OOC Thread

[TinCow]

France has prospered under the reign of King Philip the Honorable. Her territories have expanded to encompass all of France itself, as well as England, Wales, Flanders, and Northern Spain. The realm is divided amongst four noble Houses.

In the east, the House of Anjou is the largest and most prosperous. Its Lord, Marquess Raulet Poitevin is an old friend of King Philip, and the two share much in common in their political views. Throughout Philip’s reign, the House of Anjou has received particular favor at Court and has gained immense prestige and honor.

In the south, the House of Gascony is the main rival to the House of Anjou. Its Lord, Count Guillemot de Lyon is a notorious drinker and adulterer and generally embodies everything that King Philip and Raulet Poitevin detest. The House of Gascony was the prominent leading House of France under King Philip’s father, and through his favor they were given vast resources to wage war against Aragon and Navarre. These wars were successful and secured for Gascony a strong hold in Spain. However, this front has languished for many decades now. Military resources were diverted away to the House of Anjou when King Philip assumed the throne, and Guillemot de Lyon has been publicly scorned by the King for his behavior.

In the north of France, Prince Louis, the eldest son of King Philip and heir to the throne, controls the House of Normandy. He could not be more unlike his noble father, and there has been much disagreement between them. As the Viscount of Normandy, Louis expected to gain control over the prosperous territories of England after the successful invasion and conquest, in which Louis’ armies and vassals played a key part. Louis himself earned great distinction and even surpassed his father’s skill at command to become the greatest general in France. However, King Philip believed it more prudent to spread power to the other nobles than to concentrate it in once house, particular one led by his turbulent heir. Philip believed that Louis needed to be taught a lesson in humility and politics before he ascended to the throne, and thus gave the new English provinces to his second son, Henry, who had fought well alongside his elder brother in the war. Thus, all of England and Wales is controlled by the newly named House of Albion, led by Viscount Henry.

Yet, King Philip's last years were not destined to be peaceful ones. Prince Louis did not take his father’s actions in the manner he was meant to. To him, they were a direct affront to his honor and an insult to the blood and sweat he had shed in the conquest of England. Already a man to whom dreadful actions were natural, he decided to get revenge on his manipulative father. Yet, he could not attack the King directly, for fear of losing his claim to the throne. So, Prince Louis decided to strike at his father by manipulating the long-standing rivalry between Anjou and Gascony. Anjou was single-handedly holding the front line against the Holy Roman Empire, France’s old foe. It commanded more strength of arms than any other House, but it was focused on external enemies, not internal ones.

Prince Louis used his immense popularity after the war with England to gain the Chancellorship. From there, he funneled resources to Gascony, quickly swelling the ranks of their armies. Though Anjou was still stronger, it was distracted by the foreign war. With this advantage in their favor, and the secret support of the Chancellor who continued to give them a disproportionate share of France’s treasury, Gascony declared war on Anjou, determined to seize control of several provinces and regain their old position as the preeminent House in France.

And so it was that the War of the Houses began.

King Philip the Honorable (Ramses II CP) – 55 Owns: Paris, Marseille, Ajaccio & 1 Royal Army

House of Anjou
Marquess Raoulet Poitevin (The Lemongate) – 55 Owns: Digon, Metz & 1 Private Army
Count Bohemond Chanteur (Tristan de Castelreng) – 39 Owns: Bern & 1 Private Army
Viscount Jaques de Toulouse (gibsonsg91921) – 29 Owns: Rheims & 1 Private Army
Baron Germain Arnoud (rossahh) – 26 Owns: Antwerp
Baronet Thomas Maquereau (Ichigo) – 27 Owns: Bruges

House of Gascony
Count Guillemot de Lyon (Privateerkev) – 47 Owns: Toulouse, Zaragoza & 1 Private Army
Viscount Richart Marcel (Ignoramus) – 36 Owns: Bordeaux & 1 Private Army
Baron Marcel de Brabant (PrinceofTroy) – 36 Owns: Pamplona
Baronet Michiel (deguerra) – 17 Owns: Valencia

