pre-TNESIV: Let The Bodies Hit The Four

Alright. Let's talk about stats baby, let's talk about you and me. This is my first draft for how stats will work.

Nation Name - Player Name
Government: A short description of your government! Tells you how the nation works.
Initiative: One word which describes your nation's ability to take on new commitments, followed by a short summary of projects, alliances, wars, and entanglements.
Society: Stuff like language, religion, popular opinion, and other important stuff goes here.
Factions [Strength/Confidence]: This is pretty self-explanatory. Everyone's nation has groups with different goals. Managing them successfully ensures domestic harmony. Abusing or ignoring a powerful faction can sometimes result in rebellion.
Faction Descriptions: Descriptions of what each faction wants.
Economy: One word which describes the state of your economy, followed by a brief summary of your economic activities.
Taxation: One word which describes your current level of taxation, followed by a summary of where taxes come from. (Higher taxation raises your initiative and lowers confidence.)
Armies/Navies [Size/Morale/Supply]: You're considered to have a low level of defensive militia and garrisons throughout your nation. But you can only accomplish serious things where you have armies. Specific numbers of troops are not bought and sold by you, rather you increase, decrease, or maintain the size of your military and number of armies, and I adjust the results.
Military Description: What kind of troops you have.
Prestige: When you do things right, you get this. It's roughly equivalent to a 'score,' and I will ultimately use it to select the Winner of the NES. Though in the end, the true victory is just having fun.
History: The historical narrative.

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Kingdom of Aquitaine - Owen Glyndwr
Government: Decentralized aristocratic parliamentary monarchy. The Marquizes of the hinterland monopolize power in the Ezstat-Conseles, leaving the monarch a beloved but symbolically powerless figure.
Initiative: Unhindered. [Marriage alliances with Ambrosian and Vascon magnates.]
Society: A mostly Occitan-speaking population with small minorities speaking Normand and Italian. Strongly anti-Norman and anti-Arab, culturally Mediterranean in architecture and appearance. Metropolitan Catholic with a tiny Jewish minority. Largely rural populace.
Factions [Strength/Confidence]: Marquizates of the Massifs [3/2], Marquizates of the Paisbaix [4/4], Royal Court [2/5], Chartered Cities [3/2], Paizans [1/2]
Faction Descriptions: Economy: Stagnant. Late medieval feudal agricultural economy with urban specialist manufactures and basic trade barriers set up by nobles. Reliant on outside imports of manufactured and luxury goods.
Taxation: Low. Taxes on the royal domaine are sufficient to maintain the royal household and fleet, the magnates tolerate little else and most power players have tax exemptions.
Armies/Navies [Size/Morale/Supply]: Exèrcit Reale [9,000/Confident/Replenished] Exèrcit Mazif [5,000/Confident/Replenished] / Flote Reale [15/Confident/Replenished]
Military Description: A skilled and mobile cavalry contingent composed of the sons of the elite. Infantry is the traditional pike square levied from the townships supplemented by Italian mercenary artillerists. Ships are war galleys with cannons.
Prestige: 0
History:

So what do these rules actually mean? And how do you interact with them?

Players like to do certain things. There are many things you can do in TNES! Let's talk about some of them:

• Found a trading company and attempt to monopolize international trade!
• Build colonies in foreign realms, and send out expeditionary forces to protect them!
• Invade your neighbors for a variety of reasons! Or no reason at all!
• Blockade the ports and harass the shipping of enemy nations with sneaky privateers!
• Convert to a new religion!
• Adopt new military or naval technology and doctrines!
• Build monumental religious structures and incredible palaces!
• Create a road, harbor, or canal system!
• Adopt imperial administration! Adopt representative democracy!
• Change your trade and taxation policies!
• Win at art!
• Carve out hilarious puppet states from your enemies' territory and make them dance while you laugh and laugh!
• And more!

You cannot do all of these things at once. If you try, you will fail. Carefully choose what you're going to try to do and when. This is especially true for going to war.

