Daftpanzer
canonically ambiguous
Faction/Nation Submission Deadline: [timer=09/21/2014 00:00 AM GMT;Submissions Closed][/timer]
Hello NESians, its been quite a while since I launched a new NES. I'm still working on the rules for NEB2, the in-progress draft is shown below. I thought a pre-NES thread is in order, to serve the multiple purposes of: taking provisional signups, creating the cradle area(s) of the map, critiquing/clarifying/streamlining the rules, and generally avoiding mess later on.
I'm very grateful for the interest shown so far
but drawing on past experience I will have to limit the number of player-nation slots, if necessary choosing only some nation submissions that I think will make a good mixture. It won't be first-come-first-serve, so please don't rush!
I'm open to players teaming up on a single nation, taking it in turns to rule or handling different areas of responsibility - Thlayli and Lord Iggy have already expressed interest in doing that. But its not something I will force upon anyone.
Anyway, first, the rules:
NEB2: The Sum of All Powers (working title)
INDUSTRIAL POST-APOCALYPSE FRESH-START NATION-SIM STRATEGIC-BATTLE NES
Link to video.
Welcome to Never Ending Battle vol.2: a never-ending battle of economics and industry, of technology and intelligence, of culture and propaganda, of numbers, of diplomatic wrangling, of sheer willpower and - perhaps - a battle of armies, navies, aircraft and special weapons. This game can be considered the spiritual successor to NEB1, ZPNESV, and other fresh-start projects I've run in the past, mixed with a little bit of NESCraft and 'Nation States'.
It seems to have become my niche to run NESes with a lighter flavour. In this game, the realism of the setting takes a back-seat to gameplay and player-player interaction, and yes - fun. A certain amount of eccentricity of behalf of players is allowed (nay, encouraged), but bear in mind I will be roleplaying the striving masses of each nation. A healthy balance between fun and iron-fisted brutality, and between hard mechanics and fluid moderating, is what I will be striving for here.
It occurs to me that my most successful projects have always been ones where players build on a relatively simple premise and make things their own, and are able to actually do stuff with other players - rather than being thrown into a huge pre-made world and drowned out in a world of NPC's. Therefore, players will start here with a small nation, and be thrown straight into close contact with at least one other player. I also want to encourage paths other than Constant War... Those being trade, enterprise, exploration, cultural exchanges, political struggles... Of course, its all up to you!
A background narrative follows below. TL;DR: a sub-extinction-level-event-sized asteroid has impacted a 1900's-era, alternate-geography earth, and survivor civilizations are now emerging. But aside from this, your nation's background, culture, history, economy, politics, society, even its geography and ethnicity of its people, are all yours to create...
THE STORY SO FAR...
Let us step into an alternate Earth - a world with different geography, where humans have evolved alongside many plants and animals that would be familiar to us, and a few that would not. Over time, civilization arose much as it did in our world, and became ever more entrenched. Industry and global commerce emerged, and the world entered a largely-peaceful 'Belle Époque'; steam travel was already optimised to its maximum potential, and civilization was poised to enter a new era of aircraft, electronics, cars, modern medicine, and gleaming cities of glass and steel, reaching up to the heavens...
Then came The Catastrophe. Some say, the Supreme Deity punished mankind for his arrogance and wavering piety. Some say, Gaia punished him for his rampant abuse of the natural world. Some say, it was fate lending its hand to the Anarchist cause against the entrenched, aristocratic elites. Some say, the Goddess of Destruction wished to rebirth humanity in fire. Some say it was just jolly bad luck...
All we know for sure is that, one day, a flaming mountain fell from the sky. The oceans rolled up over the lands, destroying most of the world's great cities. The Earth tore itself open and erupted in towers of lava. The sky went dark and the air filled with ash. Storms and wildfires ravaged the darkness, until a chilling winter arrived.
For those that survived, sickness and starvation followed. The cities left standing were largely abandoned, as crops withered and farmers could barely sustain their own families. Anarchy ruled; horsemen and biker gangs roamed the continents, while pirates terrorised the coasts with the powerful warships of former navies. Within a few years, more than half of humanity's number had become bones in the dirt... But great leaders emerged to guide pockets of civilization through the night, fighting off raiders and preserving what they could of the Old World, while attempting to forge a new one.
