View Full Version : ETW succession game - interested?
GeneralHankerchief
03-11-2009, 19:34
***CURRENT INFORMATION HERE (older information below)***
Game specifics: Spain, H/H with Normal unit size, set to "Prestige Victory". 20-turn reigns.
Objectives: Fourfold:
1. Catholic Hapsburg Empire. The United Provinces and all their territories must be destroyed and absorbed into Spain. In addition, Austria and all its territories must either become a protectorate of Spain or fall under direct Spanish rule. -edit- Not sure what to do about Portugal though. Anyone more historically knowledgeable than me have any suggestions?
2. The New World speaks only Spanish. Spain must achieve total control over the Carribbean and all her adjacent territories. This naturally includes the annexation of New Spain.
3. Phillip's Revenge. Spain is to do the impossible and complete what the Armada in 1588 could not: achieve naval domination in Europe and take over London. One of the prerequisites for completing this is that the Spanish Navy must meet and defeat whatever British fleet(s) there is/are in the area before the invasion of Britain starts.
4. Not just a military power. Put forth a serious effort and investment into maintaining high Prestige throughout.
Player list (tentative):
1. GeneralHankerchief
2. TinCow
3. TheFlax
4. Zim
5. Cecil XIX
6. seireikhaan
7. Ignoramus (maybe)
8. Chaotix27
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So I figured I'd actually take the initiative and start a succession game after talking about it in the Think Tank thread.
For those who don't know, the Throne Room was abundant with succession games a few years ago until they were pretty much replaced by mega-PBMs and Hosteat campaigns. I figured that with the release of Empire, while we're thinking about the next major PBM, this would be a natural time to bring them back.
In a succession game, you have sole control over every aspect of the game for a certain period of time - usually 20 turns. You play the entire thing, take notes and screenshots, and then write up a report of what happened afterwords. Here (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=60372) is an excellent example of what write-ups can look like, although yours don't have to be that good. You then upload the save and pass it on to the next player, and thus the cycle continues until you either accomplish your objectives or decide to stop playing.
What we need to figure out, assuming people are interested, is the following:
- Difficulty. Considering the game's only been out for a week and people are still adjusting to it, I'd vote for H/M or H/H for the initial PBM. In future games we could upgrade it to VH/H.
- Faction. My vote goes to Spain. I figure that a reversal of their declining empire would make for good RP fodder.
- Reign length. Anything beyond 20 turns usually becomes taxing on the player, especially as we get later in the game when there's more to do.
- Objectives/House rules. This is in case we want to do something different besides the game's four "goals", or if we want to manufacture any impositions to make it harder on us. I think we'll work on this once we decide the faction.
Post if you're interested. :2thumbsup:
i'll follow it, but the sucession style is not my favorite, so i'll just be watching :)
Count me in. It's been too long since I actually participated in a Throne Room game. An ETW succession will be a nice break from the other, more involved games. Sometimes simple and (relatively) quick and can be fun too.
I do not care about the faction or the difficulty. For reign length, 20 turns is the succession standard. It works well.
- Objectives/House rules. This is in case we want to do something different besides the game's four "goals", or if we want to manufacture any impositions to make it harder on us. I think we'll work on this once we decide the faction.
I greatly encourage the use of the above. The rules preventing expansion beyond the old Roman borders for the WRE Re-unification game significantly enhanced its enjoyment. Basing these things on historical accuracy seems to work well. For instance, if Britain was chosen, we might want to mimic their historically small army size by restricting the number of military units that can be recruited in any particular year.
I'd be interested, if you are willing to have one of those 20 turn terms be a catastrophe. :clown:
As for faction choices, I don't really have a preference since I've barely played the game. This would be my first Grand Campaign in ETW.
I could play, provided the game isn't set to anything larger than normal unit scale (all my comp can handle. :clown:).
Spain sounds great to me. I can't really say whether they're a hard or easy faction in ETW. They're certainly spread out, and fighting in different theaters would be fun.
I'd vote for H/H. Playing on VH/H and it's challenging but not extremely difficult, and I consider myself in the "mediocre" rank of players.
