Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

[Mount Suribachi]

Well, seems theres a lot of people clamouring to be playing PBEM campaigns right now, so I figured I'd start another one.

Spain, Early, Expert, GA, MTW 2.0

Why Spain? Not been done so far, you get the reconquista, crusades, Jinettes and best of all the Spanish Inquisition. I expect the burning of heretics to feature strongly in all reigns

Why Early? Well, more people get to play in the campaign. And you have to fight the Elmos when they are at their strongest. Defeating armies of AUMs in Early is a challenge for anyone.

Why Expert? Cos anything else is too easy

Why GA? Cos I prefer GA. Also it should reduce the conquer the world in 100 turns mentality that we get in the other campaigns here (and I am the worst of sinners for that).



Some rules.

Rule 1 - All battles are to be autoresolved *EXCEPT THOSE WHERE A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL FAMILY IS THE GENERAL* This means King & Princes (but not generals of Royal Blood ) I say this for several reasons.

a) It should speed the game up a lot, particulary the late game where virtually every PBEM campaign has stagnated.

b) It adds a level of difficulty as you cannot rely on your superior brainpower to constantly defeat the AI.

c) It adds a touch of realism - a King, nor his best general (ie you) could not be at every battle.

I know this rule may be unpopular with some, but tough My reasons are above and I stand by them

Rule 2 - Roleplay your King. This means that you might sometimes have to play with one hand tied behind your back, but should add more intrest to the write ups. Is your King lazy? Then set your game to auto-everything. Is he devout? Build lots of churches. Is he an atheist? Don't encourage the inquisition. Is he an art lover? Build lots of palaces. You get the picture.

The point being, to RP your V&Vs, and again this adds intrest & difficulty to the game as your reign will not be geared towards winning at all costs

Rule 3 - Don't conquer for the sake of conquering. The point is not to conquer the map in 100 turns, the point is to play till 1453 and provide some (hopefully) interesting and entertaining reigns. Some practical advice.

Conquering your enemies is entirely acceptible. This means not only those who attack you, but those who threaten you. So starting a war with the Almohads is acceptable cos Iberia needs to be unified - only one of you can survive. If someone attacks you first, feel free to wipe them out. Whereas attacking France for no reason would be bad form. Surprise attacks on your allies just to get your hands on their land is a definate no-no.

Factions may be attacked for strategic reasons. An example would be conquering Rhodes as an Eastern Mediterranean base for launching crusades. Or taking a province to get access to its Iron or some other key resource.

Attacking historical enemies is OK, the Elmos are the obvious choice, but the Turks and Egyptians will have to be crusaded against as infidels

Attacking your allies enemies to help them out is encouraged.

Attacking your main rivals for the purposes of hindering their GA score is OK as a last resort.

Hopefully this will cut down the blood lust and make sure we get to 1453

Rule 4 - Don't forget, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition


Finally, the account of your reign. To me, the story is more important than the playing. You can be Anna Comnenus or John Julius Norwich when writing your account. The style is entirely up to you. I only ask 2 things of you.

1) Spell check before you post

2) Re-read what you've written before you post

This latter one will improve the quality of your writing no end as you will discover lots of little things that don't make sense or you could have worded better. We have lots of excellent story tellers here at The Org, re-reading what you've written will add that extra bit of gloss to your story.

OK, I know I sound like a bit of a rule nazi with this post, but I want to start a campaign that lots of people can play, that doesn't get bogged down and will provide interesting reading.

So who wants to burn some heretics?

EDIT - relaxed rule on fighting battles to include Princes as well as King.

[Revenant69]

Hmmmm. It is about time that someone started a GA campaign . I think it would be a lot of fun and it would let a lot of people play and enjoy it. Good initiative MountSuribachi.

One rule that i do not like is the autoresolving one. But if it is your final rule then i shall abide by it. What about if my princes are involved in combat? or is it that i can fight the battles where the King and only the King is involved? I wouldnt mind this bit clarified somewhat.

