Imperial Diet & Rules

[phonicsmonkey]

Prinz Leopold himself enters the chamber, somewhat frustrated.

Nobles of the Reich, what is the sense of my adding lands to our domain if we are simply to ignore their defence and allow the enemy to saunter back into them unchallenged?

I would have seen to the defence of Breslau myself had my father in his wisdom not granted it to Premyslid. Now The Duke of Bohemia has fallen asleep at the reins and lost the province to the Poles! What small gain we had made has been lost, and many lives and florins with it...'tis a shameful waste.

He shakes his head, clearly annoyed.

[phonicsmonkey]

Ernst of Melk rises to speak on behalf of the Prinz.

My lords, it seems that, our warnings having been ignored, our Polish foes have struck at the Duchy of Bohemia and lay siege to Prague.

It is but a small force that assails the city and one which would be easily defeated should the garrison sally, but our Prinz is unable to reach it in time to muster the defences so this duty must fall to the Duke of Bohemia himself.

Instead, our Prinz and his retinue strike back at the Magyar-Polish alliance by besieging the city of Budapest, which should fall to the soldiers of the Reich next campaign season.

[Cecil XIX]

With the end of the Time of Troubles, the Diet is once again called into session. The Speaker steps forward to address the assembly.

My lords, the Third Diet Sesssion is now open. Please begin your deliberations on the conduct of the Reich.

In addition, please do not forget that there are now four new offices to assume. The Marshal and Spymaster are elected by the Diet from among those who step forward, whilst the Chancellor and Steward are appointed by the Kaiser.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Marshal:
Term: Self-nominated and elected every normal Diet Session.
Powers:
(1) Sole control over the Reich's mercenaries.
(2) Can recruit and disband mercenary regiments in any army, can move mercenary regiments to and from armies or assign to/remove from an Elector
(3) Recruitment and upkeep are paid for by a pool of funds which is sustained by an income tax on all electors automatically paid each turn.
Penalties:
(1) If the pool runs out, mercenaries are paid for out of the Marshal's treasury.
(2) The Kaiser sets the 'Mercenary Tax' rate for the pool.

Chancellor:
Term: Appointed by the Kaiser each Diet Session.
Powers: Can move Diplomats and conduct diplomacy, just as the Kaiser can.

Spymaster:
Term: Self-nominated and elected every normal Diet Session.
Powers: Sole control over all spies and assassins, can recruit them in any settlement with the owner's permission.
Penalties: Pays for all spies and assassins out of pocket.

Steward:
Term: Appointed by the Kaiser, serves at his pleasure.
Powers:
(1) His settlement limit, minus his settlements, is added to the Kaiser's.
(2) Sets tax rates for the Kaiser's settements when in the Kaiser's territory.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Kaiser Heinrich:

Right then, it seems that if I take a well-deserved decade-long vacation, the Reich falls apart around me! As such, I see that it is time to reverse our losses and perhaps add some territories to the Reich as well to prolong and even perhaps fully prevent our inevitable downfall once I expire for good. I shall use my remaining time to set an example for all of you to follow and duplicate once I am gone.

Now, I have outlined a preliminary strategy that I believe will successfully and efficiently deal with this problem at hand. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or alterations:

1. I move west, use my absolutely modest but relatively fantastic wealth to hire the local bands of mercenaries.
2. We kill everything.

Now then Good Electors, I believe that there are some offices to be filled. I will hear your deliberations and nominations for those positions and at the same time carefully ruminate on who I want for Chancellor and Steward.

Our reconquest begins now!

[phonicsmonkey]

Prinz Leopold rises to respond to his father the Kaiser.

My liege....welcome back. (this through gritted teeth).

I am sorry if you found our defence of the realm lacking. We did what we felt was best given our constraints at the time.

Still, I am sure there will be no more problems now you have returned to lead us.

Your strategy is both detailed and inspired. I am sure it cannot but succeed where our years of planning and tactical deliberations have failed.

May I, however, point out one thing? We have a snake in our midst, with Count Zirn having sold his allegiance to the cursed French.

How should we deal with the traitor?

[GeneralHankerchief]

Kaiser Heinrich:

Ah Prinz Leopold, thank you for bringing this matter to my attention. However, the matter of dealing with the former Count Zirn falls quite neatly under Step 2 of my above plan. Perhaps we will make the manner of his death somewhat more elaborate than a normal enemy's - a public execution in Frankfurt could suffice nicely here - but when it comes down to it we are still essentially killing him.

Or were you looking for some sort of order in which our enemies are to be destroyed?

[phonicsmonkey]

The Prinz waits a long moment before responding.

No my liege, I simply await your command.

He inclines his head in the semblance of a bow before wheeling and striding from the chamber, leaving his advisor Ernst of Melk to speak in his place.