Alternative History Experiment

[Masada]

ALTERNATIVE HISTORY EXPERIMENT

OBJECTIVE:

To construct an alternate history from the dawn of civilization, in as short a period of time as possible, with the intention of running a NES from it, when some particular period catches my fancy -- so expect, with that in mind, the occasional slowdown.

METHOD:

I intend to mirror Daftpanzer’s Alternate Timeline Building Experiment, not exactly of course, but in much the same style and substance. The turns will be shorter measured not in millennia, but in centuries. I also intend to exercise some of my economic judgement, and will I hope, achieve something useful from it, although that might be hoping for to much.

ON POINTS:

Players will be given control over a culture, and will have the ability to shape it via a simple points system which can be spent each turn on anything the player feels like, be it religious, cultural, military or otherwise. The player may opt to spend it on general objectives, the propagation of some religion, the discovery of some technology or another etc, and all things going well it will be successful, eventually.

There is however a second option, if the player is particularly bold, they may instead opt to spend the points on the creation of a character with a slightly more specific aim. The effects of this compared to the more generalized spending will be far more significant, a culture particularly gifted in military combat, might gain a Count Belisarius, while a particularly religious or cultured nation might get a Luther or Calvin. There will of course be unintended consequences aplenty as the Luther or Calvin analogue may rip your culture apart in a series of religious wars.

However, I believe that in making the effects significantly more powerful, and allowing for the nature of the NES which favours long term strategic action and dissemination of ‘winning’ traits among cultural units, the returns will be significant. In other words, a little pain now, might translate into a major bonus in later years, as your religion to continue the analogy, ends up rapidly spreading across a large geographic era, which if combined with a tradition similar to the Hajj, might reap substantial dividends for a number of turns. The trade-off becomes a turn or two (depending of course on the situation) of instability for a large potential gain in the future – and be rest assured that the rewards, if properly carried out, will be substantial in most cases.

Nations will be awarded these at the start of each turn; the number will depend on a host of factors including the quality and brevity of orders, the level of input, and the in-game success of nations -- the latter will of course have significant weight but will not be a decisive factor on its own.

ON THE ROLE OF THE PLAYERS:

I’m quite content at this early stage to allow players to handle multiple sub-cultures in their broader culture; expect this to change when the NES proper starts. There will eventually be a stage in the experiment where I will be forced to strip players of control, this will for a number of factors including, possible collusive acts, the ability to break the game, a decisive break in cultural continuity etc. I reserve broad powers in that respect at least, that which I have giveth, I can taketh away, as it were.

In the general sense I’m indifferent to what players say, if a player action isn’t consistent with the culture presented, I may opt to ignore it. Players are in charge of the culture, they are not in charge of the specific actions of the individuals in it. I will however follow orders which are imaginative etc. I’m not attempting to strip the player of their freedom. I’m merely trying to keep them consistent with their own creation.

STATS:

I don’t intend to have stats at this stage. I will, however, provide a proxy indicator for ‘power’, since people have been asking. For instance, for the period around 1870 I might provide pig iron production which isn’t a perfect measure but will provide the player with an idea of strength. For our present, early stage, of development, I might provide horse numbers, or population of the capital, which should provide players with a fair estimation. The main reason for this ambiguity is my desire to simulate the vagaries of history –- states often messed up, something which is difficult to do in NESing with our precise stats. For instance, we would never have an Alexander; nobody would be barmy enough to try the odds in a NES.

CRITICISM AND INPUT:

I encourage everyone to provide input, and hopefully corrections, so that I can have the best possible game -- criticism is often the basis for improvement. So I implore players to provide input, in whatever form they care to provide, in whatever area they care to interfere with. As you’re probably well aware, I’m relatively well versed in economics, I’m less well versed in military history, and my knowledge of history outside of a handful of areas is frankly deplorable, so feel free to correct me, I welcome it.

CONCLUSION:

If, I’ve missed anything, I apologise. I just ask players to keep in mind a simple truism: “it’s only a game” at least for now. It will transition into a proper contest, later. Feedback as ever is obligatory not optional, I'm more than happy to rewrite for clarity or add to sections for comprehensiveness. I'm also thinking of adopting a two tier approach to updating -- a history book style for the usual update, and a narrative style for the interesting sections.