GeneralHankerchief
03-12-2009, 00:31
Okay, since we have four interested people (including myself), I think we can get started and then pick up additional players along the way.
Does anyone have a problem with Spain, H/H, and normal unit scales?
Cecil XIX
03-12-2009, 02:52
I'm in on those terms, GH.
EDIT: May I suggest the 'Prestige Victory' conditions? That way we'll still have to worry about Victory conditions until the game is over. Plus, it's a great way to compare yourself to the other major powers.
We could also make it a personal goal to capture all the provinces outlined in the 'Long Campaign' victory requirements.
Finally, how does everything feel about New Spain? I know we're still getting used to Empire, but it might be worthwhile to refuse to annex it via mission.
GeneralHankerchief
03-12-2009, 04:50
Haven't checked Spain's victory conditions yet, but I was thinking along the lines of the following. Prestige would also be good as an alternative.
1. Catholic Hapsburg Empire. The United Provinces and all their territories must be destroyed and absorbed into Spain. In addition, Austria and all its territories must either become a protectorate of Spain or fall under direct Spanish rule. -edit- Not sure what to do about Portugal though. Anyone more historically knowledgeable than me have any suggestions?
2. The New World speaks only Spanish. Spain must achieve total control over the Carribbean and all her adjacent territories. This naturally includes the annexation of New Spain.
3. Phillip's Revenge. Spain is to do the impossible and complete what the Armada in 1588 could not: achieve naval domination in Europe and take over London. One of the prerequisites for completing this is that the Spanish Navy must meet and defeat whatever British fleet(s) there is/are in the area before the invasion of Britain starts.
Ambitious? Oh yeah. Is there a chance of us spectacularly failing, especially considering none of us are even close to mastering the game yet? Yes, and a very large one at that. But remember, victory isn't important so much as telling a good story is. And I think one way or another, this is gonna be a good story. :laugh4:
Comments? Alternatives? Does anyone have any proposed House rules, or do you guys think this is hard enough as is?
I like #1 personally, so my vote goes for that. Not being a great player, I think it will be hard enough as it is, but I won't complain if you apply house rules that make things harder. (Just don't expect anything stellar from my part. :clown:)
GeneralHankerchief
03-12-2009, 05:17
I was going for all three simultaneously, but if you guys don't agree then we'll of course modify it. And don't worry, I think we're all kind of stumbling around in the dark at this moment. :yes:
Oh, all three?! Heh, I misunderstood. That's fine with me, it just seems a bit overwhelming. :clown:
Cecil XIX
03-12-2009, 05:41
I do like the idea of doing all three concurrently. I think we could do that and have Prestige rankings at the same time. We can always decide how seriously to take prestige as we go along, or on a person-by-person basis.
I agree, let's aim for all 3. Certain people might choose to focus on different objectives at different times during the campaign. It should be fun.
I've been reading that the battle AI works better with medium sized units. I'm currently playing with Large unit size with Hard difficulty and while the battle AI isn't horrible, it could still use a lot of improvement. Can anyone comment on whether the AI is better with smaller units?
I've played with small and medium units. Casualties seem to be pretty high. Sometimes the AI pulls off something wonderful, and they do seem to manage individual units well. Other times...
The AI also seems pretty bad at defending unfortified towns, dividing themselves up among the houses in each town so it's easy to concentrate forces on one at a time (if you don't feel like just blasting them apart with cannons).
GeneralHankerchief
03-12-2009, 19:06
Okay, since it looks like nobody has any problems, I'll edit the information into the first post.
As far as turn order goes, I'll take the first 20 turns. I believe that tradition has the next line going in order of people who showed interest, but if that doesn't work out for you/you'd prefer a different order, that's fine. :yes:
Will start up the game later today. Wish me luck. :hide:
I'm fine with taking the second turn. I'm certainly not going to have the time to put out write-ups like I did for the WRE or ERE games, but I'll try and produce something worth reading.
I'm fine taking any number turn. :yes: The Rules look good to me.
