All,
This is the staging thread for a new, Asia-centric game starting Sundays after Diplomacy Universalis has ended. The player nations will definitely be:
Japan
Indonesia
Indochina
Northern India
Southern India
Afghanistan
Persia
In addition, there will probably be one or two Khanates/Siberian tribes, possibly the Manchus, possibly an Arab state (likely Oman) and China, in one of a few forms (discussed below).
We will accomodate up to 12 players in this current format, which I think is the limit of what FAL can host, but if Slargos' new upload pans out I'm also willing to make this a Tsunami game and add European nations (Europe and Asia being equalized in tech, of course) if there's sufficient interest. Everyone is welcome regardless of skill level and experience, provided you:
A. Are reliable
B. Are punctual
C. Have absolutely no record of cheating or intentional nation destroying whatsoever (that goes for subs, too)
We have about a month to get things organized and we're going to need it, so I want to make this a little more systematic than I usually do. If you're interested post to that effect with the times (on Sunday) you can make it. Then chime in on the map, which is the first priority. Right now we have only two options:
1. Kasperus' WAT2K. The best for Europe. Not so much for Asia.
2. MyMap. Sucks in Europe. Great in Asia and the Americas.
I lean toward MyMap. However, in a month's time we'll definitely have Kasperus' Mongolian Empire map and we may have Mad King James' Old World Map. It may be worth waiting for one of them. On the other hand, Kasperus' at least still has fewer provinces in Asia than MyMap and both eliminate the colonial aspet of the game.
Whatever map we choose, we'll have to design a scenario more or less from scratch. I can handle (with input) tax, manpower and population, I can steal the leaders from EEP and Asia Universalis, I can create an Asian-based random event file and I can recode any decent events we want to keep. However, I'll need help with two things:
1. Researching leaders (and actually coding them would be very helpful as well)
2. Researching and coding events, if we want a decent number of historical events in the game
I'll need volunteers to work on that side (the rule being-you volunteer, you get to bitch; you don't, you don't), but we'll also need to decide on the time frame for the scenario. Using 1419-1820 is not really necessary when we're already using a mod and building tax, manpower and leaders/monarchs/events from the ground up, nor does it make sense for an Asiacentric game.
Right now, I'm open to any suggestions. Just keep in mind that the further back we go, the more difficult it'll be to track down monarchs and leaders, and that starting from the 14th century introduces the problem of Tamerlane and starting from the 13th century the rather daunting problem of Temujin.
And of course, whenever we start, the third problem is China. If one person plays a united China, it has an obvious advantage quite in excess of, say, the Ottoman Empire in Europe (its closest analogue) without any of the significant limitations on Chinese expansion historically (most notably that it was nearly the size of the modern United States). It's also a bit boring for the Emperor to spend all his time repelling barbarian raiders and Japanese pirates, and trying to keep Japan out of Korea.
We have, as I see it, three options:
1. China is united and played by the GM. It has something approximating its role in Throne of Heaven, is largely defensive and acts to preserve game balance.
2. China is united and played as a regular country. It has, however, serious limitations, either through events, leaders or techspeed. It could also be devolved into a large group of vassals with start dates on the last year of the game.
3. China is broken up into at least two Warring States, each headed by a Warlord and jockeying for the Imperial throne, or alternatively two Warring States and the Emperor. I would suggest, either way, that Three Warring States would be reasonable, along with the Manchus in the North and an evil Steppes tribe the the West. Since China will likely be wealthier and have much higher manpower than any other region on the map, it'd be fairly easy to have three states at start all roughly as powerful individually as Japan (keeping them as powerful as Japan should be the measure).
Of these, I favor the third option. It also allows us to cram more humans onto this map.
It'd be great, come to think of it, if someone made a map of China, Japan or India, but I'm no map maker.
At any rate, discuss. After we've decided on a map, a scenario and what to do with China, we'll move on to determining playable countries, tech levels, DPs and leaders (especially how to model warrior states like Japan and the Khanates) and rules, followed, when the scenario is finished, by the roster.
