Ffh Nes Ii

FFH NES2

Concept and Introduction:
(please note that this section is horribly out of date but I kept it because I wanted to be able to look back on how this NES started)

Welcome to the second FFH NES. The first was (and is still) moderated by TheJopa and can be found here. Like this NES, the pace will be rather slow to allow for more diplomacy and more intricate empire building. Most experienced NESers may not like that… but that’s fine.

Each player will play a faction from the Fall From Heaven mod for Civilization Four. As such, each player is expected to know somewhat about this setting. The faction a player plays can be modified from the commonly accepted lore according to the their whims provided that the basic lore stays the same (for an excellent example of this, consider what Ekolite has written about the Calabim). The idea is that each player is roleplaying a leader (or collection thereof) who is leading their civilization to greatness after the retreat of the ice after the age of ice.

I will be accepting seven players, with preference being given to those individuals who are playing (or have previously played) in Jopa’s FFH NES. If this NES is unable to attract seven players, then I will play civilizations as an NPC leader until such time as a new player decides to join and take over that nation. No new nations will join midway through the game. (EDIT: i have since decided to take on more than the originally intended 7 players.)

The map will be divided into provinces and each province will represent a geographic area which the player can develop using cities, outposts, forts and other constructs.

The countryside will be composed of farms, mines, and villages and cities will contain any number of buildings and improvements.

As civilizations advance they will develop new technologies which will allow them to build new buildings, access new civics, improve their lands further and recruit new units.

Economies will be either open (think free market) or closed (think Tokogawa in regular CIV) with open economies making more money from trade, but, on the flip side, being easier to infiltrate and spy on. Closed economies will make less from trade but be harder to infiltrate.

A civilization’s government will be determined purely by the player and will have no affect on their statistics.

Civics will affect the way in which your civilization develops and will correspond to the type of labor, economic and religious organization your civilization has developed.


Units will represent divisions such as militia, swordsmen, cavalry, and even mages and priests (similar to FFH)

Looking Back:
(written May 1st 2009)

When I think that this NES started in December and that its already May, it amazes me. I’ve probably poured at least a hundred full hours into writing updates, discussing rules, discussing diplomacy, and designing the NES since that time.

Considering the time constraints we are all under this, for me, has been a lot of time and effectively means that I don’t play CIV (FFH or otherwise) anymore.

Having said that, I don’t regret the significant investment this game has become and I am very proud of the game we (all the players and I) have created. FFH NES II is a living breathing creature. Its constantly near the top of the NES forum threads list which means its very active- people are discussing diplomacy, scheming plans for world domination, and bemoaning their fate; Its absolutely wonderful. It also gets enough 'hits' to indicate that more than just the players are reading our story. I’ve had several lurkers write me and tell me they like the game as well which is great for the ego and also provides me with an alternative audience to write for (instead of writing for the players- I try to write for the players and the lurkers).

So why is FFH NES II so interesting for me (and evidently others)? Obviously we all like building up nations and tearing down our opponents- it’s the same reason we got involved in CIV in the first place. But we also like the diplomacy, the sense of shared accomplishment, of a certain lingering distrust between nations. So much of what is happening in the game is happening in secret PMs, e-mails, even IMs and its all scheming, planning, plotting… for me this is one of the big reasons why this nes is so much fun. The diplomatic aspect is alive and well and laced with a healthy dose of paranoia.

The other reason I really like this NES is because of the creativity the players bring to the game. Certain ideas are just brilliant. I read the orders as they arrive and I am constantly amazed at the imagination and creative solutions that some players utilize to accomplish their aims and to solve their problems. Not all of that translates well into the game (occasionally the creative solutions are for contingenciess that never occur and thus never see the light of day) but for me, this is the single greatest and most enjoyable aspect.

So, after having ‘said’ all that and looking back over 18 weeks of playing, I want to say, “Thank you” to the players, to the lurkers and to the guests who have joined us. I’ve had a great time and I hope we all continue to do so.

Immaculate.

Memorable Quotes

kenkrajen in an e-mail after i lose it publicy said:

everybody loses their cool at some point. [snip] this game is so good its kinda like virtual crack

Click to expand...

History:

This is an inventory of the history of this NES.


Pre-History (to year zero): A world of possibility

UPDATE ONE: Years 1-50: The Wild Lands

UPDATE TWO: Years 51-100: First Blood

UPDATE THREE: Years 101-150: War, Dust, and Gods

UPDATE FOUR: Years 151-200: Eviction Notice, Shipwreck, Man in a Cage

UPDATE FIVE: Years 201-225: Chasing shadows in the forest, Rumors of Cassiel’s Disappointment, Hyena-men Rejoin Society

UPDATE SIX: Years 226-250: The Flight to Luciedo, The Cult of Bhall, Goblins Return

UPDATE SEVEN: Years 251-275: Mana, Hunt for an Outlaw Priest, Return of the Slaves

UPDATE Eight: Years 276-300: Kappa Mawah Struck by Tali, Grigori Uncover Ancient Ruins of Patria, Hallowed Hunted, Orcs

UPDATE NINE Years 301-325: Assault on Grak’s Orcs, A Great Treachery, Fire in the Hallows, A Constellation Appears

UPDATE TEN Years 326-350: Black-Tower Seized, The Plague Spreads, Servants of the Brass Tower, Zombies, New Religions, the Corbus

UPDATE ELEVEN Years 351-375: Amurite Battle Imps of The Brass Tower, Unstable Nations face Domestic Crises, Shroudane Invaded, Return of the Orcs, The ‘Red Cricket’, New Shoes

UPDATE TWELVE Years 376-400: Constellation of the Obsidian Sceptre, Grey Arch, Long Knives, Sacred Scar Routed, The Forgotten, The Tomb of a God (part 2)

UPDATE THIRTEEN Years 400-415: Founding of Idril Felagund, Assault on Shroudane, Slavers Strike, Servants of the Water Lily, Seizing the Patrian Spear, Visit of an Angel, Discontent Amongst the Proud, Zombies

UPDATE FOURTEEN Years 416-430: Jarv Burns, Renth Yithi Assailed by the Hungry Dead, the Ritual of Branding (part 2)

UPDATE FIFTEEN Years 431-445: Björk, Hungry Dead Threaten Entire Continent, Labyrinth Assault Ter’Als, A New Faith in Kappa and Halluchuirp Lands, Return of the Fists of Balance

UPDATE SIXTEEN Years 446-460: Björk Decides, Shield of Valour Ascends, A Ritual Interrupted, New Alliances, The Mafia (part 2)

UPDATE SEVENTEEN Years 461-475: The Dead fall Dead, Sabel Lake Crisis, Meteor Recovered, Jar Adrana Incorporates (part 2)

UPDATE EIGHTEEN Years 476-490: Magia Generasco, Malachite Doorway Open, The Meteorite’s Secrets, Fionn Urien Founded, Renth Yithi Reclaimed, New Governments, The Cult of Flesh

UPDATE NINETEEN Years 491-505: Bannor Cast Worldspell, Dwarven Slaves Freed, Luciedo Poisoned, Patrian Ruins, Mirror of Heaven

Turns are currently 15 years long.


Current geopolitical map:

Players and Factions:
































Treaties and Alliances


The Treaty of Darkvale

The Second Treaty of Shroudane

Treaty of the Three Nations

The League Charter

Stories and Tales:

This will serve as an inventory of the longer stories and tales that a lurker interested in reading fiction may be interested in.