House of Normandy
Chancellor, Viscount, and Prince Louis (OverKnight) – 36 Owns Caen & 1 Royal Army
Baron Perrin Gassou (TheFlax) – 35 Owns Angers
Baronet Bertin de Plaisians (Elite Ferret) – 25 Owns Rennes

House of Albion
Viscount Henry (Cecil XIX) - ? Owns: London, Caernarvon & 1 Private Army
Baron Hugues de Poitiers (Zim) – 28 Owns: Nottingham
Baronet Hermant Tanlay (TinCow) – 27 Owns: York

Notes:

(1) At the time the game starts, it will be treated as though Guillemot de Lyon has just made a Declaration of War against Raoulet Poitevin. Everything else will follow according to the rules. Role-play your characters however you want. Join the war, stay neutral, sue for peace, etc. Split from your House if you don’t like it, join another House, generally whatever you want, keeping in mind the background I have provided to the various Houses and characters.

(2) The rank names have not been altered to fit France. This isn’t meant to be an in-depth game, so don’t both changing them. Just refer to them as they are in the rules for convenience and clarity.

(3) If anyone has a problem with the role I have assigned them, or won’t be able to participate for any reason, please let me know.

(4) The save game file has not yet been edited. All characters will be moved to locations within their respective provinces with a few exceptions, such as some Anjou avatars who will be inside HRE territory and Gascony avatars who will be on the border with Anjou. I will not be editing the avatars or the city improvements, though, so if you want to see what your avatar or provinces look like, the save is accurate for them. Every single player will have units they already control (Private or Royal Army) or units in their ‘owned’ settlement(s) that they can immediately seize once the game starts, should they wish to. Generally, Anjou will start with stronger armies than Gascony, but they will be out of position to respond to the Gascony attack. In addition, the Chancellor will probably be giving Gascony more support than Anjou.

(5) Please do not open up other threads for this game. I want to keep this organized well, so I will make the necessary threads with the right titles after I have edited the save game. For now, just post in this thread, which will serve as the OOC thread for the rest of the game.

[PrinceofTroy]

Every time I try to download the savegame it won't allow me to and it says something about Kumagames.exe. I don't know why, does anyone have any idea what this problem is or how to fix it??
Thanks,
PrinceofTroy

[_Tristan_]

Let's start an IC thread and start throwing insults and accusations at each other's face...

[_Tristan_]

@ PrinceofTroy : DL works for me... But I haven't checked the save yet...

Don't know what the problem might be...

[TinCow]

I suppose that's acceptable, just remember that you don't know what armies you will have at your command yet or where your avatar will start, beyond the general outline I gave above. I'll open it in a second...

[Privateerkev]

Let's start an IC thread and start throwing insults and accusations at each other's face...

I'd love to but TC said he'd start the threads later. Until then we can just keep PM'ing. :D

*edit*

nevermind

[GeneralHankerchief]

Okay, this was an interesting start to my afternoon.

Give me some time to take everything in and Prince Louis will be heard in due time.

[The Lemongate]

I fear I started yet another game with an outburst Oh well, couldn't resist ad hominem attacks! Those are the best

[Privateerkev]

I fear I started yet another game with an outburst Oh well, couldn't resist ad hominem attacks! Those are the best

Guillemot had it coming.

I don't expect anyone to give him a free pass for his reputation. Just don't expect him to always rise up to the bait. :D

[TinCow]

Okay, this was an interesting start to my afternoon.

Give me some time to take everything in and Prince Louis will be heard in due time.

I hope it was ok to saddle you with the Chancellorship. I wanted an experienced player at the helm of the test game, and I figured you hadn't been Chancellor since Heinrich, so you were about due again.

[GeneralHankerchief]

I hope it was ok to saddle you with the Chancellorship. I wanted an experienced player at the helm of the test game, and I figured you hadn't been Chancellor since Heinrich, so you were about due again.

I appreciate the gesture, but my disk drive's been wonky lately. You may have to find someone else or step in yourself depending on how things go. I'll give you a definitive answer in a day or two.