Spoiler Old Rules v.1 :

OBJECTIVE:

To construct an alternate history from the dawn of civilization, in as short a period of time as possible, with the intention of running a NES from it, when some particular period catches my fancy -- so expect the occasional slowdown.

METHOD:

Players will be given control over a culture, and will have the ability to shape it via a simple points system which can be spent each turn on anything the player feels like, be it religious, cultural, military or otherwise. The effects will be significant, a culture particularly gifted in military combat, might gain a Count Belisarius if they spent a point on the military, while a particularly religious or cultured nation might get a Luther or Calvin if they spent it on religion. There will of course be unintended consequences aplenty as the Luther or Calvin analogue may rip your culture apart in a series of religious wars. Nations will be awarded these at the start of each turn; the number will depend on a host of factors including the quality and brevity of orders, the level of input, and the in-game success of nations -- the latter will of course have significant weight.

I encourage everyone to provide input, and hopefully corrections, so that I can have the best possible game -- criticism is often the basis for improvement. So I implore players to provide input, in whatever form they care to provide, in whatever area they care to interfere with. As you’re probably well aware, I’m relatively well versed in economics, I’m less well versed in military history, and my knowledge of history outside of a handful of areas is frankly deplorable, so feel free to correct me, I welcome it.

I intend to mirror Daftpanzer’s Alternate Timeline Building Experiment, not exactly of course, but in much the same style and substance. The turns will be shorter measured not in millennia, but in centuries. I also intend to exercise some of my economic judgement, and will I hope, achieve something useful from it, although that might be hoping for to much.

STATUS: Ready. Accepting Players Still!

UNCLAIMED CULTURES: If there is a white cross, you can claim it. If there is a grey area you can claim it.

ERAS: 1# Tribal Age : Map
2# Antebellum - Tribal Age : Map : Tech

 

[Masada]

MAP:

Spoiler :

 

[Masada]

ERA I:

The Tribal Era, some proto-states may begin to form as groups begin to settle down, while others will remain nomads waiting to nip civilization in the bud. Migrations and invasions are likely to occur.

WHERE CAN I START?:

In the white, or in the black, those starting in the white will be assumed to be sedentary, while those in the black will be assumed to be nomadic or semi-nomadic. I would appreciate if people selected starts in the Old World, unless I have surplus players in which case the New World will be opened.

WHAT DO I HAVE TO FILL IN TO START?:

The template below:

Culture name: The name of the culture
Starting point: The position on the map at which you want to start
Description: Can be long, can be short, but the better (not necessarily longer) it is the more points players will get for Era 2. I would appreciate some measure of economic data, some military data, cultural data and whatever else people feel the need to put be it agricultural data or obscure customs, rites etc.
Priorities: What the player wishes to achieve in the turn.

 

[Neverwonagame3]

Can we post yet?

 

[Masada]

Post away.

 

[Neverwonagame3]

Culture name: Engarids
Starting point: OTL China civilised zone, upper river
Description: Can be long, can be short, but the better (not necessarily longer) it is the more points players will get for Era 2. I would appreciate some measure of economic data, some military data, cultural data and whatever else people feel the need to put be it agricultural data or obscure customs, rites etc.

I am willing to alter these if they are too unrealistic.

Economic Data:
-Land owned by the tribe as a whole.
-In practice, "allotments" arising of land people use, but there is still a percieved obligation to share if others face starvation

Military Data:
-Have tactics based around attacking enemy food supplies (burning crops against agricultural civilisations, and killing animals against nomads or pastoralists)
-See wars as final- once a war has started, it is a war of obliteration.

Cultural Data:
-Have a degree of ceremonial trade of little economic value
-Distinction between hereditary "King" and hereditary "War-King" (chief and war-chief have existed as alternate posistions in tribes, according to Wikipedia)

Priorities:
-Begin having Kings and War-Kings see themselves as better then commoners.
-Have tribal alliances begin to occur for fear of obliteration wars.

 

[Kentharu]

Culture name: Ik
Starting point: OTL Egypt, Lower Nile
Description:
Economic Data:- Land owned by individual farmers (for now), heavy food production along the Nile. Trade is common between villages. Each individual family owns the same amount of land (roughly)

Military Data:-"Long" military tradition due to infighting between villages, until united under one rule (one of the larger villages surpressing and banning together the others against local raiders)

Cultural Data:- Beginnings of a military ruling "class" as those who have fought are regarded as of greater honor than those who have not. Respect for the land and the river. Beginnings of religious worship of the "river goddess" Gani and the "father land" Anu

Priorities: Expand for agricultural purposes

 

[LDiCesare]

Culture name Ilfeinoi

Starting point: In northern OTL Iran, south of Caspian sea (around OTL Rasht). Moving around a lot.

