This phase of the NES is complete, the link for the Boring Time Thread is here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=11350818#post11350818
Welcome to the Capto Iugulum! This title not only reflects a portion of the story and background, but also the manner in which it is set up. I've dusted off and updated several old ideas used in my NESes for the sake of this one. I hope that they aged well and serve all of you players well here. On top of those, I've added a few new elements which have not been seen in any of my past NESes. I've used what I've garnered works from A Brave New World and my Fallout inspired NES to create the best possible ruleset here. This is hopefully in balance with a realistic depiction of the era reflected here, as was my goal particularly with the economic and manpower setup.
A note on alternative history and actual history in relation to this NES. I've been inspired by the direction taken by Paradox Interactive with their recent games. Rather than have fixed events in this history (i.e. a Great Depression, world wars) I'm going to let this world shape itself. Therefore the social trends, events, and economic failures/booms are going to be influenced SOLELY by player action or inaction combined with a healthy smattering of random events. As I learned with Fallout, I'm going to take a very hands off approach to the events of each nation, with exception of the starting stats to kick the NES off. With The World turned Upside Down, A Brave New World and subsequent NES failures I was too caught up in how things should go that I wound up sabotaging the way things were actually going. There's no room here for wars based solely on historical irony. The world created here will be as you choose to shape it, not I.
Lastly, the world we start with is based off of interesting possibilities, not definite realities. The existence of some of these nations or their rulers are clearly improbable at best. I don't care too much about how we got here, only where we are going. If you wish to fill in the blanks left in the history, I welcome you to do so. I encourage any and all story writing for the sake of the NES. I only ask you keep away from story ideas that are TOO fantastic. In the meantime, I will not be dragged into any debate about starting historical plausibility in regards to the map or stats. This is how it is, and what I find more important is what it could be.
Update List
Update 0: 1, 2, 3
Update 1: 1, 2, 3
Update 2: 1, 2, 3
Update 3: 1, 2, 3
Update 4: 1, 2, 3
Update 5: 1, 2, 3
Update 6: 1, 2, 3
Update 7 1, 2, 3
Update 8: 1, 2
Update 9: 1, 2, 3
Update 10: 1, 2
Update 11: 1, 2, 3
Update 12: 1, 2
Update 13: 1, 2, 3
Update 14: 1, 2
Update 15: 1, 2
Update 16: 1, 2, 3
Update 17: 1, 2, 3
Update 18: 1, 2, 3
Update 19: 1, 2, 3, 4
The ancient crowns of the world exist on a tottering precipice. New ideas, thoughts, and beliefs have entered the world, shaking its foundations. Monarchy and religion, the base of old government for centuries, has begun to be openly challenged by new thinkers and philosophers. Old regimes which have withstood numerous trials are threatened from within as national identities are developed and education spreads, bringing so-called "enlightenment" to not just the upper classes, but the masses as well. The combination of ancient regimes with new ideas threatens to put not only Europe, but the whole of the world, into the furnace of a new era.
Nation Name/Player Name
Government: Ruling Party/Monarch (Ideological Affiliation)
Capital: City Name
Education: Education Level
Manpower: Bank (+Per turn)
Economic Points: Bank (+per turn)
Domestic Policies: -Total of Below
-Expense 1: -#
-Expense 2: -#
Stability: #
Army: Brigades
Army Quality: #
Army Organization Style: Type
Navy: Ships
Navy Quality: #
Colonies
Colony Name: Economic Value
-Manpower: #
-Garrison: Brigades and Ships
-Stability: Stability Rating
Projects:
-Project Name: Spent/Total Cost
Your government is the style of regime your nation has. This can range from anywhere to the most free and open democracy to a brutal authoritarian theocratic monarchy and anything in between. Various types of governments can obviously get away with different actions, and you should always keep your government in mind. Democratic governments have elections every once in a while (determined by their constitution) and can therefore be subject to changing winds more than a monarchy. The type of ideology you follow will also alter the issues of concern of your people and bring different matters of stability to the forefront of your politics. Be aware however, that should you mistreat your people and disregard the formalities of your regime, you may be faced with revolution. Unless, of course, that's what you wanted to do in the first place.