I could go either way regarding Portugal. Roleplaying reasons for Spain wanting to control the entire peninsula would be easy enough to come up with, although I'm not sure Spain ever tried in this period.
On the other hand, not being allowed to take a relatively rich province (I'm guessing, it is a capital) right next door would add a little to the challenge.
GeneralHankerchief
03-12-2009, 20:22
Personally, I'm going to play it as if Portugal attacks me, they're fair game, but otherwise I'll leave them alone.
They're allied with Britain, IIRC, which means that once we go for Objective #3 the conquest might be inevitable.
Just treat Portugal like any other faction. They're fair game for a bit of the old ultra-violence, but it is not required by the special rules. Historically, neither Hapsburg Spain or non-Hapsburg Spain had any legitimate claim to the Portuguese throne.
GeneralHankerchief
03-12-2009, 22:21
I've just had a look at our King, Charles II. This could be fun. :beam:
https://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n231/GeneralHankerchief/Spain/spain_001.jpg
:laugh4:
Well, as long as he's alive it will serve as a good rationalization for why the King's strategy changes every ten years. :clown:
Is it just me, or does he look a bit like Marv?
http://www.thefukerton.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/2734233.jpg
From the ETW thinktank thread.
The last such PBM before Will of the Senate came out, Re-unification (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=60372), is an excellent read of a bunch of players doing the Western Roman Empire campaign for BI and is what drew me to the Throne Room in the first place. I'm sure that we can produce a couple of PBMs of similar quality while we work out the kinks and either CA or a mod gives us better material to work with. :yes:
Reading the writeups for that game is what got me to join the Org. That, and some of the MTW pbm writeups. :2thumbsup:
I'm looking forward to playing a succession game. Can't remember the last one I was in, although there was a vanilla Julii one that was really fun.
Maybe if this works well a few more could be done?
seireikhaan
03-13-2009, 02:43
As I find ETW thus far to be immensely more enjoyable than the previous two titles...
I shall join.
GeneralHankerchief
03-13-2009, 03:50
I'm looking forward to playing a succession game. Can't remember the last one I was in, although there was a vanilla Julii one that was really fun.
Are you the same person as Zimfan? I remember doing a Vandal BI one with you. We almost made it all the way.
And thanks for joining khaan, I'll put you on the list. :yes:
seireikhaan
03-13-2009, 05:38
At the current lineup, things should be interesting for me when it becomes my turn. I've only played a prestige game as the Dutch so far, and they're already a republic. I haven't had to deal with revolutions yet.
That's me. :yes:
I don't remember completely, but I think it might be my fault we didn't finish, and so close to taking Rome. :sweatdrop:
I always appreciated that you guys were willing to do a vanilla BI succession game with me. I remember it was just you and one other person. :clown:
Are you the same person as Zimfan? I remember doing a Vandal BI one with you. We almost made it all the way.
And thanks for joining khaan, I'll put you on the list. :yes:
GeneralHankerchief
03-13-2009, 07:01
Quick initial update: I've played two turns so far, with some interesting results. Had a fun battle for St. Augustine. Spain is just too friggin' spread out. I'm probably going to just see if I can sell off my possessions in Italy before someone takes them.
Ignoramus
03-13-2009, 08:26
If only my computer could run Empire...
Edit: Put me on the list just in case the unthinkable happens, and I can get Empire. You can keep skipping me until I manage to get it.
GeneralHankerchief
03-13-2009, 14:57
You're on the list, Ignoramus. :2thumbsup:
seireikhaan
03-14-2009, 03:51
Out curiosity, who was the fight over St. Augustine with? Cherokee? Brits?
GeneralHankerchief
03-14-2009, 04:00
Cherokee, thank God.
I don't know, they can be tougher than the European factions. :laugh4:
Cherokee, thank God.
GeneralHankerchief
03-14-2009, 06:56
Got a few more turns in today. I'm going to make a push to finish my turn by the time I head back to school on Sunday but can't make any promises.