Seventy years have now passed since The Catastrophe. The sky now shines clear again, as if clearer than ever before. Nature has bounced back with surprising speed. Much knowledge and machinery has survived. Industrial societies have been reborn. People have embraced new ideologies. A Brave New World is here for the taking: it is into this world that you and your nation now step forward...
THE NEW WORLD
It is Year Zero, and you are the power-behind-the-throne of an emerging new nation. World population is probably about 500 million - but nobody really knows for sure. Changes to the land and oceans have made old maps inaccurate, and the presence of raiders on land and sea has prevented casual wanderings. Much remains to be re-discovered.
Technology is roughly at the level of 1914 in our world, but your nation will have more advanced tech in one or two areas of choice. Given that necessity is the mother of invention, in this new era there is potential for technology to progress rapidly.
Meanwhile, so-called 'Anarchists' have taken hold over much of the old civilized world: a patchwork of communes, cultists, chiefdoms and nomadic bands. It is a hard and dangerous life, and these people regularly raid each other's lands, as well as those of the emerging new nations. But they have rediscovered a level of freedom and expression that had been unknown for centuries. These people and their ideas may be highly dangerous to your new nation - or perhaps you will find a way to work with them.
WORLD MAP
Piror to Turn 0, I have only a rough plan for the world map. Players are free to choose not only their starting location but also the geography of their nation, and make suggestions for the rest of the map as well; I'll be floating an idea for a seperate, secondary cradle if enough players are interested in that.
The map itself will hopefully be self-explanatory, and we'll be using a graphic set built from previous Daft games and 3rd party artists; which is not only cute and convenient, but easy to customise and easy to read at small scales. Occasional flavour/civilian graphics will be shown on the map, but anything military can be recognised by its rank badges.
If a Town or Factory icons appear on the map, you can assume they are worth at least $1 tax income or 1 Production respectively. Each nation also has a Capital/HQ building which is their centre of government. In war, these can all be individually targeted.
Towns and Factories may cluster together around Ports, Airports, Capitals or other infrastructure to form Major Cities. These will be named on the map, and can be assumed to form a sizeable chunk of the nation's stats, and may be focal points for trade, development and intrigues.
Populations, however, will not be tracked city-by-city or hex-by-hex, but will be abstracted into larger Provinces made up of multiple hexes. At the start of the game, its unlikely any nation has more than one province except some minor island(s).
Provinces will also be individually named. When giving movement orders for units, you can refer simply to the provinces rather than individual hexes - though any landmarks or individual hexes can be named if you wish.
Small Island Territories are unique in that they will consist of one hex that is both land and sea; they are still valid locations for Population, Ports / Airbases etc, and for all kinds of units. These small islands will usually count as mini-Provinces with their own Population.
RULES
Your public stats will look something like this:
Neo-Celtonian Union: Daftpanzer
Liberal Socialist Environmentalist Republic (Faction Flavours & Government)
Prod: 2 (Production Points - for the building of Stuff)
Int: 2 (Intelligence Points - for all things that require brainpower)
Pop: 20 (Available Population / Manpower)
Bank: $2 (Moneys. Recent growth/decline is shown in brackets)
Reinf: $1 (the cost to maintain / repair all military back up to 100%)
Goods: $2 x 3 (the return on selling Consumer Goods here x the amount of demand)
Notes: (this is where I'll pile in misc. background details along with any pressing concerns)
TURN SUMMARY
To begin with, turns take place over the course of one year. The best way to describe the rules is probably to go through the flow of a turn, step by step...
#1: Playing 'Special' Cards
Firstly you can play any special events or bonuses you've acquired - they will come into effect immediately.
#2: Spending Your Money ($)
$ Money is collected from taxes, and from running a trade surplus, selling Consumer Goods, and from any other dealings you happen to make with other players. Money pays for upkeep of your military and social services.
You can also buy and sell at a Trade Hub as and when one appears - you can buy additional Production, hire Mercenary units, or buy military hardware for your own soldiers, among other things. Mercenaries and weapons will take at least a turn to arrive, however.
#3: Ordering Units Around / Combat
Units move around on a hex-by-hex basis and occurs simultaneously for all players.
Each unit has a movement speed or movement range, and perhaps also a bombardment range, which is all counted in hexes. Aircraft will 'likely' crash if you try to exceed their range, while naval units are less limited but will fight at an increasing disadvantage. Note that you can do a Strategic Redeploy to anywhere within you territory, but this takes a full turn to accomplish, and land units need a continuous land corridor with suitable roads/rail - you'll need permission to use a neighbour's land for this. Air and Sea units can similarly redeploy to any friendly Airfield or Port.
