Hallo zusammen!
welcome to the second 1648 playtest! I was pretty happy how the first one went and hope we shall all find the sequel a most enjoyable experience.
I like to think our player roster is a healthy mix of 1648 "veterans" and "new blood". Dirk, Mikael and the past game's winner, Jorge, all played right from the outset of that game, while Harvey joined as a replacement towards its end. If you're interested in their past exploits and wish to learn how that first playtest went, check out DC264's game page and message board over at www.diplomaticcorp.com. Note, however, that the present map (3.0) differs on five counts from that previous version.
I've included the previous game's observers in the mail list. If you wish to not to receive future mails relating to this game, let me know.
Now on to some critical matters:
RULES:
The game uses the v3.0 rules and map. These may be found at http://www.dipwiki.com/index.php?title=1648. I've lately amended my own House Rules and shall send you an updated version in a follow-up mail.
KEY PLAYER RESPONSIBILITIES:
Next to other more mundane matters, I want to stress four key points of particular importance to me:
Players are required to:
forward to the GM all email messages sent to other players. This is most invaluable for evaluating the playtest. For one, I mean to base some statistical analysis on the players' interaction with each other. Rest assured that all private correspondence will be kept strictly confidential.
submit preliminary Spring and Fall orders no later than 48 hours prior to the deadline. For this game, I shall adopt the practice of replacing any player who misses a spring or fall deadline (short of a supremely compelling explanation). As an extra safeguard against such an eventuality ever occurring, I am requiring players to submit a complete (preliminary) set of orders at least 48 hours in advance. I shall then enter the preliminary orders into Realpolitik, check for any mistakes and notify players of any mistakes they made (and, believe me, I caught plenty of mistakes last game!). These "mock-deadlines" will be noted in brackets in the Deadline Schedule section of every adjucation.
submit an end-of-game report.
declare with whom of the players they're playing in other settings.
DEADLINE EXTENSIONS & TEMPORARY REPLACEMENTS:
Players ought to let me know well in advance when they might be unable to communicate. I may grant extensions if requested for good reason, but advise you to seek a temporary replacement during prolonged absences. I shall try to keep us on a Wednesday-Friday routine.
MAIL:
1) As noted above, I require players to forward (CC) all diplomatic correspondence they send to me.
2) Any public messages need to be CCed to our message board. Our window to the outside world, so to speak. I shall provide the email adress to you once we're assigned one. I recommend you subscribe to the forum, once in place, so you don't miss anything that might be directly posted there.
3) For your orders, please send them with the following header format:
1648 Sp49 A1
The above refers to the first Austrian order set sent to me for the Spring 1649 Moves.
Note that retreats and adjustments are combined into one adjucation. You may make your adjustments conditional on any retreats.
4) I encourage (not require) players to also adopt the following header format for their negotiations:
1648 Sp49 ATW
"AST" here meaning a message sent by Austria to Turkey and Sweden in the time leading up to the Spring 1649 deadline, marked by "Sp49". Save for Sweden, every power is best identified by its first letter.
CONTACTING THE GM:
Should the need arise, you may call me under 0049(30)32664404.
ADJUCATION SOFTWARE:
I've created a Realpolitik module for 1648 (v3.0) that is now available for download in Diplomaticcorp's variant section. I strongly recommend players install Realpolitik and said module. You can enter (hypothetical) orders by clicking on the map, then adjucate and see what happens. I shall be attaching Realpolitik save file to the adjucations you can then open. Oh, and you can toggle the province tag view. I don't show them on the adjucation maps, but you can switch to that view with the programme. Can't really recommend the programme highly enough!
GREAT POWER ALLOCATION:
Okay, on to the fun part. :) I've ranked the power preferences of all nine players from 1 to 9 (any "no-particular preferences" being considered a 9). I've added up all those ranks to see which powers were most popular. The higher the number, the less popular a power happened to be.
AUSTRIA: 60
DENMARK-NORWAY: 70
ENGLAND: 58
FRANCE: 63
POLAND-LITHUANIA: 60
RUSSIA: 64
SPAIN: 39
SWEDEN: 58
TURKEY: 51
Spain was all the craze, much as last time over. In assigning powes, I started off considering the top choices each player had made and resolved any competing preferences by die roll. However, I gave Dirk and Jorge's preferences precedence over others. In the former case as a thankyou for helping out with the adjucation maps during my summer holiday, in the latter on account of Jorge winning a wee prediction game we had going during our past contest.
In any case, five players got their top choice, one his second, another his third and two had listed no particular preferences.
And with that, I present you with our player roster:
AUSTRIA: Boragina, Nick Toronto, ON, CA
DENMARK-NORWAY: Ellinger, Marc Jefferson City, MO, US
ENGLAND: Morris, Harvey Tucson, AZ, US
FRANCE: Phillips, Nigel Leeds, UK
POLAND-LITHUANIA: Saralegui, Jorge Venice, CA, US
RUSSIA: Johansson, Mikael Karlstad, Sweden
SPAIN: Knemeyer, Dirk Somerville, MA, US
SWEDEN: Hall, Jeff Raleigh, NC, US
TURKEY: Slattery, Aidan Leamington Spa, Warks, UK
I hope everyone is reasonably happy. Further below you'll find all the email adresses.
The Spring 1649 moves are due to me NLT 6PM CET on 21 October. So get me those prelims by 19 October 6PM CET (GMT+1). Remember to CC me on all your diplomatic correspondence. Thanks!
Viel Erfolg auf dem diplomatischen Parkett!
Charles
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PLAYERS:
AUSTRIA: Nick Boragina
DENMARK-NORWAY: Marc Ellinger
ENGLAND: Harvey Morris
FRANCE: Nigel Phillips
POLAND-LITHUANIA: Jorge Saralegui
RUSSIA: Mikael Johansson
SPAIN: Dirk Knemeyer
SWEDEN: Jeff Hall
TURKEY: Aidan Slattery
PROCLAMATIONS:
o TENSION RISE ANEW FOLLOWING THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA
MESSAGES:
GM to the Rulers of Europe: Good luck to one and all.
SUPPLY CENTER OWNERSHIP:
Austria(3): Prague, Trieste, Vienna.
Denmark-Norway(3): Christiania, Copenhagen, Holstein.
England(2): Bristol, London.
France(3): Brest, Marseille, Paris.
Poland-Lithuania(3): Cracow, Vilna, Warsaw.
Russia(3): Moscow, Novgorod, Voronezh.
Spain(4): Flanders, Madrid, Naples, Sevilla.
Sweden(4): Abo, Riga, Stettin, Stockholm.
Turkey(3): Belgrade, Constantinople, Damascus.
Minors(30): Algiers, Bavaria, Brandenburg, Candia, Courland, Crimea, Ireland, Lorraine, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg, Moldavia, Morocco, Papal States, Persia, Portugal, Prussia, Rhineland-Westphalia, Savoy,
Saxony, Scotland, Swabia, Switzerland, Transylvania, Tunis, Turkestan, Tuscany, Ukraine, United Provinces, Venice, Wallachia.
DEADLINE SCHEDULE: (all orders are due NLT 6PM CET...not local time)
o Spring 1649 Moves: (19) 21 October
o Summer 1649 Retreats: 23 October
o Fall 1649 Moves: (26) 28 October
o Winter 1649 Retreats/Adjustments: 30 October
o Spring 1650 Moves: (2) 4 November |