The manpower of your nation is representative (currently, may change with time) of a select part of your overall population. Namely, this is of standard age "warrior" males from your population. The people that are considered to be ideal soldier age by modern standards, namely men ages 16-50. The Manpower stat does not include anyone outside of this range. Regardless, you may consider these people linked to their unmarked families, and are the people who will create new families if left to their own devices. Manpower typically will grow at about 1% each year, until events increase this ratio. If you expend too much of your manpower in military service, your growth rate will suffer. Also, though it may be tempting for some nations, try to resist using ALL your manpower for military purposes. Doing so will not only END population growth while the situation continues, but will likely be highly unpopular with your people, unless you are engaged in a total war.
Manpower is tradable between nations as a form of migration, and it should also be noted that manpower will be used to represent natural immigration to and from various countries. For some nations, particularly former colonies, immigration may be a key part of their growth. Remember your manpower is a valuable resource and the larger it is, the quicker it'll grow. Lastly, I'd like to emphasize once again, every man in the army is one who is not procreating for the greater good of the motherland.
These economic rules have changed greatly since their initial incarnation at the start of the NES. They have been vastly simplified and now consist of Economic Points, which is the total portion of your economy which is currently useable to your goverment. Nations with a stronger economy have governments which can spend considerably more. The economy of your nation can be improved through trade agreements, technological advances, and the capture of new territories and establishment of colonies. You can use both the funds in your bank, and the incoming Economic Points in your spending orders for each turn.
It should be noted that your economy may fall on occasion from recession or, worse, national bankruptcy. If your expenses (your spending and your domestic policy costs) exceed your total bank and income, your bank will go into negative numbers and your national government will be forced to declare bankruptcy. Not only will this give numerous nations reasons to invade you or declare war, it'll throw your whole economy into chaos, making things even worse then they were before. On top of that, your stability will take a hit, threatening the development of even more chaos. Be very careful, falling into bankruptcy is a way to begin a very vicious circle which results in nothing good.
As in prior NESes of mine, you can spend portions of your economy into either policies or projects. Projects are one-time programs designed to have a set expense for completion. The speed of these solely depends on how much you're willing to commit at any one time. To establish a project, simply inform me of your methods in conducting it and the goal to which you aspire, and a cost will materialize in your stats following the update.
Policies are more in-depth long-term expenditures. These are included in your stats underneath the Economic Points section. The policies are deducted from your EP bank at the end of every turn. Policies include things which you will always have to fund, and eliminating these will frequently result in internal political turmoil. Larger (geographically) nations will always have at least some policies in place, in order to fund the bureaucracy which keeps their empires going. Keep an eye on your policy expenditures, as you may find yourself bankrupt if you don't. If you choose, you can reduce expenses however you choose, just be warned this could have ramifications upon your stability or economy. On the other hand, sometimes cutting back expenses is exactly what you need to do to increase or economy or stability. The situation can vary from nation to nation.
Stability acts much has it has in my previous NESes. Stability is measured on a scale of 0 to 12, with 0 being a nation virtually in anarchy and in collapse, and 12 being a regime with no internal problems whatsoever. There are three major factors upon your stability that exist in your stats. The first of these is your manpower relative to your army. While you may desire an immense army, the process of recruiting for it is likely to destabilize your nation. Massive demobilizations of your army are likely to do the same. The other is your economy. Changes in the organization and strength of your economy likely to to destabilize or stabilize your nation. Finally, conducting too much change all at once will definitely result in instability. Typically, raising the level of control will destabilize your nation, and lowering it will stabilize your nation. There are exceptions to every rule, but this one holds fast in all cases at the start of the NES. Non-Western nations may also have to deal with other stability drops when attempting to introduce western ideals or military tactics into their nation.
