Game Rules

Ruleset Categories

Great Power - 30 points, +3 to Colonies Regional Power - 24 points

Great Powers versus Regional Powers:

This is a concept currently for the rule system, the intent of which is to give different playstyles their own type of country. From experience some players tend to focus on the military side of geopolitics, up to and including waging war to gain territory against an enemy perceived as weaker and unsupported. Others prefer to elaborate upon their created nations' internal systems, dramatis personae of government and private business, and the application of statecraft in the maintenance of existing power and influence. Put together, the former will be looking for a fight and will typically find some justification for it, even if they have to invent it, but the resulting conflict inevitably messes up the latter's story plans and even their enjoyment of the game. Conversely, if a game were constructed solely to help the latter, it would involve such rigorous controls on player actions that it would not only eliminate player freedom, it would also complicate the work of the mods.

The idea then is to balance the two out. The current idea is to let the defensive, role-playing players hold the stronger powers while the aggressive players accept states that, while weaker, are not so weak as to be helpless against the stronger states. An aggressive player's regional power can, in fact, triumph over a great power in the sense of forcing acceptance of territorial alteration, especially if it engages in a quick war against an enemy on one particular theater where it uses early initiative and fortune to seize key cities or territory, forcing the Great Power to commit to a long war if it wants to undo these gains. The Russo-Japanese War is a somewhat crude historical example, and pre-WWI Japan is the perfect example of a Regional Power (especially since beating the Russians helped elevate them to acknowledgement of being worthy of Great Power consideration). Conversely, however, if a Regional Power is out to conquer major swaths of territory from a neighboring Great Power, or to even conquer it wholesale, then its chance for success goes way down to the extent of it being national suicide (arguably even two RPs going against a GP would favor the GP on the defensive, at least in the short-term, and even if the two RPs together have more industrial capacity the damage they suffer will cut into that... and leave them vulnerable to other powers).

Now, you might ask if GP players would be required to be absolute creampuffs. Well, somewhat. Great Powers have to declare regions of interest, and outside of those areas or their own borders, they have no strong interest elsewhere. This reflects the areas where their interests and influence brought them to GP status in the years leading up to game start, these are the areas that their elites and their population believe important to the retention of national power and prestige. A Great Power's political ability to act in any aggressive form outside those spheres is therefore virtually nil. If attempted the Government's party members will become concerned, the opposition will attack, and other elites will make public their displeasure. And these will be imposed upon a player with a GP by the mod staff, if rendered necessary by the GP player's behavior.

Inside a Great Power's SoI (Sphere of Interest), the GP has more options. They can behave more aggressively and bellicose in the defense of existing interests, be it protecting a colony or regional client/ally from perceived threat or dealing with local states hostile to its interests. Doing so to expand territories and interests is not as welcome, though it will be considered on a case by case basis. The status quo is typically beneficial to a Great Power, after all, and trying to get more power and land or what have you through aggressive behavior is putting that status quo in jeopardy. Much like the man who killed the goose laying golden eggs, you could end up letting your greed wreck the very thing making you rich. As for borders, if one's border regions are an SoI, the same rules apply, but if not, then the attention paid to borders is there but reduced. Naturally you'll garrison them and most likely have trade links to your neighbor, but aside from keeping an eye out on the neighbors to make sure they're not up to funny business you leave them alone to the extent they leave you and your interests alone.

Furthermore, while Great Powers also get that automatic +3 to Colonies as part of the 9 free points, there is a further restriction in that of the three sphere of interest they may declare, two must have colonies within them. Significant colonial losses inside a sphere of interest will be considered a national catastrophe with loss of prestige and public confidence. Therefore it is in a GP's best interest to have as much colonial territory as possible in the aforementioned spheres. Hopefully this will reduce patchwork approaches with people trying to grab farflung, ultimately undefensible colonial empires all around the map (granted, some spread is logical; look how widespread the German and French Empires were).

Anyway, I've laid out the built-in price of being a Great Power. Regional Powers, at the price of being weaker, have almost no restriction (beyond doing something crazy and insane like attacking a long-established allied neighbor). They are powers that can be on the move, seeking a place in the sun, with a population that desires to see their nation gain more power and prestige. They have no SoI distinctions; they can try to increase influence anywhere (whether they can physically sustain this is another matter).

It should be obvious, from the above statements, that Great Powers will endure greater scrutiny from mods, though I'm intending for the mods to act with appropriate restraint and treat their power as it should be treated; as something to be kept restrained and only used when absolutely necessary. As much as I'd prefer not having mods take such a role, it's necessary to guarantee players do not renege on "the deal" of being GPs.

A final note: Great Powers are not for people looking purely for a chance to play war, experience in games is also preferred simply because a GP is a major part of a game world's power balance and a neophyte to geopolitics and/or playing them is going to risk disrupting that from ill-considered maneuvers. Preferably, GPs will be experienced, mature players who want to play a game of geopolitical maneuver and diplomacy and indulge in role-playing and worldbuilding.

