1792 No frills PBEM

[Marshal Villars]

Sure Kingmaker. I can do that.

[montesaurus]

Per Kingmaker!

"In light of Andrews weekend away can we all please try and get our turns done fast this time in the probably vain hope that we can get T47 & T48 in before he departs".

What happened to turns 30-46?[X(]

[montesaurus]

DRConn has poste the turn![&o]

[montesaurus]

TurkishTurn30isPosted![8D]

[Mus]

Austria is in.

[montesaurus]

Just need PR, FR, and RU!

[Kingmaker]

HiHi

We'll just have to wait on them while B2 decide who's having what re Englands German lands.

All the Best
Peter

[Marshal Villars]

Hey guys. Actually I am dealing with a bug in the game and trying to get an answer from Eric on it before I make my decision.

[Marshal Villars]

Actually, another thing that makes this complicated is a rule loophole which I would like to make sure disappears in the CoGEE patch. However, this is exactly why I am playing PBEM--for testing! It has been noted and I will simply have to discuss it with Eric.

[Mus]

What bug are you running into?

[Marshal Villars]

BEFORE ANYONE READS WHAT IS BELOW, REALIZE I AM FOR EVERY SINGLE PLAYER HERE HAVING A VETO OVER ANY CHANGES OR ADDITIONS OF HOUSE RULES. SO WE WOULD ALL HAVE TO AGREE.

**********************************************************************

You know, I wanted to recommend that we discuss this when I started to notice the effect of protectorate transfers, but I was dissuaded from bringing it up. However, I think now is the time. It is my strong opinion that the transfer of whole protectorates or portions of protectorates to anyone should be prohibited unless it is in a forced peace treaty. I was willing to live with it when the number of protectorates was small, but the potential for abuse is now so high, that I don't know what to say anymore.

Just the first problem with this situation is that a protectorate, when transferred, becomes a homeland province of the accepting nation! This allows any nation to convert protectorates into home land provinces by transferring them to allies and having them transferred back again. Currently, there is NO rule against it.

An extreme example: All of Germany's minor powers which sought out British protection could now, without a hiccup, be handed to another power for wholesale incorporation into another nation's lands, and apparently there isn't a prince in Germany who would complain.

Another issue which I wanted to bring up before, but decided against it because this is "vanilla", is the following problem: I could liberate Genoa and attack it the next turn and incorporate it into France. Fine, this is just an isolated incident, but what happens if this happens 10 times? Do protectorates of powers like this stay protectorates?

In "vanilla" CoG:EE they do. But it is my strong opinion that if someone liberates a protectorate and then declares war on it within one year, that he must then liberate all of his protectorates. If he waits longer than a year to attack it after liberating it, then no problem. If it is liberated through insurrection, then no problem, go ahead and attack it without penalty I guess...or lose 50% of all of your protectorates randomly if attacked within a year as determined with some random method).

If you see my "Thoughts on Treaties" thread, you will see that I have had these concerns for some time, but did not want to post here because of the use of the world "vanilla" when recruiting players.

I don't care if Kingmaker is the appointed rules interpreter if things get grey. And I have nothing against Kingmaker (indeed, I admire his knowledge of the CoG:EE system and his play enough to have dubbed this:"Kingmaker's school of CoG:EE" [:D]. However, I do like to play games with a little realism, and this is really just about to blow it for me. Note, I have no problem with Kingmaker, his style of play (which is always an interesting education in the mechanics of CoG:EE), or with him as a person. In fact, I believe Kingmaker is a player of high integrity who likes to win--and there ain't a damned thing wrong with that! How much integrity do I believe Kingmaker has? So much, that if we had to determine protectorate losses by die roll, I think I would be happy having him do it, but there are better and verifiable ways which would make everyone feel better I think. Indeed, in the period where we had no Spanish player, as everyone can see above, I seconded Montesaurus's recommendation to allow Kingmaker to do the Spanish moves (because I am here to test and take notes on problems...not just to win).

In some aspects, I too wanted to play "vanilla" to see how things worked. For instance, and especially, insurrections. However, I have felt for some time that the protectorate problem has been broken and finally felt I had to speak.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Now, we can keep playing vanilla if everyone wants to. Or we can consider this. Either way, I will keep playing, knowing exactly what needs to be changed in the next CoG:EE patch (or the one after that).