Think of your nation like the human body. The human body operates under the principle of homeostasis; it likes to snap back to normal working conditions. Just like the human body, the nation requires rest after a period of work! As such, when you try to do too many things, or when you're taxing your nation's resources for too long, your country will go through a sort of five stages of grief:

1. Your nation's initiative will deplete first. This reflects that your leadership has committed to a certain course of action; the DIE IS CAST.
2. Your taxation rates will start to rise whether you want them to or not. This reflects the increasing costs of the war or ongoing project.
3. At some point during this process, factions will begin to lose confidence in the ruling government. People hate taxes and dying!
4. If nothing changes, the ruling government will be removed, or a civil war, rebellion, or foreign intervention can occur!
5. You complete the project, settle the war with a peace treaty, or abandon whatever you were doing. Gradually conditions return to normal.

So, what are your choices? You can limit yourself to small projects, or you can take big risks. Whether or not a huge, ambitious power play to re-order the politics of an entire continent succeeds or fails is dependent on how well you manage it. But risks are risky! If you're going to be ambitious and try to accomplish things, recognize that domestic opposition will emerge, and that rebellions are more an inevitability than a consequence of messing up.

Playing in TNESIV is like gambling: Sometimes, you have to know when to walk away. But you also need to take big risks to win big.

If you go to war for 3 turns, eventually your people will have had enough and want it to end. Or, if you've manipulated your factions correctly and properly prepared, they won't. It's all a question of how well YOU manage the situation. Just understand that your nation needs to take breaks in which it integrates its new territory, adapts to reforms, or slowly accepts the shock of a new belief system. Without taking breaks, you'll cause the strain of change to unleash deadly forces on your own country. And you will lose.

In fact, a lot of the systems in TNESIV are just qualitative abstractions of the systems you see in a game like EUIV. (Haha, funny that they're both IV, almost like I planned it that way...) You need to be patient and deal with the consequences of overstretch, and shepherd your resources carefully.

Would it be too late to request to play the Pueblos? I think that I would find it very interesting to try and survive the onslaught of Europeans and Arabians in the New World.

It would not be too late.

For those of you playing Native Circadian federations, (CivG and Random at this point,) keep in mind that these are not centralized states. They contain at least 5 individual tribes, perhaps more, and a whole bunch of sub-tribes. That doesn't mean that coordinated action is impossible; it certainly is possible, as the events of the Pueblo Revolt and the Beaver Wars indicate. But just be aware of your limitations, and sensitive to them.

I am excited to have players play Native Circadian states, as long as they know how difficult the picture is.

I also recommend that you familiarize yourself with the language families so you can at least come up with convincing names. My personal philosophy is, if I don't know a language, I try and create something that sounds phonetically similar from the language family, since we can assume that butterflies caused that language to develop a little differently.

Languages are hard D:

I feel you broski. Doing this TL is like a crash course in global linguistics. But you guys only have to do it for one nation.

West Africa is coming along nicely; I spent a few hours today trying to understand the trading and migration dynamics of various groups. It's always difficult because you have people like the Fulani popping up like freaking jihadi land vikings in places as disparate as Chad and Senegal, which complicates the traditional imperial rise-fall narrative. And then you have other groups like the Igbo who basically stay in the same place for 1000 years doing pretty much the same thing.

One thing I am still trying to consider is the impact of the Egyptian crusades on Ethiopia, and how that might then percolate into the Sahel. So the religious dynamic becomes more of a Islam-Copt-Animist trifecta of confusion than it was in OTL, since Muslim hegemony in North Africa is still strong, but less strong than it was.

I have been watching for years Chinese tv series, so I guess I will give my politicians names from those series.

christos200 said:

I have been watching for years Chinese tv series, so I guess I will give my politicians names from those series.

Click to expand...

Hahahahahahah.

No. No you won't. Your people aren't Chinese; they're influenced by centuries of Turkic migration and are a Turco-Chinese hybrid culture. If you have trouble, ask me and I'll help you. But I would be bothered if you just used straight Han-sounding names.

I'm going to assume that you're joking though.

I was joking, of course.