Other than that, sign me up. My email is : xRevenant69x@hotmail.com

I agree about ropleplaying the kings - it makes the game so much more fun and enjoyable + makes for good writeups lol

Cheers.
Rev

[The_Emperor]

I was just about to do a Spanish campaign, but Mount has beaten me to it

Oh well, while I do respect his rules they do seem lengthy... and I do not like the auto-resolving one

(Imagine If I had to do that as the HRE at the Battle of Kiev, unthinkable)

What we really need is the Green Generals switch active in a PBM Campaign so all the good generals die off and are replaced by newbies... It would make command a lot more valuble to come across and would influence us to take our kings into battle more than anyone else.

No rank 9 generals who have the same stats as the guy who just died...

[hellenes]

Count me in its the best to have a GA campaign instead of the boring total domination...

my e mail arxidamos2003@yahoo.gr

[Mount Suribachi]

I thought the autoresolve rule might prove unpopular.

So as I concession, I shall relax the rule to include princes as well as kings ie if Your general is a prince then you can fight the battle. See how magmanamous I am?

The Emperor The problem with the green generals is that it isn't that effective. Your general isn't replaced by a n00b at all, but by a near identical general. I still have it switched tho.

And are you in or out? You didn't say?

Revenant69 Would you like to start the game? I shall hold myself in reserve for now.

[The_Emperor]

Quote[/b] (Mount Suribachi @ Sep. 17 2003,07:47)]The Emperor The problem with the green generals is that it isn't that effective. Your general isn't replaced by a n00b at all, but by a near identical general. I still have it switched tho.

And are you in or out? You didn't say?

Well the replacement general isn't a total newbie, but he does have a lower command rating... this means that all generals get downgraded.

I noticed that when a Nine Star general died he was replaced with a Six Star one... Given how difficult it is to actually gain command stars, I think it would still help make the game harder tcompared with keeping your Nine Star general plus all his V&Vs.

And oh yes I'm in with this

[Revenant69]

Quote[/b] ]So as I concession, I shall relax the rule to include princes as well as kings ie if Your general is a prince then you can fight the battle. See how magmanamous I am?

Yey. ***And there was much rejoicing*** Thank you for that.
I shall begin the game later on today and hopefully my reign will go quick Fighting Elmos at their strongest with autoresolve is going to be fun, hehe.

Cheers guys.
Rev

Ahem, Sorry for asking silly questions. But should I start the campaign with the Green General ON or OFF? And if ON then it should be added to the rules Mount Suribachi.

[Mount Suribachi]

Revenant69 I would say yes, turn it on. I'll add that to the rules with a link to how to do it when I find the topic about it.

Also feel free to send the savegame to The Emperor but still send it to me in case there is a problem.


List so far

Revenant69

The Emperor

Hellenes

Mount Suribachi (reserve)

[Monk]

im in to

monk643@yaho.com

[Revenant69]

Right, well i have started the game but was only ab le to play a few turns. The real life is catching up with me lol - what sacrilage I should have the campaign wrapped up this weekend though.
*covers in fear of being stoned to death*

I know that the momentum of a campaign is important to its survival and i shall do my best to keep this one alive

Cheers,
Rev

[Revenant69]

Allrighty,
I have managed to finish my reign as Alfonso VI. Spain is a very prosperous, rich and powerful country. Alfonso annexed all of Almohad states (except Cyrenacia), Portugal, Navarre and Valencia. He also distinguished himself by sending a few successful crusades.

Well, I have sent the game to Mount Suribachi and Emperor. My writeups will come shortly

Cheers guys

Rev

[matt_g]

hi can i join this? This would be my first PBEM game. I have written AAR's(After action report) and have Role-played in the Europa Universalis forum so i can write up pretty well. Email is Mgacek@comcast.net hope there is room for me

[matt_g]

just wondering can we have titles for our Kings? Just to add more flavor into this like Alfonso VI the Conquerer for Revenant69. If we do this i would say that Mount Suribachi should give the title out after he reads the post. I hope you guys get what im trying to say

[Revenant69]

Yeah titles are a great idea, just check the Turkish PBM thread. They add abit of flavor to the game methinks

And I dont think Alfonso VI should be named Conqueror, if anything then it should be Pious (sp?). You shall see what i mean when i post my write-ups. I kinda like the idea of players themselves choosing the titles of their kings since they know most about the reigns of the kings (there is some stuff that just doesnt get into writeups). But thats just my crazy opinion. Feel free to ignore it.