Anyway, I'll provide a more thorough update later, but for now, let's just say that St. Augustine is turning into a small-scale Verdun. So far this PBM has been somewhat challenging but quite enjoyable. Right now I'm just trying to make it easier for you later guys. :yes:
There's no rush from my perspective. My wife and I are in the middle of redoing the kitchen lighting. This involves lots of drywall repair and painting the entire ceiling. It's a lot of work and drains all will to do anything except sit on the couch when we're done in the evning. We are aiming to be done by Sunday night, but I wouldn't be able to get started on my round until Monday evening at the earliest.
seireikhaan
03-18-2009, 04:53
Progress?
Yes, I'm pestering, I know, but its Spring break for me and I'm bored...
GeneralHankerchief
03-18-2009, 05:05
Will most likely be finished tomorrow. I've spent most of my time improving the situation in the New World as well as trying to eradicate the Dutch. Portugal's been good so far, but the next player is going to have to seriously work on schools. Despite our starting territories, the game gave me barely any to start with. :wall:
GeneralHankerchief
03-18-2009, 22:45
Okay, my turn is up, but does anybody know where the "saves" folder is in the ETW files? I've been looking for it without success. :wall:
-edit- Never mind, found it on the forum. For future reference:
XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\The Creative Assembly\Empire\save_games
Vista: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Empire\save_games
Uploading savegame, stand by. :2thumbsup:
GeneralHankerchief
03-19-2009, 01:14
Okay, savegame is up:
http://rapidshare.com/files/210885599/spain_etw_1710.zip.html
A few highlights for TinCow:
- Currently the workers in Gibraltar are on strike, they will probably riot next turn. I've exempted Flanders and the Netherlands from taxes, but there's an army in the area that can easily put down any rebellions that do pop up.
- One of my two schools just finished researching canister shot and they just started researching improved explosive grenades, so feel free to change that up if you wish.
- You'll see the map of the New World, especially Spain's holdings, quite different from the start of the game. Namely, I had to bail New Spain out and capture Mexico for myself. An army is currently en route from Mexico to deal with Pueblo raiders. Its ultimate destination is Texas.
- Also in the New World, I'm massing a small force in French Guyana to take Dutch Guyana, but they're not ready to do so quite yet.
- Finally, in an interesting situation, we're not allied with France because Louisiana declared war on me. France stayed out, breaking its alliance with me, but they eventually absorbed Louisiana. I tried to ask Louis for a reestablishment of the alliance but he said "no".
Ultimately, I consider my term moderately successful. Thanks to the capture of some key territories, including Morocco, Amsterdam, and Mexico, our net income is anywhere from 6,000-12,000 per turn depending on exemptions and raided territory. I sold all of our territories in Italy, minus Sardinia, in order to make some investiments which I believe have paid off. I haven't done much in the naval field (one trade ship is in Brazil, BTW) or preparing for an invasion of Austria, but I do believe that I've laid a solid foundation for you guys to build on. Finally, I leave you with a screenshot of the current Presige situation, which, considering what we had to work with at the start, I consider respectable.
https://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n231/GeneralHankerchief/Spain/spain_046.jpg
I'll start working on the writeup now. Good luck to everybody else. :2thumbsup:
I was intending to start play tonight, but it turns out I have to go over to the in-laws' place for dinner. I will thus start play on Friday, but don't expect to get very far since it's also the 2 hour finale of Battlestar Galactica, which I absolutely must watch. So, I expect to mainly get in to it over the weekend.
GeneralHankerchief
03-19-2009, 14:27
Let's hope that it makes up for the rest of the sub-par half-season so far. :yes:
Let's hope that it makes up for the rest of the sub-par half-season so far. :yes:
I admit I haven't been happy with who turned out to be the final 5. I still find it implausible and nonsensical a full season later. That said, the mutiny storyline was great.
GeneralHankerchief
03-19-2009, 14:39
I agree with you on the mutiny bit. Afterwords, though, it felt like the writers were adrift. They could have condensed a couple of episodes somewhere on the line and used the extra time to properly set up what's going on now. I don't find myself as emotionally invested in this final mission as I should be.
GeneralHankerchief
03-23-2009, 01:20
I have about two more posts to do of my write-up which should take a couple of days. TC, should I bother putting in placeholders?