Player: Ekolite
The End of the Journey- an excerpt from the Juna-Belaeigna
The New Beginning (descriptions of leadership)
Birth of Sabelism
The Golden Lights of Sabel
The Book of Zarnaphea

Player: Thomas Berubeg
Pre-history of the amurites (short)
Lord Thomas contemplates handing the reins of power to his daughter
Valada Kylorinkin- slaves should know their place
The Shield of Kylorin
A Traveler’s Guide to the Amurite Nation
The Succession:
part 1
part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Poison gold
Peace
Reward!
Elegy!
Ballad of the black tower
Excerpt from "Memoires of a Former Slave"
Grak Gorson he could sing (orcs can sing?)

Player: Charles Li
Cassiel the merchant prince
Herthi: where are they?
The Herthi are Here!
Fists of Balance
Master Retui
Hatvid Grad Greets the Elephants
Hatvid Grad Decided: The Only Way
Volunteers together!

Player: Orangelex44
The Brothers Dani and Karl assume leadership
He'd Forgotten His Name
The Captain
Creation
The Three Brothers Part 1
The Three Brothers Part 2
The Three Brothers Part 3
It was the smells that got to him.
A Teaser: On the Shores
Adam Returns
a third to drink with once again
Come… home? To die? That seemed… inefficient, somehow.


Player: Master of Disaster
Luchuirp Origin Story
OverView of the Luchuirp
A Ruler's Labours

Player: HBar
Origins of Kane-no-Kappawah
The Awakening
The awakening, part 2
Mahshi's Burden
Tales from a Kappa Taproom
Selling Poetry

Player: Merciary
An argument amongst chiefs
Carrius of the Hippus Council concludes some business with the Hupoo
An excerpt from, The Horse's Mouth. A History of the Hippus
Blades of Camulos
Discord among the Chiefs

Player: TheJopa
A history of the Kuriotates
A diplomatic mision to the 'Kappa'

Player: Tyrs
A meeting with Os-Gabella
Hard Winter -the passing of knowledge and the first signs of a personality cult
A Glimpse of Sheim society
party customs
Os-Gabella Replaced?
an interesting look at the religions of the sheim (not a story actually but still a very good read)
A New Council

Player: KenKrajen
Origins of Kallo
Captain Marcellus Fallo and the Spears of Ruin
The Gospel of Madoc Ch. 8, The Black Book of Ceridwen
The Storyteller
The Ritual of Branding: The Aftermath


Player: Nutranurse
The Ambassadors to Hippus and Amurites
Three Weeks at Sea
The Birth of Something New

Player: Seon
internal troubles... within the Guild
Origins of the Abysswalkers
Something Serious and Something Commic


Player: LDiCesare
the fifth day of summer of year 401

Player: Mystery Players
The Prophet

Map:

Current geopolitical map:


Starting geopolitical map:


A look at the map with vegetation overlaid over topography.


A look at the map with vegetation hidden and provincial divisions overlaid over topography


A naval map:


In the beginning, exploration will be limited to short excursions due to the distances involved and the lack of roads, beasts of burden or watercraft. As civilizations develop, they will be able to explore and develop further from their capitals.

At the start of the game civilizations and their leaders are unaware whether the ‘earth’ is round or flat. Only by researching into the ’exploration and trade’ branch of knowledge can a civilization develop the necessary technology to cross the seas and find out for themselves.

The map is broken into 43 provinces. Only a single capital, city, march or outpost can be built by a player in any one province. The number of rural developments that may be built in a province depends on its composition. A province with lots of lush plains will be able to sustain more farming than a province composed mostly of mountains and hills. Conversely a province composed mostly of hills and mountains will be able to sustain more mining than a province made up mostly of lush plains.

The Nation:

Each civilization has a number of statistics that describe its development. These are:

• Gold: This is the total gold a nation has. This does not spoil and may be ‘banked’ from turn to turn.
  
• Stability: This value represents the loyalty of the citizens to the state and can be affected by any number of things including buildings, terrain (swamp can be bad), random events, or even foreign agents. Its value between 0 and 200. A stability value of 100 is good and fairly safe. A value of 120 is very safe. A value of 80 is pretty dangerous and should be rectified. Low stability can bring negative events including civil war.
  
• Food: This is the pooled total of generated food values from all the provinces plus any left over in the ‘national food’ pool from the previous turn. Food may be spent to increase the population of any city or march according to this formula:
  
  
  Food Required to Grow City/March= (current population of city+1)^2​
  
  Some food may be retained after use if the civilization has many granaries, warehouses, etc.
  
  
  
• Research Generated: This is the pooled total of research points that a civilization is producing. Research points are spent automatically and you don’t know exactly what they are being spent on. You generate more research points if you have more libraries and research facilities like alchemy labs. Some civics will also automatically generate research points. You may provide some broad direction to the manner in which the research is spent but the specifics are not up to you.
  
• Civics: This is simply the civics you are operating. You need a civic for labor, economy and religion. The default settings are called 'default'.
  
• Economy: An economy is either open or closed. This statistic will therefore read ‘open’ or ‘closed’. An open economy produces three gold per trade route while a closed economy produces two gold per trade route. Any player running a civilization with an open economy will have the technologies that it knows listed. Other players will also be somewhat aware of the military composition of the civilization with an open economy including the relative strength and general type of units being used (usually I will list one or two units). Closed economies are more difficult and more expensive to infiltrate than an open economy. Your economy type, like your civics, is public knowledge.
  
• Resources: This is the sum of the resources produced domestically as well as those imported through trade.
  
• Trade: This is the total number of trade routes a civilization possesses. Each trade route is associated with an exporting province and an exporting resource. You cannot export a resource to a civilization that already has access to that resource (either through domestic production or trade). Like its predecessor, FFHNES(theJopa), FFHNES2 provides gold to both the exporting and importing civilization. Each trade route provides either 2 or 3 gold depending on whether the economy is open or closed (better roads will provide more money). This statistic is public knowledge. A trade route, when it is first established is called a ‘new trade route’ and doesn’t produce any income for either the exporter or importer. New trade routes always mature to normal trade routes in one turn. This should discourage people changing their trade routes all the time.
  
• Administration: Certain buildings (town hall, courthouses) will generate ‘administration points’. A capital generates 2 points automatically. Add all these together and you get your administration value. This will provide a cost modifier for building new cities and marches. This value is helps determine the 'expansion cost modifier':
  
  
  expansion cost modifier=[(total provincial administration from each province)/(number of cities, including capital *3)]​
• Public Technologies: This is a list of technologies which the civilization knows. This may or may not be an inclusive list of total technologies known. If the player is running an open economy, all their known technologies will be public. For a closed economy, public knowledge of the technology will be determined on a case by case basis and be determined by the moderator. This statistic is public knowledge (hence what separates it from the known technologies statistic).
  
• Technologies Known: This is a list of the total technologies known. This list is not for public viewing.
  
• Public Military: Depending on how openly you use your military or the openness of your economy, your military may be public knowledge.
  
• Military: A list of your units and their locations. Military units may ‘fortify’ or ‘dig in’ at no cost but this must be included in your orders.
  
• Military Quality: Military quality is a catchall term that encompasses training, morale, leadership and weapon and armor quality. Infantry, Calvary, Reconnaissance, Missile, Mage and Priest military qualities will each be tracked separately. To increase military quality build buildings like barracks and archery ranges. Military quality starts at 1.
  