As for RPs, our main standard is that you don't act foolish. Play with skill and you can become a GP yourself, play a normal, baseline game and you'll probably come out well enough, play foolishly and you'll probably bite off more than you can chew and suffer accordingly. Remember: just because you can attack someone to try and gain land doesn't mean you should. Even for an aggressive, expansionist power, diplomacy is going to be a key element of issues.

A final note: you don't necessarily have to play an RP as an aggressive state. Holland and Belgium weren't exactly aggressive states, after all.

Time Scale: 2 RL weeks = 1 in-game Quarter =Country Generation Categories=

Population 0 - 1 million 1 - 10 million 2 - 25 million 3 - 50 million 4 - 75 million 5 - 100 million+

National Resources 0 - National Self-Sufficiency is 5% 1 - National Self-Sufficiency is 20% 2 - National Self-Sufficiency is 40% 3 - National Self-Sufficiency is 60% 4 - National Self-Sufficiency is 70% 5 - National Self-Sufficiency is 80%

Colonial Territory 0 - 0 Colony Points 1 - 50 Colony Points, +1 million population, 100/200 Colonial Army Points, 80 cash/quarter (Requires Navy/Army 2) 2 - 100 Colony Points, +5 million population, 200/400 Colonial Army Points, 90 cash/quarter 3 - 150 Colony Points, +10 million population, 300/600 Colonial Army Points, 100 cash/quarter (Requires Navy/Army 3) 4 - 200 Colony Points, +15 million population, 400/800 Colonial Army Points, 110 cash/quarter 5 - 250 Colony Points, +20 million population, 500/1000 Colonial Army Points, 120 cash/quarter (Requires Navy/Army 4)

Note: The prerequisites are determined by if your colonies are directly linked to you by land or if they are overseas; for land-linked colonies (Russia's empire in Central Asia and Siberia), Army is required; for more classic overseas empires like the rest of Europe's, Navy is required. All Army Points derived from Colonies must be spent on colonial garrisons which, save time of war, are deployed to colonies. The second figure represents the maximum of colonial army units you are permitted to use.

Industry 0 - 10 Industrial Build Points/quarter (IBPs) 1 - 100 IBPs/quarter 2 - 200 IBPs/quarter (requires National Resources 1) 3 - 300 IBPs/quarter 4 - 400 IBPs/quarter (requires National Resources 2) 5 - 500 IBPs/quarter (requires National Resources 3)

Economy 0 - Cannot mobilize, 100 cash points/quarter. 1 - 6 months of war mobilization, 300 cash points/quarter 2 - 1 years of war mobilization, 450 cash points/quarter 3 - 2 years of war mobilization, 600 cash points/quarter 4 - 3 years of war mobilization, 750 cash points/quarter. 5 - 4 years of war mobilization, 900 cash points/quarter.

Infrastructure 0 - 12 months to mobilize all reserves 1 - 8 weeks to mobilize Ready Reserve, 8 months to mobilize Second Line 2 - 6 weeks to mobilize Ready Reserve, 6 months to mobilize Second Line 3 - 4 weeks to mobilize Ready Reserve, 4 months to mobilize Second Line 4 - 3 weeks to mobilize Ready Reserve, 3 months to mobilize Second Line 5 - 2 weeks to mobilize Ready Reserve, 2 months to mobilize Second Line

Navy Power 0 - 0 Navy Points 1 - 400 Navy Points 2 - 800 Navy Points 3 - 1200 Navy Points, 4 Dreadnoughts/Battlecruisers permitted 4 - 1600 Navy Points, 8 Dreadnoughts/Battlecruisers permitted 5 - 2000 Navy Points, 12 Dreadnoughts/Battlecruisers permitted

Army Size 0 - 500 Army Points 1 - 1500 Army Points 2 - 2000 Army Points 3 - 2500 Army Points 4 - 3000 Army Points 5 - 3500 Army Points

Improvement Costs:

Infrastructure improvement is the desired level times 200. For example, upgrading from Infra 3 to Infra 4 costs 4x200 points. At least 25% of the overall cost must be taken up by IBPs, and no more than 50% can be taken up by IBPs, the rest is covered by cash. The range of point allocation to get to Infrastructure 4 is 200 IBPs/600 Cash to 400 IBPs/400 Cash. Minimum time for completion is two years.

Economy improvement is the same formula as infrastructure, (L#x200) = Cost. However, IBPs do not contribute at all to Economy improvement. Completion time is a minimum of two years.

Industry improvement is not by level but by quarterly IBP cap, restricted by National Resources to half-level equivalents (if your NR is 2 you cannot have more than 450 IBPs/quarter, if NR1 then you are restricted to 350IBPs/quarter, if NR0 150IBPs/quarter). Time span is one year and requires both cash and industry in the same formula as Infrastructure. Once an allotment is made from cash budget and IBP queue you must stick to this allotment for the whole year. You will get new IBPs equaling one fourth your quarterly allotment (one eighth of the entire yearly expenditure). For example, if you spend 100 IBPs and Cash per quarter for four quarters, you get 25 new IBPs.

