Name: England
King Henry VII* (Born 1457)/Tudor
Heirs: Arthur (b. 1486), Henry (b. 1491), Margaret (b. 1489)
Personal Treasury: 46,000
Prestige:45
Initiative Points:4
National Income-Expenses (Debt/Treasury):400,000-264,000 (0/10,000)
Army: 16 companies infantry, 4 companies horse
Navy: 10 ships
Factions (Loyalty/Power):
Henry VII (5/5)
English Nobles (3/2)
Catholic Church (2/2)
Anglo-Irish Lords (3/1)
English Peasants (1/0)
Irish Peasants (0/0)
Advisors:
Players: Players will of course, be taking “nations” with their claims, but it is not just the nation they are claiming; they are claiming the monarch of their nation. What this means is that you must consider the interests of your monarch and of your dynasty first and foremost, and the rest of your nation second. You are not playing as Austria; you’re playing as the Emperor and the Hapsburg family, and you must do what is in the dynasty’s interests, even if it might not necessarily be in Austria’s interests. That means things like reforms and curtailing of your monarch’s power will be seen as major attacks on you. Be careful about your heirs and who may have a claim to your throne, as it may very much cause a war.
In the second line we have our King/Prime Minister/Shogun/Head Honcho, followed by his dynasty. This is your character, and who your interests work through. Dynasties are very important, and two nations that have the same ruling dynasty are generally very closely allied with one another, and can call upon each other in their most dire hour.
After this, we have your heirs. Generally this will only include your children, though if you have no child, the next applicable potential heir will be placed her instead, as well as an additional note (such as “uncle” “cousin” or “brother”
. I will put the children in the order they would succeed the throne, though it will be noted in many countries a woman cannot succeed the throne, and is put here to help you track your family members and who you can marry off (a * representing married).
As a side note, your ruler will do their best to produce as many heirs as possible! After all, we wouldn’t want all the heirs to die in infancy. If you would like to have names for your children specifically, you can let me know and I’ll keep them around. If not, I will use their closest real life self, and if not applicable, I will use common dynastic names (ie; for England I would likely name a child Henry, Richard, or Edward)
Money:
First your income! This represents your
yearly income! This was before the era of standardized taxes and budgets. Budgets would fluctuate wildly, with trade being better in some years than others, taxes needed to fight some years and others years of peace. Policies may change this, but for now this is what you’ve got!
Expenses are your
yearly expenditures. Around 15-20% of your income is dedicated to administration of your nation (more for larger, more centeralized nations, less for smaller, decentralized nations). The rest of it, and your biggest expenses, will be your military spending. This was an era of tiny standing armies and fleets called up as needed, with mercenaries or levees covering the rest. As you can see in our example, England has 4,000 infantry, 1,000 mounted troops, and 10 ships, yet this, with the administration expenses, accounts for over half of England’s income!
Next we will talk about debt and treasury. First and foremost, it is not bad to go into debt. It is in fact, often necessary. What is bad is allowing the debt to fester. Depending on the nation you are, you will face various interest rates from either creditors or from foreign powers, and interest will accumulate. Of course, you may decide that your debt no longer exists, but then that will cause a host of problems; rampaging unpaid soldiers, rebellious nobles, furious merchants. If your lender was a foreign power, then it may cause a war! On the opposite side is your treasury. This is how much money you have accumulated from your nation’s income that was unspent. While it is good for a rainy day fund, this gold is at risk; if you lose your capital, you may lose most or all of your treasury!
On a side note is your personal treasury. The personal treasury is the income you have at your direct disposal to do anything you so choose. You may buy stakes in a colonial company, invest it, loan it, buy an army, bribe your factions, buy clothes, whatever you want to do. Unless you have loans being repaid to you or you have holdings in a company, this stat will generally not replenish itself. Generally speaking, aside from investments, the way to increase your own treasury is to skim off the national treasury. In monarchies, 5% or so is considered perfectly acceptable; in a republic, it may be seen as an abuse of power. Take too much though, and your factions may begin turning on you. Aside from skimming off the top, one other way to do this is through war, with the captured loot going directly to your personal treasury.
One thing to note is that people will know where they’re being paid from, and it may adjust their actions. An army paid by the state may turn on you in a civil war; an army paid by you will be loyal to you. An advisor being paid a state salary will do his best to entrench himself in the state so he cannot be removed easily; an advisor paid by you will be more likely to remain focused on his loyalty to you. Be careful!