No need. I'm about halfway done with my turn but probably won't finish up until Tuesday or Wednesday. I definitely will not be posting anything before Thursday and likely later.
The pirates faction is driving me bonkers. :wall:
http://rapidshare.com/files/213557176/spain_etw_1720.zip.html
Finally done.
Quick summary:
Carlos II is still alive and as raving mad as ever.
War has been focused exclusively on North Africa and the Americas. In North Africa, we have captured the Barbary Pirates provinces as far as Tunisia. They only have one left before they are finished. They are not much of a threat anymore. In North America, attacks by the natives stopped after Texas was taken. Attention was then diverted to the Pirates. This required a large naval build-up, because I couldn't get near their island cities without getting ambushed by a massive fleet. I eventually defeated this fleet and took the two southernmost islands (C-something and Trinidad). This was also the mission objective for union with New Spain, which has also occurred, so that part of Objective 1 is now complete. I have largely neglected development of new armies because I needed the money for economic development. The only significant armies are currently on Trinidad (with a large fleet which has just repaired) and near Tunis. The rest of the Empire is lightly defended, though it is also unthreatened. It shouldn't be hard to recruit forces quickly if they are needed.
Economic development was a major priority, and I invested a lot of money in improving our income, particularly in the Americas. I've built and upgraded many plantations and mines there. We're currently raking in about 12-14k per turn, though it was at 18-22k a couple turns ago and I don't know why it dropped so quickly. In any case, it's enough to meet all immediate needs each turn, with extra left over for further development. Oh, there's also a pirate fleet that's raiding a trade route in the Americas. Should be easy to crush with the Trinidad fleet.
I focused efforts on research where I could, particularly emphasizing work towards Fire By Rank. I actually finally got that on the very last turn of my game, so it's finally ready. We currently have 3 relatively upgraded colleges and there's also a fourth town that's been tasked to become a college town in Cuba, but which is still building.
Diplomatic relations are horrible. I was never able to make an alliance or get a new trade route with anyone, despite offering tech for them to pretty much everyone. France keeps asking for Texas, but that's about the only diplomacy we see. We... uh... are also at war with Denmark, Russia, Courland, and Saxony. They attacked New Spain the turn before I absorbed it and I told them where they could go stuff it. This is so far a sitzkrieg, as they don't have any naval forces remotely near us and we don't share any land borders with them.
I'm personally a big fan of naval warfare, so I've built up two ports near Gibralter as ship-building centers. I've relied exclusively on Galleons for my navies so far, but we should be able to start building proper warships now and send the galleons off to trade duty.
I think the Empire is well-primed now for a proper European war. The next player should have a decent shot at invading Austria or Britain if they wanted to, though Britain would require a massive naval build up.
Screenies, check out Russia's prestige level in comparison to GH's previous post:
https://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b203/TinCow/ETW/SpainPBM/endland.jpg
https://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b203/TinCow/ETW/SpainPBM/endprest.jpg
TheFlax asked me to go ahead of him. Would that be ok?
Doesn't matter to me, I just sent him a PM notifying him that I was done.
GeneralHankerchief
03-26-2009, 01:06
I have no problem with this.
Ok, I'll look at the save tonight and get started tomorrow.
Alright, should be done by the weekend.
Sorry for the delay. Things have been busy (and iffy internet access made it hard to get the save on my gaming comp until recently). They're about to get busier after tomorrow...
Save will be up tomorrow night for TheFlax. :yes:
Sorry for the delay. Things have been busy (and iffy internet access made it hard to get the save on my gaming comp until recently). They're about to get busier after tomorrow...
Save will be up tomorrow night for TheFlax. :yes:
Ya about that, I'm very sorry to say I think I should drop out. I barely know Empire's mechanics (something I thought I would figure before my turn came along) and I've committed myself to too many things. :embarassed:
Best of luck with the game.
Done.
http://rapidshare.com/files/216110027/Spain_Summer_1730.zip.html
Carlos is still in good health and still crazy.
