- Joined
- Mar 31, 2008
- Messages
- 14,926
Shadow of the Fall
In the summer of 1878, a comet exploded in the Earth's atmosphere. Comet fragments blanketed the Northern Hemisphere, causing destructions far and wide. Some cities were destroyed outright, while many coastal cities were destroyed in tsunamis caused by the fragments landing in the Atlantic Ocean. These events, coupled in the advent of a long winter, resulted in the collapse of industrial society. The winter would last three years.
The year is now 2025. It has been over a century since the Fall. The climate has recovered, but the great European empires of yesteryear are mostly long gone. Some European elites and royalty were able to evacuate their homelands before the collapse of society. In other regions, the reign of the Europeans is long, long over.
Joining
Spoiler :
Empire Name:
Government: Describe your government in two to three words. Additional description is suggested, but not required.
Society: Describe your society in a few sentences. Additional description is suggested, but not required.
Capital Province: Your capital will begin with a commerce center.
Core Provinces: Claim 3 Provinces
Reach Provinces: Claim 3 Provinces
Far Reach Provinces: Claim 6 Province
Focus Techs: (In descending order of national importance) [Army/Navy/Air/Ind/Com]
Army Doctrine: 5 Army Points
Naval Doctrine: 5 Naval Points
Air Navy Doctrine: 5 Air Fleet Points
History: Required. An essay isnt needed. A general history of this empire between 1880 and 2025 would be greatly appreciated.
Government: Describe your government in two to three words. Additional description is suggested, but not required.
Society: Describe your society in a few sentences. Additional description is suggested, but not required.
Capital Province: Your capital will begin with a commerce center.
Core Provinces: Claim 3 Provinces
Reach Provinces: Claim 3 Provinces
Far Reach Provinces: Claim 6 Province
Focus Techs: (In descending order of national importance) [Army/Navy/Air/Ind/Com]
Army Doctrine: 5 Army Points
Naval Doctrine: 5 Naval Points
Air Navy Doctrine: 5 Air Fleet Points
History: Required. An essay isnt needed. A general history of this empire between 1880 and 2025 would be greatly appreciated.
Some empires will be randomly selected to be great powers, who will receive all their claims. Others will be selected to be regional powers, who will receive their reach claims. Some will just be normal powers, consisting of just their core three claims.
Government and Expansion
Your country's government can be a tinpot dictatorship, liberal democracy, or anything in between. Democracies will have regular (or not) elections, dependent on how often the government wishes to run them.What is important to remember is that your actions have consequences in different governments, and actions that would fly in a dictatorship may not fly in a republic.
Core Territories
All starting, non-colonial provinces begin as cores. Armies will fight harder to defend and retake core territory and wealth will grow faster in cored provinces.
The longer a province is controlled by an empire, the greater the chance the province is cored. The longer a province is uncontrolled by an empire, the greater the chance it loses its core on that province. A single province can be cored by multiple empires.
Expansion and Wastelands
Provinces unclaimed at game start are assumed to be a hodgepodge of minor kingdoms, republics, and tribes thanks to the societal disruption caused by the Fall. Seizing an unclaimed province can be done Diplomatically or Militarily.
Diplomatically, a special project can be issued which can lead to the annexation of the province in only a turn or two. Militarily, an army expedition can be sent into the province, but this could rouse great resistance and pull in other regional powers.
Wasteland provinces can be claimed, but the rate of economic growth in wastelands is capped. Over time, wastelands will become tamed and growth will no longer be capped.
Stability
The Issue system has been replaced with a Stability system. Stability runs from 0 to 10, and there are various bonuses and penalties at each level.
8+: Very Stable. Bonus to coring and assimilating provinces. Annexing new provinces incurs a negative trend. Cannot be couped.
5.00 to 7.99: Stable. Normal coring and assimilation rates. Cannot be couped.
2.00 to 4.99: Fragile. Cannot core or assimilate provinces. Chance of discoring (unowned cores popping up in provinces).Can be couped.
2 or lower: Collapsing. Civil war imminent. Can be couped.
Stability is affected by Trends. Trends are like Issues from Capto Iugulum, but can either add Downtrend or Uptrend Points. The more Uptrend Points a trend has, the faster stability will rise. The more Downtrend Points a trend has, the faster stability will fall. Whether national stability rises or falls depends on whether there are more downtrend or uptrend points in play.
Stability, itself, is a trend. The greater your stability, the faster stability will rise.
Stability affects interest rates.