[Cecil XIX]

Tincow, isn't it impossible for any Electors to own fleets in the Test Game?

[TinCow]

The Test Game is using the most recent draft of the rules, which can be found here. Under those rules, fleets can be 'seized' by Dukes, Grand Dukes, and the Faction Leader. So, King Philip can already do it if any ships stop in Marsailles or Ajaccio (which he owns). No one else can unless there is a re-arrangement of ranks that promotes someone to Duke.

[Cecil XIX]

By the way, GH. I can't speak for everybody, but I hope you don't hold anything back as Chancellor. This is just a ten-turn Civil War, and it's important for us to see the full power of a biased Chancellor for our analysis.

[GeneralHankerchief]

I have a plan, don't worry.

[Privateerkev]

By the way, GH. I can't speak for everybody, but I hope you don't hold anything back as Chancellor. This is just a ten-turn Civil War, and it's important for us to see the full power of a biased Chancellor for our analysis.

You were worried he would hold back?

And don't worry, he'll have some help...

[Privateerkev]

How often does the Chancellor have to check the status thread? Once a "term"? Every turn? Somewhere in between?

In KotR, it seemed that you basically had one chance a term to get your orders in. After that, even if settlements were lost or taken, or avatars died, build queues and army orders were up to the whim of the Chancellor.

If you got your build queue and army order in before voting ended, the Chancellor had to obey it. If you turned in late, or tried to give revised orders, it was his discretion.

Are we doing that now? If I edit my status post, can GH ignore it? Or is he bound to follow it? Does this put too much on the Chancellor to have him check it every turn? I have never been Chancellor so I don't have a good grasp as to what is "too much".

[GeneralHankerchief]

Guys,

I'm very sorry, but I'm going to have to drop out. My disk drive has just decided to stop reading on me. It's been like this for a little less than a week now, and while there were some days where it's worked, it hasn't done squat for the past two days. After searching online, it seems like there's nothing I can do but bite the bullet and get a new one.

I've contacted AussieGiant, and, if he is willing, he will step in and take my place as Chancellor. Those of you who know him from KotR know that he is an extremely competant Chancellor.

This is across the board, meaning I've got to drop out of the Hotseats too. I don't know if this will be fixed in time for me to take part in the Successor game.

Again, very sorry guys. Good luck with your trialling.

GH

[Privateerkev]

That sucks GH. :(

I hope you can get it fixed in time for the Successor game.

[TinCow]

I was asked to comment on this post:

How often does the Chancellor have to check the status thread? Once a "term"? Every turn? Somewhere in between?

In KotR, it seemed that you basically had one chance a term to get your orders in. After that, even if settlements were lost or taken, or avatars died, build queues and army orders were up to the whim of the Chancellor.

If you got your build queue and army order in before voting ended, the Chancellor had to obey it. If you turned in late, or tried to give revised orders, it was his discretion.

Are we doing that now? If I edit my status post, can GH ignore it? Or is he bound to follow it? Does this put too much on the Chancellor to have him check it every turn? I have never been Chancellor so I don't have a good grasp as to what is "too much".

I hadn't thought about the timing of build queues and whatnot. Since players can legally change their orders about their army/garrison composition at any time, I assumed the Chancellor would be checking at the start of every turn. A quick scan could show whether anyone had edited their post since the previous turn, so that wouldn't be too onerous a duty. If the Chancellor is thus checking every turn, I see no reason that the other stuff, like build queues, couldn't be changed at any time as well. It might be a good idea to PM the Chancellor if you do, though, to make sure he notices.

If this stuff turns out to be too much of a burden on the player who is the Chancellor, we can tone it down later. That's part of what I want to examine with the test game.

[OverKnight]

I am assuming that if PK and Ignoramus wish to turn the civil war hot, they would have to besiege Dijon during 1146 (the current turn) before assaulting in 1148. If this is the case, we might have our first PvP (well really PvAI of same faction) battle in that year.

Is this true?