This is the staging thread for a new, Asia-centric game starting Sundays after Diplomacy Universalis has ended. The player nations will definitely be:
Japan
Indonesia
Indochina
Northern India
Southern India
Afghanistan
Persia
In addition, there will probably be one or two Khanates/Siberian tribes, possibly the Manchus, possibly an Arab state (likely Oman) and China, in one of a few forms (discussed below).
We will accomodate up to 12 players in this current format, which I think is the limit of what FAL can host, but if Slargos' new upload pans out I'm also willing to make this a Tsunami game and add European nations (Europe and Asia being equalized in tech, of course) if there's sufficient interest. Everyone is welcome regardless of skill level and experience, provided you:
A. Are reliable
B. Are punctual
C. Have absolutely no record of cheating or intentional nation destroying whatsoever (that goes for subs, too)
We have about a month to get things organized and we're going to need it, so I want to make this a little more systematic than I usually do. If you're interested post to that effect with the times (on Sunday) you can make it. Then chime in on the map, which is the first priority. Right now we have only two options:
1. Kasperus' WAT2K. The best for Europe. Not so much for Asia.
2. MyMap. Sucks in Europe. Great in Asia and the Americas.
I lean toward MyMap. However, in a month's time we'll definitely have Kasperus' Mongolian Empire map and we may have Mad King James' Old World Map. It may be worth waiting for one of them. On the other hand, Kasperus' at least still has fewer provinces in Asia than MyMap and both eliminate the colonial aspet of the game.
Whatever map we choose, we'll have to design a scenario more or less from scratch. I can handle (with input) tax, manpower and population, I can steal the leaders from EEP and Asia Universalis, I can create an Asian-based random event file and I can recode any decent events we want to keep. However, I'll need help with two things:
1. Researching leaders (and actually coding them would be very helpful as well)
2. Researching and coding events, if we want a decent number of historical events in the game
I'll need volunteers to work on that side (the rule being-you volunteer, you get to bitch; you don't, you don't), but we'll also need to decide on the time frame for the scenario. Using 1419-1820 is not really necessary when we're already using a mod and building tax, manpower and leaders/monarchs/events from the ground up, nor does it make sense for an Asiacentric game.
Right now, I'm open to any suggestions. Just keep in mind that the further back we go, the more difficult it'll be to track down monarchs and leaders, and that starting from the 14th century introduces the problem of Tamerlane and starting from the 13th century the rather daunting problem of Temujin.
And of course, whenever we start, the third problem is China. If one person plays a united China, it has an obvious advantage quite in excess of, say, the Ottoman Empire in Europe (its closest analogue) without any of the significant limitations on Chinese expansion historically (most notably that it was nearly the size of the modern United States). It's also a bit boring for the Emperor to spend all his time repelling barbarian raiders and Japanese pirates, and trying to keep Japan out of Korea.
We have, as I see it, three options:
1. China is united and played by the GM. It has something approximating its role in Throne of Heaven, is largely defensive and acts to preserve game balance.
2. China is united and played as a regular country. It has, however, serious limitations, either through events, leaders or techspeed. It could also be devolved into a large group of vassals with start dates on the last year of the game.
3. China is broken up into at least two Warring States, each headed by a Warlord and jockeying for the Imperial throne, or alternatively two Warring States and the Emperor. I would suggest, either way, that Three Warring States would be reasonable, along with the Manchus in the North and an evil Steppes tribe the the West. Since China will likely be wealthier and have much higher manpower than any other region on the map, it'd be fairly easy to have three states at start all roughly as powerful individually as Japan (keeping them as powerful as Japan should be the measure).
Of these, I favor the third option. It also allows us to cram more humans onto this map.
It'd be great, come to think of it, if someone made a map of China, Japan or India, but I'm no map maker.
At any rate, discuss. After we've decided on a map, a scenario and what to do with China, we'll move on to determining playable countries, tech levels, DPs and leaders (especially how to model warrior states like Japan and the Khanates) and rules, followed, when the scenario is finished, by the roster.