Research:

Research will be abstracted to a fair degree. There are five categories to research, representing the "national direction" being favored.

Army provides new artillery, small arms, and equipment for your ground troops.

Navy provides new technologies for your ships, as well as new guns for both ships and shore-based fortifications.

Machinery and Equipment covers new breakthroughs like superior aircraft frames, more efficient farming equipment, radiosets, and eventually specialized vehicles like tanks.

Industry covers all forms of things relating to your industrial and technological sophistication, including advances in manufacturing, productive techniques, and chemistry. New drugs that help save the lives of soldiers and reduce permanent casualties, new manufacturing processes that improve industrial output, and more efficient resource refining that decrease waste in the use of raw materials by the national industries are covered here.

Economy covers the use of technology to improve the efficiency and activity of one's economy, as well as new concepts for the banking system or taxation systems, resulting in an improvement in cash income and trade capability.

The gist of it is the player decides what he wants to develop. The only limit to active research is money. Each research category costs 25 cash per quarter when being actively supported..

As research continues, quarterly rolls will be undertaken by the mods, and each successive quarter will increase the chance for a breakthrough in the desired project, which can include things from tanks to synchronizer gears for aircraft to newer radio technology.

Trade:

Nations trade with one another on a common day to day basis in this time period. The world economy was globalized to an extent not equaled until after WWII. In-game trade is primarily done in the background; one's National Resources rating indicating generally how much one must import to make your industries function. Note that such resources are kept abstract to avoid an overly-complex mechanism with many values to track; one nation might need to import iron for its industries while it has plenty of copper, the second has a deficiency of copper but more than enough iron, but for sake of simplified mechanisms this is kept abstract in the Self-Sufficiency Percentage defined by National Resource scores.

In game governments can also engage in mutual trade agreements. A nation with surplus cash can give that cash to a nation with surplus industrial capacity to build things for said nation, such as weapons to raise an infantry division or warships. It can also purchase existing naval ships or divisions at prices the players will be left open to determine - in the case of purchasing divisions it is presumed you are buying the equipment of a standing division, you must outfit it yourself and apply the manpower with an appropriate training period for the kind of unit you've bought to come into service (The advantage is that it costs no IBPs for either side, as it uses a pre-built division) - the seller gets to return the manpower of his sold unit into his nation. Sold naval vessels, OTOH, are presumed to take a quarter to transfer and a second quarter for the purchaser to raise and assign crew.

Government-arranged trade deals are considered broken up if one side is subjected to an effective blockade.

Blockades:

Naval blockades were a key issue of the period, especially as their legality shifted about.

In a conventional blockade, a nation assigns ships off a port (or ports) of a nation and refuses to permit any ship to transit through the blockade. However, in this era of mines, submarines, and coastal forts with long-ranged guns, such blockades become dangerous for the blockader. Many navies are thus able to consider blockade by other means, whether it is declaring a full blockade and maintaining open ocean patrols with ships to intercept shipping heading toward their enemy's ports or other such means of "long distance blockades", using submersible vessels to enforce blockade at a distance and sink enemy shipping (the German strategy in WWI, with or without unrestricted sub warfare), or laying minefields in narrow bodies of water to prevent shipping (the British, in WWI, laid minefields across the North Sea and the English Channel to limit shipping to Germany). They can even restrict exports to neutrals if they have reason to believe the neutrals are aiding the enemy by providing them surplus from their own imports (again, see Britain's behavior in WWI, restricting exports to Denmark, Holland, and other neutrals to prevent goods from getting to Germany).

In game any of these blockade approaches can be attempted. All have some form of risk - conventional blockading opens your fleet to easier attack, if it's even feasible to blockade all a country's ports with your forces, while other blockades might anger neutrals and even lead to incidents giving them casus belli against you. Regarding limits in exports to neutral countries suspected of aiding an enemy in circumventing the blockade, the neutral nation so restricted may experience some slight loss in IBPs and/or cash (To reflect being unable to export as much), the blockading nation may also be docked cash to reflect restricting their own exports to the neutrals. Either possibility will be determined by the mods.

The benefit to a functioning blockade is that it cuts off a nation from external trade and contact with colonies, effecting both their ability to move troops and their ability to export and import materials and goods. If a blockade is in place and is judged as functioning (effective in other words) then the nation being blockaded has its National Self-Sufficiency score, derived from National Resources, applied to its economy and industrial output. To use an example, if a nation with an NR score of 4 (Self-Sufficiency is 70%), an Economy score of 3 (600 cash/quarter), and a 4 in Industry (400 IBP capacity/quarter) is subjected to an effective blockade, its quarterly income drops to 420 cash and its IBP capacity is reduced to 280 IBPs/quarter - that is, 70% of their normal incomes. This shows what the country can sustain in its homeland by itself.

