Another new player

Prunesquallor wrote:Thank you both.  I figured a pirate position would be a challenge as a first position.  The knights of Malta sound like it could be good option and seems to be available in Game 10.  Would the knights of Malta be limited in terms of game possibilities relative to a "normal" position?  The other possibility I'd consider, realizing this would preclude piracy, would be Portugal in Game 9, which happens to be my country origin so that has its appeal as well

In most games Malta is a fairly standard position and the Knights of St John's links with the Papacy do not really effect its player. G10 is unusual in having a very active Papacy. Which is also very unpopular in some quarters so you could end in a rather more complex situation than most Grandmasters having to ask yourself is the Grandmaster of the Order a hard core Roman loyalist like the Doge of Genoa? Or would he support a alternative Pope in Avignon to save the orders estates in France, Spain, Savoy?

Or is he just desperate to stop the Pope excommunicating the Governments of Savoy, Spain and France which is a really annoying distraction from his plans to liberate the Holy Land.

Fairly sure Malta is also free in all other games......G10 Malta sounds like GM stitch up! Or more kindly he does not want you feeling bored!

Think the same can be said about G9 Portugal. In most current games Portugal is a nice trade & colonial position who's main problems are its miners getting eat by Giant snakes in South America and its African colonies getting raided by hostile tribes. In G9 I think your historic English ally and port market is at war with Spain which could see you being pulled in a number of ways. Actually, privateering against either Spanish or Anglo-Dutch would seem to be an option in G9!

Before taking plunge suggest you ask Richard for a some recent papers and perhaps look at treads on forum for these games so you have a rough idea of what is going on and who you need to write too on your first turn.

Thank you for the useful responses as always, Stuart. To be fair to Richard, he did specifically suggest Malta in G10 for me. But it is listed in the current list of available positions. So you're likely right that Richard sees this as a potentially interesting position to play in general. Same goes for Portugal in G9. Both still sound like good options so I'm going to try to read up more on these. Thanks again!

Prunesquallor wrote:Thank you for the useful responses as always, Stuart.  To be fair to Richard, he did specifically suggest Malta in G10 for me.  But it is listed in the current list of available positions.  So you're likely right that Richard sees this as a potentially interesting position to play in general.  Same goes for Portugal in G9.  Both still sound like good options so I'm going to try to read up more on these.  Thanks again!

A friend of mine played Malta in one game of Glori (with a NPC Pope) and really enjoyed the position - Though he played it with emphasis on Catholic Diplomacy, Missionary, Centre of Medical learning and Trade rather than on waging a Holy War against Islam at sea. Which he tended to avoid along with proposals that the Knights of Saint John should take the lead in seeking the restoration of James Stuart to the Irish Crown (and reclaim Ireland for the true faith).

Unless G10 is ruined by a sudden outbreak of peace you could have huge fun attacking and capturing French Corsairs vessels who are hunting down Papal shipping carrying illigal materials to Genoa etc. You may want to ask Scotland about Prize Counts and if French letters of Marque mean you can not hang captured Corsairs.

Alternatively, if the Master of the Order's galleys runs into a very large and fast frigate flying the Boubon Standard and another flag - Red with a whole death holding a bottle of rum and a cutless - well you could become the first Character to be made a Martyr and a Saint by the Pope and I am sure the Doge of Genoa will write something nice words as well. Which has got to be worth loads of honour points!

Glad to hear it, Stuart, as that was ultimately what I went with (i.e., Malta in G10) Thank you very much for the pointers. Lot's to ruminate over!

I had a question on the timing of the turns and, rather than bug Richard about it, I figured I'd ask here first. I recall reading somewhere that turns for both Scramble and Glory of Kings are every month. Does that mean, results arrive every month or results arrive within a month of the last deadline for submitting orders? For example, Scramble orders were due 3/3/2020. When would results be expected back? Thank you!

He is working on that one now to my knowledge.

Good to know!