Culture and Influence
Cultural Influence represents the strength of your culture. In Shadow of the Fall, every country generates Culture and Influence. Influence is used for one of three things: Strengthening one's own culture, weakening somebody's culture, or strengthening one's culture in another country.
Your culture has six possible levels when present in another country: Unknown, Exotic, Familiar, Popular, Influential, and Dominant. Higher levels provide greater bonuses to espionage actions and reduces unrest penalty when occupying/annexing provinces. At Influential and higher, your country can gain a chance to core provinces within the affected country.
There are other potential consequences to cultural exchange that will be revealed in events.
Agents
An Agent is a multifunctional unit: Diplomat, Merchant, and Spy. Each costs 50 gold to train, 5 gold to maintain.
A DIplomat can warm or cool relations with other countries. Warming relations will channel 15 Influence to the targeted country and funnel 5 back. Cooling relations decreases the targeted country's influence by 15 at home, but decrease your Influence in that country by 5.
Merchants can trade. A Merchant will generate gold on both ends based on trade policy, as well as as a transfer of influence both ways.
Finally, spies can do spy things. Here is a short list of some possible actions besides watching out for enemy spies.
Build Spy Ring: Expanding your spy ring in a country increases your chances to successfully perform other missions in a country. As we go down the list, the missions become more difficult. This action in neutral, unclaimed, provinces will just increase the just of economically annexing the province.
Domestic Propaganda: If successful, increases the impact of a new positive trend, or an existing trend. However, each successive propaganda attempt has a decreased chance of success.
Establish Secret Police: This can only be used domestically. Using an agent as a secret police force will decrease the impact of a new negative trend that turn or, failing that, an existing trend. However, there is also a chance of domestic backlash.
Steal Plans: If successful, you'll gain a bonus fighting against that country for a turn and a smaller bonus the next turn.
Sabotage: If successful, destroys an amount of stored IP.
Foreign Propaganda/False Flag/Etc: If successful, creates a negative trend in the target country.
Arm Rebels: Only works in countries with less than 5 Stability. If successful, this opens up a channel to arm and train rebels. Once a channel is open, you can send IP and gold through. When a rebellion pops, rebels will use this gold and IP (along with their own) in the uprising. Opening up multiple channels makes shutting down this network more difficult.[/spoiler]
Policies
Policies are a set of high-level decisions that guide your country's social and technological development. For simplicity purposes, they've been boiled down to a handful.
Tech Schools
- Traditional Academia: No bonuses or penalty.
- Military-Industrial Complex: Bonus to Army and Industry, penalty to Navy and Culture.
- Sea Power and the Merchant Marine: Bonus to Navy and Commerce, penalty to Army and Culture.
- Business Schools and Tycoon Capitalism: Bonus to Commerce, Culture, and Industry. Penalty to Army and Navy.
- Avantgarde Intelligentsia: Bonus to Culture, penalty to Army, Navy, and Industry
- Corporative Industrialism: Bonus to Commerce and Industry, penalty to Army and Navy
Social Welfare (None, Minimum, Moderate, Heavy): Creates a small, permanent, positive trend at minimum or higher (1, 2, and 4 respectively).
Army, Naval, Industrial, Commercial, and Cultural Research and Development (None, Minimum, Moderate, Heavy for each): Increases tech point generation in respective fields.
Trade Policy (Free Trade, Export-Focus, LImited Exports, Autarky): Increases the amount of gold people can generate throwing Merchants at you. There are additional bonuses
- Free Trade: +15% Industrial Production, -10% Research Time.
- Export-Focus: +10%/-5%
- Limited Exports: +5%/-1%
- Autarky: Nothing
Monetary Policy (Status Quo, Expansionary, Inflationary): Status Quo is the default. Expansionary throw more heat into the economy, increasing economic growth and instability. Deflationary policy causes an immediate mild recession, but reduces instability.
Economic Mobilization: Affects the amount of IP converted to MP, which is used to supply and build units.
- Civilian Economy: 5% of Factories are Military. +30% bonus from civilian stockpile.
- Light Mobilization: 20% of Factories are Military. +10%
- Partial Mobilization: 35% of Factories are Military. -10%
- War Economy: 50% of Factories are Military. -20%
- Total Mobilization: 65% of Factories are Military. -30%
Economy
The basic economy in this game works on the provincial level. Every province has Wealth, representing general economic activity in the province. As Wealth rises, industry and commerce will grow, as will your tax income!Almost every action affects the trajectory of your local economies.