Description
Economic data
Ilfeinoi are nomadic hunter-gatherers, they hunt wild horses and ponies for food and try to follow herds of large animals when they find some. They spend most of their days running, men following and hunting game, while women gather food.
Military data
Ilfeinoi are sometimes short on food, so they attack other people to steal some. Fishers are their main targets. All wars are actually razzias, the usual tactics being to send a first group to do a front attack trying to raid women while a second group goes after the food. Taking prisoners is not a goal, it's just a diversion, so they usually kill those they capture, burying them in order to hide the corpses. Weapons are mostly spears and javelins.
Cultural data
Ilfeinoi loosely worship horses. They have no organised religion, no castes nor specialised roles. They are scattered in a lot of small clans, with exogamic marriage (men must leave their clan to marry). The clans are usually led by a council of elder women and a male hunting-chief, and clans meet at irregular intervals, exchanging men for marriage.

Priorities
- Ilfeinoi are going to try to capture some horses to herd them instead of having to hunt them all the time. That's the first way on using them to get milk and then riding them.
- Women want to impose some religious beliefs on the people in order to make sure men remain under their control and hunter-chiefs don't grow too important. Exact beliefs don't matter as long as women have the important role and can use them to control men.

 

[Vertinari118]

What is the start date roughly? 10,000 BC? Before? After? I need to know because I am designing a people based off the Mongols but even more harsh and a far bloodier religion and I need to know if we can start we domesticated horses, around 4,000 BC in RL, or if I need to make that my first priority and so I can describe their economy properly.

 

[Adrogans]

Culture name: Dalycana
Starting point: Israel Region
Description:
Economic Data: This civilization is mainly supported by farming and fishing. Most land is owned by tribal leaders which are the beginning of an aristocratic class. The people in each tribe are to work the land and sea at the direction of the heriditary ruling class.

Military Data: The tribes have fought many times over various bits of land, most of the tribes have started to learn basic tactics such as flanking and just recently began to learn to land from the sea as a war tactic. Usually battles between tribes are ended when either a chieftan admits defeat and terms are agreed on, or enough nobles of one side or another are captured. Wars against invaders tend to be more drawn out and bloddy than combat between tribes.

Cultural Data: The Dalycana people are generally divided along religious lines. They view their tribes as being under various gods who all have different attributes, but they are all related. Other cultures will be viewed as inferior, but they are more than willing to trade with them if they have goods. The tribes will band together to fight off invaders under a selected King of the Dalycana. This is the beginning of the council selecting a lifetime King. Dagger diplomacy is accepted, but not regarded well. Neither gender has become dominant yet, just they are accepted to do different things.

Priorities:
-The beginnings of mining and metal working if possible.
-Formation of a nobility and formalization of the council selecting an absolute ruler of a king for the Dalycana people.
-Expansion up towards Anatolia

 

[Abaddon]

Culture name: Khamba
Starting point: Gulf of Khambat
Description: Fisher folk turned into a nation!
economic data : Trade and fishing based. They move stuff around for other tribes, making money this way
military data : Little land units, but ships are advanced/troops good at amphibious and naval warfare
cultural data : Little cultural strength, nomadic traders of the sea, bound by their trade.
agricultural data : Few if any land agriculture.. but advanced in fishing with breeding ponds on floodplains (river mouths are the few parts the nation settles upon)
obscure customs, rites etc : Babies are "baptized" in the sea. they are sat in the shallows and considered "weak" if they do not cry out and fight this. "silent" males are castrated and live out their lives in religion (They are judged to be the calmest in the water and thus closer to god)
Priorities: Expand along the coast in both directions, fuel birth of other nations as trade between different tribes is facilitated by our ships. Amas a large number of ships.