Prestige is perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind, and what you as a player are trying to accumulate. Things that can benefit your prestige include winning battles and wars, holding colonies and other territories, impressive armies and navies, being Defender of the Faith or Holy Roman Emperor, royal marriages, vanity projects, and “kingly” actions (hosting tournaments and feasts and the like), but these are just examples. A good rule of thumb is that almost everything can affect prestige, either positively or negatively. Prestige is very fickle, and can go up and down on a wide variety of things, but overall is one of the most important stats. It not only affects things like morale, faction relations, and NPC diplomacy, but also players should note how much another prestige another player has. An alliance or royal marriage with a less prestigious nation’s monarch will have a negative effect on your prestige, while winning a war against a prestigious nation will do wonders for your own prestige.
On Historical realism and playability: The goal of a nes, of course, is to be playable, and to not have to follow a script of what you exactly have to do. No one wants to play EXACTLY as their entity did in reality, and I am not going to force you to do that. However, you will be constrained by reality, both in what you can do and what you would do. To give you the general gist of it, you may play as Ireland, and you can survive the years, and maybe you can even emerge as a middle level power, but you cannot become a global power with the economy to equal that of Spain. I will strive to create an enjoyable game for all players regardless of size.
Initiative Points are what we might consider “political capital”, namely what you can do. Actions may cost gold or armies, or anything in between, but they do all require initiative points. This is designed to show the limit of the power of your monarch’s hold over the nation: the more power they hold, the more political clout they have! Initiative points are made by how much power in your nation you have: one ‘power’ is equal to one ‘initiative point’ up to 3, and then afterwards, two power is equal to one initiative point. So if I was Henry VII with 5 power, I would have 4 Initiative Points.
Things that will cost Initiative Points!
-Declaring war! (One nation, one initiative point)
-Setting up a colony or trading post
-Issuing an edict
-Adding or changing a policy
(More to be added)
Wars:
Casus Belli: Your cause for war. Unlike the wars of the later 19th and then the 20th century, there does not necessarily need to be a GOOD cause for war, but there has to be something. It can be claiming a throne, claiming colonial lands, border disputes, different religions, something. It can even be to cut down a major power that’s growing too strong. It’s not exactly difficult to make a reason for war, but keep in mind there are consequences; wars are expensive, and if you don’t have the money for them, it could stifle your ambitions. Furthermore, rebellious factions may see this as an opportune time to rise up against you. So be careful!
Before you can fight, you’ll need men to fight for you. Depending on what nation you are, things can be pretty different. If you are a Western European nation, you’ll have a small standing army that is supplemented by mercenary forces; Eastern Europeans will have mercenaries as well, but can also be supplemented by their nobles. The Ottomans, Indian States, and the Ming have standing armies. It depends on the state really. The price to pay your soldiers, per year, is as follows:
1 company of infanrty-4,000 Ducats
1 company of cavalry-10,000 Ducats
1 company equals 250 men
1 ship-10,000 Ducats
This includes both recruitment and maintaining; so if I were France and I wanted 3 companies of infantry for 3 years, I would pay 12,000 ducats per year.
Factions represent the various interest groups within your nation. There are dozens of different factions you may run into. The church, the army, the fleet, the nobility, the royal family, the bureaucrats and the merchantry are all common and powerful factions that can be found in your nation. There can also be peasantry, based off of either their nationality (Irish versus English), or religion (Catholic versus Sunni). If they grow powerful enough, even your advisors or other individuals may become powerful power brokers in their own right. Factions have two stats; loyalty and power.
Loyalty ranges from 0 (least loyal) to 5 (most loyal). The more loyal a faction, the more you can trust them with power. As a general rule of thumb, a loyalty of 3 is generally a “we are fine with being a part of the system” and can be trusted with some tasks in the nation, while a 4 or 5 is someone you can bring into your inner circle. A 2 is someone you can consider trying to make ties with if they have sufficient power, and you should keep an eye on any 1 or 2, and reduce their power when it is prudent to do so.
Each nation has 10 possible ‘power’ and is divided among your various factions. The more a faction has, the more powerful it is. Ideally, you should be the most powerful faction in your realm. If not, you may be dominated by the more powerful factions and be unable to achieve your goals, or worse, deposed from your seat of power!
Factions will make their desires (or demands) known to you, and depending on your actions, can make them more or less loyal, and potentially more or less powerful. While a powerful faction, if loyal, can be useful, you don’t want anyone to grow too powerful, and it may be necessary to act against them.
Advisors are those of your court that will help you rule your nation. These advisors are talented and will help your nation thrive with their skills; some are efficient tax men, some are great explorers, others priests or taxmen. Some may even have multiple jobs! Advisors can be recruited from a general pool throughout your region, though if a new advisor “manifests”, then the nation that he was born in will have exclusive hiring rights for 5 years before he joins the general pool. You may have up to three advisors at a time, so make them count, but be careful! Advisors have personalities and can upset members of the court (or charm them!) and can actually develop into powerful players on their own right.
If they're alive in 1492, they can be used! (Just provide a wiki link) 
