Welcome to War and Peace. An Imperium Offtopicum game set in 1761. It is a time when European countries are becoming richer and powerful, being on the verge of an industrial revolution that will change everything. In the colonies of Europe in the New World, new nations are being born. In Asia, ancient civilizations find themselves challenged by the upstart European powers. Africa is becoming the new battleground of colonialism, as outside powers scramble to take hold of the continent.
A Roleplaying Experience
War and Peace is not an IOT with stats, mechanics and turns. It is not meant to be a strategy game in which you spend a certain amount of EP, XP or some other economic/resource measurement nor is it meant to be a drive to 'win'. It is meant to be a roleplaying experience in which players craft interesting stories and build a vibrant and lively world.
That means that instead of sending orders stating that you spend X resource for Y action, you instead write a post (at the very least two paragraphs long) detailing how that action takes place, in whatever way you please; as a narrative, a dialogue, a news report or some other way. That means, however, that players are entrusted to be realistic about the capacities of their country and take the time to craft their narrative.
Instead of turns, we have an agreed upon timeline. For example, we agree that our current timeline is January - March 1761. Once most players believe we've exhausted the possible stories and actions that could take place within that timeline and that we need to move on, we then move on to the next months. This both encourages collaboration and allows the IOT to move in a faster or slower manner, depending on the situation.
Wars will ideally be decided beforehand by players, who agree on a common narrative of how the war will play out. I expect players to be willing to lose. In case no such agreement can be reached, war will be decided by a combination of a) quality and quantity of each military, b) posts detailing strategy, tactics and command. We should however try not to reach this point. No one likes to lose, but sometimes it cannot be avoided and it can even allow for interesting narratives/posts to play out.
Setting and Joining
As stated, the year is 1761. You can join as any nation you want and craft your own history, with point of divergence being 1200. That means that all events and history that took place before 1200 are set in stone. The rest, however, can be changed. Some things to consider though:
Continuity: As stated, the events before 1200 are set in stone, so you cannot ignore them when creating your own nation and history. You will have to pick up at some point from 1200 onward to make a change, but once you do you have ensure continuity with that past. Plausibility: However cool the idea of a Babylonian Empire or a pagan Greece may be, it simply ain't plausible in this timeline, with 1200 being the point of divergence. When creating your history, you have to be mindful of plausibility. Technology: The technological level of each country will be broadly similar to that of real life during this time. There can be changes: a more open Japan may be closer to Western countries in term of technology and a fractured France may be more backwards than real life France. But generally speaking, European countries will be the more technologically advanced and changes in tech level need to both be plausible and reasonable/explainable. No OP: Do not create overpowered countries. Your nation can be a great power (ala Russian Empire or British Empire) but cannot be great at everything. When describing your nation, be sure to point out weaknesses.
Sign-Up Platform:
Nation Name: Describe the formal and informal name of your nation. Flag: Optional Claims: See map. Also - be rational. Bulgaria will not have a colony in Alabama. Capital: Government: Monarchy (Absolute or Constitutional), Oligarchy, Republic, etch Head of State:
Head of Government: Repeat the above if they are the same person Population: Population should be close to that of rl, with any changes needing to be justified in history section. Goals: Describe the goals of your nation (example: become industrialized, keep off Europeans, etch) Issues: What internal and external issues your nation faces? Social tensions? Overpopulation? Poverty? A powerful rival? Military: Describe your land and naval forces. You need to keep it realistic both in terms of numbers and in terms of technology. Cambodia will not have cutting-edge technology. Bavaria will not have an army of 250,000 soldiers. Very important: all nations have some kind of military weakness. Maybe you have an outdated military or you focus only the navy and do not have good land forces or your supply lines suck. Bottom line, give your military some kind of weakness. A paragraph at least. Economy: Describe in general terms your economy. Is it based primarily on trade, agriculture, etch? Remember a) realism, b) plausibility, c) not OP. History: Plausibility and realism are key words. As stated, 1200 is the point of divergence but you can decide to keep the history the same as in rl up to say 1400 or 1600, and make any changes later on. For example, you can decide to keep the history of China the same up to 1644 but then decide that the Manchu invasion ended up differently. Be sure to be mindful of the histories of other players. If two (or more) players are in the same region, I expect you to talk to each other when crafting your history and ensure that there is some kind of commonality and connection. Remember; what happens in France, affects Spain or Britain, what happens in China, affects Korea or Vietnam. Try not to think in isolation, but rather collaborate to create an interesting alternative timeline.
Note: If you want to claim a territory/country, simply post name and claims on the map to make a reservation. Reservations last up to a week: if I do not see an application until then, your reservation is removed.
