Iron and Blood: A Change of Worlds - Signups/Pregame Threads

[Tee Kay]

(music)​

What is this?
This is Iron and Blood: A Change of Worlds. It’s an experimental turn-based empire-building slash roleplaying forum game, inspired by the original Iron and Blood game.

How does it work?
You create a country on this here map, you play the country, guiding it through the trials of history and interacting with other players playing other countries, with yours truly as your benevolent GM overlord. It is my job to process everyone’s orders and put up updates that begins a new turn.

Is it very complicated?
The game itself isn’t very complicated and it’ll probably take you a couple of minutes to put a minimum order for your turn together. But a big part of the game is storytelling and interacting with other players and that could take a bit more of your time.

How do I join?
Pick three provinces from the map below. Choose one to be your capital province. These provinces must either touch each other or be on the coast. Also choose a flag, preferred colour (for showing things on the map), and a description of your country and its history.

(Note: All provinces are named. Some islands are unnamed; they may be assigned to a nearby province later. And as usual, Switzerland can’t be claimed)

What’s the setting?
The game starts in 1831. Everyone’s technology level is appropriate for that time period OTL. By this time you’re starting to see factories and early railroads appearing. Armies fight with late Napoleonic weapons. You are starting to see early steamships but wooden sailing ships, including ships of the line and fast ocean-going “clippers”, still dominate the waves. It is an exciting time when new ideas and ideologies are rising to challenge the status quo.

How realistic do I have to be?
Good storytelling is more important than strict realism but please keep things fairly plausible. For example, Sun Yat-sen isn’t even alive in 1831 so please don’t make him your country’s leader. Do something stupid and your country develops in game accordingly.

When writing your country’s history, the Point of Divergence is “roughly 1700”, so you are free to play with events between 100 – 150 years prior to 1831 within the realms of plausibility. It is recommended that you work with other players in such worldbuilding exercises.

I’ve signed up, what happens now?
From Wednesday I am going on holiday for a week, with patchy internet access. When I return on February 25 I'll clarify any questions, and then I’ll work out my schedule and announce when the game is actually starting (probably within a week). In the meantime talk amongst yourselves. I trust that if two people claim the same lands, or if someone does something weird, you will resolve any disputes together.


Map

Spoiler real map :

Legend:
Dots: deserts
Triangles: mountainous terrain
Dense confetti: tropical terrain
Horizontal dashes: temperate terrain
Vertical dashes: northern forests
Bricks: ice caps

Spoiler plain map for easier colouring :

Rules

Provinces

Spoiler :

Map is divided into 150 land provinces either owned by a player, an NPC, or is “neutral” (or unclaimed), and a number of sea zones that I can’t be bothered to count. Each land province has a number showing how much IC (or income) they provide (everyone starts with 20 IC, distributed between your three starting provinces; the ICs for the neutral provinces I will add later). Land provinces of a country can be categorized into the following types:

• A capital province is the seat of government of a country. All other provinces must have a viable connection to the capital or they are considered “blockaded”
• A core province is an integral and most loyal part of a country (all your starting provinces are cores). Armies defending a core province get a 50% bonus.
• A non-core province is not so closely attached to your country; they represent colonies or peripheral areas.
• An occupied province is a restless province recently annexed to the country by force. It only generates half the usual income (rounded up).
• A blockaded province is somehow cut off from the capital. It generates no income, and armies fight here at heavy penalties.

Spending

Spoiler :

Income is not carried over between turns, but investment in “techs” does. There are three different types of techs you can invest in: military, society, and economy. ("Tech" here is not necessarily technology in the strictest sense, but development in general).

Techs are bought in levels, and once you complete a level of tech you can select a bonus. For instance, a Level 1 military tech costs 10 IC. Once you have spent 10 IC to advance to level 1, you can choose to build (for example) an army unit. You can earn more than one bonus per turn; so if you spent 20 IC to advance to level 1, you can build two army units, or one army and one naval unit. (If you spent, say, 25, you still get two bonuses, and 5 IC carries over to the next level of investment)

Each new level of each tech type is 10 more expensive than the previous level. Also, each non-core province you own adds 10 to all tech costs, and each occupied province adds 20.

Military tech bonuses:

• Build an additional army or naval unit
• Conduct an espionage mission
• Annex a neutral (ie unclaimed) province (also requires a number of units equal to the neutral province IC; those units can't do anything else that turn if you do this)

Society tech bonuses:

• Increase Stability (a country has stability rating from 1-5, low stability increases revolt risk and makes a country more vulnerable to espionage missions)
• Increase Culture (high culture increases the chance of beneficial events happening)
• Change a province status (from occupied to non-core, and from non-core to core)

Economy tech bonuses:

• Add a point of IC to a province, increasing your income

Events

Spoiler :

There are two types of events. A bad kind of event depends on your stability rating; low stability means more chances of getting events like a rebellion or financial crisis.