Transport Units can carry as many units (or Population, or Production points, or Consumer Goods) as fits their Capacity and they usually only carry certain types of unit (ground, air, infantry etc). Loading a unit onto a transport will consume any remaining moves for both units, unless: both are on the same hex at the start of the turn, or you are loading an adjacent ship via a friendly port. Similarly, unloading / paradropping will end that unit's movement, unless the destination is a friendly Port / Airbase, in which case the unit can move afterwards as normal. None of this prevents the unit fighting or even bombarding after unloading. Makes sense??
Transport Units may also be needed for merchant/supply capacity, to keep your economy and military running, and you'll be informed when this is an issue. This can be particularly important during wartime as independent traders are put off by enemy raiders / blockades etc. Oh, and Transport Units will be needed to Colonise new regions with your Population... More on all that later!
If you happen to be at war, you'll be interested in Combat; by default, uncommitted units will be in 'Sentry' mode, ready to react to enemy attacks in nearby hexes. If you want a unit to Dig In, you must specify it to do so - it will receive a defensive bonus, especially from artillery attacks, but will not be able to move to help other units under attack nearby. You can dig in along a specific hex tile border to block it, or dig in at the centre of a hex - bearing in mind that mobile enemy units 'may' be able to probe around them.
Combat occurs simply by moving onto the enemy, or at least getting in bombardment range. You will be able to tell your men to be ultra-cautious, or launch an all-out attack, or anywhere in-between. While units do have Combat Stats in this NES, there will only be a little dice rolling, and things will not be as mechanical as the combat in ZPNESV for example. Instead I will be making fluid judgement calls for the most part: terrain, supply, fatigue, morale, organisation, flanking, surprise, veterancy / experience, intelligence, and even the weather conditions are all things I will mix into a hearty broth of considerations.
There's a lot more I could say on Combat and (orders for combat), but I'd rather leave it to be a learning experience - there is little IC knowledge of modern warfare. I'll leave it up to players to take notice of what works and what doesn't
VERY IMPORTANT: note that Combat will probably not be as 'fatalistic' as most games you have played. Units will be injured and retreat, lose their heavy gear and downgrade to militia infantry, or they may get captured as PoW's, which you can potentially add to your own population or army later (if they don't get rescued or executed first).
#4: Production and Intelligence Orders
(Playing your 'cards' or projects)
At the beginning of the game, there will be a relatively small list of standard, default projects and builds that anyone can make - Standard Infantry, Ports, Airports, Fortifications etc.
Here I will be trialling a new system for build orders, vehicle designs, covert ops, propaganda campaigns, technology and special projects, etc etc. Think in terms of Magic The Gathering or similar card games; you will have a 'hand' of possible Projects, which you will be able to play only if you spend the required Production or Intelligence points (and perhaps $Money or other things as well).
Note that your 'hand' or potential projects and reserve units will always be private (a google doc) - if you deliberately want to share ideas with another player, you are advised to use your friendly moderator (me) as a middle-man to protect your OOC security. Also if anyone carries out some IC snooping on your secret stuff, they may not be given an accurate picture.
Production naturally represents industrial output, the ability to 'make stuff', while Intelligence represents the collective brain-power of your academics, mavericks, scientists, engineers, code-breakers, analysts etc - along with any electronic calculating devices. Neither of these stats can be banked, but any excess Production can be shunted into Consumer Goods.
Many of your project 'cards' will be repeatable projects or blueprints, which you can share with other players. If any particular design becomes widespread enough, then it may get shunted to the global pile of generic projects for anyone to build.
Many random / chance 'cards' will also appear throughout the game, reflecting what is going on in your nation. These may or may not involve production costs - some will simply be decisions, with associated pro's and con's.
Bear in mind that units will usually require the sacrifice of a Population point (manpower) to become 'active' on the map. You can recoup the manpower by disbanding that unit later - Disbanding is reversible, which is how War Mobilisation works (see below). If you want to completely scrap the unit, you'll get a certain amount of $Money for it as well; ~half the original Production value will actually be converted to Consumer Goods, which will be explained later.
You can thus build units with the sole intention of putting them in reserve, or for sale to other nations, but bear in mind one party will need to physically transport said units.