The Provinces

Each province a player controls will either be an outpost, a march a city, or a capital. Each player can only have one capital but can have unlimited cities, maches and outposts (1 per province).

Settlement Types:

• capital: This produces 5 gold and 15 research automatically and therefore serves as the early backbone to your technological development and to a lesser extent your economy. They can build any rural improvement or city improvement for which the nation has technological ‘know-how’ provided the province has the requisite production capacity and population (and in cases where resources are required, resources).
  
• cities: This produces 5 research automatically. A city can build any rural improvement or city improvement for which the nation has technological ‘know-how’ provided the province has the requisite production capacity and population (and in cases where resources are required, resources).
  
  The cost to build a new city is:
  
  new city cost= (75gold*total number of current cities, including capital)/expansion cost modifier (max value of 1)​
  
  Upgrading a march or outpost to a city reduces the cost by 50 or 25 gold respectively.
  
• march: These are small border cities built to project military might or to claim resources. A march has a maximum population of 3. It can build any rural improvement for which the nation has technological ‘know-how’ provided the province has the requisite production capacity and population (and in cases where resources are required, resources). It can only build city improvements that are classified cultural and defensive (ie- monuments, palisades, city walls, that sort of thing, not libraries, elder councils, etc)
  
  A march, when invaded, is unlikely to spontaneously form any defenders unless the nation’s stability is very high (>105).
  
  The cost to build a new march is:
  
  new march cost= (25gold*total number of current cities, including capital)/expansion cost modifier (max value of 1)​
  The minimum cost for your first march is 50 gold and 75 gold for your second and every subsequent march (so if you have only your capital and a few outposts/marches its not cheaper to build another march than it is to build an outpost).
  
  Upgrading an outpost to a march reduces the cost by 25.
  
• outpost: These are small border cities built to project military might or to claim resources. An outpost has a maximum population of 1. It can build any rural improvement for which the nation has technological ‘know-how’ provided the province has the requisite production capacity and population (and in cases where resources are required, resources). It cannot build any city improvements.
  
  An outpost, when invaded, will not spontaneously form defenders and so if you don’t want your outpost to be overrun by rival nations it is best to assign defenders.
  
  A new outpost costs 50 gold.

Only one new city, march, or outpost can be built per turn.

Each province may have one or more resources, not all of which will be immediately obvious. Players are encouraged to perform geological exploration and agricultural development.

A province has a number of statistics to describe its development. These are:

• Population: Population is dependent upon food (see national statistics). Each point of population represents the maximum number of ‘skilled workforce’ that can be spent on any single priority (agriculture, domestic commerce, trade, industry). Twice its value is equivalent to the total number of skilled workforce that may be divided amongst the provincial priorities.
  In addition, each population generates 1 gold. A march has a maximum population of 3 and an outpost has a maximum of 1 population.
  
• Workforce: These are usually two part values (x/y), where x is the number of workforce employed by the current improvements and y is the total number of workforce trained. Generally you will want to buy improvements for each skilled workforce, otherwise you are wasting your money.
  Generally, workforces reflects how the population of an outpost, city or capital is occupied. A granary doesn’t require workers so won’t require a workforce; neither does an aqueduct. A mine, farm or potter’s workshop does however require a workforce because it represents man-power.
  • Agriculture: Each ‘workforce’ of agriculture costs 5 gold per level (so level 1 costs 5 gold and level 2 costs 10 gold, etc). These workforce may be employed by improvements such as land clearances, communal farming projects, fisheries, etc (see rural developments and buildings). These improvements will allow you to grow your population and may provide some minor income.
  • Domestic Commerce: Each 'workforce’ of domestic commerce costs 10 gold per level and may be employed by improvements like villages, commercial agricultural projects like silk plantations or commercial industry like gem mines. These generally generate substantial income.
  • Trade: Each trade ‘workforce’ costs 15 gold per level and may be employed by improvements like markets and ports. In the beginning there won’t be much need for trade workforce as there is a limited number of improvements they can be employed by. Generally trade will generate substantial income, especially in open economies.
  • Industry Each ‘workforce’ of industry costs 10 gold per level. This workforce may be employed by improvements such as open pit mines, deep mines, copper, limestone, flint or iron mines, marble quarries, smithies and forges. Generally these improvements will generate ‘production capacity’.
• Income: Rural improvements and buildings generate income (which is dependent on type). In addition, each province produces one gold per population. Capitals produce an additional 5 gold per turn. The total is listed here.
  
• Generated Food: This value represents the total food production of the province. It is added to the national food pool every turn.
  
• Production Capacity: This value represents the level of complexity that a particular province can achieve in its building and military development. Building a simple land clearance farm doesn’t require any production capacity. Nor does recruiting militia. Building a library, a forge, or city walls does and building a major project especially does. Each building or unit will have a requisite production capacity associated with it. The unit or building cannot be built if that production capacity ]is not met. If the production capacity is greater than the building’s (but not the unit’s) requisite production capacity, production costs are decreased by 5% per point difference (maximum 50% off)
  
  • Without the open pit mining or masonry technology, the maximum production capacity a city or outpost can have is 2
  • Without the shaft mining technology the maxiumum production capacity a city, march or outpost can have is 4.[/i]
• Administration: A value begining at zero for cities and two for capitals (because capitals get +2 to their administration value just for being capitals). Some civics will increase this (social welfare) while others can decrease it (stewardship). Certain improvements (city hall etc. and law mana can increase it also). Corruption can negatively affect this value. Corruption is generally due to an event or low stability. An administration value less than zero (due to corruption) costs money. Each point of administration below zero costs 10 gold per turn from the province’s income.
  
  Marches and outposts do not affect administration and generally do not have an administration value.
  
• Research generated: Generally, capitals produce 15 research points per turn and cities produce 5. Marches and outposts produce nothing. Improvements like libraries may increase this.
  
• Resources: These could be natural resources such as wheat or raw dye, or could be man-made such as leather goods and glassware. Normally a mixture of agriculture, domestic commerce and occasionally industry will determine what resources are produced in the province.
  
• Trade Routes: Various improvements generate trade routes. Their totals are listed here. Each trade route must be associated with a resource. If your province doesn’t produce any resources, then it can’t really export anything can it? Each trade route will provide either 2 or 3 gold for the player and the player with whom they are trading depending on their economy (more with better roads)
  
• Provincial Farming Capacity: A rating of either low, medium-low, medium, medium-high, or high. This determines the total number of farms you may build in that province. This may be affected by extensive industrial projects which may reduce the capacity of the land to grow food. This knowledge is secret until such time as you conduct a resource survey.
  
• Provincial Fishing Capacity: A rating of either low, medium-low, medium, medium-high, or high. This determines the total number of fisheries you may build in that province. Oceanic comercial fishing vessels are not too strictly bound by this limit. This knowledge is secret until such time as you conduct a resource survey.
  
• Provincial Hunting Capacity: A rating of either low, medium-low, medium, medium-high, or high. This determines the total number of hunting improvements you may build in that province. If you develop the province extensively in other ways (numerous towns and villages) animals may leave and you may lose hunting capacity. This knowledge is secret until such time as you conduct a resource survey.
  
• Provincial Capacity for Mines and Quarries: A rating of either low, medium-low, medium, medium-high, or high. This determines the total number of mines and quarries you may build in that province. This knowledge is secret until such time as you conduct a resource survey.