A more pleasing event depends on your culture (taken as a percentage of total culture of all countries). This gives you a one-off “bonus card” you can use at any time (for instance, ignore terrain penalties in one battle, or receive double tech bonuses in one turn)

Combat

Spoiler :

All units are in a national pool, and players reallocate them to their positions on the map each turn. It is recommended that you allocate your military units each turn, even if you’re not at war. You might be a target of a surprise attack.

You may attack any province adjacent to land you own, land owned by a cobelligerent, or on the coast IF you also that turn succeed in defeating any enemy fleets in the sea zone(s) you are attacking from or travelling through.

Your “strength” in a battle is the number of units present, modified by these other factors:

• Land attack through difficult terrain (desert, mountains, tropical, northern forests): x0.5 (calculated separately for each direction of attack)
• Additional difficult terrain present in the province: x0.75 for each additional terrain (only if not already accounted for in the previous manner)
• Land units performing amphibious attack: x0.75
• Land units defending a core province: x1.5
• Land units blockaded: x0.25
• Land units attacking from more than one direction: x1.5 for each additional direction
• Naval units fighting in zone adjacent to a friendly core province: x1.5
• Naval units fighting in zone adjacent to a friendly non-core province: x1.25
• Chance (using a random number generator): between x0.75 to x1.25

Example: 10 land units attacking through mountains and 10 land units attacking through tropical jungles, playing an “ignore tropical penalties” bonus card, and x0.87 from RNG, the final strength is (10x0.5+10)x1.5x0.87 = 19.575

The side with the higher strength wins the battle.

• Winning a battle: gain control of province/sea zone, 25% probability of each unit being destroyed, 50% probability of receiving a one-off bonus card
• Losing a battle: 50% probability of each unit being destroyed, 25% probability of a stability drop by one point.

Disclaimer
Taillesskangaru is the creator and GM of this game and reserves the right to at any time change rules, modify a player's country, or request that part or all of a player's application or order be modified, and additionally dispense with a player country as he sees fit in the event of a player becoming inactive or quitting the game.

 

[Kinich-Ahau]

Will players be penalized for not telling stories?

 

[Tee Kay]

Will players be penalized for not telling stories?

The game will be considerably less interesting for you.

Edit: the way I do events is, I give you events that reflects how you roleplay the country. A militaristic country will get more military-related events. If I have no indication of what your country is like, then I'll give you something boring.

 

[Civ'ed]

Name: Nouvelle Babylone
Capital: Bagdat (Renamed Babylone) , Mesopotamia


National flag

Spoiler :

Standard of the High Judge Michel Ney
Government: De facto a monarchy. The Leader of the government is the High Judge, who is as currently Michel Ney. There is a parliament, called the Council of 30 (Conseil de 30), and an upper house called the Circle of the Ziggurat (Circle du Ziggourat). 30 people are elected into the Conseil and the Ziggurat consists of 10 personally-appointed men.
Religion: A mix of Catholics and Muslims. Officially, the government has no church, and Ney's religion is often disputed.
History: Following the Success of the Egypt Campaign, Michel Ney was reassigned and tasked to take over valuable areas within Arabia. There, he found a great interest in mesopotamian circles, and after his command came under scrutiny following the battle of Dowzdab in Persia, Ney declared the Free Imperial Republic of New Babylon in 1807. The Death penalty was abolished for most crimes save murder in 1816.

 

[Ailedhoo]

Marathas Empire

Claiming Bombay (capital; may alter name but still considering...), Madras and Orissia.

National Aims

Exploit the fall of the Mughal to expand and claim India as a single empire.
Conduct a Hindu temple construction program across India.

I will write up later on my Indian power!

 

[SouthernKing]

Claiming Egypt, Sudan, Jordan

 

[Kinich-Ahau]

Claiming New England, Midwest, & Appalachia

 

[Tee Kay]

Claiming New York/New England, Northwest Territory, & the Southern Colonies

Can you use the map labels? Thanks.

 

[Tee Kay]

Note: Sign-ups is sort of on a first-come-first-served basis. However, if you really want certain provinces, feel free to negotiate among yourselves. Nothing is finalised until I get back from holiday.

 

[Polyblank]

Claiming Rhineland, Berlin and Bavaria.

 

[BSmith1068]

Swaziland.

Claiming Transvaal*, Cape and Mozambique.

Swaziland will rise again.

Modern Swazi flag
Color: 3D5DB8

 

[SamSniped]

Intrigued.

