Iron and Blood 7

Setting

Iron and Blood takes place in the world of the early 19th century. The Industrial Revolution is in full swing. Established wisdoms are being challenged by Enlightenment ideas. Factories and early railroads are appearing.

Your task as leader of your country is to guide it through the tumultuous times ahead. Each turn, you will face one or two multiple-choice events to which you must respond; your choice will affect how your country develops. Some events will be a direct consequence of your previous actions, others will depend on your luck (note: I roll a dice to see whether your country is lucky or unlikely – TK)

It is turn-based. One turn ends and a new turn begin with an update. The game starts in 1831 and each turn will initially represent 4 years in real time (eg the first turn will cover 1831 to the end of 1835). There is usually one week (168 hours) between update and order lock. Send your orders by PM only, with the subject “Iron and Blood Turn X – Country Name”


Income

Income is gained from controlling provinces, each of which has an infrastructure value. Your income is the total of your provinces’ infrastructure values modified by bonuses you get from tech and events. You can pay to increase your provinces’ infrastructure; the actual amount depends on your tech level.

Income is gained at the start of each turn. You can choose to spend it all or save part or all of it for later.


Technology

New technologies are revealed as countries research them. There are two tech categories: military and civilian. The first to unlock a tech level also receives a special one-off bonus. Tech levels set the unit cap (maximum units you can have), resource demand, and cost of infrastructure, units, and espionage missions.


Dissent

Dissent is how dissatisfied your populace is of your government. How a country is affected by dissent depends on your country’s government type and specific circumstances. Dissent of over 25% indicates a significant proportion of your population is unhappy with your policies, and there may be significant unrest if you have colonial provinces or ethnic minorities. Dissent of over 50% indicates a majority of your population is unhappy, which can trigger a change of government. Dissent of over 75% indicates severe dissatisfaction with your government. Violent insurrections, revolutions, or coups are likely.


Diplomacy, Espionage, Expansion, and War

Treaties, trade deals, and loans can be concluded between player countries and between player countries and NPCs. Any in-game consequences need to be specified for them to come into effect.

You can also conduct spy missions against other countries. A list of spy missions will be posted. Success goes to the side that invests the most in espionage (ie pay money to build up your spy network), the detail of which is kept secret.

Any “gray” provinces or those not claimed by any player countries are considered one-province NPCs. These can be annexed or made a protectorate diplomatically, or through espionage. Or you can simply invade them. The stronger an NPC the less likely it is to be swayed by diplomatic arguments/threats.

Each country has a belligerence value of between 0 – 100, indicating how poorly behaved the country is in the international arena. Declaring war (except against gray provinces) without a casus belli (usually gained by event) automatically incurs a belligerence penalty of 50. Any country with a belligerence value higher than 50 immediately gives every other country a casus belli, so be warned (declaring war with a casus belli or joining a war on the side of an ally incurs a much-less penalty of 5).

For gameplay purposes (ie to give defending players a chance to respond to DoWs and prepare defenses) initial DoWs can only be given within the first 48 hours of a turn, and response DoWs (eg declaration by allies) can only be issued up to a further 72 hours.


Units and Combat

Units are in a national pool and can be deployed anywhere that is connected to your capital by land or sea (ie not through blockades or NPC or another country’s territory without a transit agreement) The only exceptions are units previously deployed to a province and then stranded there due to blockades or encirclement.

In combat, players allocate their available units to defending or attacking a province. The two side’s strengths are calculated by multiplying the number of units with quality, and then modified by various bonuses from tech, terrain (25% penalty for fighting in a terrain different from your home province’s), war plans (I give the side with the better plan a small 10% bonus), and luck (ie I roll a dice giving a bonus or penalty up to 25%). The side with the highest strength ends up controlling the province. I use the difference between the strength, modified by luck, modifiers, etc, to calculate casualties. The exception is where an encircled force is defeated, where the casualty is 100% (killed, surrendered, or otherwise).

Land and naval combat work similarly, except in naval combat you also receive a bonus if the sea you are fighting in is close to one of your ports. Amphibious invasion forces receive a small (10%) penalty. I calculate naval battles before land ones, so if you lose a naval battle in the area an amphibious invasion was going to be conducted, the invasion fleet would just turn around and go home.

Naval units can also blockade a province. If a province is cut off from the home province either by blockade or encirclement, any land units deployed there cannot be moved anywhere else, and you stop earning income from that province.


Home Province

Your home province is the core of your country, home of the most loyal citizens. Soldiers fighting to defend a home province receive a 50% combat bonus. Losing a home province brings very serious consequences.


Air Units, Nuclear Weapons, and All the Other Things

These will be discussed as they come.

soon

Claiming Venezuela.
Color: Light blue (middle stripe) or yellow (top stripe)

When the Portuguese Crown levied an additional tax on gold after the production of the Minas Gerias mines slowed down, the intellectual elite of colonial Brazil began planning a rebellion; the Inconfidência Mineira, as the rebellion came to be known, was a complete success, and by 1795 the Portuguese had been driven from the Brazil; the conspirators, however had too many internal differences; some favored the creation of a new monarchy, some wanted a republic; some desired abolition & equal rights, while others wanted to preserve the status quo. It took less than a year for the young nation of Brazil to erupt into civil war.

And so it was that the tribes of displaced natives & communities of escaped slaves saw their chance; for too long, they had been forced to live permanently on guard against Portuguese incursions, but now, the cities were poorly defended. A coalition of natives & slaves offered to back the Brazilian faction desiring equality; the abolitionists, desperate for backup, agreed to their proposal. Reinforced by the natives & the slaves, the abolitionists quickly gained the upper hand in the conflict. In three short years, they had achieved a complete victory, and a new Brazilian constitution- modeled on the American Constitution & the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen- was written & approved.

The rest of the world was busy dealing with Napoleon at the time, and so paid little attention to the new nation; by the time the Napoleonic Wars had finished, the Brazilian Confederation had firmly established itself in South America, and given how shaken up the rest of the world is, it will be quite some time before anyone can attempt to dislodge the young republic...