Hi everyone,
so another year draws to a close. While some powers have suffered sore setbacks this year, it's not like the stronger (as yet?) dwarf those less fortunate considering how all powers remain in the 4-7 SC range. So nobody as yet is reduced to minnow status. All the more reason to redouble diplomatic efforts so as to turn round an iffy situation or capitalise on the past year's gains!
As an aside, only one minor power cluster (North Africa) remains. I'd say this region remaining untouched by the greater powers ought to be quite the exception by the close of the second year. Haven't checked, but I trust a first in the series of 1648 playtests. All other remaining minor powers now longer adjoin powers of the same rank. As such, the great powers will need to devote their own resources to taking them down. A greater investment in units thus being required. I suppose we could now wager on which minor power remains the last one standing...
The retreats and adjustments include some particularly newsworthy items. I'd rate Spain's forces abandoning - for now? - the Central Mediterranean theatre of operations as the most notable development. Will the Spanish viceroy in Naples soon be packing his coffers? Time will show...
Official pronouncements from London (see below!) bode ill for Ireland's Royalists, Catholics and Gaels. Expect Gerry Adams & Co to take a less benign view of Cromwell's unfolding plans. Centuries of troubles still in the offing...
Let me remind you that I've scheduled Spring 1651 for Monday, 12 AM CET.
Cheers and good luck!
Charles
HEADLINES:
BAVARIANS PEASANTS FLOCK TO IMPERIAL STANDARD
FREDERICK III FAVOURS HIS GENERALS OVER ADMIRALITY
ENGLISH NAVY NOW LARGEST IN EUROPEAN WATERS
SUN KING PRESSES NEW SUBJECTS IN LORRAINE INTO SERVICE
STRELTSY WINTER IN ASTRAKHAN
SPANIARDS CARE NAUGHT FOR ITALY, ESTABLISH FORTRESS IBERIA
MILITARY CONSCRIPTION WAVED FOR SWEDEN'S LIVONIAN SUBJECTS
BEDOUIN TRIBESMEN HEED SULTAN'S CALL TO ARMS
PRESS:
From England: "Those damn Irish have insulted the crown for the last time. I am thinking about possibly bring some colonizers with me from Scotland and England to set up camp in the northern parts around Belfast. That should bring long-lasting peace to the island."
RETREATS:
Russia:
A Voronezh - Astrakhan
Sweden:
A Brandenburg - Greater Poland
ADJUSTMENTS:
Austria:
Build A Bavaria
Denmark-Norway:
Build A Christiania
Build A Copenhagen
England:
Build F Bristol
Build F Scotland
France:
Build A Lorraine
Spain:
Remove A Picardy
Remove F Tyrrhenian Sea
Sweden:
Remove A Riga
Turkey:
Build A Damascus
SC OWNERSHIP (Winter 1650):
Austria: Bavaria, Papal States, Prague, Swabia, Trieste, Venice, Vienna.
Denmark-Norway: Brandenburg, Christiania, Copenhagen, Holstein, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg, Stettin.
England: Bristol, Flanders, London, Scotland, United Provinces.
France: Brest, Lorraine, Marseilles, Paris, Savoy, Switzerland.
Poland-Lithuania: Cracow, Crimea, Moldavia, Voronezh, Warsaw.
Russia: Moscow, Novgorod, Turkestan, Vilna.
Spain: Madrid, Naples, Portugal, Seville.
Sweden: Abo, Courland, Riga, Stockholm.
Turkey: Belgrade, Candia, Constantinople, Damascus, Transylvania, Wallachia.
Minor Powers: Algiers, Ducal Prussia, Ireland, Morocco, Persia, Rhineland-Westphalia, Saxony, Tunis, Tuscany, Ukraine.
PROJECTED SCHEDULE (12 AM CET):
1651 Spring Moves: 9 June
|