 

[erez87]

Hmm, maybe I'll join this. I'm not 100% with the rules, so I will ask a lot of questions...

Do all territories make 20IC?

Do I have to advance in military tech in order to move my units into another territory? -> "Annex a neutral province (also requires a number of units equal to the province IC)", Does that mean I need 20 units all across my land, or advancing into the territory, to use this? Does it mean annex without a battle and losses?

Do we "advance in tech" in order to build units etc or is there another way to build units? or in other words, do we spend IC only on the tech advancement?

Oh. And is Hawaii not a province? I guess it's part of North Pacific Islands. Is that an entire province? And is Florida a province?

 

[Tee Kay]

Do all territories make 20IC?

No, you choose your territories first, I parcel out a total of 20IC to each player, then I write in the IC for the rest of the provinces.

Do I have to advance in military tech in order to move my units into another territory?

So, let's say there's a Nes-West Frontier Province that is not claimed by a player. That's a so-called "neutral" province. NWFP has an IC of 5. So if you advance in tech, you can annex that province, but you also need 5 free land units as an additional requirement to annex (ie that turn you won't be able to use those units for anything else). But no battle takes place.

It's a bit like colonising in EU3.

Do we "advance in tech" in order to build units etc or is there another way to build units? or in other words, do we spend IC only on the tech advancement?

"Teching" is necessary to build units, yes. Note that the three categories of tech are separate, so in a turn you can spend on military, economy and/or society.

I was trying to come up with a better name before this. I thought "investment", but then, iunno that's three syllables and it sounds a bit weird. Perhaps that's a better term.

Oh. And is Hawaii not a province? I guess it's part of North Pacific Islands. Is that an entire province? And is Florida a province?

Ah fracking, I knew I forgot something. Hawaii is a province as is Florida, I just forgot to name them. I'll fix that now.

Edit: OP edited to clarify things

 

[erez87]

How about budget? Military budget, culture budget, economy budget?

And just to make sure, so we can move units freely into neutral locations, but there will be a battle. Is their military decided by their IC?

Is IC going to be randomly spread around the entire map after players join (and each player's 20IC is going to be randomly spread around his territories?)


Is the neutral Switzerland an IOT thing?

 

[Ailedhoo]

Is the neutral Switzerland an IOT thing?

An Iron and Blood tradition. Other IOTs do allow Switzerland to be played as; one of Sone's (I think) 2014 games for instance had the Swiss Empire, who challenged my own French Empire over the Med and Hispania.

 

[Tee Kay]

How about budget? Military budget, culture budget, economy budget?

Tech investment is basically your budget. You get income as IC, you spend it on one of three categories.

The economic system here is hugely hugely simplified, and is based on an early IOT called Iron and Blood. It's a personal design choice, I do it this way to cut down on calculations and update time. So this game will have more of a boardgame feel rather than your usual NES feel.

And just to make sure, so we can move units freely into neutral locations, but there will be a battle. Is their military decided by their IC?

Units can't move freely into neutral locations, no.

Is IC going to be randomly spread around the entire map after players join (and each player's 20IC is going to be randomly spread around his territories?)

That's the idea, yes (well not strictly random, I'm not going to make Greenland more economically valuable than Bengal, but sort of random)

Is the neutral Switzerland an IOT thing?

Just my thing.

 

[erez87]

Ah, I meant just call it budget , tech does sound a bit.. weird...

So how do you move units around the map?

And cool about the Swiss thing.

And sorry for being annoying , just want to make sure I understand the rules.

 

[Tee Kay]

Ah, I meant just call it budget , tech does sound a bit.. weird...

That's a good idea, actually. But budget, with levels?

So how do you move units around the map?

I guess units don't move in the traditional sense.

With land units, you either order units to defend or attack a province that turn. Units can defend any province that you or your ally own - but if the route to that province from your capital is blocked, then those units gets a 75% penalty to their strength. Similarly units can attack any province adjacent to those you or your ally own, or a province you can reach by sea. After the turn, all (surviving) units go back into the national pool, and you issue new orders for the next turn.

I do it this way because one turn covers 1-5 years, so it's not unreasonable for units to travel to the other side of the world within the turn. Also, simplification.

Similarly naval units can be ordered anywhere on the map (well, not land...). But they get a bonus if fighting close to a friendly port. So, say, if you're a Baltic power and you're crazy enough to send a fleet all the way around the world to, say, the East China Sea, the locals will have a significant advantage over you.

Dont' be sorry for being annoying, it's nice 'cause I then see what needs clarification or tweaking. Edit: for instance, I can see I probably need a special provision for when units are encircled after a battle.

 

[GreekAnalyzer]

Would it be okay if my PoD was in the 1630s AD?