Technologies:

Generally the tech tree is a mystery.
When researching new technologies, please state which category you would like to focus on:

• Food and Growth: Expect to learn how to build better farms, granaries, fisheries, etc.
• Crafts and Metals: Expect to learn how to build better mines, utilize more complex metals and arm your soldiers with better weapons and armor
• Culture and Society: Expect to learn how to build theatres and carnivals.
• Exploration and Trade: Expect to learn how to develop better roads and watercraft as well as learn about spying and other undercover activities. To trade technologies, develop this branch of research.
• Military: Expect to learn about tactics such as horseback riding in combat (cavalry), formations (phalanx, skirmishing) and new weaponry (archery, etc)
• Scholarship: Expect to learn about writing, the storing of knowledge in libraries, the development of alchemy labs, etc.
• Government and Leadership: Think town halls, courthouses and better civics.
• Mysticism: This may allow you to learn to develop priestly or wizardry magic.

Alternatively, if you have the 'linguistics' technology you can just choose one of the technologies already known (see list below) and you can research that.

Trading Technologies

Once you have access to the 'trade' technology you can engage in tech trading with anyone you have had contact with provided you are not at war with them.

You can negotiate whatever tech trading deal you want- its totally up to you.

You CANNOT trade for part techs (like 20rp towards something).

When you learn a tech from another nation, it retains its 'cultural stamp'. That cultural stamp means that anything that has to do with that technology will resemble how the people who taught you that tech make use of that knowledge. So if you learn hunting with the cultural stamp of the Ir-O-Kee, then your hunters would have trained in a fashion similar to Ir-O-Kee hunters and your hunting lodges and tanneries would be indistinguishable, in style, from Ir-O-Kee ones.

A cultural stamp is indicated by the [CIV NAME] preface to the name of the technology- ie: 'Ir-O-Kee hunting' instead of just 'hunting'.

You cannot trade a tech away if it has a foreign civ's cultural stamp associated with it.

You can 'integrate' the technology into your society (learn your own way of doing the same thing) by spending 30% of the RP that would normally be required to learn the tech from scratch (round down to nearest integer). So you could make Ir-O-Kee hunting into 'hunting' by spending 16 (55rp*.30=16.5, round down to 16) rp.

If you learn a technology through trade for which you have already invested .3 of its value in rp (by trying to learn it yourself), you automatically 'integrate it'.

Once the cultural stamp is removed you can trade it as if you had learnt it yourself (and anyone learning it from you would inherit your cultural stamp)

Technologies Uncovered

• Communal Farming (food and growth) (25 rp)
  • Communal Farm
  • Communal Wheat Farm
  • Rice, Corn, Soybean, Barley, Oats or Hops Communal Farm
  • Agrarianism Civic
• Commercial Agriculture (food and growth) (75 rp) (requires communal farming)
  • Cotton, Silkworm, Hemp or Flax Plantation[/
  • Madder, Woad, or Lichen Dye Plantation
  • Indigo Dye Plantation
  • Vinyard
  • Almond, Tobacco, Coffee, Sugar Cane, Tea, or Cocoa Plantation
  • Cinnamon, Black Pepper or Nutmeg Plantation
  • Saffron Crocus Plantation
• Animal Handling (food and growth) (55 rp) (requires communal farming or game snaring)
  • Livestock Pasture
  • Horse Pasture
  • Dairy Farm
  • Tannery
• Game Snaring (food and growth) (25 rp)
  • Trap Line
  • Beaver or Hare Traps
  • Scouts
• Hunting (food and growth) (55 rp) (requires game snaring)
  • Hunter's Lodge
  • Caribou or Deer Hunting Platform
  • Tannery
  • Hunters
• Fishing (food and growth) (25 rp)
  • Shore-Based Fishing
• Open Pit Mining (crafts and metals) (25 rp)
  • Open Pit Mine
  • Flint Mine
  • Mica Mine
• Shaft Mining (crafts and metals) (50 rp) (requires open pit mining)
  • Shaft Mine
  • Calamine Mine
  • Casserite Mine
  • Copper Mine
  • Gold Mine
  • Silver Mine
• Pottery (food and growth, crafts and metals) (30 rp)
  • Granary
  • Clay Quarry
  • Pottery’s Workshop
• Masonry (crafts and metals, military) (50 rp)
  • Small Stone Wall
  • Hard Stone Quarry
  • Ornamental Stone Quarry
  • Brick Kiln
• Oratory (culture and society, government and leadership) (25 rp)
  • Monument
  • personality cult civic
• Sport (culture and society) (25 rp)
  • researching tech grants +1 stability
  • Sport Arena
  • Combat Arena
• Small Water Craft (exploration and trade) (15 rp)
  • allows trade along inland rivers
  • Canoe Fleet
• Monoremes (exploration and trade) (50 rp) (requires small water craft)
  • allows trade along ocean shores
  • Penteconter
  • Harbour
• Markets (exploration and trade, culture and society) (50 rp)
  • Market
  • Kuriotates Bazaar
• Linguistics (exploration and trade, scholarship) (25 rp)
  • increases national research rate by 3
  • allows communication with NPC races
  • allows ‘streamline’ research
• Reconnaissance (exploration and trade, military) (25 rp)
  • reconnaissance military quality increased by 1.
  • Scouts
• Camouflage (military) (75 rp) (requires reconaissance)
  • Intelligence Bureau
  • Cryptographer's Studio (with maths)
  • Hunters
  • Camouflaged Resupply Centre(with caravans)
  • Ghosts (with mysticism) (Sidar only)
• Basic Warfare (military) (25 rp)
  • Spearmen militia
  • Flint Axemen militia
  • City Watch
  • Bannor City Watch
  • Barracks
• Battlefield Maneuverability (military) (50 rp) (requires basic warfare)
  • Light Swordsmen
  • Light Axemen
  • Light Spearmen
  • Chariot
  • Armourer: Leather
• Skirmishing Tactics (military) (50 rp) (requires basic warfare and reconaissance)
  • Slinger
  • Javelinmen
  • Practice Range
• Oral Tradition (scholarship, mysticism) (25 rp)
  • Elder Council
  • Council of the Waned
  • Tales from the Shades
• Mysticism (mysticism) (50 rp) (requires oral tradition)
  • will trigger religion based events
  • Diviner’s Lodge
• Ley Lines (mysticism) (75 rp) (requires mysticism)
  • first to research gets bonus mana (congrats Amurites)
  • provides civ-specific mana
  • reveals ley-lines
  • Mana Node
  • Trivalent Ley-Lines Mana Node
• Apprenticeship (scholarship, government and leadership) (25 rp)
  • apprenticeship civic
  • Apprenticeship program
• Writing (scholarship) (60 rp) (requires oral tradition and apprenticeship)
  • increases national research output by 3
  • Library
• Slavery (government and leadership) (25 rp)
  • slavery civic
• Ministers and Advisors (government and leadership) (50 rp)
  • Hamlet
  • Steward’s Council
  • Stewards Economic Civic
• Social Planning and Welfare (government and leadership) (75 rp) (requires ministers and advisors)
  • City Hall
  • Almshouse
  • Grigori Refugee Camp (grigori only)
  • Subsidized Schoolhouse (requires education)
  • Welfare Economic Civic
• Trade (exploration and trade) (100 rp) (requires markets and linguilism)
  • allows tech trading
• Call from the planes (mysticism) (110 rp) (requires ley lines)
  • upon learning this technology the nation learns one summoning circle 1 spell
  • the first nation to learn this technology learns three circle 1 spells instead of 1.
  • allows summoning adepts
  • Allows adept’s study
  • Allows summoning-based spell research
• Poetry (culture) (50rp) (requires oratory)
  • adds 2 stability
  • allows the poet's podium
• The Aether (mysticism) (110 rp) (requires ley-lines)
  • upon learning this technology the nation learns one sorcery circle 1 spell
  • the first nation to learn this technology learns three circle 1 spells instead of 1.
  • allows sorcery adepts
  • Allows adept’s study
  • Allows sorcery-based spell research
• Civil Service (government and leadership) (100 rp) (requires ministers and advisors)
  • Allows borough village improvement
  • Allows ‘state labour’ civic
  • Allows javelin militia (with skirmishing tactics)
  • Allows crossbow militia (with archery and machinery)
  • Allows archer militia (with archery)
  • Allows cavalry militia (with horse-back riding)
• Sail (trade and exploration) (100 rp) (requires monomeres)
  • Allows trade across small expanses of sea (including intercontinental trade as it is currently defined)
  • Allows port trade improvement
  • Allows cog
  • Allows dhow
  • Allows polyremes
• Festivals and Tourneys (culture and society) (75 rp) (requires sport)
  • Nation gains 1 stability
  • Allows carnival improvement
  • Allows jousting list improvement
  • Allows café improvement
• Caravans (trade) (100 rp) (requires markets)
  • Allows cobblestone roads
  • Allows caravanserai
  • Allows slave auction (with slavery)
  • Allows inn
  • Allows camouflaged re-supply centre (with camouflage)
  • Allows supply train unit
• Voice of the Gods (mysticism) (110 rp) (requires mysticism)
  • first to research gets 3 spells, others get 1 spell (note that because two nations got here at the same time they each get 2 spells)
  • Allows organized religion civic
  • Allows abbey
  • Allows monastery
  • Allows disciple unit
• Education (Scholarship) (85rp) (requires writing)
  • Increases national research production by 2
  • modifies apprenticeship program
  • allows schoolhouse
  • allows subsidized schoolhouse (with social planning and welfare)
  