The Kingdom of Albia-Norway - Cadellon
Government: Confederal Aristocratic Monarchy. The interests of the Erls, the Shires, and the King are precariously balanced in the Greatmoot.
Initiative: Lightly Committed. [Marriage alliances and religious concords with the Frankish Empire / Fur trading outpost expansion and exploration in Circadia]
Society: The majority culture is Albian, a Scots-English dialect with Norwegian loanwords. There are large Gaelic and Norwegian minorities, and a small minority of Anglo-Normands in the Midlands. Religiously, Imperial Orthodox with a small but rapidly growing minority of Remonstrants.
Factions [Strength/Confidence]: Royal Court [4/5], Albian Erlings [3/4], Norwegian Yrlings [2/3], Free Shires [2/2], Gaelic Clans [1/1], The Church [2/4]
Faction Descriptions: Economy: Feudal-communitarian maritime economy supplemented by agriculture, manufactures and trade. Increasing reliance on New World luxuries such as fur and sugar for revenue.
Taxation: Medium-Low. High tariffs on foreign goods are supplemented with revenues from royal charters granted to fur and sugar traders. A small direct tax is levied on the Shires and gentry; high nobles are not subject to taxes in peacetime.
Armies/Navies [Size/Morale/Supply]: The Great Army [12,000/Confident/Replenished] Army of the Farsteads [5,000/Confident/Replenished] / The Great Fleet [40/Confident/Replenished] Colonial Fleet [5/Confident/Weather-Taxed]
Military Description: A variety of mixed units of disparate quality are raised from levy and mercenary sources. A small force of elite noble cuirassiers is supplemented with a larger body of light cavalry. Infantry are mixed formations of musketeers and pikes. The fleet consists of two dozen excellent heavy galleons and an equal number of converted merchant cogs for troop transport.
Prestige: 0

Link to video.



Phrim - A small Egyptian Coptic city-state with excellent fortifications at the great ancient Nilotic city of Phrim. The Archbishop tiptoes a delicate balance between the Patriarch and the Emperor.

Zakharian Empire - The Coptic Renaissance in the 14th century resulted in a small number of little known "crusades" to drive the Muslims out of Alodia and Nobatia, particularly after the fall of Abyssinia to Islamic control. A local Nubian lord, Zakharias, seized control of the Ark of the Covenant on a raid into al-Habesha, and brought it back to his new capital of Christopolis. Ten Zakharias'es later they're still going strong, thanks to the massive religio-political authority this lends.

There is significant tension with the Coptic Church due to some...extra biblical claims of prophetic authority on behalf of the Emperor, but overall things have gone well thanks to the occasional importation of Ferengi mercenaries from Ægypt and their heavy cannons and armor. A diverse polyglot population of Egyptians, Nubians, Arabs, and Ethiopian Christian refugees mixes at the great Nilotic city of Christopolis, its cathedral attracting pilgrims from as far as Europe to see the Ark.

The Caliphate of Habesha - The ancient land of Abyssinia has been an object of desire for Muslims since the Prophet took exile in Axum one thousand years ago. However, the Zagwe dynasty was firmly ensconced in its mountain fortresses. In the wake of the failed jihads to retake Egypt in the late 1100's, the Red Sea was awash in warriors, and the rising power of Aden (itself fairly lenient religiously) financed a Yemeni invasion in order to eliminate their Ethiopian enemies.

Ethiopia was conquered by these adventuring armies, though it would take 200 years to fully pacify the highlands against Christian and Jewish rebels while dealing with Coptic counter-crusades. Ultimately, a native dynasty of Habeshan extraction rose around 1500, casting out the Arab sultans and declaring a new Caliphate. The long-oppressed Christian and Jewish minorities were granted toleration, which has eased the situation somewhat. But the Caliph must always watch against the hated archenemy in Nubia.

The Emirate of Afura - Deep in the fertile highlands of the Marra Mountains, surrounded by desert, the descendants of Arabized Nubians from the lost land of al-Sudan intermarried with the locals. They serve as a transfer point on the great slave caravans from Kanem to Habesha, Egypt, and the Levant. They dislike their neighbors a lot, but trade with them anyhow.

Great Kanembu - The ancient idea of Kanem has been difficult to destroy; this crossroads empire does what it has always done, which is trade slaves and salt across the Sahara. It is deep rivals with the Hausa city-states and the Tuareg federations to their north, with raids and counter-raids often crossing the desert between the great lake and the Air Mountains.

Hausa - The many city-states of Hausaland are currently doing a very sad thing in raiding each other (and being raided) and selling the inhabitants of rival tribes off to their neighbors. Basically the African Thunderdome right now.