Cheers,
Rev

PS welcome to your first PBM game matt_g

[Mount Suribachi]

File received from Revenant 69. Awaiting confirmation from The Emperor that he has received it too.

Current list.

Revenant69 King Alfonso VI The Pious 1087-1113

The Emperor King Alfonso VII 1113 - ?

Hellenes

Monk

matt_g

Mount Suribachi

Revenant69 has done a great job defeating the elmos so quickly. I can't wait to read about how he did it

matt_g, whats your name on the EU2 forums?

[The_Emperor]

Ok the email is waiting to be downloaded from my Home Account (can't do it til later, work always gets in the way).

Anyhow If its allowed by the rules of the campaign I'd like for us to do the North Africa Run and head for Syria... (Or Crusade) There are some Five Star killers out there with our names on em

Well assassins make sense if we are planning to indulge in political intrigue rather than world domination.

[econ21]

I like Mount Suribachi's groundrules for this campaign - please sign me up, thanks
simon.appleton@nottingham.ac.uk

[Hasek]

Hey guys, I've been watching this forum for a GA campaign and now that there is finally one I'll just have to sign up.

[Mount Suribachi]

The Emperor as long as you do it with crusades, then I think the N Africa run is an excellent idea

Simon Appleton I was wondering where you had gotten too All we need now is SeljukSinan and Demon of Light and we've got all the regulars

Hasek welcome aboard. Anyone named after the starting goaltender of my beloved Detroit Redwings is welcome in any PBEM of mine

[The_Emperor]

My Reign is over... King Alfonso VII is dead, and the savegame has been sent on to Mount.

I will begin my write up soon enough.

[Revenant69]

Ahhhhh Wait wait Emperor. I have to post my writeup lol. This is going too fast and ive been busy the last few days. Give me today and maybe (hopefully not) tomorow and I should be done writing the account of Alfonso VI.

Cheers,
Rev

[The_Emperor]

Sure thing Rev that gives me some time to finalise some cool looking screenshots from the battle for Tunisia... The Egyptian Sultan decided to cross the Border only to suffer death at the hands of our valiant defenders commanded by Prince Garc, the Egyptian army went into mass-panic and the Knights of Santiago, the Jinettes (and the Merc Horse Archers) drove them from one corner of the map to the other

It was an amazing sight, Cavalry formations cut through routers with such grace and beauty

[Revenant69]

Oh wow thats awesome, I mean the job on the Egyptian Sultan Actually it was a weird way that the war with them was started, but I shall write about it later

Thanks Emperor

[matt_g]

Cool this is coming along nicely... I hope i still have somewhere to go before this campaign is done Mount my EU2 name is Matt_the_King ive been there a while but i only have a litte more then 200 posts

[Hasek]

Woh, his names Hasek? I've always loved the wings but I haven't kept up with em lately...teh d00d

GA just seems right for a PBEM campaign as it somewhat eliminates the superiority base that occurs in late PBEM when your just deciding who to crush next since winning is based on VP's and not total domination

[Mount Suribachi]

The Emperor I haven't received that email - writing at 0750 on the 24th - I'll check again tonight, maybe its being held up somewhere.

[The_Emperor]

Quote[/b] (Mount Suribachi @ Sep. 24 2003,07:58)]The Emperor I haven't received that email - writing at 0750 on the 24th - I'll check again tonight, maybe its being held up somewhere.

Ok I'll double check it... I may have accidentally sent it off to the wrong email address. DOH

[hellenes]

Mount ive got your mail but there is no save game in it can you sendt me the savegame plz?
arxidamos2003@yahoo.gr

[The_Emperor]

Quote[/b] (Revenant69 @ Sep. 23 2003,21:55)]Actually it was a weird way that the war with them was started, but I shall write about it later

When my King came to power the Egyptians were neutral... were we at war with them before?

[Revenant69]

Quote[/b] ]When my King came to power the Egyptians were neutral... were we at war with them before?

Yeah we were. I attacked the remnants of Elmos in Cyrenacia. Next year i retreat from there as my plan was only to destroy their numbers and not take the province. As i retreat that same year Egypt invades Cyrenacia. BOOM. We are at war. I guess since i retreated from there the war stopped shortly or something.