The education stat simply reflects the overall literacy and status of education in your country, but what's more important is that private companies and individuals have the wealth and resources to invent new goods and services. As most of the research in the era at hand was done by private individuals, this system is to reflect that. The education stat cannot be easily budged with time, as your nation's education is mostly rooted in old tradition. It takes decades and substantial commitment to change a nation's educational system and you should definitely keep this in mind, particularly since the system you have is likely a key part of your culture and will not change with any type of ease. The Education stat is measured on the following scale:
Oral Tradition-Clergy Only-Aristocracy Only-Wealthy Only-Localized Schooling-Public Schools
Now as it is, almost all research is out of the direct control of players. The independently researched stuff mostly includes civilian technologies and theoretical advancements. Therefore the broadest levels of research will not be under your control at any stage of the game, except for the speed at which they are achieved based on your education and portion of the economy dedicated to the private sector. Despite this, we now have the return of a limited "tech tree" to my NESes. Within this tech tree are technologies which would be within a government's interest for research during the relevant time period. Therefore this includes weapons technologies, and (eventually) nuclear and space programs. This method of research is fairly expensive and it should be noted that most of the tech tree technologies will emerge naturally even if the tech tree isn't used. The best use of the tech tree is if you want to gain a temporary edge against your nation's enemies
With that it should be stated that ALL technologies (with exception of nuclear/space programs) are gradually shared among all nations when researched. This includes the tech tree along with advancements made by the private sector. Do not take this to mean that one nation cannot be backwards when compared to another. In addition to the levels of Army Organization, which help differentiate militarily, the nation which leads the way in technology will also take great leaps forward in economic and military quality stats (depending on the invention). Meanwhile, those not in the technological lead will progress in quality stats at a much slower rate. Therefore, even though you don't have to pave the way in technologies, it certainly won't hurt if you do.
The last element of research are designs, as they were my favorite feature of ABNW 2. Specifically players will be able to design their own ships, planes, and tanks as the NES progresses. The designs are connected at the hip with Army and Navy Quality. You can only put so many points into a design, and the number of points you can use is equal to the number of points in the related quality stat. Therefore, if you want to design a new tank, and your Army Quality is 10, you can only put 10 points into the various stats of the tank design. Full details are provided below with the various designs that already exist.
As briefly mentioned above, Army Organization is an important part of this NES, particularly in terms of western vs. nonwestern cultures. Players are able to create a new Army Organization set up at ANY point in the game, though it costs a minimum of 1 EP per brigade in your army to convert from one setup to another in addition to a 50 EP flat rate to actually design a new Organization. This cost increases based on the disparity between what organization you have and what organization you are converting to. To adapt a new type of Army Organization, subtract your current EP cost per unit from your hoped EP per unit (0s should be rounded up to 1) plus an additional base upgrade cost of 1 EP. Multiply the new number by the amount of brigades you have in your army. That'll be the cost of adapting the new Army Organization for your nation. When you begin the process, I will provide the cost as a project in your stats to save you the calculation effort. Upon completion you will go to the new style. As a note, you DO need the creators' approval before adopting another nation's design for organization. Of course, generic designs are exempt from that.
To create a new Organization type you simply must pay the above upgrade fee in addition to a 50 EP payment for the new type. You may determine your own levels of each stat in the following manner: simply distribute your total Army Quality into the four stats of organization, and that will be your new type of organization following the upgrade.
Non-western nations typically have worse Army Organization to start than western nations. This is to reflect the modernization which must take place if they are to compete on the world stage. Beyond that there are no other rules for what EU3 calls "westernization" of other nations (though there may be stability issues in the process of upgrading).
It might seem that the effort may be too expensive, and you may be right. A very large army has a very difficult time in converting to a more modern design for their forces. This however is completely realistic and some may find it easier to simply have a smaller, but modern, standing army. Unlike in previous NESes however, Army Organization is WAY more important than Army Quality when it comes to deciding battles. Therefore, while you may be able to let your upgrading slide for a time, you certainly cannot forever. Ideally, a army will attempt to modernize its organization and doctrines once every ten to twenty years. As stated in the economic section above however, the economies of all nations will be inflated compared to past NESes, so this is not as daunting as it might sound.
The most important thing for all of you aggressive NESers, is that no matter how flimsy it may be, you need to have a reason for your wars. Your people will fight and die for you, but they'd like to know why. If it's a good reason, they'll fight all the harder. This may include to liberate an oppressed people, claim more land for exploitation, or to unify a national group. If it is a bad reason, they may rebel. Bad reasons may include totalitarian conquest of other nations, or no reason at all. Remember, if you want to fight a war, give the world a reason why.
When it comes to fighting yours wars there are some things to keep in mind about the current environment. As the NES changes so will this paragraph with updated information. First of all, beware of sending large armies to tropical environments. The terrain is quite likely to lead to the deaths of the majority of your army to disease. I have no problem reducing your 50 brigade army to nothing in a single turn. In fact, I'll likely enjoy it. Sometimes, smaller is better. Next, remember when planning your wars, that wars in this timeframe are conducted as a series of campaigns, which consist of series of battles. These will not be wars of a cohesive and ever changing front line, but rather of armies and mobility.