Like TinCow I focused on Spain's economy, although in a different way. The drop in income he experienced was likely the result of blockades against France by one of their enemies (possibly Savoy). At any rate I noted we were making some 2400 less than we should due to blocked trade...
Within a couple turns I secured trade rights with the Ottomans and Maratha Confederacy, giving us a healthy boost in income. I also signed an alliance with Prussia.
I was a little surprised to find I couldn't open any more trade routes when I noticed we only had a single trading port in our home region. I destroyed one of our many dockyards to build another trading port. We also gained a few through conquest. I obtained new trade routes whenever possible. I built churches all across North Africa to quell religious unrest and upgraded our farms to encourage village growth. We had a lot of new ports over my reign, some of which I turned into trading ports (like Casablanca) and many I turned into fisheries if the regions they popped up in had more potential villages.
Research is going at a good clip, although I haven't emphasized enlightenment techs much. However, we are researching division of labor right now since it's prerequisite for larger trading ports...
A unique palace is being built in Madrid.
Our armies are significantly larger as I spent a bit of my term at war, and wanted to set up in case the next player wished to attack Austria (who happen to be at war with our allies Prussia). I took out the Barbary Pirates, although I didn't have the heart to wipe out the Caribbean ones (something I'd regret towards the end of the turn). Spain also conquered Naples (couldn't let a minor faction keep what was a starting province of ours :clown:), Rome and, since we were at war with them anyway, Venice. There are two heavily experienced armies in/near Venice ready to strike at Austria if need be.
Diplomatic relations are mostly friendly with our many new trading partners.
Trinidad's port has one of our trading fleets, it was forced to retreat there by a large pirate fleet.
We have 5 schools now.
Trade makes up a big chunk of our income now.
https://img15.imageshack.us/img15/7821/empire2009040103435148.jpg (https://img15.imageshack.us/my.php?image=empire2009040103435148.jpg)
Our trading partners.
https://img6.imageshack.us/img6/4222/empire2009040103440689.jpg (https://img6.imageshack.us/my.php?image=empire2009040103440689.jpg)
We're third in the prestige race. Worst category for us is enlightenment techs, but it'll be tough to research them while we have such an....er, "eccentric" king.
https://img6.imageshack.us/img6/5056/empire2009040103441729.jpg (https://img6.imageshack.us/my.php?image=empire2009040103441729.jpg)
GH, you might want to put down whatever placeholder posts you need for the write-up thread so that I can post my... er... placeholder posts. :creep:
GeneralHankerchief
04-01-2009, 17:49
Gotcha.
seireikhaan
04-08-2009, 16:25
Er... Buehler... Buehler...?
Cecil XIX
04-08-2009, 20:47
Sorry for the delay, things have been a bit busier IRL than I thought they'd be. Will post more tonight, if Zim would be so kind as to post whatever placeholders he thinks necessary. :yes:
If everyone's okay with it it, I would be happy to join this pbm at the end of the line. :2thumbsup:
I'm... decent at the game, although I haven't played on hard before, but I should be able to adapt easily enough.
If I were to join, how long would I have to play my turn once it comes around?
Cecil XIX
04-09-2009, 20:37
You'd be third in line, so a couple of weeks.
GeneralHankerchief
04-11-2009, 23:19
I'll add you to the list, Chaotix. Shouldn't be too long. :yes:
Cecil XIX
04-15-2009, 22:26
Guys, I'm going to have to drop out of this. I've been busy since my turn came up, but I've come to realize that was just obscuring the fact that I'm just not interested in Empire like I was when I signed up. I'm really sorry, and I'd like to apologize especially to Shinseikhaan and Chaotix27.
Ibn-Khaldun
06-28-2009, 11:50
So, what happened to this game?
Fizzled. I think I've got all my screenshots stored somewhere, but I simply didn't have the time to do my write-up when I finished, and I honestly can't remember it all now. No reason further succession games wouldn't work though, they work just as well in ETW as in any of the previous games.
I'll add you to the list, Chaotix. Shouldn't be too long. :yes:
This line looks particularly hilarious, now, don'tcha think?
vBulletin® v3.7.1, Copyright ©2000-2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.