Anyhow, your building and doing of stuff will come into effect *after* units have moved (and fought, and bombed etc). So be aware that if your factories and cities get bombed, or you lose territory, then your efforts may be disrupted or delayed this turn. Rergardless, any new units will not be able to fight on the same turn.
#5: War Mobilisation / Calling up Reservists
Along with your secret 'hand' of 'cards' / project options, you will have a list of units in storage, and previously-disbanded units - collections of weapons and vehicles lying around in military bases. Provided you have enough free manpower, you can call these up at any time ('Mobilisation!'), however - as with newly-built units - they can't be given any actual orders on the same turn they are mobilising.
Thus, it is not a good idea to have all your forces as reservists if you want to guard against sneak invasions!
#6: Requesting new Projects & Prototypes
As mentioned, this game is controversial in that it does not have a pre-defined tech tree. Want something to improve your economy? Want a new tank design? A new plane or boat? Want to run some covert sabotage on a rival? Want to run a propaganda campaign? Want to build a doomsday device? Well, here is where you request such things. A couple of limits are in place:
* Cannot make more project requests per turn, than you have Production or Intelligence points (whichever is highest - and not counting any bonuses / purchased extras). So if your highest of these stats is 2, then you can make 2 project requests that turn. I will most likely set an absolute maximum as well.
* Cannot have a large amount of 'cards' in your 'hand' at once - IE, unused project ideas floating around. I will let you know when this is a problem. Some will have to be permanently scrapped from the books, or potentially end up in the hands of other players.
Stressing the word request here; the project option(s) that you actually get back may differ from what you asked for - if your original request was too far-reaching, you'll likely get the option to build something else as a stepping stone. IE if you wanted to design something like a King Tiger Panzer, don't be surprised to see a lumbering 'experimental heavy tank' appear in your project list.
You'll have to wait until the end of the turn to get feedback on your request - so we won't be playing 20 questions about exactly what you want or how much it costs. But you can by all means set a target amount of Production or Intelligence that you'd be willing to spend on the finished item.
Note that Prototypes are where you nail down the design of a new unit - they usually don't give you a usable unit and don't consume any manpower. You'll have some idea of the potential combat stats and quirks of a Prototype before you build it, but more quirks may emerge in the process.
All of this should become clear as the game progresses...
Hello NESians, its been quite a while since I launched a new NES. I'm still working on the rules for NEB2, the in-progress draft is shown below. I thought a pre-NES thread is in order, to serve the multiple purposes of: taking provisional signups, creating the cradle area(s) of the map, critiquing/clarifying/streamlining the rules, and generally avoiding mess later on.
I'm very grateful for the interest shown so far
but drawing on past experience I will have to limit the number of player-nation slots, if necessary choosing only some nation submissions that I think will make a good mixture. It won't be first-come-first-serve, so please don't rush!I'm open to players teaming up on a single nation, taking it in turns to rule or handling different areas of responsibility - Thlayli and Lord Iggy have already expressed interest in doing that. But its not something I will force upon anyone.
Anyway, first, the rules:
NEB2: The Sum of All Powers (working title)
INDUSTRIAL POST-APOCALYPSE FRESH-START NATION-SIM STRATEGIC-BATTLE NES
Link to video.
Welcome to Never Ending Battle vol.2: a never-ending battle of economics and industry, of technology and intelligence, of culture and propaganda, of numbers, of diplomatic wrangling, of sheer willpower and - perhaps - a battle of armies, navies, aircraft and special weapons. This game can be considered the spiritual successor to NEB1, ZPNESV, and other fresh-start projects I've run in the past, mixed with a little bit of NESCraft and 'Nation States'.
It seems to have become my niche to run NESes with a lighter flavour. In this game, the realism of the setting takes a back-seat to gameplay and player-player interaction, and yes - fun. A certain amount of eccentricity of behalf of players is allowed (nay, encouraged), but bear in mind I will be roleplaying the striving masses of each nation. A healthy balance between fun and iron-fisted brutality, and between hard mechanics and fluid moderating, is what I will be striving for here.
It occurs to me that my most successful projects have always been ones where players build on a relatively simple premise and make things their own, and are able to actually do stuff with other players - rather than being thrown into a huge pre-made world and drowned out in a world of NPC's. Therefore, players will start here with a small nation, and be thrown straight into close contact with at least one other player. I also want to encourage paths other than Constant War... Those being trade, enterprise, exploration, cultural exchanges, political struggles... Of course, its all up to you!