The Units currently available for land warfare are:
Infantry Brigades
Cavalry Brigades
Artillery Brigades
Colonization and Imperialism was an essential part of politics in the 1800s. Despite this, MOST nations weren't fully invested in these until the latter part of the century. Primarily this is because the uncolonized regions of the world were not always the most suited for the European lifestyle. To this end, ask me if you country is ready for colonization, if it isn't, you will experience significant difficulty in your efforts.
All colonies are in your stats, and each have an economic value which provides to the overall prosperity of your nation. Beyond that, each colony has three stats; Manpower, Garrison, and Stability. The manpower stat is how much of the colony is willing/able to fight under your banner. Remember though, that they are more likely to be loyal to the colony rather than to the empire as a whole. They are unlikely to be enthusiastic about fighting overseas, though they'll fight well on the defensive at home. The Garrison is the amount of troops, both colonial and homegrown that are positioned in the particular colony. The Stability stat functions like your national stability stat. Most importantly, with the exception of the economic value of your colony, NONE of the stats figure into the overall total of your nation.
One final note on colonization. The NES begins in 1830. In 1880, a conference will be required and the game temporarily stopped (unless a major world war is ongoing). At this point, players with colonial interests will divide the remaining empty space in the world among themselves. The NES will then jump to 1900 for the next phase, and all nations will gain the territory they claim in the conference for themselves. The date of the conference may vary based on the events taking place at that time. Remember, this will mean not to expect to fill all "white space" on the map, especially areas with bad terrain for settlement. Any colonial expansions will be small and difficult for the majority of this NES, with a few rare exceptions.
An Order deadline will be at the top of this post every week, and we'll be attempting to manage an update a week to start us off. Update 1 may take two weeks to allow everyone to adjust and work out how the rules work and the best way to send orders. Each update will be a year of game time, so plan your wars and policies accordingly. The only requisite I have for the format of your orders is that you provide the name of your nation in the title of your private message. Other than that, feel free to format your orders in the way that best suits you.
World Map
Introduction
Welcome to the Capto Iugulum! This title not only reflects a portion of the story and background, but also the manner in which it is set up. I've dusted off and updated several old ideas used in my NESes for the sake of this one. I hope that they aged well and serve all of you players well here. On top of those, I've added a few new elements which have not been seen in any of my past NESes. I've used what I've garnered works from A Brave New World and my Fallout inspired NES to create the best possible ruleset here. This is hopefully in balance with a realistic depiction of the era reflected here, as was my goal particularly with the economic and manpower setup.
A note on alternative history and actual history in relation to this NES. I've been inspired by the direction taken by Paradox Interactive with their recent games. Rather than have fixed events in this history (i.e. a Great Depression, world wars) I'm going to let this world shape itself. Therefore the social trends, events, and economic failures/booms are going to be influenced SOLELY by player action or inaction combined with a healthy smattering of random events. As I learned with Fallout, I'm going to take a very hands off approach to the events of each nation, with exception of the starting stats to kick the NES off. With The World turned Upside Down, A Brave New World and subsequent NES failures I was too caught up in how things should go that I wound up sabotaging the way things were actually going. There's no room here for wars based solely on historical irony. The world created here will be as you choose to shape it, not I.
Lastly, the world we start with is based off of interesting possibilities, not definite realities. The existence of some of these nations or their rulers are clearly improbable at best. I don't care too much about how we got here, only where we are going. If you wish to fill in the blanks left in the history, I welcome you to do so. I encourage any and all story writing for the sake of the NES. I only ask you keep away from story ideas that are TOO fantastic. In the meantime, I will not be dragged into any debate about starting historical plausibility in regards to the map or stats. This is how it is, and what I find more important is what it could be.