(WIP)
Nation Name: Regnum Wittelbach; "Königreich der Pfalz"; "Süddeutsches Königreich" Flag:
Claims: Capital: Heidelberg Government: Enlightened Constitutional Monarchy (very recently a sort of "Proto-Constitution" was put into place) Head of State: König Friedrich Willhelm III.; König der Pfälzer, Pfalzgraf zu Rhein, Herzog der Bayern, Elector des Reiches, Fürst zu Berg, Herzog zu Baden, Herzog zu Würtemberg, Graf zu Hohenzollern etc. Head of Government: Repeat the above if they are the same person Population: 4,9 million. Goals: The Kingdom has, ever since the new King was crowned, one target: Unite the German people, who have since the old Reich collapsed during the "War of Protestant Liberation" in 1624 been split and often ruled by foreign crowns, under one flag. Just like their ancestor once held the Titles of König and of Kaiser of the Germans, so shall the modern Haus Wittelsbacher rule and unite the German people.
A second goal is the continued modernisation of the Kingdom. Since he ascended to the throw seven years ago, Friedrich Willhelm has shown a never ending dedication and energy to reform and improve his realm. Issues:
- A lion among cats, a cat among lions: The size of the Regnum Wittelsbach is both its strenght and weakness. It is large enough to easily influence its smaller neighbors and dominate them. But at the same time it is still not large enough to be a real Great Power, making it dependent on allies to stand up to the Great Powers.
- The dream of the sea: For nation of its size, the lack of any sea ports of its own is a serious problem for the Kingdom. While Rhine and Danube allow for some acsess, these routes are ultimately at the mercy of other powers.
- A lot of reforms, a lot of chaos, alot of money: While the apparatus of the state has worked quite well during the modern history of the Kingdom, the young King has enacted major overhauls in modernization, combined with a massive numbers of edicts and new laws, meant to modernize the nations economy and courts. This has, for the time, lead to a certain level of chaos and overburden for the administration, which does not have the means to do all the king wants. The Royal Budget has also been rather stretched by the kings many programs and investments, currently leaving very little "wiggle room".
- Conservative rumblings: Not everybody loves the Kings reforms, some nobles and many of the old guild are rather unhappy and there is little way to actually cooperate with "The Young Maniac". Military:
The Kingdom has no coastline, therefore it has no navy. Its army however is respectable in both size and skill. 80 000 men strong and well equipped and trained the Palatinate Royal Army is a force to be reconned with. It relies on several major fortresses along its borders and at important choke points. The largest of these is the "Ludwigfestung" in Mannheim, a massive modern fortress, housing a permanent garrison of 3000 men, protecting the western approach to the capital.
Lead by competent generals it is a potent force on the battlefield and has fought in several larger and small conflicts across the old Reich.
The army has not been spared by the Kings reforms, who abolished corporal punishments and signed several edicts to make the service in the Army more attractive. These however still have to actually take effect. Economy:
The Kingdoms economy is relatively properous and robust. While there are certainly poor parts of the nation, it still remains one of the more prosperous nations of the Old World.
Its agriculture, esspecially along the Rhine is productive and can feed the people without difficulty. Large quantaties of wine, tabbaco and lifestock are exported and form the largest exports of the Kingdom. Quite recently the King has founded several "Forschrittsgesellschaften", Progress Societies, meant to introduce improved methods and crops to the Palatinate farmers.
The nations trade is less plentiful, while it controls several old trade routes, these have lost much of their former importance. Rhine and Donau provide connection to the larger world and the Royal coffers get a reasonable amount of coin from tariffs.
Manufacturing in the Palatinate was, until recently, mostly meant for the domestic market. However, it has become sort of a pet project of the King to found "Fabrikstädte", factory towns in his realm, to increase its prosperity and lessen the dependence on certain imports.
These three cities are Kaiserslautern (now home to the Kingdoms largest cloth manufactury, which exports its goods all across the former Reich), Frankentahl (Having become famous for its growing Porcelain Factory) and Ulm (where a second, larger, Royal Arsenal has been founded). However aside from the large, prestigues factories, the smaller ones still struggle and are often dependent on government support to stay afloat.
History: Plausibility and realism are key words. As stated, 1200 is the point of divergence but you can decide to keep the history the same as in rl up to say 1400 or 1600, and make any changes later on. For example, you can decide to keep the history of China the same up to 1644 but then decide that the Manchu invasion ended up differently. Be sure to be mindful of the histories of other players. If two (or more) players are in the same region, I expect you to talk to each other when crafting your history and ensure that there is some kind of commonality and connection. Remember; what happens in France, affects Spain or Britain, what happens in China, affects Korea or Vietnam. Try not to think in isolation, but rather collaborate to create an interesting alternative timeline.