The mods may modify this further downward if you have a nation that spans home territories across short bodies of water (an Indonesian nation, or a Caribbean one, for instance) and the other side can effectively blockade your internal waters as well (the equivalent of isolating, say, Cuba from Hispaniola).

Espionage:

The years leading up to World War I were just as good for spy stories as were the Cold War years (as Austria's Colonel Redl or Mata Hari can testify to). Spies can be anywhere; they seek technical information, word of diplomatic maneuvers and achievements, and war plans. They also cost money. Spies have to live, after all, and in many cases the people they get their information from choose to betray their country, knowingly or not, because they get some cash slipped to them now and then. In the same token, counter-intelligence requires one to maintain active agents rooting out other countries' spies in your homeland and their agents and informants, which can mean slipping cash as well.

There are two basic costs for active espionage: one for internal operations and one for external. External operations also have a base cost at start. That is, if you enact an operation to get ahold of the diplomatic dispatches of Country A's Foreign Ministry, it will cost you so much money to begin the operation and then a quarterly upkeep cost afterward. You must enact an external operation in this fashion to begin intelligence gathering. Internal operations, OTOH, require only maintenance costs and are presumed to be always ongoing.

Success in operations will be determined by quarterly 3d6 roll. To have a borderline effective internal counter-intelligence operation, you must spend 20 cash every quarter, which means you cause a -2 modifier to any other nation's quarterly operation success rolls. For every extra 10 cash you spend per quarter, you increase the negative modifier - spend $30/quarter and it's -3, $40/quarter and its -4, etc. If you spend below 20 cash per quarter, then your internal security forces are unable to provide effective counter-intel and cause no negative modifier.

On the other end, external operations cost 30 cash in the quarter you set them up and a minimum of 5 cash per quarter maintenance. Every cash point you spend above these figures is counted and accummulates; once you get to 10 cash spent in surplus, you get a +1 modifier to your quarterly operation roll, +2 for 20 cash accumulated, and so on. If you roll a "natural 1" - that is, a 3 in the 3d6 roll - then your op is completely compromised and will fail, meaning you must restart it with the 30 cash startup price and begin re-accumulating the cash surplus.

Naturally only the player and the mod staff, sans any mods with conflict of interest, will know of an actual espionage effort, unless a bad op roll leads to detection. Espionage can be done for myriad things such as getting ahold of mobilization plans and timetables, war plans, government dispatches and messages, detailed Orders of Battle and force expansion/upgrade plans, technical schematics, or detecting secret treaties and agreements,

Navy Costs:

Fitting/trial time requirement halved when mobilized for war.

Dreadnought

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 40 points

In-Game: 320 Industrial Points, 8 quarters minimum for construction, 4 quarters for fitting/trials

Repair Cost: 8 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: 4 cash/quarter

Manpower: 1,500 men/unit

Battlecruiser

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 35 points

In-Game: 280 Industrial Points, 8 quarters minimum for construction, 4 quarters for fitting/trials

Repair Cost: 7 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: 3.5 cash/quarter

Manpower: 1,500 men/unit

Pre-Dreadnought Battleship

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 30 points

In-Game: 240 Industrial Points, 8 quarters minimum for construction, 4 quarters for fitting/trials

Repair Cost: 6 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: 3 cash/quarter

Manpower: 1,000 men/unit

Armored Cruiser

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 25 points

In-Game: 150 Industrial Points, 6 quarters minimum for construction, 3 quarters for fitting/trials

Repair Cost: 5 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: 2.5 cash/quarter

Manpower: 750 men/unit

Light Cruiser

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 10 points

In-Game: 40 Industrial Points, 4 quarters minimum for construction, 2 quarters for fitting/trials

Repair Cost: 2 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: 1 cash/quarter

Manpower: 500 men/unit

Submarine

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 9 points

In-Game: 18 Industrial Points, 2 quarters minimum for construction, 2 quarters for fitting/trials

Repair Cost: 1 Industrial Point

Upkeep Cost: 1 cash/quarter

Manpower: 50 men/unit

Destroyer

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 6 points

In-Game: 12 Industrial Points, 2 quarters minimum for construction, 2 quarters for fitting/trials

Repair Cost: 1 Industrial Point

Upkeep Cost: .5 cash/quarter

Manpower: 100 men/unit

Torpedo Boat

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 2 points for Coastal, 3 for Ocean-capable

In-Game: 4/6 Industrial Points, 2 quarters minimum for construction, 1 quarter for fitting/trials

Repair Cost: N/A

Upkeep Cost: .2 cash/quarter

Manpower: 50 men/unit

Army Costs

Cost are displayed as x/y/z to show the different costs for an active unit, a ready reserve division, and a second-line division. In starting forces, a country cannot spend more than 40% of its points on active units or 40% on ready reserve units. (The most active army possible would be a 40-40-20 split of points by percentage.)

Guard units must be in active formations. Artillery Regiments can be active or ready reserve.