 

[Cobalt Command]

Culture name: Waarsazian
Starting point: The mouth of the Murray River in Australia (Close to Lake Alexandrina)
Description:
Economy- Barter System; the various forms of fish are traded with surrounding peoples and tribes when in surplus, and they all have values in correlation with the others. Rarely, but not unusually, are shells and jewels used to trade for goods

Military- Most all males of each tribe are the military, with low technology. Whatever can be found and seen as potentially lethal is used: Shells, crustacean claws, and stone are commonly used. Most fighting is done hand to hand and personal strength is important, but some create extravagant weapons that don't always do much better.

Cultural- Nomadic? The Waarsazian culture is broken into various nomadic tribes who are all ruled by the strongest of the men and his family. While there is no single person uniting the tribes, the original one's (now since lost) culture spread to all those tribes around it, producing a lose sense of brotherhood. War is common, but never last's long and is usually only for small gains like use of a fishing area for a cycle of the moon.

Religious(Because it needs it's own section)- Polytheistic. The common religion is one in which all things have a Spirit Representative(god) in the Great Relm(Heaven), from dirt to men, they are all equal subjects to the Final Authority(God) who rules over Earth and makes sure the world stays in order and continues to function.

Priorities:
-Discover agriculture.
-Settle civilization.
-Expand through migration.

May edit later if Mod finds issues.

 

[Cynovolans]

Culture Name: Materan tribe

Starting Point: OTL Eritrean coast of the Red Sea

Description:
Economic Data: Hunter-Gatherers that whatever they find or make is officially theirs. Trade is used mainly with other tribes. Frankincense is used like a currency, but because frankincense is also sacred to the tribe it is hard to find anything worth trading frankincense for.

Military Data: The Materan tribe’s military is just the hunters of the group that fight with whatever weapon they can find if they are being attacked. The Materan tribe rarely attacks, mostly because the tribe is few in numbers. This has caused a need to move because as the other tribes grow the Materan lose more land.

Cultural Data: Their religion and traditions are influenced by their nomadic lifestyle. Because the amount of food is entirely dependent on the rain they worship the God of Rain the most. A ritual is performed at the start of every season where the people set fire to a large amount of frankincense as a sacrifice to the Gods. The major Gods worshipped are:

Zuug-God of Buffalos and Rain
Shonge-God of Baboons and the Sun
Sirane-Goddess of Birds and Fertility
Gerea-Goddess of Snakes and Luxuries*

*Gerea is also known as the Goddess of Sins

Priorities-
-Start migration to the Arabian Peninsula

 

[Masada]

The update should be finished by tonight: 8-12 hours from now.

@Cobalt Command, I would prefer if you started elsewhere.

What is the start date roughly? 10,000 BC? Before? After? I need to know because I am designing a people based off the Mongols but even more harsh and a far bloodier religion and I need to know if we can start we domesticated horses, around 4,000 BC in RL, or if I need to make that my first priority and so I can describe their economy properly.

The domestication of animals including horses will take place during the update.

 

[Vertinari118]

Even dogs, goats, sheep, cows and pigs, all known to be domesticated in 15,000 B.C? Damn there goes my plan for having a barter economy based around the exchange of livestock or goods of worth such as fine stone knifes etc. Guess I will have to thing of something else until after the update.

 

[Yui108]

Culture name: Ranna
Starting point: Mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
Description:
Economic Data: A great amount of time has been devoted to workable irrigation in order to better feed our booming population. Barley is our major crop. In some city-states, primitive money systems are on place, with an exchange rate based on the most popular grain of the area.
Military Date: Generally there is a makeshift-levy of men whenever a city is threatened, and sometimes these make-shift companies even elect their own officers. Once every few decades, a wannabe Sargon of Agade type character conquers a handful of city-states, only to have it collapse shortly after his death/incapacitation.
Cultural Date: Worship a pantheon of Gods based around objects in their everyday life. The foremost Gods are Zherr, god of fire, and Obe god of water. According to their mythology, before man the land was in eternal war between Zherr and Obe. Then peace was resolved when Zherr married Obe's daughter, and they gave birth to the first humans, the best of whom acsended to be Gods themselves.
Priorities: Expand trade contacts into Egypt and Turkey, develop rules on debt,business practices, and private property, and invent some way of transporting ourselves down rivers.

 

[Masada]

Even dogs, goats, sheep, cows and pigs, all known to be domesticated in 15,000 B.C? Damn there goes my plan for having a barter economy based around the exchange of livestock or goods of worth such as fine stone knifes etc. Guess I will have to thing of something else until after the update.

