The Italia campaign ends because of failing player input. But it has been running for a long time. The one thing which has always been interesting, is how different games the players have been playing. First lets mention two players who did not make an effort. One who runs WWII games and has his interests there was the first pope in the game and was, it seems not a great lover of the Catholic Church and not very interested in his game position. The second player was the first Duke of Modena, who started his campaign by trying to crunch the catholic influence in his country and ending his involvement in the campaign after invading Luccha and thrashing the Tuscan army. Such careless players are able to spoil the game for many others. Two very good players that we lost were Faith Mitchell, who spent her short time in the campaign saving Venice's bacon. Coming up against the very skilled Prince of Savoy she managed to keep him from the decisive victory he needed twice. The other good player lost was Steve Foster, who keeps a low profile, to say the least, solved some pirate problems by talking to the Turks in Tunis and who saw Genoa pass Venice in economy and navy strength. The Prince of Savoy was the most marked militarist. He spent very little time on other efforts and did manage to whip together the best army on the peninsula with rather meagre resources. The most baroque was of course the one player, playing two Doges of Tuscany, who spent a lot of time on internal politics but also managed to get into trouble with Venice, Modena and Genoa. He kidnapped and married the sister of the Duke of Milan, who he intended to make into a saint by letting her do good work for the wounded and then sending her to a convent. While involved in sabotage and politics in Genoa and in numerous wars he still managed to improve Tuscany's positions. The second pope, Matthys, actually played a pope very well and by attending to internal affairs and surviving the conflict with Venice, actually did a lot of good for the Papal States. He saw what other players did not: if you play a game in Italy you can’t be anti-catholic, it does not work, especially if you are the pope. The Duke of Milan, apart from being the most medieval, completely loyal and unthinking ally of the Prince of Savoy did almost nothing spectacular, except for the coup which threw out the French influence. Unfailing in his ability to live life to the full, prosper among the misery of neighbours and tailors was the Duke of Parma. Impossible to discourage and capable of better strategic decisions than his opponents was the Doge of Venice, who also was a good ally of Modena and of Venice. However, he failed to make use of Venice's enormous trading strength or to bring its military might to the battlefield. An interesting player but one who found himself immediately invaded, was the Red Duke of Luccha, who saw his country liberated but then dropped out of the game, leaving Luccha strangely looking like a modern day Albania. Chris Engle was another player who took interest in the running of his country but who got into an undeserved uprising even though he was the most enlightened ruler and took care for religious and economical freedom and was looking at ways of improving the country's economy. As one of the states with French influence he also got into trouble with the Lombards, who were only kept back from crushing France by the fact that France was 10 times the alliance's strength, at least. The next game I have not yet decided on. I am toying with a number of ideas and settings. Science fiction, spying, Roman republic... From what I have seen of player diplomacy I think I will do something with a focus on cooperation, maybe you as senators have to drum up enough votes to be given an army against Rome’s (or Earth’s) enemies if you can convince your colleagues that you are less of a threat than Hannibal. Feedback appreciated UMPMESS - spring 1710 From Chris Morris: Carl Carlsson has started recruiting for his next game. He has put map and a rules draft on the net for anyone interested. The game is sort of Son of Italia but set in the Dark Ages/fantasy/beginning of medieval times. Actually he is not fond of cross-over games like magic/sci-fi and so on, but he hopes to keep this game running and during its course pass the threshold between dark ages and medieval times. As his previous game he wants to give room for different player styles and interests, but unlike Italia there is no need for players to make up elaborate personal actions. Those who want may read the rules and write actions of about one sentence for each unit, which is theirs to command. The map: http://home2.pp.sbbs.se/CCarlsson/Artur.htm The rules: NOTE: Only Solo Wargaming Association members may join SWA PBM games. MagWeb.com members may not--unless they become SWA members [$20/yr]. Contact Rich Barbuto in North America: rbarbuto@idir.net for more information about the SWA. --RL Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #134 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by Solo Wargamers Association. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com