Update List
Update 0: 1, 2, 3
Update 1: 1, 2, 3
Update 2: 1, 2, 3
Update 3: 1, 2, 3
Update 4: 1, 2, 3
Update 5: 1, 2, 3
Update 6: 1, 2, 3
Update 7 1, 2, 3
Update 8: 1, 2
Update 9: 1, 2, 3
Update 10: 1, 2
Update 11: 1, 2, 3
Update 12: 1, 2
Update 13: 1, 2, 3
Update 14: 1, 2
Update 15: 1, 2
Update 16: 1, 2, 3
Update 17: 1, 2, 3
Update 18: 1, 2, 3
Update 19: 1, 2, 3, 4
Where We Are, The Old and the New
The ancient crowns of the world exist on a tottering precipice. New ideas, thoughts, and beliefs have entered the world, shaking its foundations. Monarchy and religion, the base of old government for centuries, has begun to be openly challenged by new thinkers and philosophers. Old regimes which have withstood numerous trials are threatened from within as national identities are developed and education spreads, bringing so-called "enlightenment" to not just the upper classes, but the masses as well. The combination of ancient regimes with new ideas threatens to put not only Europe, but the whole of the world, into the furnace of a new era.
A Sample Nation
Nation Name/Player Name
Government: Ruling Party/Monarch (Ideological Affiliation)
Capital: City Name
Education: Education Level
Manpower: Bank (+Per turn)
Economic Points: Bank (+per turn)
Domestic Policies: -Total of Below
-Expense 1: -#
-Expense 2: -#
Stability: #
Army: Brigades
Army Quality: #
Army Organization Style: Type
Navy: Ships
Navy Quality: #
Colonies
Spoiler :
Colony Name: Economic Value
-Manpower: #
-Garrison: Brigades and Ships
-Stability: Stability Rating
Projects:
-Project Name: Spent/Total Cost
Governments
Your government is the style of regime your nation has. This can range from anywhere to the most free and open democracy to a brutal authoritarian theocratic monarchy and anything in between. Various types of governments can obviously get away with different actions, and you should always keep your government in mind. Democratic governments have elections every once in a while (determined by their constitution) and can therefore be subject to changing winds more than a monarchy. The type of ideology you follow will also alter the issues of concern of your people and bring different matters of stability to the forefront of your politics. Be aware however, that should you mistreat your people and disregard the formalities of your regime, you may be faced with revolution. Unless, of course, that's what you wanted to do in the first place.
Manpower and your Population
The manpower of your nation is representative (currently, may change with time) of a select part of your overall population. Namely, this is of standard age "warrior" males from your population. The people that are considered to be ideal soldier age by modern standards, namely men ages 16-50. The Manpower stat does not include anyone outside of this range. Regardless, you may consider these people linked to their unmarked families, and are the people who will create new families if left to their own devices. Manpower typically will grow at about 1% each year, until events increase this ratio. If you expend too much of your manpower in military service, your growth rate will suffer. Also, though it may be tempting for some nations, try to resist using ALL your manpower for military purposes. Doing so will not only END population growth while the situation continues, but will likely be highly unpopular with your people, unless you are engaged in a total war.
Manpower is tradable between nations as a form of migration, and it should also be noted that manpower will be used to represent natural immigration to and from various countries. For some nations, particularly former colonies, immigration may be a key part of their growth. Remember your manpower is a valuable resource and the larger it is, the quicker it'll grow. Lastly, I'd like to emphasize once again, every man in the army is one who is not procreating for the greater good of the motherland.
The Wealth of Nations: Your Economy
These economic rules have changed greatly since their initial incarnation at the start of the NES. They have been vastly simplified and now consist of Economic Points, which is the total portion of your economy which is currently useable to your goverment. Nations with a stronger economy have governments which can spend considerably more. The economy of your nation can be improved through trade agreements, technological advances, and the capture of new territories and establishment of colonies. You can use both the funds in your bank, and the incoming Economic Points in your spending orders for each turn.
It should be noted that your economy may fall on occasion from recession or, worse, national bankruptcy. If your expenses (your spending and your domestic policy costs) exceed your total bank and income, your bank will go into negative numbers and your national government will be forced to declare bankruptcy. Not only will this give numerous nations reasons to invade you or declare war, it'll throw your whole economy into chaos, making things even worse then they were before. On top of that, your stability will take a hit, threatening the development of even more chaos. Be very careful, falling into bankruptcy is a way to begin a very vicious circle which results in nothing good.
Policies and Projects
As in prior NESes of mine, you can spend portions of your economy into either policies or projects. Projects are one-time programs designed to have a set expense for completion. The speed of these solely depends on how much you're willing to commit at any one time. To establish a project, simply inform me of your methods in conducting it and the goal to which you aspire, and a cost will materialize in your stats following the update.