More questions of Glory of Kings (I have many but trying to tackle a few at a time )  

1 - Does the 5,000 ton of grain requirement apply to any fleet activity that involves the fleet setting sail? For example, does it apply to policing patrols, piracy patrols, or a corso (which is of particular interest to Malta)?

2 - Is grain available for purchase only from other nations directly or is it something that can be purchased from the "open market"?

3 - What is generally the going rate for a ton of grain (in G10 if that matters)?

4 - Is the number of recruits listed as being available in the state papers the total number of recruits for the nation regardless of who's recruiting, or is that just the number of recruits available to the player of the nation?  I guess what I'm trying to understand is whether recruiting from a foreign nation lowers the number of recruits available to the player of that nation, if that makes sense.

Thank you again!

1) In my experience if a unit is clearly marked as on patrol it does not need the 5,000 grain allocated. My experience is also any other time of activity by units, personalities etc that involves movement will raise the SL rating of that unit/person without grain. Sometimes even with grain !

2) I have not experienced grain for sale on open market. Try to identify players with bumper harvests and write letters. It is prudent to try and hold stores of grain so you may find anyone you write letters to may have stored grain

3) I dont charge for grain - I see it as helping out friends and allies. I think the price can be negotiated and perhaps that isn't always money

4) That is the number you have as a nation. That number can be reduced by other players recruiting in your territory. Equally if you try recruiting in another nation and are successful your recruits will increase. Just to forewarn, my view, which I think is matched by most players is that recruits are the most valuable commodity in the game. Go after other people's recruits at your peril !

Just like grain, there is nothing to stop negotiating for additional recruits with other players.

If you are seeking more recruits target non player controlled nations or use other in game mechanisms - orphans, vagrants etc

Prunesquallor wrote:More questions of Glory of Kings (I have many but trying to tackle a few at a time )  

1 - Does the 5,000 ton of grain requirement apply to any fleet activity that involves the fleet setting sail? For example, does it apply to policing patrols, piracy patrols, or a corso (which is of particular interest to Malta)?

2 - Is grain available for purchase only from other nations directly or is it something that can be purchased from the "open market"?

3 - What is generally the going rate for a ton of grain (in G10 if that matters)?

4 - Is the number of recruits listed as being available in the state papers the total number of recruits for the nation regardless of who's recruiting, or is that just the number of recruits available to the player of the nation?  I guess what I'm trying to understand is whether recruiting from a foreign nation lowers the number of recruits available to the player of that nation, if that makes sense.

Thank you again!

Grain is one of those awkward areas that can feel almost designed to stop players doing things.

Individual ships should first be placed into named formations. Then that formation ordered to sail. 5,000 tons of grain is required each time the formation moves. So if you send a fleet from Valetta to Rome you will need 5,000 tons to get there and 5,000 tons to get back. You may think it is unrealistic that a small fleet of 5 ships requires as much grain to use as a larger fleet of 500 ships, but that is deliberate as the GM doesn't like players splitting their formations up into individual units and moving them all separately. If you try to move units without supplying them with grain then the GM will take grain off your people which will hit your economy, make you very unpopular, and probably cause starvation (and population/tax loss going forward), so best not to try it.

Grain is valuable and is not normally available on the open market. You have to find someone who has had a good harvest (so has a reserve stored in granaries) or otherwise managed to get a surplus. Harvest reports tend to be in May or June, but they can be a bit misleading. You need roughly 100,000 tons per 1M population if you have a bad harvest (unless it it very bad in which case it can be twice that). But a good harvest does not mean you receive 100,000 tons per 1M population: in G7 England had a 'good' harvest one year and received 40,000 tons, but to cover the bad harvest the year before I had to find 700,000 tons. The good news is that there is usually enough grain somewhere in the world for you to buy - you just have to find it and pay up. If you have good relations with other nations (including inactive nations) then they are more likely to help you - it encourages diplomacy. Some nations are also more likely to have regular surpluses and there are things you can do to increase your own chances. There are plenty of discussions on the forum about grain. Investing in fishing is also a possibility. One of the good things about playing smaller nations is that the grain requirement is much less than the larger nations. One of the first things I did as Pope was to try and boost the chances of the Papacy having a good harvest ... I await results!

