last night of the month for all members of the Scots Parliament to mark the end of the 1700 session. After giving the Loyal Toast with a glass of whisky, Melville to speak to his guests, “Good and True members of Parliament I wish to thank you for your excellent service these last months. Your deliberations and discussions have shown all that we in Scotland are one of the handful of lands where the will of the people decide the actions of the state. Truly this is a blessed land. With your aid I am certain we will make Scotland a land envied by all, we may have different political views but we all desire the best for this country. To this end I have this month made further investments in our trade, to ensure our prosperity, and in the coming months we shall do much to improve the facilities of our land. Others may belittle us and mock us in their ‘broadsheet’ but we are Scots, we care not for them and will show this through our growth!”

White Rose,

If your struggling initially then maybe you can do a few things ot help make your position more personal for yourself. For example try & research names for your Regiments in the army, or Ships in the Navy. In initial turns have your leader do a tour of the capital to see what is there & what the people would like to see constructed, have him/ her visit a holy place & pray for guidance, then give a few alms ot the poor afterwards.( If you can't find any army listings simply name them after town/ cities in your country.) It may help to give you a starting point to move on from. Get your army& navy drilling to improve them, maybe decide what colour uniforms & flags will be.

Ask ministers what your main imports & exports are so you get an idea of what you can focus your trade on, or which industries you need to develop.If you are struggling to understand your posiiton Ministers are a way of getting information about it from Agema, not always useful information, but information no less.

Write simple intro letters to neighbouring nations / Colonial powers in your region, just to let them know you are there & would like to interact with them. Don't forget you will have no replies in the turn directly after you write so don't be disapointed , you need to wait a turn for the reply.

Similar way do a small intro piece for the Game Newsletter, saying how you have taken on the task of guiding your Nation, include a few ideas of things you want to do, nothing definate you can be vauge about wanting to improve economy & strengthen military to defend the homes of your people, if you do this speech at a banquet infront of the Great & Good of your nation then it may even give a little honour boost. Even throw in a firework display if you want.

Do a bit of research into your National leader or their Royal House, & the history of your Nation as it was in C18th, or even other countries at the same time span, it may well give you a few ideas to put into practice, political, medical, scientific or military.....

Hope this will help you to move on into the game, may initially seem a bit daunting. But in fact you set your own goals & objectives, it could be territorial expansion, Economic growth, improving infrastucture, or anything else that springs to mind.

One final word of advice, don't invade anyone in your first couple of turns,at least until you know who is allied with who &who is allied to you,& what the implications could be of use of force. Have seen it happen a couple of times & the players soon lost interest & left the game because the people thay attacked had bigger friends.

Enjoy the game, it is what you make it, don't expect your orders or ideas to work out 100% as you have planned, so be prepared to adapt & overcome.

Just to help (future) readers understand the context behind this thread, check the following link and read the various individual posts on Page 2 of that thread.

https://agema.darkbb.com/t919-new-here#14398

There's also additional posts, here. Post number 324 onward.

https://agema.darkbb.com/t905p300-game-10#14408



Just to clarify, when comparing my three 1701 turn examples with that of Scotland that Jason posted, Rozwi's early game orders were very much similar.
The situation in the game for Rozwi, at that time of 1701, was we'd just suffered harvest failure and the upkeep of several armies was a major drain on the treasury money available to spend turn-to-turn - hence the use of personal wealth and lots of diplomatic politicking, to help boost the Honour score and meaning a larger Estates Revenue amount for my character's personal wealth in 1702.

Rozwi's aim, since January 1700, has been to invade the area of land around the Okavango Delta (in the country of Ovambo in the game). The military is my main tool to play with, though training it and marching it around has taken years to accomplish. I do a lot of roleplaying with my main character, to boost my Honour score and ensure a decent amount of personal wealth income.
Rozwi hasn't been much involved in trade, nor technological advancement since January 1700. It has spent some monies building up the town of Inhambane, to allow contact with Europeans (other player's ambassadors). But, mainly, my game play has been about the army and invading the Non-Player Controlled country of Ovambo, and diplomacy with the Non-Player-Controlled Tonga.
I have mainly focused myself on war with Ovambo, and climbing the Honour table. I've been relatively successful, so far, but Rozwi is far behind most player's when it comes to trade success and technological/scientific advancement I would imagine.  
Hence the many different ways to play the game.

[the Treaty of Kaap Kolonie, mentioned in the turn examples, has elapsed - as of January 1703 - in case anyone thought I had let slip a vital piece of information, between Rozwi and the UDP. I hadn't]



[edit: The above turn order examples also make use of the Extra Diplomatic Orders option, as stated at the back of the 7th ed. rules book. The example turns will have cost around £15 to £20, I would say - my extra diplomatic orders allowance is capped at £20 maximum, at my asking.]

Very interesting all of you!

thanks

Advise the expense month is April so wait to see the hit your finances take then do major projects I plan to wait until then for further big spending. You don't want to turn up short on funds then beg people for loans at bad terms.

I would expect on a treaty a 25% return on any loan payable in December.

One issue that I encountered in a previous game - playing as either Blackbeard or Savoy, I forget which - was that I received some coins from another player nation, in payment for something - I can't remember - but the currency was different than that of my own nation. So we had to exchange them, at a loss. Or, maybe, it was through a pirate action of seizing a treasure chest??

Anyway, Rozwi will probably find it difficult to get a bank loan, as from memory you have to state that you're looking for a bank, first, and that might prove difficult in the Southern Hemisphere. If we did manage to secure a loan from a bank, there could be the issue of currency and I can't see the people of Rozwi, including the coastal Swahili traders, being too economically knowledgeable or having access to an exchange. So that, really, only leaves the eastern coast of Africa states who use the Ashrafi currency and a money loan in specie.

Can't see me coming cap in hand to Abyssinia, though, if you want to charge 25% interest each December Usury must surely be a sin in the Christian World
[just to say, the above was written in humorous levity. written internet comments obviously not being able to express a person's playful intent]

I was kidding I would never charge more than 19.99% to another African nation.

But my advice is simple for new people don't spend everything until you know you're income from taxes verses expenses.

Yes, got to agree about keeping an eye on expenses and making sure that the treasury can afford the upkeep costs.

Fortnight ago, or so, I was writing down all my upkeep costs and then deducting them against the total treasury amounts (state and personal) to see what I can safely spend or reinvest before the April financial upkeep turn. Thankfully, Rozwi's treasury will still be in the black after the April deductions.

tkolter wrote:But my advice is simple for new people don't spend everything until you know you're income from taxes verses expenses.

A very wise piece of advice...in fact I try not spending money before the expenses round regardless of being new or not My predictions of my expenditure (made in advance of the expenditure figures) always go wrong...