A background narrative follows below. TL;DR: a sub-extinction-level-event-sized asteroid has impacted a 1900's-era, alternate-geography earth, and survivor civilizations are now emerging. But aside from this, your nation's background, culture, history, economy, politics, society, even its geography and ethnicity of its people, are all yours to create...
THE STORY SO FAR...
Let us step into an alternate Earth - a world with different geography, where humans have evolved alongside many plants and animals that would be familiar to us, and a few that would not. Over time, civilization arose much as it did in our world, and became ever more entrenched. Industry and global commerce emerged, and the world entered a largely-peaceful 'Belle Époque'; steam travel was already optimised to its maximum potential, and civilization was poised to enter a new era of aircraft, electronics, cars, modern medicine, and gleaming cities of glass and steel, reaching up to the heavens...
Then came The Catastrophe. Some say, the Supreme Deity punished mankind for his arrogance and wavering piety. Some say, Gaia punished him for his rampant abuse of the natural world. Some say, it was fate lending its hand to the Anarchist cause against the entrenched, aristocratic elites. Some say, the Goddess of Destruction wished to rebirth humanity in fire. Some say it was just jolly bad luck...
All we know for sure is that, one day, a flaming mountain fell from the sky. The oceans rolled up over the lands, destroying most of the world's great cities. The Earth tore itself open and erupted in towers of lava. The sky went dark and the air filled with ash. Storms and wildfires ravaged the darkness, until a chilling winter arrived.
For those that survived, sickness and starvation followed. The cities left standing were largely abandoned, as crops withered and farmers could barely sustain their own families. Anarchy ruled; horsemen and biker gangs roamed the continents, while pirates terrorised the coasts with the powerful warships of former navies. Within a few years, more than half of humanity's number had become bones in the dirt... But great leaders emerged to guide pockets of civilization through the night, fighting off raiders and preserving what they could of the Old World, while attempting to forge a new one.
Seventy years have now passed since The Catastrophe. The sky now shines clear again, as if clearer than ever before. Nature has bounced back with surprising speed. Much knowledge and machinery has survived. Industrial societies have been reborn. People have embraced new ideologies. A Brave New World is here for the taking: it is into this world that you and your nation now step forward...
THE NEW WORLD
It is Year Zero, and you are the power-behind-the-throne of an emerging new nation. World population is probably about 500 million - but nobody really knows for sure. Changes to the land and oceans have made old maps inaccurate, and the presence of raiders on land and sea has prevented casual wanderings. Much remains to be re-discovered.
Technology is roughly at the level of 1914 in our world, but your nation will have more advanced tech in one or two areas of choice. Given that necessity is the mother of invention, in this new era there is potential for technology to progress rapidly.
Meanwhile, so-called 'Anarchists' have taken hold over much of the old civilized world: a patchwork of communes, cultists, chiefdoms and nomadic bands. It is a hard and dangerous life, and these people regularly raid each other's lands, as well as those of the emerging new nations. But they have rediscovered a level of freedom and expression that had been unknown for centuries. These people and their ideas may be highly dangerous to your new nation - or perhaps you will find a way to work with them.
WORLD MAP
Piror to Turn 0, I have only a rough plan for the world map. Players are free to choose not only their starting location but also the geography of their nation, and make suggestions for the rest of the map as well; I'll be floating an idea for a seperate, secondary cradle if enough players are interested in that.
The map itself will hopefully be self-explanatory, and we'll be using a graphic set built from previous Daft games and 3rd party artists; which is not only cute and convenient, but easy to customise and easy to read at small scales. Occasional flavour/civilian graphics will be shown on the map, but anything military can be recognised by its rank badges.
If a Town or Factory icons appear on the map, you can assume they are worth at least $1 tax income or 1 Production respectively. Each nation also has a Capital/HQ building which is their centre of government. In war, these can all be individually targeted.
Towns and Factories may cluster together around Ports, Airports, Capitals or other infrastructure to form Major Cities. These will be named on the map, and can be assumed to form a sizeable chunk of the nation's stats, and may be focal points for trade, development and intrigues.
Populations, however, will not be tracked city-by-city or hex-by-hex, but will be abstracted into larger Provinces made up of multiple hexes. At the start of the game, its unlikely any nation has more than one province except some minor island(s).
Provinces will also be individually named. When giving movement orders for units, you can refer simply to the provinces rather than individual hexes - though any landmarks or individual hexes can be named if you wish.