  
• Harvest the Seas (growth) (75rp) (requires fishing, pottery)
  • allows ‘harvest the seas’ economic civic
  • allows lighthouse
  • allows sunken traps
  • allows pearl fishery
  • allows lobster traps
  • allows fishing boats

Tech Tree:

Civics

Civics will affect the way in which your civilization develops and will correspond to the type of labor, economic and religious organization your civilization has developed.

Changing civics always requires a story

Civics can be changed a maximum of once every 4 turns. You can change any number of categories simultaneously. Changing civics has a base cost of 1 stability and 5 gold. Adopting or abandoning certain civics will modify the base cost.



Labour

• Default: no effect
• Apprenticeship (requires apprenticeship)
  • Allows the construction of the ‘apprenticeship program’ building
• Slavery (requires slavery)
  • Slavery civic produces 2 production capacity in all cities and marches and 1 production capacity in outposts.
  • You lose 2 food for each city in your empire and 1 food for each outpost in your empire every turn (to feed your slaves).
  • Quarries produce an extra gold each turn.
  • The base cost of changing civics is modified by -4 stability when adopting slavery and by +1 when abandoning slavery.
• Communal Work Camps (requires ministers and advisors)
  This civic represent the mobilization of petty criminals, debtors, tax-evaders, etc, and, instead of imprisonment or banishment, they are made to work off their debt to the nation for up to 10 years. Typically they will work in mines, farms, workshops, etc. Housing is provided by the state, as is meals and clothing.
  • costs 2 gold per city and 1 gold per march and outpost.
  • provides 1 production capacity to each city, march or outpost
  • allows the construction of ‘communal work camps’
  • The base cost of changing civics is modified by -1 stability and -5 gold when adopting communal work camps (this additional cost does not apply if the nation adopting the civic has learnt ‘code of laws&#8217.
• State labour (labour civic) (requires civil service)
  The state becomes the primary employer of labour and provides contracts to property-owners for use of that labour. After an initial outlay cost, this should decrease the cost of current and developed labour.
  • provides 1 agricultural workforce per march or outpost
  • provides 1 agricultural workforce, and either one domestic commerce or one industrial workforce per city (the type must be specified on the turn the civic is adopted).
  • The base cost of changing civics is modified by -15 gold per city and -5 gold per march or outpost.

Economic

• Default: no effect
• Agrarianism (requires communal farming)
  • May apply ‘domestic commerce’, ‘trade’ or ‘industry’ workforce to ‘farms’
• Harvest the Seas economic civic (requires harvest the seas)
  • All cities with a harbour improvement and a fishery improvement gain a free agricultural workforce
  • all fisheries produce an extra food.
  • sunken traps fishery improvements have a 1/12 chance of upgrading instead of 1/36
  • harbour and port city improvement generate an additional 2 gold per turn.
• Stewardship (requires Ministers and Advisors)
  Generally this civic makes it harder to expand and may cause some corruption due to the occasionally conflicting interests of cities within the nation as they gain more economic independence (reduces administration), but it also fosters more trade, and hopefully, wealth.
  • All cities (including capital, but not including marches or outposts) lose 1 administrative point and gain one trade route.
  • Allows the construction of a steward’s council.
• Welfare (requires Social Planning and Welfare)
  • if your stability is less then 108 it generates 1 stability but costs you 12 gold.
    if your stability is 108 or greater it generates 1 administration in the capital and the food costs of increasing the population of any city greater then size 3 is calculated as if the city were 2 population points lower then it actually is.
  • The base cost of changing civics is modified by +1 stability when assuming this civic (thereby off-setting the cost of changing civics)

Religious

• Default: no effect
• Personality Cult (requires oratory)
  • Monuments produce an additional 2 gold.
• Centralized Hierocracy (requires mysticism and helps to have ministers and advisors)
  • grants 2 production capacity to the national capital
  • increases the capital's income by 5 gold per turn.
  • reduces production capacity of all other cities by 2 (minimum zero)
  • reduces income of cities other than the capital, marches and outposts by 2 each,
  • reduces the capital's administration value by 2.
  • The base costs of changing civics is increased by 2 stability when assuming this civic (this is reduced to an additional cost of only 1 stability if the nation has learned ‘ministers and advisors&#8217
  • The base costs of changing civics is decreased by 1 stability when abandoning this civic.
• Organized Religion (religious civic) (requires voice of the gods)
  • all religious improvements generate 1 production capacity

Rural Improvements and City Buildings

Some improvements may be upgraded to a more advanced form (especially those that require workforce to 'run&#8217. Improvements may be upgraded from previous improvements according to the formula:


RURAL IMPROVEMENTS
(you may have as many rural improvements in a province as you can afford)

Farms, Fisheries, Etc.​

Villages​

Mines and Quarries​

CITY BUILDINGS
(you may only have one of any particular city building per province)

Cultural Improvements​

(these may be available to marches in addition to cities)

Research Improvements​

Health and Growth City Infrastructure​

Craftsmen Infrastructure​

Trade Improvements​

Government Improvements​

Military Improvements​

Defensive Structures​

(these are available to marches in addition to cities)

Military Units and Equipment

New military units have requisite technologies.

When recruiting a new unit, you must state which province it is being recruited from.