Taxation
As your economy grows, so will your tax revenue. If times of financial need, you can raise your tax level. As you can imagine, this isn't usually popular politically.
You can also tax specific provinces. Taxes can be set negative.
Taxes are collected in gold.
Industry
You, the player, do not build factories. Whether youre a free market capitalist economy or planned economy, the job of expanding industry and commerce is in the hands of planners, managers, capitalists, and people.
Provincial wealth is the dominant factor in industrial growth.
Factories produce IP. IP can be spent or banked. Banked IP increases economic growth in all provinces, especially industrial provinces.
Technology
There are five technology lines: Land, Sea, Air, Industry, and Commerce.Land: Stronger Armies!
Sea: Stronger Navies!
Air: Stronger Air Navies!
Industry: Industry!
Commerce: Commerce!
Technology advances based on your empires wealth and focuses. The wealthier your empire, the faster your tech advances. The further behind you are technologically, the faster you will catch up.
Military
You military consists of two branches: Army and Navy. In Shadow of the Fall, the military equipment used by the imperial powers isnt all too dissimilar from the equipment used by their OTL 1910s counterparts, with the major point of difference being the proliferation of capable military airships.Building and Training Armies and Fleets
In Shadow of the Fall, units are grouped together into Armies and Fleets. An Army is commanded by a General, while a Fleet is commanded by an Admiral. Every army or fleet must be commanded by a commander, and costs an Army or Navy Point to create and maintain each turn. A single general or admiral can command multiple armies or fleets, but their command bonus is reduced.
Each unit has an MP Cost and Upkeep as well as Gold Cost and Upkeep.
If you pay double the MP Cost, you do not have to pay the Gold Cost.
MP Upkeep
Every Army or Fleet is made up of units needing supplies. Supplies are delivered by the Logistic Force. How many supplies a force needs depends on its status and readiness.
Armies have several
- Owned Core: Base
- Non-Core: +50%
- Overseas: +100%
- Hostile/Occupied Province: +150%
- Hostile/Occupied Overseas: +200%
Fleets have a few.
- Core Port: Base
- Non-Core Port: +50%
- Overseas Port: +50%
Armies and Fleets can be assigned three levels of readiness.
- Standby: Ready to go, default.
- Low Readiness: -50% Upkeep, but halved strength.
- Zero Readiness: -100% Upkeep, halved strength, additional casualties in combat.
Example: The Zulu Empire conquers and pacifies Madagascar, a non-core province. The army on Madagascar is on standby. Because Madagascar is overseas, upkeep is increased by +100%. The Zulu Empire puts the army on zero readiness. This reduces upkeep to 100% of base cost (down from 150%), NOT down to 0%!
The Logistic Force
The Logistic Force is built and attached to an Army or Fleet. Each LF costs 5 MP and 25 Gold, requires 2.5 Gold upkeep, and can deliver 1 MP/turn in supplies.
If an army's MP upkeep is 10, it needs 10 LF.
If the supplies delivered to a force is smaller than needed, it will suffer attrition. If the supplies deliverable to a force is greater than the supplies/MP it needs, it will be able to heal damage in combat by draining your MP stockpile.
Land Forces
Each of these units represents a regiment's worth of men and equipment.
Infantry, Headquarters, and Weapon Teams
All of these cost 1 MP to build, 5 Gold to build, .1 MP/turn upkeep, and .5 gold/turn upkeep.
Engineers [40 WT/0 TRAN]: Infantry units trained to overcome obstacles and fixed defenses. Represents 400 soldiers.
Command Post [25/0]: Represents the tactical operation centers of the army and includes staff officers and assistants. Represents 100-125 staff.
Draft Force [480/480]: A Draft Force is a large group of teamsters and draft animals dedicated to pulling around artillery. In general, an army with a draft force can pull 12 AAA, 15 Heavy Artillery, or 6 Light Artillery.
Heavy Support Weapons [25/0]: Crew-served heavy support weapons, such as heavy machine guns. Represents ~75 heavy support weapons plus crew.
Mortar Teams [100/0]: Mortar Teams provide very light artillery support. Represents ~100 mortar pieces plus crew.
Cavalry [50/0]: Cavalry are riflemen mounted on horseback or camel. While seemingly old-fashioned, cavalry are still invaluable on harsh battlefields where the enemy is behind in military technology advances. Represents ~250 mounted riflemen.