Infantry Division

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 15/10/5

In-Game: 30/20/10 Industrial Points, 2 quarters minimum for raising

Repair Cost: 5 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: 1.5/1/.5 cash/quarter

Manpower: 16,000 men/unit

Cavalry Division

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 15/10/5

In-Game: 30/20/10 Industrial Points, 2 quarters minimum for raising

Repair Cost: 5 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: 1.5/1/.5 cash/quarter

Manpower: 8,000 men/unit

Guards Infantry Division

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 25

In-Game: 45 Industrial Points, 3 quarters minimum for raising

Repair Cost: 5 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: 2.5 cash/quarter

Manpower: 16,000 men/unit

Guards Cavalry Division

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 25

In-Game: 45 Industrial Points, 3 quarters minimum for raising

Repair Cost: 5 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: 2.5 cash/quarter

Manpower: 8,000 men/unit

Colonial Infantry Division

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 15/10/5

In-Game: 30/20/10 Industrial Points, 2 quarters minimum for raising

Repair Cost: 5 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: 1.5/1/.5 cash/quarter

Manpower: 16,000 men/unit

Colonial Cavalry Division

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 15/10/5

In-Game: 30/20/10 Industrial Points, 2 quarters minimum for raising

Repair Cost: 5 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: 1.5/1/.5 cash/quarter

Manpower: 8,000 men/unit

Artillery Regiment

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 15/10

In-Game: 30/20 Industrial Points, 3 quarters minimum for raising

Repair Cost: 5 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: 1.5/1 cash/quarter

Manpower: 3,000 men/unit

Colonial Artillery Regiment

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 15/10

In-Game: 30/20 Industrial Points, 3 quarters minimum for raising

Repair Cost: 5 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: 1.5/1 cash/quarter

Manpower: 3,000 men/unit

Engineer Regiment

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 6/4

In-Game: 12/8 Industrial Points, 3 quarters minimum for raising

Repair Cost: 2 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: .5/.25 cash/quarter

Manpower: 3,000 men/unit

Aeroplane Regiment

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 10 points

In-Game: 20 Industrial Points, 2 quarters minimum for raising

Repair Cost: 2 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: 1 cash/quarter

Manpower: 1,000 men/unit

Army Units:

Infantry Divisions are units of 16,000 uniformed soldiers organized into brigades and regiments, on down through battalions to companies and platoons. Machine guns are distributed at a level determined by army sophistication (the more sophisticated the Army, the more common the machine guns and thus the smaller the unit they are attached to). Ordinary infantrymen are armed with rifles, primarily bolt action. Each infantry division has 12,000 line infantry, six batteries of field artillery, a company of combat engineers, two companies of skirmishers, and a squadron of light cavalry.

Cavalry Divisions are units of 8,000 uniformed soldiers who maneuver on horseback. While modern armaments have rendered the old cavalry charge a suicidal tactic in most circumstances; horses still move faster than men and give mounted troops the chance to find superior ground from which to engage. Cavalry are primarily armed with carbines, pistols, and sabers; also lances for the front ranks in some armies. They fight primarily on foot, but may enter melee against other mounted troops or disorganized infantry. Each cavalry divisions has 6000 sabers, four “flying” batteries of horse artillery, half a company of mounted engineers, and half the number of machineguns fielded by an infantry division.

Guard Divisions are trained and maintained to a superior level over ordinary infantry. The troops are more fit, virtually all are volunteers, and their morale is generally higher due to training regimens that reinforce the elite nature of their units. They will typically enjoy superior sophistication to a regular unit; if an Army assigns machine guns at battalion level, the Guards will have them at company level. These troops will march faster, advance with greater spirit, and hold with more tenacity. This elite force comes with a price; they recover from battle losses more slowly than a regular unit since not any kid trained to use a rifle can be in the Guards.

Colonial Divisions are raised in the colonies from the local population. Their purpose is primarily defensive, so they cannot be deployed away from their home colonies except in time of war. Colonial troops tend to be made up of volunteers and often feel they have something to prove. They will fight harder, longer, and with greater enthusiasm than regulars. While not quite on the level of guards divisions, colonials make excellent shock troops.

Artillery Regiments are Corps and Army level attachments of 3,000 men. Each Regiment's composition is determined by the type of artillery. A Field Artillery Regiment has 12 batteries, a Heavy Artillery Regiment has 8 batteries, and a Siege Howitzer Regiment has 2 batteries. A battery is composed of six artillery pieces.

Engineer Regiments are Corps and Army level attachments of 3,000 men. Their primary mission is facilitating the mobility of friendly field formations and hampering that of the enemy’s. This is primarily accomplished through the improvement, construction, or destruction of roads, railways, bridges, tunnels, and field fortifications. For this purpose they are armed with construction equipment, various sorts of demolitions charges, and light mortars for clearing the approaches to tactical objectives.