Military units may be upgraded from previous units according to the formula:


You may maintain a number of units equal to your total population. Every unit beyond that costs an additional 10 gold to maintain (in addition to any regular unit maintenance costs).

Available Units
(These are units which are ‘public domain’- there may be other units available which have not yet been uncovered- due to tech requirements. And there may be units which are ‘surprise units’- units that a player has developed but who’s stats (and very existence possibly) will remain a secret until such time as they are used publicly)

Recon Units
useful for conducting reconaissance and for targeting lightly defended targets behind enemy lines. Typically consist of a 80-150 individuals.


Infantry
Useful for taking and holding territory and for defending cities and fortications. Typically these units consist of upwards of 600-800 men per unit.


Missile
A support unit. They are very effective distance weapons but generally perform poorly in melee. Some are best used to defend structures while others are best used at fairly close range to disrupt formations. These units consist of approximately 600-800 men per unit.



Mounted Units
Excellent at striking distant targets, flanking opponents or getting behind enemy lines, these units need space to manoeuvre effectively and thus lose much of their effectiveness when bogged down by enemy troops or when fighting in limiting terrain like cities or heavy woods. These units typically consist of 400-600 men per unit.



Navy
A variety of fleets with varying functions from transport, ambitious support, anti-naval, and more. Depending on the fleet the unit may consist of anywhere from 400-800 men and from 10-60 ships.



Magical Units
These are very small units (40-80) people which require extensive training to produce. Not all men and women are suitable so it takes lots of money to produce a relatively small unit. Used effectively they can turn the tide of war (or peace). Ineffectively and they are just waiting to be run down by a lucky charioteer.


Miscellaneous Other Units
Anything that doesn't fit elsewhere.

Combat and Magic

Combat

Combat: Mechanics

Obviously in a NES a lot of the actual combat results will simply be decided by the moderator. As much as possible the moderator will attempt to avoid all bias but of course, its best to put a few systems in place to take the decision making process out of the moderator’s hands and into the hands of the ‘fictional NES world’.

The best and easiest way to do that is to provide clear, accurate and tactically sound combat orders. If you write, “attack the Kappa outpost at province X with my two wizards and a swordsmen”, don’t expect such great results- your generals have failed to provide precise orders and the moderator will have to come up with the details (which may not suit you and which will always be weaker than anything you come up with). If you write much more detailed orders involving flanking manoeuvres, spells used, supplies, scouting and counter-scouting, the use of informants, the use of terrain, the use of weather, then you can expect much better results. You’ve also provided the moderator with some ideas to write about in the update.

Another mechanism used to avoid moderator bias is dice. Whenever a unit is involved in combat the moderator rolls a dice and the results represent how well that unit performs. Obviously this is just a base line. If you attack a peasant militia with a high priest and six demons then no matter how poorly you roll and how well the peasant militia rolls, that peasant militia is going to lose.

Combat: Unit Quality

A really great way to increase your chances of winning a fight is to increase the training of the units involved. Improvements like a barracks, a hunting lodge, or a target range will increase your unit quality. Unit quality is a measure of training, officer quality and morale. It is also a measure of experience and thus a unit that fights quite a bit will gain quality.

The difference between a unit with a quality of 1 and a quality of 2 is approximately 16.5%. So if two units of peasant militia face off and each has a quality of 1, then there is a 50/50 chance of either winning (all other factors being the same), but if one unit has a quality of 1 and the other of 3, then the win/lose ratio is closer to 33/66.

Combat: Combat Experience and Unit Quality

A unit will gain .25 quality from fighting in its first major battle where the unit actually affects the outcome of the battle. Afterwards, the unit may or may not gain more experience (always at a rate of .25 quality per battle) depending on the battle itself. If the battle involves units that don't present a new 'teaching experience' or tactical conditions which are 'old hat' for the unit, it will not gain further experience. Conversely, if the unit has never faced an 'arrow-storm' or 'demonic summons' before and does and survives, they will probably gain experience from that battle.

Combat experience adds directly to national unit quality so if your unit already has the experience from two battles (ie- .5 unit quality) and the nation builds barracks in every city, the quality would increase to 1.5 (ie- you get the benefits of both the barracks and the experience- they are additive)

Combat: Unit Weapons and Armour

Certain units can equip armour and weapons. You will have to build the armour and weapons just like a unit (though typically they are much cheaper then a unit) at weaponsmiths and armourers. These almost always require some resource (leather armour requires the leather resource, bronze weapons require the bronze resource) and not all units can equip all weapons and armour. Many of the light infantry, for example, cannot wear bronze armour because it is much too heavy whereas the heavy infantry units can. Leather armour can be worn by both light and heavy infantry as well as by recon units (for example).

You may also find (or make) magical weapons and armours. The first one of these is the ‘Patrian Spear’ originally found and used by the Grigori but which is now wielded by the Amurite ‘Shield of Kylorin’ unit.

There is no set mechanism to determine the effect of armour and weapons in combat and the moderator will have to exercise some judgement.

Combat: Movement

Originally I wasn’t going to use combat movement but I’ve since decided to adopt it. Recon, infantry, missiles, priests and mages all have 2 movement points. Artillery has one. Mounted units have 4.

It costs 1 movement point to move from one province to another.

Roads can decrease the costs of movement. If you move from one province to another along simple dirt roads the movement cost is only .66. Better roads will allow faster movement.

Moving onto a transport ship reduces the movement points available to a unit to zero. That unit can still leave the ship in the same turn however (but will have to stay at its point of landing).

Similarly, moving off of a transport (even if that unit started the turn on a transport and thus has all its movement points left) will reduce it movement to zero (and thus it has to stay at its landing point). The exception is if the unit unloads inside a friendly city with a harbour (or better) in which case unloading costs 1 movement point.

Combat: Re-supply and Reinforcements

You cannot recruit or replenish wounded units or provide them with new armour or weapons (or other gear) outside your territory. If you need to recruit or replenish your troops you need to return to your own lands first.

Once you get the technologies that allow 'supply trains' and 'forward base camps' you can re-supply form neutral or enemy territories with these units/fortifications in them.

Magic

Magic: Casters

There are three general classes of spell-casters.

• Sorcerers, Mages, Wizards: these are direct spell casters. They shoot lightning bolts, hurl fire, heal the injured, curse enemies with entropy spells, etc.
• Conjurers, Summoners: these are casters who summon creatures from other planes (the god's vaults or the aether itself) to fight for them or otherwise serve them. Generally their magic is slightly weaker than a sorcerers but they also usually have much less chance of getting hurt because they fight with 'disposable units'
• Disciples, Priests, Acolytes: these are spell-casters who derive their power from the god they serve. Depending on the god in question their power can vary enormously. A priest of Agares is likely to have significant combat and summoning abilities but little healing or buffing ability. Conversely a priestess of Sirona may be useful to have during peace-time for her effects upon culture and stability but provide little benefit beyond some light healing during combat. All priests will be detailed and determined in conjuction between the player and the moderator as the need arises (with balance being the most important issue).

A sorcerer's or conjurer's power comes from their ability to access mana and their spells are limited by the types of mana available to the player's civilization.
A priest's power comes from their god and is not affected by the civilization's mana (except that the appropriate mana type will generally strengthen all the world's priests associated with that mana type (ie- all priests of Tali are strengthened by any single civilization gaining air mana).

Magic: Mana

Multiple sources of the same mana type do not have any effect beyond having a single source thereof.

Mana cannot be traded.