(By the way, the Kingdom of Naples and the Austrian Netherlands were controlled by the larger ruling families of their kingdoms--however, I have a strong feeling that abilities to do anything they pleased with the lands were strongly curbed. So as such, my recommendations to the scenario designer would be to make these regions part of the nations instead of making them protectorates--which should be fully sovereign nations looking for help to keep the greedy French off of them and remain independent).

[Marshal Villars]

My turn will be done and in before I go to bed here in a few hours.

[Mus]

A minor point, protectorates do not become homeland provinces when ceded or liberated and occupied. They become conquered minor provinces. Worth 1 empire point each.

Anyways, I agree with you on the idea of ceding protectorates. It came up and was discussed during "Another PBEM" as something that generally the vast majority people don't think should be happening or possible or so easy depending on the individual.

A Protectorate is a fairly defined legal phenomenon. A protecting power handing over portions of the protected country should either suffer a massive glory hit or just lose the protectorate.

Some kind of mechanism where insurrection would result and guerillas would spawn and troops have to be brought in to quell the uprising might be needed, or perhaps that is more work than it is worth and it just shouldn't be allowed.

I have also noticed issues with demanding liberation of protectorates. Don't know if anyone else has seen it. It just doesn't appear to allow you to demand it.

[Marshal Villars]

"A Protectorate is a fairly defined legal phenomenon. A protecting power handing over portions of the protected country should either suffer a massive glory hit or just lose the protectorate. Some kind of mechanism where insurrection would result and guerillas would spawn and troops have to be brought in to quell the uprising might be needed, or perhaps that is more work than it is worth and it just shouldn't be allowed."

Mus, yes, it would be NICE to have such rules which allowed such attempts perhaps, but the easiest thing to do (and certainly the only thing within our power to do) is to disallow it in our PBEM.

I am for this type of a house rule, and I would suggest a vote, AND giving Kingmaker a veto, since this would obviously affect him the most at the moment.

I think we should vote on the following things (and give Kingmaker a veto, because my code of honor says you don't change the rule to screw the most affected guy in the middle of the game without giving him a veto):

TOPIC 1[:'(]
1a) Is the transfer or splitting of protectorates to be TOTALLY disallowed?
OR
1b) Is the transfer of WHOLE protectorates to be allowed under the condition that the recipient IMMEDIATELY create a protectorate with the received provinces?

TOPIC 2[:'(]
2a) If a nation liberates a protectorate and declares war on that protectorate within two years of liberation, that nation must surrender all of its protectorates on the turn thereafter.
OR
2b) If a nation liberates a protectorate it may not declare war on it for 2 years PERIOD.

Of course, the alternate is, we keep playing vanilla, and no one will be faulted for wanting to do that.

[Mus]

What is raising this discussion? Did I miss England starting to cede out protectorate territories this turn?

I wouldn't be opposed to a house rule necessarily, but generally speaking at the beginning of the game is the better time to do it if it is going to be done.

And what bug were you saying you ran into? Is that the protectorate thing? Is that not WAD?

[Marshal Villars]

Mus, like I said, I would be happy to keep playing vanilla. In fact, I am happy to give everyone playing a veto to keep things as they are. I am not insisting on anything. However, do want to point out a possible serious problem.

And no, Kingmaker has not started handing out provinces. However, I wanted to raise this question a long time ago, when I noticed the effect when other provinces were transferred and I became concerned. And now, I simply want it discussed. Nothing more.

Again, I will go with the crowd on this, but I did want to bring it up.

[Marshal Villars]

Another possibility would be not to allow any peace time handing over of protectorates/parts of protectorates unless 6 out of 8 players okay it--as part of a move. That is, someone must propose a peace time treaty transfer of a protectorate, and for the upcoming turn then 6 out of 8 people have to okay it for it to be allowed. This is just an idea, but it does allow for some transfers which are internationally acceptable (which has merit too, I suppose).

But this starts to get things a little more complicated. Yet I like it.

[Marshal Villars]

I just heard that Kingmaker does not like house rules at all. So, if that is the case, I am cool with that.

My house rule is always "no rules changes in mid game unless EVERYONE agrees".

French turn 30 in.

[montesaurus]

Everybodys and posted and ready to go for turn 30~!

[Kingmaker]

HiHi

Monte re What happened to turns 30-46?

Just testing see if anyone was awake ... Ok,OK I was thinking of the wrong game [8|]

Re all T30 returs in, has Tom sent direct coz he ain't showing on Hotmail? [:(]

All the Best
Peter