Airplanes are an infant technology and part of the Army. They are employed for the purposes of reconnaissance, though the prospect of utilizing tail gunners is being investigated in some countries - no viable armament is otherwise possible save for the pilot carrying a sidearm for firing at passing aircraft. For now the aeroplanes are mostly a novelty but given time they will prove themselves of use.

Fortification Costs:

Defensive positions established at critical points have become dramatically less effective with the widespread use of long range artillery, high explosive shells, and mass conscript armies. In order to effectively resist and delay invading forces, it has become necessary for the focus of defense to shift from the critical point to the critical area. Modern military engineers design and construct defenses as systems of mutually supporting fortresses rather than individual and independent forts. As such, modern fortifications are bought not individually but by the length of the line of resistance that they draw across the landscape.

All point costs are for fortifications covering 10 Km, with the exception of coastal forts, which represent 5km worth (note that with coastal forts this would include fortifications that are shaped in a circle 5km in circumference). Point fortifications are still possible, just buy a single length and specify that all the works are part of a single large fortress.

Polygonal Fortresses

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 12 Army Points

In-Game: 24 Industrial Points, 6 quarters minimum for building.

Repair Cost: 4 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: .5 cash/quarter

Manpower: 1,000 men/10 KM

Underground Fortresses

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 15 Army Points

In-Game: 30 Industrial Points, 6 quarters minimum for building.

Repair Cost: 5 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: 1 cash/quarter

Manpower: 1,000 men/10 KM

Reinforced Underground Fortresses

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 18 Army Points

In-Game: 36 Industrial Points, 6 quarters minimum for building

Repair Cost: 6 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: 1.5 cash/quarter

Manpower: 1,000 men/10 KM

Field Fortifications

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 2 Army Points

In-Game: 4 Industrial Points, 2 quarters for building

Repair Cost: 1 Industrial Point per 20km

Upkeep Cost: .1 cash/quarter

First Rate Coastal Fortress

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 30 Army or Navy Points

In-Game: 120 Industrial Points, 8 quarters minimum for building

Repair Cost: 15 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: 1.5 cash/quarter

Manpower: 1,000 men

Second Rate Coastal Fortress

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 20 Army or Navy Points

In-Game: 80 Industrial Points, 8 quarters minimum for building

Repair Cost: 10 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: 1 cash/quarter

Manpower: 750 men/10 KM

Light Coastal Fortress

Point Value/Starting Unit Cost: 10 Army or Navy Points

In-Game: 40 Industrial Points, 8 quarters minimum for building"

Repair Cost: 5 Industrial Points

Upkeep Cost: .5 cash/quarter

Manpower: 500 men/10 KM

Fortification Types:

Each 10 Km length of polygonal, underground, or reinforced fortresses is composed of three individual fortifications with integral guns and garrison. At either end of the stretch is a medium fort with three artillery batteries - two light, one heavy - and a garrison of 1,000 men. In the middle of the stretch is a small fort with two artillery batteries - one light, one heavy - and a garrison of 500 men.

Polygonal Fortresses - also called Flankless Forts - replaced the venerable Star Fortress in the mid-19th century, as explosive shells and rifled cannon compromised their effectiveness. Military engineers did away with the intricate interlocking wedges of outer works in the trace itallienne in favour deep and narrow ditches drawn in straight lines, giving the fortification its name. During an assault the outer ditches are swept by fire from caponiers set in the ditch itself and firing ports cut into the counter-scarp wall. The curtain walls and citadel are built with a very low profile to present as small a target as possible; passages, machinery halls, and magazines are entirely underground. In contrast its artillery are placed en barbette, in the open surrounded by a parapet. The construction materials for a polygonal fort are primarily earth, brick, and mortar. The simple, robust, and open design allows for large fortifications to be built relatively cheaply, giving space for garrisoning field troops. Every 10 Km's worth of fortress can accomodate an entire infantry division in relative safety. Polygonal forts are able sustain prolonged fire from field artillery, though its own artillery will be supressed. Bombardment by heavier artillery will reduce these forts, but they are too large to be completely destroyed. A determined garrison will hold even the rubble.

Underground fortresses are a necesary evolution from the polygonal fort due after the use of high explosive shells and slow burning propellants by modern artillery. Concrete is now the primary building material, and the entirety of the works are underground. The ditch around the fort remains, but is now wide and shallow, while the caponiers have been withdrawn into casemates inside the fort itself. The only part that protrudes from the earth are the massive cupolas of armour plate steel that serve as the turrets for the fortress guns. Only concentrated fire by heavy artillery can supress an underground fort, and the fort itself cannot be breached except with siege howitzers. The price for this sturdyness at a premium in size. An underground fortress has no room to garrison field units, and siege artillery will destroy it after a day or two of sustained bombardment.

Reinforced Fortresses are underground forts built out of ferro-concrete. They are more expensive to construct, but provide far better protection. Sustained fire from siege howitzers is required to reduce these forts and supress their artillery, but nothing short of battleship calibre guns will destroy them.

