Glory of Kings Beginners Guide

The Glory of Kings (formerly known as La Gloire du Roi) is a recreation of the real world of the 18th century. You subscribe to it like you would a magazine, and take part as one of the leading figures of the time, who can range from King Louis XIV, the Sun King of Royal France, down to the likes of the infamous pirate Blackbeard terrorising the West Indies.
The game has been developed over 19 years and is tried and tested with a strong reputation and a strong following. It isn’t a computer game but has a great deal of human input and has a brilliant historical atmosphere reflecting this period of history.


So you want to play? Ok your first major choice is which nation to play? Playing for the first time can seem daunting so a small sized nation is a good choice to ease you into the game, the major powers I will discuss in later articles. So which small state/nation do you choose? Well I will list a few for you:

Any of the Germanic Electors: (Bavaria, Saxony, Wurttemberg, Munster, Liege-Colne, Mecklenburg, Hanover)
Denmark
Any of the Polish Commonwealth: (Poland, Courland, Lithuania or Polish Ukraine)
China (You play a warlord or the like not the whole of China!)
Portugal
Scotland
America’s Republic (if it exists in the game)
Japan
Papacy
Morocco

There are others but these are fairly high profile

I think these are fair as they are mainly in Europe where most of the action is as Japan and China have their own unique way to be played.

So you have picked your nation and your return envelope arrives what can you expect to get and how do you read and decipher it all?

Well you should get the following:

Rule book (Basic)
Treasury sheet (how much money you have, recruits, your honour score and economy score))
Armed forces sheets (what you control where they are they active or stood down and their skills etc)
Personality sheet (your ruler and a bit about him or her)
Maps (Usually of the area around your state and areas around the world you control or have colonies in)
Movement sheet (For telling the GM which forces are moving where and from, also how to respond to attacks or are they to attack and supplies)
Finally the News paper This is what is currently happening in the game and contains lists of who is the most well known, ship and forces movements, missions sent out, letters to the GM or statements by nations(players) on topics plus the weather and the reply date. The news letter is very important as it contains allsorts of clues that most people may miss or not realise are clues as to what is happening.

So let’s break this down a bit.

Rule book:
This contains the basics of how to play the game costs for building and constructing forces, buildings, ships etc. The book you can pretty much get by on without having to purchase the more advanced books which give greater detail to the rules and more ideas (inventions) of what you can build or discover. Ideal for the beginner getting to grips with the game.

Treasury Sheet:
This is where you list all your expenses, say from building a castle with fortress guns and crews to paying for supplies for your fleets or armies as they move. It also lists how many recruits you have as you need to know to be able to build your armed forces, etc. It will tell you the value of your countries coin against the pound. But more importantly how much honour you have and the economic strength of your country. New players all start off as 6 for honour and 6 for economy, it is then up to you to improve just as a clue in one game I play my honour score is currently 66! I will discuss Honour and economy scores later.

Armed forces sheets:
What you currently have at your disposal, plus fortresses, cities under your control.

Personality Sheet:
A bit about your ruler, if you want to add a wife/husband and or children (think of making marriages and powerful friends and allies with them)

Maps:
This will have the area you control marked on it and also if you look at each town or city under your control whether it has been fortified. It will also show who controls those states next to yours.

Movement sheet:
The force type to be moved (army or navy) its number(1 to whatever) Determination level(how well you want to fight A,B or C. Stand their ground (A) fight but if it goes badly withdraw) (B) or Run away (C). Finally magazine name or tick to say it is being supplied for the move (Important do not forget to pay on the treasury sheet for the supplies ticking just indicates it will have supplies!)

Newspaper:
As stated the most important piece of paper in the game, here is where you can gleam all sorts of information, news and see usually which nations are active or are GM controlled. Read this and re read it as later some thing may just strike a chord and make you understand why some thing just happened in the game or to you!


So now you are ready to think about submitting your first turn, so how do you do that?
In your first turn you will want to arrange your forces to you suitability, make some personalities, such as ministers, generals, admirals, etc. (in the rule book at the back are pre made personalities if you do not want the hassle of creating your own). Build some things and write some letters even make a statement to the press (newspaper) about certain things.

So how do you write your orders? Well I choose the method of listing my actions by numbers, starting with the most important ones first. Say for example:

Imperial Russia June 1720

1. The Tsar will call in the Caliphate ambassador and warn him that should Caliphate forces not withdraw from Imperial Russian territory then it will mean war!
2. Have my agents in Constantinople find out what forces the Shah has present and their readiness.
3. etc

Bear in mind that actions can big or small but filling a whole A4 sheet with one order may not be a good idea and may incur extra costs from the GM for processing it! (However extra expenses (real life!) are never incurred without the customer/player's consent to doing extra orders.) You can attempt to do anything, BUT bear in mind this is 1700 and not 2008, sending a woman as an ambassador will not go down well (as one French player found out as the Moroccan player promptly took her as one of his harem thinking the French King had sent her to him as a gift!) In the game honour is everything and ones word is taken as a bond of trust. I would experiment with the first few turns until you find a style that suits you.
Letters: I would write to my neighbours and some of the more powerful players in the game. Just because they sit at the top of ”The Most Admired in Society” list will not imply that they are the most powerful, it generally means they are well thought of. Getting letters is good and encourages players to role play more and oh do not forget to use the correct titles, calling the Tsar of Russia “Dear Sir” will not go down well. Luckily the rule book has a small section on how to address rulers by rank.
Characters: Create your ministers, Generals etc. BUT remember no one was perfect you may well write “General Dogsbody – Excellent strategist, always wins, seems to have a knack of out guessing the enemy intentions. Is all well and fine, but the GM will add some human touches, like he is always drunk before battle, is arrogant to his inferiors and hates Brigadier Snodsbury, thus making it hard for you to coordinate battles. Of course you will never know this as the GM will keep this on his sheets and a secret! Give then human touches , like he is a Ladies man or likes to gamble or is known to prefer defensive tactics to attacking ones, you will get the idea, failing that pick a pre made one from the rule book.
Money matters: On the treasury sheet you send in, give the costing and how many recruits if any needed for what you are ordering it saves the GM time and effort looking them up.
Important! You can only build so many types each turn as you only have so many military orders, plus honour points mean you can only control so many units per point, the rule book will show you how many. Doubly important! If your honour scores ever drops to 1 then it is possible that an uprising or rebellion will take place!

Your first few turns will be quiet and little if any letters or news (except your arrival in the game) will be noticed in the press. So use the first few turns to settle in and plan ahead.

Lastly, give your self a target, do not blindly wander about the game reacting to every event, plan a course of action and stick to it, if you meet it and you have enjoyed the game set your self another or try a bigger position but not the BIG positions as they need a lot of time and experience and can actually have a big impact on the game if you get it all horribly wrong.

I hope to continue this with more in an advanced guide for players on matters like, wars, spying, economy and diplomacy, but for now I hope to have explained where you need to start and what your first few turns should be about

(This is written as though a game has just started and you have not landed in a game that is currently playing and possibly some other player has had control of the state before you, that I hope to cover in the advanced version, although the same principles apply to starting)