Nri - The ancient sacral kingship of the Ibo people exists at the head of a federation of sub-priest-kings. This theocratic polity is interested in the enforcement of the ancient ritual obligations, though in recent times, slave raids from neighbors eager to cater to the rapidly expanding overseas market have destabilized the normal rhythm of life.

Ilé-Ifẹ̀ - The central site of the equally ancient Yoruba confederacy. The Yoruba do things slightly different from the Igbo; rather than priestly authority, the king is chosen through an elective process that selects the best possible heir from many possible noble lineages. The great senatorial assembly meets in Ilé-Ifẹ̀, but each of the individual Yoruba cities have their own assemblies and elected kings. They are currently being utterly terrorized by Akan slave raiders, and are desperately struggling to keep their confederacy from collapsing.

Futa Suram - The ancient walled city of Surame is a successor state created by Fulan migrants who scattered every which way after the collapse of the Assarai Empire. Its people are highly pious Muslims, and eagerly take slaves from their pagan neighbors.

Akan - Organized, fierce, warlike matriarchal tribes. Frequently subcontracted by Andalusian, Ikhwani, and Norman seafarers to claim slaves from the surrounding areas. In the process of state-formation, but things are still shaking out.

Dyula Federation - A trading alliance of Mandé states of various governance styles and ethnicities. The Dyula is an empowered mercantile official given the right to negotiate trade with neighboring states. The various states have no common policy but often band together to oppose Fula and Tuareg raiders. The Dyulas are in contact with Europeans and happily trade with them.

Manga Fula - A kingdom of nomadic pastoralist tribes ruled by Fula warrior-kings. One of the many shards of the Assarai Empire. They war with Mauritanian tribes to their north and frequently attack their neighbors.

Jolof - A small, recently formed tribal federation, most likely organized due to the recent arrival of firearms.

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Oh hey guys. I'll probably fiddle with East/South Africa a tiny bit more; and I'm going to make some Southeast Asia changes. But we're finally almost done with the map!

In the next two weeks I'll be making stats and writing the broad TL outline. Not all of your history questions will be answered in the TL outline; and given that they most likely won't be, I'd be happy to have you fill in the small details of your history and local government on your own. In fact, I wouldn't just be happy, it's strongly recommended that you do so. As always, I'm happy to work with you to help fill in your backgrounds more, when I'm not busy with the other aspects of the NES.

I think I'm probably going to cut out the History section from the stats, because it takes me a long time to write those and I don't think people read them more than once. But I might reconsider if I end up having extra time. Or I might keep history and nation descriptions in a separate place. I'm still considering my options there.

aww Africa has stuff going on for once :3

Indeed. Munster's trading colony is located in the OTL Freetown harbor, which is one of those inevitable city locations you guys were talking in #nes about.

There are a few reeeeeally interesting spots in Africa.

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95% of the nations are now on the map, and barring some small changes (like in SEA) we're looking at close to a final draft. So, if you want to trade nations (with my approval) or switch to an open polity, now is your chance.

In the next two weeks I'll be making stats and writing the broad TL outline. Not all of your history questions will be answered in the TL outline; and given that they most likely won't be, I'd be happy to have you fill in the small details of your history and local government on your own. In fact, I wouldn't just be happy, it's strongly recommended that you do so. As always, I'm happy to work with you to help fill in your backgrounds more, when I'm not busy with the other aspects of the NES.

If you're curious about how to spend these next two weeks, spend them writing. Write, and write well, and work hard, and enjoy immersing yourself into your fictional cultures.

Oh and good storywriters will be rewarded by random (or story-related) events that increase their Prestige while not affecting their stats much at all. It's my way of providing a "bonus" that doesn't affect game balance. So in fact, writing excellent, beautiful stories that richly detail your nation is a wonderful way to "win" the game without being an aggressive warmonger just to boost your score.

Thlayli can we get an updated player list?

Sure. Abaddon is in as Aden, though I'm not sure (?) if he's allowed to post on CFC, so people talking to Aden might need to communicate via the Frontier.

Then we have mrrandomplayer as the Pueblos. CivG hasn't gotten back to me yet.

Thlayli has been banned. If you need to contact him, do so through #nes or the Frontier.

Hooray, I'm back. I will post some stuff this evening; I'll try to bang out as much of Europe's stats as I can tonight.

