Out of character thread XV

[GeneralHankerchief]

Played with some things.

Try it now.

[econ21]

If FH and PK, or GH, want to fight at Bern this turn, just post here to say so and we will get it underway. Given the size of the forces, I think it may take a week or more to resolve, so there is no need to waste 2 days waiting if - as I anticipate - the big match is on.

[gibsonsg91921]

this could be huge. if GH wins, i would say hummel has it made. otherwise, hans and pk are gonna be on their way.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Uggggggghhhh, four armies.

Again...

I'm going to be dreaming about Marcellus and Luca and Decius, not to mention Servius tonight.

[Privateerkev]

Played with some things.

Try it now.

thanks, it's been re-sent. It showed up this time on the tracker.

[Ignoramus]

Talk about fighting for survival. I lose a thousand men at Antwerp, and now have 9 rebel armies to deal with, while at the same time keeping off the French, and holding my own against the loyalists.

[Privateerkev]

TC... Love your work!

Econ, Jan is good to go if Hans is. Lets get this party started!

[TinCow]

Talk about fighting for survival. I lose a thousand men at Antwerp, and now have 9 rebel armies to deal with, while at the same time keeping off the French, and holding my own against the loyalists.

Fighting alone to keep control of your own mini-empire is not an easy thing. To be honest, I expected you to be dead or captured long, long ago. I am very impressed with your survival and prosperity.

[OverKnight]

I must say you out did yourself TC. The War of Reformation is an intriguing new threat and a direct result of character actions, nice combination.

It also looks like you brought in and enhanced rebel stacks from throughout the known world, since we have rebel desert archers in Swabia. The Reformation mechanics have the potential to severely damage the Reich, not just in loss of territory, but in infrastructure. Should be interesting.

Outremer was spared the Axe, but that just makes me wonder what sort of fiendishly concocted Hell will descend upon it in 1334.

[Privateerkev]

It also looks like you brought in and enhanced rebel stacks from throughout the known world, since we have rebel desert archers in Swabia.

There is a Bedouin unit in Prague too. ^_^

quite a long hike...

[Cecil XIX]

Nice work, Tincow. Looks like Becker's going to be seeing his fair share of action. Does defeating religious unrest gain you money like a normal army?

[AussieGiant]

Bloody hell

[FactionHeir]

I'm ready to fight the Bern battle.

Can you PM me with what happened to last turn's orders and their degrees of success?

[econ21]

Deadline for orders for deployment in the battle of Bern is 24 hours hence.

[AussieGiant]

So I'm curious.

How do you work out who the greatest general in the Reich is?

Being a little piqued by Hans having this title I'm a little miffed

[Privateerkev]

How do you know he wasn't talking about Jan? :P

[TinCow]

I must say you out did yourself TC. The War of Reformation is an intriguing new threat and a direct result of character actions, nice combination.

Privateerkev deserves some credit. It was his idea of returning to the Reich and recruiting a Catholic army that gave me the idea.

It also looks like you brought in and enhanced rebel stacks from throughout the known world, since we have rebel desert archers in Swabia.

I didn't have a choice. There weren't enough rebels of European origin. I tried to keep them all pretty weak, though. They're not meant to be challenging, unless your army is very small. For the (None Placed) I will spawn an enemy AI army (i.e. French) that has the same composition as the rebels. That will serve until I've got more rebels than I need.

Outremer was spared the Axe, but that just makes me wonder what sort of fiendishly concocted Hell will descend upon it in 1334.

I'm basing the 'War of Reformation' on the Thirty Years War, which would not likely have resulted in fighting in the Crusader States (if they had still existed at that time). The whole area is Catholic, with no Lutherans, so there's no reason for religious violence. I also figured you deserved a rest since the defense of Outremer has been heroic. I will toss some more curveballs at you in the future, but Outremer has been whittled down a great deal, so I don't feel pressure to push you back any further.

I'm actually concerned that I might have over-done it in a few areas of the Reich. Franconia is having serious problems simply because they haven't really been fighting the invaders since Ansehelm died. Thus, there are stacks all over the place and the AI is finally getting serious with them. If Franconia looks like it might go extinct, I will give bonuses to the defenders to make sure they can hold on to at least one province.

Does defeating religious unrest gain you money like a normal army?

No. You're not really defeating an army, you're imposing martial law on the lands. Thus, there's not really anything to loot.

[FactionHeir]

So I'm curious.

How do you work out who the greatest general in the Reich is?

Being a little piqued by Hans having this title I'm a little miffed

I think its whoever has the highest overall command stars and if equal, the one with the highest amount of modifiers.
It could also be whoever got the highest command stars first, but not really sure.