Policies are more in-depth long-term expenditures. These are included in your stats underneath the Economic Points section. The policies are deducted from your EP bank at the end of every turn. Policies include things which you will always have to fund, and eliminating these will frequently result in internal political turmoil. Larger (geographically) nations will always have at least some policies in place, in order to fund the bureaucracy which keeps their empires going. Keep an eye on your policy expenditures, as you may find yourself bankrupt if you don't. If you choose, you can reduce expenses however you choose, just be warned this could have ramifications upon your stability or economy. On the other hand, sometimes cutting back expenses is exactly what you need to do to increase or economy or stability. The situation can vary from nation to nation.
Stability
Stability acts much has it has in my previous NESes. Stability is measured on a scale of 0 to 12, with 0 being a nation virtually in anarchy and in collapse, and 12 being a regime with no internal problems whatsoever. There are three major factors upon your stability that exist in your stats. The first of these is your manpower relative to your army. While you may desire an immense army, the process of recruiting for it is likely to destabilize your nation. Massive demobilizations of your army are likely to do the same. The other is your economy. Changes in the organization and strength of your economy likely to to destabilize or stabilize your nation. Finally, conducting too much change all at once will definitely result in instability. Typically, raising the level of control will destabilize your nation, and lowering it will stabilize your nation. There are exceptions to every rule, but this one holds fast in all cases at the start of the NES. Non-Western nations may also have to deal with other stability drops when attempting to introduce western ideals or military tactics into their nation.
Education, Technology, and Unit Designs
The education stat simply reflects the overall literacy and status of education in your country, but what's more important is that private companies and individuals have the wealth and resources to invent new goods and services. As most of the research in the era at hand was done by private individuals, this system is to reflect that. The education stat cannot be easily budged with time, as your nation's education is mostly rooted in old tradition. It takes decades and substantial commitment to change a nation's educational system and you should definitely keep this in mind, particularly since the system you have is likely a key part of your culture and will not change with any type of ease. The Education stat is measured on the following scale:
Oral Tradition-Clergy Only-Aristocracy Only-Wealthy Only-Localized Schooling-Public Schools
Now as it is, almost all research is out of the direct control of players. The independently researched stuff mostly includes civilian technologies and theoretical advancements. Therefore the broadest levels of research will not be under your control at any stage of the game, except for the speed at which they are achieved based on your education and portion of the economy dedicated to the private sector. Despite this, we now have the return of a limited "tech tree" to my NESes. Within this tech tree are technologies which would be within a government's interest for research during the relevant time period. Therefore this includes weapons technologies, and (eventually) nuclear and space programs. This method of research is fairly expensive and it should be noted that most of the tech tree technologies will emerge naturally even if the tech tree isn't used. The best use of the tech tree is if you want to gain a temporary edge against your nation's enemies
With that it should be stated that ALL technologies (with exception of nuclear/space programs) are gradually shared among all nations when researched. This includes the tech tree along with advancements made by the private sector. Do not take this to mean that one nation cannot be backwards when compared to another. In addition to the levels of Army Organization, which help differentiate militarily, the nation which leads the way in technology will also take great leaps forward in economic and military quality stats (depending on the invention). Meanwhile, those not in the technological lead will progress in quality stats at a much slower rate. Therefore, even though you don't have to pave the way in technologies, it certainly won't hurt if you do.
The last element of research are designs, as they were my favorite feature of ABNW 2. Specifically players will be able to design their own ships, planes, and tanks as the NES progresses. The designs are connected at the hip with Army and Navy Quality. You can only put so many points into a design, and the number of points you can use is equal to the number of points in the related quality stat. Therefore, if you want to design a new tank, and your Army Quality is 10, you can only put 10 points into the various stats of the tank design. Full details are provided below with the various designs that already exist.
Army Organizations and Unit Designs
As briefly mentioned above, Army Organization is an important part of this NES, particularly in terms of western vs. nonwestern cultures. Players are able to create a new Army Organization set up at ANY point in the game, though it costs a minimum of 1 EP per brigade in your army to convert from one setup to another in addition to a 50 EP flat rate to actually design a new Organization. This cost increases based on the disparity between what organization you have and what organization you are converting to. To adapt a new type of Army Organization, subtract your current EP cost per unit from your hoped EP per unit (0s should be rounded up to 1) plus an additional base upgrade cost of 1 EP. Multiply the new number by the amount of brigades you have in your army. That'll be the cost of adapting the new Army Organization for your nation. When you begin the process, I will provide the cost as a project in your stats to save you the calculation effort. Upon completion you will go to the new style. As a note, you DO need the creators' approval before adopting another nation's design for organization. Of course, generic designs are exempt from that.