Small Island Territories are unique in that they will consist of one hex that is both land and sea; they are still valid locations for Population, Ports / Airbases etc, and for all kinds of units. These small islands will usually count as mini-Provinces with their own Population.
RULES
Your public stats will look something like this:
Neo-Celtonian Union: Daftpanzer
Liberal Socialist Environmentalist Republic (Faction Flavours & Government)
Prod: 2 (Production Points - for the building of Stuff)
Int: 2 (Intelligence Points - for all things that require brainpower)
Pop: 20 (Available Population / Manpower)
Bank: $2 (Moneys. Recent growth/decline is shown in brackets)
Reinf: $1 (the cost to maintain / repair all military back up to 100%)
Goods: $2 x 3 (the return on selling Consumer Goods here x the amount of demand)
Notes: (this is where I'll pile in misc. background details along with any pressing concerns)
TURN SUMMARY
To begin with, turns take place over the course of one year. The best way to describe the rules is probably to go through the flow of a turn, step by step...
#1: Playing 'Special' Cards
Firstly you can play any special events or bonuses you've acquired - they will come into effect immediately.
#2: Spending Your Money ($)
$ Money is collected from taxes, and from running a trade surplus, selling Consumer Goods, and from any other dealings you happen to make with other players. Money pays for upkeep of your military and social services.
You can also buy and sell at a Trade Hub as and when one appears - you can buy additional Production, hire Mercenary units, or buy military hardware for your own soldiers, among other things. Mercenaries and weapons will take at least a turn to arrive, however.
#3: Ordering Units Around / Combat
Units move around on a hex-by-hex basis and occurs simultaneously for all players.
Each unit has a movement speed or movement range, and perhaps also a bombardment range, which is all counted in hexes. Aircraft will 'likely' crash if you try to exceed their range, while naval units are less limited but will fight at an increasing disadvantage. Note that you can do a Strategic Redeploy to anywhere within you territory, but this takes a full turn to accomplish, and land units need a continuous land corridor with suitable roads/rail - you'll need permission to use a neighbour's land for this. Air and Sea units can similarly redeploy to any friendly Airfield or Port.
Transport Units can carry as many units (or Population, or Production points, or Consumer Goods) as fits their Capacity and they usually only carry certain types of unit (ground, air, infantry etc). Loading a unit onto a transport will consume any remaining moves for both units, unless: both are on the same hex at the start of the turn, or you are loading an adjacent ship via a friendly port. Similarly, unloading / paradropping will end that unit's movement, unless the destination is a friendly Port / Airbase, in which case the unit can move afterwards as normal. None of this prevents the unit fighting or even bombarding after unloading. Makes sense??
Transport Units may also be needed for merchant/supply capacity, to keep your economy and military running, and you'll be informed when this is an issue. This can be particularly important during wartime as independent traders are put off by enemy raiders / blockades etc. Oh, and Transport Units will be needed to Colonise new regions with your Population... More on all that later!
If you happen to be at war, you'll be interested in Combat; by default, uncommitted units will be in 'Sentry' mode, ready to react to enemy attacks in nearby hexes. If you want a unit to Dig In, you must specify it to do so - it will receive a defensive bonus, especially from artillery attacks, but will not be able to move to help other units under attack nearby. You can dig in along a specific hex tile border to block it, or dig in at the centre of a hex - bearing in mind that mobile enemy units 'may' be able to probe around them.
Combat occurs simply by moving onto the enemy, or at least getting in bombardment range. You will be able to tell your men to be ultra-cautious, or launch an all-out attack, or anywhere in-between. While units do have Combat Stats in this NES, there will only be a little dice rolling, and things will not be as mechanical as the combat in ZPNESV for example. Instead I will be making fluid judgement calls for the most part: terrain, supply, fatigue, morale, organisation, flanking, surprise, veterancy / experience, intelligence, and even the weather conditions are all things I will mix into a hearty broth of considerations.
There's a lot more I could say on Combat and (orders for combat), but I'd rather leave it to be a learning experience - there is little IC knowledge of modern warfare. I'll leave it up to players to take notice of what works and what doesn't
VERY IMPORTANT: note that Combat will probably not be as 'fatalistic' as most games you have played. Units will be injured and retreat, lose their heavy gear and downgrade to militia infantry, or they may get captured as PoW's, which you can potentially add to your own population or army later (if they don't get rescued or executed first).