Regardless of if a mana type comes from its people (ie- starting mana) or a mana node, it will cause some sort of passive effect. These are listed here:

• Metamagic: strengthens Oghma’s followers, libraries, academies (others) produce a bonus point of research

Elemental Magic

• Fire: strengthens followers of Bhall, civic change costs reduced (costs are reduced by 1 point of stability and 5 gold)
• Water: strengthens followers of Danalin (if there are any), increases navy military quality by 0.5.
• Earth: strengthens followers of Killmorph, silver, gold and gem mines produce 1extra gold.
• Air: strengthens followers of Tali, increases missile military quality by 0.5.
• Ice: strengthens followers of Mulcarn, halves all stability effect modifiers (no half points)

Divination Magic

• Spirit: strengthens followers of Sirona, all cultural improvements (monuments, sports arena, others) generate 1 research point.
• Law: strengthens followers of Junil, capital produces 1 point of administration
• Sun: strengthens Lugus’s followers, enemy has decreased chance of success for espionage missions
• Mind: strengthens followers of Mammon, markets, harbors and ports (others) produce 1 bonus research point.
• Life: strengthens followers of Sucellos, cost to heal any damaged unit decreased by 33%.
• Creation: strengthens followers of Amathaon, each province has a turn by turn chance of 1/36 of developing a new resource

Necromatic Magic

• Chaos: strengthens followers of Camulos, increases all military qualities by 0.25.
• Death: all civilizations in the world (except you) lose 2 stability, your undead troops receive a 0.5 military quality increase
• Entropy: strengthens followers of Agares, all civilizations in the world (except you) lose 4 stability.
• Shadow: strengthens followers of Essus, espionage missions are 1/6 more likely to succeed
• Dimensional: strengthens followers of Ceridwen, you now have a new unit military quality trait: summoned units. This mana increases the military quality of summoned units by 1.

Alteration Magic

• Body: strengthens Aeron’s followers, infantry unit quality increased by 0.5
• Enchantment: strengthens followers of Nantosuelta, city-based industrial improvements (smithies, others) produce 3 extra gold
• Nature: strengthens followers of Cernunnos, hunting improvements of all types produce 1 extra food and 1 extra gold.
• Force: strengthens followers of Dagda, any nation who breaks a publicly declared pact, alliance or agreement which you are a part of, including yourself loses 4 stability (has to be public and in thread and pretty official looking).

Magic: Casting Capacity

Every sorcerer, conjurer, or priest-type unit will have a ‘casting capacity’. This represents how many and how powerful of a spell that unit and cast during one turn. A sorcerer or conjuring adept has a casting capacity of 1. So too does a novice acolyte. That casting capacity of 1 can be used to cast 1 ‘circle 1’ spell in that turn.

A summoner, conjurer or priest has a casting capacity of 3. They can cast either 3 ‘circle 1 spell’ (which costs 1 casting capacity each) or 1 ‘circle 2’ spell (which costs 3 casting capacity).

Casting capacity does not carry over from turn to turn. You either use it or lose it.

Stronger units and a nation’s unique units will have greater casting capacity. These will be listed for each unit.

Magic: Spells and the ‘Spell Circle’

Each spell is associate with a ‘spell circle’, either 1st circle (comparatively weak), 2nd circle (stronger spells), or 3rd circle (strongest spells).

A 1st circle spell costs 1 casting capacity to cast. A 2nd circle spell costs 3 casting capacity to cast. A 3rd circle spell costs 9 casting capacity to cast.

Magic: Spell Books

Each nation has a spell-book. These are the list of specific spells that that nation’s casters has access to. When you learn the technologies that make casting available you automatically gain 1 (or more if you are the first to that tech) spells which YOU (the player) designs (with the moderator acting to balance that spell). Each spell must be related to one mana type (and not to two or more).

Once your nation knows a spell, then all casters of that spell-type can now cast it (if they have the casting capacity). So if you invent a circle 1 summoning spell, call bears- a circle 1 nature summon, then all of your summoning units can cast call bear by spending 1 casting capacity. If you had a unit with 3 casting capacity (a conjurer), then they could cast ‘call bear’ there times in one turn because they have a casting capacity of 3 and the spell costs 1 casting capacity.

New spells can be designed and cost 10 research points (rp) and 5 gold for a first circle spell, 30rp and 15 gold for a 2nd circle spell and 90rp and 45 gold for a 3rd circle spell. You can teach an ally a spell from your spell book (which then becomes available to all of that nation’s casters) but they will need to spend the money to implement it (though not the research points).

All spells are public knowledge once they are used (even if used in an isolated fashion). If you want to keep your spell-book secret then you can’t use the spells you are hiding.

Magic: Public Spells (in order of appearance)

• Summon Hell’s Ravens
  Type: Summon, Cult of Kanna divine magics
  Mana: Dimensional
  Circle: 1
  Game Effects: Summons 49 ravens from the depths of hell. These ravens can be used as recon units (and get a chance to conduct recon orders). They can also communicate using the voice of the summoners. They can also be used to carry small objects when required. Attacking with them is almost useless
  
• Summon To Beacon
  Type: Summon
  Mana: Dimensional
  Circle: 1
  Game Effects: Summons the caster’s unit (and, with a bit of military quality, a few other individuals but never another whole unit) to a specially prepared beacon. The spell may target a beacon up to two provinces distant. This spell can be used in conjunction with normal movement to cover a great distance in one turn.
  
• Summon Vrock
  Type: Cult of Kanna divine magics
  Mana: Dimensional
  Circle: 1
  Game Effects: Summons 7 vroks form the depths of hell. These servants of the angel Kanna looks like a cross between a large human and a huge vulture. They have strong, sinewy limbs covered with small gray feathers, a long neck topped with a vulture head, and vast feather wings. They are truly monstrous in combat, stupid and aggressive but truly deadly. Though clumsy fliers they are none-the-less able to take to the air briefly during combat and make use of their hind claws. Vrocks due the relatively clumsiness on land and in the air have a movement of 1. Their strength lies in their combat capacity.
  
• Summon the Chained Ones
  Type: Summoning
  Mana: Dimensional
  Circle: 1
  Game Effects: Large bipedal humanoids with little will- suitable for easy domination- they are used for labour, be it construction, lifting or mining- they are the adept's answer to Luchuirp mud golems. The 'Shackled Ones' provide 2 production capacity to the province they are summoned into. Note that the maxium production capacity of a province is still limited by the technologies known so that without open pit mining or masonry the limit is 2 PC and without shaft mining the limits is 4 PC.

Resources and Trade:

Determining Natural Resources:

You will occasionally simply be told that a resource is present in a particular province. The original pre-game update is an excellent example of this occurrence. To determine what resources are present, a player may choose to conduct a ‘resource survey’ which will tell them what resources are present and what capacity that province has for hunting, farming, fishing and mining improvements. A survey of this sort costs 5 gold per province.

New Natural Resources

A province may occasionally develop new natural resources. The White Mist Isle developed a new deer resource over the course of updates 8 and 9. Players have no control over the development of new natural resources.

Resource Generation:

Settling an outpost, march or city in a province with a resource does not provide the resource. One must build the appropriate rural improvement. For example, if the province has a ‘silk worms’ resource, a player building the ‘silk plantation’ would then develop ‘silk’ resource in that province. The same is true of wheat, soybeans, copper, indigo herbs, or any other natural resource.