Whoops, I only posted on the Frontier. Well, this weekend I'll try and post all of Europe's stats. Running a bit behind schedule but that's to be expected.

In lieu of any actual progress, I will reveal the aptly-named thread title.

TNESIV: The Widening Gyre.

Coming soon to a forum near you.

Thlayli said:

Alright. Let's talk about stats baby, let's talk about you and me. This is my first draft for how stats will work.

Nation Name - Player Name
Government: A short description of your government! Tells you how the nation works.
Initiative: One word which describes your nation's ability to take on new commitments, followed by a short summary of projects, alliances, wars, and entanglements.
Society: Stuff like language, religion, popular opinion, and other important stuff goes here.
Factions [Strength/Confidence]: This is pretty self-explanatory. Everyone's nation has groups with different goals. Managing them successfully ensures domestic harmony. Abusing or ignoring a powerful faction can sometimes result in rebellion.
Faction Descriptions: Descriptions of what each faction wants.
Economy: One word which describes the state of your economy, followed by a brief summary of your economic activities.
Taxation: One word which describes your current level of taxation, followed by a summary of where taxes come from. (Higher taxation raises your initiative and lowers confidence.)
Armies/Navies [Size/Morale/Supply]: You're considered to have a low level of defensive militia and garrisons throughout your nation. But you can only accomplish serious things where you have armies. Specific numbers of troops are not bought and sold by you, rather you increase, decrease, or maintain the size of your military and number of armies, and I adjust the results.
Military Description: What kind of troops you have.
Prestige: When you do things right, you get this. It's roughly equivalent to a 'score,' and I will ultimately use it to select the Winner of the NES. Though in the end, the true victory is just having fun.
History: The historical narrative.

---

Kingdom of Aquitaine - Owen Glyndwr
Government: Decentralized aristocratic parliamentary monarchy. The Marquizes of the hinterland monopolize power in the Ezstat-Conseles, leaving the monarch a beloved but symbolically powerless figure.
Initiative: Unhindered. [Marriage alliances with Ambrosian and Vascon magnates.]
Society: A mostly Occitan-speaking population with small minorities speaking Normand and Italian. Strongly anti-Norman and anti-Arab, culturally Mediterranean in architecture and appearance. Metropolitan Catholic with a tiny Jewish minority. Largely rural populace.
Factions [Strength/Confidence]: Marquizates of the Massifs [3/2], Marquizates of the Paisbaix [4/4], Royal Court [2/5], Chartered Cities [3/2], Paizans [1/2]
Faction Descriptions:

Spoiler :

Marquizates of the Massifs: Resent Paisbaix influence over royal court. Favor war with Normandy to reclaim lost lands. Favor an Imperial alliance and are sympathetic to the Pope.
Marquizates of the Paisbaix: Dominant faction. Favor maintaining position and control over king. Favor closer alliances with Northern Italy and detente with Normandie. Favor gaining control of Mediterranean trade. Conservative.
Royal Court: Favor increasing royal privileges at the expense of the Ezstat-Conseles. Currently aligned with Paisbaix positions.
Chartered Cities: Favor limiting influence of Genoa and Andalusia over the markets. Favor continued autonomy for their rule. Support limiting the unchecked power of the Marquizates.
Paisans: Want rights and an end to serfdom. Oppose aggressive wars in which they are cannon fodder.

Economy: Stagnant. Late medieval feudal agricultural economy with urban specialist manufactures and basic trade barriers set up by nobles. Reliant on outside imports of manufactured and luxury goods.
Taxation: Low. Taxes on the royal domaine are sufficient to maintain the royal household and fleet, the magnates tolerate little else and most power players have tax exemptions.
Armies/Navies [Size/Morale/Supply]: Exèrcit Reale [9,000/Confident/Replenished] Exèrcit Mazif [3,000/Confident/Replenished] / Flote Reale [15/Confident/Replenished]
Military Description: A skilled and mobile cavalry contingent composed of the sons of the elite. Infantry is the traditional pike square levied from the townships supplemented by Italian mercenary artillerists. Ships are war galleys with cannons.
Prestige: 0
History:

Click to expand...

Should we start posting this now? Or wait for thread..?

Don't worry about that, Tolni. I'm going to make all of the stats for every country.