Nation Name: Regno d'Italia
Flag: Claims: Capital: Roma Government: Enlightened Constitutional Monarchy Head of State: Sebastio III Palaeologus Head of Government: Sebastio III Palaeologus Population: 24,000,000 Goals: Ever since the first subduals of the cities in Piedmont by the Montferratese, whether through marriage as with the Savoyards or warfare as with the Genoese republic, the blood of the Romans boiled with a determination to unite the disparate Italian peoples under the authority of the sole remaining heirs to Rome. Now, even as the north of Italy has been reunited, the South still has yet to be reconquered. Once this is achieved, we will strive to become a wealthy and mighty power, capable of rivalling the Great Powers in might and wealth. Issues: The southern regions are held by the King of Naples, who must be brought into the fold one way or another if we are to rule this peninsula, as is our destiny. Though the careful policies of our monarchs have in the past prevented the population of our land from stagnating as it otherwise may have, the rise of New World trade means that the merchants of our peninsula are less wealthy, and thus less money flows into the Italian treasury. Finally, within our nation our people are divided along lines of creed: our new Church, forged in the fires of the Reformation to oppose the might of the corrupt Papacy, still battles the Papists at every turn, and should it falter, the Pope would likely be able to gather the support amongst our people for a restoration of his profane authority over Roma. However, bringing these people into the light of our own faith may prove a challenge, especially in the Apennines. Military: One major advantage our army has near always had in comparison to those of the independent cities was its professionalism. We never relied on the Condottieri as the other cities did, and while at first this was a weakness, our ability to form a new and professional military from it turned it into an immense strength over our enemies. Our armies number 72,000 well-equipped, disciplined and trained soldiers, primarily garrisoned in strategic forts along the defensible Alps or in the south to protect our capital and prepare to challenge our southern neighbor. Our navy is built of small but well-build and modernized galleons with a few heavier ships to spearhead it - it is primarily built for easy maneuvering in the waters of the Mediterranean, but it would be ill-suited for sailing out into the Atlantic. Economy: The incredible wealth of the merchant cities of Genoa and Venice still flows through our society and wealth taxed from it still makes a substantial profit for the treasury, but the merchant empires they built have long fallen and with the New World trade the value of Mediterranean trade becomes reduced more and more. Wine and other agricultural industries do indeed do well here, but perhaps the real wealth of our nation lies beneath the mountains, as great coal reserves are only now beginning to be discovered that could make a great difference in the future of our nation... History:
The history of our peninsula began with the Romans, who once ruled the world and subdued all of it - their dominions started from here, but eventually spread far to the east. While Rome in the west fell apart, to be claimed again only by the Germans centuries later, the East still held a bastion of Imperial authority. The Turk may have seized their land, but before they did the Palaeologus dynasty married into and acquired the duchy of Montferrat. Marriage ties with Savoy helped them to challenge the Genoese to the south, and in a surprising victory they crushed the city's resistance after a long war. Instead of sacking it like so many foreign invaders, however, they secured it and brought it into the fold, using the great power base they now had to integrate and conquer city after city across the north of the Peninsula. It was slow going, but by the time of the Reformation much of the north had been united - almost all of it... except for the Papal States to the south. Though at first the house of Palaeologus had its hands full managing their conquest, soon their eyes turned to the ancestral capital of this peninsula and of the empire they once ruled; Roma.
Some said that they only sponsored a new religious movement in order to justify taking the city from the Holy Father, but most agree that the excesses of the popes at the time had proven that they were hardly to be considered agents of God. Many claim the movement was founded by a preacher from the Huguenots of France, although the new church has many tenets separate from them. Regardless, the Kings of our realm declared the realm to no longer recognize the will of the false Pope in Roma, and moved to take the city from the hands of the corrupt vicar. By and large, the people of the cities we took were happy to be liberated from the yoke of that oppressive tyrant, but dissent to the new Church was already beginning to be whispered in the countryside. Even as the Eternal City was brought back under the rule of the heirs of Rome, religious tensions began to form, even as we spread this new church to our people.
The Romanic Church, nicknamed as such by the common Italian due to the great support for the religion by the Palaeologus dynasty, has legitimized our kingdom's rule of Roma in the eyes of many, but our Papist rivals such as the French and the Spanish saw this as an affront to their faith that the godless Pope was removed from our city, and several wars have been waged between us since then, battles being had in our bastions in the Alps as well as in southern France and even all the way in Roma, but for the time being, even as we fought alongside other powers who broke from the Papists, the conflicts have come to a standstill. The most recent of these, however, has ended with a proper peace treaty that, while it may not hold forever, will at least allow us to finally consolidate southern Italia as we did the north - and perhaps even extend our influence further across the known world.
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