To create a new Organization type you simply must pay the above upgrade fee in addition to a 50 EP payment for the new type. You may determine your own levels of each stat in the following manner: simply distribute your total Army Quality into the four stats of organization, and that will be your new type of organization following the upgrade.
Non-western nations typically have worse Army Organization to start than western nations. This is to reflect the modernization which must take place if they are to compete on the world stage. Beyond that there are no other rules for what EU3 calls "westernization" of other nations (though there may be stability issues in the process of upgrading).
It might seem that the effort may be too expensive, and you may be right. A very large army has a very difficult time in converting to a more modern design for their forces. This however is completely realistic and some may find it easier to simply have a smaller, but modern, standing army. Unlike in previous NESes however, Army Organization is WAY more important than Army Quality when it comes to deciding battles. Therefore, while you may be able to let your upgrading slide for a time, you certainly cannot forever. Ideally, a army will attempt to modernize its organization and doctrines once every ten to twenty years. As stated in the economic section above however, the economies of all nations will be inflated compared to past NESes, so this is not as daunting as it might sound.
Wars and Warfare
The most important thing for all of you aggressive NESers, is that no matter how flimsy it may be, you need to have a reason for your wars. Your people will fight and die for you, but they'd like to know why. If it's a good reason, they'll fight all the harder. This may include to liberate an oppressed people, claim more land for exploitation, or to unify a national group. If it is a bad reason, they may rebel. Bad reasons may include totalitarian conquest of other nations, or no reason at all. Remember, if you want to fight a war, give the world a reason why.
When it comes to fighting yours wars there are some things to keep in mind about the current environment. As the NES changes so will this paragraph with updated information. First of all, beware of sending large armies to tropical environments. The terrain is quite likely to lead to the deaths of the majority of your army to disease. I have no problem reducing your 50 brigade army to nothing in a single turn. In fact, I'll likely enjoy it. Sometimes, smaller is better. Next, remember when planning your wars, that wars in this timeframe are conducted as a series of campaigns, which consist of series of battles. These will not be wars of a cohesive and ever changing front line, but rather of armies and mobility.
The Units currently available for land warfare are:
Infantry Brigades
Cavalry Brigades
Artillery Brigades
Colonies and Exploiting New Lands
Colonization and Imperialism was an essential part of politics in the 1800s. Despite this, MOST nations weren't fully invested in these until the latter part of the century. Primarily this is because the uncolonized regions of the world were not always the most suited for the European lifestyle. To this end, ask me if you country is ready for colonization, if it isn't, you will experience significant difficulty in your efforts.
All colonies are in your stats, and each have an economic value which provides to the overall prosperity of your nation. Beyond that, each colony has three stats; Manpower, Garrison, and Stability. The manpower stat is how much of the colony is willing/able to fight under your banner. Remember though, that they are more likely to be loyal to the colony rather than to the empire as a whole. They are unlikely to be enthusiastic about fighting overseas, though they'll fight well on the defensive at home. The Garrison is the amount of troops, both colonial and homegrown that are positioned in the particular colony. The Stability stat functions like your national stability stat. Most importantly, with the exception of the economic value of your colony, NONE of the stats figure into the overall total of your nation.
One final note on colonization. The NES begins in 1830. In 1880, a conference will be required and the game temporarily stopped (unless a major world war is ongoing). At this point, players with colonial interests will divide the remaining empty space in the world among themselves. The NES will then jump to 1900 for the next phase, and all nations will gain the territory they claim in the conference for themselves. The date of the conference may vary based on the events taking place at that time. Remember, this will mean not to expect to fill all "white space" on the map, especially areas with bad terrain for settlement. Any colonial expansions will be small and difficult for the majority of this NES, with a few rare exceptions.
Orders and Updates
An Order deadline will be at the top of this post every week, and we'll be attempting to manage an update a week to start us off. Update 1 may take two weeks to allow everyone to adjust and work out how the rules work and the best way to send orders. Each update will be a year of game time, so plan your wars and policies accordingly. The only requisite I have for the format of your orders is that you provide the name of your nation in the title of your private message. Other than that, feel free to format your orders in the way that best suits you.
World Map