Infantry [40/0]: What more can be said? With little more than bolt action rifles, the humble infantrymen is the backbone of any ground force. Represents ~400 soldiers.
Parafighters [35/0]: A parafighter regiment is a regiment meant to drop from airships (which are included in the cost of parafighters). Parafighters are remarkably valuable for their ability to secure objectives, but because airships are easy targets, it is important to deal with anti-aircraft weapons on the ground and in the air. Represents ~350 soldiers.
Marines [35/0]: A marine regiment is an infantry unit designed to make amphibious landings, so won't suffer a massive reduction in combat efficiency when ordered to land on a hostile beach. Represents ~350 soldiers.
Towed Heavy-Weapons
All these units cost the same as the above.
Antiaircraft Artillery [40/0]: AAA are weapons designed to deal with aircraft and airships. Represents ~10 AAA.
Heavy Artillery [32/0]: Howitzers, average caliber of 105mm, with a variety of shells ranging from shrapnel to high-explosive. Heavy artillery is invaluable against entrenched defenders and for defending fortifications. Represents ~8 heavy artillery.
Light Artillery [80/0]: Like heavy artillery, but smaller. Around 77mm. Sacrifices heavy firepower in favor of speed and volume. Represents ~40 light artillery.
Vehicles
All these units cost the same as the above.
Armored Cars [80/0]: Light, wheeled vehicles armed with machine guns and sometimes a cannon. Largely meant for reconnaissance. Represents ~20 armored cars.
Heavy Trucks [320/320]: Heavy Trucks are an advanced form of Draft Teams. Not only can they tow equipment, but can Infantry and Command units as well.
Light AAA [140/0]: An armored car with AAA instead of machine guns or a cannon. While Light AAA helps with dealing with pesky air knights, it is a surprisingly terrifying weapon when used on infantry or civilians. Represents ~35 light AAA.
Armor [64/0]: These earlier variation of heavily-armed armored vehicles weigh between around 25 tons and move remarkably slowly. Represents ~8 armor.
Air Units
[MP Cost/Gold Cost/MP Upkeep/Gold Upkeep] (WT/Transport)
Airships [1/5/.1/.5] (0/6]: With the rising tide of prop-engines, the airship is finding itself pushed out of is short-lived bombing career to a more lucrative intelligence career. Airships provide some of the same benefit as a command post and helps military command process and make use of battlefield information. Represents ~3 airships.
Bombers [4/20/.4/2] (48/0): A bomber wing drops bombs on targets, which tend to be large and stationary such as trenches or cities. Represents ~3 bombers.
Fighters [1/5/.1/.5] (24/0): Fighter wings are interceptors designed to deal with other planes. Represents ~3 fighters.
Fighter-Bombers [2/10/.2/1] (24/0): Fighter-Bombers are a mix between fighters and bombers. They can deal more damage to targets than fighters, but can't fight fighters one on one at the same tech level. The bomb load they can carry is smaller than one a bomber can carry. However, a Fight-Bomber wing can deliver its payload more accurately. Represents ~3 fighter-bombers.
Sea Units
Battleship [250/1,250/25/125] (0/4): First of all, consider the cost of a battleship. Remarkable isn't it? A battleship is, above all else, a floating fortress. The heaviest weapons you can imagine are mounted on battleships and in a standup fight, nothing beats a battleship one-on-one but another battleship.
Cruiser [163/815/16.3/81.5] (0/4): A cruiser deals with a problem rising powers have: battleships are too expensive for my purposes. In a standup fight, nothing can really beat a cruiser except maybe another cruiser, and definitely a battleship.
Destroyers [6/30/.6/3] (0/2): A destroyer is a remarkable ship: remarkably weak against capital ships, but cheap enough to field in quantity. Can 41 destroyers defeat a battleship? The better question is how willing are you to test this.
Fast Attack Boats [1/5/.1/1.5] (0/0): Unlike other naval vessels, these come in packs of three and are really only useful for coastal work. Fast Attack Boats are typically armed with torpedos.
Monitor [1/5/.1/.5] (0/0): The Monitor is a coastal ship designed around assisting ground forces near the coast.
Landing Craft [1/5/.1/.5] (0/8): Landing craft is designed to allow troops to rapidly disembark on hostile beaches. Landing forces onto beaches with landing craft is possible, but they'll suffer a penalty.
Submarine [8/40/.8/4] (0/1): Submarines are stealthy predators armed with torpedos and deck guns. Beware the submarine.
Last edited: