Carl Carlsson writes to my cat in the hope that the cat will be more inclined to correct the data in my column than his owner is. I regret that Trigger and Atwen are even lazier than I am and they own me and not the other way around, so they are not inclined to heed Carl's appeal for help. Apologies to all who have been irritated by the out of date information in the column but I think the problem has been overcome now. Anyway, Carl reported on the status of his games.
France 44 is long since ended. The Americans assaulted the Germans prematurely without waiting for support units, and lost the battle. His current game is Italia, with about seven players at time of writing and room for more. It is set in 1700, with the players being the heads of the Italian principalities and city states. The game is map based and strategic, one move per season, with interim moves for battles where players are involved. The game draws on the renaissance so that the game states are more independent of the great powers and the focus is on trader rivalries. Where my WWII games were limited in time by their tactical nature, I intend to keep Italia running for much longer.
Carl's Golden Rules for PBM Players
1. Love the umpire. He may not care what he is doing to you, but it could become a lot worse if he started doing it on purpose!
2. Like your fellow PBMer. It is courteous to answer mail, even if you have left the game. Inform the umpire if other appointments mean you have to leave the game or miss a turn.
3. Keep the timetables. Your allies and your umpire depend on them. So do the players and the game.
4. Share materials with umpire and players. Write for the games newsletter.
The Nots
1. If the umpire is fat, stupid and lazy then things are as they should be. Do NOT tell him so. Try to practice the Japanese art of Suldo, the art of making fat, stupid people do amazingly clever things of benefit to you.
2. If you have an order to spare, or spare energy (depending on the game system) do NOT waste it. Do something that is a little less rational. The umpire may like it, and the game may be improved by it.
3. Do NOT play in games for any other purpose than your own enjoyment. Tell the umpire that you are not enjoying the game, and tell him of any things you think would improve the game. Then play one or two moves more, and quit if you still do not enjoy the game.
Italia
Italia is a cross between renaissance Italy and the 1700s. Carl's goal with the game is to have fun umpiring and to test rules. The object of the rules is to make the workload manageable for the umpire, while still giving the players enough to do. The way he tries to achieve this is through enforcing a system of orders where each actor has one action per move. The result, I hope, is that the player concentrates on the things he would most like to have done, first. The second effect is that the player who runs a large state will concentrate on grand strategic decisions, whilst one running a smaller state will concentrate on counting hens in his backyard.
Apart from his game character, a player can have other players to write orders for, such as government bureaus that cost a lot of money and game characters who have their own weaknesses and goals. A complement is the administrative order, of which a player may write any number, but the order is limited to a single sentence. It is hoped that these orders will be used for administrative matters, such as setting tariffs, purchases and so on.
The result of the above is that the game is both free format and very formatted. The player can take an interest in just about anything, but he cannot be interested in everything. The players' actions determine which areas of life in this Italy are explored, and the rest of the world is in a fog, from which objects appear and into which they disappear. For example, there are player characters and non player characters in the game, for whom orders can be written, but a player character may write an order in which he sends someone on an errand. This order would create an un-character that would exist through the player's orders and would exit into the fog once the character's interest focused on something else.
For the umpire's use, and to keep the burden of keeping things happening from falling entirely on players and umpire, there is a system for random events and trade opportunities. There is also a timetable of events that are bound to happen. An order may get an immediate result in the player returns and a note in the timetable, maybe years in the future. There are also other actions and reactions that may occur to me. They too are written on the table of future events. I also keep two index numbers per state: measures of how susceptible the individual state is to rebellion. This is partly random and partly a player action. Decommissioning of ships and deaths of characters are determined once yearly, together with budgets, on the winter move. Essential to the game is the trade table, which lists export markets for Italian goods. Most states can make the budget come out even with domestically levied taxes, but income from taxation of exports can double the state's income. It is intended that trade rivalries will be the motor to get wars and alliances going.
Budgeting is another worksaver for the umpire. The incentive to keep expenses within the budget, which is drawn up every fourth turn, is that only budget purchases are guaranteed to cost the prices listed in the start up rules. Purchases in the middle of the year can be a lot more expensive.
What has happened so far? Carl has found players for enough of the game positions. He has clarified some of the rules and will continue to do that. He has got a newspaper started. The Pope has made a business of selling relics and is doing well. The King of Spain has just died and his succession is doubly secured, as both the grandson of the King of France and the son of the Austrian Emperor are pretenders. So things will go very smoothly there (apart from a European war)!
Genoa has made some trading gains while capturing some Tunisian pirates. Savoy's navy has declared war on Turkish shipping. Venice is in the middle of far-reaching democratic reform (what will they think of next?). Some roadbuilding is taking place. A papal envoy was ambushed by Tuscan militia. This is turn 3, summer 1700, so anyone interested in not missing more should write to him and make an offer he cannot refuse. Please note Carl's new address above.
Steve Foster writes that his new PBM game is about to start; he is about to send off the envelopes (end of August). He is calling the game "Vicoroa" and players will control a race of their choosing, seeking to dominate the land. Since the game was advertised in LW 107, he has had five inquiries from the SWA, which he found slightly disappointing. He would have expected a few more than this, especially since the PBM section is not overloaded with available places at the moment. He still has one available place, so if anyone else wants to join in, he will be pleased to hear from them. A reserve or two is also useful in case of dropouts.
James Hough reports on "Hyboria."
The West. The Barachan pirate admiral Jogailo Sture has raided the Argossean ports of Thenia and Vissoria, carrying away mounds of booty. He has established contact with both King Ben Hadas of Asgalum (a Shemitish monarch) and warlike Pictish tribes in addition to saturating Argos and Zamora with his agents. King Dolabella of Argos and Jaramez of Zingara have thus far not managed to organize a concerted counteroffensive, satisfying their immediate needs by patrolling their coastlines with small squadrons of war galleys and establishing stronger garrisons in their ports.
In Aquilonia, a small Cimmerian invasion came to an abrupt end after coming to grief on the defenses of a Gunderland border fort. This satisfactory outcome for King Troyden was, however, more than offset by a full scale invasion by King Taracus II of Nemedia. The latter, espousing the claim of the Aquilonian throne of Troyden's half brother Valero, has at present brushed aside the Aquilonian border defenses with the aid of various turncoat Aquilonian nobles and marched for the capital, Tarantia. King Troyden caught napping despite ample warning of the invasion is now trying desperately to rally his loyal vassals to form an army capable of taking on the 40,000 odd Nemedian host. King Hadrian of Ophir, rather worried about the prospect of a "Nemedian puppet" on the throne of Aquilonia, has called up his feudal levy, intending (no doubt) to ravage Nemedia during the absence of Taracus.
The South. Events here have been dominated by King Eumenes of Koth invading Shem and abruptly retreating from it. Advancing rapidly with some 20,000 men, he took the town of Toriba, locking the king of that city in the citadel. Thereafter he marched on Jedia. The point of this expedition was to quash any hopes of empire building that may have entered the head of King Mursilis of Shushan (Shem being a land composed entirely of small city states, relatively easy to conquer). King Mursilis, having already achieved hegemony over the neighboring kingdoms of Pelishtea and Sabatea, lost no time in furthering his ambitions. First he despatched his brother Telepinnus with an army to bully the kings of Eruk and Nippr into an alliance. This promptly done, the army invaded Khoraja and laid siege to Khoraja City. Secondly, Mursilis himself marched west with a considerable force, joining with the army of the servile King Shurtarn of Jedia to impress his own lordship upon King Muballit of Anaki.. At this point, Mursilis received news of Eumenes' expedition and marched immediately to Jedia. Some miles south of the town the two armies met.
Despite initial slaughter of the second rate levies that formed the bulk of Mursilis' army, the Khothian men at arms were eventually overcome by the Sacred Cavalry and the Assuri regiments that Mursilis had held in reserve. Grieving over the loss of almost half his army, Eumenes beat a hasty retreat to Koth. He retreated even further into his realm following news of Mursilis' rapid pursuit. At present, Eumenes is frantically attempting to gather more vassals to form a second army while Mursilis besieges the Kothian castle of Hajas.
The East. Events here center mainly around Zamora, under the firm hand of King Pharnaces. Pharnaces first had to face the ravaging of his northern territories by the Kathani Hyrkanian tribe under Ulugh Khan. Defeating those in battle, Pharnaces locked them up in an Ogdania town and began a formal siege. This was not to last long, however, for King Zal of Turania rode over the Steppes and invaded Zamora from the east. With a force of some 30,000 Turanian cavalry and numerous Hyrkanian steppe tribesmen (King Zal having married the daughter of Khan Barchak of the Silchaq tribe to secure one horde of allies), Zal smashed into eastern Zamora. Thereafter, dividing his army into a main host and several small harassing forces, Zal galloped towards Ogdania.
On the way, his camp was attacked at night by Pharnaces who had broken off his siege of Ogdania. This attack was beaten off with heavy losses to both sides. Pharnaces then fled south with Zal in hot pursuit. Battle was forced upon Pharnaces in the foothills west of Kaloga, not far from his earlier scene of triumph over Ulugh Khan. Despite the defection of the troops of the treacherous Khan Barchak, Zal won the day, chiefly by virtue of superior numbers, better discipline of his cavalrymen, and the appalling lack of professionalism amongst Pharnaces' foot (they tended to charge merrily after any enemy light cavalry that staged a feigned flight). The Zamoran infantry were largely slain and Pharnaces fled south to Zalkhmet with whatever cavalry he had managed to salvage from the wreck of defeat.
The traitor Khan Barchaq and Pharnaces' brother Prince Taxiles (darling of the Zamoran army) both fell in the battle. At present, Pharnaces is still at large, attempting to fight his way north with a reinforced army in order to join his brother-in-law, King Goswin of Brythunia, who has raised a modest feudal force of some 10,000 men to aid him. Some Corinthian states may come to Pharnaces' aid, and help has also been promised by Kamal Khan of the Khetbeq Hyrkanian tribe. Zal is at present dominating central Zamora and with Ulugh Khan's forces once again on the rampage, things are looking gloomy for Zamora's king. Ã ÃPlaces still available in the game.
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