The good news is that patrols are given a depot and do not need grain to move because they are deemed to return to base at the end of each day.

Your recruit figure is based on your population. They are yours; other players have their own. That's what you get every year after modifiers for your economy. If EH is high (8-9) then recruit numbers will be lower; if EH is low (2-3) then recruit numbers will be higher, but tax revenues lower. The trend is important: if year after year you run an economy that is booming you can easily find a 20-25% reduction year on year in recruit numbers which naturally hampers what you can do. Famine will drop your EH and if you can find the grain so you don't suffer too much can actually increase the number of recruits you get.

Recruiting from a foreign nation is tricky - most have recruiting bans (or put them in place as soon as you try) and you will have wasted your time and lost your recruiting party. It is probably a wise move to put a recruiting ban in place on Malta before someone moves in and pinches your recruits.

Hope this helps.

Papa Clement wrote:
Recruiting from a foreign nation is tricky - most have recruiting bans (or put them in place as soon as you try) and you will have wasted your time and lost your recruiting party.  It is probably a wise move to put a recruiting ban in place on Malta before someone moves in and pinches your recruits.

Though I think in the past anyway putting a recruiting ban in place can hurt the number of recruits you get as people cannot move about as freely.

Last year G10 Russia sent grain out from its good harvest to countries that had had a poor harvest. Sending a letter still could mean grain not arriving in time so always account for letter travel and transport times when writing to other nations. Also worth having some trade in different areas so you can buy fish and livestock from countries that trade in them if you don't invest in yourself. However if you don't have trade in an area it takes longer and costs more to get anything shipped over. One European example last year had fish from England and Russia arrive in the same month despite the differences in distance (I'm guessing from the timing that order/s was from the same month).

I have years where there was a good harvest then a bad harvest and times when there's been more than one bad harvest in a row. Look out for hardened grain as that can increase crop yields. Potatoes might be something to look into, but beware a bad potato harvest is 4x worse.

Thank you both. That is very helpful. Papa, thank you for pointing out as well that the 5,000 ton of grain is per fleet. I think I had missed that nuance.

As for recruits, I understand different nations will generate different numbers of recruits. What is still not clear to me is whether the recruits on my papers (let's say 100 for the sake of round numbers) are the same that would be drawn from if a foreign nation tried to recruit from my nation. So if someone recruited 50 recruits from Malta, would that leave me with only 50? That would make the most sense but I wanted to confirm. I had read elsewhere in the forum that it was best to ask permission to recruit before doing so, which is what I've done, but I guess I'd like to understand how much of an ask that is..

Prunesquallor wrote:Thank you both.  That is very helpful.  Papa, thank you for pointing out as well that the 5,000 ton of grain is per fleet.  I think I had missed that nuance.

As for recruits, I understand different nations will generate different numbers of recruits.  What is still not clear to me is whether the recruits on my papers (let's say 100 for the sake of round numbers) are the same that would be drawn from if a foreign nation tried to recruit from my nation.  So if someone recruited 50 recruits from Malta, would that leave me with only 50?  That would make the most sense but I wanted to confirm.  I had read elsewhere in the forum that it was best to ask permission to recruit before doing so, which is what I've done, but I guess I'd like to understand how much of an ask that is..

If your thinking of keeping fleets in supply you might want to investigate building Magazines.

Yes if you have 100 recruits on your asset list and Russia recruited 50 then Malta would have 50 left. Given the current war a lot of spare recruits from NPC's have been recruited so it might be a bit hard under current conditions to get extra. Even neutral powers have been reported in the press as asking other countries to purchase recruits.

Happy to help and feel free to write a letter to the Tsar

Thank you again, and thank you count-de-monet! I had missed your response earlier, which I see now had address my questions very clearly as well.

Marshal, expect a letter this coming month

Hi
With the current situation effecting the world ive finally decided to sign up for Glory of Kings totally new to the game or the idea of PBMs so I might take awhile to get the idea. I’m signing in to Game 7 as the Electorate of Bavaria. Looking forward to playing.

Welcome, LordCarter. I am someone who was very recently in your position (started a turn ago) will be happy to give you a beginner's perspective/tips. I'll be the first to admit that it took me a while to take the plunge and try one of Agema's games because I was used to games where the rules and mechanics were much more explicit and codified, but I've now come to appreciate Agema's approach, which I think results in more rewarding and deeper gaming experience. I wasn't new to pbem, though. That will take some adjustment as well

Welcome aboard! Lots of folks happy to answer questions.

LordCarter wrote:Hi
With the current situation effecting the world ive finally decided to sign up for Glory of Kings totally new to the game or the idea of PBMs so I might take awhile to get the idea. I’m signing in to Game 7 as the Electorate of Bavaria. Looking forward to playing.

Hi & welcome to G7,

As some background info ref the Electorate of Bavaria 1700-1713 you will be pleased to hear that the Electorate has not invaded anyone or beem invaded so mortal foes are in short supply. Indeed the only really bad thing to happen was when the Elector married for a 2nd time - the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor - and then lost both his wife and new baby in child birth.

The Elector has now married for a third time to the Queen of Spains sister. Another sort of Hapsburg

In the wider Holy Roman Empire life did get a bit interesting very early in the C18 when Prussia and Saxony with some support from France were pushing for a more united Germany minus Austria. Basically the "little German" solution 160 years early but that seemed to fade away. With the Emperor basically saying he likes the Empire exactly as it is - which did make him widly popular for a while but his reputation took a battering which it has never reallt recovered when he tore up a treaty with the French in order to try and save his English ally.

The major events outside of the Holy Roman Empire include:

- Russia lost most of the Battles but finally ground down the Swedes to win its "Wind on the West" and takes over the Baltic States.

- Sweden and Denmark now seem in process of forming a Union

- Spanish succession question ended in favour of Hapsburg, issue not really contested by Bourbons as they were too busy having rows with English about Dredgers.

- French Army force England to build them their promised Dredgers and restore James II to thrones of England and Scotland. In a War which dragged in Austria, UDP and Spain in failed attempt to save English from their own folly but at least allowed Emperor to recover the Franche Comete for the Empire. King William remains King of Scotland and Stadtholder

- Restored James II gets murdered by own Prime Minister but is followed by his son James III. In order to stop plots and threatened Dutch invasion James III leases American colonies he no longer controls to Russians for a load of cash and an Army and proceeds to invade Scotland were he beheads King William of Orange (which really upset Dutch), The Lord President of Scotland (which really upset Scots) and Prince Eugine of Savoy (which really upset Hapsburgs).

- With his Russian support cooling, James III & his conquest of Scotland saved when Louis XIV declares war on UDP, Austria and Spain the minute his treaty with them ends. Louis wins huge victory over Austrian Army but offers generous white peace apart from Scotland to end war and get Spanish out of France, Hapsburgs accept but Dutch fight on for another two years before taking much much harsher terms.

As of this year Czar is building a Navy, There seems to be trouble in Hungary which may have something to do with Grand Vizier, England and Scotland are trying to get over a decade of fighting on own soil, UDP is sorting out a very expensive defeat & France is having a Naval war with Persia. It is also sorting out a financial crisis for which it has blamed the Elector of Bararia's brother in law.

Who I say is a really, really nice man who has nothing to do with dodgy French Treasury Ministers...........but I may be biased

If Bavaria has a spare Admiral then the Russian navy is interested in hiring him.

Enjoy the dark sinister, twisty, faction filled world of Game Seven. Not so much a question of know thy enemy, more a case of trying to work out who is your friend.

J Flower wrote:If Bavaria has a spare Admiral then the Russian navy is interested in hiring him.

Enjoy the dark sinister, twisty, faction filled world of Game Seven. Not so much a question of know thy enemy, more a case of trying to work out who is your friend.

G7 the game were the Military seem to have raced on to the fire power of the 7 Years War but the politics and alliances seem to be going backwards into the C17. Forget WSS line up G7 is really old school in its diplomatic sulks:

First we had a repeat of the 9 years war/King Williams War/War of the League of Augsburg (everyone V French and Jacobites) then we had a reply of the 3rd Anglo-Dutch War (England & France v UDP & Scots with lots of English being really unhappy about being on the "wrong side").

Comes to something when the only rulers to have got out of the 1660 and are boldly stepping into the progressive C18 with sparkly new policies are the Czar of Russia and his eastern based henchman (Siberia the hip happening place in G7!), the Shah of Persia and the Hopsdar of Moldavia who is sadly now a NPC.

Glad to see another new player in G7, so welcome and good luck.

Instead of relying on hopelessly biased player reviews, you might like to initially ask your advisors for a summary of Bavaria's recent dealings with foreign nations.

Those advisors might well point out that Bavaria is far from being a Hapsburg stooge and holds England in rather high regard because Austria held your children captive in a nunnery to stop Bavaria joining in the war on the side of France/England. King James insisted that the return of your children was a condition of the Treaty of Scotland (clause 7) that ended one phase of the war, so even if their new stepmother is a Hapsburg (they do tend to come with rather large dowries to make up for other deficiencies), you will probably find that your children are very pro-England.

Although the young Prince Henry Charles Louis Stuart is only a few months old and so has not yet mastered writing, his father, King James, would be very pleased to receive correspondence from Prince Max and/or his children.

Welcome to LGDR... Hope that you enjoy it and it provides as much entertainment to you as it does to me.

Papa Clement wrote:Glad to see another new player in G7, so welcome and good luck.

Instead of relying on hopelessly biased player reviews, you might like to initially ask your advisors for a summary of Bavaria's recent dealings with foreign nations.

Those advisors might well point out that Bavaria is far from being a Hapsburg stooge and holds England in rather high regard because Austria held your children captive in a nunnery to stop Bavaria joining in the war on the side of France/England.  King James insisted that the return of your children was a condition of the Treaty of Scotland (clause 7) that ended one phase of the war, so even if their new stepmother is a Hapsburg (they do tend to come with rather large dowries to make up for other deficiencies), you will probably find that your children are very pro-England.

Although the young Prince Henry Charles Louis Stuart is only a few months old and so has not yet mastered writing, his father, King James, would be very pleased to receive correspondence from Prince Max and/or his children.

While everyone is entitled to own opinions and generally holds them quite strongly in G7 esp with regard to Louis XIV, James III, the Hapsburgs and the Ottoman Grand Vizier.

Can I just say I though the wedding of Maximillien-Emmanuel, Elector of Bavaria and Maria Valdez, Comtessa of Salerno was really nice and a true love match based on a shared love of Music and Opera (rather than the size of her Dowry).

Plus the members of the College of Electors and the College of Princes are not Imperial stooges but cultured Patriots.

Following the English taking up cricket, the Germans music, the Spanish Art and the King of Sweden in love and probably about to take up love poems anyone think G7 will now replace G9 as the most enlightened and civilized game of Glori?

Stuart Bailey wrote:Following the English taking up cricket, the Germans music, the Spanish Art and the King of Sweden in love and probably about to take up love poems anyone think G7 will now replace G9 as the most enlightened and civilized game of Glori?

Given:
1. the cultural and economic achievements of Spain
2. the replacement of William the Calvinist killjoy with good King James and the burgeoning Catholic renaissance (180 years too late)
3. the civilizing influence Russia is exerting on the 13 American Colonies
4. France awarding a parrot the title 'Advocatus Sapientiae'; and
5. Hungary dumping those troublesome Hapsburgs and sending out trade missions

it seems quite possible that G7 is finally settling down into a period of peace and relative prosperity for those enlightened enough to realise it.

Will it last or will the world erupt into another war, leaving only those with the determination to rise above it to continue this new and most welcome feature in what is currently the longest-running game of LGDR?

Welcome on board and enjoy the insanity...