#4: Production and Intelligence Orders
(Playing your 'cards' or projects)
At the beginning of the game, there will be a relatively small list of standard, default projects and builds that anyone can make - Standard Infantry, Ports, Airports, Fortifications etc.
Here I will be trialling a new system for build orders, vehicle designs, covert ops, propaganda campaigns, technology and special projects, etc etc. Think in terms of Magic The Gathering or similar card games; you will have a 'hand' of possible Projects, which you will be able to play only if you spend the required Production or Intelligence points (and perhaps $Money or other things as well).
Note that your 'hand' or potential projects and reserve units will always be private (a google doc) - if you deliberately want to share ideas with another player, you are advised to use your friendly moderator (me) as a middle-man to protect your OOC security. Also if anyone carries out some IC snooping on your secret stuff, they may not be given an accurate picture.
Production naturally represents industrial output, the ability to 'make stuff', while Intelligence represents the collective brain-power of your academics, mavericks, scientists, engineers, code-breakers, analysts etc - along with any electronic calculating devices. Neither of these stats can be banked, but any excess Production can be shunted into Consumer Goods.
Many of your project 'cards' will be repeatable projects or blueprints, which you can share with other players. If any particular design becomes widespread enough, then it may get shunted to the global pile of generic projects for anyone to build.
Many random / chance 'cards' will also appear throughout the game, reflecting what is going on in your nation. These may or may not involve production costs - some will simply be decisions, with associated pro's and con's.
Bear in mind that units will usually require the sacrifice of a Population point (manpower) to become 'active' on the map. You can recoup the manpower by disbanding that unit later - Disbanding is reversible, which is how War Mobilisation works (see below). If you want to completely scrap the unit, you'll get a certain amount of $Money for it as well; ~half the original Production value will actually be converted to Consumer Goods, which will be explained later.
You can thus build units with the sole intention of putting them in reserve, or for sale to other nations, but bear in mind one party will need to physically transport said units.
Anyhow, your building and doing of stuff will come into effect *after* units have moved (and fought, and bombed etc). So be aware that if your factories and cities get bombed, or you lose territory, then your efforts may be disrupted or delayed this turn. Rergardless, any new units will not be able to fight on the same turn.
#5: War Mobilisation / Calling up Reservists
Along with your secret 'hand' of 'cards' / project options, you will have a list of units in storage, and previously-disbanded units - collections of weapons and vehicles lying around in military bases. Provided you have enough free manpower, you can call these up at any time ('Mobilisation!'), however - as with newly-built units - they can't be given any actual orders on the same turn they are mobilising.
Thus, it is not a good idea to have all your forces as reservists if you want to guard against sneak invasions!
#6: Requesting new Projects & Prototypes
As mentioned, this game is controversial in that it does not have a pre-defined tech tree. Want something to improve your economy? Want a new tank design? A new plane or boat? Want to run some covert sabotage on a rival? Want to run a propaganda campaign? Want to build a doomsday device? Well, here is where you request such things. A couple of limits are in place:
* Cannot make more project requests per turn, than you have Production or Intelligence points (whichever is highest - and not counting any bonuses / purchased extras). So if your highest of these stats is 2, then you can make 2 project requests that turn. I will most likely set an absolute maximum as well.
* Cannot have a large amount of 'cards' in your 'hand' at once - IE, unused project ideas floating around. I will let you know when this is a problem. Some will have to be permanently scrapped from the books, or potentially end up in the hands of other players.
Stressing the word request here; the project option(s) that you actually get back may differ from what you asked for - if your original request was too far-reaching, you'll likely get the option to build something else as a stepping stone. IE if you wanted to design something like a King Tiger Panzer, don't be surprised to see a lumbering 'experimental heavy tank' appear in your project list.
You'll have to wait until the end of the turn to get feedback on your request - so we won't be playing 20 questions about exactly what you want or how much it costs
. But you can by all means set a target amount of Production or Intelligence that you'd be willing to spend on the finished item. Note that Prototypes are where you nail down the design of a new unit - they usually don't give you a usable unit and don't consume any manpower. You'll have some idea of the potential combat stats and quirks of a Prototype before you build it, but more quirks may emerge in the process.
All of this should become clear as the game progresses...
). This continent will have a mixed heritage of austro-american natives, along with the descendants of colonists from what we would call 'East Asia' and 'Europe' - so you could find both a USA-analogue and a Neo-Shogunate here as well 