I didn't give a date - I merely noted that animals will be domesticated during the update.

 

[Vertinari118]

Exactly. Interesting that means the Neolithic Revolution of this world must take place in the first update.

Baildughciarad (Warrior people in Mongolian)
Starting point: A steppe, ideally one above a nice juicy cluster of civilisations ripe for conquest
Description: See below

Cultural description

In two words: brutally harsh. The Baildughciarad live in one of the harshest inhabitable places on Earth. In summer the temperature can soar away to over 30°C and peeks of 40°C are known. At night in summer you get sub-zero temperatures. In winter -40° is common enough to be at the bottom of the temperature range. If you mess up in the middle of winter you and your tribe are dead. Everyone, man or women, young or old, is expected to be able to hunt and bring in food or if not hunt at least be able to find wild mushrooms, berries etc. which are good to eat. If you cannot bring in food for whatever reason you are killed unless you have another more important skill such as metal-working, even then your family alone must provide you with food. In short if you are any form of burden on the tribe you will be killed unless you have other skill/s that makes the burden worthwhile. The tribes are nomadic and follow herds of wild yak, saiga antelope, siberian roe deer and other similar species across the steppe, exactly what they what they hunt depends on where they are. The basic unit of the Baildughciarad is the family, then the band (extended family or clan sized unit used in anthropology), then the tribe. Every family may leave or be exiled from their band and their tribe. Every band can leave every tribe and so on. Once you have left a tribe you are out for good and will be killed if you try to return to the same tribe. Loyalty to the tribe and its chief, known as an aqalaghci, is paramount. The values of the Baildughciarad can be summed up with one word: the wolf. They value loyalty, cunning, intelligence, skill, strength, teamwork and the ability to work alone. It is little wonder then that the neighbouring tribes refer to the Baildughciarad as the Black Wolves (no that is not racist, go look up the myths surrounding black wolves and you will see why I choose the word black.)

Economic description

The Baildughciarad are known to run three different economy systems depending on the tribe in question and what pressures are being exerted on the tribe. Normally the Baildughciarad operate a barter economy with raiding of other Baildughciarad tribes and other neighbouring tribes thrown in. If times become particularly good in one region a tribe may settle down and develop a form of currency or token, much like the ones the Mongols used to control the distribution of supplies in their tumans, to exchange for goods. This system simply is not feasible in a nomadic society so when the good times end the tribe abandons it. If times are very harsh for a tribe they will implement a if you want it take it system so only the strong and the useful survive and are fed. Key individuals such as smiths or rather flint-nappers at this stage will be kept alive in bad times no matter how much of a burden they are unless a stronger, fitter person is able to take their place. Raiding also becomes extremely common during bad times as do migrations.

Military description

If you are old enough to walk you are old enough to hold a knife, if you can run you can shoot a bow. Every man, woman and child of the tribe is able to hunt beast or man unless of course they have a handicap preventing them but such people are rare among the Baildughciarad (see above).

Religion

A very bloody form of animism worshipping a sky father and an earth mother, who together gave birth to the Baildughciarad, and spirits. Animal sacrifices to the spirits are very common and people will be sacrificed too if they are unfit (see above, only certain tribes), enemies or have broken tribal law, if the victim chooses to hunt, kill and eat the heart of the perpetrator. Blood is also of great importance because by drinking the blood of a foe or dead friend, for that matter, you absorb their spirit into yours and thus become stronger in the spirit world and as a result stronger in the word of men as well. I told you they would be a bloody lot. I will probably write more about their customs and rituals later today when I have got some sleep.

Priorities:
1). Domesticate sheep, goats and horses. Especially horses.
2). Expand gradually outwards from starting location.
2b). If conditions are particularly harsh expand rapidly outwards akin to any other tribal migration/invasion.
3). Begin to develop some understanding of metals and their uses.
4). If a few tribes reach regions of the world capable of supporting settlements they will probably settle down. If I have to choose between the nomadic Baildughciarad and the settled Baildughciarad I will choose to remain in control of the nomadic Baildughciarad.

 

[Cobalt Command]

@Cobalt Command, I would prefer if you started elsewhere.

Am I being told I can't start there?

 

[Masada]

Not at all, but if you want to spend inordinate numbers of turns frozen in stasis that is quite alright.