Resource Distribution:

Once a resource is produced domestically in any single province the entire nation has access to that resource. So if you developed a sandstone mine in one province, every province would then have access to the ‘sandstone’ resource (and because hard rocks provide a building discount for things like combat arenas and make the construction of stone walls possible, any city in the nation would have access to cheaper combat arenas and be able to produce stone walls)

Multiple Resources:

Building more then one resource generation type improvement in a province does not generate more then one ‘copy’ of the resource. If a province has two wheat farms that province still only produces wheat.

If two or more provinces each produce the same resource there is no added effect domestically- the nation still only has access to ‘wheat’, not ‘2x wheat’. However, multiple provinces producing a resource has an added benefit when it comes to trade because now each province can trade away that resource (assuming they have access to a trade route).

Manufactured Resources:

Not all resources are natural. Consider for example the clay and pottery resources. The clay resource occurs naturally and is accessible with the ‘clay quarry’ rural improvement. Doing so provides clay to the entire nation. Any city in that nation can now build a ‘potter’s workshop’, an improvement that requires access to clay to construct. Any city with a ‘potter’s workshop’ in it now produces the ‘pottery’ resource (and each can now export it if they can find a rival nation with no access to pottery yet- see trade section).

All manufactured resources come from city improvements and they usually require access to some natural resource. (Bronze manufacturing requires copper and tin. Linen requires flax. Brick and pottery require clay. Etc)

Trade

Trading requires three things.

• a trade route
• a novel resource to trade
• access to the importer’s market

Trade Routes

A trade route can be provided by an improvement such as a market or a harbour or in some cases by a civic, such as ‘stewardship’. Trade routes are accumulated at the provincial level and are only limited by your access to technologies that allow construction of trade-route generating improvements (harbours, markets, etc) as well as the funds to create them.

Each trade route is also associated with a resource. So if you have the stewardship civic but are not producing any resources in a province, then you don’t get to use that trade route because you have nothing to export from that province. Similarly if you have, lets say, clay and pottery generated in a province (from a clay quarry and potter’s workshop respectively) but only have one trade route (from a market for example), you could only export either the clay or the pottery.

A Novel Resource

When a nation imports a resource, it becomes available to the entire nation; every province of that nation now has access to that resource (just as if it had been developed domestically). If you trade away a source of horses, don’t be surprised that the importing nation begins to produce cavalry. If you export flax to a nation, don’t be surprised if in a few turns they offer you finished linens in return (because they used the flax to build a linen textile mill).

A nation which already has resource X (either because it is already producing it domestically or because it is already importing it from some other nation) is not eligible to import a second ‘copy’ of that resource. (example: If the Bannor are already trading the Ir-O-Kee copper, then the Ir-O-Kee have no need for Hippus copper.) This means that if you have 3 provinces each with a potter’s workshop (each producing the pottery resource), you would need to export your pottery to three different nations (who don’t produce pottery themselves)

Access to the Importer’s Market

You need roads to export your goods to foreign civilization.

If you don’t have roads connecting your civilizations you can use rivers, sea and ocean shore-lanes, open seas or even open oceans depending on the level of naval technology the exporting nation has achieved.

These can be disrupted by bandits and pirates or rival nations.

Importing Goods

Receiving a trade route is a simple thing. You simply have to include in your orders that you are allowing the exporting nation to sell the resource to your people. That trade can be taxed and you will soon begin to collect income from it.

Your nation (and not a particular province) is the importing entity. Your entire nations receives the good being imported. You can use that resource as if you had produced it yourself in a province of your own. With clay imports you can produce bricks or pottery, etc.

If you lose the imported good then all city improvements that are dependent upon that resource can no longer function and cannot generate any resources, wealth or other benefit of their own. If you are importing clay, have no local source of clay and have a potter’s workshop in one of your cities, the loss of clay imports would prevent your potter’s workshop from producing pottery or the associated gold.

The Value of Trade Goods

The value of trade goods is dependent upon the transport infrastructure of the nation. If you have dirt roads connecting all your cities then you will receive either 2 or 3 gold for the trade good’s export or import. If you have reinforced highways you will receive much more. Better ‘caravan’-type technologies will unlock better roads.

An economy is either open (willing to allow foreign merchants unlimited access to their markets) or closed (foreign merchants deal only with domestic merchants in controlled situations). An open economy allows for greater trade but makes enemy spying much easier. A closed economy is the opposite (spying is more difficult, trade produces less gold).

With dirt roads an open economy produces 3 gold per trade resource being imported or exported.
With dirt roads a closed economy produces 2 gold per trade resource being imported or exported.

In all cases the first turn of establishing a trade route results in on gain. Although trade is occuring between the nations, its scale is still relatively small as distribution systems and contacts are put in place. This is primarily a game-balance issue to prevent people moving their trade routes around too much.

Orders

Please keep a copy of your orders for each turn in case of a problem.

Your stats are provided to you in 'excel' format. The excel spreadsheet also contains some useful 'equations' that will provide you the cost of a new workforce or improvement or city for you as well as the cost, in food, to grow a city by one population point. Please use these and, when you issue your orders, write how much things cost for me. You do the math, i do the update, okay? If you consistantly don't do the math, i will drop your provinces' administration because your accountants suck.

New Rule (ammended January 11th, 2009): Every player gets a pre-turn scouting mission. Up to three days before orders are due, you may order your reconaissance units (scouts, hunters, etc) to perform a 'scouting mission'. You will receive intelligence from that mission on which you may base your other orders.

Chronologically, your orders will be carried out in this order. Please also write yoru orders in this order.

1. Collect money and food income for the turn.
2. Buy new units. Remember that units need to be built in a specific province (so state the province it is being built in). Also remember that units need a minimum population and production capacity to be built (but do not get a refund for having a production capacity above the 'cap'). If you don't have the population or the production capacity you simply can't build that unit in that province regardless of your money or technology.
3. Issue military orders. Thats right; your newly acquired units can be used the turn they are purchased. This lets you get a little bit sneakier and should also provide a sense of paranoia. lets face it, its a little more fun for everyone if we can't trust each other.
4. Expand a new city or outpost or upgrade a current outpost to a city. You can only do this once per turn. Normally you will want to send some sort of military unit to guard your new outpost or city. An unescorted settler is a very very big risk that could cost you so much money!
5. Spend food to buy new population if you want to.
6. Spend money to train new workforces if you want to.
7. Buy new improvements and buildings, or upgrade existing ones (since you just bought new population, you may have access to new improvements due to your population growth). These are all bought at the same time. So if you buy a open pit mine in a province, the production capacity doesn't increase immediately allowing you to buy other improvements (that would normally not be available to you due to production capacity limitations)
   nor does it make your other improvments cheaper. All improvements are purchased simoultaneously.
8. List your research priority (either the category, or, if you are beelining, streamlining, the specific technology). This means that you won't be able to build buildings or units that are unlocked by your new techs the turn you receive them (which was an issue for us- see posts 662)

Can I reserve the Bannor and region 26 for now? The rest will come soon.

Can I be the Illians? (province 31)

will have more soon.

Are the Illians allowed? They will be unplayable in EkoNES because they would be so polarising to the game's diplomacy...

if not, i'll take the Lanun, province 16... but only if illians aren't allowed.

You may play the Illians but your leadership must be 'mortal'. (same for cassiel and bannor)

I'm still busy with finals, but I'll take a slot I guess.

I don't have a nation or territory in mind just yet.