Joining the Game
To join a game choose a nation and a color, tell us about it, a flag is necessary, government, religion, people, policy and etc. Claim any ten provinces on the map, with the condition that they have to be contiguous or on the coast. In addition, please use common sense for non-contiguous countries: while a country controlling parts of Sicily and Calabria will be accepted, I will not accept a country consisting of Lapland and Morocco.
Updates
IOTs are turn based games. Each turn is 10 in-universe years. I will update every Saturday or Sunday. Stories and stats will come with each update
Roleplaying
Roleplaying is the essence of IOT. Its how your nation develops. Its how alliances are formed and broken. Roleplaying is very encouraged. Feel free to inhabit your nation with whoever or whatever you want, provided it fits with the setting and the etiquette listed above. PLEASE make your nation plausible for a 6th century Early Medieval setting. And not, cannot have Equestria.
Economy
1 territory is worth 1 Economic Point (EP). You can also build infrastructure (representing farms, manors, etc) by spending 2 IC.
Expansion
If you are not at war, you can send out armies to conquer territories surrounding you. They must be next to your own territories or on the coast (if it is the latter, you'll need a fleet to transport them and the army will be consumed upon annexation). If no other nation claims the same territory, they will be annexed to your empire on update. Note you cannot expand in this manner in wartime. I will post an edited map, with numbered provinces, the first post I want it with the map, but later you can just say for example 3 Europe, also I want the orders to be posted in red bold.
If there are competing claims, you can either discuss it among yourselves, or I will flip a coin. Each province gives you an income of 1 EP. Small territories and islands (i.e. territories with less than 5 pixels) cost .5 to claim and give .5 EP, some islands are in groups.
War
Combat is decided by the RNG, with each army counting as 1 point. Armies are pooled. Each army costs 1 EP and it gives you one roll in the RNG. I will sometimes have "auctions", you will bid on army upgrades and who buys it gets it. Army plans also give bonuses. You may send me secret orders. Each navy costs 5 EP, you may send your navy to destroy the enemies navy so you can invade or blockade him. If you blockade him he may lose 25% of his income, if its an island nation and you blockade him he may even lose 75%. You can only attack a province adjacent to yours, or a coastal province if you destroy his navy. If you are defending from a surprise attack, your forces will be distributed evenly across the front. If a war starts going badly, you may experience revolts.
Stability and Vassal States
Every nation has a stability level, which starts out at 5. This level goes down for every 50 territories you own, if you experience a string of defeats or declare war without what I deem to be a good causus belli, this will go down. A stability level of 4 or less will cause your nation to lose 20*Stability Level% of your wealth, while a stability level of 2 or less will cause revolts. Investing 100 EP will cause your stability to go up by 1.
You can also relinquish certain territories to become Vassal States. Your stability level will go up for every 1 Vassal State that you have of at least 10 territories. You can control what a Vassal State builds and their foreign policy, but their EPs are not counted as yours. If your stability level reaches 3, then they will rebel and declare war on you (note that this does not apply if you already started out with a SL of 3). You can vassalise independent NPCs that are bordering you (or are reasonably close to you on the coast) by spending half of their income.