Field fortifications are continous lines of permenent entrenchments, redoubts, pillboxes, blockhouses, bomb shelters, and gun pits. Field fortifications are best for defending a given area, such as a broad plain, rather than a specific point like a mountain pass or a city. They are cheaper and faster to build than traditional fortifications, but have no garrisons or artillery other than those assigned from field armies. The defenders can be partially supressed with field artillery, and heavier artillery will damage the works in proportion to the weight of the fire, but the spread out and continous nature of the defences precludes their total destruction.

Coastal Forts are groups of large concrete structures with gun turrets, furthered protected by steel covering, of varying type that contain naval-quality big guns of 10" or larger, supported by lighter guns for closer-range firing and pillbox and blockhouse defenses to repel landing attempts. They are placed at strategic points to control entrances to bodies of water; straits, harbor entrances, river mouths, and canals. First Rate forts include 8 modern battleship caliber guns arranged in heavily protected turrets and the thickest ferro-crete and steel defenses, sufficient to repulse battleship guns to one or two direct hits in a given area. Second Rate forts have 4 battleship caliber guns and lighter concrete and steel defenses, though a direct hit by a battleship gun will likely break through. Light forts have no battleship-caliber guns, only guns of 5" to 8" caliber, with concrete protection that cannot resist battleship guns and is meant only to protect from cruisers.

Unit Upkeep and Repair:

In peace and in war, militaries cost money to operate. Even in peacetime a military will still fire its guns in drills and war-games, consume fuel and energy (electricity for barracks, gasoline for aeroplanes, coal and oil for naval vessels), maintain its bases, and will need to feed, house, and pay its men. Upkeep costs reflect this required maintenance. Even reservist formations require money, since you need to maintain and provide security to the marshalling yards, the armories, and the other facilities necessary to the function of the reservists and to provide them their compensation pay, food, and housing when they are given their monthly or yearly retention training.

Units will take damage if directly engaged in combat or in a position that causes attrition (even if it's a quiet sector of the front, casualties can still result from skirmishes, desertions, and sickness). To repair this damage a unit must be removed from action and brought to either a port, for naval vessels, or a rear area, for army units. If the unit is a fort, then it cannot be repaired fully until action moves away from it.

Once war is declared, every quarter a player can allocate so many IBPs for a repair queue. The queue represents the capacity of replacement equipment manufactured as well as the material for training soldiers from your national manpower pool. The player must therefore balance a desire to expand their army versus the need to consider restoring damaged units and choose accordingly.

The repair costs are listed above with units. An example is that if you have a repair queue established at 50 IBPs for a particular quarter, you may repair 10 divisions at any given time. Each half-quarter the unit is considered to have recovered a certain segment of its fighting strength between replacement troops and wounded men returned to duty. Upon the unit being returned to 100% it is automatically removed from the queue, though a unit does not have to be at full strength to be put back into combat.

All Army units recover 10% strength in a half-quarter except for Guards, which recover their strength at a 5% rate.

Navy vessels repair at a rate of 20% per half-quarter.

Military Manpower:

Your population determines how many men you can put into uniform. This is a function of economy and infrastructure put together by the following formula:

Econ + Infra = 10 is 12% of your national population.

Econ + Infra = 7-9 is 9%.

Econ + Infra = 4-6 is 6%

Econ + Infra = <4 is 2%.

If your total army in uniform rises above this percentage of your national population it will result in a decline in national IBPs and quarterly cash intake due to worker shortages; furthermore, and this is the big part, you cannot improve economy, infrastructure, or industry if your military manpower exceeds your pool allotment.

The rate in loss of quarterly cash and IBPs is determined by percentage over.

<.5% over limit = -2% IBPs and Economy

.5%-1% over limit = -4%

1-1.5% over = -6%

Etc.

Note that if you go over the manpower total in peacetime and counting your reserves, these penalties do not apply yet, but will apply the moment you order mobilization.

Permanent casualties (As determined by mods after war-time battles and operation outcomes are resolved) count against the cap too, as this figure represents either men who were killed or men who were dismembered in battle and cannot function as industrial workers.

War:

As much as diplomatic means may be preferred, armed conflict does happen, and likely will happen.

The system for armed conflict in the game will occur in the following way: the combatants will provide to the appropriate moderator (obviously not one involved in the conflict) his or her operational plan for a half-quarter - that is, for a week of real life time, detailing which units will be attacking, which will be moving, and which will remain in place for defensive operation. Upon being given the operational plans for both players, the mods will perform necessary "rolls" to determine the outcome of specific combat operations in various fronts and theaters.

While it would be ideal for players to give more direct operational orders and react to the results, this process would bog down the decision making process of the moderators given the need to constantly inform players of combat results and await their decisions to respond. Thus we would prefer one give broad operational desires - say "Germany will seek to capture Warsaw during this quarter with such-and-such Armies while X Army defends in East Prussia" - and our dice-rolls will determine the outcome of the engagement for the half-quarter time period, results to be relayed to the players to be written for both informative purposes or, if desired, RP stories. A contingency plan may be submitted to round out the orders, but be warned that combat operations are not easily shifted due to logistical constraints. Rather, they are most often reinforced, called off, or continued as circumstances warrant. Depending on circumstances, a player can order a premature ending to a half-quarter's combat operations, which will result in the termination of offensive operations, and can order retreats if a terrible defeat is inflicted and major units are threatened with encirclement and annihilation.