[econ21]

How do you work out who the greatest general in the Reich is?

It's in the faction summary screen:



I guess it is based on command stars or something. If you total up those from Hans' traits, you get a pretty insane number - 18 unadjusted, rising to 23 if commanding cavalry at night.

[Privateerkev]

Privateerkev deserves some credit. It was his idea of returning to the Reich and recruiting a Catholic army that gave me the idea.

I was simply a willing pawn who allowed his avatar to be an unknowing pawn. ^_^

TC did most of the work. He asked me to write the IMS message and look over his story. I knew something "bad" would happen but not really what. I did know about Jan's army though. Ah the things a player will do to get his avatar an army... :D

So OOC the praise goes to TC. IC the blame can be spread around a little but mainly goes to Jan for being the accidental catalyst. He really wasn't trying to start a religious war and had the best of intentions. But we all know what the road to hell is paved with...

[AussieGiant]

Ah yes the screen econ that's clear now.

How do you determine your unadusted ratings?

[econ21]

How do you determine your unadusted ratings?

Each trait description will say something like "+2 command". I just looked at the Bern generals' traits and totalled up the effects. I suspect their in-game effects are capped at the highest value - 10 - that you can see on the screen, so totalling them up as I did is just a bragging rights kind of thing.

[AussieGiant]

Each trait description will say something like "+2 command". I just looked at the Bern generals' traits and totalled up the effects. I suspect their in-game effects are capped at the highest value - 10 - that you can see on the screen, so totalling them up as I did is just a bragging rights kind of thing.

Thanks for that econ.

[econ21]

I've made my 1330 move; will PM TC with the mundane details.

The new save is:

http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/pbm/kotr1330-2.zip

[Cecil XIX]

I'm getting a strong feeling that I've asked this question twice before, but since I can't remember an answer I'm going to ask again. Apologies if this is getting old.

How closely does Lutheranism in KOTR resemble real protestantism? Is it a legitemate theological and philosophical movment, or just the barely rational stream of anti-orthodox and anti-papal thought that it seems?

[GeneralHankerchief]

I don't think Lutheranism in KotR is as radical a departure from Roman Catholicism as it is in real life - it's mostly an anti-Byzantine, anti-Papal, pro-German nationalism movement that says the HRE doesn't need to listen to any stinkin' pope.

If it weren't for the Pope issue, I imagine that it would be a secular movement akin to the hyper-nationalist movements that defined the rise of facism in the 1920s and 30s.

[TinCow]

I'm getting a strong feeling that I've asked this question twice before, but since I can't remember an answer I'm going to ask again. Apologies if this is getting old.

How closely does Lutheranism in KOTR resemble real protestantism? Is it a legitemate theological and philosophical movment, or just the barely rational stream of anti-orthodox and anti-papal thought that it seems?

I haven't given it any serious thought. It's just been a game mechanism for me. If someone would like to create a proper backstory for it, they are free to do so.

[econ21]

How closely does Lutheranism in KOTR resemble real protestantism? Is it a legitemate theological and philosophical movment, or just the barely rational stream of anti-orthodox and anti-papal thought that it seems?

There could be a deep theological and philosophical component, although I am not sure anyone has written that side up.

You are right that the defining features of our Lutheranism so far have been anti-papal and anti-orthodox (or perhaps anti-Byzantine), with the two features being fused as it was unification with the Orthodox that spurred the hatred of the Papacy. Luther was pretty extreme in his denunciations of the Pope, AFAIK, but our Luther is more radical than the historical one - as he is marching with a rebel army, whereas the historical Luther tended to side with the forces of conservatism against the radicals.

The anti-Byzantine element is fictious but I got it from just substituting Byzantines for Jews in some of Luther's writings/books and so I would say it has its barely rational, like anti-semitism. However, unlike the Jews in history, the Byzantines in our game have exterminated Rome and Bologna, so I think we should keep the anti-Byzantine element as a plausible and strong feature of the movement.

In the game, we don't really have a way of introducing a non-Catholic religion, so that limits how closely our Lutheranism can resemble the historical one. Depending on how the internal power struggle plays out, I guess Lutheranism may end up being a strand within the Church - it is conceivable that we would have a Lutheran Pope.

[Cecil XIX]

All right, I'm taking the save to pacify Bohemia. Should have it up within an hour at the most. Just so I'm certain, this isn't an actual battle IC, but more of a way to model the difficulty and resources needed to put down the unrest, right? I don't have to take the battle stats?

[Northnovas]

FYI, will take some more pics for the 1330 library.