Naval operations will occur similarly, but allowment will be made for the fact that naval operations tend to not take as long as a land operation. Naval battles will likely not last longer than two days, if that long - most in this era were over in the space of an afternoon - and so players will have more direct control over the movement of their naval ships.

After all engagements, casualties will be listed for each unit that participates by division or Corps (Depending upon the scope of the operations) based upon who has lost or gained ground. For the duration of a war casualties fall under one of two headings: Permanent and Temporary. Permanent Casualties account for those killed, captured, or gravely injured so that they are not capable of either army service or work in support of the national economy. Temporary Casualties are those that a man can recover from enough to either A) return to duty, combat or support or B) be mustered out and capable of doing work to support the national economy, so they will only count against the national manpower cap for two quarters (to reflect recovery time from their wounds).

After a war is concluded, the moderators will release the official figures of those killed, missing, captured, and wounded on both sides, and a final tally of Permanent casualties - sans returned prisoners - that reduce the national manpower pool for all belligerents (Not counting changes in territory and national populations from gaining or losing land).

Mobilization Rules:

Mobilization means your nation is placed on a war footing. All reserves are called up, the government is granted wartime emergency powers by legislative authorities, and vital industries begin shifting where necessary from peacetime goods production to military equipment. The moment the decision is made your economy begins to strain, the duration of which is decided by Economy score. Ready Reserve divisions are the first to mobilize; they will appear in their home districts/states over the course of the period defined by your infrastructure score, from which you may either deploy them to desired spots yourself or, if you are following a mobilization plan, they will automatically be deployed to the planned location. Upon the completion of Ready Reserve mobilization Second Line units are called up. It takes a quarter after mobilization is ordered to complete economic mobilization, at which time you can spend quarterly cash income as IBPs and you gain a 1.5x modifier to cash income per quarter. This represents that your nation's industries for producing goods can now be applied to producing military equipment.

Mobilization Plans are just that: plans with pre-set schedules for trains and pre-arranged facilities that will move units, as they mobilize, to specific locations. The advantage to a mobilization plan is that these units will move to their planned locations faster. The disadvantage is that any attempt to switch to a different plan or to switch desired end points for specific units will throw some or all of the plan into chaos as it disrupts the carefully-arranged schedules of your military planners.

Either way, smaller countries enjoy the advantage of moving their reserves to desired locations more quickly because of their shorter distances. Even with equal infrastructure, a nation the size of Russia or the US cannot move all their mobilized divisions to desired end points as quickly as France or Germany can.

Note that Mobilization is incremental. From the day mobilization is called units start to form, the first Ready Reserve divisions being considered raised and ready for deployment within 48 hours of the order.

As for how Mobilization Plans work ingame, the player must arrange them (you don't have to be uber-detailed of course, you don't have a staff of several dozen officers and planners to do so) and list them. For instance, Germany might have three Mobilization Plans: East, West, and Both. Mobilization Plan East means divisions, once mobilized, are entrained to be shipped to Germany's eastern border. Troops from Wurrtemburg and the Rhineland will be sent just as Pomeranian and Brandenburger units are (though logically you would keep some of those divisions in their home regions for defense). Plan West would see those Pomeranians and Brandenburgers shipped west. Plan Both means just that; your troops are sent to both fronts, in allotments you list out, as they mobilize.

Say, for instance, you get 12 divisions of Ready reserves and 12 divisions of Second-Line troops out of Wurtemburg. If you enact Plan East, you may have put down an allotment of 8 Ready Reserve and 10 Second line divisions to be shipped east to Silesia while the others remain in place for defensive purposes. As a result, during the mobilization of the Ready Reserve 8 divisions will automatically begin moving east, ditto for the Second Line's 10. Plan West means that all units remain in Wurrtemburg, so none move at all, while in Pomerania 6 divisions from each group of reservists are shipped west to the Dutch border. Plan Both is by necessity going to leave you thinner on each front as your eastern and western reservists remain entirely in place, while you might take half of your divisions from central Germany and send them east while the other half are sent west.

Note that Mobilization Plans do not necessarily have to be set up. They exchange flexibility for speed; once the plan is enacted trying to change it - say, trying to send 10 Ready Reserve divisions from Wurrtemburg east during Plan East instead of just the 8, or desiring to send three of the divisions to East Prussia instead of Silesia - will jam up the whole plan and you'll lose the speed bonus and more. That is, an activated Mobilization Plan that is put into disarray by an attempt to increase quantity of deploying troops (sending more divisions from an area than the plan was set for) or to change destination of unit deployments will result in some or all units moving slower than they would without a Plan at all.